THE RED CARD! (PART FOUR)

By
Kehinde Bolutife
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  1. THE IRONY OF GOD’S RED CARD: STOPPED BUT STILL MOVING
 
  • Ordinarily, one expects that the moment a man receives God’s Red Card, such should immediately be removed from the Kingdom field of play as it usually happens in the game of football. But ironically, this is often not the case. No one should be deceived by this paradoxical occurrence often witnessed when God issues His Red Card. What happens in this irony can well be illustrated by a rolling fan already disconnected from its power source; it will still continue to move but moving to stop. Any motion following the issuance of the Red Card is a motion to dead end. Any mission after the showing of divine Red Card is a mission to misery. There are lives that have been stopped already in the spiritual realm who are still in motion. There are people already silenced, yet they are still speaking bogus before men. There are messengers still on the run when God has already withdrawn the mandate long ago! They are dead, yet they are still speaking; weak yet pursuing; but their voice is like the empty barrel that makes the loudest noise. Ministry after the showing of the Red Card becomes a mirage and cloud without water. 
 
Somebody could receive God’s Red Card and still be in “active” service like Saul-the first king in Israel. Saul received God’s Red Card exactly two years into his reign but he remained on the throne for the next 38 years in which God was planning the birth, training and anointing of his replacement. Though David was still very young at this time and Saul would still occupy the throne for a considerable period of time, his continuity in that position is no proof of divine approval. When God speaks, it is already established in Heaven, it may take a long time to see it in the physical, but His words will be fulfilled. This is why many are living in self-delusion today. The day Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit was the day they actually died. But they still lived physically for hundreds of years! What an irony indeed. Samson was still performing miracles and doing exploits whereas the Presence of God had already departed from him. Jesus’s parents continued three days journey when Christ-their Life had slipped out of their hands.
 
This is a serious matter to consider: don’t measure your life by the quantity of activities around you but rather measure your life by the quality of the Life of Christ in you. Don’t base the evaluation and assessment of your life on the amount of accolades and encomium that mortal men showers on you because of what they can see with their myopic eyes. Don’t be deceived by material prosperity or the crowd of people following you. Most of the times, the things that are highly esteemed among men are abominations in the sight of God. It’s why God says in Jeremiah 9:23-24 “Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.”
 

Examine yourself today. Do you still know God? Or better still, are you still known of God? It is better to judge yourself after the standard “Shekel of the sanctuary” than by human, public opinion. Is your life and service still in conformity with the Word of God? Is your heart right with God? Hope your heart has not been overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness? Hope you have not introduced strange fire into altar of God. Are you sure you are still doing the real thing God called you to do and according to pattern? Or the love of money, quest for popularity, competition and comparison have distracted you from the main goal? What are those secrete and silent sins that are eroding the foundation of your consecrations? Are you still hearing the voice of the Lord in the garden of your heart or the voices of self and popular opinion have shrouded your heart? You need to check very well lest the irony of the Red Card be playing on you!