Joshua 14: 6 Now the people of Judah approached Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the Lord said to Moses the man of God at Kadesh Barnea about you and me. 7 I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land. And I brought him back a report according to my convictions, 8 but my fellow Israelites who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt in fear. I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly. 9 So on that day Moses swore to me, ‘The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children forever, because you have followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly.’[a]
10 “Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the wilderness. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! 11 I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. 12 Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.”
13 Then Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him Hebron as his inheritance. 14 So Hebron has belonged to Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite ever since, because he followed the Lord, the God of Israel, wholeheartedly. 15 (Hebron used to be called Kiriath Arba after Arba, who was the greatest man among the Anakites.)
Then the land had rest from war.
Some months ago, I read the report of the decision of a man of God to retire one of his longest-serving lieutenants in ministry. The man was neither tired nor weary. The work of the gospel is not civil service. It is not only the set man of a ministry that built the ministry. A ministry is built by men and on men.
Many men collapse their visions into the vision of one man and they throw their all into ensuring the divine mandate received by one is spread all over the world to the glory of God.
Of course, there are unfaithful stewards, people who come into your ministry pretending to be led by God to serve, but who only came in to look for a way to survive and become stable before plotting how to leave the ministry and how many assets of the ministry they will take with them in terms of people and materials.
I remember a man who labored to establish a branch of a Pentecostal church in Festac and nurtured the church for many years until he got a letter transferring him from that church to a smaller one where he would have to start building all over again. The man revolted, rented a building down the street, and started his own ministry. The ministry is still “aglowing” today to the glory of God.
To some, he is an unfaithful steward who couldn’t follow the leadership of a mandate through loyally. To others, he has labored to build, and it is unfair to use him that way and then dump him at another location where he would have to labor all over again to build.
Some do not mind the challenge. They build and get moved from the vineyard they labored to build repeatedly without complaining. Others know the transfer process of churches is very flawed and sometimes take well-connected pastors to the vineyard of diligent pastors while the diligent pastors are expected to apply their diligence elsewhere at the expense of the less diligent ones who only had some level of connection with the leadership of the church.
We are not all built of the same material. Some men will build for you without any complaint and when you retire them, they will be grateful for the opportunity to serve under you as the sent man of a ministry.
Some other men would build and then move on to build their own ministries after they had gained the right level of experience and stability. We cannot blame those who choose to serve, and we cannot blame those who choose to move on. The call to serve in the vineyard of God is always dynamic.
Holding on to a man like Matthew Ashimolowo in the name of expanding your denomination would be a sin, by nature and calling, he is not the kind of man who would lead by being led by other men.
Papa Oritsejafor could as a young lion learn to hunt and cut his teeth by the leading of Archbishop Benson Idahosa but at the right time, the young lion must set out to start its own pride.
It will be a sin to ask yourself why Rev Tom Amekhienan has not started his own ministry but stayed with Rev Chris Oyakhilome all through the years.
It will be like asking Jonathan why he didn’t contend with David for the throne but willingly stated that David would be king, and he was willing to serve David as king in any capacity
Some men were called to serve with other men, Joshua and Caleb. Some men were called to serve other men, not with them or their ministry, just them. As Aaron was called to serve Moses. Some men were called to serve with other men’s ministries, like Joab and David. Some men were called to understudy other men, like Joshua and Moses. Some men were called to serve other ministries for a while before departing to establish their own, Jacob and Laban. Some men were called to be like Ruth was to Naomi. Some were called to be like Orpah was to Naomi
The path of destiny for each and every man is different. We all can run commentaries all we want about the fairness and unfairness of the process according to our limited perception of the realities such men are walking in. Each man, however, knows exactly what he was called to do and can measure if he has successfully fulfilled his ministry or not. There are men who were chosen to serve but would rather relinquish the position to others because they were not convinced from within that the mantle given to them was meant for them by the Holy Spirit.
The Bible said Apostle Paul chose Aquila and Priscilla to lead a church but the two of them went to the synagogue a few days later to worship. Right there at the synagogue they met a man who preached about the coming of Christ using the Old Testament scriptures, they invited the man to their house and told him about Jesus and convinced the man that the Jesus he was preaching about had already come and had been crucified and had even resurrected.
They filled him with the Holy Spirit and baptized him by immersion. Then they gave him the reins of the church at Corinth, and he became Pastor Apollo.
