AN EFFECTIVE PASTOR IS NOT THE ONE WHO HAS THE GREATEST APPLAUSE, AN EFFECTIVE PASTOR IS NOT THE ONE WHO HAS THE GREATEST RESPONSE, AN EFFECTIVE PASTOR IS ONE WHO LEAVES THE PEOPLE WITH CLEAR INDICATION OF THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES
THERE IS NOTHING MORE DESTRUCTIVE THAN TO ATTACK A GRACE CARRIER PARTICULARLY ONE THAT CARRIES THE GRACE THAT YOU REQUIRE
THERE ARE NO PERFECT VESSELS, BUT THERE ARE PERFECT VIRTUES; ANYTHING YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND, DON’T COMMENT ABOUT
THOSE WHO HAVE GONE AHEAD OF YOU, THEY HAVE FORGOTTEN MORE THAN YOU HAVE DISCOVERED; MAINTAIN HONOUR
WE MUST LEARN TO WATCH OUR TONGUE IN ORDER TO PRESERVE OUR FUTURES
PROXIMITY DOES NOT GIVE ACCESSIBILITY TO GRACE, IT IS HONOUR THAT DOES
WHEREVER THERE IS AN INCREASE IN REVELATION, THERE IS ALWAYS AN INCREASE IN THE MULTIPLICATION EXPERIENCE IN THE CHURCH
WE KNOW ABOUT THE REALITY OF THOSE WHO ARE NOT IN CHRIST BUT WISDOM DEMANDS THAT OUR PRESENTATION GIVES THEM A BAIT TO DRAW THEM INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD
EVERY SEED OF THE WORD THAT YOU DROP FALLS ON ONE OF FOUR GROUNDS
TERRITORIES ARE FREELY GIVEN BUT FORCEFULLY TAKEN. AND THE FORCE THAT TAKES A TERRITORY IS THE FORCE OF FAITH
WHEN WE BECOME WORD BARREN, WE BECOME FAITH EMPTY AND WHEN YOUR FAITH IS DEPLETED, YOUR LIFE IS DEFEATED
THE GRACES ON VESSELS ARE UNIQUE CONTENTS OF THEIR SPIRIT MAN. IF YOU CONNECT WITH THE GRACE OF AN INDIVIDUAL, THEIR SPIRITUAL D.N.A. IS PASSED UNTO YOU
YOU MUST BE WILLING TO MAKE VERY DARING DECLARATIONS BUT THOSE DECLARATIONS MUST BE BASED ON REVELATION
THERE ARE STEPS YOU MUST TAKE TO PROVE YOUR FAITH, ACTIONS YOU MUST TAKE TO VALIDATE YOUR FAITH
WHAT YOU ARE SEEING IN THE PHYSICAL IS NOT ALWAYS VERY PHYSICAL IT IS MOSTLY ORIGINATED FROM THE SPIRITUAL
WHERE WISDOM IS ABSENT, RESULTS WILL BE ABSENT. STRATEGY IS BETTER THAN STRENGTH
THERE IS NO MOUNTAIN ANYWHERE, EVERY MAN’S IGNORANCE IS HIS MOUNTAIN
EVERY MAN OF IMPACT IN THE KINGDOM IS GRACE MADE AND NOT SELF MADE
-Pastor David Oyedepo Jnr. on, ‘OVERCOMING CHURCH GROWTH BARRIERS’|| NO LAND IS DIFFICULT
The Master’s Place International Church
Church Growth Conference
Evening Session Day 2
4) You must build your faith: The faith question is a non-negotiable question in the subduing of barriers. Hebrews 11:33-34. Every one of the barriers was conquered on the authority of faith. You must understand that there is no territory that will surrender to you on its own, it must be forcefully dominated. Please hear this: Territories are freely given but forcefully taken. And the force that takes a territory is the force of faith. Matthew 11:12. Territories are forcefully taken, they are forcefully seized, and the force that seizes them is the force of faith. 1 John 5:4. It takes faith for any territory to be taken. Now, faith comes by the Word (Romans 10:17).
