In the Bible, in ancient Israel, one of the criteria for choosing a priest was that he must not have a flat nose. The significance of this is that anyone who stands before men on behalf of God must be sensitive and aware of what’s happening around him, because destinies are at stake. Lack of sensitivity is, many times, why some unwanted things have happened to believers.
I remember being mocked by a fellow preacher for not having a car. He would go on and on about how the easiest thing anointed preacher should have is a car. I heard about his mockery day after day. It haunted me so much that one day, after I finished preaching at a pastors’ conference in Onitsha on “25 Things Jesus Taught Martha That Every Preacher Desperately Needs to Know,” he swallowed his pride and walked up to me. He didn’t apologize for what he’d said about me. Instead, he begged me to give him my preaching notes so he could repeat the message on Martha to his church.
The "normal me" would have given him the message. But his mocking words still haunted me, so I decided not to give him the notes. He took offense, walked away, and added more insults about me not having a car despite claiming to be anointed.
For a while, it didn’t bother me. Until one day, I was at a printing press picking up flyers for our program when the woman who owned the press told me how some pastors in Onitsha used to talk about me. They asked, “How can a man be so anointed and gifted yet trek everywhere in the city? How come his anointing couldn’t attract something as small as a car?”
Those words got to me, not because they were true, but because I had become a topic of discussion among certain preachers.
A few weeks later, a young man called and said he had a gift for me. When we met, it was a car — a Highlander SUV. A very beautiful car. He said God told him to give it to me. I thought, “At last, this mockery will stop.” To think the brother mocking me only had a small Toyota Camry, while I was about to get a Highlander SUV. This was going to make sense!
But just as I was about to collect the keys, I heard the voice of the LORD: “Don’t touch the car. It’s not yours.”
I knew it was God’s voice because I’m familiar with His voice. But I was confused. This brother said God told him to gift me a car, and here I was hearing the same God tell me not to touch it. It's obvious that one of us must be wrong about what they heard.
The brother was very upset that I rejected his gift and walked away. Most of my friends who heard this were angry, especially considering how the other preacher had mocked me for months for not having a car. They said it couldn’t have been God asking me to reject it. “God is not the author of confusion,” they said. And yes, that’s true. God is not the author of confusion. But I was very sure I heard His voice.
About two weeks later, that guy that wanted to gift me a car was arrested. It turned out the car was stolen, and they tracked it down to Onitsha. The guy was into selling stolen cars and, for some reason, wanted to sow that one as a seed. I don’t know why anyone would sow a stolen car as a seed, but using God’s name to do it was beyond my comprehension. Imagine if I hadn’t been sensitive to the voice of the LORD. The mockery of not having a car would have been nothing compared to the mockery of riding in a stolen car. It would have caused devastating damage.
Being sensitive — having “sensitive ears” — will save a preacher from many sorrows. There are many traps set for your life and destiny. You must be sensitive so the desire for material things doesn’t trap you in Satan’s snare.
There are invitations a minister of God should not honor. There are places you should not preach. There are pulpits you should not climb.
And yes, there are relationships you should not enter. Failing to obey this can cost you a lifetime to recover from.
That’s where the devil got me — in my marriage. The signs were there. God didn’t leave me in the dark. I just didn’t listen.
Amos 3:7: “Surely the LORD GOD does nothing without revealing His secret to His servants the prophets.”
He revealed. The issue wasn’t revelation. It was reception. I just didn't perceive.it.
Today, I have to live with the consequences of that insensitivity.
God instructed Moses that anyone chosen to serve in the priesthood must not have a flat nose. He must have the ability to be sensitive — to know when to act and when not to. He must be someone who can smell a trap in perfume. And that includes you!
Here are a few valuable lessons to grab from this account:
1. Not every gift is from God. Some are bait.
Just when I needed a car badly, just as I need it now, a Highlander showed up. And it came with “God said I should give it to you.”
But the same God said, "Don’t touch. It’s not yours.” It takes a sensitivity to know which voice is God's.
2 Cor 11:14 warns: “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.”
The devil doesn’t always come with horns. Sometimes he comes with car keys and “seed sowing” theology. There are counterfeit blessings and it takes one with sensitive nose to detect them.
Imagine what would be the headline! “A Pastor Caught with a Stolen SUV."
Thanks to God, sensitivity saved my name.
2. The loudest “no” you’ll ever say is to a “ blessing”
It's easier for a preacher to say “no” to sin than it is to say “no” to a shiny thing. Many anointed destinies have been truncated because of gifts.
Jesus said no to bread, kingdoms, and shortcuts, Matt 4:3-10. Because He had a sensitive ear. That's what it means to be discerning.
Discernment is refusing what looks like provision but smells like prison.
