The Historic Tension Between Strength and Safety
NOTE: This is a message preached by Bishop Wayne Malcolm at House On The Rock. I just felt I was too awesome to not share it with the world.
Prov 18:16 A man’s gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men.
The gift and calling of God are like two sides of a coin, they are inseparable for he has not called anyone he has not gifted and he has not gifted anyone he has not called. So, in essence, your gift is a calling. In the day you discover your unique gifting and start deploying it to serve mankind, it brings you into the Arena of Greatness.
Greatness is that level where you have mastered your craft and converted your talent to a skill. We look at people in the arena of greatness and gaze at them aspiring to be one of them or be like them one day. We gaze at them and sigh saying “one day that’s going to be me”
But one rude discovery we always come across in the end is that,The arena of greatness is not a safe place. We spend our lives getting out of the fish bowl to go into the ocean then we discover that there are sharks, killer whales, sting rays and all sorts of predators in the ocean.
The arena of greatness is not a safe place. We spend our lives getting out of the fish bowl to go into the ocean then we discover that there are sharks, killer whales, sting rays and all sorts of predators in the ocean.
If Security is your highest priority or value, you have nothing doing searching or aspiring to be great for you will not survive the arena of greatness. The moment you get to the top, you become the topic of many conversations.
The moment you get to the top, you become the topic of many conversations.
You will meet haters, talebearers, treachery, abandonment, rejection, naysayers, backbiters and it usually doesn’t come from the expected corners but from the places you least expect it from. So, since the arena of greatness is not a safe place, then we need to become strong.
Since the arena of greatness is not a safe place, then we need to become strong.
Luke 10:3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.
What this means is Jesus saying I am sending you into toxicity, violence, a predatory environment, an environment filled with hostility, hate and backstabbing. As you well know, lambs are utterly defenceless creatures with no strength, no fangs, no horns, no weapon of defence whatsoever, so when Jesus says “I am sending you out like lambs among wolves” he simply means without me, you don’t stand a chance.
That is why David wrote in
Psalm 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
because he came to this realization that God is my only comfort meaning the only comfort I get is the comfort that God is with me and He has the tools to fight off my enemies. That was David’s coping mechanism. Simply knowing God was with him.
Not everyone gets to work in the church where there are nice people all around, people always saying nice things about God, speaking in tongues, singing songs of worship…. Some folks have to go out on Mondays to work in hostile environments, where they don’t get to pick their co-workers, an environment laden with profanity, an environment where people have no regard for God and where people hold different ideals. Some folks leave the church and head back to a house full of aggression and strife. Or if not a house what about the community filled with so many vices?
In essence our Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday are usually utterly different from our reality on Sunday when we go to church which is always spiritually safe.
But on a Monday we need to be very strong.
On Tuesday, we need to be strong.
On Wednesday, we need to be strong.
On Thursday, we need to be strong.
On Friday, we need to be strong.
On Saturday, we need to be strong.
This causes a tension, a tension between being safe and being strong.
The ministry or the leaders of the church are at a crossroad of deciding whether to keep the church safe or to make the church strong.
Those who think their primary role is to keep the church safe are coming up with rules and commandments more than 613 of them so as to shield the church from the big bad ugly world but there are others who are making the church strong and are saying you know what, the big bad ugly world is real, you are going to go into it on Monday, we aren’t going to be with you but God is going to be with and you are going to have to be a stronger person because there is only so far we can keep you safe.
So on a Sunday, we need spiritual safety and security but on Monday we need strength. The sounds at work are not the same sounds being played in church, the tongues are a different one from what you hear in church. When the benediction and the last Amen are said we head back into a world we would rather not go back to. This tension between safety and strength is perhaps the most ancient tension and it started right in the Garden of Eden.
The Big Question: Do we keep you safe or do we make you strong?
We know that the land of Eden was a vast land and we know that the garden of Eden was planted by God eastward in Eden. So Eden is not the Garden neither is the Garden all of Eden. The Garden is a space within a wider territory. And God put man in the Garden he planted. It was a safe place. The difficult piece to believe is that the garden of Eden was surrounded by a wall. It was never said that it was a visible nor physical wall, nor was it said to be made of bricks but we can be pretty sure there was at least a boundary separating the Garden from the rest of Eden. We also know an angel was posted at the entrance to prevent Adam from coming back into the Garden. So it’s logical to conclude that if you have an entrance, then there definitely are boundaries of some sort.
So this is a safe place because it’s walled be it a visible or invisible wall.
Interestingly when people build walls they build walls to keep danger out. When you build walls you build it to protect what is inside from what’s outside. We do not know how big or small the wall was but we know there was some protection for Adam and Eve and they were safe. Yet we discover that the biggest threat to their life was not coming from something outside the wall. The biggest threat to their lives was coming from something that was in their midst, from a snake that was inside the Garden.
When you begin to look at your life you discover that the biggest threat is not coming from anything outside the walls you have built to protect yourself it is coming from something that is inside.
