IF YOU SENSE THE CALL TO MINISTRY (1)

I was once sitting beside a dear teacher in a green room alongside other ministers.  She turned and said, “Pastor Temi, you make it so easy to teach you. I love your meekness”. I thanked her but then said, “Ma, I made enough mistakes trying to figure it out myself that I knew at a point that I could not continue like that.” 

Ministry is not done by talent but by training. Ministry is not done by oration but through adequate preparation. A dear teacher once told me, “At times, the urgency you sense in your spirit is not the urgency to run but the urgency to prepare to run.”

You cannot raise men if you were not raised. The curriculum that raises great men for the Lord is mastered in the place of service, following and apprenticeship. 

I know our generation does not like hearing about things like apprenticeship. It looks like a dirty word connected with menial tasks like mechanics, carpenters, tailors, bricklayers and the rest of it. However, would you believe that is a sure pathway to greatness?

The truth about life is that if you do not learn in humility, you will soon learn when life begins to humiliate you. A fool does not know the way to get things but still sits in pride. Shame is still the promotion of fools. There is no pride in ignorance.

Think about Paul and Barnabas; they did all sorts of “ministry work” before they got consecrated for the apostolic work. 

Acts 12:25 NKJV

[25] And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministry, and they also took with them John whose surname was Mark.

What ministry did they fulfill? They did evangelism, follow-up, foundation school teachers, welfare support, and pastors protocol for a team of prophets led by Agabus, amongst others. They served and learnt. They ran errands for apostles. Barnabas was sent to bring a report about the work in Antioch. The Antioch church also sent them relief materials during the famine. 

They did not look like the most amazing assignments but they were shaping assignments.  

What is the summary? If you sense the call of God, start with service, learning and growing in your local church. If you are on campus, serve with humility. Do not be in a hurry. The gaps will soon show. Be calm. 

See what the Word said about Prophet Samuel: 

1 Samuel 3:1a ICB

The boy Samuel served the Lord under Eli. 

He served the Lord, howbeit, under a man.