1 Cor 4:15 KJV “For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.”

Paul says you may have ten thousand instructors, but not many fathers (1 Cor 4:15).

I would that young believers who love the word understand this.

Just as sure as your parents at home were not your teachers in school, and your teachers in school were not your parents at home; so it is in the kingdom and with the church.

Your schoolteachers and university lecturers definitely taught you things your parents didn’t know, but you did not leave home to live with them. You went to class, learnt a lot and went back home.

You will meet anointed wordsmiths and charismatic apostles and prophets; but your shepherd is your shepherd – that is, your pastor.

You do not receive upbringing in the classroom. You receive it at home.

Foundation, fundamentals, Character; even the edge that makes you excel in school, comes from your parents at home. Mine taught me a lot of schoolwork that put me ahead.

Even in the boarding school, teachers are only partly interested in you. It is your parents who think of your 24/7 every aspect of your life.

So, do not go to and fro following this teacher and that apostle because they “have the word”. No. That is how spiritual vagabonds are bred.

Spiritual vagabonds are people going forward very fast to nowhere in particular. They have many so fathers, they do not know who they are.

Be planted somewhere under someone in a church family, whether of 10 or of 10,000.

It takes more than teaching to become a well rounded Christian or minister of Christ. Christ is a Person. And Christianity is a Life. It is found not only in what is written or said, but in men who have believed and who walk with the Lord.

You are living epistles, said an apostle, read of all men (2 Cor 3:2). Disciples aren’t just those who have been taught the teachin, but those who have walked the walk (Mark 3:14 – that they might BE WITH HIM).

Even the general idea that you are a member of a church because you listen to the message every Sunday, is a mistaken one.

Those that be PLANTED in the house of the Lord, the word says, shall flourish in the courts of our God (Psalm 92:13).

Discover your place in the Body. Understand your spiritual identity.

Belong and be connected and fed and mentored somewhere specific whether it is Deeper Life, House of the Rock or Celestial Church.

From there you can follow anyone. Be a planted specific that drinks from one source and sips from several others; rather than a wandering generality who has no distinct identity, a pipe or harp that has no distinct sound.

Have many instructors, if you must; but make sure someone specific is bringing you up in the Lord.

Amen.

Ebele UzoPeters