(This is the speech Governor General Sir Frank Kabui delivered when he opened the Awakening the Nation conference in Honiara last Sunday)
I WOULD like to welcome you all to the opening of this "AWAKENING THE NATION" Conference this afternoon and to invite you to participate in its session and crusade nights during the course of this week.
Reverend Pastor Roy Funu called at Government House on 12th February, 2010 to ask me to participate in today's event by officially launching it in Honiara.
I hesitated at first because I thought theology was not my field. In fact, I silently asked myself the question, 'what should I say" on this occasion? The theme of this conference is, to my mind, biblical.
I have agreed to come today because I think religion is a community occupation and for me to show up, representing the Head of State, will add support to the organisers of this conference.
Religious teaching itself is a thing for the clergy although the Bible is open to all.
THEME
From the introductory pamphlets I received from Reverend Pastor Funu, I gathered that the general theme of this conference is "awakening the nations."
The pamphlets further explain that under God's authority, there are two kinds of leadership; one is church leadership and the other is government leadership.
There is a need therefore for the church and government to rise up in unity in prayer and repentance in order to transform our communities, cities and nations.
In other words, there is a need for a spiritual revival to achieve this objective of transformation of the human heart.
In other words, this conference is about kingdom leadership and lifestyles for the church, government and nation. It is about you and me in the context of Solomon Islands.
To me, this theme has a very deep and hidden meaning. It is a challenge for mankind. We are all familiar with our fundamental problem.
It is the human nature - the natural man. We are told in the Bible that it all began in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve.
SATAN IS THE PROBLEM
However, going beyond Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden, we find that the truth is that the problem began when God threw Lucifer out of Heaven down to earth. (Ezekiel 28, verses 14-15 and Isaiah 14, verse 12). Lucifer had sinned and rebelled against God.
Lucifer took with him, his angels, and they became demons working with him to deceive the world.
CREATION OF LUCIFER
The fact that God created Lucifer (Satan) first (Ezekiel 28, 14-15) before God created Adam out of the dust of the earth (Genesis 1, verses 26-27). Lucifer became Satan, the Deceiver of mankind ever since his fall from Heaven.
CREATION OF MAN
We know that god created Adam in His own image out of the dust of the earth. Adam and Eve were not evil in nature in the first place until Satan intervened in their lives.
TREE OF KNOWLEDGE AND EVIL
We know that when Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden tree, it created a new mind set in them.
That is, eating of the forbidden tree and given them the ability to choose to reject God. Their eyes had opened and were able to see and could decide to doubt God which they did.
They took on the nature of Satan of being rebellious towards God. This is why we are naturally hostile towards God. Jeremiah 17, verse 9 confirms this.
Adam had rejected God's way in the Garden of Eden and so man has taken on the nature of Satan ever since.
Adam's conduct had created a gap between God and man. God's Holy Spirit was not available to man until the day of Pentecost.
THE HUMAN SPIRIT
Adam however had remained the image of God. Man, as the image of God, has a spirit in him.
This is clearly stated in Job 32, verse 8, Zachariah 12, verse 1 and I Corinthians 2, verses 9-14.
This is because we are created in god's image. God gives this spirit to man because man is basically God's image. Clearly, we all have a God element in us at birth.
One writer calls the spirit in man "the human spirit". It is said that the human spirit is imparted in man at conception in the mother's womb.
This is why it is said to be unchristian to abort a baby in the mother's womb.
This human spirit enables you and me to think and reason and be creative unlike animals. Man makes choices in life.
Man make machines. Man sends rockets to the moon. Man makes computers. Man is now about to produce a flying car. Man is able to recognise what is right or wrong.
You and I are the same as animals because we are all made of matter. When we die, our physical bodies rot and gone into the grave and forgotten. Man is no different from animals in this respect.
But you and I have a mind. It is said that this spirit essence in man gives the power of intellect to the human brain.
This human spirit is non-physical in nature. In other words, it is the non-physical component in the human brain, it has nothing to do with the fact that you and I are able to breathe the air and be alive on a daily basis, fuelled by the food we eat.
The blood in our veins, combined with oxygen maintains physical life.
Animals do not possess the human spirit. Animals do not have the ability to become Christians and followers of Christ. Man does.
This is the difference between man made in God's image and animals.
In other words, the ability in man to choose a God like existence is given by the human spirit which is given by God Himself.
However, this human spirit is limited only to the knowledge of physical things, not to the spiritual things.
When a person dies, the human spirit returns to God who gave it in the first place. This is clearly stated in the book of Ecclesiastes 12, verse 7. Clearly, the human spirit does not roam around after death. It is not a ghost, nor is it the soul.