That is why if you and I become Word barren, we become faith empty and when your faith is depleted, your life is defeated. If you want to experience dominion, you must maintain the authority of faith by maintaining an appetite for the Word. And I’m not talking here about teaching the Word, I’m talking about eating the Word. Matthew 4:4. So the Word of God is our food, it must be eaten, it must be consciously consumed. You must be a Word-addict to build up your faith. But when faith is built, it must also be engaged and how do you do this?
1) By bold speaking: understand this, faith is not silent; it is a big talker. 2 Corinthians 4:13. You must learn to speak in faith over that congregation. You must open your mouth wide and make declarations about that which is to come. I remember years ago in our Church, we were in that Church and the ground floor was full and the Church had two galleries and the galleries were not full, there were hardly anybody on the gallery. And as I began to settle down with the Word of the Lord I saw, the Bible makes it very clear it said there was no room in the house where Jesus was found.
So there shouldn’t be room anywhere, no space anywhere. So I came to Church and I told them, next Sunday, this gallery will be full. Declaration! Bold and daring statements, speaking the future in the present. That’s faith!
Faith is all about making declarations on the basis of the revelation of the Word of God in the present concerning the future. You must be willing to make very daring declarations but those declarations must be based on revelation. Big talking without sufficient spiritual eating will lead to defeat. So you must build your faith on the Word of God and then, engage your faith by the words of your mouth.
2) You must actively take steps because faith without works is dead. James 2:18 and 26. If you want your faith to deliver you must take active steps. So, having made a declaration like I made and said next week this gallery will be full, I didn’t go to fold my hands. What were the steps that needed to be taken? I put my team together and I said now, we are running after souls all through this week. And every soul we are bringing we are heading to that gallery, the gallery must be full. We are taking action, we have made declarations.
And we went, took action, and by next Sunday, the gallery was jammed, souls everywhere. Why? It is because conscious steps were taken. Many people today are paralyzed because there is no action taken on the basis of the things they have declared. That is why God’s servant Bishop David Oyedepo has said over the years that faith is no cheap talk, faith is hard work. There are steps you must take to prove your faith, actions you must take to validate your faith.
– I see each one of us today taking grace and receiving it in the name of Jesus Christ.
– Every step you take from now will produce unusual result in the name of Jesus Christ.
5) You must engage the power of wisdom: every domain is taken on the basis of wisdom. Where wisdom is absent, results will be absent. Proverbs 21:22. I have always said that strategy is better than strength. Ecclesiastes 9:16. If you want to be successful in seeing barriers broken, then you must engage the power of wisdom.
My father Bishop David Oyedepo said, “that there is no mountain anywhere, every man’s ignorance is his mountain.” So it means that there is no opposition anywhere that cannot be subdued. Whatever looks bigger than you or bigger than me is simply showing that there is a wisdom key that is not yet available.
So you and I must go for wisdom. The Word of God makes clear to us that wisdom is profitable to direct (Ecclesiastes 10:10) because if the axe head is blunt, you will use more energy and get little result but when wisdom is present, strategy is enhanced and results multiply. Ecclesiastes 10:15. So it is possible to work hard and things will remain hard. You are not experiencing the breakthrough that God expects of you because the wisdom key is not present.
Now, it’s important to note that you need wisdom for everything. You need wisdom for soul winning for example, you need wisdom for drafting the souls into the Church, you need wisdom for the establishment of the souls in the Church. There are things that you and I can do that will scatter our efforts.
For example I said earlier that you must have the passion to go after the lost with an eternity consciousness in your mind. Being aware of the fact that there is a great consequence for them not surrendering to Jesus because there is the judgement of God and there is hell that is there.
