Moving Past Fruits and Nuts: Becoming Qualified

I have always wanted to preach the Gospel. However, I don’t feel that I’ve ever really made much progress doing it. And in conjunction with that, I was thinking today about the relationship between worldly stability and worldly credibility.

It is a fact that the saving Grace of Jesus preached in the Gospel of Jesus Christ is going to change peoples’ behavior and lives for the better. Knowing this, how does a preacher get people to listen to him?

For starters, it’s a given that a preacher has to “be” where the people are located. You can’t preach to people (in person) if you are living as a solitary monk in the mountains. You could preach to them virtually and remotely by using technology, but a person has to learn some skills to do that, and if the preacher doesn’t like the technology or thinks it’s evil, he may have a hard time convincing himself to use technology for that purpose.

Further, the world’s perception of the preacher is going to be a factor. On one hand, it is to be expected that some people are going to think that the preacher is foolish for believing as he does. Yet, the Apostle Paul says that people who think the Gospel is foolishness are perishing. Then there’s people who receive and believe the Gospel unto Salvation. Paul says of those people, the Gospel is the Power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18). Thus, the message of the gospel is not foolishness, it is the people who receive it or reject it who are ultimately considered to be wise or foolish.

It is important that the messenger (preacher) be of upstanding character so that he does not taint or invalidate the power of the Gospel that he is trying to preach. Otherwise, he actually gives listeners a valid reason to reject the message. For example, if the Gospel cannot change the preacher’s life, then why should the listener believe that it can change his? If You or I were to roll into a town, preach, and then leave, perhaps no one would know about your lifestyle. But if you live in a community, your neighbors and acquaintances are certainly going to notice. After 30+ years in recovery, I think I am only now beginning to understand this.

When I was just beginning to develop schizophrenia, I was attending a small ministry. A man visited one night and he was prophesying great things over many people. Later, I observed what he had said coming to fruition in many of the peoples’ lives. When he put his hand on my head, I was waiting for him to say something great and amazing. Instead, what he said was, “God wants us to be spiritual fruits, not spiritual nuts. And don’t be such a know-it-all. Even a fool is considered to be wise when he keeps his mouth shut.” I was shocked and a bit embarrassed after others had received such a good report.

Ironically, maybe about a year later I was laying in a hospital bed diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder after hurting myself. My appearance was unkept with long hair and a scraggly beard. When the RN who was attending me asked me what I was doing in the hospital, I told him that I was a Christian and I was trying to preach the gospel and help people. His reply was just as blunt as the prophet as he said something like, “You’re not helping anyone. Look at you. Scraggly appearance, laying in a hospital bed for hurting yourself, nobody is going to listen to you. I’m a Christian,” he said, “and I’m helping people. In fact, I’m helping you.” So, the messenger can discredit or invalidate the message if he is not able to apply it to his own life.

In his letter to the Romans, Paul said, “The name of Jesus is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”(meaning by their lifestyles) Romans 2:24

On the contrary, Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man (Luke 2:52). If you think of Jesus as a community citizen and a businessman, before going out to preach he first worked for 30 years (as a carpenter). He built a system of sustainability by investing in His disciples, training and mentoring them so that the continuation of His message would live on as a legacy continuing 2000 years after Him. When He was eventually brought before Pontius Pilate, the governor said, “I find no fault in this man concerning the things of which you accuse Him.” (Luke 23:14).

Similarly, the Apostle Paul worked to earn money by making tents, to support himself in his real ministry of witnessing to Christ. (Acts 18:1-4). Agrippa didn’t see Paul guilty of what he had been accused of either. Instead, he said to Festus, “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.” Acts 26:32 (ESV). In both these cases, God’s message was not received, but it was not invalidated by the messenger.

When Paul lists the qualifications for becoming an elder or bishop in God’s church, he says that the man must be able to rule his family well and be of upstanding character. If he weren’t, then the members of the church might be able to say, “That’s his message, but he doesn’t understand my situation.” No, the elder or bishop must first be qualified. Before he can tell and teach others that all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work – the man first must have been able to prove God true to that in his own life.

If Jesus had not been tempted in every way that we have been tempted (Hebrews 4:15) we might have been able to say, “Jesus doesn’t understand me because he hasn’t been in my situation.” But we can’t say that. What we can say of Jesus is that He overcame in EVERY way, including overcoming death, and He promises life to us if we abide in Him to the end.

Paul was able to testify to the power of the Gospel because he overcame in a multitude of adversities living in the power of which he preached until he was finally taken to receive his crowns.

For as much as I have desired to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, what seems like inaction, may have been God’s way of holding me in one position so I might learn that I need to be like a tree putting down roots to begin bearing fruit. The fruit of character is more important to God than a mouth boasting of things it hasn’t attained. For more than a decade, I have been focusing on living a consistent life, working to provide for my family and being a good husband and father. This can bear a testimony of what God has been able to do with me after having first spent 14 years in and out of psychiatric hospitals, losing jobs, and making a mess of things. My life should be able to be a testimony to Christ without me having to say anything and my words are only secondary. That is ALL to the praise and glory of God Who has been patiently and faithfully staying with me all this time.

Finally, I hope to endure faithfully to the end, testifying it is my sincere belief that God is able and willing to sanctify and heal us of severe mental and emotional problems over time as we abide in Jesus.