THE HOLY SPIRIT
Man however needs the Holy Spirit of God to know spiritual things. The initiation process of obtaining the Holy spirit is by way of being born again by baptism into God's family.
The fusion of the human spirit and the Holy Spirit is necessary for man to be able to develop God like character as a Christian person and be Godly in his or her life style.
In other words, the Holy Spirit elevates man to the new height of spiritually and Godliness. The human spirit alone is not sufficient for this purpose.
I have taken time to make these remarks because the theme of this conference is basically about man and his relationship with God in daily living.
It is about Christian living being emulated in governments and nations. In other words, Christian living is about Christian responsibilities in the homes, families, communities, government and finally, nations.
It is said that only Christian mined leaders can lead good governments and nations. A nation can only be a Christian nation in outlook if its population do emulate Christian values.
Becoming a Christian in the first place and continuing to be so and shinning out as such is not easy as Satan is always around to make sure that no headway is being made by anyone in the quest to accept Christ and live a Christian life. It is not easy at all.
PROHETIC SAYING
Mathew 24, verse 37 says, "As it was in the days of Noah so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man."
The book of Mathew likens the end time to the time of the flood in Noah's time. People were eating, marrying, drinking and going about their worldly activities to the last minute when the flood came and swept them all away.
To me, this seems to mean that when Christ returns, as it were in the days of Noah, many will be lost as they will be caught unprepared for Christ's coming. Is this the plan God has for man made in God's own image?
This is a prophecy about the end time. Current events in the world today would appear to be fulfilling this prophecy.
The church of the body of Christ is being challenged in this end time. Governments and nations are being challenged by the current world events of today.
Government and the church are separate entities in our system of government.
How the church can influence governments and nations to follow the straight and narrow road is a challenge to all of us.
How can the church influence government and ensure that governments rule the people with God given directions?
I suppose the answer is that the church being the body of Christ is responsible for ensuring that those who rule are of Godly character. But being Godly in character is a decision which can be made only by individuals and not by the church.
In other words, it is up to each individual to change his or her heart and turn to God. The church of course will facilitate, encourage and carry through the wishes of anyone wishing to turn to Christ such as showing the way to Christ.
This is where the role of the church and Christians becomes relevant and deserves support and recognition from all. This conference being organised here is an opportunity and one of the ways in which others would know about God's Kingdom and Godly living in daily life.
TWO KIND OF GOV’TS
Talking about God's government, one website says this:
"......Government begins within man's heart........
"There are only two governments that exist within the earth and they both begin their growth within man's earthly hearts....
" One is Satan's ugly government of hate, darkness and death and -
One is God's beautiful government of unselfish love, light and eternal life.
"There is a battle taking place within everyone's earthly heart as these two governments, or kingdoms. dwell within us and they struggle and war against each other.....Galatians 5: 16-25, Galatians 4: 29."
To put it another way, another website says:
"Mankind over 6,000 years has never yet been clever enough; because he is "blinded" by his own arrogance and selfishness; to see the Wisdom of the Covenant and God's Laws and that they are the only way to peace and harmony.”
Arrogance and ignorance are the two sides of Satan's coin.
Humility and Wisdom are the two sides of God's coins.
In the day that man, in his Satanically inspired (and copied) arrogance, thought himself to be wise (like Satan did), he became a fool; fooled and deceived by his own ignorance of his own arrogance: to see that he tries to conceal with his arrogance, even from himself (just like Satan does).
EXAMPLES OG GOV’TS
For example, ......If you have a hundred people of whom you are one and each person puts themselves first and is out for himself and what they can get, then all of you will ever be in competition, strife, violence and war. The history of this planet is proof of that fact.
The strong will oppress the weak. The rich will oppress the poor. The clever will oppress the not so clever and there will be continual struggle for survival, leading to crime, violence, war and eventually total annihilation-Armageddon. How can there possibly NOT be?
On the other hand, as Jesus demonstrated when he gave his life voluntarily for the benefit of everyone else; if you take exactly the same hundred people of whom you are one and everybody, including you, now puts everyone else first, before their "Self", then each individual, including you, wins ninety-nine times, because each individual, including you, wins ninety-nine times, because each individual has ninety nine other people putting them first.
However, it will not work unless every single person does it, because one bad apple Ruins the whole barrel.
"To explain even more clearly still, in terms that everyone should be able to understand, it they want to understand, one human family can amass absolute fortune, under selfish, fraudulent, illegal laws,; in the space of two hundred Earth years; and, in so doing, make millions of other people POOR and miserable.”
Imagine what would happen IF they are NOT human and lived for ever (zillion years). How any poor people. and wars, and how much havoc; strife and misery could they then create?