But even though that is the reality, our Gospel is not preaching hell, it is called Good News. So it means that there are things that you and I know about the reality of those who are not in Christ but wisdom demands that our presentation gives them a bait to draw them into the kingdom of God. So, there is the wisdom of soul winning. For example, Acts 3:26, the Gospel is a Gospel of BLESSING. We don’t go there preaching condemnation, no! We preach the Gospel of blessing as bait to draw them out of condemnation because when the Gospel is preached, the Bible says there will be no more condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. So, there is an escape route available. And we present the Gospel with the perspective of wisdom knowing that our aim is to see to their rescue. So, there is the wisdom required to see souls won. Now that the souls are won, there is wisdom required to see them drawn into the Church.
There are many people who go out and evangelize and so forth, and yet there is no way to see the souls drawn into the Church. For example is, in the parable of the sower the Word of God tells us that there are 4 different kinds of hearts of men.
It says, the seed which is the Word of God in Luke 8 was sown on different kinds of ground. One was on the way side, the other one was on stony ground, the other one was among thorns, and the fourth one was in the good ground; so, 4 different kinds of grounds. And we are told that the ones on the way side, as soon as the Word of God was preached, it said, the birds of the air came to take up the Word, the seed was stolen. The second category of individuals is the ones that were on the stony ground.
The Word took root but suddenly as soon as it began to feel the rocks, the Word in them died out; challenges of life, different things. And then the one that fell among the thorns, the cares of life began to choke the seed and the seed could not bring fruit. Only those on good ground produced fruit. Every time we go out ministering understand this: every seed of the Word that you drop falls on one of those 4 grounds. There are those who as soon as you speak, the devil is trying to steal what they hear.
At least if you’ve been out, you discover that you see sometimes individuals who are there antagonizing against people receiving the seed. They want the seed to fall on deaf ears; so there are those individual who are there. You also find that there are those who receive the Word gladly but as soon as they go back, they look at the challenges surrounding their lives and then they become discouraged.
So, that one fell on rocky ground. And there are those who get back and then after they get back, they are excited about the Word that they’ve heard and about the decision that they have made for Jesus but suddenly the cares of life, the deceitfulness of riches, friends calling them here and there, telling them about different things, different opportunities that are contrary to Christ to draw their attention away come their way, and as a result of that, they fall aside. Wisdom demands that you and I recognize that if we are going to be fruitful in our engagement, we must know how to secure those that God brings our way on the harvest field. So what is the wisdom key?
How do we see the souls that have been saved drafted into the kingdom of God, brought into the Church?
So it’s not enough to go out there carrying tracts, carrying fliers and minister the Gospel, you must ensure that there are wisdom strategies in place. You put follow-up calls there. You ensure that every call that is made for example, there are proper documentations of exactly what the caller is saying, exactly the feedback that you’re getting and so forth, making sure that you are documenting everything and learning from the experiences of the things that you have seen. These are all wisdom steps. So it doesn’t end in the harvest field.
How about when they come to Church? In Church growth, many of us have heard, you hear about a revolving door, where somebody enters today and is never back again. How do you stop that? That’s another wisdom question. Everything about Church growth demands wisdom. How does a person enter into a Church and feel at home, feel like they belong? How can they be assimilated into the Church of Christ?
You will begin to look at that and address the wisdom deficits that may be there in the Church operation. How are people received? What is it that they come to encounter in the Church that makes them feel, I have found a family? You ask yourself these questions and begin to address them as the Holy Ghost will give you understanding. How do they enter into the Church and feel like they are absorbed into a unit that actually has their best interest at heart? May be it’s putting the cell system to place in the Church, may be it’s having a proper welcome approach to everyone that comes for the first time, these are all wisdom questions that we must address. You see if not, the effort that you put in will come wasted in time.
And please hear this: the answers to these questions many times can be very varied and that’s why each one of us needs to go and settle down with God and I will give you some wisdom habits that will help you to draw out the answer to all of these questions.
Five wisdom habits:
1) Separation: Proverbs 18:1. Anytime you want to address a wisdom question, learn to separate yourself, go apart, spend time alone.
2) Prayer: James 1:5.
