STAYING ON ONE’S GOD ORDAINED PATH IS KEY TO DOMINION IN MINISTRY.
WOUNDS AND INJURIES EXIST IN THE MINISTRY TODAY BECAUSE PEOPLE HAVE LOST FOCUS.
MOST SECURED MINISTRIES ARE WELL FOCUSED MINISTRIES.
YOU CAN’T BE IN MINISTRY AND BE DOING TRADING AT THE SAME TIME.
I’VE HEARD GOD’S SERVANT SAY: ‘I HAVE NOT ADDED BUYING AND SELLING TO MY CALLING IN THE MINISTRY AND THE EVIDENCE IS HERE TODAY.
IF YOU CANNOT STOP PRESSING AFTER ‘THE ONE THING’, YOU CANNOT MISS THE PRIZE AT THE END OF YOUR JOURNEY.
WHEREVER DISTRACTION EXISTS, NEXT LEVEL CANNOT EXIST.
GOD CALLED YOU INTO FULL TIME MINISTRY SO THAT YOU CAN GO FULL LENGTH, FACING YOUR ASSIGNMENT.
YOUR CALLING IS NOT LIMITED TO HAVING VISIONS AND DREAMING ABOUT PREACHING SOMEWHERE BUT FINDING OUT THE DETAILS.
‘ONE THING’ IS ENOUGH FOR YOU TO EXCEL IN THE MINISTRY.
YOU CANNOT FOCUS ON YOUR ASSIGNMENT AND NOT BECOME A FOCUS AMONG MEN.
WHEREVER THERE IS FOCUS, OBSTACLES DON’T MATTER SO DON’T FIGHT OBSTACLES, FIGHT TO RETAIN YOUR FOCUS.
DON’T BLAME ANYONE FOR WHERE YOU ARE, QUERY THE FOCUS THAT YOU ENGAGE.
‘TO LACK FOCUS IS TO END AS A LOCUST’!
YOUR MESSAGE, PURPOSE AND MISSION MUST BE WELL DEFINED, THAT IS THE CORE OF YOUR FOCUS.
-Bishop David Abioye on ‘ENGAGING THE POWER OF FOCUS IN ACCESSING NEXT LEVELS’ at 2023 International Ministers Conference || Covenant University Chapel || 10th May, 2023.
I want to appreciate God for this privilege given to me and His Servant, the Host of this International Ministers Conference, our Father Bishop David Oyedepo for the privilege given to me which I do not take for granted. I do believe that standing on the existing anointing of God upon His life, we all shall be blessed this morning. Church Gist. We are reminded that the theme of this Conference is: ‘Next Levels’. I’d like someone to join me to prophesy it because it must happen. Next levels can occur in one session because it is revelation that leads to our elevation, so let’s be on the lookout because every Word that comes our way today shall result in our next levels.
Next level is impossible where distraction exists. Wherever distraction exists, next level cannot exist. On this note, therefore, I have the privilege to share, ‘ENGAGING THE POWER OF FOCUS IN ACCESSING NEXT LEVELS’. It takes focus to see the next level, to march towards it and to assume the next level. Staying on one’s God-ordained path is key to dominion in Ministry. Church Gist. In Joel 2, we see the great army that is being raised by God and we see that the secret of their triumph is very simple, specifically in Joel 2:7-8. Ministry is a call to pursue one’s way, wounds and injuries exist in the Ministry today because people have lost focus.
You may have observed that there are less accidents on narrow paths, most accidents occur on the highways. Church Gist. So when you follow your narrow paths you eliminate or minimize casualties. Most accidents occur on highways (Popular ways) and that’s the age in which we live where someone wants to do everything or many things at the least. Most secured Ministries are well-focused Ministries – Singleness of eye is what makes for triumph in the Ministry, it is what automatically determines our next level Matthew 6:22. So to assume the next levels in the Ministry, you must be a man of focus.
