In politics you often will see candidates or official representatives in a heated argument placing their hand on the opponent’s shoulder or arm. This is called colloquially man handling or to strong arm someone. The goal is to control and persuade the person with physical touch and it violates the person’s sense of space. This act of coercion by touch is considered poor form and frowned upon. What is more troubling is when we do this to God. Often ministers and pastors will hear the Holy Trinity’s direction and yet decide to do their own good idea. They ask for the Lord’s counsel at s meeting but instead tellGod this is how they will conduct the business of the Kingdom.
This attitude of strong arming Christ is nothing new. The Apostle Peter opposed Jesus our God on two occasions, even waging war against the Salvic Plan:
“From that time on Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. “Far be it from You, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to You!”But Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me. For you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” (Matthew 16:21-23).
The passage literally states Peter took Jesus aside, which is to grab a hand, wrist, or shoulder and lead that person to a place to speak in confidence. Cephas strong armed Jesus and was rebuked. Sadly, Simon did not get the message and attempted it again with a sword:
“Then Simon Peter drew a sword and slashed off the right ear of Malchus, the high priest’s slave. But Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its sheath. Shall I not drink from the cup of suffering the Father has given me?” (John 18:10-11)
Again Peter tried to strong arm God’s Will with his own, and once more he received a rebuke from God Incarnate.
We must beware of trying to strong arm God and thus become the opposition to His purposes. I have witnessed with my own eyes and ears ministers and clergy who dictate to God. They even recieved words from God anddilberately disobeyed them and instituted their own plan. I will share one account. There was a pastor I served under, who was told by Christ to build a megachurch that could help the community. The board and lay people agreed in the Spirit this was from the Holy Trinity and everyone raised money out of their own coffers (means) to fund the megachurch. One day, the said pastor held a council meeting on a holiday when most of the members of the church were out of town. He got up and declared he would follow a plan from church building scheme he found to make three small churches instead of a megachurch and he took the funds that were appropriated and given for the megachurch to instead build three small churches. The scandal of taking this money that everyone in church gave for megachurch to use for three small churches caused a schism in the church and many, including myself left. This pastor had done as Peter had, responded to Christ’s plan with his own ideas and tried to strong arm it with manipulation and control.
When we actively ignore the Lord and do our own good ideas we reap hades. The famous St. Bernard of Clairvaux said, “the best intentions pave the way to hell.” Indeed, our good ideas are not God ‘s ideas, lest we forget, “For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength,” (1 Corinthians 1:25) and “For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” (1 Corinthians 3:19). Many minister prize the knowledge of experts over God, the infamous Seeker Friendly Movement, where churches catered to pop culture and the feelings of secular people came out of pastors hiring worldly businessmen to increase their church sizes. And you it is written, “Jesus, in him is all the storehouses of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:2-3) and yet pastors would rather seeks the advice of fools (1 Corinthians 3:19) than the Father of Lights.
I find it ironic how pastors and priests complain that their churches have emptied or dwindled, when they listened to men and not the Son of Man Jesus Christ. They keep consulting experts in growth and invent new schemes to increase their membership, and all along somewhere they ignored what God had to say, and they wonder why they reap failure. Had everyone followed Peter’s folly and idea, Jesus would have gone to the cross and we would not have salvation! Thank God He resisted Peter and did His purpose on the cross so we wouldn’t be lost! And that is the danger my brothers and sisters, we can be like Simon Peter, resisting God with our ideas and so obstruct what the Alpha and Omega is doing.
The time has come to stop strong arming and controlling Christ Our Savior with good ideas! We need to start listening to God’s ideas which will be successful. We must cease wrestling with the Almighty to get a plan we invented or some expert devised, and start becoming obedient to The Holy Spirit. Amen.
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