~ By Bishop Tony Osuobeni
***A CALL TO WHOLENESS IN MINISTRY***
Ministry is real life! It is real and it is life. You cannot divorce one from the other. Ministry is no joke at all! Its not a playground for self-seeking celebrity-prone ministers.
Joshua 5:8 "And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the people, that they abode in their places in the camp, till they were whole."
NOTE:
1) The Lord allows us to go through one form of "circumcision" or the other to bring us wholeness.
2) Ministers, more than others ought to embrace this as their lot. The Lord uses adversities as opportunities to add verses to the lives of His ministers.
3) We cannot add value to the lives of others until we wait upon the Lord for our season of healing. Only then, can we GO FOR HIM!
Hurt people hurt people. Hurt preachers hurt people. Wounded ministers wound people. Broken pastors break people. Angry preachers make people angry, and, the worst place to keep them is behind the pulpit. If you're not pulled from the pits of anger, hurts and bitterness, you will embitter the lives of many with your pulpit power. So let those scars heal before you strive to become a star, a pulpiteer or something!
LET GO before you can make others GO!
Ministry is real life! It is real and it is life. You cannot divorce one from the other. Ministry is no joke at all! Its not a playground for self-seeking celebrity-prone ministers.
We minister (give) our lives in order to save lives. God's idea about ministry is to use people who have been through something to get something done for His kingdom. So God allows us to go through difficulties in order that we may make life easy for others. Our Lord brought health and ease to people. He delivered them from their dis-eases. We are called to do likewise. We are not called to complicate people's lives and become problems to them.
WE ARE CALLED TO BE SOLUTIONS!
We are not called to imprison people. We are not called to make them sicker than they've been before. We are anointed and appointed to heal the broken-hearted, set the captives free, open blinded eyes, open prison doors, release people's burdens, break off yokes from people's lives.
We are called to our Lord's ministry, not our own.
Learning that ministry is akin to life was a quick lesson I discovered early on in my calling. Although my calling from the Lord was clear and it was powerful, I started out ministry on that shaky ground of pursuing my goals and not the Lord's. I wanted my ministry and not the Lord's. And so I missed out on the cruciform nature of the Lord's work. I wanted a ministry that was full of roses without thorns. I wanted an American-styled ministry they presented to us in those days as a thing of glamour and showmanship.
I wanted celebrity Christianity until the Lord began to show me that the true path of a God-ordained ministry is strewn with thorny bushes of pain and suffering. And I mean, palpabale pain and suffering but if you're truly called of God, you will continue regardless. You are being pained on purpose! The goal of bringing salvation to people under God keeps you keeping on despite the tough terrains of the ministry.
I started out fulltime ministry in the true sense of that expression at the New Covenant Church Ibadan, founded a missionary church and then moved to South Africa where I pastored a mixed-race church. No sooner than I settled down to pastor this church that I started discovering that it is tougher to deal with people than with demons. Trust me, it is easier to cast out demons than to handle people!
Folks talk about church abuse? But, they forget that there is that strange unwarranted likelihood called pastor-abuse! Churches can indeed abuse their pastors and they do. And I don't have time to go into details. For your fyi as we say in my neck of the woods in America, you will be insulted, attacked by verbal dysentery, disrespected, tempter-tested, you name it. You will experience it all. They come with the territory. There's no opting out despite your hurt feelings (an indication your flesh is still in tact).
I was insulted by white brethren, disregarded by black brethren and demonized by coloured brethren as they call them in South Africa. You know, in those days I used to think there was something wrong with me; I focused too much on myself! I wondered why I really couldn't keep ministerial relationships. I thought I was a great guy beloved of everyone. I wanted parishioners to like me. I wanted my ministry validated by anyone and everyone (an erosion o trust in God). I was imploding within. Oh Mr. Flesh feels so much pain and he always reacts!
My eyes were on others and myself and never on the Lord. And that's a huge danger in ministry. There is a propensity for the minister to focus on everyone else and himself or herself but the Lord. That's the perfect set up for hurts and failure. One of my favourite scriptures in those days and even now is Psalms 16 and verse 8. It reads;
"I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved."
Were I to do it over again, I would subscribe to this singular verse. I would set my gaze on the Lord; I would see Him and not myself and certainly I would not see people.
I would gladly surrender to this cruciform path of ministry and be crucified on my own cross in order to bring salvation to those the Lord had sent me.
There is no crown without a cross.
Many go into ministry for crossless crowns only to find out to their dismay that they can't bypass divine processes. The cross is the only way God can subdue His minister. It was exactly what He used to subject our Messiah to His will. The cross was not primarily to destroy Satan and his cohorts. But, it was ultimately to subject the Son to the Father's will. That's the beauty of the cross and it is what makes ministry powerful. The mantra of a real God-ordained ministry is this:
"NOT MY WILL BUT THINE BE
DONE OH LORD!"
