Clarity in thought can arise when a person goes through a tragic event. The event itself causes the thought process to heightened giving the person a clearer perception of the event they've experienced. It has been often said that the best time to ask someone what occurred is usually right after it happened because this is when the person is in a posture of analyzing and collecting mental data about the event. This is not only true in the natural realm, but also in the spiritual realm.

When we as Christians go through a tragic event, we usually attempt to blame the devil. It is easier to blame them because the devil has become a scapegoat fro every wrong that occurs, but, if the person actually seeks clarity in thought, they will find that the one whom caused the event is not Satan but God. You see, God is the creator of good and evil. I say this because if God is the creator of everything, we cannot limit this nor make it a false statement by categorizing just what God created. God is the Supreme Being, the Alpha and Omega. He is the one who can build and destroy all in the same moment, but we as Christians oftentimes only want the good and will only accept the good from God. The unfortunate truth is that in order to obtain the good, one must persevere through the negative. Because the negative or tragic events causes one to think clearly, the only true way to reach where God desires us to be is through the rough waters. We can only be strengthened by the events because as we go through it, we are forced to see clearly what is happening so that we can embrace an understanding of the events. Not only this, we can also work to accept the errors we?ve made and the things we?ve done to cause the event, therefore, removing the devil from the posture of scapegoat and placing him in the place where he belongs ? a tool of evil to get our attention and push us into destiny.

I find it true that we should not be afraid of the devil. But, we also should not deify him either. Because he is a worker for God, we must realize that his attempts to destroy us often occurs right before we reach a point of breakthrough. It reminds me of the space shuttle. NASA must time the launch of the shuttle just at the point where it will rendezvous with the space station. This window of opportunity is only about ten minutes long, which in time travel, is not much. This same equation can be applied tour lives. Whenever we are close to a point of breakthrough, there is only a small window of opportunity that we should walk through. This is the narrow gate spoken of in the synoptic gospels. But this window is also the moment of decision we face when we are unaware of which direction to take. Because we are afraid of the unknown, we hesitate, but that mere hesitation could cause us to miss the window of opportunity therefore causing us to suffer further in a situation we should have been out of a season ago. I do not contend with the belief that that is a time and place for everything, but I do believe that id we mss that season, we must wait for another opportunity to arise.

Too often I have seen people who have finally made a decision to move, getting frustrated with themselves because now, they can look back and see what they were involved in. They become frustrated and angry because they cannot believe they stayed so long in such a trying event. Many times, the person will enter a place of depression because this is the only way for them to purge from the situation and gain an understanding about what they have just experienced. This is a good place for them to be in, but, we as watchmen, need to walk with them so that the depression does not overtake them and cause them to return to that situation of event. I believe that this is a major part of sanctification, where we as leaders help those who?ve made a decision to follow through with the decision. While it is not our job to walk the road for them, we cannot be so callous as to leave them at the alter to fend for themselves with the pitfalls that salvation has now brought into their lives. We must, as leaders, be compassionate, understanding, but also firm in our walk with them so that they can complete the journey and walk in destiny.

The church is a hospital environment, one where the physician will sit down and talk you through the procedure, then prep you for the procedure, perform the procedure and attend to you during the healing process. The physician does not leave you on the operating table. They will, from time to time, visit with you, check on your healing progress and, when you are strong enough to go on without them, release you from their care. But, this only speaks of specialized care and, as difficult it is for many in the church to accept, each church is specialized to address particular issues in a person's life.

The commonality with the church is the same as with a hospital; you go to a hospital because you are sick. But, when you arrive at the hospital, you are directed to areas that specialize of curing what ails you. Meaning, we cannot just go to jus any ole church. The Bible tells us that our sheep will hear our voice, meaning, each church is designed to minister to a distinct group of people.

Depending upon the specialty determines the size and number of people you addressed. For example, it is common that a ministry led by one with an evangelistic gifting will have a church of insurmountable numbers. This is true because the evangelist is gifted in gathering the people, therefore, people will be attracted to their word, presentation or style. Usually those who are not seeking that one on one interaction with their pastor, (meaning, I just want to go to church, don?t be all up in my business) will gravitate to these types of ministries because of the great opportunity to be a part of the crowd.

There is the ministries led by one who has a pastoral gifting. This ministry oftentimes is small because the membership is seeking a one on one relationship with the pastor. There is not a high turnaround of membership but a strong core of generational members, (those whose grandparents, parents and their children attend). This, in turn, provides a strong core membership, but little chance for growth (if the pastor is seeking to build a mega ministry, of course). In order to properly attend to the needs of each individual in that ministry, growth might be a negative if there is limited assistance in leadership. Therefore, if one seeks to growth this type of ministry, the pastor must also train up pastor while he attends to the needs of the people.

Then there is the ministry led by the prophetic gifting, where the membership retention is difficult to account for, because their membership oftentimes stays for a season and then moves on, their number fluctuate in a midrange between evangelistic and apostolic ministries, but, will have a strong core of members. There is also the apostolic led ministries where the membership numbers really cannot be counted accurately because with this type of ministry, their reach goes beyond the single entity, or church. They will establish ministries, business and entities across the world, causing their touch to go beyond the Sunday Morning service and because of this, the accurate account of memberships could be exaggerated if it includes the entities and services it provides.

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