-This morning, every force of distraction shall be destroyed.
If satan can distract you then he can slow you down. If you are going on a journey that should not take you more than one hour and you branch here and there for five hours you may not get there. Distraction simply means branching here and there – Not facing one’s duty, not going on one’s path 1 Kings 20:39-42. Busy ‘here and there’ leads nowhere but ‘here and here’ is what leads to the destination we desire. Church Gist. There are many people busy here and there in the Ministry, touching these and that – Trials and errors will always lead to stagnation and destruction. So staying focused is key to out-of-this-world order of accomplishment. No one can make much of any task without being focused. So for us to maximize the Ministry, we have to be focused.
In the word of God’s Servant, ‘If you will not stop pressing after that one thing as Paul said, you cannot miss the prize at the end’ Philippians 3:14. Church Gist. One thing is more than enough for anyone to succeed in the Ministry. If you cannot stop pressing after ‘The one thing’, you cannot miss the prize at the end of your journey.
-No one here will miss the prize in the Precious Name of Jesus.
On the farm, for those of us who have been there before, you cannot chase two rats and get them. They have their own local wisdom, when they want to come, they come out in groups and the wise hunter will focus on one rat per time. They go this way and another one that way to confuse you so if you want to pursue all of them at the same time, you will be the loser at the end of the day. No one excels in pursuing many things at the same time. Church Gist. In the field of academics, I don’t know if it exists, I have not seen a Professor in two fields at the same time. So also in the world of Sports, you don’t see someone who is a wrestler and at the same time a runner. If you want to reach the peak of your Ministry, you must focus on one thing at the same time – Major on the major and minor on the minor.
You can’t be in Ministry and be doing trading at the same time, you go to Germany to preach and at the same time you get spare parts to sell, it can’t work, in the process you can find yourself lying at the Port and as you lie the anointing is removed from you, you will become like an ordinary person. You put on a collar, they check your load and they find garri and ogbono (Soup ingredient) there. Focus!!! I’ve heard God’s Servant say: ‘I have not added buying and selling to my calling in the Ministry and the evidence is here today.
-Very shortly, I see someone here sharing such testimony.
‘One thing’ is enough for you to excel in the Ministry – Kenneth Hagin was a man of one thing. Oral Robert, one thing. T.L. Osborn, one thing. Church Gist. Our Fathers here, Pastor Adeboye, one thing. God’s Servant here, one thing. You cannot miss out when you become a man of one thing.
-May we receive grace to focus on our assignment.
Men of focus keep changing levels, it may look slow but it is sure. And very shortly, you will find them at the top out there. You cannot focus on your assignment and not become a focus among men. It’s time for us to focus and concentrate on our assignments. Church Gist. One man with focus constitutes the majority, somehow you discover that naturally, people rally around a focused man. Check it very well, perhaps why you don’t see people rally around your Calling is because you are not focused. You hear people say, ‘Oh! That our Pastor is not serious, you can’t see him when you want to see him. He goes late to Church because he is doing some business transactions.
People naturally rally around a focused man, your seriousness determines the attraction that you draw from people. To lack focus is to slack in progress, without focus, progress will be countered. I have one of my co-labourers here, Pastor Ibiyeomie, who said, ‘To lack focus is to end as a locust’! You know locusts? They just move anyhow, anything can happen to them. Church Gist. Without focus, you suffer like locusts. When one lacks focus, his energy is diverged, life becomes painful, confusing and unbearable. The reason why people are frustrated in the Ministry today is because they lack focus. They wake up from morning to night, not pointing to one thing they have done – Tired and worn out because of lack of focus.
-I decree that every form of distraction shall be destroyed from everyone’s life in the Name of Jesus!
Wherever there is focus, obstacles don’t matter, so don’t fight obstacles, fight to retain your focus. Our greatest fight is the fight to remain focused on our assignments. Church Gist. Whether you will become the head or the tail in the Ministry is determined by how you focus. Focus will make you the head, distractions will reduce you to the tail. Don’t blame anyone for where you are, query the focus that you engage.
