Credibility

The meaning of credibility is; “the quality of being trusted and believed in”.

1Ti 4:9  This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. 1Ti 4:10For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe. Can God be trusted? Many say that God isn’t even there or if He is there, He is far away and oblivious to the problem’s of mankind. In a world of seven billion people, very few trust God with their entirety. Many worship God through Jesus but still do not trust His words because they do not see many things come to pass in their lives even after they have applied the principles and commandments of God to their lives. So, what is lacking in our faith? If trust is the issue and we cannot trust God or man, the question is, can we trust ourselves? Obviously many people do trust themselves and go about daily life while planning for the future based on self.

Credibility is a key factor in the worship of God and ministry. Many men of God have lost credibility with the sheep and the world after being exposed of their evil deeds. This has caused many to leave the Church disillusioned and others have stopped worshipping God. Furthermore, it has stopped people in the world from being saved. The problem with the failure associated with men of God is, they have brought disrepute and shame to Jesus and the Church who are ultimately blamed for their indiscretion. In addition to this, the spread of the gospel is greatly disadvantaged because convincing someone of the goodness of God versus the failings of men become extremely hard. Is God responsible for the failings of His men? I think this is something we need to understand carefully. What if God is not responsible? What if, God gave men responsibility for each other and authority to fulfil their obligations based on trust and men failed; does that still make God responsible? After all He made man and in doing so must have realised that man was going to be untrustworthy at best. So, He must be accountable. I think, God has taken accountability for His creation by sending Jesus (in the form of a man) to pay for the sins of man. It is in this act of God that we see the credibility of God.

God now says; anyone who believes in what He did through Jesus is saved and not condemned. If men of God still fail, they have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. If they confess their sin, they can be forgiven and credibility restored. However, that credibility might not be easily restored between men but it is certainly restored between God and His subjects. I am of the vein that credibility lost between men is insufficient for me to lose sight of God and His love toward His children when they repent. This will certainly not sit well with men but it is fine with God. Let us take the story of the woman taken in adultery. She was brought before Jesus and accused. Yet, Jesus did not judge her but gave her accusers the right to judge her if they had no sin in them. Such a judgement would have been in accordance to the righteousness of the Law. They could not judge her and neither did Jesus though He could have judged her having been perfect. This story reflects the nature of God’s love and restoration of credibility. Go and sin no more was His instruction to the woman. There is of course no guarantee that anyone will trust her anymore. So, it is up to her to maintain her credibility and restore it among men.

Let us not forget, true credibility first of all lays with us being right with God. Then it is a matter of restoring credibility with man which will take a lot longer because we are dealing with flesh. When Apostle Paul was Saul and persecuted the Church, he was feared by many. Yet, when he was converted by Jesus, the disciples feared to accept him because of his reputation. Yet, his credibility was sanctioned by Barnabas who brought him among the disciples and assured them that he had become a disciple himself. Act_9:27But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.

Often time, credibility amongst men is based on loose sand. That loose sand is based on a person’s reputation, education, social status or wealth. We have discovered that none of these factors in a person’s life account for true trust of the character of a person. More and more people in society who seemingly have had credibility like Priests, Politicians, Parents, School Teachers, Police, Celebrities and rich people have failed society at large and have been proven as frauds. Credibility or trust cannot be based on a person’s social standing but has to be based on the forgiveness of God and man’s ability to maintain credibility through their walk with God who is the Judge of all.

Any attempt to place our trust in people or a world system will most certainly fail. Even though men of God exist, we should not put our trust in them. We must only put our trust in God. I have discovered that many do not do this. Others have a false sense of trust in God. One woman said to me that her baby had died and that it was God’s fault. Till the demise of the baby she enjoyed a good relationship with God. The moment the baby died, the fault was God’s. She then said to me that I could not tell her that it was the devil’s fault because God had the power to stop the devil. For a person who knew so much of God’s power, she did not understand God’s love or motivation.

Dear family of God, the need to understand God’s ways and trust in Him is critical to our Christian walk and growth. Prov_3:5Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. The Bible is full of verses encouraging us to trust in the Lord. There is a good reason for this. The moment a person loses trust in the Lord, they will find themselves like a small boat tossed about in a storm in a vast sea. When the disciples were being tossed about in their boat in a storm, Jesus was fast asleep on the boat. They still could not trust Him. He asked them, “Where is your faith?” Another time, He appeared to them after resurrection and they still had doubts about Him. In hindsight, these incidents tell me much about my own state of mind in my early days in this world as a Christian. I was running from pillar to post trying my level best to trust God to make something of my Christian walk. I faced many storms, temptations and attacks of the enemy which I could not have solved in my own strength. Little did I know that Jesus was sustaining me by His power (like all things). He spoke to me one day and said this from His Bible Isa_54:11O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. Little did I know that God’s plans for my life were unalterable by God but only changeable by my lack of faith. Then one day, I came to the understanding of the goodness of God and His rest. From that day, all striving ceased. The wars and battles did not stop nor did the storms of life but I would not be moved because my trust was firm in the Lord. I had placed my house on the rock. This time, it was my doing (placing my trust on the Lord) by the understanding that I had received.   Mat 7:24Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: From then on, it was a matter of working out what God was saying and doing it through the Holy Spirit. The question of God and His goodness, the credibility of men and the Church and what was good and evil were all settled. This allowed me to build my life and walk in His credibility by faith.

My dear brothers and sisters, I urge you to consider what I am saying to you. There is not much time left. We must come to trust in God over anything of this world including ourselves 2Co 1:9  But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: 2Co 1:10Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us.  There is no situation in this world that can separate us from the love of God. He is trustworthy and beyond reproach. Come to that place where you stop trusting in this world or yourself. Trust God and step out of the boat into the prepared places for yourself and others. When you step out, then you will see the glory of the Lord and you will be considered credible in the sight of God because of faith.

Many do not speak in tongues, heal, deliver, preach the word and follow what God’s promptings are in their inner man because they do not trust God. They keep looking at the natural circumstances. It took several supernatural encounters for me to step out and trust God. After that, it became of a matter of trusting Him more against all the opposition of the devil and all his evil mocking before I could go further. Each step of the way was like being dragged over coals of fire. Yet, each time I stepped out I felt stronger and more trusting of God to the point where it became a point of proving Him. In the end, I realised, it was not God that I was not trusting off but my own faith in Him. Stepping out in faith means trusting God. He is looking for those who will step out and trust Him. He delights in His children who do. The days are here and soon will be, when we will have to trust Him more. He is credible, can you be trusted?

Faith means to trust God when all things that oppose seem immovable

Lots of love

Pastor Noble     

07/05/2017