So now we get the tension. Do we build bigger walls or do we build bigger people? Do we pick safety or do we pick strength?
If we build bigger walls it will protect us from what is outside but not from what is inside. If we build bigger people, a bigger person will be able to say to the serpent “hold on buddy, you are sounding very contrary right now. That is not what God said.”
God is in the business of building bigger people because there some places you will go and there is simply nothing the church can do to protect you. You will simply have to become a stronger person to be able to deal with the realities and eventualities of your life.
A Familiar Tension
Every one of us has been through this tension of safety vs strength in our natural maturation from childhood to adulthood. It was probably more intense for some than the others.
We are born into a safe place where we are protected, fed, nurtured, catered for, everything is done for us and we are never alone. All we need to do is cry and someone comes to our attention. That is the environment in which we are born and the first few years of our life, we are raised that way.
But then something happens called your first day at school. Momma takes you to a room and hands you over to a stranger that you do not know and you do not trust and now she is turning her back and walking away. It dawns on you that this is a different situation… Some even express this dawning realization in tears.
You were safe at home but now you have to be strong.
Now you’ve got to navigate other children, some of them like you while some don’t, some of them are trying to rob you while some are trying to hurt you. Now you are on your own as a little child and momma has gone.
You have to be strong.
Then after a while, you get to know people in school, you make friends, work together, play together and then you become safe again.
But Safety just doesn’t last so long. You are done with school and have to head out into the workplace. Your school teacher is not with you, your school friends are not with you, you are having to work into a new space and navigate it. Now you have to be strong again.
The true price of strength is your security.
You need to give up your security in order to find strength and you need to give up your strength to become secure. The true price of strength is your security.
To further elucidate and bring it home, there comes a point where mothering is no longer mothering but becomes smothering. When a child is smothered meaning they are overprotected, they are not getting stronger they are getting weaker. So the price of making someone feel absolutely safe is that you are robbing them of strength.
In the maturation of a child there comes a point where helping is hindering the growth of a child. So when you are born, momma puts the food in your mouth, and as you go along and eat more solid food, she picks it up and puts it in your mouth. And then there comes a turning point day when conversations like this breakout:
You: Momma, where is the food
Mother: the food is on the table in a bowl and next to it is a spoon. You gotta start eating your food by yourself. What I used to do for you, you now do for yourself.
And if she wants the child to grow really strong she allows him to throw a temper tantrum and cry it all out. Notice what is happening now, she is taking away the security so that the child can become a little bit stronger. Now as the years go on the child walks in and another conversation ensues:
You: Yo Momma, where is the food?
Momma: The food is in the fridge or in the cupboard.
You: What? You mean you are not cooking it for me?
Momma: No, I’m not because you need to learn how to cook it yourself.
Then yet another day comes when another conversation breaks out:
You: Where is the food?
Momma: The food is in the shop. You go and buy it.
And she gives you the money to get the food from the food vendor. As time goes on and you say Momma, where is the food?
She’s going to say it’s in the shop
You’re gonna ask where is the money?
She’s gonna say it’s in your Job. You get out and work, find you some money and get the food.
That is why virtually the same day the children of Israel crossed the Jordan and entered into the promised land, the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire disappeared. Virtually the same day the manna stopped falling from heaven. Virtually the same day their shoes stopped growing with their feet and their clothes stopped growing with their stature. Virtually the same day all the benefits enjoyed with Moses were gone under Joshua’s leadership.
Why?
Because Moses presided over a baby nation called Israel.
The parting of the Red Sea was a metaphoric parting of water and birth of a baby. What came out on the other side of the red sea was a baby. And all they knew how to do was cry.
But when Joshua took over his job was not to babysit a nation but to raise an army and transform a country. You can’t keep feeding people who are old enough to feed themselves. You can’t keep clothing people who are old enough to cloth themselves. So the withholding of those miracles was God’s way of saying. I kept you safe in the wilderness now you are in the promised land and you have to become strong, you have to become intelligent, you have to become creative, you have to become industrious, you have to become disciplined, you have to organize, plan and make things happen because I am not doing it for you.
I kept you safe in the wilderness now you are in the promise land and you have to become strong, you have to become intelligent, you have to become creative, you have to become industrious, you have to become disciplined, you have to organize, plan and make things happen because I am not doing it for you.
The story of your life
Matthew 15:26 But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.
You will notice that the Genesis or beginning of any move of God is characterized by multiple miracles. Lots of miracles at the early stage then they fizzle out. And there is a reason why it fizzles out. It is the story of your life. There was a time in your life that you will go to sleep in one place and wake up in another. How miraculous was that? There was a time in your life when you were hungry and food ended up in your mouth miraculously. There was a time when you messed up real bad and pooed all over your body and miraculously you were cleaned up in no time. And if we could have interviewed you at that stage of your life and asked “ brother how are you doing right now? You would have responded listen I am living in a realm of the miraculous. When I am hungry I am fed, when I mess up I am cleaned. It’s is absolutely supernatural. I also experience the miracle of transportation… I sleep in one place and wake up in another place and don’t even know how I got there.