John 10:27, “My sheep hear My voice... and they follow Me and the voice of a stranger they shall not follow.”
3. Satan doesn't give up on you easily. He is patient. He’s a trap engineer.
He doesn’t give up on you just because one trap failed.
He’ll try gifts today, a car tomorrow, a “relationship” next week.
1 Peter 5:8: “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
He prowls. He watches. He adjusts when he fails. Only sensitive ears can adjust faster. Sensitivity to the voice of the LORD will save you from his traps.
In my case, the real trap wasn’t the car. It was insensitivity in marriage.
Hosea 4:6: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” What gives the devil leverage is not lack of anointing. It's a lack of listening.
4. Sensitivity is your security system.
Applauds of men will make you famous, but sensitivity will keep you faithful and true.
John 10:4-5: “The sheep follow Him, for they know His voice. They will not follow a stranger.”
There are contacts, contracts, and connections you should not have. There are times you will hear God say, "Leave it alone" for there's death in it.
Sensitivity will teach you how to choose the voice you know over the gift they hold.
Not every attack comes as an attack.
The car looked like a blessing. It looked like “God’s will”.
But it was a test of hearing.
2 Cor 2:11: “...so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.”
God doesn’t hide the design from you. He whispers it. Preachers with sensitive noses catch the whisper.
God told Moses, "No priest with a flat nose should be allowed" Lev 21:18. God wants preachers with sensitive noses. Not perfect faces, but perceptive spirits.
Because when you stand between God and men, destinies are on your table. One wrong move, and a whole lot will bleed.
May the LORD give us noses that can smell danger in the middle of a feast.
May we be the kind of priests who protect destinies — including our own.
Amen!!
copied.
I remember being mocked by a fellow preacher for not having a car. He would go on and on about how the easiest thing anointed preacher should have is a car. I heard about his mockery day after day. It haunted me so much that one day, after I finished preaching at a pastors’ conference in Onitsha on “25 Things Jesus Taught Martha That Every Preacher Desperately Needs to Know,” he swallowed his pride and walked up to me. He didn’t apologize for what he’d said about me. Instead, he begged me to give him my preaching notes so he could repeat the message on Martha to his church.
The "normal me" would have given him the message. But his mocking words still haunted me, so I decided not to give him the notes. He took offense, walked away, and added more insults about me not having a car despite claiming to be anointed.
For a while, it didn’t bother me. Until one day, I was at a printing press picking up flyers for our program when the woman who owned the press told me how some pastors in Onitsha used to talk about me. They asked, “How can a man be so anointed and gifted yet trek everywhere in the city? How come his anointing couldn’t attract something as small as a car?”
Those words got to me, not because they were true, but because I had become a topic of discussion among certain preachers.
A few weeks later, a young man called and said he had a gift for me. When we met, it was a car — a Highlander SUV. A very beautiful car. He said God told him to give it to me. I thought, “At last, this mockery will stop.” To think the brother mocking me only had a small Toyota Camry, while I was about to get a Highlander SUV. This was going to make sense!
But just as I was about to collect the keys, I heard the voice of the LORD: “Don’t touch the car. It’s not yours.”
I knew it was God’s voice because I’m familiar with His voice. But I was confused. This brother said God told him to gift me a car, and here I was hearing the same God tell me not to touch it. It's obvious that one of us must be wrong about what they heard.
The brother was very upset that I rejected his gift and walked away. Most of my friends who heard this were angry, especially considering how the other preacher had mocked me for months for not having a car. They said it couldn’t have been God asking me to reject it. “God is not the author of confusion,” they said. And yes, that’s true. God is not the author of confusion. But I was very sure I heard His voice.
About two weeks later, that guy that wanted to gift me a car was arrested. It turned out the car was stolen, and they tracked it down to Onitsha. The guy was into selling stolen cars and, for some reason, wanted to sow that one as a seed. I don’t know why anyone would sow a stolen car as a seed, but using God’s name to do it was beyond my comprehension. Imagine if I hadn’t been sensitive to the voice of the LORD. The mockery of not having a car would have been nothing compared to the mockery of riding in a stolen car. It would have caused devastating damage.
Being sensitive — having “sensitive ears” — will save a preacher from many sorrows. There are many traps set for your life and destiny. You must be sensitive so the desire for material things doesn’t trap you in Satan’s snare.
There are invitations a minister of God should not honor. There are places you should not preach. There are pulpits you should not climb.
And yes, there are relationships you should not enter. Failing to obey this can cost you a lifetime to recover from.
That’s where the devil got me — in my marriage. The signs were there. God didn’t leave me in the dark. I just didn’t listen.
Amos 3:7: “Surely the LORD GOD does nothing without revealing His secret to His servants the prophets.”
