Ministry and giving determines the measure of one’s spiritual growth and maturity

ByPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 5 minutes

Precious brothers and sisters! I send you greetings on this wonderful day. I believe that God has fresh manna from heaven for you today. May your soul be satisfied with His goodness and mercy on this day!

We are still talking about the blessedness of ministry and giving. We discussed that the one who loves God always serves people. Whoever serves people is blessed and exalted by God. God can’t support those that are only concerned with their own well-being and does not have any time for the promotion of the Kingdom of God.

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.

«Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus» (Philippians, 2:5)

«For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many» (Mark, 10:45).

Jesus said that the Son of Man came for one purpose – to give His life a ransom for many, to serve others. This is the measure of one’s maturity in Christ Jesus. When we grow spiritually, we have more and more desire to serve people. When we grow, along with it grows our desire to share what we have and not just sit around and receive from others. It is ministry that is the measure of our spiritual maturity and likeness to Jesus Christ.

When Jesus lived on earth, He had many needs. In reality, people served Him. Jesus received their ministry. It is not the question of us not needing the ministry of others. But the priority of Jesus’ life was to serve people. It says in the Bible that it is more blessed to give than it is to receive. What do we do when we serve? We give and thus we are blessed. Every one of us is given opportunities to give of ourselves. When we minister we give ourselves, our talents, our time, and our abilities; using them we fulfil the needs of others.

«Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others» (Philippians, 2:4).

«Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being» (1 Corinthians, 10:24).

«We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbour for his good, leading to edification. For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, „The reproach of those who reproached You fell on Me.” For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope» (Romans, 15:1-4).

God does not want us to thing only of ourselves. When we are too focused on our own needs, problems, family, job, then we are not able to commit to ministry. If I live for myself, then I am only concerned with my own problems and their solution. God does not want me to live just for me. The Scripture verses above tell us not to seek only our own good and well-being, but to seek the well-being of others. When I only think of me, I become callous to the needs of others and do not notice things happening all around me. But when I minister, I become more aware of the needs of others and seek to solve them. Even if I still have some personal problems, I nevertheless seek to fulfil the needs of other people.

It is important for us to find joy, happiness and satisfaction in serving others. When a person has a problem, but lays it aside and works to meet the needs of other people, God takes care of this person. When one takes care of the problems of others, his or her problems are solved by other people. For example, if you being ill are praying for the healing of others and try to forget about your own pain, God places in the hearts of others a desire to pray for your healing.

God once told me: «If you will pray for other people, then total strangers will pray for you». God gave me a verse for it: «Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy»(Mathew, 5:7). When we minister to others, we place ourselves in the position when we always have the mercy of God.

Ministry to others always brings blessing into your life. Ministry to others is blessedness!

God bless you and keep you today!

Pastor Rufus Ajiboye

Similar Posts

  • God not only knows about all of your problems and circumstances, He also has a solution for them II

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 3 minutes
    «These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world» (John, 16: 33).Trust God, be filled with His Word, walk in holiness, serve God with your gifts and talents and you will witness God changing all your problems, tragedies and sufferings into triumph!

  • Confess your sins and repent of them as soon as the Holy Spirit convicts you

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 3 minutes
    «For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light» (Mark, 4:22).Here we see a very important truth spoken by Jesus. According to this Scripture everything hidden will be revealed. If we accept this truth then we will want to live righteously before God and men. Our every wrongdoing and ungodly deed sooner or later will be brought out in the light, and all our secret works sooner or later will come into the open; all our unconfessed, unrecognized and secret sins sooner or later will become obvious for everybody.

  • The Kingdom of God III

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 5 minutes
    Jesus brought God’s Kingdom to this earth and He wants us to be involved in the process of expanding His Kingdom here, on the earth. God wants His Kingdom to triumph over the earth. And there is no need to discuss whether it is going to happen or not, – this matter is already resolved; it will surely happen. What you need to decide is whether this spreading out will happen with your involvement or without it.I am sure that every believer that sincerely loves God desires to be part of this process, desires to have the Kingdom of God not only within him, but also to spread it all around.

  • The importance of unity II

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 3 minutes
    I thank God for this day and believe that this day will be filled with the blessings from the Lord. Today I’d like to continue on the topic I talked about yesterday – the importance of unity. We saw that when you have a strong team every house will be built and every project will be completed. That kind of team will always achieve victory. In the Bible we see that Jesus also talked about the importance of unity.

  • Why do people choose to be irresponsible? IV

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 3 minutes
    «Poverty and shame will come to him who disdains correction, but he who regards a rebuke will be honoured» (Proverbs, 13:18).When an individual does not accept correction and advice, then it makes it difficult to help him to become more responsible. As we have mentioned before, an irresponsible person always considers himself to be right; in his opinion he never errs and because of it he has a hard time accepting reprimand and correction. If a person has come to a point when nobody can speak into his life, then downfall of such a person is practically inevitable.

  • What does it mean to fear God?

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 4 minutes
    It means obeying His commandments, knowing who is the real Boss on the top of everything. Fearing God means the acknowledgement of His strength, His magnificence, His power, His holiness and therefore, respect and honour Him.Fear of God is a kind of salubrious fear, not a kind of phobia people needing a psychiatric treatment have. Fearing God we understand that He is going to judge us for our sins and it impacts our deeds.