What is Focus?
1. Focus is singleness of eye Matthew 6:22-23. Focus means to be single with your eyes – Divided eyes will lead to confusion. Church Gist. Occasionally, when I want to read in my room, I use a reading lamp and the reason is that there are many things in the room that may distract my attention – The wardrobe, the kettle for tea and several other things. But once you use the lamp focusing on your table, you can’t see anything else. That’s what focus does, by focus you don’t see anything around you that can distract your attention.
The ability for you to focus your eye is what saves you from diverse distractions. The reason why we are distracted by things and people around us is because we have not made our eyes single enough Proverbs 4:25. Straight-looking is what we call focus, not looking here and there or backward. Singleness of eye means undivided attention, paying full attention to one’s assignment. Church Gist. God’s Servant has said that he told one of his friends many years ago, ‘You know why we are going Full time? So we can go full length’. We are going Full time to go full length, the reason why God called you into Full time Ministry is so that you can go full length abandoning every other thing around you or behind you to face your assignment.
2. Focus means building around your task 1 Corinthians 7:20-24.
This is about watering your task.
3. Focus means the pursuit of one thing as mentioned earlier Phillippians 3:13.
-May each of us locate the one thing to do in the Precious Name of Jesus Christ.
4. Focus simply means, running with one’s purpose John 18:37.
If you don’t know the cause to which you came into the Ministry, you may end under a curse or you may end your journey abruptly. Church Gist. Those who know the purpose never suffer as victims, those who see the end always get to the end.
-I pray that each of us here will get to the end of our Calling. Church Gist. Jesus got to His Calling, He fulfilled His task. None of us shall fall by the wayside in the Precious Name of Jesus!
Now let’s quickly look at seven keys to maintaining focus in Ministry:
1. Define your Calling
Unfortunately, many people don’t know about their Calling. Your Calling is not limited to having visions and dreaming that you find yourself preaching somewhere but finding out the details, ‘Lord! What are you calling me to do’? And it’s never too late to answer that question- God is a prayer answering God. ‘What have you called me to do’? He’s not a God of ambiguity. Church Gist. The Lord said to Isaiah, ‘Come on! I want to use you’! Isaiah said, ‘When I go, what shall I say’? Ministry is so intricate that you don’t assume it.
You need to ask several, many, unending questions, ‘What are you calling me to do’? What is the Message you have given me to preach’? Jesus heard His Message clearly. In Luke 4, He found what was written concerning His life and Ministry Luke 4:18. His assignment was very clear, His Message was very clear and you will discover that all through His Ministry and lifetime, that’s what He was doing – He was so focused. You will hear Jesus say: ‘I’m going to preach in this place whenever they want to stop him. He went preaching in their Synagogue, He went from town to cities to villages preaching – He knew His Calling and discovered His Message.
You may not be surprised that there are many people who are seated here this morning who don’t even know the Message they should preach, so they listen to Television Programmes from morning till evening searching for what to say – No order, any Message goes. On Sunday Morning, he can be preaching about divorce when people come to be refreshed and to be empowered for the week why? Because he saw somebody preaching it – Your Message is your peculiarity.
Unfortunately, many people go for what is popular, they want to find out, ‘What is the next thing they are preaching there’? Somebody asked me a few weeks ago, ‘What is the Message that Bishop Oyedepo is preaching now’? That’s what many people do, they go hunting for what is popular when they should go for what is peculiar not knowing that it is the peculiar that becomes the popular if you stay on it. Church Gist. There is a Message that authenticates your Calling. God is a God that gives a full package for the Ministry, He will not call you without giving you a voice – John the Baptist said, ‘I am the voice of he that cries in the Wilderness’! This is the Message!
