ABIDING Grace Publications In the last One year, two new books were published by the ministry. The books are STRICTLY FOR THẺ PASTOR’S WIFE and MATTERS ARISING IN MINISTRY. The first book which came as an inspiration from God to deal with issues that are commonly faced by the ministers’ wives as they strive to support their husbands in ministry was presented to the public on the 29th of April 2021. MATTERS ARISING IN MINISTRY is a compendium that may serve as reference material for ministers of God on matters that determine success or failure in ministry. The two books were authored by the set man of the ministry, Revd. Dr. Mike Oluniyi. ABIDING GRACE TRACTS. God continued to touch lives with the Abiding Grace Tracts. The ministry has continued to make the titles available for personal and group evangelism free of charge. Various churches and ministries have been actively requesting for tracts as Abiding Grace has become well known for the provision of tracts for evangelism. ABIDING GRACE CHAPEL To the glory of God, Abiding Grace Chapel continues to be an effective base for the ministry. Members of the church continue to contribute to the improvement of church facilities. During the women anniversary in November 2020, the women group rugged the altar. some members also decided to give the altar a face lift as such added a 3D back drop to beautify the altar. Also during the twelfth anniversary of the church .in June 2021, a family donated a bigger generator to further enhance worship in the church. Along with the 12th anniversary of the church, an ordination service was held, during which seven individuals were ordained as deacons and deaconesses in the church.
THE PERILS OF CRISTIAN MINISTRY. Rev’d. Dr. Mike Oluniyi.
Preamble. It is not everyone that starts the race of ministry that finish strong. Many fall by the wayside because there are traps on the way which you may easily fall into. Fortunately for us, we have so many examples in the scriptures of those who we may pattern our lives after or those we should avoid. Despite the warning signs unfortunately, many of those who ran the race before us were still destroyed by those dangers. If you want to excel in ministry and finish as a champion, you need to be aware of the following dangers which no minister of God will avoid facing at one time or the other in ministry.
THE PERIL OF DISOBEDIENCE. 1 Samuel 15:22-23 And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.
One of the greatest areas of danger for children of God is that of disobedience. Many of us find it rather difficult to be in the will of God because the alternative to the will of God appears more attractive or is more convenient for us. We must however be aware as youths that desire s to serve God is that disobedience to the Will of God is one of the greatest disservice that you may do yourself in your journey with God. Even in a situation where you have received great promises from God or you have started greatly in ministry, disobedience has the potential of cutting you short. The following are some of the perils that you must be aware of as you read THE PERIL OF SUCCESS. Solomon started well as the king of Israel that God gave him a blank cheque to ask for anything he wished;
1 Kings 3:3-5 And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places. And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the great high place: a thousand burnt offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar. In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee.
Despite the blank cheque, Solomon in humility asked neither for riches, fame nor victory over his enemies but simply asked for wisdom which God gave him in abundance. In addition to wisdom, God gave him wealth and unprecedented fame, to the extent that people came from all over the world to be identified with him. However, when wealth and fame came in abundance, Solomon became something else. We are told that he fell in love with many strange women and ended having seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines only! You don’t need to be told that he could not have finished strong with God. You may not really be sure that a man is faithful to God until God blesses his life with riches. There are many who started well in ministry but when success came, they forgot the source,of riches and deviated from God. When success comes, will you still be upright?
THE PERIL OF UNCOOPERATIVE SPOUSE. An uncooperative spouse is one of the greatest instrument that the devil has used in truncation many ministries. Your spouse in the hands of the Holy Spirit is one of the greatest helps that your life and ministry may receive from God. However, the same spouse in the hands of the devil is the most potent instrument that the devil may use to destroy your ministry. Consequently, it depends on the one that is controlling your spouse. An uncooperative spouse has the potential to either frustrate you out of ministry or make you to forget the vision that God has given you. In the book of 1 Samuel 6:20-23, we are shown the picture of David’s wife, Michal making jest of him as he was dancing in a way that appears to be undignifying of a king. Your spouse may either encourage you or discourage you from going all out for God. As a youth, you really need to be fully aware of this before you make your choice of a spouse as so much depends on it in ministry. Always remember, your spouse may effectively serve as the fire extinguisher that effectively put out the fire of the Holy Ghost that is burning in your life. MIT is a question of who you marry!
