The Causes of Disloyalty

by Dag Heward-Mills

* * * * *

Copyright 2008 Dag Heward-Mills

Published by Dag Heward-Mills on Smashwords.

E mail Dag Heward-Mills

info@daghewardmillsbooks.org

evangelist@daghewardmills.org

Find out more about Dag Heward-Mills at:

http://www.daghewardmills.org

http://www.daghewardmills.org/healingjesuscrusade/

http://www.daghewardmills.org/lci/

Unless otherwise stated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

* * * * *

Contents

Chapter 1 - An Erratic Personality

Chapter 2 - Financial Reasons

Chapter 3 - Missing God's Direction

Chapter 1

An Erratic Personality

In this book, we want to examine three common causes that lead a person to disloyalty. The first thing we will consider is what I call an erratic personality or character.

There are some people who have a disposition to make sudden decisions. They can alter the plan of their lives within minutes. They can change their entire course within seconds. This is a very dangerous trait. Such people can be with you today but can desert you tomorrow.

You will notice this trait in people who enter relationships and break up suddenly, for example.

When they speak of their commitment to a cause, you will be impressed by their speech. But don't be fooled! These people are usually gifted speakers and orators. They will change direction without any major provocation, to your surprise!

I am not writing about some theory in the Bible. I am talking about practical things that I have seen. I have seen the most committed and ardent followers change course in midstream. Because I have seen several people do this, I am convinced that it is a character or personality trait which some people have.

This is what the Bible speaks of in Proverbs 24:21.

My son, fear thou the Lord and the king: and meddle not with them that are GIVEN TO CHANGE:

Proverbs 24:21

Do you have a tendency to change course suddenly after you have been extremely committed to something? I would not like to be in a relationship like that! I would not like to have an assistant pastor like that. Such people will write letters to you when you are not expecting them. They will resign at the weekend without notice. They will ask someone to phone you to tell you that they are out of the country.

Their word is not worth anything! A Christian must be a person who makes a statement and sticks to his word no matter what it costs.

…He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.

Psalm 15:4

God is faithful to us even when we are not faithful to Him. Nothing makes Him change His mind!

If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: HE CANNOT DENY HIMSELF.

2 Timothy 2:13

God is trying to build up a breed of Christians who do not change their minds easily about the convictions they have. Thank God that Jesus did not change His mind when He came into this world and experienced such hatred and animosity from the people He loved.

The ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ is not safe in the hands of erratic leaders. Today, they are ministers of the Gospel and tomorrow they become social activists. Some switch suddenly from being ministers of religion to becoming politicians. Today, they are faith preachers and tomorrow they are against the faith movement!

You will often notice a trend in the lives of such people. There is a history of changing, altering and switching from one thing to the other. If you have an erratic nature, decide today to be a solid and steadfast believer.

Chapter 2

Financial Reasons

The next cause of disloyalty has financial roots.

For the love of money is THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

1 Timothy 6:10

The love of money is the root of all evil. Certainly, one of the evils that is stirred up by the love of money is disloyalty and rebellion. I have noticed that almost every rebellion is linked to some financial considerations. There is something about money that stirs up disloyalty.

There are two categories of problems that arise from financial roots - financial misunderstanding and financial covetousness.

Financial Misunderstanding

Many of the rebellions in denominations are over issues of salaries, conditions of services, emoluments and benefits. There is often a background of financial need and poverty. I have seen many Christians serve the Lord perfectly, but they seem to change when financial issues come up. There are several reasons why money causes problems and leads to divisions in churches.

Firstly, many pastors have not had any working experience in the secular world and therefore, they have unfortunate misconceptions about how much they should be paid. They do not know what kinds of salaries and benefits prevail.

One day, I attended a seminar for leaders in another church. At one point in the meeting, there was a general discussion about the conditions of service for ministers. I began asking some questions.

I called out three people and asked them, "How long have you been working?" One of them had been working for sixteen years in a bank. The other had worked as a teacher for eight years. The third had been into private business for several years.

Then I asked them, "Which of you has a car?" None of them owned a car! You see, in the economy of Ghana you almost need to be a millionaire to own a car.

I then pointed out some things to the group. "Look at this man who has worked in the bank for sixteen years. His workplace has not provided him with a car."

I continued, "Do you see this teacher who has taught for eight years and yet has no car?"

"The businessman who controls his own income has not been able to buy a car."

I asked the group, "Why is it that when someone becomes a pastor, he wants to be given a car immediately?"

I pointed out that the educational qualifications of many of the pastors are very minimal. In the secular field, many of these pastors could not rise higher than the position of a security officer or a clerk. Yet, they want to have conditions of service similar to chief executives! This is just not realistic.

Indeed, this common misunderstanding between junior pastors and senior pastors of the management rank is a common cause for rebellion, discontentment and anarchy in churches.

Anarchism is a political theory that all governments and laws should be abolished. It comes from a French word, anarchy. An anarchist is someone who fights governments. When such a person becomes a pastor, you can imagine the controversy and conflict he will stir up. He will try to dismantle the order and authority structure in the church. He will say things like, "We are all equal! We are all called! We are all anointed! We will not allow ourselves to be cheated by anyone!"