But if we interview you 10 years later, it seems like those miracles are gone. Then you have the options of either going to prayer meetings binding and casting the devil or you can wake up and say perhaps he has withheld these miracles for a reason because now I can do for myself what God used to do for me.
The Eagle Analogy
Eagles are born safe because mama eagle creates a safe place for nesting. Then in the coming weeks, she goes out and grabs food rips it up and put the food in the eaglet's beak.
A day comes when mama comes home with nothing in her beak, nothing in her claws and a strange look in her eyes, then the baby eaglets get scared. Momma eagle starts taking the leaves, and feathers that pad the nest. She starts destroying the very fabrics that creates comfort in the nest. And you know what the baby eaglets do at that time?
They come together and plead the blood. They get together, start fasting and praying, binding the devil for trying to rip up their life then they start singing:
Give me that old time religion
Give me that old time religion
Give me that old time religion
And it’s good enough for me.
Or
Take me back, take me back dear Lord
To the place where I first received you.
Take me back, take me back dear Lord where I
First believed.
But momma eagle isn’t moved by those songs because momma eagle is singing a different song altogether she, on the other hand, is singing:
I believe you can fly
I believe you can touch the sky
I think about it every night and day
Spread your wings and fly away
I believe you can soar
I see you running through that open door …
See momma knows you are born a baby but she also knows you are not born to remain a baby. Momma knows if she keeps feeding you then you’ll never discover or know the strength that is within you. You’ll never know how to use your wings. You’ll never know what power you have until you are pushed by situations and circumstances.
Joseph felt this first hand… Being tossed into a pagan palace. Esther married to a pagan king. This Jewess having to navigate the culture and traditions in a pagan palace. I think of Daniel, how he served God in the palaces of devils, whose work colleagues were wizards and witches. And then I think of how weak we are. Wanna leave the workplace because one witch is there. Wanna put in a prayer request because one witch moved into the department. But Daniel’s colleagues, all of them were witches and wizards. And I think to myself, maybe we’ve had this diet of miracles for so many years that we think that’s is how it’s always meant to be.
But Daniel’s colleagues, all of them were witches and wizards.
Lots of churches still have their USP(Unique Selling Point) as;
You are unmarried, come get a miracle spouse,
you need a baby, come get a miracle,
you need money come and get a miracle,
you need a job, come get a miracle.
If something is going wrong, come here and miracles are going to happen for you.
This sounds so beautiful but what it produces after many generations is a people who are don’t know how to organize their finances intelligently, a people who are not socially intelligent, a people who are not financially intelligent, a people who are not emotionally intelligent, a people who are not physically intelligent and a people who are not politically intelligent because they don’t need any intelligence, they just need the move of God.
There is Grace for your space but the problem now is you are praying for God to change the space and acting like Greater is he that is in the world than he that is in you. The witch is far more frustrated by your presence than you are of it. That is why God will send you to the difficult places because you are the light of the world, you are the salt of the earth. You are a change agent.God will put us in toxic environments so we can change the place.
2 Corinthians 12:7–9 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
The paraphrased answer God gave to Paul is I will not change your circumstance I will change you.
The promised land
There are two classes of prayers but God only answers one, just one;
God change the world and God change me so I can change the world.
God only answers the latter. You are the only one that will change your circumstances. He will give you wisdom, he will give you capacity, he will give you strategies, he will give you concepts. That is what he effectively said to Joshua because under Moses they looked up for food and manna fell from heaven but now they need to look down and till the soil. Under Moses they spoke to rocks and water came out, but under Joshua, they had to dig wells.
God promised the Israelites a land flowing with milk and honey. But in the promised land, there were Hittites, Perizzites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, Jebusites etc there. There were worshippers of Molech sacrificing their children. When you get to the promise land your safety will be in your strength. It will be in the strength of your faith, the strength of your conviction, the strength of your understanding of God’s word.
That is why God told Joshua to be strong and be of good courage. You need to be strong because your promise land is filled with devils.
If you are scared of devils, you might as well camp out in the wilderness. If you’re scared of devils, don’t bother building a business, don't release an album, don’t do any exploits where you are because when you get to the arena of greatness that is where you meet devils. And God will let you meet devils because he wants you to meet them. He wants you to get stronger. He wants you to maximize the grace that is available for the space he has created for you. That is why you need to go through different levels of stress tests to be sure you are ready for the next level. Nobody comes out of the gym looking all prim and proper, all fresh and cute. A gym is a place of travail where you strain, stress and sometimes tear muscles. To build muscles, you need to put the existing one under stress and strain to the point that it fails. When you are done and the muscles heal, you come out feeling stronger with more defined muscles. Then you go for heavier weights that strain and stress the current level till it fails again and this cycle of straining, healing and becoming stronger continues for as long as you want to continually get stronger.
Reference
Preacher: Bishop Wayne Malcolm @businessbishop
Topic: There is Grace for your space
