WHERE THERE IS NO CALLING THERE WILL BE NO BACKING.
WHEN YOU’RE SENT BY GOD, YOU’RE BACKED BY GOD AND WHEN YOU’RE BACKED BY GOD YOU DOMINATE IN ANY TERRITORY.
A RIGHT CALL IN A WRONG PLACE WILL PRODUCE A WRONG OUTCOME.
GOD’S INTENTION ON CHURCH GROWTH IS NOT TO BLOW OUR EGO. HE WANTS TO GROW THE CHURCH AS A SAFETY ARK FOR THE LOST IN THESE LAST DAYS.
NO MATTER HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE IN CHURCH, THERE ARE STILL MULTITUDES ON THEIR WAY TO HELL.
THAT IS WHY YOU AND I MUST HAVE A PALPABLE PASSION TO KEEP RUNNING AFTER SOULS.
WHAT YOU DON’T SEE YOU CANNOT SEIZE.
WHAT YOU SEE IS A VITAL REQUIREMENT IN DETERMINING WHAT YOU EXPERIENCE.
VISION IS A VITAL REQUIREMENT TO EXPERIENCE SUPERNATURAL GROWTH.
ENLARGE YOUR VISION AND YOU WILL ENLARGE YOUR MANIFESTATION.
-Pastor David Oyedepo Jnr at the Church Growth Conference, No Land is Difficult| The Master’s Place International Church| Evening Session| Day 2.
It is such a great joy today to be part of this Church growth conference, I want to specially appreciate the host Pastor Korede Komaiya and Pastor Esther, thank you so much for this privilege, we thank God for the mighty works that the Lord is doing through you and through the ministry in Warri and around the globe really, we give God all the glory, indeed I know that God grace that has begun to manifest in such a mighty way will continue to be on the increase and thank you for creating a platform like this for pastors and ministers to come and drink of the fountain of God’s wisdom and grace that has been placed on your life and I believe that just as the Word of the Lord makes clear, that he that scatters will increase, the grace of God will keep increasing in your life in the name of Jesus. I truly appreciate you and the Lord will bless you.
I also want to appreciate Pastor David Ibiyeomie who is also part of these great conference, his life has affected mine in many ways and I believe God that for each one of us this will be a platform to keep growing in grace and keep enjoying God’s help and God’s Hand in a new and living way in Jesus’ name.
Let’s begin with prayers. Father in the name of Jesus, I thank you today for this opportunity and the privilege granted to me to stand before your precious people, I ask Lord that you’ll speak through me, give me utterance and give light to your people by the Word of the Lord coming today, thank you for it Lord, in Jesus precious name. Amen!
Now, the theme of this conference is “NO LAND IS DIFFICULT” and my assignment is to speak on the subject, Overcoming Church Growth Barriers. I am going to begin by looking at a number of things and I believe God that the Word of God coming your way will subdue every obstacle that may be standing in your way in the name of Jesus.
Now, let’s begin by recognizing God’s Word that there is nothing strange about opposition. 1st Peter 4:12. 1st Corinthians 16:9. More importantly we see from God’s Word that the building of the Church of Christ is always opposed by the enemy. Ezra 4:23-24. So, there are strong opposition and resistances to the growth and the advancement of the Church, but Jesus said in spite of all of these, I would build my Church and the gate of hell shall not prevail against it. Mathew 16:18. So, the Church of Christ is ordained to subdue every opposition and every barrier, that is God’s design.
Deuteronomy 2:36. From this line of scripture it is very clear that there is no territory that is difficult, every land can be subdued, every land can be dominated, it is the intention of God to see every terrain brought under the dominion of Christ.
Revelation 11:15. This is God’s intentions; this is God’s plan and agenda. But the question is how do we see to it that this plan is fulfilled in our lives and our ministries?
We have been sent to different places around the world, God has given us various terrain in order to dominate. But how do we ensure that we are experiencing this, that we are seeing the Kingdom advance in our various territories into which God has sent us?
Today, we are going to look at a number of points and I am just praying that the Spirit of God will grant us light and understanding as we go in the name of Jesus Christ. I’m looking at 9 points here and I want you to follow me closely.
1. ENSURE AND ASCERTAIN YOUR CALLING.
That is the starting point. Hebrews 5:4. So, the Word of God identifies to us the place of a calling, it is important to know that where there is no calling there will be no backing. Jeremiah 23:21. So, it is possible for an individual to begin to practice or occupy an office into which he/she is not called and that is one of the reasons why many people fall flat against any barrier.