Ministry is cruciform. It is planned planned by God to cruficfy the minister so that he or she can qualify as a suffering Savior. We become like the One who called us! Crushed ministers are God's finest servants. By the way, only crushed olives can cause the oil to flow. Only broken vessels can leak the anointing. Now I understand what Paul meant when he said that he bore on his body the marks of our Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians 6:17).
Doing ministry in America took the cross to a different level. The final nails on the coffin of my flesh and selfdom were driven in. It was a Golgotha of church abuse unlike any other. Again it comes with the territory. God allowed people to ride rough shod over me, deride me, insult me, belittle me and sell me at a terribly discounted price. Still wanna be a minister? Absolutely! Bleeding, ministering, blessing yet hurting on the inside! It is called turning our miseries into ministries! That's the way God turns your mourning into dancing.
To reiterate my point, NEVER TAKE HAPPENSSTANCES IN MINISTRY PERSONALLY. It is the Lord's work, not yours. So, again, it comes with the territory. If not you, then who? You know sometimes we say "Why me?" The real question is "Why not you especially if you're called?" God is trying to take you down to bring you right back up. He is rooting your life in the soil of adversities in order for you to learn to add verses from Scripture into your life! He is trying to diminish your flesh but maximize your spirit.
The worst thing you can do is to remain wounded, broken, beaten, hurt and devastated. That's the wrong approach. GIVE IT ALL TO THE LORD. Let Him wound you to heal you. Let Him kill you to make you alive!!! Learn the lessons and stop counting your losses. Learn how you have changed and where you need to change more. BE QUICK TO FORGIVE, that is if you still plan to go all the way with God. Get healed quickly. Grow your spirit. Fast a little more. Deny yourself, take up your ministerial cross and follow our Lord all the way to Calvary on the Via Dolorosa thoroughfare.
Stop the vicious cycle of being hurt by people and hurting people. Let the liquid love of Jehovah break every piece of flesh in you. DWELL LARGE IN THE SPIRIT. Don't survive; THRIVE...
YOU ARE CALLED!!!
Big lesson I've learned over the years? DRAW NEAR TO GOD ... NEVER TO PEOPLE! Don't get me wrong... LOVE GOD LOVE PEOPLE... but DRAW CLOSE ONLY TO GOD!!!
"But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men," (John 2:24).
The biggest mistake you'll ever make in ministry is to become a "Man or Woman of the People." If you are closer to people than God, people will hurt you and leave you and then you're really left with absolutely nothing. But if you draw closer to God, even if people hurt you, you are so close to God to rise up quickly in forgiveness. You nurse yourself back to life without qualms.
My fellow minister in this glorious kingdom Gospel, go beyond healing to wholeness in ministry.
"And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Thess. 5:23).
ONLY THE WHOLE CAN BRING WHOLENESS TO OTHERS. ONLY THE SAVED CAN BRING SALVATION (Obadiah 1:21). ONLY THE HEALED CAN BRING HEALING. Ministry is the impartation of spirits. You impart the spirit you are nursing at any given time. This will be communicated through your ministry whether preaching, teaching, leading worship, ushering, what have you! Never make the mistake of ministering with a broken heart or wounded spirit. BE HEALED & THEN GO ON & MINISTER LIFE & HEALTH TO OTHERS!
Joshua 5:8 "And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the people, that they abode in their places in the camp, till they were whole."
NOTE:
1) The Lord allows us to go through one form of "circumcision" or the other to bring us wholeness.
2) Ministers, more than others ought to embrace this as their lot. The Lord uses adversities as opportunities to add verses to the lives of His ministers.
3) We cannot add value to the lives of others until we wait upon the Lord for our season of healing. Only then, can we GO FOR HIM!
The true test of ministry is found in whether you end up being a bitter person or a better person. Only the latter can continue to serve God and serve others effectively.
***WE MUST BE PERFECT
EVEN IN SUFFERING***
The Amplified Bible's rendition of Matthew 4:48 is very telling here and I quote it in full:
"You, therefore, must be perfect [growing into spiritual maturity of godliness in mind and character, having reached the proper height of virtue and integrity], as your heavenly Father is perfect."
We must perfect suffering in ministry in order that we may grow into Chrristlikeness and become like our Heavenly Father! That's the only way we can avoid becoming problems to those we are called to be solutions! It's the only way we can love people to submission just has God has loved you to surrender. There are absolutely no shortcuts to the Gospel ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. The road is narrow and those who travel here are, indeed, few!
