REAL DEFINITION OF POWER IN MINISTRY.

Bro Gbile Akanni is an internationally acclaimed teacher of the word of God. When he analyses the scripture, you will be wondering if it was the same scripture that you have been reading. Many years ago, he came to our city for one of his in-depth teachings in the word of God. During one of his teachings and in response to a question, he wondered of what value the power for people to fall under anointing would be to him while teaching. According to him, somebody who has fallen can not listen to the message that he has from God for him. For other ministers, however, falling under anointing is so vital to them that when you refuse to fall, they will assist by pushing you! To them, people falling under anointing is the only demonstration of power in ministry, not knowing that sometimes, it may actually even be a distraction, according to Bro Gbile Akanni!

The dictionary definition of power is the ability to do work. In other words, it is something that enables you to carry out your assignment more easily. In that case, the instruments that allow a carpenter to construct a table empowers him as a carpenter. If your brother is a carpenter, and you buy automated equipments for him to carry out his trade instead of the manual ones he had been using, you would have empowered him. This is because the time he spends on the construction of tables would be significantly reduced.
If we accept that meaning, then as a minister when you are praying for power you should ask yourself the work you want to use the power to do. Power in ministry is the ability or capacity to carry out the divine assignment you have been given in ministry. Therefore, when you are asking for power, it should be linked with your assignment. Let me then ask you a question, what is the assignment that God gave you that you are asking for power to carry out. If your assignment is to teach, like that of Bro Gbile Akanni, the power you need is the divine enablement that will make your assignment of teaching to be more easily done in a way that people under your ministration will contact divine impact through your teaching. Such power will make you to divinely bring out issues which will cut the heart of men in such a way that they may be crying out of conviction for their sin, while those under the ministration of the empowered deliverance minister is falling under anointing!
God has so arranged it that though the empowered teacher is just exposing the word of God, deliverance is taking place through the word of God though you may not fall under anointing. So, as a teacher you will discover that for you to have impact, you may need to change your prayer points and stop being carried away by what others are praying for.

1 Corinthians 2:4.
And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:

Several men of God who are in the power ministries in reference to the scripture above will say that teaching can be done by anybody, preaching is cheap, but not everyone can minister with signs and wonders. You must not allow such statements to make you feel empty. Spirit and power in the statement of Apostle Paul here is not just talking about such power like falling under the anointing, but is also talking about the power of the door of ministry which is divinely given to the empowered teacher for the word of God to cut through the gates of unbelief in the hearts of the unbelieving, bringing conviction that mere words of man can’t bring.

THE QUESTION OF MOTIVE.
A large percentage of us ask for power just to be able to impress our congregation and others that we have spiritual power. Often, ministers pray for it because their congregation believe that if people are falling under anointing while the guest minister is praying for them, it means the guest minister is more powerful than their own pastor. Gbile Akanni also wondered in response to a question, why in many cases in many churches, it is often the same people that are falling under anointing all the time. Is it because the deliverance was not total in the first instance or someone is deceiving someone. He also wondered why deliverance sessions must be carried out every week on the same congregation. A pastor beside me could not hold it any longer, he didn’t know when he exclaimed; ‘why is this man breaking our pot of soup?’ Sincerely, I think many have turned the issue of power to pot of soup. That is why many, even when the power is not divinely forthcoming will go and seek for it from the dark world and be pretending as if they are genuine ministers of God.

WHAT POWER WILL DO FOR YOU IN MINISTRY.
Empowerment in ministry will make you to experience the following in ministry;
* Recognition of your assignment – Recognizing your assignment in ministry is an empowerment, without which you may not fulfill your divine purpose in life. If the Holy Spirit did not sit me down to impress it upon me that I am to teach write and teach, I would not have likely experienced relevance.
* Development of your capacity to carry out your assignment – Your empowerment in ministry is specific to your assignment. As an empowered deliverance minister, your presence may make the demon in someone to scream, but as a teacher, your own empowerment brings out gems in the word of God may set the stage for self deliverance of the same person that screamed.
* Remaining focused – Your empowerment may help you to remain focused in ministry as you see yourself making impact through what you have been assigned to do.
* Carrying out specific assignments – As a missionary or an evangelist sent to an unbelieving environment, your empowerment may make you to successfully confront the principalities and powers that have been standing as obstacles to the advancement of the gospel in that land.
* Ability to touch lives through your ministry – Your empowerment may make you to impact lives through your ministry. You may just discover people giving testimonies of what has happened to them through you.
* Ability to meet the needs of those you are sent to.
* Ability to expand the kingdom of God through your assignment – Your empowerment will make your ministry to in one way or the other expand the kingdom of God.

Conclusion
Power is the ability to carry out the assignment that you have been given in ministry, and it is specific to your assignment. When you are praying for power therefore you must be conscious of the assignment you are given. It is only when you are empowered for the assignment you are given that you may have relevance in ministry.

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