What Are You Doing Now To Prevent Your Spouse From Working against Your Ministry In The Future?
THE PERIL OF LUST OF THE FLESH. In 2Kings 11:2-5, we are told one of the saddest stories in the Bible when the man after God’s heart, the man who had done so many exploits for God, the man who defeated Goliath and brought victory to the nation Israel from Phillistines got himself got his reputation messed up because of a naked woman. David like most of us that fall into temptation never bargained for that encounter. He never planned to go and look for a naked woman, just like most of those that fell into temptation never planned for it. But the error of David was that he kept looking. The problem with looking at what you are not supposed to keep looking at is that it will lead you to take the next step. David took the next step of making enquiry of who the lady was and he kept on taking the next steps until he committed murder! Lust of the flesh has proved to be the undoing of numerous ministers of God. In fact records say that it is the number one source of fall for ministers of God. You have to make a covenant with God now like Job.
Job 31:1 I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?
It was a matter so serious to Job that he had to make a covenant; and if you want to succeed in ministry, you can’t do less!
How Can We Overcome This Ever Present Temptation To Go Into Immorality?
THE PERIL OF LUST OF THE EYES.
2 Corinthians 4:18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. Often, ministers of God get distracted from the assignment that God has given them because of lust of the eyes, which are inordinate desire for things we are seeing physically, in other words possessions. The scripture above makes it plain to us that the things we are seeing prevents us from seeing eternal things which should really matter to us. If you buy the latest car in town today, you will discover that within a short time, a more recent model will arrive in the market. When we built our first house, it was a bungalow which looked so beautiful with a well structured extensive terrace which made the house unique. Twice I arrived there and met someone taking the picture of the building. Today, the building is the administrative block for our school and has lost its former value because there are now more modern structures around which are far better than it. What appears to be the best today will soon lose its value to more current ones, but unknowingly, we are allowing those temporal things to shift our gave from eternity. Run away fro the lust of the eyes because it won’t help your walk with God. It is a major danger that you have to avoid.
How Can We Overcome The Desire For these Beautiful Things That Are Preventing Us From Seeing The Invisible?
THE PERIL OF UNTRUTHFULNESS. What is wrong with telling small lies? A lot are wrong! One day, I arrived at my usual place of weekly retreat and I heard the Holy Spirit giving me an instruction; “Promise me that you will never tell a lie”. Sincerely, I was surprised and consequently asked a question, ‘am I a liar?’ I quickly cautioned myself however and promised that I would never tell a lie but also started observing myself as from then. Guess what! I discovered that I was telling small, small lies. For instance, if you are about leaving your home for appointment with someone and he asks you where you are, it is almost natural to respond that you are on your way. As far as the Holy Ghost is concerned, that is a lie! In as much as you are yet to be on the road, you are actually not yet on your way. The experience taught me a lesson that there is no small lie. Every lie is an abomination to God. Sometimes a pastor is preaching and decides to add something to the truth to make it more interesting, you are a liar. As a minister of God, is it everything that you told people that God said that God actually said? What of the housewife that took money from the husband’s pocket but denied when he asked, she is a liar. Remember that no liar has a place in heaven. Secondly, while you are telling lies, you are weakening your protective armor against the devil; and that exposes you to the arrows of the enemy, the aim of which is to destroy your ministry. Never forget that Ananias and Saphira earned death because of little lie. After all, they declared part of the proceeds of the sale of the land and only kept some for their own financial security. The story would not have been so, if they had declared that they were donating the amount submitted and keeping the balance!
Why Is It Convenient To Say “God Said” When He Has Not Actually Spoken?