Understand that it is the backing of God that makes the difference in the race of life.
When God is for you, nothing can be against you. Romans 8:31. Psalm 114:1-7. From this scripture it is absolutely clear that the backing and presence of the Lord is the difference maker. Psalm 124:1-3. So, the backing of the Lord is the ultimate defense of the saint against every opposition of hell and there is nothing that the devil opposes like the growth of the Church, that is why ascertaining your calling is the foundation towards exploit in life and in ministry. If you look all through the scripture, you’ll discover that everyone God sent he backed. Luke 1:20. He called 70 of them and sent them forth and because he sent them every one of the 70 were backed by God.
The Word of God says in the same scripture, the seventy of them returned with Joy, not one didn’t have proof and they began to say even the devil was subject to us in your name. So, even the devil could not pose an opposition to them because they were sent by him and Jesus said I give unto you power to tread upon serpent or the powers of the enemies and nothing shall by any means hurt you. When you’re sent by God, you’re backed by God and when you’re backed by God you dominate in any territory. So, causing barriers to crumble requires the backing of God and that backing if God is secured by the calling of God upon an individual’s life.
Praise God!
When you have the calling of God and you’re conscious of it, that is the second part. So, it is not enough to just have it but you must have a consciousness of it. Judges 6:14-16. Have the consciousness of being sent by God, when you discover and ascertain your calling be conscious of it.
By the privilege of God, I have been serving under my Father, God’s Servant Bishop David Oyedepo and I have discovered the sense of consciousness that he has of the backing of God, that is what makes the difference, it causes barriers to crumble. I remember a number of years ago, we were together, this was about the year 2008 and he looked at me and he said David I know God hears me when I pray, that is a conscious person. Somebody who is fully assured of the kind of backing that he has, that is what you must have if you’re going to see barriers crumble.
Oppositions are real, barriers are real but to have dominion over them, you must be conscious of the backing of God and that comes by having a calling from God. Acts 18:9-10. Jesus told Paul, I have sent you here and no one can touch you.
That was the confidence of Paul in Corinth, as a result of that no opposition could stand in his way, he was able to dominate in the midst of adversity. You see the consciousness of your calling of being sent and being where you’re sent is one of the vital tools to ensure that no barriers stand against. A right call in a wrong place will produce a wrong outcome, it is not enough to be called, it is not enough to be sent but to be where you’re sent, that is the key to ensuring a right outcome.
2. YOU MUST HAVE A PASSION FOR SOUL.
You want to see barriers broken, then you must have a palpable passion for the lost. Psalm 69:9. You and I must understand that for anyone to go far in the work of the ministry, to experience growth, expansion, enlargement, you must have a palpable love for the lost.
When Jesus resurrected from the dead and he appeared unto the Apostles he said in John 22:15-17, he began to speak to Simon and he asked him, Simon do you love me more than this? And Peter said Lord, you know I lord you and He said if you love me feed my lambs and he asked him the second and third time. People many times begin to think that Jesus was simply talking about the responsibility of feeding the flock of God and that is not incorrect but it’s incomplete because the Word of God tells us in John 10:16, other sheep do I have that are not yet of this fold, then must I bring that there may be one shepherd and one-fold.
That is God’s intention, he wants us to go out there to see to the pursuit of the lost, you must have a genuine love for the lost, a palpable love for the lost, this is one of the vital difference makers in breaking barriers in the journey towards growth. John 4:34. What work was Jesus talking about here, He was talking about the work or the responsibility of going after souls, don’t forget John 4 is an episode where Jesus was ministries to the woman at the well and when the disciples came back, they asked why as this man not eaten, He said my meat is to do the works of He that sent me, my meat, what gives me pleasure, what is of most important to me is to do the will of He that sent me and finish the work that He has sent me to do and that work is the pursuit of the lost.
There may be personal calls for everybody in the pursuit of life and the pursuit of ministry but there is a general call to every believer and that is the call for the lost. Mark 16:15. You must have a passion for going after the lost, it must be palpable, you just have a passion for it, John 15:16. It is my intention that you go after the lost, that was Jesus speaking, so he expects you and I to be addicted to the pursuit of the lost, that in every territory we find ourselves we are going after the lost for the glory of the father. 2nd Corinthians 5:17-20. He has given us the ministry of reconciliation, the Word of reconciliation and the purpose of this is simple, His intention is that he wants to make us ambassadors of Christ, so that we can in his stead be reconciling others to Christ, that is God’s intention, that is the central business of the Father on the earth today.