Leading the flock of God is not a task anybody can take on, you must be preordained and equipped by the Holy Spirit to do the work. However, as Apostle Paul rightly wrote, our works will be tested by fire and there is a reward for doing very good work in the course of serving the Lord, so if the Lord has asked you to do anything, you must do it with excellence.
If however after serving a man of God or under the ministry of a man of God for many years faithfully, you find yourself being retired or set aside by the policy of the ministry or the directive of this man of God, yet you look within you and there is still so much you desire to do that has not been done or you simply didn’t think you have fulfilled your calling as you ought to, you can always act like Caleb and ask for this mountain. It is the right thing to do.
Rather than bicker and complain or feel dissatisfied within and end up wallowing in a cesspool of bitterness, be bold enough to come forward and place a demand on grace based on your convictions.
I met a Zonal Pastor of a very popular church recently. The daughter introduced him to me. He was sick.
He had this strange pain in his back and chest which no medical diagnosis could see but which was as a result of deep pain in his heart. He said he had built six churches in his life for the denomination he served with since his twenties. He was a civil engineer by training, and he had his own engineering company. When he joined the denomination, his first assignment was to help build a parish. He did this with his personal fund because he knew the work of God must be done and the kingdom would only be built by men chosen by God. He said the pastor of the church was so impressed that a year later, he posted him as the leader of a church planting team, and he built another parish at another area of Ikorodu in Lagos. After another two years he was transferred to another area in Ikorodu and he built another parish.
In all these cases, as soon as he had built a church, the mission will transfer him and bring in another pastor to take over the church from him. This new pastor would inherit a built church where he had invested no sweat while he would be given another barren area and land to develop all over again.
He said he did this six times until things became a bit tough for him financially and he made this known to the mission.
He said right after he told the Provincial pastor he could no longer afford to commit himself financially to build another Parish, they brought in another pastor to the church where he was pastoring, and he became a ceremonial head in the parish.
He said the new pastor took over the administrative charge of the church and he felt like he had become just a relic.
He said sometimes, they give him a slot to read the bible or to lead prayers for a few minutes, but he felt used and dumped by the mission’s authority and this had led to depression.
I told him to read the book of Joshua and ask like Caleb. You don’t have to force yourself into an early grave because someone somewhere felt you are no longer of need. If you still have it in you to lead and fulfill your ministry, do so with your full chest.
Demand for a mountain, conquer it and own it. Joab took Jerusalem for David, there is always a mountain to take as a man or woman of God who is full of the Holy Spirit. I encouraged him to go to the Provincial Pastor or even to the General Overseer of the mission and table his case with all the evidence he has to support his case. I told him he has nothing to lose. He said he didn’t want to be seen as someone who is complaining or asking that the church must recognize him for the things he did for God
I asked him if he was asking to be recognized based on the past or because he felt there was still a lot, he had to offer but he was not being given the opportunity to give all that he could. He understood.
The following Sunday, he went to the regional headquarters of the mission. The Pastor that he worked with when he built the first church had risen through the ranks and had become the regional pastor.
He felt he would have to say very little to convince the pastor about his dilemma.
When he got there, the provincial pastor screamed for joy and said “I have been looking for you, but I had somehow misplaced your phone number. We have a regional project and building committee I would like you to serve in. We would like to put you in charge of the building projects around ikorodu, ijede, Igbogbo and other developing areas under our region. I know you have a firsthand knowledge of the terrain, and you have experience in church planting and church building. This is why I have been looking for you, sir. God brought you to me!”
The pastor was shocked. He had been fighting for relevance at the local level, whereas God had made a seat available for him at the regional level. Not only would he be helping to build and decide where to build, he would also be tasked with visiting various parishes under the umbrella of the region to preach at least one Sunday every week. He would encourage the members to support the building drive of the region and minister to them as led by the Spirit. He got that mountain, and it gave him a fresh vision and purpose from an elevated position. Suddenly depression was gone, and he was full of vibrant life again.
It is not too late to ask for this mountain. If you ask you will receive, if you don’t get it from those who ought to give it to you, God will surely give it to you. You must remember that you cannot ask for this mountain just so you can make some carnal claims or stroke your own ego. Once you ask for a mountain, the expectation is to subdue it and pour yourself out fully into dominating it.
–GSW–
Announcement
1.We are coming to Port Harcourt this weekend, make sure you find your way to the event.
2. PSSBC school 25 is now open, this will be my first official invitation to you to join our free classes for the next few days so you can decide if the school is for you or not.
https://chat.whatsapp.com/FAZNXNSOKruJ5LYVqXRcQi