THE PERIL OF PREMATURE FINANCIAL DEPENDENCE ON MINISTRY. It is a good thing to be a full time minister but not being one does not stop you from being fruitful for God. Many ministers are being having a lot of issues bothering on integrity because the ministries on which they are full time ministers does not yet have the capacity to support them and the family. Often when you depend financially too early on the ministry, it stagnates the development of the ministry and puts you under sometimes unbearable pressure. Before you become a full time minister, ensure that you are either forbidden by God not to do any secular work, in which case one of the evidences of such call is divine provision; or the ministry has grown in strength to be able to financially support you fully.
THE PERIL OF LACK OR LOSS OF VISION.. When God calls you into ministry, there is an assignment that He must have given you. In fact there are a million different assignments that He may give us as individuals. When you don’t know the vision that God has given you or you lost it as a result of coveting the vision of others and losing your own, you may either easily crash out of ministry, stagnate or not finish strong. Your vision is your life, when you lose it, you simply don’t exist in ministry.
Habakkuk 2:1-3 I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
What Is The Assignment That God Gave You In Ministry?
THE PERIL OF GOODY GOODY CHRISTIANITY. No one prays to suffer in any area of life, but one fact of life is that it is not always a bed of roses. The reality of life is that there will be challenges, no matter your level in the faith. There are a variety of reasons why it happens, but in the journey of faith, it is not whether or not some ugly things happen that matters but how you respond to it. These days, one,of the songs we sing is: Me I no go suffer, I no go beg for bread etc. There is nothing wrong with the song, but you must always remember what Jesus said in John 16:33, what is written in Isaiah 43:2 and what Job said in Job 13:15. The perspective of having you think that as a Christian there will be no problem is making many Christians to misbehave when the challenges of life come. Many wives, even those of ministers of God desert their husbands, many deny their faith, many go into immorality because we were trained to believe that it will always be good. When you believe that every challenge is a curse and not a problem which has expiry date, you will misbehave even as a pastor at a juncture in your journey of faith. What you will do may be so serious that you may never be able to find your feet again in ministry.
Job said “even though He slay me, yet I will I trust Him…”. The three Hebrew boys told the king that instead of denying their faith, they wouldn’t mind being thrown into the furnace of fire. Jesu told Peter that the devil wanted to deal with him but He has prayed for him that his faith will not fail:
How Long Will You Be Able To Hold On Before Your Faith Fails You When The Challenges Of Life Come?
THE PERIL OF PREMATURE INDEPENDENCE. The cause problem in the life of many ministers of God is that of premature independence from the ministry where they served. There are too many general overseers that are still supposed to be under the tutelage of their senior pastors. Many of us go out to early and is creating such a problem for their lives, family and their congregation. Never forget;
“…A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven”. (Jn.3:27)
THE PERIL OF COMPLACENCY IN SPIRITUAL GROWTH. Often, many ministers of God has the erroneous be,Ife that they have become so experienced in spiritual matters that they don’t need tp grow any longer. The day you start having that feeling is the day you gradually start dying in ministry. You must keep growing because there is still so much to learn from your master Jesus. Spiritual complacency will make you to lose your guard in the spirit. Apostle Paul said;
1 Corinthians 9:27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
How Seriously Do You Take The Spiritual Disciplines?
CONCLUSION. I always look forward to being able to make the statement that Paul made, close to the end of his life in 2Tim.4:7&8:
2 Timothy 4:7-8 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
That is the testimony of someone that finished strong. What would you love to be your own testimony? May we all have the grace to finish strong in Jesus name.
