DETECTING OFFENCES IN PROTECTING YOUR SYSTEM

 LET'S TALK, ON PRACTICAL WORKSPACE 

Detecting Offences In Protecting Your System 

Our Two-Sided Preamble, 

She Quickly Reached Out, Admitting 

       “I'M DEEPLY OFFENDED AT WORK, WHAT SHOULD I DO”.

Her Boss Calls Almost Immediately, 

       “SHE'S SOWING DISCORD IN THIS WORKSPACE, WHAT SHOULD WE DO, SIR” 

These are two vessels of honor in the kingdom, the Church, but one is infected with the pus of offence, deteriorating in rot, yet needs to receive help in a contained fashion — how do we adress this —these are two church leaders,  at war in their company in downtown. They're performing well in Church (as priests) but are at war in their business work space (as kings). Now, how do we reconcile this King-priest ministry with wisdom, protecting the interest of persons involved. The King representing the market place, and the influence of the priestly office on how they should organise their ways out of trouble. 

𝒟𝒶𝓎𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓇's Counsel To Her Boss ,  

Deuteronomy 20 offers a precise note of counsel, stressing on the influence of the priestly (Pastor's) ministry over the market place calling (thus, the kings in business). Verses 1-3 from the International Standard Version Bible carefully recounts, 

  “WHEN YOU GO TO WAR against your enemies and observe more horses, chariots, and soldiers (MORE AMMUNITIONS AND CHARGES) THAN YOU HAVE, don’t be afraid of them, for the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt is with you. AS YOU DRAW NEAR FOR BATTLE (THAT ATMOSPHERE OF DISCORD AND CONFUSION), LET (ALLOW) THE PRIEST (PASTOR) TO APPROACH and speak to the ARMY (THOSE ENGAGING THE FIGHT). He will say to them, ‘Listen, Israel! You’re about to go into battle today against your enemies. Don’t be faint-hearted. Don’t be afraid, don’t panic, and don’t be terrified to FACE THEM”. 

There's so much wisdom in one piece, but I'll only want to highlight this section “AS YOU DRAW NEAR FOR BATTLE (THAT ATMOSPHERE OF DISCORD AND CONFUSION), LET (ALLOW) THE PRIEST (PASTOR) TO APPROACH and speak to the ARMY (THOSE ENGAGING THE FIGHT)

     — readers might ask, well, I'm not in their workspace, neither am I a business personnel in their field, so why would I be giving counsel to a boss operating in the king's ministry (thus a ministry that primarily accounts to men, before God). If this was your conflict, the Scriptural text above should dissolve and pull down the thoughts that held you back from reading further. 

According to the scripture, The Pastor (Priest) is the one appointed to settle disputes, distress and offer instruction to persons (in this case, these two priests in business) who are at war, on what to do and how to escape the inevitable bane of casualties — listen, You cannot treat this lightly. If you despise Church leaders, you'll suffer great loss. 

In 1 Samuel 2:30, AFV, the LORD God of Israel said, 

     '... For those who honor Me I will honor, and those that think little of Me shall BE LIGHTLY REGARDED”.

    — The GW translation renders it “... now the LORD declares: I promise that I will honor those who honor me, and those who despise me will BE CONSIDERED INSIGNIFICANT”.

    — Finally, the BBE translation puts it in this wise, “... I will give honour to those by whom I am honoured, and those who have no respect for me will be OF SMALL VALUE in my eyes”

From these three translations, the Lord tells us through the Prophet Samuel, that kings (leaders, rulers and business executives in the corporate space) who despise His High-Priestly wisdom will in their office (workspace) be :

I) LIGHTLY REGARDED

II) CONSIDERED INSIGNIFICANT

III) OF SMALL VALUE

If you do not want to plunge yourself in a pool of failed leadership as a Christian businessman, being faced with the top three consequences listed above, especially at a time of war and feud, then, my counsel to you is what the scripture says in Deuteronomy 20  — LET (ALLOW) THE PRIEST (YOUR PASTOR) TO APPROACH (YOUR COMPANY) and speak to the ARMY (THOSE ENGAGING IN THE FIGHT). 

Remember, Jesus was not a fisherman, yet His priestly ministry guided the experienced fisherman (businessman) Peter as to where exactly to find fish when his kingly ministry was under strain and near bankruptcy. This is so important for you in the corporate world. Your Pastor (priest) is too important in your assignment, 

     — One time, I heard the President of my country, at a function, publicly stating how that he'd so often call upon one of the top denominational Church leaders to receive counsel from him, for effective function in his office as a king (in this case, a president). This is true in almost every country where the Prime minister understands divine sovereignty. 