They asked him, ‘Are you the Messiah and he said no! I am here to prepare the way for Him’! He was focused. You must know your Calling, you must know your Message. Jonah preached a very very unfriendly and unpopular Message, no head no tail Jonah 3:2. Church Gist. And that one Message brought about a revival that no other Ministry has experienced till this generation, even the livestock went on fasting, everybody including babies went on fasting. Because Jonah preached the Message he was bidden to preach. Your message is your identity, your Message is your voice, your Message is your attraction. People come to listen to the Message that God has put in your mouth.
Why do people travel all the way to come for this Conference? Because God gave one man a Message to preach. Why do people come to Faith Tabernacle, Canaanland here? Many people will travel from Europe and America, arrive on Saturday, attend Services on Sunday and in the evening they are on their way going back. Church Gist. Because there is a Message that God put in the mouth of His Servant for them. Church Gist. Your Message, purpose and mission- Everything must be well defined, that is the core of your focus. If you know what God has sent you to do, if you focus on it you will suffer the least of distraction. We all, therefore, have the responsibility to go and sit down and find out what is the Message and the assignment that God has given to us.
Kenneth Hagin will not preach anything that is not related to Faith, as far as Kenneth Hagin is concerned when he meets you, you don’t have faith. He must preach faith to you. When you meet with T.L. Osborn, as long as he is concerned you are not saved and you must receive Salvation. Till his death, he was writing books on Salvation, ‘One hundred reasons why you must give your life to Christ’. Church Gist. You meet with Oral Roberts, everyone he sees is like a sickly person, he must pray for you to be healed why? Overwhelmed with their Messages. Now listen to me! If people around you don’t know your Message perhaps you don’t have a Message, you must know it to a point that people around you know it.
There are three core Words that God’s Servant in the House received: The Word of Faith, The Word of Prosperity and The Word of Signs and Wonders, you can’t miss it. Once you step into the Ministry, these three things are very evident, they are the core areas where people’s lives are being transformed. Church Gist. We must get to a point where we must define our Message, purpose and mission. And I would recommend that everyone learns the act of writing these things down – Write and rewrite your Calling Habakkuk 2:2. Because writing guides and reminds you of the vision.
You can’t forget what you have written. Church Gist. Writing on paper is like putting fire in your soul. It’s like sharpening your eyes so that you can see clearly and not forget what you have written. Without definition, one will easily suffer deviation. You easily deviate if you don’t clearly define your Mission. Remember! Stay with your peculiarity, don’t stay with the popularity. When the Message of Prosperity started in this Ministry through His Servant it was not as popular, it was abused and scorned by people but today it is a popular thing, you hear it everywhere. Stay in your Calling!
2. Maintain boundaries and jurisdictions
You need to draw the line to places you must not go to and Messages you must not preach because you are not sent to preach them. Somebody asked me, ‘Why is it that in your Church, they don’t talk about Rapture’? It is not that we don’t believe it but we are not sent to preach it. It is not everything you believe that you preach – Everyone is assigned to a particular assignment. Church Gist. Why is it that we don’t preach about hell fire, don’t we believe it? We believe it very well, satan and all those who follow him will go there (To hell fire) but we are not sent to go there (Preach it).
God’s Servant went to Japan some time and the need there was obvious. On his way back, he started drawing curriculum for Bible School and when he arrived, God told him that even though there is a need in Japan, ‘You are not the one that I’m sending there’. You are not sent everywhere, you are sent to limited places. After Jesus provided food for five thousand people, they came to make Him a king and He ran away from them.
-May you run away from anything that is not given to you John 6:15. Not all open doors are God’s doors.
Jesus disciplined Himself. Discipline is the ability to say no when you should say no. There are many offers that will come your way. Somebody may come and say, ‘Oh! Pastor, you have been a blessing to us. We want to register your name in a Company’! Be careful! Church Gist. It might end as a trap that you don’t know. Now, look at this, John the Baptist was sent to the Wilderness and if you read Mark 1:1-5, everybody in the city came to him. But one day, he went to the city and it was there that he lost his head. He was sent specifically to be ministering in the Wilderness and people were coming from all places.