STRATEGIES FOR CONTENDING FOR YOUR FAITH. Femi Emmanuel (Chacha9ja) (Being a ministration during the Ministers’ Seed Conference 2021)
I like to share a story told by one of my protégé, Femi Adebusuyi. Many years ago while he was on the compulsory one-year youth service, he was posted with the first set of Corp members to a community in Edo state. It was quite strange having lived almost all his life in Lagos. To make matters worse, he was the only male amidst three ladies and he was ruddy. Since they were the first set of Corp members, his employer didn’t know better, so the ladies travelled at will. And when their employer complained, they quickly threatened him saying they will report to the Liaison Officer. This went on for a while and it didn’t sit well with him because at the end of the month, this man paid them. So, Femi remembered there was a particular document Corp members were to hand over at their Place of Primary Assignment (PPA). Coincidentally, none of them had submitted to their employer. Knowing this will empower the employer to know his right, Femi quickly handed it to him. He read it. The following time the ladies were about to travel, he told them he was calling the LO to tell her they were about to travel without his permit and that if anything happened, he would be exempted and more so, he would deduct the monetary equivalent of the days they were absent if they chose to go. The ladies came for his throat but an ignorant man was delivered from cheaters. Evil prevails when good men keep quiet.
Genesis 6:5 (KJV) And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Like every true child of God, I really do pray the world would become a better place. However, going by scriptures, it is sad to know that the wickedness of man will keep evolving into more sinister ways in so much if I was God, I would be marveled. But God, in order to preserve humanity, in his wisdom, has always singled out individuals in each generation to stand for him – Abraham, Noah, Job, Isaiah, Jacob, David and once again, God is looking up to you. Don’t be deceived – our world has now become so perverted that LGBT are now being empowered; pedophiles are now bold to ask for equality. Right here in Nigeria, if the kill isn’t up to 30 casualties or more, nothing is most likely to be done.
Individuals who stood for their faith in the Old Testament 1. Abraham 2. Noah 3. Elijah 4. David 5. Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego 6. Moses
Individual who contended for their Faith in the New Testament. 1. Peter 2. John the Baptist 3. Paul 4. The Apostle 5. Timothy 6. Stephen etc WHY SHOULD YOU CONTEND FOR YOUR FAITH? 1. God demands it (1 Timothy 6:12) 2. It’s a sign of loyalty and 1 Tim 4:12 3. It ensures a generational transfer of blessings. (Gen 28:1) 4. It’s proof of right standing with. (God 2 Tim4:2) 5. To set a standard in the corrupt world (Rom12:1) 6. It puts the devil to flight. (James 4:7) 7. To seal your place as God’s representative on earth (1 Tim 6:12)
WHEN SHOULD YOU CONTEND FOR YOUR FAITH? 1. When negative thoughts dominate your heart (Romans 12:2) 2. When evil is around (James 4:7) 3. When you begin to notice negative trends (1 Cor. 4:9) 4. When your love for spiritual things wax cold (Matt 24:12) 5. When falsehood prevails (Isa 54:17; 2 Cor. 10:5) 6. When faced with temptation (2 Cor. 10:5) 7. When you have to choose God over (Josh 24:15) 8. When you have to choose eternity over vanity (1 Tim 6:12) 9. When you have to choose God’s will over your ego 10. When you have to choose what is particular over popular
HOW TO CONTEND FOR YOUR FAITH Proverbs 12:24 KJV The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: but the slothful shall be under tribute. The agenda of God is that being a person of faith gives us an advantage over the ordinary person via access to the supernatural. However, there in no way, eliminates the basic ingredients for success which include hard work, discipline, leadership. Being a believer does not automatically mean you will be successful or be a high flyer in your career. You can pray, fast, worship and still remain a failure. In fact, you can sleep and wake with the anointing like the sons of the prophet and still amount to nothing. When it comes to the success, God himself leaves it to principles. As such, when any of his children decides to play by the principles of success, God personally oversees he becomes exceptionally blessed and sorted after. Few weeks ago, I connected with an amazing friend. Tuns (nickname) is one of the upcoming global IT gurus, having studied in one of the top universities in Europe. He is about 24 and already has a whole lot of top companies hunting for him. Currently, he works for Oracle, Classic big boy. He shared a profound story that made my heart tingle. He went for a contract defence with his boss. The discussion was quite long and the it wasn’t going in the desired directions. His boss was almost throwing in the trowel, so, he (Tuns) quickly excused himself and went straight to the rest room and I asked why. He said he knew the situation had to be won spiritually. He stepped out and prayed for 3 minutes in tongues. Stepped back in, he recounted that in less than 10mins, the contract was signed and case closed.
