31/07/2023
This is true
THERE MUST BE A HISTORY OF FAITHFUL SERVICE: SHORT NOTES ON VISIBILITY IN MINISTRY (3B)
Growing in the Lord’s service leaves a trail of faithfulness - a verifiable and traceable history of sorts. No one ever rose to the pinnacle of their kingdom service without a history of faithfulness, albeit, on smaller platforms. I repeat, it is impossible to rise to the pinnacle of kingdom service without leaving behind a history of faithful service in smaller kingdom tasks.
We must understand that the visibility a servant of God gets is directly proportional to their measure in Christ - which is essentially the impact radius of their service delivery under God (Romans 12:3, 2 Corinthians 10:13-15).
Some will have higher measures than others therefore would have more visibility than others. This has nothing to do with human qualifications but everything to do with the election of grace. Some would receive one talent, some two talents and some five talents. But whether it is one talent, two talents or five talents that one has received from the Lord, the rule of engagement remains faithfulness (Matthew 25:14-30).
David slew Goliath on ‘national TV’ in the valley of Elah . But not before he had faithfully served as a shepherd boy who quietly slew a lion and a bear which attacked his sheep in the backside of the desert. Before he was pedestaled to slay the ‘mighty beast’ called Goliath in a spectacular duel, he had slain ‘smaller beasts’ in the parched, invisible and inaudible terrain of the desert. David did not just ‘show up’ to save the day when the Philistines defied and bullied his nation, he ‘grew up’ in faithful service to do so.(1 Samuel 17)
By grace, from the mid-eighties when I gave my life to Christ, to date, I have served the Lord consistently at different capacities. I was privileged to recently host the servant of God who pastored me as a teenager, Rev. Pita Momoh (who by the way is currently doing a great work for the Lord in Zambia). In those days, I served as a Sunday school teacher under him.
While on campus I served as Bible study secretary and prayer coordinator -this was where my priestly teaching ministry to the body began. I also served as a keyboardist in my local church as a university student in the city of Makurdi. My priestly teaching ministry continued as a youth corper in Kano as I served at Hosanna Good News Fellowship, Prayer Castle, and several other youth ministries in churches and schools. The mandate & operational blueprint for what would eventually become Remnant Christian Network were released to me by the Lord during the years of my quiet labours in Kano.
The Lord told me He would give me a job; I would invest in many destinies and a great network would be born. Prior to this I was a classroom teacher during my time in Kano. One year later, I got employed into Nigeria’s oil industry which meant that my apostleship would be dual in construct for a season: to the body and to the marketplace.
As an apostle of the Lord, I was privileged to serve in the marketplace of Nigeria’s oil industry for sixteen years. So I had to faithfully execute my dual apostolic mandate - to the body and to the oil industry, for sixteen years. So many people actually only got to find out, almost shockingly, that I had had a day job for that long when my resignation became public. This was what birthed my book: AN EPISTLE TO THE APOSTLES IN THE MARKETPLACE.
God-engineered visibility follows a growth trajectory that is spurred by faithfulness. It must start small! Then grow steadily under God’s mighty hand and gracious oversight. Jesus Himself said,
“If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities.” (Luke 16:10,NLT)
So, this means anyone who does not have a history of faithful service with the Lord is dishonest -crooked at best! Please beware!
No servant of God can just show up and begin to do great things in the name of the Lord without first serving faithfully in ‘little’ things.
In the end, if we serve the Lord faithfully, as visibility comes, we would realise it is not even about us but about the Lord and His kingdom.
As a farmer, once upon a time, you used hoe to cultivate - the land you could work on was small and your output was very meagre. Now when the Lord gives you a tractor, what does it mean? It means you can now do more. This would still be the case when the Lord gives you one thousand tractors. Yes, visibility, like the tractor, becomes a tool for more work.
Nothing constructive & long lasting starts big. As a matter of fact, the only thing that I know that starts with a very big (but always lethal) bang is a nuclear blast. You and I know nuclear blasts have no net benefit - Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Chernobyl disasters shall always remind us of this!
To be continued.
With love from your brother,
Arome Osayi.