But you see we must have a passion for it and that is an obsession that must be based in the consciousness of eternity, when you and I become conscious of the fact that anyone who does not have the son of God has not life, they’re dead men walking, they are individuals with the mark of death upon them. 1st John 5:12. So, life begins at the point of salvation that means every man you see without Christ is a dead man, woman or boy walking, we must have that consciousness, have eternity in view, understand that every individual that is not in Christ is on their way to an eternal crisis and that crisis is a crisis that comes with the wrath of God that comes upon those that are not in Christ. 1st Thessalonians 1:10. We cannot afford to smile at those that pass beside us without Christ, we cannot afford to watch them on their way to hell, we must rescue them with an urgency, we must have a unique passion for the pursuit of the lost, you see God is not just intent on growing the Church in order to blow our ego. No! That is not God’s intention, He wants to grow the Church as a safety ark for the lost in these last days.
The Bible tells us how that happened in the days of Noah. Noah was a preacher of righteousness and the purpose of preaching righteousness was to see whether others will be converted in order to be saved in the ark, the ark was the place of safety, that is what the Church is. If you and I have a passion for the lost, it will show in all that we do, we’ll become passionate and driven in seeing souls rescued from destruction.
We are not just going after them for the purpose of blowing up our ego of feeling bigger than we currently are, but to rescue them from impending destruction. Jude 1: 23. When you find a person who is engulfed in fire, there is an urgency to the action you’re taking because every moment counts.
The harvest is a matter of urgency.
John 4:35-36. Don’t say there are four months, in other words don’t say there is time, the harvest is a matter of urgency, every soul that you see today is at the mercy of the enemy, even when they think that there is peace, there is impending destruction.
The Word of God says: You say peace when there is no peace, there is an impending destruction. I tell people all the time that any chicken that is being overfed before Christmas should not think it’s breakthrough, the owner is preparing it for slaughter, in the same way anytime you find an individual that looks like everything is okay and that is the deception of sinners, they think everything is okay but that deception is the enemies trap to pull them into destruction. So, we have to come to the recognition that there is an urgency to the matter of the harvest.
Now there was a criminal in history, his name was Charles Peace, this man was a murderer, he committed every kind of crime you can imagine and he was going to be executed in England and according to the story (you can check it out, it’s documented in history), a priest came to him on the day of execution. So, the Priest will come on that day and they will walk with you from the cell to the execution. This man was set on the day of his execution chamber where the person is supposed to be executed.
So, the priest came and met and began to talk to him about the dangers of the fires of hell and suddenly Charles Peace turned to him and burst out, he said: Sir, I believed what you and the Church if God said that you believe, even if England were covered with broken glass from coast to coast, I will walk over it, if need be, on hands and on knees and think it worthwhile living, just to save one soul from an eternal hell like that. Look at what a sinner was saying to a preacher, he was saying the way you’re talking does not show that you believe this thing, if you believe that there is such a hellish experience like that, he said you should have more passion and zeal than what you’re demonstrating.
The question we have to ask ourselves is what is our view of eternity, what do we see about eternity, if eternity is real to us and eternal judgement is real to us then we will be more urgent to see the rescue of the lost.
You won’t watch souls pass by you without any sense of urgency, there will be a drive in you, there will be a sense of restlessness that does not allow you to be at peace with anyone remaining lost, this is one of the vital responsibilities that you and I have as ministers, we must be passionate for the pursuit of the lost. I have watched God’s servant, my father, Bishop David Oyedepo, I have seen this unusual passion in his life for the pursuit of the lost, every time you find him running after the lost with passion and with zeal and we are to follow the faith of those who God places ahead of us in other to have the same result that they have.
Hebrews 6:12. So, I have watched that and I have made it my own passion to go after the lost in like manner, running after them, recognizing that there is an eternal consequence to any kind of indolence in this matter.
We cannot afford to fold our hands while the enemy rushes multitude to hell. I remember a vision that a man of God shared, I believe it was R W Schambach, how that he saw this great vision, this vision of individuals who were on a very broad highway and they were moving as multitudes, teeming multitudes in this highway, all of them walking in the same direction and he said suddenly the highway cut and the cut led into a pit and the people were walking on that highway and all of them were dropping off the highway I to that pit, the pit was a bottomless pit and he noticed that this were people who were moving in their multitudes towards hell and that birth in him an unusual passion to run after the lost to see to their rescue.
The truth is this, no matter how many people are in Church, there are still multitudes on their way to hell. That is why you and I must have a palpable passion to keep running after the lost, to see to their rescue and to see to their deliverance, I pray that for each one of us today there will be a reawaken of our thirst, to run after the lost in our various territories and see them rescued to glory and the praise of His name.