Where the potential God government got twisted by false religion
You may recall the Tower of Babel and what God did to bring an end to man's attempt to reach God.
This is said to be the beginning of the Babylonian system of government which we are currently under in this world.
The Babylonian system of government is clothed with materialism, greed and evil. It is said that Satan has a hand in this even to the extent that Christianity has been bent away from the true Church that God began on the day of Pentecost.
To get it right, there is much work to be done in the quest for good Christian leadership at the community level, church level, government level and national level.
We in Solomon Islands need to change our attitude towards God, including myself.
A conference such as this one is a sure way of identifying the areas of weaknesses and encouraging one another to love each other and emulate the God character that man has got the potential to become.
This God character will then shine out at the community level, church level, government level and national level.
The general election is about to come. Can we choose God fearing leaders this time around? It is possible?
It is of course not going to be easy. It may still be difficult to get it right because Satan is still at work to destroy God's plan.
Our Constitution is not based on theocracy. However, with the power of the Holy Spirit in man's heart, it can be done. Getting fifty members of Parliament in this position is obviously the hope.
The church however must fulfil its role. For us, this opportunity now has come in the form of this conference.
This conference has its beginning in Bundaberg, Australia, in 2008, followed by another organised by the Churches and Government of Vanuatu in 2009.
There will be a number of eminent speakers during this conference who will tell us about God's Word.
It will be an opportunity for us to hear any message that will open our eyes to see what has been amiss in our lives and to allow us to do the right thing.
This conference has come at an opportune time when we are thinking about electing national leaders to rule this country for the next four years.
Is the timing coincidental? Certainly not. The answer is no. This conference comes just before the general election and its timing is just right.
To realise the full benefit of this conference, attending and listening to the teaching sessions, including the crusade nights must be an obligation for those wishing to benefit from the Word of God. It is an opportunity not to be missed.
We must however avoid abusing God's name as a convenient habit. God's name has been abused so many times by us. God's name has become a common place for self convenience and a show for acceptance as a Christian. You and I know what this is.
I had sat in Cabinet and Parliament for 14 years as a non-voting public servant Attorney General until 1994.
I had witnessed a lot of unchristian things being said and done by national leaders. Many unchristian decisions had been made.
Politics is at the root of this. To be a Christian politician is not easy in Melanesia. If any Prime Minister wishes to rule the country in the straight and narrow road, he or she will be voted out of power at any time through a motion of no confidence.
The demands of some members of Cabinet are so intense that any Prime Minister is often forced to compromise his or her position of power to remain a Prime Minister.
Likewise, members of Cabinet are often bombarded with demands from their respective constituencies that they too are forced to compromise and will pressure any Prime Minister to meet their own or constituency demands.
There are also pressures from other people who have vested interests in the government who would like to influence government policy. This is called money politics.
Quitting politics is a choice for a Christian. But doing so is actually going away from the responsibility of being a Christian influence in the corridors of government offices.
The question for any Prime Minister or any member of Cabinet is whether or not he or she will shine out in Cabinet and run the real risk of losing his government or being silent and being a party to a government that does not respect God's covenants?
The public at large bears the blame for this. They are the power base for the politicians.
If the public is largely unchristian, its unchristian influence on their politicians is undoubtedly going to bear a very negative effect on the ruling government.
A politician in Melanesia is always sandwiched by these opposing forces. Operating a secular form of government is bound to produce these problems.
The results is that all levels of leadership past and present in at the community level, provincial level, Honiara City Council level church level and government level are affected by human nature.
A few Christian would tend to get worse when they become members of Parliament or become Minister of the Crown or are in positions of power.
Family problems coupled with alcohol caused by a number of factors often distorts the life of a leader.
So the issue of improving or eliminating bad leadership should not be restricted to simply addressing Christian issues just before a general election but steadily and continually ensuring that the Christian flag is flown in one's heart all the days of one's life in leadership in the church, in government and at the national level.
This is not a criticism of leaders but examples of how difficult it is to breed good leaders in any country.
It is human nature that we cannot accept that we are wrong. We always justify our actions although unchristian they may be.
The human heart must change. Jeremiah 17, verse 9 says it all. This, clearly, is the solution. The heart is the most wicked thing, deceitful and unpredictable at all times.
As I have already quoted above, government begins in man's heart, either for good or for worse.
I cannot say any more on this for this is the central issue for this conference. This issue presents itself right across everything man does on this earth.
Lastly, I now have the pleasure in declaring this third Conference, 2010, on the theme, "Awakening the Nations" in Honiara, Solomon Islands open.
May God bless us all!
By SIR FRANK KABUI
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