Apostle Joshua Selman || The Demands To Follow Role Models Profitably
Apostle Joshua Selman: There are demands to follow profitably when you want to follow them who God has set as models. And if you do not understand the demands, you can be around models and never receive from them. This is the tragedy of many people who are in proximity with the anointing, in proximity with greatness, in proximity with favour, in proximity with Grace and they never rise, they remain stunted. The Gahazzi syndrome, the Judah syndrome, close to power, close to Grace and yet they are never beneficiaries of it or recipients of it.
- Profitable Followership Demands Genuine Connection And Loyalty.
Never follow a man you cannot be genuinely connected to in the spirit, never follow a man or a system or a structure that you will not be truly loyal to, you will be doing yourself a disservice. There are many people who have pieces of them everywhere, they are not genuinely connected to anything and anyone and they don’t care. They will never credit anybody as touching contributions to their life, it’s an embarrassment to them.. No, it’s an error that a generation is making.
Profitable followership demands genuine connection from your heart, that these individuals, these systems, these structures have modeled a dimension of God commendable enough to command your admiration, to command your connection, to command your loyalty. Let me tell you the truth, you will never and I say this under God, you will never hear me whether in the open or the secret insult, abuse and be sarcastic over the fathers of faith, it doesn’t matter what happens. It is an eternal covenant I have with myself that I will honour them in life and I will honor them to their graves. It doesn’t matter what I see, it doesn’t matter what I don’t see, I owe them by reason of the model they have helped me understand scripture, they brought perspective, they have believed, they have spoken over some of us, even when we did not see the kind of future that God is bringing now. They are deserving of our honour eternally.
This is the reason why every opportunity God grants Grace to listen to or be with them, something is deposited and yet with all due respect, there are people who have unrestrained proximity to anointings, unrestrained proximity to blessings and you see their lives, those kind of people live their lives in pain and offense, they answer “yes” in the open and they go back and say forget this man, forget this boss, forget this person. All that is just blind hypocrisy and they wonder why even when they kneel down and you lay hands, put oil on top again, place handkerchief on their head or whatever, nothing happens because there is a cloud of dishonor and pretense and nothing ever drops from there. Hallelujah.
You draw by honour, you draw by genuine connection. Some of us have been close to multi-millionaires, if only you understood followership genuinely, by now you will not be in this state. Beware when God gives you the privilege of access to greatness. Let me encourage you, beware of familiarity, beware of dishonor. Do you know, the closer you are to the anointing, the harder your chances of receiving because of familiarity?
Profitable followership happens by genuine connection. The hypocrisy of this generation is the reason why people never receive. There is nobody that is deserving of your honour, there is nobody’s sacrifice that matters to you. There are two kinds of price, the price he paid and the price that men pay, both deserve to be respected. Our generation has mastered the art of trivializing the sacrifices of people. You hear that a young boy as a student, he sponsored himself, while sponsoring three others and today he has become a businessman. “Yes” what is there, he’s just lucky, God just help everyone.. No!
Every time you despise what God is doing in the life of a man, you have closed the door to yourself entering that possibility, it is true. Many of us insult rich people, everybody who is wealthy is a crook, everybody who is wealthy is a thief.. No!
And yet, you want it, you are praying for it. Everybody who is anointed is a witch or a wizard, everybody who is anointed must have gotten power.. No!
You act like that, you will never step into certain dimensions of wisdom and Grace. “If you can see me, as I’m taken”, Elijah told Elisha. Hallelujah.
2. Followership Only Becomes Profitable When The Learner Or The Follower Remains A Student.
Followership becomes profitable only when the learner or the follower remains a student.
When you are following for your making and you have a colleague mentality, when you are following for your making and you have a mentality that makes you believe that “oh I’m a boss in all”, you will never receive anything. It is true.
Luke 6:40, the disciple is not above his master but everyone that is matured shall be as his master.
The goal when you follow is that God helps you to rise to that position and then when you become as his master, you can become greater in result but that person remains a foundation. It’s a powerful revelation.
There are many many people who are not willing to be students, they crave to come in the presence of great people but let me give you an advice, every time you meet great people, don’t be obsessed with taking photos, be obsessed with receiving Graces.
It should be an embarrassment to your destiny, that you came so close to those Graces and all you were thinking about was social media not your destiny.
You justify encounters by the deposits that are demonstrated in your life. Don’t tell me who you met, show me what you carried by meeting them. Don’t tell me you met Jesus, show me a deposit from that encounter that speaks today in your life. Don’t tell me you met a powerful man of God…
You must remain a student, when you get into the presence of knowledge with proof, minimize speaking, listen.
Even though what you may hear, you may even know more than what you are hearing, just listen.
Humility is an antidote for shame and embarrassment. If you can just humble yourself you will minimize the disgrace by many factors..
3. Profitable Followership Must Factor The Limitations In The Vessels That They Follow.
Never expect Godlike perfection from the people who you follow, you will be disappointed a thousand times, not because they are bad, there is this treasure the Bible says;
2 Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
Never replace the quest for perfection with sincerity of heart, one day the person you admire as a man of God is going to get angry and that day you will be disappointed seeing your admired man of God angry. One day you may meet him quarreling with his wife or his child and you say “how can a man be so anointed, how can Elijah be so angry and yet God is still using him and you would think God will transfer the anointing to you because you saw it. It will never come to you, it will still remain on him. You see how God works? By the time you report Elijah to God, God will say; I’m aware, keep following.
Now, you will respect Elisha. What made the other prophets angry, could have made Elisha too angry but he kept following. Elijah historically speaking was a temperos man. For disturbing him, he called down fire. What kind of a man is that? Imagine that you are the one following him, what will happen the day he’s now angry with you? What then happens if you are his wife? Others can run away but you are there and yet God will choose to leave that Grace with Elijah and the the prophet said; I hope you know your master is going, they never called him their Master. “You know your master is going” (the standard character of offense. Go and do your thing, let him even go and let us rest hopefully, one of us will take over now and will be a correction to his Madness) and Elisha kept following.
Where is Elisha, don’t don’t make me angry “sorry sir” and people say, you are such an idiot, you have you removed your brain following Elijah. And one day, temperos Elijah looks at Elisha and says “ask..” he didn’t say my wonderful son, you have been with me all these years, you are a good person, what should I give you?
Are you following for nothing, he says “I’m about to go, ask now, what a model.
And he said “I have no time, I understand your limitations, I will look beyond it. There is something within you that my destiny needs and I will endure whatever to receive it.”
The challenge with the body of Christ and the reason why we keep getting disappointed is because we expect Godlike perfection in men. Every man who has limitations and is not working on it must be a foolish man, it is not the limitations of men that destroy them, it is limitations unaddressed. That’s why I said, every man should be working on something. You are struggling with anger, don’t just say “I’m like that.” What are you doing about it? Hallelujah.
But the body of Christ will continue getting disappointed because of our appetite for Godlike perfection in men. Nobody can stand that standard of God’s perfection. I knew this from the start of the journey, every time I receive from the fathers, my eyes has no business looking at their limitations, it doesn’t mean they don’t have it, they are humans. And sometimes it becomes clear and visible in many regards. Whatever you can adjust, adjust for your own benefit but follow with honor this is the character of wise.
PAY ATTENTION: Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.