Threshing Floor D.I.Y Style: a New Approach for a New Generation; from Harvest to Seed: Christians Threshed for Service in the House of God

THRESHING FLOOR D.I.Y STYLE:

A NEW APPROACH FOR A NEW GENERATION;

From Harvest to Seed.

Christians Threshed For Service

In the House of God

DR. WALTER MASOCHA

{PhD (Acc. & Fin); PhD (Theol); DMin; MSc (Finance); B.Acc. (Hons); CPA; ACIS; MZIM; AIPMZ; Biographer, Who’s Who in the World.}

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© Copyright 2013 DR. WALTER MASOCHA.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-4669-9724-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4669-9723-3 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4669-9722-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013910097

Trafford rev. 09/05/2013

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Chapter One

Introduction: Enter The New ‘D.I.Y’ Approach

Chapter Two

The Concept Of The ‘Threshing Floor’

Chapter Three

Ground Floor: Threshing Floor Level ‘0’ Or ‘G’ (Tf0/Tfg):

Chapter Four

First Floor: Threshing Floor Level 1 (TF1): Speech Therapy

Chapter Five

Second Floor: Threshing Floor Level 2 (TF2): Action Dynamics

Chapter Six

Third Floor: Threshing Floor Level 3 (TF3): Behavioural Dynamics

Chapter Seven

Fourth Floor: Threshing Floor Level 4 (TF4): Re-Visiting Agape Love

Chapter Eight

Fifth Floor: Threshing Floor Level 5 (TF5): Needing A Prescription

Chapter Nine

Sixth Floor: Threshing Floor Level 6 (TF6): Needing Surgery

Chapter Ten

Seventh Floor: Threshing Floor Level 7 (TF7): The ‘Re-God’

Chapter Eleven

Eighth Floor: Threshing Floor Level 8 (TF8): Fully ‘Re-Pented’;Celebrating In The Pent-House

Chapter Twelve

Conclusion: From Harvest To Seed: Threshed For Service

Endnotes

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all I thank the Lord God almighty, who gave me the inspiration to write this book with much reference to His written Word. Secondly, my thanks go to Dr. Kevin and Dr. Melinda Thomas of Friends International Christian University (FICU), who, in different ways, encouraged me to write and to publish. I would also like to express my special thanks and appreciation to my lovely, beautiful wife Judith, who endured my many sleepless nights and weeks away from home as I wrote the book. I thank her for her understanding and support in many ways, including editing and in particular, prayers. She is such a blessing to me. Words fail me when it comes to thanking God for my mother, the God-fearing woman who carried me in her womb and nurtured me from the day I was born. My thanks also go to my dearest children, Sandra, Sharon, Tinashe and Tafadzwa, my beloved ‘adopted’ children, David and Tsungayi Caroline (Joy), as well as my brothers and sisters who supported me in different ways. I extend many thanks to several of my spiritual children who helped me in different ways to make this book a success, some helped in copy-editing, others supplied pictures or images, while others found and provided relevant pictures etc. etc. Last but not least, I extend my thanks to all the saints and leadership of the church Agape for All Nations Ministries International, who also encouraged me to publish my writings and messages/sermons, and also supported me through prayers. God’s blessings to you all.

FOREWORD

This latest literary endeavour by Arch-Bishop Walter Masocha (PhD) is an articulate observation of the Christian Body, and Christ’s direction to reawaken the faithful and inspire today’s generation of distant Christians to awaken to the mandate to love one another as self, and to continue the Great Commission and share the Gospel of Christ. To achieve this task the Spirit has inspired Walter to repeat the call and inspire all Christians and Christian leaders including pastors and elders, to re-examine their own hearts and relationship with the Lord; to repent and refresh, to prepare for a Threshing Floor experience. The Threshing Floor isn’t about condemnation and hell fire, rather a reminder to first reconcile with Christ with regularity. Exercising faith manifestations are well illustrated in the example of a few leaves". This teaches us not to limit the blessing the Lord has for each of us, but to operate with enough faith to allow Jesus to bless us in manners that are best for us and the Kingdom. When we pray properly we can be what the Lord wants us to be in full measure.

This book will take you through self-reflection, confession, and preparation to be threshed and guide others to do the same for better serving Christ in the all-important command to love one another and to share the Gospel around the world for all to hear. Walters’ words will inspire the lay believer as well as those already with a calling to be inspired to prepare for the greatest gathering ever in our time. Change is in our midst. The Holy Inspired Word needs to be comprehended by all believer’s and this will present sound biblical foundation for all believer’s to stand up for Christ and get busy.

Sincerely

Kevin A Thomas, (PhD).