3) Meditation: Psalm 119:97-100
4) Searching: Ecclesiastes 1:13. Going after light, being desperate to go after solution whether it is reading, listening to messages, finding ways.
5) Association: thinking about those that God has put ahead of you and asking yourself what did they do?
These are all critical questions. Let me give practical examples from my own experience so that you see what it takes and I will give you both experiences of my present assignment and my previous assignments. I recall at a particular time the Church where I was pastoring, we had to have an aggressive approach to seeing souls saved. So we put a team together, we all had targets, we don’t go out without target. We had targets for each person on a day to day basis. Going out after the lost, coming back with our list of souls and then, following them up on the spot. So we had follow up on every one of them, every one we contacted was called, was reached by all means, and then invited to be in Church. We went as far as making arrangements for them to be picked up from their various locations to ensure their comfort in Church.
God gave us a light, we called them chariots of light, vehicles that were arranged to bring the souls into the Church for everyone of the services. These were some of the keys that God gave us. Now when they came to Church, the next wisdom key needed to be applied to ensure that they felt welcomed. So we put ourselves together and everyone that came to Church we decided to put together a little gift for them and then we went to their various homes on the same day; got to their homes, gave them the various packages, where they were not there, left them a card, and with the card, the package. These are all just keys to make them feel accepted. And before you know it we saw the souls coming in their droves, settling down in the Church. These are the responsibilities, wisdom keys that I take.
Now after they have come, how do you ensure that they are assimilating? For us we have the active cell system, so we began to push them towards the cell system, push them towards the foundation class, ensuring that they’re settled and rooted in the Church. Ensure that they’re in a service unit, all of these are establishment milestones.
So we decided to put together what we called, Establishment Milestones, to ensure that within a period of time, we followed up a soul from the point of salvation, to their point of being rooted in the Church. These are all wisdom keys but this is engaged as you separate yourself, as you engage prayer, as you meditate, and as you engage your mind to ask yourself what will those that God has put ahead of you do in that situation.
– I pray that these examples and this light will help us in the name of Jesus Christ!
6) You must connect to grace: Philippians 1:7. Every man of impact in the kingdom is grace made and not self made. 1 Corinthians 15:10. We discover in the kingdom that grace is in various dimensions. You have the common grace that is available to all men for example, Matthew 5:45, there is the grace that brings salvation, Titus 2:11, there is the grace that is upon particular vessels, Romans 9:23, grace that is upon systems, 2 Corinthians 8:1-5. The graces on vessels are unique contents of their spirit man. They’re like the D.N.A. of such individuals. In other words, if you connect with the grace of an individual, their spiritual D.N.A. is passed unto you and in nature, it is the D.N.A. that determines what becomes of the offspring. An elephant on the first day of birth can be bigger than a cow because it is the elephant D.N.A. in it. It is source that determines size.
You must learn to connect yourself to grace fountains. Individuals that carry conductible grace. Grace that is reflectible on others. Connect yourself to such vessels. It is one of the ultimate difference makers in the race of life. One of the beauties of grace is this: there is the labour that others input to gain access to grace but those who connect to grace collect it without having the same dimension of labour that the other had. The Bible says some have labored and others have entered into their labour. That’s what the connection of grace gives you access to. But it’s important to know that grace can only be connected by genuine honour. Matthew 10:41. If you want grace, then you must maintain honour for those that have gone ahead of us.
Unfortunately, we live in a time where in the name of freedom of speech people feel that they must vocalize their feelings and as a result of that you find them assaulting grace carriers who are ahead of them. There is nothing more destructive than to attack a grace carrier particularly one that carries the grace that you require. Understand this and understand it very well. There are no perfect vessels, but there are perfect virtues. If you go after the virtues of those that are ahead of you, your life becomes an epitome of glory.
