In Ministry

Acts 9:³⁹ “So Peter returned with them; and as soon as he arrived, they took him to the upstairs room. The room was filled with widows who were weeping and showing him the coats and other clothes Dorcas had made for them.”

Yesterday, I shared with you how I took my stand on a direction in my organization. It was tough to insist on a different direction from what my boss had in mind on a matter. But I took my stand and it was nothing spooky. I did not tell him that I had a vision because I did not. I just felt very strongly that that was the position we should take. And it turned out exactly as I said, glory to God. Many of you are prophets in your organization and God is impressing things upon your heart, things that will save your company, but you are not acting on it. The truth is, when you begin to understand that it is actually ministry, you start to come into it.

I have always struggled with one question since I started Pastoring over eighteen years ago. And the question is, ‘Are you now in full-time ministry?’ My response is, ‘When wasn’t I in full-time ministry?’ And it is because as a Christian I have always embraced the fact that we are all in full-time ministry. In fact, at that time I was running two businesses, one in Lagos and I had a business in London. I remember a conversation with someone who was asking if I was now in full-time ministry. I said, ‘What do you mean? I have always been in full-time ministry. Are we not all in full-time ministry?’ During the conversation, he discovered that I was running two businesses and he said, ‘You are not yet in full-time ministry’. How?

It cannot get more full-time than this. My life is in it. My resources are in it. My sleeping and waking up, traveling and sitting down, everything is in it. So, when does it become full-time ministry? The people who work offshore, for instance, four weeks a month. Guess what? They are in ministry where they are working. They may be ushers in their local church, but it is not only when they are in church physically and ushering that they are in ministry. They are already in ministry offshore. So, we see the mountain of influence that God has for us, is huge. Are you a mechanic, repairing cars? That is ministry. Do you bake cakes? That is ministry.

Do you know the number of people that eat your cakes? What if you give a blessing on every cake that goes out of your shop? Father, bless this cake and everyone that eats it. Even if they are Muslims, they want blessings, so let God bless them. Is that not good? Even if they are Hindus, God bless them. That is ministry. What was Dorcas in today’s anchor scripture doing? Did she have to wait to be in ‘full-time’ ministry first? No, making clothes was her ministry.

Prayer (hymn): Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of thy love. Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for thee, swift and beautiful for thee. Amen!