Changes through Ministry

Welcome, precious children of God, to „Daily Word for Spiritual Edification”!I pray for God’s grace fill your life.Today I would like to start discussing the topic “Changes through Ministry”.Many people do not understand the essence of faith. Faith brings progress into a person’s life. A person who believes God and lives by faith will not degrade; on the contrary, he will succeed and advance in his life. Faith lies at the basis of any progress in live, because it is faith that lifts us up and changes us for good. Have you noticed any obvious changes in your life since you got saved? If not, then there is something wrong with your faith.I wouldn’t believe a person who claims to be a believers and has been going to church for many years, but has not seen any positive changes in his life and character. If you are a believer, then you inevitably will grow better. An unbelieving husband must see obvious positive changes in his wife after she becomes a believer. He must see a difference in his wife’s life caused by her faith in God. Faith changes us for better. But these changes do not happen automatically. Faith is followed by works, so after we learn all the procedures and means God uses to change us, we must take some action to carry out His plans.The Bible says about faith that it is „the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews, 11:1). If we expect changes in our lives and believe that God wants and is able to change us, then we need to take some steps that will lead us to these changes.Until now we have discusses in detail how God changes people through the system of accountability. We saw that through accountability we protect each other from falling, help each other to grow spiritually and to develop our potential.And now, how can we achieve changes in our lives through ministry? Most of us are familiar with the word ‘ministry’. But God wants us to focus on the essence of ministry and to see what kind of impact ministry makes on a person’s life.So, what is ministry?To characterize the term shortly, I can say that it is the most practical expression of one’s love towards God and people. Every one of us understands that we live among people. Every day we interact with them in many various ways. When we show love to the people we interact with and use what we have to meet their needs, – that is what I call ministry.Notice that in order to carry out ministry we can use all the things we have been given by God. It can be the experience we have gained in life. My experience can be very beneficial to others, if I am able to share it in a loving way. Many people might avoid making serious mistakes if we will share our experience with them.Besides the experience, we can serve people with our abilities, knowledge, wisdom, talents and gifts. We are able to serve others by giving them our time to encourage, inspire, teach and instruct them, to comfort and counsel, to practically help them or pray for them (together with them). We can also serve other people by using our connections and relationships in order to help others solve their problems. We can use our finances and material resources to ease someone’s life.Love is the basis of any ministry. When we have love towards others, then this love encourages us to seek ways to enrich the lives of the people around us. Without love no ministry has any meaning or fruit, and it won’t be received by God because God is love!We will continue tomorrow!I wish you God’s abundant blessings! Pastor Rufus Ajiboye