He revealed. The issue wasn’t revelation. It was reception. I just didn't perceive.it.
Today, I have to live with the consequences of that insensitivity.
God instructed Moses that anyone chosen to serve in the priesthood must not have a flat nose. He must have the ability to be sensitive — to know when to act and when not to. He must be someone who can smell a trap in perfume. And that includes you!
Here are a few valuable lessons to grab from this account:
1. Not every gift is from God. Some are bait.
Just when I needed a car badly, just as I need it now, a Highlander showed up. And it came with “God said I should give it to you.”
But the same God said, "Don’t touch. It’s not yours.” It takes a sensitivity to know which voice is God's.
2 Cor 11:14 warns: “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.”
The devil doesn’t always come with horns. Sometimes he comes with car keys and “seed sowing” theology. There are counterfeit blessings and it takes one with sensitive nose to detect them.
Imagine what would be the headline! “A Pastor Caught with a Stolen SUV."
Thanks to God, sensitivity saved my name.
2. The loudest “no” you’ll ever say is to a “ blessing”
It's easier for a preacher to say “no” to sin than it is to say “no” to a shiny thing. Many anointed destinies have been truncated because of gifts.
Jesus said no to bread, kingdoms, and shortcuts, Matt 4:3-10. Because He had a sensitive ear. That's what it means to be discerning.
Discernment is refusing what looks like provision but smells like prison.
John 10:27, “My sheep hear My voice... and they follow Me and the voice of a stranger they shall not follow.”
3. Satan doesn't give up on you easily. He is patient. He’s a trap engineer.
He doesn’t give up on you just because one trap failed.
He’ll try gifts today, a car tomorrow, a “relationship” next week.
1 Peter 5:8: “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
He prowls. He watches. He adjusts when he fails. Only sensitive ears can adjust faster. Sensitivity to the voice of the LORD will save you from his traps.
In my case, the real trap wasn’t the car. It was insensitivity in marriage.
Hosea 4:6: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” What gives the devil leverage is not lack of anointing. It's a lack of listening.
4. Sensitivity is your security system.
Applauds of men will make you famous, but sensitivity will keep you faithful and true.
John 10:4-5: “The sheep follow Him, for they know His voice. They will not follow a stranger.”
There are contacts, contracts, and connections you should not have. There are times you will hear God say, "Leave it alone" for there's death in it.
Sensitivity will teach you how to choose the voice you know over the gift they hold.
Not every attack comes as an attack.
The car looked like a blessing. It looked like “God’s will”.
But it was a test of hearing.
2 Cor 2:11: “...so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.”
God doesn’t hide the design from you. He whispers it. Preachers with sensitive noses catch the whisper.
God told Moses, "No priest with a flat nose should be allowed" Lev 21:18. God wants preachers with sensitive noses. Not perfect faces, but perceptive spirits.
Because when you stand between God and men, destinies are on your table. One wrong move, and a whole lot will bleed.
May the LORD give us noses that can smell danger in the middle of a feast.
May we be the kind of priests who protect destinies — including our own.
Amen!!
copied.
In the Bible, in ancient Israel, one of the criteria for choosing a priest was that he must not have a flat nose. The significance of this is that anyone who stands before men on behalf of God must be sensitive and aware of what’s happening around him, because destinies are at stake. Lack of sensitivity is, many times, why some unwanted things have happened to believers.
I remember being mocked by a fellow preacher for not having a car. He would go on and on about how the easiest thing anointed preacher should have is a car. I heard about his mockery day after day. It haunted me so much that one day, after I finished preaching at a pastors’ conference in Onitsha on “25 Things Jesus Taught Martha That Every Preacher Desperately Needs to Know,” he swallowed his pride and walked up to me. He didn’t apologize for what he’d said about me. Instead, he begged me to give him my preaching notes so he could repeat the message on Martha to his church.
The "normal me" would have given him the message. But his mocking words still haunted me, so I decided not to give him the notes. He took offense, walked away, and added more insults about me not having a car despite claiming to be anointed.
For a while, it didn’t bother me. Until one day, I was at a printing press picking up flyers for our program when the woman who owned the press told me how some pastors in Onitsha used to talk about me. They asked, “How can a man be so anointed and gifted yet trek everywhere in the city? How come his anointing couldn’t attract something as small as a car?”
Those words got to me, not because they were true, but because I had become a topic of discussion among certain preachers.
A few weeks later, a young man called and said he had a gift for me. When we met, it was a car — a Highlander SUV. A very beautiful car. He said God told him to give it to me. I thought, “At last, this mockery will stop.” To think the brother mocking me only had a small Toyota Camry, while I was about to get a Highlander SUV. This was going to make sense!