5 Things that ensure you Contend and win in your Career space 1. Exceptionality in Skill A. Work skill 1 Samuel 16:16 KJV Let our lord now command thy servants, which are before thee, to seek out a man, who is a cunning player on an harp: and it shall come to pass, when the evil spirit from God is upon thee, that he shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be well.
An exceptionally skilled man regardless of his faith or beliefs will get the most opportunities. Exodus 31:2-4 KJV See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: [3] And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, [4] To devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass,
Anointing can not substitute skill. Rather, it enhances it. Anointing without skill makes a man average and less desirable. Not too long ago, I met the gentle man who handles the lighting of “Experience”, the popular gospel concert. He is one of those who know about mega lighting in Africa. We discussed and faintly talked about his charges and it was on 7 figures. You can be so good, that not even the best of gossiping or rumor mongering can make your employer sack you. Be so good you become indispensable.
B. Interpersonal skills No man has succeeded by himself. I learnt early in life that when God wants to raise a man, he uses men. Elijah needed Elisha, Joseph needed the butler, even Jesus needed the 12. Men are extension of God’s hands and your success in life is tied to how you treat those whom God brings your way. Treat people well, you might end of needing them. C. Leadership Skill. John Maxwell said in one of his leadership masterpiece: “The level of success we experience in our life his proportional to our individual leadership skill. For success to happen it is imperative that we take time and invest in our leadership growth.”
2. Integrity Malachi 2:6 KJV; 1 Kings 9:4 KJV Integrity is the greatest social capital a man can have. The world we live in has become so bad that it is now almost impossible to find someone who doesn’t have hidden agenda behind their actions. Having integrity is a social capital many companies and top organizations will pay for.
3. Spirituality Understand life is deeply spiritual. Please, understand that regardless of how good a person you are in your career space, you have and will continue to have enemies. Whether we believe it or not, life is spiritual. And the earlier we know nothing happen physically without being concluded in the spiritual, the better.
Ephesians 6:12 KJV For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
For a man to appear and last on the stage of relevance, he must be a man given to prayer, fasting, study of the word of God and a consistent walk with the Holy Spirit.
4. Diligence: Diligence is doing what you have to do even when you don’t feel like doing it. Prov. 12:24 KJV Prov. 22:29 KJV Diligence in the right direction is the fuel for success. God himself detest a slothful man.
5. Love Matthew 22:39 KJV And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
One of the ways the devil or demons gain access to a man’s life is through offence. Offence in your heart is a gate pass to the devil. Love people genuinely in your career space is so doing you might win some to God.
Matthew 28:19-20 KJV Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: [20] Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.
1. Unbelief or total absence of Salvation. I am aware that most of us seated here are preacher’s kids, some are workers in church. We have been involved in our parents’ ministries from the time we were wise enough to know our left from right. We probably believe that we are saved. But permit me to ask you these questions. Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? (Mat 3:17, Mat17:5) Do you believe that it is only through him and him alone that you are saved? (John 14:6). Have you given your life to Christ? I am asking you these questions not to mock or ridicule you but to stir up a thirst within you. Just because you are a worker in church does not mean that you are saved neither does the fact that your parents are in ministry mean that heaven is certain. Like I mentioned earlier, salvation isn’t transferable. It’s personal. How genuine is your salvation? Perhaps another question is; Are you sure you have not lost it? There are many who though they initially have their lives to Christ, lost it later as a result of many factors some of which we shall consider below.