This is one of the vital requirements. By the grace of God, I have out a team together, we are always on the go, week after weeks, in the past two months alone, to the glory of God, we have seen 2300 souls that have been saved, out of which about 1,200 of them have attended foundation class, just pursuing after them. We have gone to 59 different locations, I believe now it’s about 61, different locations to see to their rescue because Satan is after them and it is God that presents to them a way of escape. Hebrews 2:3. So, each one of us has a responsibility to position yourself with a rekindled passion to go after the lost and I pray today that the fire of the Spirit of God that gives passionately zeal that drives men into the pursuit of the agenda of God, I pray that the fire will come upon each and every one of us in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
3. WE MUST DEVELOP A VISION FOR GROWTH.
Where there is no vision the Word of God says the people perish. Vision is a fundamental requirement for every accomplishment, what you don’t see you cannot seize. Habakkuk 2:1-3. So, there is need to see and the Word of God tells us, it says look to the north, south, west and east as far as your eyes can see, it shall be given unto you. So, our experience is a product of what we see and what you see is a vital requirement in determining what you experience.
It is important to note that this book called the Bible is a book of vision, in the book of Isaiah 28:11-12. This Bible contains pictures, vivid pictures of the expected future, you must recognize therefore that what you need is simply to go to the dictate of the Word of God as it concerns the growth of the Church in order to see the picture that God has ahead of you and remember it is what you see that you will seize. Isaiah 34:16. So, whatever you find in the word is what you will find manifesting in the world. Soz you must have a vivid picture, a vivid vision.
I remember God’s servant Bishop Oyedepo shared that when the ministry was to move the headquarters to Canaanland which was not exactly in Lagos, it is outside Lagos. It was a place that was uninhabitable, it was a deserted kind of area and he said that when the Lord gave that instruction and He said this is the place, he said he went to the scripture and he began to study the wilderness ministry of Jesus, to see the picture from scripture of how the multitude followed Jesus to the wilderness and when the picture was seen the vision of scripture became clear, the pursuit became inevitable, it was clear that the target of sin, the agenda of God will be met because there was vision, a picture seen from scriptures, what vision have you seen from the Word of God concerning that Church that God has placed you over? These are vital requirements to ensure that growth becomes a reality and an experience. Isaiah 2:1-3.
So, God’s agenda is to bring the Church of Christ into a realm of flow, where there is a flow of multitudes of men and of women into the Church, by privilege of God a was sent to our Church in London to pastor and if you know anything about Europe, you will be told that Churches don’t grow, there is a limit to the growth of the Church and when you look at in reality, there are hardly any large Churches in Europe but there are multitudes of souls there.
So, I began to look through the scripture to see the actual picture that I should take.
Should I take what others are saying and accept the limitation of the land or should I look into the Word of God and take authority of scripture. There is no land that is hard, remember that is what the Word of God says. So, I went into the Word of God and began to see pictures from scriptures and the first of them that caught my attention was Isaiah 60:3-5, he said gentiles will come to your light, Kings to the brightness of your rising. All of them gathered themselves together they will come unto thee, your sons will come from far, your daughters will be nursed at your side. That scripture caught my attention. So, from that Word it became clear to me that people will come from far places. So, we are not just talking about the Church that was going to be growing slightly but no, a Church people will be coming to from everywhere, every location, every angle. And as soon as I saw that, it exploded in my spirit.
My spirit man came alive, and I began to say boldly everywhere, yes, people will come from far, from every nook and every cranny, from far cities, even from different nations to attend Church here. And I remember I heard the testimony of an individual who was coming from a city about 5 hours from where we were in London. And I was sharing that testimony based on this light I saw from Scriptures when I was teaching at our Bible school and as I gave that example, a man in the Bible school who I know, I used to see him in Church, he said Sir, I come from Scotland. Scotland is one of the 3 Nations that make the United Kingdom, and I see him every Sunday and he comes with his family.
That is a distance of over 8 hours making it to Church every Saturday night, attending service on Sunday, going back on Sunday to resume work on Monday. Simply because of a picture that was seen from the Word of God. What do you see? I learnt that this aspect of vision is a non-negotiable factor. Churches will grow to meet the vision of the Pastor. Vision is a vital requirement to experience supernatural growth. If you want to break growth barriers, you must break the internal limitations that have been placed by the restriction of our vision. Enlarge your vision and you will enlarge your manifestation; that is a vital requirement for the command of exploits. So, develop a vision for growth.
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