Because of this common misunderstanding that arises between the employer and the employed, I am very careful about employing anyone. I have very few employed staff. I believe that people must mature in their understanding of employment issues. If we are not careful, the church can turn into another forum for unions and strikes! Soon there may be industrial action taken against bishops and head pastors.

One thing I do not like, is to work with discontented people. I learnt that from the Lord. Do you remember how the Lord abandoned the Israelites in the desert because they complained so much? There was so much murmuring among the Israelites that Almighty God was fed up. He took a decision to relieve them of their privileged position!

Once, I had some full-time pastors working in a church. They began to complain about their conditions of service. Soon, I received different reports of various comments they had made. It sounded as though the church was mistreating them. I marvelled because these young men did not appreciate what they had.

As the intensity of the complaints mounted, I decided to lay them off. I would rather not have a church than to have a church with a complaining pastor. We called them to the headquarters and gave them a handsome amount of money to settle them. I heard that they even complained about the amount of money that was given in the settlement. I told them, "Look for jobs in the secular world and be lay pastors."

They began to look for jobs in the secular world. After several months one of them returned and said, "I now realize that I had one of the best jobs in Ghana." He pleaded to be reemployed by the church. This is the maturing experience I am referring to.

If you are an overseer of a group of churches, I would advise you to allow discontented people to discover for themselves what conditions prevail out there in the harsh world. It is important that you maintain an atmosphere of loyalty at all costs.

Financial Covetousness

When I speak about covetousness I am not talking about people who are in need. In this case, we are dealing with people who want more, more and more! The Bible teaches that people who love money are not satisfied with more money.

He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver…

Ecclesiastes 5:10

Apostle Peter warned against people who enter the ministry for the love of money. The ministry is the wrong profession if all you want is to acquire wealth. If you love money, please stay in the secular world and earn all you can. When you come into the ministry, your aim must be to make full proof of your calling. God's ministry is not a business, so please do not turn it into one.

Do you remember how Jesus threw out people who turned the church into a business centre?

And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but YE HAVE MADE IT A DEN OF THIEVES.

Mark 11:15-17

I cannot leave this subject without mentioning two classic examples of pastors who suffered from covetousness: Rev. Gehazi and Rev. Judas! Gehazi, the associate pastor of Elisha could not resist the temptation of using the ministry as a business. He wanted to charge money for the gift of God. He was charging for prophecies and healings. Does that sound familiar?

Naaman the Syrian, the one whom he charged, detected the spirit of covetousness in Rev. Gehazi. Why do I say that Naaman detected the spirit of covetousness in Gehazi? Because, even though Gehazi asked for one talent of silver, Naaman, the unbeliever, said to him, "Be content and TAKE TWO talents." Naaman detected the pastor's spirit of greed!

And Naaman said, BE CONTENT, TAKE TWO TALENTS. And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of garments, and laid them upon two of his servants; and they bare them before him.

2 Kings 5:23

It is sad that an unbeliever should have to correct a minister of the Gospel in this way. Gehazi was virtually told by a sinner not to be greedy. Dear pastor, did you know that unbelievers can see through our greed and covetousness? They laugh at us in their homes and denigrate the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ (to denigrate means to blacken the reputation of a thing). It is unfortunate that when you call yourself a minister today, people look at you with suspicion. This is because of Rev. Gehazi and others like him.

Elisha, the senior pastor, asked a very pertinent question.

…IS IT A TIME TO RECEIVE MONEY, and to receive garments, and olive yards and vineyards and sheep and oxen and men servants and maid servants?

2 Kings 5:26

The ministry of the Lord Jesus is not the place to make money. Neither is it the time of your life to gather wealth. I am not saying that God will not make you wealthy! I am not saying that you should be poor! I am not poor and I have not taken a vow of poverty. God will bless you with all you need so that you can serve Him, but this will be at the right time!

Judas Iscariot sold his master for only thirty pieces of silver. The current value of thirty pieces of silver is approximately $19.20!

And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.

Matthew 26:15

Incidentally, that was the price of a slave.

If the ox shall push [kill] a manservant or a maidservant; he shall give unto their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.

Exodus 21:32

Rev. Dr. Judas Iscariot lost his life and ministry because of greed and covetousness. Twenty US dollars is all that it took to make him sacrifice his friend, his master and his God. He sold God for twelve pounds sterling, (twenty Euros, thirty Swiss francs, fifty thousand Ghanaian cedis)!

If you ever employ a Judas or a Gehazi, you are in for trouble. They will never be satisfied with what you offer them. They will always think you are cheating them. They will try to usurp your authority and take over. Such people can easily be taken away by someone who offers them more money.

Chapter 3

Missing God's Direction

The third common cause of disloyalty, is missing God's direction for your life.

Many people miss God's direction for their lives. Because of this, they end up in complicated situations. They are often forced into disloyalty by their own mistakes. Every minister must know how to hear the voice of God. The leading of the Spirit is crucial for successful ministry.

