(Understanding “The Death Process” In Ministry)
– Pastor Bimbo Animashaun
Ministry is not “always” a bed of roses; there’s a PRICE to pay to watch over the flock of God but THAT PRICE IS NOT GREATER THAN GOD’S GRACE.
A minister who wants to fulfil his calling must understand this statement of Paul early in ministry:
2 CORINTHIANS 4:12
So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
In other words, the minister sometimes goes through “the death process” so that the people under him might enjoy “life”.
In the realm of the Spirit, death produces life i.e. through the death of Christ on the cross, abundant life was released unto us.
Relative to the minister, “this death process” is coming to grips with the claims of the call to ensure that God’s people under your care are fine.
It means you will sometimes have to sacrifice comfort and forgo pleasure in order to stand in gap for the sheep under your watch.
That’s part of your terms of reference and the specifications of your call as a minister.
The Holy Spirit can lay a prayer burden on your heart in the midnight for a church member and you have to respond to it even though the church member in question and others are enjoying their own sleep.
You see, it is the mystery of:
2 CORINTHIANS 4:12
So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
It may mean that you have to clean up a church member after he has messed up, minister to him (that’s if he’s willing) and put him back into shape.
To complicate matter for you, the same person turns against you later and YOU MUST NOT TAKE OFFENCE; YOU MUST JUST KEEP WALKING IN LOVE.
It is the mystery of: 2 CORINTHIANS 4:12
So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
That’s the price of consecration that you have to pay. If you aren’t ready for it, I will sincerely advise you not to come near ministry at all.
There are people who will get transformed under one’s ministry – I mean God will take them from THE ZERO LEVEL and turn them into HEROES, and after all of that they desert the minister.
Your personal finances or family finances might even be involved sometimes but after Grace has lifted them, they take their “seeds” to “a big man of God” and you mustn’t be offended.
There are ministers who, in the process of supporting church members, put strain on their family finances thereby causing family pressure, and after those members are in real money, they changed church.
Some will say the food that satisfied them when they were 8 can no longer satisfy them now that they’re 18 and THE MINISTER MUST NOT TAKE OFFENCE; HE MUST KEEP WALKING IN LOVE.
The life of ministry is a life of sacrifice. It is a mixture of ignorance and foolishness to envy any man of God who’s enjoying his harvest in ministry – nobody knows what they went through.
I just want to charge us dear friends with this scripture:
2 CORINTHIANS 4:12
So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
You as a minister will have to sacrifice comfort and pleasure to ensure that God’s people under your care are fine.
In the year 2005, I visited a Fellowship member’s parent in the hospital twice per day for three months until she was discharged.
Sometime ago, one of my daughters (who was preparing for her wedding) called me around 10pm that she was kidnapped while returning to her base.
I had earlier instructed that she should leave on time but somehow she got hooked up with other things.
Thank God she was rescued supernaturally and she was with some police officers on an express road.
My wife, being a nurse, wasn’t at home; she was on night duty, so it was me and my children that were at home.
I had to drive down with her fiance (about 35 minutes drive) to pick her in the night and take her to the hospital where my wife was working.
I left my children at home who were fast asleep and I came back almost in the midnight.
You see, it is the mystery of:
2 CORINTHIANS 4:12
So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
I had taken a Pastor in the car with me to pick another Pastor who was stranded in another town in the midnight.
It is the mystery of:
2 CORINTHIANS 4:12
So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
One day, I finished ministering at our Bible Study and news reached me that a ministry son was on oxygen in the hospital.
I drove to the hospital immediately (like 40 minutes drive) and relocated him from that hospital to a more standard hospital (where my wife works) and God gave us the victory.
Friends, it is the mystery of:
2 CORINTHIANS 4:
So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
Now, a ministry son or church member wakes up one day and gifts his spiritual father a car that’s worth millions of naira or builds him a house and you see people on social media ranting.
Do you know “the death process” that ministers have gone through to bring life to the people of God under their watch?
Now this is a brotherly counsel: NEVER ATTACK THE HARVEST OF OTHER MINISTERS.
IF YOU WANT TO SEE AND ENJOY YOUR OWN HARVEST, PLEASE DON’T ATTACK THE HARVEST OF OTHERS.
Many ministers fast and pray day and night to see their members established in the plan and purpose of God while those members are eating fried chicken and drinking cold juice and enjoying themselves.
You see, it is the mystery of:
2 CORINTHIANS 4:
So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
I want to encourage you as a minister not to be weary in well doing, for in due season, you shall reap if you faint not – Gal.6:9.
Always know that there’s A PRICE OF CONSECRATION to pay in ministry and THAT PRICE IS NOT GREATER THAN GOD’S GRACE.
Know for sure that CONSECRATION PRECEDES COMPENSATION IN MINISTRY.
If you play your part, with LOVE being your primary motivation, then God will REWARD and COMPENSATE you in due season.
I hope this makes little sense Sirs and Mas?
Grace!!!
Source: Bimbo Animashaun Teaching Ministries |Published with permission.
Aphorism CITY 