2. Inconsistent lifestyle of some our parents. For many of us as minister’s children, we find it difficult contending for the faith because we did not see good examples in our parents. There are pastors that will deceive their congregations and tell lie which the children are aware of. There are those who will preach peace and forgiveness on the altar but are cruel to their spouses at home. When a child is under such inconsistent lifestyle, it is difficult to contend for the faith that was once delivered unto them. In fact some of them will grow up to become more dangerous than their parents. There was a pastor in our church one time that gave a fantastic testimony to the congregation about the exploits he did for God in the presence of his children at church. When they got home, he called his wife and children together and told them that the family must cover the nakedness of their father. Though they knew that he told lie at the church, they must never let anyone know that it was all lie. When as a minister’s child you witness such deceit consistently, he becomes confused as to what integrity is all about in ministry.
3. Inability of our parents to have time for us. There are many pastors who doesn’t have time for their children because of the work of ministry. Some of such children grow up making the wrong choices because they got wrong answers from others since their parents were not available to give them the right answers. To illustrate this, let me share a personal experience with you. A few weeks after I gained admission to a private university, some guys came to me to lure me into cultism. The pressure was so much on me as they kept on disturbing and even threatening me. I had to send a message to daddy that they should be praying for me as cult guys were after me. Immediately daddy got the message, he called Mum and they started praying for me. They called me and gave me confidence that I must avoid them by all means as such is not in the will of God. They also took steps that I never expected, by doing away with the fees that they had already paid for the session and withdrew me completely from the university to Ajayi Crowther University where I eventually completed my university education. Can you imagine what could have happened if my parents were not available for me? After all manners of pressure and and threats, I would have joined, and who knows what the result would have been.
4. Inability of our parents to provide for our needs at critical junctures in life. There are many ministers’ children that their parents are not able to provide for due to one reason or the other. Such a situation may make have a negative effect in the mind of their children. The way a pastor manages lack in ministry may go a long way to determine how their children will handle such issues in their lives. If as a pastor you are always complaining about what you are lacking, your children are likely to believe that God has not been fair to you in ministry. The children of such pastors may end up resenting the God of their fathers, but if the pastor is appreciative of the good things that God has been making him to experience in ministry though they don’t have everything they need, his children will end up appreciating God for His faithfulness in their lives. A heart of appreciation goes a long way to helping a pastor’s seed to contend for the faith in ministry. Generally speaking, the level of success of a minister and the way it is handled may go a long way to determine whether a pastor’s seed will respond positively or not to spiritual matters.
5. Frustrations due to high expectations from others. Often, the pastor’s child is subjected to a lot of pressures as a result of unreasonable expectation from the world. The members of the congregation as well as the outside world seem to have the feeling that because we are pastor’s children, we should be perfect. They seem to forget that we are also children or youth that are growing. If other youths are absent from church, people don’t seem to mind, but when a pastor’s child is late to church it is something else. As pastor’s child also, you may expect your relationship to be monitored by the whole world! Any imperfection will get noticed. All these undue pressure make many pastors’ children to have the feeling that the society is not fair to them, hence find it difficult to contend for the faith. But please remember that there is no crime in falling. The only crime is staying down when you have fallen.
6. Unholy influences. A pastor’s seed who is not selective about the friend he moves or who loses him/her identity just so they can fit in with friends may lose the faith that was delivered unto him instead of contending for it. For instance, when you are admitted into the university and you discover for the first time that you are now to largely take your own decisions about who to move with and you discover how trendy things that your parents warned you against is. You may as such be tempted to try something new which may have a negative effect on your spiritual life or have eternal consequences. Sometimes when unbelieving friends introduce us to ideas that will not help our faith, we look at our parents ideas as ‘old school ideas’. However, many realized later that when they make their parents ideas to appear as old school ideas, it is like throwing away the provisions of God for their lives. Unholy friends is therefore one of the major reasons why many of us are not able to contend for the faith that was delivered to us because by the time it is realized that they went into error, the damage might have become irreversible.
