“Pastor, ever since I stopped going to my former church and joined another church close to my house, things have really gone bad for me. Should I go back to my former church?”.

Well, as much as going back to your former church will remedy your situation, your situation simply reveals a lack of personal spiritual development. What if you relocate to an environment where it’s literally impossible to reach your church? Does it mean your life will not progress?

I’m always perturbed each time I hear members of my church share testimonies of how things went bad for them when they moved to another church, and that as soon as they returned, things went back to normal. Now don’t get me wrong, God likes to choose a place of worship for us, which would also serve as a place of prophetic covering. In other words, God can leverage on the grace upon His servant to protect those who worship Him under that servant.

Speaking of prophetic covering, a church should provide both prophetic covering for members and mentorship towards having a better relationship with God. Unfortunately, most church goers only enjoy the prophetic covering on their man of God and live in fear because they are not mature. It takes a personal walk with God to mature.

Prophetic coverings are real and they can deliver or exempt a person from familia or ancestral curses and challenges. I’ve heard testimonies of several people on how they left their primary place of worship to a more convenient place only to return few years later in a dilapidated state. Their testimony is that as soon as they returned to their primary church, things began to work again in their life. I’ve also seen many others who enjoy and attain heights that people in their family have never attained. Some say they are the first to be a graduate in their family, some say they are the first to get married in their family, some say they are the first to live above a certain age – because people in their family die before that age.

If you sit down to have a conversation with these people, you’d be amazed to find out that many of them are not even spiritually mature. Their exemption is clearly because of the grace upon the church family they belong to. Apostle Paul also referred to this principle when he spoke about Christ being the Rock. Let’s read from scriptures:

1 Corinthians 10:
1 Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea
2 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea
3 And did all eat the same spiritual meat
4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.

Did you notice verse 2? They were all baptized unto Moses, which literally meant that God looked at them through the lens of Moses. If God protected Moses, then that protection covered for all of them. Verse 3 and 4 further tells us that they ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink. Isn’t that amazing?

God Himself validated this truth when He got angry with the children of Israel. Let’s see how scriptures put it:

Numbers 16:
20 And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying
21 Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.
22 And they fell upon their faces, and said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt thou be wroth with all the congregation?

Did you see that? God told Moses and Aaron to seperate themselves from the people so that He could punish them. As long as they were together, He couldn’t punish them. Punishing them would mean punishing Moses. That’s how powerful prophetic coverings are. If you go to a church where the grace on the man of God is lower than the authorities that operate in your father’s house, chances are that you’d be greatly challenged or that you’d have to develop yourself through other channels to gain the authority needed to overcome the principalities in your family.

So prophetic covering is good, but don’t settle with that alone. Develop a personal relationship with God, so that your defense will not just be by your man of God, but also by your personal experience with God. The only reason why things went bad for you is because you don’t have enough grace to sustain you, not because you left your former church. And according to scriptures, we can all grow in grace. So grow in grace!

There are quite a number of reasons why people change churches, but if your reason isn’t to know God more, then you may need to have a rethink. God loves it when we go to His physical house, but He’s more interested in the vibrancy of His house within you. So if you change a physical church just so you can invest in the church within you in a better way, God certainly has no problem with that. However, if you know that there’s some level of grace you draw from your former church, it is wisdom to remain connected in some way. Don’t disconnect completely. Personally, what I get from my church in terms of teachings rarely satisfy me, so I connect to other ministries. I know the grace I enjoy from my church, so I don’t plan to leave. However, I follow as many ministers and ministries to enhance my walk with God.

As I conclude, leaving a church means leaving the canopy of grace or prophetic covering. So even if you don’t want to attend services there, it’s wisdom to still sow seeds there, it’s wisdom to still follow certain instructions.

I hope this has brought enlightenment to someone.

Remain ever blessed, in Jesus precious name!

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