And his Message was so fiery that even soldiers could not confront him. He will abuse and lash them, they will say, ‘It doesn’t matter, just baptize us’! Because he was in the right place, he maintained his jurisdiction. One day he went to the city and said to Herod, ‘Why did you marry your brother’s wife? Church Gist. And Herod said, ‘It’s me you are talking to like that? And they lock him up! And a little girl demanded for his head and he lost his Ministry. And that’s why Jesus was lamenting that why can a man like Elijah who could have called down fire die like that? The fire answered to John only in the Wilderness, not in the city.
There are places where unction will not answer to you if you go there. Perhaps he saw Jesus preaching in the city and he said, ‘Why not! Let’s also go to the city’! And that’s why he was blaming Jesus, ‘Are you the one to come or are we to look for someone else? Today, many Ministers are blaming other Ministries, ‘The reason why our Church is not growing is because they came to plant their Church close to us. That’s not why your Church is not growing, you have been distracted somewhere, you should maintain focus Galatians 2:8. Church Gist. The day Paul thought that he was powerful enough to go to the Jews, his anointing was lost, they scraped his head, they beat him and they slapped him. A man who was once described as a god in the likeness of men, lost his dignity, he lost his honour. He ended his Ministry right there in the prison. A man who could cause his opposition to be blinded lost out because he failed to define his jurisdiction Acts Chapter 20-21.
-May we understand our jurisdiction and stay on there.
Jesus told His disciples, ‘Do not go the way of the Gentiles’! So He told them where to go and what to preach so you must know what to preach, where to go and where not to go. You must know invitations to respond to and invitations not to respond to. Church Gist. You must know who should be at your altar and who should not come there because God will hold you accountable and ask you to give a report of it.
3. Don’t pursue too many things at the same time.
Don’t be a jack of all trades and master of none. I observed one day, ‘Why do horticulturists trim branches of trees when they are growing up’. They trim those branches that are coming up abruptly so that all the nutrients can go into the trunk and it can grow up. Many Ministries are dwarfs today because from the onset they are branching to too many things. I know that the branches will have to take their own nutrients so the heights required are not in existence. Church Gist. You need to grow up, that’s part of the definition of focus. Grow up! Gain stability before you begin to spread out. God gave to His Servant a Worldwide Ministry but he started from nursing the trunk not looking for branches.
The first set of branches came four to five years after its existence and it went to some local places nearby that will be cost-effective. And when the five branches stabilized, more branches, then suddenly the Message came to him, ‘It is now time to move to Africa’! Church Gist. We moved to a few Nations in Africa and after stabilizing it, ‘Go to other Nations of the world’! Don’t do many things at the same time, do what your focus can manage. This is where the problem of people who claim to be multitasking comes in – Because they are multitasking people, everything that comes to them, they do it and in the process, they end in confusion.
-I see someone getting delivered in the Name of Jesus!
4. Patiently endure in your pursuit.
Many people lose focus because they are in a hurry to get results. ‘Well maybe I am not doing the right thing’, so he wants to do something else. Please note that everything begins small. As a matter of fact, big is defined as small plus small plus small to infinity. If you hate to start small, you will never see bigness. Job 8:7. Zechariah 1:11. Exodus 23:30. Little by little will I give to you, no matter how great your anointing is, you still have to go through the process of little by little. You can’t beat process, if you avoid process you will miss product. Process must be followed, it is a necessity. Church Gist. Jesus told a parable in Mark 4:26-32 of how a man planted a seed and went to sleep. Night and day, he does not know how but suddenly he discovered that everything began to grow. Little by light, night and day. Little by little until the tree becomes so big that the birds of the air come to hang around it. Patiently endure. James 5:7. If you are looking for fruit be patient. If you are looking for precious fruit, you need to engage long patience. You have to be patient enough in your focus. You may not obtain the result immediately but it is on the way coming. Don’t get discouraged. Keep at it.