Provost, Friends International Christian University

P.O. Box 3979 Merced CA95344-1979

209-383-4398 Fax 209-384-3251

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION: ENTER THE NEW ‘D.I.Y’ APPROACH

The purpose of this book is to provide a practical way for Christians to voluntarily put themselves prostrate on the ‘threshing floor’ of God’s word, and overcome the usual pitfalls that cause them to stray away from the path of the Lord. Through this model of threshing floor, the chaff that is in us all is removed to leave the seed, which will be used by God in different ways. From harvest to seed. From the threshing floor to the silo. From the silo to usefulness in different ways. From the silo to service. The argument that is offered in this book is that all Christian believers should be threshed for service in the House of God. Drawing from practical examples of daily life, the book offers a ‘Do It Yourself’ (D.I.Y) model for Spiritual refinement, cleansing, purification, revival, renewal, restoration, and useful, satisfying, daily Christian living.

The book develops the concept of ‘Threshing floor’ by simplifying it with reference to the idea of the ‘House of God’ (Psalm 23:6) and the Christian as the New Testament ‘temple’ (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). It is further simplified by making reference to a typical sub-urban mansion or town-house with nine floors or levels, each of them being a ‘Threshing Floor’ level. The ground floor is Level zero (‘0’), or simply ‘G’, followed by floors or levels one (1) up to eight (8). Touching on various character and behavioural attributes, the Bible is explored to clinically bring out passages of scripture that are analysed to facilitate recovery for the wounded Christians, as well as repentance and regeneration for those who wound or hurt others. Using the traditional view of the Threshing Floor as the ‘theological or theoretical framework’, the book draws from practical day-to-day examples that would be common knowledge to many, irrespective of race, colour, creed, nationality or upbringing.

As such, this book aims to contribute to teachings, ideas and advice offered through books, pulpits, seminars, and other relevant literature, by suggesting a ‘D.I.Y’ approach to Christian Counselling. More specifically, the book explores the possibility of revealing, for each individual Christian, the ‘danger signals’ in their character, language or behaviour that may have a negative impact on other believers. The ‘threshing floor’ is offered as a place of true reflection, repentance and renewal which mainly benefits the particular believer, and eventually benefits the community of believers generally referred to as the Church, or the body of Christ (I Corinthians 12:12; 27).

It is perhaps fair to say that this book explores a relatively innovative but practical approach to Christian Counselling. I am aware that there is a lot of useful literature in respect of Christian Counselling as a general topic. There is no attempt made in this book to review that literature. The general presumption is that one needs counselling, therefore one seeks help from another. The new approach offered in this book proposes to have a different and relatively innovative way of looking at the subject; namely Do It Yourself (D.I.Y). Using the Bible as the best tool, this book offers a threshing floor-based approach to Spiritual renewal and re-generation whereby one approaches someone else only in the event of the failure of the D.I.Y. process.

Many Christians are too uncomfortable (or is it too proud?) or perhaps too shy to approach someone else for counselling. So they quietly backslide, they ‘die’ in their situation and withdraw from the Church and other Christians. Or at best they stay put, but badly wounded and hurt, they limp along and remain in the Church. Deeply wounded by fellow believers, whether leaders or not. They become religious. It is hoped that through this book, both the wounded and those who wound others can have their Spiritual balance restored as they study the Bible in the privacy of their homes and get threshed by the Word of God.

When someone comes to the Lord, according to the Bible, they are simply ‘harvest’, and the chaff must be removed by way of ‘threshing’ to reveal the precious seed (see Matthew 3:11-12; Matthew 9:35-38). Applying the idea of the ‘threshing floor’, the D.I.Y approach to Spiritual renewal offered in this book allows a wounded or wounding Christian to get ‘self-threshed’ on different theoretical or hypothetical ‘floors’ in the ‘House of the Lord’ (Psalm 23:6).

From my humble literature search, I concluded that little or nothing has been written by British or European Christian authors on the subject of the threshing floor. The same rings true for Africa and other parts of the Christian world outside of the USA. It is hoped that this book will initiate discussion and reflection on this very important subject of the threshing floor, at least in the UK and in Africa. It will be a further contribution of this book if it encourages or challenges other writers in UK and Africa to contribute by also writing on the same subject¹.

Introducing ‘Whosoever’

The journey and life of a Christian begins the moment they invite Jesus Christ into their lives (John 1:12-13; Romans 10:1-13). It does not matter whether one is rich or poor, great or small, educated or uneducated, African or European, American or Asian, of Jewish or Arabic descent—all are brought to the same size at the door called salvation. Most Christians will be familiar with the scripture in John 3:16, where Jesus says: For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. I highlight the word ‘whosoever’. You see, salvation is a leveller! At this entrance to the Christian world, everyone, irrespective of race, colour, creed, tribe, nationality, rank etc, is reduced to a WHOSOEVER. Indeed, God is a universal God. Fairness in the Kingdom of God starts right there. For God so loved the world!