But just as I was about to collect the keys, I heard the voice of the LORD: “Don’t touch the car. It’s not yours.”
I knew it was God’s voice because I’m familiar with His voice. But I was confused. This brother said God told him to gift me a car, and here I was hearing the same God tell me not to touch it. It's obvious that one of us must be wrong about what they heard.
The brother was very upset that I rejected his gift and walked away. Most of my friends who heard this were angry, especially considering how the other preacher had mocked me for months for not having a car. They said it couldn’t have been God asking me to reject it. “God is not the author of confusion,” they said. And yes, that’s true. God is not the author of confusion. But I was very sure I heard His voice.
About two weeks later, that guy that wanted to gift me a car was arrested. It turned out the car was stolen, and they tracked it down to Onitsha. The guy was into selling stolen cars and, for some reason, wanted to sow that one as a seed. I don’t know why anyone would sow a stolen car as a seed, but using God’s name to do it was beyond my comprehension. Imagine if I hadn’t been sensitive to the voice of the LORD. The mockery of not having a car would have been nothing compared to the mockery of riding in a stolen car. It would have caused devastating damage.
Being sensitive — having “sensitive ears” — will save a preacher from many sorrows. There are many traps set for your life and destiny. You must be sensitive so the desire for material things doesn’t trap you in Satan’s snare.
There are invitations a minister of God should not honor. There are places you should not preach. There are pulpits you should not climb.
And yes, there are relationships you should not enter. Failing to obey this can cost you a lifetime to recover from.
That’s where the devil got me — in my marriage. The signs were there. God didn’t leave me in the dark. I just didn’t listen.
Amos 3:7: “Surely the LORD GOD does nothing without revealing His secret to His servants the prophets.”
He revealed. The issue wasn’t revelation. It was reception. I just didn't perceive.it.
Today, I have to live with the consequences of that insensitivity.
God instructed Moses that anyone chosen to serve in the priesthood must not have a flat nose. He must have the ability to be sensitive — to know when to act and when not to. He must be someone who can smell a trap in perfume. And that includes you!
Here are a few valuable lessons to grab from this account:
1. Not every gift is from God. Some are bait.
Just when I needed a car badly, just as I need it now, a Highlander showed up. And it came with “God said I should give it to you.”
But the same God said, "Don’t touch. It’s not yours.” It takes a sensitivity to know which voice is God's.
2 Cor 11:14 warns: “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.”
The devil doesn’t always come with horns. Sometimes he comes with car keys and “seed sowing” theology. There are counterfeit blessings and it takes one with sensitive nose to detect them.
Imagine what would be the headline! “A Pastor Caught with a Stolen SUV."
Thanks to God, sensitivity saved my name.
2. The loudest “no” you’ll ever say is to a “ blessing”
It's easier for a preacher to say “no” to sin than it is to say “no” to a shiny thing. Many anointed destinies have been truncated because of gifts.
Jesus said no to bread, kingdoms, and shortcuts, Matt 4:3-10. Because He had a sensitive ear. That's what it means to be discerning.
Discernment is refusing what looks like provision but smells like prison.
John 10:27, “My sheep hear My voice... and they follow Me and the voice of a stranger they shall not follow.”
3. Satan doesn't give up on you easily. He is patient. He’s a trap engineer.
He doesn’t give up on you just because one trap failed.
He’ll try gifts today, a car tomorrow, a “relationship” next week.
1 Peter 5:8: “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
He prowls. He watches. He adjusts when he fails. Only sensitive ears can adjust faster. Sensitivity to the voice of the LORD will save you from his traps.
In my case, the real trap wasn’t the car. It was insensitivity in marriage.
Hosea 4:6: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” What gives the devil leverage is not lack of anointing. It's a lack of listening.
4. Sensitivity is your security system.
Applauds of men will make you famous, but sensitivity will keep you faithful and true.
John 10:4-5: “The sheep follow Him, for they know His voice. They will not follow a stranger.”
There are contacts, contracts, and connections you should not have. There are times you will hear God say, "Leave it alone" for there's death in it.
Sensitivity will teach you how to choose the voice you know over the gift they hold.
Not every attack comes as an attack.
The car looked like a blessing. It looked like “God’s will”.
But it was a test of hearing.
2 Cor 2:11: “...so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.”
God doesn’t hide the design from you. He whispers it. Preachers with sensitive noses catch the whisper.
God told Moses, "No priest with a flat nose should be allowed" Lev 21:18. God wants preachers with sensitive noses. Not perfect faces, but perceptive spirits.
Because when you stand between God and men, destinies are on your table. One wrong move, and a whole lot will bleed.
May the LORD give us noses that can smell danger in the middle of a feast.
May we be the kind of priests who protect destinies — including our own.
Amen!!
copied.
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