I used to illustrate that if you want a brick wall to come down and you have a sledgehammer. You hit it the first time and perhaps, the hammer is thrown back at you like the wall resisting you ‘You can’t bring me down’ hit it the second time, hit it the third time, hit it the fourth time and by the seventh time, the blocks will come down. The question is which of the blows brought it down? All of it put together. It may appear like you don’t have effect in your assignment but keep at it very soon the barriers will be broken. Church Gist. That is what focus does. Focus says “No! I can’t be stopped. No! I can’t be discouraged”. If God gave you a message of faith, keep at it. When Dr Kenneth Hagin started preaching the message of faith, he said once somebody came and smoked cigarettes on his face “You preach a mess”. People abused him, they said all kinds of things but at the end of the day, he became the message. Patiently endure in your pursuit because at the end it shall speak. Habakkuk 2:3.
5. Avoid comparison with others.
This is a plague in many ministries today. Everyone has his ways and his time. If someone has breakthroughs, go and congratulate him awaiting your own. Extend goodwill to all but don’t compare yourself with anybody. Somebody is blessed with a big land, go there and congratulate him while you are waiting for your own. Church Gist One church in your neighbourhood is growing, congratulate them but don’t compare yourself with them. Comparison is a game of fools. 2 Corinthians 10:12. Only fools compare themselves with others.
6. Magnify your office. Magnify your assignment.
There is no inferior calling. Every calling is great. Every calling has the potential to become great. Superiority or inferiority is a function of perspective. Church Gist. As a man thinks so he is (Proverbs 23:7). If you think you are small, you are small. If you think you are great, you are great. Romans 11:13. Job 12:3 and Job 13:2. No ministry call is inferior. You’re called to be an Evangelist, Teacher, Pastor you can succeed because of that grace and unction upon your life. Never see your ministry as inferior. One reason why others copy what other people do in their ministry is because they think their own is inferior. You need to carry a mentality not of pride but of self worth that what you are doing is worth it. So you give it all it takes so you can get all it contains.
Growing up in ministry, once I preached and I felt, ‘what kind of nonsense message is this?’ I felt messed up and somebody came to me and said, ‘Sir, your message has enlightened me. I have been so enriched.’ You know what? Church Gist. Not everybody in a congregation may be blessed by you perhaps that message is not sent to them. Somebody else comes and preaches to bless the person that it appears you didn’t bless.
There is most potential in your calling to make it great. There is much glory in your path to make it shine so, keep at it.
7. Be business minded in your calling: We are talking about 7 keys to maintaining focus in ministry.
1 Thessalonians 4:11. Stay in your corner. When you are busy in your corner, you will soon be announced in the public. What is business? It simply implies being busy with focus because you can be very busy and not be doing business. Church Gist. There are many who are busy like that – busy running helter-skelter but having no focus. What makes business thick is focusing on your assignment. It may look small but focus on it.
When this ministry started under God’s servant, the first office was a table tennis room where all the staffs sit around a table. From there we graduated to a 2-room office – The Chief Executive on the inside and the 5 staff at the outside. Church Gist. The furniture then costed 900 Naira only. I used to imagine how the tables fit into one office – 5 tables, from there to other levels to where we are today.
– Your next level is a reality! You will surely get there!
You can be going round and not make rounds. You might be making noise and not make news and that’s what many people get engaged in doing today.
Luke 2:49. Jesus was business minded in his assignment. Church Gist. He finished it very gloriously, moving from one level to another.
– I see someone’s testimony of next level about to emerge in the name of Jesus
– By the Word of God we have received this morning, I declare clear focus for everyone here!
– Before you leave this mountain God will give you clear picture, template, mandate of your assignment in the name of Jesus!
– I decree that every force of distraction that may be holding any of us down be destroyed in Jesus precious name!
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