Author: Pastor Rufus Ajiboye

What type of a believer are you? What are you: an observer, a user or a servant? Today we will attempt to establish what distinguishes observers and consumers from servants.

Observes do not care for what goes on around them; they demonstrate indifference. What happens in church does not concern him; he thinks that he only needs to attend Sunday services. He is there for the worship and the sermon and it is enough for him. Such a believer has no problems; he is doing fine at work and at home. He simply observes the events around him and he is happy.

Ministry and giving determines the measure of one’s spiritual growth and maturity. It also determines how much I bear a resemblance to Jesus Christ. God wants us to grow spiritually. One of the indications of one’s spiritual growth is how he or she fulfils the needs of others. Such a person not only takes and receives, but also gives. Giving and ministry is one and the same word that determines how much of resemblance to Jesus Christ I bear.

It says in the Bible that Jesus came to this earth to serve and not to be served. He is the example of a minister. Many of us want others to serve us. God says that we should minister and serve others. He wants us to be like Jesus.

We have been created fro love and fellowship with God. More than anything He wants us to love Him with all the whole essence. God initiated our relationships with Him. First of all, God sent Jesus to suffer, so we could restore the fellowship with Him. Now, when it´s already happened, the relationships with God have to become personal and intimate. If there is no order in our relationships with God, our whole life will be a chaos, so everything in it will be set the wrong way. Consequently, fellowship with God softens your heart making it sensitive, so that you learn to hear to and collaborate with God. God is still speaking to His people in many different ways. All those who have experienced God and His mercy in their life knew how to listen and recognise His voice.

Satan wants to hit our spirit via hardships, trials and problems. When your spirit is strengthened, you can overcome any kind of weakness, get through all kind of hardships and trials. So how can we strengthen our spirit? God´s word and His promises strengthen our spirit and overcome weakness and sufferings. In order to not give up, we need to learn how to lean on the word of God and His promises – fully and unconditionally. We have to learn God´s faithfulness and realise that God will never forsake us unless we abandon Him ourselves.

If you arm yourself with the knowledge that problems and trials are a test to all of us, and once it´s passed we receive a certain reward from God, then a holy desire to win given by God will be awaken within you. None of you is born willing to be a loser in this life. We all desire to win, but no win where is no battle. For the problems and trials are those battles we either get defeated or celebrate the victory at. Going through hardships and pain in our life, we better understand the price, Jesus paid for our salvation. «…you are partakers of Christ’s sufferings…».

If you won’t be alert and pray, you won’t even notice how eternal life will slip away from you. Have you ever tried to hold a live fish in your hands? Even if you manage to take it, it can cunningly slip out of your hands. In the very same way eternal life can slip away from you without you even noticing. You won’t notice the moment when that happens. You could go on with your religious activities, attending church meetings, praying, reading the Bible, but not be on the way to eternal life. None of these things is able to guarantee to you that you will surely keep eternal life. You know, so many unbelievers do all these things: they go to church, read their Bibles, pray.

By loud shouting disobedient Israelites only made their situation worse. It caused their enemies to mobilize and fight against Israelites. Faith is not emotions.

Faith is obedience to the voice and word of the Lord.

Faith is acting based on obedience and command of the Lord.

Faith is positive response of the heart to God’s instructions.

Faith is being on the same team with God.

As you know, human life consists of habits. There are also good and bad habits. Any habit that brings a positive outcome requires some efforts and discipline from us. Unless we have a habit of praying our prayer life will never become effective neither fruitful. Let me quote the statement of an Ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle who once said about habits – “We are the product of what we repeatedly do”. In other words, our habits are our essence. Therefore, in order to excel at something, we have to make it our habit.

The whole world lies in wickedness and darkness, but, looking at the people that have made prayer their priority #1, you realize that – so to speak – they are from another planet; they do not live in darkness because they seem shining. They have problems and their life is not any different, but they approach their problems in a different way and they look forward into the future in a different way. Prayer so alters their lives and strengthens their relationships with God that they do not notice things that others do.

If you put the necessary effort and overcome all the obstacles to climb up this mount of prayers, the glory of the Lord will be with you everywhere you go.

Dear brothers and sisters, dear pastors and leaders, dear ministers! Do you have your mount of prayers? Do you have this time when you stop in all of your rush in order to seek God in prayers Who is the only source of life?