Anything you don’t understand, don’t comment about. Understand that those who have gone ahead of you, they have forgotten more than you have discovered. So make sure that you maintain honour at all times. This is one of the destructive forces that we find in our generation. Hear this: the world is fast running out of heroes. All through Scriptures we discover, those who honoured the grace of those ahead of them replicated it. 2 Corinthians 12:18. Titus was walking in the spirit that Paul was carrying. Grace upon Paul was manifesting on him. How about Timothy? Philippians 2:19-21. Hear this: we must learn to watch our tongue in order to preserve our futures. James 3:6. Don’t allow your tongue destroy your future. Proverbs 21:23. Maintain a sense of honour in order to enjoy the flow of grace.
Our host today, Pastor KK you see, and see what God is doing through his life and through his ministry, you discover the level of honour that he maintains for the grace carriers that God has put ahead of him. It’s one of the reasons that you see grace flowing. Learn by observation.
Look at God’s servant, Pastor David Ibiyeomie, look at the explosion that we are seeing, but you discover that you don’t hear any one of them speaking against those that are ahead of them. They keep their mouths and as a result of that, they keep the grace.
There is grace available in the acrriers ahead of us but we must become defenders of that grace by maintaining honour. Matthew 6:4. So there are people who just take grace for granted and most of the time, those who have proximity are the ones that abuse grace. Never abuse grace! Hear me and hear me very well: proximity does not give accessibility, it is honour that does.
– May the grace of God keep flowing upon each and every one of us in the name of Jesus Christ.
7) Engage the weapons of warfare: 2 Corinthians 10:3-4. We are engaged in a spiritual battle and therefore, we must learn to engage spiritually. Ephesians 6:12. Understand that what you are seeing in the physical is not always very physical it’s mostly originated from the spiritual. I remember sometime ago there was a particular area we would go and do outreaches and in that location you will find all manner of harassments, all kinds of things. People will go out and then, you find them tormented, harassed, people just taking advantage of them. And then we decided that we are going to begin to engage in that area.
So we took ourselves, the anointing oil, and we will go to that area in the night and pray. Walk round the city center and take charge of the territory. And before you knew it, that same area, we saw souls coming to Christ in their droves because the territory was being contendeth with spiritually. Now we said earlier that no land is hard and that’s true but the Word of God makes clear, Deuteronomy 2:24. I told us earlier that lands or territories are freely given but they are forcefully taken. So we must engage spiritually to take every territory that God has put in front of us.
😎 You must grow in revelation: and here, I am talking about the revelation of the Word that is being disseminated. When I was talking about faith, I was talking about you eating the Word but now, I’m talking about you feeding the Word. Matthew 24:28. There is a Word that is required to stir the multitudes. Acts 6:7. Wherever there is an increase in revelation, there is always an increase in the multiplication experience in the Church. We must begin to go forth to see what is required to see the change in level in the Word of God that is coming our way. Let me say this: when we talk about the Word, we are not talking about the demonstration of knowledge. That’s very easy to do. We are talking about the feeding of the flock with things that are applicable to them. 2 Peter 1:3.
Everything is available to us, and it’s available in this book, the Word of God. And the job of the Pastor is to bring the Word and break it down for the people of God to consume it and take what they require. What they require for their healing is here, for their breakthrough is here, for their prosperity is here, it’s all in the Word.
We must give it to them in applicable manner so that everyone who comes to Church leaves knowing exactly what to do. Hear this and hear it very well: an effective Pastor is not the one who has the greatest APPLAUSE, an effective Pastor is not the one who has the greatest response, an effective Pastor is one who leaves the people with clear indication of their responsibilities. When they know what to do, having left a service, then indeed you can claim to be effective.
So it’s about ensuring that we arm people with the right light. It’s also important to understand that when the Word of God comes heavily and there is revival of the Word in any assembly, there is always the influx of multitudes. Check the ministry of Jesus, you see people rushing for the Word. Luke 5:1. They were running after him to hear the Word, look at the ministry of Paul the Apostle. Acts 13:44. The next Sabbath day almost the whole city gathered to hear the Word of the Lord that means there was something he said on the previous Sabbath day that caused the entire place to be stirred in an uproar and everybody rushed to the synagogue to hear the Word of the Lord.
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