Pastor John,
This morning, I was driving in to work and listening to the CD, “Authority of the Body”. It was so good! You were talking about a time where some people there were driving too fast and getting speeding tickets. You said that God had told you that if anyone was to get a ticket they had to pay the ticket and bring money to Sister Willie. You said “and people listening to this may think, “Who does he think he is?” I began feeling the Lord, and I said out loud, “He is my pastor and an anointed man of God.” The sweetest spirit came down. It felt like it covered me and my whole car! I thank God for His goodness, His authority, and His (and our) anointed pastor.
Michelle
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Yes, I did that for a year or two, and it served its purpose. Several people here and in Louisville, at that time, were becoming dangerously careless in regard to the speed limit laws. I was in the car with one of them, coming home from Louisville, and it was frightening. So, I decided that if any sheep of mine disregarded the speed limit laws to such an extent that they were pulled over and fined for it, then they would pay a fine on top of that, for the same amount which the government had fined them, and I required them to take that money to Sister Willie. Thankfully, doing that for a year or so made the children of God under my care in Christ more “awake to righteousness”, and it may even have saved some lives.
By the way, I also told the congregation that I would match, dollar for dollar, whatever anyone paid Sister Willie and give that to her, too. I did this because I felt that if I had not impressed on my sheep the importance of obeying the law, then I had failed to do my job as their teacher and was as guilty as they were. For a while there, before the point was fully made, sweet old Sister Willie was racking up the cash!
The authority of a servant of Jesus is real, but is to be used only for edification, not destruction. This “commandment of men”, for us to pay to Sister Willie the same amount as the fine imposed by the state, hurt no one, and it edified the whole body. It was a judicious use of the authority he has given to me as pastor of one of his flocks, and I expect him to tell me “Well done” on the Day when he judges how I handled that situation.
Pastor John