A SHORT MUSE ON FAME - Apst. Arome Osayi

Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, saying, "Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did you come to destroy us? I know who you are — the Holy One of God!"  But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!"   And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him. Then they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, "What is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him."  AND IMMEDIATELY HIS FAME SPREAD THROUGHOUT ALL THE REGION AROUND GALILEE. (Mark 1:23-28, NKJV, emphasis added)

From the passage above, it is clear that fame does not exist in a vacuum. It is actually the byproduct of a process. Fame is the massive recognition and honour that one gets among many people after they have done something extraordinary or achieved a great feat. So, a famous person is one who is recognised, celebrated and honoured by many people for doing one or more great things. 

From the passage above, Jesus supernaturally cast out an evil spirit from a man in the presence of people who were completely wowed. Now this was a great feat, an impossible achievement so to speak. This immediately brought Him recognition among both those that were present and those who heard about it. It made Him famous!

 You see, there was not a single miracle that Jesus performed on impulse; everything He ever did including the feat in the passage above was as a result of God’s direct command (John 5:19)! It is therefore safe to say that fame is a direct consequence of executing God’s will.  So, fame is not evil. In short, fame was a tool to Jesus because the more His fame spread the more people He reached for God.

Watchman Nee once said and I paraphrase, “There is a degree of vanity attached to any kind of success whether physical or spiritual.”

 Whether a person’s business enterprise is experiencing tremendous growth or a ministry is exploding with great harvest of souls into the kingdom, there is a shadow of vanity that goes with the fame it attracts. It behoves the servant of God therefore to guard their heart with all diligence so that the vanity that accompanies fame does not compromise the intensity of love they have for God which propels them to give their best to execute His will.

Fame is an inevitable part of ministry. If we, servants of God (inside and outside the 'five fold'), imitate  our Master Jesus Christ, by  never losing sight of the fact that it is  God who does great things through us, no matter how coruscating the fame, we would take the responsibility of being humble before the Lord seriously and not be blinded by the huge recognition we get from serving the Lord by His ever enduring mercy. This also applies to those who serve the Lord in the marketplaces of the nations.

Fame is a tool, a means to an end, and not the end in itself. The end is for God to be glorified by how we move our hands on the plough! The higher the fame the more humility is needed to operate within the ambit of righteousness. This is because humility is the strongest conductor of God's grace.Being humble makes God's grace ceaselessly available for us not to stumble. 

 

Fame is purely external because it is people’s reaction to something God uses His servant to do. The best way to deal with fame therefore is to make sure it remains external. It should never be allowed to get into a person’s heart because if it does, it becomes poison. It’s like bathing soap or deodorant that is strictly meant to be used on the skin; the same becomes poison when ingested deliberately on indeliberately.

A practical step I take in dealing with fame is to relentlessly defer to God by returning all glory to Him after each feat, praise report, miracle and breakthrough etc. I guard my heart diligently in the place of prayer for God to give me the grace to stay humble.  Humility is the operational license for ministry.

Godless people who are famous have to resort to very expensive therapy sessions; drugs and all sorts of stimulants to deal with the pressure and burden of fame. We have the greatest drug that can deal with any shade, shape and size of challenge that fame brings-He is the Holy Ghost, Spirit of the age to come! 

Our fame should give Him glory!

Writer - Apostle Arome Israel Osayi