WHAT HAPPENS WHEN CHRIST IS NOT ALLOWED TO BUILD HIS CHURCH? by Femi Obadun

Bible References: 'And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it'. - Matthew 16.18
'I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase' -- 1 corinthians 3.6
'Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD'. Jeremiah 23.1



If Christ is not allowed to build his church, these are the things that will be the features of such an assembly according to the above bible references. 

1. In any assembly wherein the leaders who have the mind of Christ are placed in sensitive positions of authority,that place must experience significant and steady growth. Paul was placed to plant i.e establish a fellowship, initiate a program, or start a ministry, and then, another leader named Apollos was placed to water it i.e to follow up, nurture,but Christ must be allowed to come and increase the work.How would Christ come to increase the work? He would only come when the truth that makes him happy is preached therein.But if we have someone like Paul in place(who has been chosen by God) but he is sidelined due to church politics and then another person with little grace but great charisma is now chosen instead,it should never be expected that Christ would come to increase such work. So, the permanent feature of such an assembly will be stunted, scattered or disjointed growth.

2. When Christ is not allowed to build his church,revival is not to be expected, and the result of that are; the people would not be delivered from the power of the devil, so many sick folks would not healed, yet, so much poverty would be seen among the people.Many members would become prejudiced and proud, judgmental spirit will be ruling in the lives of many members.Immoralities in different forms will be seen among the youth and middle aged.And what these imply is that the gates of hell are prevailing against such a church, whereas Christ Has promised that if He is allowed to build his church, the gates of hell will not prevail against the people.

3. In any assembly where wrong leadership is in place, there will always be longstanding rancor, strives, fighting, and division among the people. Though, a God anointed and chosen leader is also not immunized to opposition from certain individuals within the Church, but surely, he will always overcome, God will never allow him to be harmed, no matter the tenacity of their gang up and diversity of their plans. And sooner or later, God himself will make these enemies to be at peace with him.

4 Innovation and creativity orchestrated by divine grace can never be found in any assembly where Christ is not allowed to take his role as the invisible Head.Even if people try to be creative by worldly means, it cannot yield any meaningful result that will benefit anyone in that assembly. Creativity is a spiritual thing, it is essential to church growth and it is at the disposal of Christ, but how could he give it to the one whom He has not chosen to lead his people? We cannot force Christ to make us his chosen servants. He chooses his vessels for reasons best known to Him and because we cannot question Him, we should never try to and above all, we should never murmur against His decision when it comes to choosing leadership.