7. Distractions. In the world today, it is as if we have more distractions than encouragers concerning contending for the faith. Especially in this era of the internet, it is so difficult for the ministers’ seed not to be distracted. The internet makes things that our parents once forbade us to see to become commonplace for us through the internet. Parents have mostly lost control because the control is really in the hands of the youth. The social media has so much widened our horizons that it is only a solid foundation in the faith that can make you to be able to hold on to the faith which your parents delivered into your hands. From Insta, to facebook, to Snap chat to whatsapp, it takes the grace of God for youths to stay focused. For instance, it is now evident that it is going to be extremely difficult to bring the youth back to the era of carrying the big Bible with concordance that our dads and mums used to carry about as ministers. Now we mostly depend on our tabs, but our tabs have other attractive options that may make us to pretend as if we are reading from it while we are actually reading a message from our friends or even watching pornography! Even if you have the intention of going to your Bible app, all these social media platforms have been designed to be much more attractive than the word of God that you were originally looking for. The social media is a major challenge which takes a youth that has got deep roots in the world of God or sheer determination and the help of the Holy Spirit to overcome.
CONCLUSION Though our salvation is personal, we must always realize as ministers’ children that we owe God the responsibility of contending for the faith that was delivered unto us. Often, it does not necessarily mean taking over the ministry of our parents as God may call us into another assignment that is different from that of our parents. However we must realize that despite the labour of our parents in ministry, they may be judged unfaithful on the account of whether or not we are able to contend for the faith that once was delivered unto us. We will also be held accountable for our children and the next generation of believers that are coming after us. Let there be the determination to stand firm in our faith. May our parents not be judged on the account of errors that we committed in Jesus name. Thank you.
CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH. Mike Adedamola Oluniyi.(Being a ministration during Ministers’ Seed Conference 2021)”Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 1:3) While preparing for this conference, the holy Spirit dropped something in my spirit that I want us to Look into as we begin discussions this morning.Some of us had the opportunity to study social studies or Civic Education. We were taught the definition of family. We were told that a group of people related by blood or marriages is referred to as a family. The natural order of things is that father and mother birth children who also take on spouses and have their own children and the first couple become grandparents. This entire family depends on each other as should be. Depending on how affluent they are, the grandfather covers the children and grandchildren and ensures that they are not in trouble. The parents could also influence things to go in the favour of their children. All this are not so bad because of cause that is what parents are for, to provide for, guide and protect us. Some of us seated here have or still in fact believe that the same thing operates in the kingdom of God. We believe that our parents’ Goodwill with God is enough to cover us. We believe that since our parents are preachers or commitment church workers, their salvation covers us children too.I want us to know that God has no grandchildren. Salvation therefore is as personal as it gets. I am certain of this because the Bible says in the book of John 14:6 that ‘I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the father except through me’. As much as we would want to be willed our fathers salvation just as all other earthly possessions that may like to get from them and as much as our fathers would like to do the same, the Bible says that; ‘Yes, each of us will give personal account to God God’ {Romans 14:12 (NLT)} There are no hand me downs when it comes to the issue if salvation.At the same time however, looking at the scriptures will make us to realize that though salvation is personal, it is something that God hates when a minister of God does not raise his children in a way that will make such children to be useful for God. Prophet Eli, one of the foremost prophets in the land of Israel, got into trouble with God, despite his exploits for God because of the way he raised his children. The following were the words of God to the prophet through young Samuel; “For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. And therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering forever.” (1Sam.3:13-14) If you also examine the life of Prophet Samuel himself, you will discover that the same thing happened. While in the case of Eli, God judged him for not restraining his children from evil, Samuel was judged because his own children departed from God in his old age.God also views succession in kingship the same way, in fact, it was only when the children of the incumbent were not available that the positions became vacant.
You may be wondering why this introduction is examining the connection between family lineage in matters of faith and ministry. I feel such background is important for us because of the theme of this conference, CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH. Why should we contend for the faith as ministers children. Well, seriously speaking, there are several reasons why we must contend for the faith as pastors children. However, that is for another speaker, Pastor Femi Emmanuel to speak on. I am to look at the challenges which we have as minister’s children in contending for the faith that has been delivered to us.