Many ministers claim that they are being led by the Spirit of God as they break away and rebel in the ministry. Are these people really being led by the Spirit of God?

Many people are having what I call visions of their own hearts.

…The prophets PROPHESY LIES in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and THE DECEIT OF THEIR HEART.

Jeremiah 14:14

Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak A VISION OF THEIR OWN HEART, and not out of the mouth of the Lord.

Jeremiah 23:16

A common trick of people who go their own way is to claim that God has sent them. The Scripture tells us that we should not listen to the words of such prophets.

When someone has a rebellious spirit, he will surely dream about a successful rebellion. God says in His Word: “I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision...and the deceit of their heart” (Jeremiah 14:14).

A Scriptural Rebellion?

I watched a junior pastor as he rebelled against his senior pastor. His mouth was full of venom. He went about slandering his former church and criticizing his former pastor.

Surprisingly, this man had Scriptures to back his claim. He claimed that God had called him and asked him to do what he was doing.

I said to this rebel, "God does not destroy churches! God is a builder of churches."

He was my friend, so I went with him to the new church he had established. When I got there, I realized that all the equipment he was using belonged to his former church. He had taken over the church's seats, pulpit and instruments. He had their members and their building.

I said to him, "These things do not belong to you." I continued, "It is stealing."

He just smiled and said, "You don't understand."

I continued, "You are my friend, but God's blessing will not be with you when you do such things."

Within a few years, this anarchist's ministry collapsed!

If even an angel appears to you and gives you instructions, we will not accept it if it is contrary to the Word of God! The Bible teaches us not to believe when people speak a vision out of their hearts. How can God in one stroke build a church and in the next stroke destroy it?

Anyone who goes around slandering other ministers is a dangerous person. After spreading venom about someone else, they will turn on you. Snakes are not discriminating when they begin to bite.

I know a pastor who abandoned ship because a prophet told him to. Later on, I found out that this same prophet would send scouts to the church in which he was going to minister. These scouts would take car numbers and descriptions and find out who the owners were. The prophet would use this information to conjure up "words of knowledge". These words of knowledge were so spectacular and astonishingly accurate that everyone believed the prophet's word.

Finally, he had a prophecy for the associate pastor, "This is not your place. You must begin your own church." You cannot imagine the confusion that broke out in that church. The visit of this prophet changed the course of that ministry. The church broke up into many splinter groups. The pastors ended up fighting in court over church property.

The Bible says that we shall know them by their fruits. I would not criticize anybody for his accurate words of knowledge. I pray for accurate words of knowledge myself and I am happy when I see them happening. The Bible did not teach me that I would know a thing by its gift. You know them by their fruits.

When I see the fruits of broken churches, destroyed ministries and deceived pastors, I know that the Spirit of God is not at work. The devil and the flesh are on the rampage.

But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.

THIS WISDOM DESCENDETH NOT FROM ABOVE, BUT IS EARTHLY, SENSUAL, DEVILISH.

For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

James 3:14-16

Dear minister friend, do not yield to pressure from people. You may make the mistake of your lifetime. People will push you into things but they will not support you when you are out there. Somebody once told me, "People sympathize with the underdog, but they follow the top dog."

When I first got married, people often suggested the number of children that we should have. Some said we should have five, others said we should have four children. They would describe the advantages of having large families. "How nice it is when they all grow up and you have children all over the world," they said. "You can have such nice family reunions. The children will have lots of playmates."

I would smile to myself and think, "This man is suggesting that I have all these children. Will he look after them when they grow up? Will he pay their school fees and build houses for them? Certainly not!" Those who will not contribute a dime are those who put the most pressure on you!

Dear friend, be careful about yielding to the pressure of the people. When you have taken the wrong decision, these same people will criticize you for making mistakes.

Judas came under pressure to betray Christ. He eventually succumbed to the pressure and temptation to betray his master. Afterwards, he realized that he had made a mistake. He went back to these same people who had pressurized him with money and made a lame attempt to undo everything. He actually took the money back! But the people would have none of it and threw him out to face suicide and eternal damnation on his own. They told Judas, "What is that to us? That is your problem! See to it yourself!"

Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, WHAT IS THAT TO US? SEE THOU TO THAT. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.

Matthew 27:3-5

Please do not yield to the temptation of money or to the pressure of the people. You will have to deal with the consequences of your decisions by yourself!

Dear friend, with the insight you have received on the causes of disloyalty, be careful to avoid the danger of becoming a disloyal person!

*******

Other Best-Selling Books by Dag Heward-Mills:

Loyalty and Disloyalty

Leaders and Loyalty

Transform Your Pastoral Ministry

The Art of Leadership

Model Marriage

Church Planting

The Mega Church

Lay People and the Ministry

These titles are also available in Spanish and/or French. Information about other foreign translations of some of the titles above may be obtained by writing to our email address.

Table of Contents

Contents

Chapter 1

An Erratic Personality

Chapter 2

Financial Reasons

Chapter 3

Missing God's Direction