Lesson #1 – If God sends you on a mission, never take a bend without Him.
Few months ago, I was chatting with Segun Eshorun, one of the executives of Christ Lifeline Ministry. While talking, I looked steadfastly at him and said – “you have laboured in this Ministry for a couple of years. If someone asked, what would you say the number one secret of this Ministry is?” Segun looked to the sky and down, and in less than 10 seconds, he said – following the leading of the Holy Spirit. When he said that, I smiled and muttered the following words under my breath – for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father which is in heaven.
Over the years, we keep learning to thrive not based on good ideas, but on God’s ideas. The reason is simple; Christ Lifeline Ministry does not belong to us, but to God. Therefore, we must always remember that God has a way He wants to run His organization. This same thing applies to our lives as believers and every church or Christian organization in the world that is founded based on God’s inspiration. It would be a problem if we started out well with the Spirit of God, but later began to run with ideas of mere men or, imitating other fellow ministers. You don’t run God’s organization by imitation, you run it by inspiration – getting cues from God as you execute His agenda on earth.
I hope the point is driven home as we meditate on Galatians 3:3 (MSG) – “Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Hmm! Many believers are going crazy because they are not following the leading of God. There were times we also went crazy in the Ministry. I recall I once carried some finance permutations for running the Ministry in my head for a few days; for instance, if 500 partners give minimum of a thousand Naira per month, then we can do this and that project every month. But I stopped the craze the day God showed me that you execute divine plans based on God’s leading and not on our financial projections; in fact, the support of one man (through God) can outweigh that of 500. And we have never regretted every instance of following God.
For instance, when we first organized the World Outreach Convention (WoC) in Manchester, we didn’t spend a single dime from our accounts in Nigeria. God had spoken to me about going to Manchester and few days after the vision was shared with other executives, I received a mail that I will be sent on an errand to Manchester by an association I support. And that was the beginning of a miracle. Also, I was in the bathroom in January 2013 when God told me about holding India WoC in February 2013. My first reaction was to protest. I said, “Lord, we just concluded our budget for the year, and it wasn’t budgeted for”. There was no response from Him and we had to swing quickly into action. A week later, a lady that God healed at our Lagos WoC in January 2013 called to inform us that she would like to financially support India WoC. This was just the beginning of another miracle. When we saw the awesomeness of what happened in India, we remembered the principle – when God sends you, He funds you.
We have got hundreds of testimonies. But we believe today you can thank God with us for His constant leading in Christ Lifeline. Also, stop saying you cannot start that ‘God-given mission’ because you don’t have money. You don’t start God’s work with money; you start with Him … and everything you need will follow. And when you have started, never take a bend without Him. It is a great lesson we learnt from Jesus Christ and he described it this way- “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do” John 5:19 (KJVA)