The approach taken in this book is not meant for the Bible scholars or those with various accolades of theological training and learning (diplomas, degrees and what have you)—although I am sure they will definitely also benefit from it. The book is written for the ordinary Christian, an attempt to present the Christian walk in its practical application. It is written for those of us who may not know how to interpret the Holy Scriptures in their original Hebrew or Greek form. It is not another theological perspective or sermon. It is meant for that Christian who just wants to live a Christian life, and wants to know how to navigate practically through the Christian Highway (see Isaiah 11:6; 30:21; 35:8-10; 40:3-4; 43:18-19; 62:10; Jeremiah 50:5; Proverbs 16:17; and John 14:6). This is a threshing floor book for ‘whosoever’.

Many people gave their lives to Jesus willingly and with much excitement and glee, but fainted somewhere along the way or got frustrated and gave up. Some soldiered on in perseverance and pain. They endure rather than enjoy the journey. Fellow Christians get in the way. The world around you gets in the way of your Christian values and beliefs. You find yourself struggling to remain afloat. Even your own flesh gets in the way. Your character does not match your anointing. Other Christians at different levels of Church authority discourage you in a similar manner. In your view, their character does not match their anointing. They should be and know better, they are the leaders! They should lead by example. It sounds fair to say that, but the question is: Is salvation for the leaders? This is not about leadership, lest we miss the point. Read Romans 3:23. All have sinned. ‘All’ means ‘all’, without exception. We fall short of His glory, and the threshing floor helps bring back that lost glory. Read on.

Who needs threshing?

You have been a Christian for a while, but if you be real, you know you are struggling. You do things you do not like to do, and you say things you regret (see Romans 7:14-25). You get angry and moody. You pretend. You exaggerate. You agonise in silence. Your thoughts go wild at times, and only you know it. You have skeletons in the cupboard, past and present. In everyone’s past, there is some dirt. True saying, that.

You have hidden secrets—things you would rather your Christian friends and Church never knew or found out about you. You want to serve God, but you know you have faults. Ever wondered? If any of this fits you, then you need this book. You need to learn to live a Threshed Christian Life. You need to go on the threshing floor regularly. Threshing Floor is a process by which you, yourself (yes, you, not others), go before God and be real. You ask Him to constantly wipe you clean for use and re-use, in pretty much the same way you use your dishes and cutlery (they get dirty in the process), and only re-use them after a rinse and a wash!

Picture this household process which happens on a daily basis—no matter it is the Queen’s or King’s palace or the servant’s quarters, the ‘White House’ or the ‘Black House’, owner-occupied or rented accommodation, employee or employer’s house etc etc—dishes are dishes. Cutlery is cutlery. Whether you use a dish-washer or kitchen sink, wash basin or river bed—the end result is the same—to be used again, dishes have to be washed! I propose in this book that to function properly, one day at a time, a Christian has to go through the threshing floor.

I learnt this phrase from a poem taught me during my days at primary school:

Millionaires, presidents and even kings,

Can’t get along without everyday things!

If you were a President, King or millionaire,

You would use a comb to comb your hair!

You would need a toothbrush to clean your teeth,²

And so the poem went on. The same rings true for us ordinary folk. The ‘everyday things’ are similar to threshing. In them king and subjects find common ground. Through these things we all become ‘whosoevers’. Irrespective of who you are or even where you are, you have to comb your own hair (even if you may have had someone to ‘do’ your hair), soap to clean your face, and a toothbrush (or a variation of it) to brush your own teeth.

In the Christian context, I argue in this book, that is the necessity for the Threshing Floor. It’s an everyday ‘thing’, and we can’t get along without it. This book is for all serious Christians right across the board. It’s an everyday kind of book for every born again child of God. Oh Lord, give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses… ! Child of God, the Christian Highway is worth it, be threshed, and enjoy the journey!³

CHAPTER TWO

THE CONCEPT OF THE ‘THRESHING FLOOR’

The Threshing Process

The word ‘thresh’ means ‘to separate grains or seeds from straw by beating the stems or husks’ or ‘to beat the stems and husks (of grain or cereal plants) with a machine or flail to separate the grains or seeds from the straw’, or ‘to beat or rub stalks of ripe corn or a similar crop either with a hand implement or a machine to separate the grain from the husks and straw’.⁴ It all starts with seed.