Author: Pastor Rufus Ajiboye

Stop making excuses for your offenses.

When we make excuses, it becomes more difficult for us to get out of the offenses. When we confess any manifestations of offenses and see them as sin before God, then we start walking in the right direction. It is quite possible that you were mistreated, but it does not give you right not to forgive. If your reaction on the things happening to you does not please God – and unforgiveness never pleases God, – then you need to repent and ask God to forgive you.

We can suffer shipwreck of our faith and end up in the prison with spiritual tyrants. Forgiveness makes us like our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Who forgave us all our offenses: «Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases» (Psalm, 103:2-3).

When you truly repent, you realise that you have also sinned against other people. Therefore, true repentance includes confessing your sins before other people, those whom you have hurt or inflicted pain to.

The paradox is that most Christians, who discipline themselves in other areas of their life in order to be successful – like job or carrier, do not believe they need to be disciplined in the area of godliness. We are talking about good Christians who are faithful members of the Church of the Living God. These are people who love God’s Word and often are very enthusiastic about the work of God. But because of the lack of discipline they do not reach their potential in God’s Kingdom.

So, we get different ideas about changing our life, but these ideas do not come to pass automatically. An idea must grow into a desire. Then as a desire grows stronger, a person makes a decision, and that’s when it gets more serious! But many people stop at this point. The thing is that you must go from a decision to some actions. A decision must turn into actions if you want to see any real changes in your life.

I believe that discipline is one of God’s tools that help us to change and achieve effectiveness in our personal lives and ministry. Every one of us has a dream or a goal for our lives. But however good or grand these plans or desires are, discipline is a necessary prerequisite for these things to come to pass. Many ideas and desires never come true because people lack discipline.

As we have mentioned earlier, God is a God of progress, therefore, He wants us to make progress in our life and grow in our influence. One of God’s instruments of accomplishing this goal is through our ministry. Greatness and influence comes through ministry.

Compassion, in turn, brings healing and restoring power of God into my life and through my life into the lives of others around me. Through the virtue of the compassion, I become a tool in God hands – a tool used for restoration and a channel of God’s healing anointing.

God’s anointing flows and works through compassion. Do you want God to anoint you in a special way? Do you want the God’s power to flow through you mightily? I guess you do, don’t you? God desires that for you! He wants you to be an instrument of His grace, through whom His anointing and power can consistently flow. In order to succeed in this we need to develop a heart of compassion towards the people who in need around us. The more compassion we have within us, the more anointing and God’s power will flow through us.

It is true that ministry transforms us into the likeness of God. Since God is graceful and compassionate in His essence, then we His children should be able to show to others the grace and compassion of our Heavenly Father and we do that by serving other people. Earlier on, we already mentioned that God’s desire is to transform us into the image and the likeness of Christ so that we can begin to reflect the quality of character that Jesus had. It was Christ who came to reveal God to us so that we can follow in His steps. We know that changes automatically do not occur; changes or transformation happen only as we implement the laws and principles of God into our life. Ministry is one tremendous way we can do that; it is one of the many tools, God uses to mold and transform us into likeness of Christ.

It is not a secret that we are all born selfish. Someone might argue and say that does not apply to him or that he is not selfish. If you say that then you are lying! We are all selfish, except the transforming grace of God!

What does it mean to be selfish?

· A selfish person is one who lives only for himself. He only cares about his world and does not notice what is happening to others around him. A selfish person is only concerned about his life and his comforts.