The Issue God Encounters with the Preachers – Part Nineteen
He Led for 38 Years, Yet God Removed Him from the Throne
In 2019, while I was studying at the University of Rwanda, God found me faithful and entrusted me with His work (1 Timothy 1:12). Among my responsibilities was a significant role in planning church activities together with others, monitoring their implementation, and assessing their outcomes based on the goals that had been set.
One day, as I stood in a small shop that sold food, beverages, and hygiene products, I felt a sense of joy in my heart, realizing that all the programs of God’s work were progressing well and that none of them seemed to have issues that would cause concern among people. With the speed of a lion chasing its prey or a warthog fleeing from a hunter, a thought suddenly came to me saying: “The fact that God’s work programs are running smoothly is not an absolute sign that God is pleased with the one implementing them.”
That thought continued within me: “Even Saul reigned for forty years while the nation functioned well, yet God rejected him from the kingdom in the second year. Therefore, it is not right to rejoice merely because you are leading well; rather, it is better that I affirm to you that I am pleased with you.”
After receiving these thoughts, I testify that they came from the Spirit of God. I welcomed this revelation into my heart, and at the same time, I rejoiced that God had enlightened me to understand that doing God’s work well does not necessarily mean that we are pleasing God.
Conclusion
If God were to reveal to you that a leader in a group you belong to is leading effectively, yet God is not pleased with them or has rejected them from leadership, how would you feel? I imagine you might struggle to accept it and instead engage in days of prayer, rebuking what you would perceive as a spirit of confusion.
Saul is an example of how disobedience led God to remove him from the throne in the second year of his reign (1 Samuel 13:1–15:26), even though he ruled the nation for forty years (Acts 13:21).
We teach what we know, but we impart who we are. Even though what we know may be extensive and impressive to others, it is not what matters most. What should come first is who we are. Some church leaders have fallen into the trap of taking pride in delivering sound and contemporary teaching and in rejoicing that God’s work appears to be progressing well. This has become a snare of the enemy, causing them to forget that being pleasing to God is more important than simply doing God’s work well, even though both are necessary.
Prayer: Lord, reveal Your will to our leaders, and enable us to obey them, so that they may lead us with joy and not with burden, for they watch over us as those who will give an account (Hebrews 13:17).