Living as salt and light believers by Mike Bamiloy
Matthew 5:13-16
13. “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor,
how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to
be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.
14. “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.
15.Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand,
and it gives light to all who are in the house.
16. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your
good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
The Lord Jesus Christ had compared His disciples and believers generally to two great irresistible agents in the world. He compared His believes to SALT and He compared them to LIGHT. No one can resist Salt. Even if you don’t use it often in your food for health reason, there are other dozens of ways salt can be used in the house. As cleaning agent and as protective agent. Salt has so much irresistible power in the kitchen that an absence of it will make your food tasteless. But more importantly, the principal function of salt: It preserve from decay and rottenness.
And LIGHT. Who can resist light? It has so much irresistible influence that people draw closer to wherever light is existing. People gather around lantern in the house and you see a whole community hiring security men to guide their transformers, lest they are stolen away and they are placed in darkness. Darkness is unattractive. Light is very influential and attractive. Everybody will be friend to whoever has a lantern out of a group of people in darkness. Jesus compared us to SALT and LIGHT.
If Jesus says His disciples are the Light of the World and the Salt of the Earth, it means He knew that the world will be full of darkness of unrighteousness and rottenness of immorality. So when He was going back to heaven, He left His disciples and believers behind to become light in the darkness of the world and be salt to prevent the decay and rottenness around us. This likewise means, the power and might to sanitize our immediate environment, our offices and homes is inside of us as believers. It means, our presence in our offices should be very irresistible as Light in the midst of darkness and Salt amidst the food. It means, our presence in our office should prevent some spiritual decay around us, and our presence should prevent some darkness of unrighteousness around us.
A devoted, dedicated child of God, middle grade staff of a company suddenly dropped his letter of resignation to his boss and threw the whole company into chaos. His boss got the Letter of Resignation in his office and raised an alarm. The rest staff wondered why the boss had shouted aloud. He broke the news to the rest staff that the man said he is resigning. A lot of staff members became sad and began to beg him not to leave.
The management invited him to know why he wanted to leave, He said The Lord has called him into mission work and he was going to obey The Lord’s call into ministry. So, the management knew the offer to raise his salary and income could not arise. Some other members of staff became so dejected because he was leaving and some of them said, if he leaves as he had determine, the company may likely collapse.
Why?
He had always being in charge of the company account. He was so faithful and meticulous that the company had completely relied on his meticulosity. And everything has been going smoothly including regular payment of staff salary. Since he was placed in charge of the company finance, there has been smoothness in the running of the company: so, his notice of resignation became a major point of concern to the whole management and staff.
His was an example of Salt and Light Believers, whose presence would heal and sanitize a place. The spirit of disobedience in the life of Jonah had blown out his light and taken away the seasoning power of his salt. His salt had lost its flavor and his light had been quenched by obstinacy and disobedience. (Jonah 1) So his presence in a huge passenger ship threw the whole ship in jeoperdy.
Everything went wrong in the journey, the moment he boarded the ship. A terrible deadly tempest arose on the sea that was threatening to break the ship. Every cargo in the ship was thrown into the sea to lighten the ship to no avail. the passengers lost all their cargoes and nothing worked.
Then, they began to investigate whose presence had brought the calamity on them. They soon found out, that it was the presence of a child of God. A minister of the gospel. A preacher who had been under a curse for disobeying God. His presence had brought darker darkness into the midst of the unbelievers and he had not brought any seasoning influence into their meal but sourness. He was ejected into the sea before the ship could be in peace.
But what did the presence of Elisha do the the situation of the land of Jericho?
2 Kings 2:19-22
19. Then the men of the city said to Elisha, “Please notice,
the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad,
and the ground barren.”
20. And he said, “Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him.
21. Then he went out to the source of the water, and cast in the salt there,
and said, “Thus says the Lord:
‘I have healed this water; from it there shall be no more death or barrenness.’ ”
22. So the water remains healed to this day, according to the word of
Elisha which he spoke.
The action of his presence healed a whole city. The actions of the presence of Joseph boosted the economy of a whole nation. The presence of Daniel in Babylon was constantly calling the reigning kings to order. Those are examples of Salt and Light Believers. Believers that add seasoning influence to wherever they are; believers whose light dispels the darkness around them.
The presence of some believers in their offices has added no seasoning influence to their environment. Depressed colleagues can not receive encouraging words from their mouths. Oppressed fellow staff members can not receive words of deliverance from them. No encouraging prophetic utterance to friends in depressive state of mind. No precise Word of God from the scriptures for a spiritually confused friend.
Instead, they are so argumentative, so arrogant and pompous. They are so aggressive and very irritable. Worst than a lot of unbelievers. They have driven a lot of people away from Christ. They have been bad ambassadors of the Kingdom. unproductive and spiritually fruitless. They are neither Salt nor Light. But they are salt, only that it has lost its seasoning potency. They are light, only that the oil is dried up in their lamp. The batteries in the touch-light of their life has gone weak.
Just imagine, if all of us believers of Christ are strong and powerful Salt and Light Believers. Imagine if our Light is coming forth in its fulness and our Salt has its flavor and seasoning power to the fullest, then, we would have been doing what Elisha did to the bad situation of the city of Jericho, sweetening the bitter waters of the land. Lighting the darkest corners of our land.
A single man had commanded that there should be no rain in the land and the heavens had withdrawn rain, until the king of the land bowed at his feet. A single man of God had been thrown into lions’ den and brought out of it alive the next day and made the king to decree a national worship of the God of Daniel. They are Salt and Light Believers.
But, in our offices, we curse, we abuse others like those in the darkness of the world. We cheat like them. We go out with men friends and attend parties among them. We join them to doctor financial figures and inflate contracts and still bring the tithes to the church to bribe God.
Many of our brethren, believers in politics would go with the heart to serve he Lord, but end up serve their god-fathers in politics and corrupting their own lives. Many believers who have gone there have not come back spiritually hale and healthy.
Just imagine, if all our Lights are shinning to its fullest and our Salt is operating in its fullest flavor, our Sisters would have a lot of influence on the student prostitutes on our campuses and our numerous campus fellowships would have brighten a lot of immoral darkness of our campuses. But instead, because of our flavorless Salt and Faded Lights, campus hooliganism is existing shoulder-to-shoulder with numerous campus fellowships. No Unity of he spirit. No spiritual co-operation. Everyone raising up flags of denominationalism.
If there are much darkness all around us despite consistent increase in churches, it is because there are a lot of lamps without lights, because the oil is dried. If there are a lot of decay and rottenness all around us despite the noises of our pentecostalism, it is because our Salt has lost its Flavor and Seasoning Potency.
So, where do you belong? Is your light still bright or burning low. Is your Salt still full of its flavor or lost its sweetening and preservative potency? Are you His true disciple? Church membership apart. And ministry services apart. How Bright is your Light and how Strong is your Salt?
MIKE BAMILOYE
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Mikegloria.blogspot.