Having established my right from scripture as a priest to engage this King (businessman), let's now proceed to how he can settle disputes and contain the possible damage :

In Proverbs 6:12-15, ISV, the author addresses “The Folly of Causing Strife And Discord”, here he writes, 

      “A worthless (an offended) man, (acts as) a wicked man, (and) goes around with devious (one-sided and infectious) speech,

     Winking with his eyes (for contact, seeking attention), making signs with his feet, POINTING WITH HIS FINGERS (Blaming others),

     Planning evil (division) with a perverse (an infected) mind, continually stirring up discord (confusion : intentionally or not), 

    Therefore, disaster (the unfortunate) will overtake him suddenly (if he's not helped). He will be broken in an instant (shattered in spirit because of the damages he would have caused), and he will never recover”.

Quite intriguing, the BBE translation for Verse 14, renders discord as “violent acts” — and in a time of violence and war (like we saw earlier in Deuteronomy 20), Jesus in Matthew 11:12 tells us how to act : He says you have to take something by force, meaning you have to snatch the innocent (in this case, your team leaders and executives) out of the way of conflict and backbiting, lest you have too many infected casualties you never planned for. Truly. 

The transcription of my counsel to the boss was this : 

       “She is offended and satan is licking her wounds. She's in pain, and the mind of Christ in her is no longer useful to her.

So at this point, it is like a person infected with rabies, she will want to bite others, infecting them with it, just to feel okay. 

     So you need to take safety precaution in this time of war, because there's precise knowledge communicated on how to subdue the opponent in her swollen heart turned against you, so those around (in this case, your workers and executives) will have to withdraw a bit : physically, and get closer to her in prayer.

    To contain the conflict she's refusing to resolve, and if you decide to tag along, she'll drive your entire team to a place she's not even aware of, because she's no longer in the driver's seat, she's at the backseat with pain behind the steering wheel. You need to take control of her department and turn that wheel away from the rocks and imminent nosedive. 

   She isn't aware it's not her doing this to you and your team, sowing discord as a separatist in partisanship. Right now, she's in pain from self-drafted (assumed) questions she's already answered, and with this fuel, she's headed for the worse. So pull out quickly if she refuses to reconcile and move on”.

Pastor 𝒟𝒶𝓎𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓇 continued, 

     “Infectious diseases spread so easily, especially by people wanting to help, affection and comfort from the pain and discomfort they're feeling. Sadly, the disease rather takes occasion to spread to others who come close to provide that comfort and hearing. 

     So the safest thing done for your leadership is to quarantine the disease (in this case the host, the person offended), until you can detect the strain of virus. Offences needs to be contained with tough love, so the effect wouldn't reach far and affect the innocent”.

Luke 12:58, ATM version, recounts one of Jesus' most controversial yet sound counsel to settling feud and confusion in any workspace. He said, 

       “Make every effort to reconcile with your adversary while you are on your way to the magistrate. Otherwise, he may drag you off to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and the officer may throw you into prison”.

    — the BBE translation puts it much simpler for you, it says, “For if anyone has a cause at law against you, and you are going with him before the ruler, make an attempt, on the way, to come to an agreement with him, for if you do not, he may take you before the judge and the judge will give you up to the police, and they will put you in prison” 

Jesus reveals to us that conflict naturally escalates, and therefore necessitates measures required to contain the possible outrage — you cannot end conflict, feud and war by dwelling on "WHO is right", you need to compromise your ego and dwell on "WHAT is right to be done in moving forward" — war escalates, so Jesus tells us to embrace all forms of settlement to avoid complications. 

Listen, to bring everything to a successful closing, it depends on you as a boss (King) and leader to be at peace with everyone even if they're not acting lovable. Allow the factor of love in your heart to grow (build) that team member out of that hardness seeking to destroy her, because love builds. This is the wisdom of God that keeps satan resisted and far away from your garden of operations. 

Pastor 𝒟𝒶𝓎𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓇 concluded, , 

        “So you have to alert all your leaders and executives not to give her a hearing because her flesh is infected, and the enemy is using it to distribute the viral load of confusion to those who are sound and yielding.

       She might be genuinely seeking to be understood, but that's how the damage replicates and spreads, leaving unanswered questions in the minds of your executives and system, and not all may be able to stand. The damage would be severe. She wants to be understood, but it's just the enemy's cover to spread what she's going through to others.

     Also, Incase you're at fault as her boss, be honest with yourself, and draw wisdom from Solomon's Elders, as they counseled his son Rehoboam in his kingly role. They said to him in 2 Chronicles 10:7, “If you will be kind to these people and please them by SPEAKING KIND WORDS TO THEM, they (in this case, she) will be your servants (dedicated, loving, peaceful and loyal team member) forever.” Wow!” 

Dear reader, I trust you've been blessed by this awesome counsel from God's word, on how to contain the spread of offence in your church, business, family and workspace. 

Regards, 

𝒟𝒶𝓎𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓇 𝒥𝒞𝐻𝑀