New Assignments, Fresh Networks.

Hello, and how was your weekend? Mine has been fire!!! Both ways… Fire the kind of good and fire the kind of ashes bad. I was so exhausted as the weekend drew to an end. It was amazing on the other hand, and that is what I will be focusing on. Positive Vibes only!

We had a fun day at church school at the Roysambu church on Friday and Saturday. The fun day was actually on Saturday. We spent most of Friday, in a Vacation Bible School kind of setup and Saturday just playing games within the church compound. I was assigned to the teens. I enjoyed my time with them, though I must admit every time I meet them they are new people. Maturity a notch higher, their confidence a notch higher, and even their wisdom higher than the last time.

My Friday night across Saturday was the highlight of my weekend. I am part of the Radical Remnants, Yep! Quite a way to announce this but yes… I joined early this year. My immediate mission teammates Battalion One had a Kesha which was quite the blast! We usually have an online fellowship and communion service every Wednesday evening. This is in addition to the Gathering of Champions Service every Thursday. This particular Kesha is held quarterly. I should add that we also have a prayer mountain experience every two months where there are 3 days & 3 nights of prayer and fasting – Like one scheduled for this week. I will be sharing my journey with school missions a lot in the coming days. There is a whole interesting story about how I have come full circle with missions. 

I took home a few lessons from the fellowship. There are these two amazing pastors who were part of the fellowship. I am still new, so unlike everyone else in the group, I hadn’t met them before. But they are amazing people. They came in around 4 am. Yes. 4 am. We had been waiting for them. We were well aware of their itinerary and we were patient. This reminds me of the parable of the ten virgins waiting for the groom to come… We understood they had two places they were ministering that night and ours was the third. Since ours was home – like he was one of us, we were the most flexible to fit into his schedule. Roughly placed, that night he had left their church’s mini Kesha across town, headed to the second church an hour away, and ministered there, and then after that, he came to our fellowship – luckily just some fifteen minutes away I caught on early in the conversation that in the morning, – well, a few hours later, he would be preaching in another meeting in another town an hour and a half away. 

Honestly, I admired these servants of God. I loved their sacrifice, zeal, and energy. The main reason was for a moment there, I saw myself in him. Also, I felt so validated by that itinerary and the fact that he was energetic about it. Validated in the sense that, on several occasions, I have been made to feel like I am overworking or overstretching myself, or I have set an impossible-to-do list. Like his ministry diary at that corner of the week was pretty thick. And the way he handled it was truly amazing. I was led to ask him how he balances life, ministry, and other aspect of life. The conversation was pretty lengthy and they answered very well. I will narrow it down to the basics.

Know your Calling & Assignment.

It is important to know what the Lord has called you to do. It is also important to know what gifts you carry as a servant of God. When I say, a servant of God, I mean both men and women. So whenever you find me referencing MOGs, I also mean WOG. For instance, the lifestyle of a worshiper is not the same as the lifestyle of an intercessor. The lifestyle of someone carrying the prophetic is not the same as that of one who is operating in the healing gifts. The same applies to the fivefold ministries. Scripture talks about the fivefold ministry that is gifted for the equipping of the church. The lifestyle of an Apostle is not the same as the lifestyle of a Prophet. By the lifestyle, I am talking of the secret place. Times spent in prayer, time spent in the Word, the people to listen to and what have you. While on this he mentioned and explained what a full-time pastor is. or what being in full-time ministry means. Simple; 8/9 am to 4/5 pm like an ordinary work day for other career people is spent in the sanctuary of the Lord tending to pastoral duties. Everything else outside of this is not full-time. I can confidently say without any fear of contradiction that I am not a full-time pastor as per this definition as yet, but I represent God in the marketplace full-time.

‘And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, ‘

Ephesians 4:11-12

Observe Your Patterns & Intentionally Create Time for Rest.

Rest is when you take a break from doing things you are accustomed to. Sleeping is top on the list of what we need to balance and get enough of. Rest is when your body and mind get a chance to recharge and feel refreshed. It is like how our devices need to recharge their batteries, your body needs rest to feel energized and ready for the next day, week, or season. Mondays are mostly the preferred days for servants of God to rest after busy weekends. Observing patterns means that, within the course of your year, month, week, or day, you can tell when you are busiest or when you anticipate to be busy. Then you can adjust accordingly. For instance, in his case, this particular case was busy but he knew the coming week would be free, so he would be having an almost full week of rest in the coming week. Personally, Monday is a day I assigned myself to rest, (well, I try) which includes being indoors on light duty to the extreme of being in bed all day to watching sermons from under the covers.

Study & Learn from Those in a Similar Assignment.

A teacher should spend more time reading and studying as compared to the amount of time in the secret place the intercessor spends in study. If you are a teacher of the word, get to listen to the teachers within your context and other trusted and tested teachers teaching the word elsewhere. Get to know their ways of life and adhere to or pick out the relevant wisdom from them and live according to them. However, we are not downplaying the foundational level of time all servants in the diversities of gifts should spend in the Word and Prayer. There is an additional assignment for the specific assignments. For instance, one who is operating in the Healing gifts would be more effective if they spent time studying fellow servants of God gifted and operating in the Healing gifts above their usual devotional time. A teacher should be a reader, student, or researcher. There are no two ways about it. This pattern of lifestyle ensures that eventually, it gets easier to execute the assignments given without struggle. Preaching and teaching will be very hard if you’re a teacher who doesn’t study. You will be struggling a lot while at it. Picture a praise and worship leader who doesn’t worship in the secret place… or one who doesn’t consider the basics of music, or they don’t train their voices, their breathing et al? Singing will be a burden and they would spend a lot of additional energy while at it.

Create Time for Family.

Family time is important time. Family time is crucial because it nurtures our well-being and strengthens our ministry. Spending quality time with loved ones provides servants of God with much-needed support, love, and rejuvenation amid the demands of ministry. It helps maintain a healthy balance between professional responsibilities and family life, preventing burnout and promoting emotional resilience. Additionally, family time offers the opportunity to lead by example, demonstrating the importance of prioritizing relationships and nurturing a strong sense of unity within our households, which therefore enriches their ability to guide and care for the congregation effectively. There have been cases where servants of God have been too carried away with life outside their homes and forgotten to take care of their families. Children and spouses need to be taken care of. Don’t miss your children’s birthdays and family events so much that you become a stranger to them. Sometimes there will be situations when it is inevitable but make sure you compensate in equal measure.

‘To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:’

Ecclesiastes 3:1

Create Time for God.

Not the least of all, but as servants of God; Men and Women of God, we cannot afford to stay away from the Master. We are who we are because of Him. We need to check our walk with Him. Our time in the secret place in fellowship with Him will allow us to be molded into the people he wants us to be. It is in the secret place – In prayer in Word, in our silent moments that we become equipped for the work that is ahead. The balance that we seek to strike above becomes easier when we allow the Lord himself to teach us. This is an entire topic by itself coz of how wide it gets. It is also because this is the entire story of the bible. Our fellowship with the Lord. How to relate with God, How to walk with God, How to talk to God in the secret place.

I picked out just the few that my mind has stuck on to this point. There was a lot more in the conversations. Matters relationships and social life were also discussed, we had a proper prayer session while it rained outside. The Lord also took an opportunity to speak to me as well here which I am still loading to this point. I am still encouraged to go boldly!!!

Grace & Peace.