The Pulpit and the Preacher

The other day (during January 2007) when I was at the house of my brother in Christ, Parminder Puri, in New Delhi, for ministering to the people of God who had assembled there for a prayer meeting, I exhorted all the people of God to share their testimonies of how they were living for God. I did not want them to repeat the same testimonies of how they were once saved or the testimonies of how God performed miracles in their lives. At that time, a saint of God, namely Anup Inderpal Singh, a Sikh gentleman in his 50s, who was saved through the ministry of Parminder Puri was there. While sharing his testimony, he told us in Hindi, “Prabhu ke pas Nikad aana hai”. This means, “We should come near to God”. In fact it was a prophetic message for the people assembled there. At that time, a woman of God made a debut there. She was introduced to me as the wife of the pastor of a Pentecostal church there. For some months, she and her husband had been visiting the house of Parminder Puri and teaching the people from the Bible. On seeing me there, this lady immediately asked the mother of Parminder Puri, “Who will give God’s message?” Her question prompted me to search the New Testament Scriptures to know who can give God’s message under the New Covenant.

Under the Old Covenant, only the prophets were competent to declare God’s messages to the people. The Spirit of God used to descend upon the prophets at times and the latter gave God’s messages to the people. But under the New Covenant, those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior do possess the Holy Spirit in their earthen vessels. If I can give God’s message as inspired by the Holy Spirit, why cannot those who have received the Holy Spirit give God’s messages?

Before I could give my message to the people or before the lady could give her message to the people, the Holy Spirit had already given His message to the people assembled there. The message was very brief and apt, “Draw nigh to God”. “Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you” (James 4:8). I interpreted this message for the people there. The people who had assembled there have been attending the prayer meeting in the house of Parminder Puri on every Saturday just to receive God’s material blessings. Though they received Jesus Christ as their Savior and Healer, they have not yet come very close to Him.

Today there are men-made church structures and the ministers of God are building their ministries on the foundation of these men-made church structures. There is a wide gulf between the pastors and the people of God who are “members” of these false church structures. A local church is a place where the people of God assemble themselves together for prayer and ministry. There should be elders or deacons in a local church. The elders or the deacons are spiritually mature people who are supposed to teach and guide the new believers so that the latter may become disciples of Jesus Christ. Today what the pastors do mainly is giving sermons on Sundays and receiving tithes from the people of God. Jesus commanded us to serve and not to be served. The Son of God came not to be ministered unto but to minister (Matt.20:28). The one who is great amongst us is supposed to serve us (Mat.20:26). These days, we see many ministers of God aspire to preach from the pulpits only. For them, service means preaching.

Paul in his epistle to the Corinthian church writes, “Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge. If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace; For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted” (I Cor.14:29-31).

In the local churches of today, only the pastors give “God’s messages” and do not encourage the people of God to give God’s messages. Paul exhorted all the Corinthians to prophesy. Prophecy means giving God’s message. If a prophet gives his/her message, the others should judge his/her message. Then all of us should learn when one of us prophesies.

When I exhorted all the people assembled in the house of Parminder Puri to give God’s messages, that lady came to the scene with a question, “Who will give God’s message?” She thought that she or some other “pastor” was competent to give God’s message.

In our local churches, still the system of Levitical priesthood is practiced. Every child of God is a priest or a minister. The people who practice such Levitical priesthood bring the people into the bondage of the Old Covenant system. Jesus warned us against putting the new wine in the old bottles (Mat.9:17). The old bottles likened to the individual ministries do contain the new wine only for a short period but in the long run the same perish. Such individual ministries end up in men-made establishments which are prone to corruption through the Mammon of unrighteousness and popularity. Let us put the new wine in the new bottles likened to the team ministries. What the pastors of today do is the Levitical ministry which was done away with. They put the Holy Spirit i.e. the new wine in the old bottles of the Levitical ministry.

Before my recent visit to Dubai, U.A.E, I had requested my nephew in Dubai to talk to the pastor of his church to arrange for my ministry there. I thought he had arranged with his pastor for my giving a message from “the pulpit”. Normally, to our mind, ministry in a local church means preaching from a pulpit. When I reached there, I understood that no such arrangement was made. In Sharjah, U.A.E, I merely attended the worship services of the church concerned. When I attended the church, I did observe some things as led by the Holy Spirit. But I did not want to introduce myself to the pastors and to share the Lord’s message with the pastors or the elders in that church. I simply waited on the Lord for conveying the prophetic message to the church. In the evening of that particular day, by a mere coincidence, I came across one of the pastors of that church at a shopping mall in Dubai. I grabbed that opportunity to convey what the Lord wanted me to convey to his church. Then I got his email address and told him that I would send him a detailed e-mail message about his church. Then the following Friday, I again went to the same church. After the church service, I approached the pastors and conveyed the Lord’s message for their church. I also sent them the Lord’s message through their email addresses. It was the Lord’s will that I should give His message to the elders and not to the church congregation from the pulpit. God’s message can be conveyed in any manner.

The pulpit has now become corrupt. The pulpit used by servants of God like John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, William Booth, Hudson Taylor, Watchman Nee, Sadhu Sundar Singh, etc. became corrupt in this 21st century as the preachers sought popularity through the pulpit. For those servants of God, the pulpit was a means but the servants of God of this century the pulpit is an end. The pulpit or the evangelical dais has become a place of display of talents or the gifts of the Holy Spirit. God is never glorified through the corrupt pulpit so long as man is glorified through such a corrupt pulpit.

The Lord said unto Jeremiah, “See, I have this day set three over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root our, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant (Jer.1:10). Let us not build the Kingdom of Christ on the corrupt system of the Levitical priesthood but on the doctrines of Jesus Christ and on the apostolic doctrines. Let us pull down, destroy and throw down these men-made church structures and then build His Kingdom on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being the Chief Corner Stone (Eph.2:20).

Revival will never come in a local church where the Levitical priesthood is entrenched. Let the single pastor give place to a team of elders and let every saint in the church be edified and equipped to serve God.