The Oxford English Dictionary describes the word, faithful, as staying with or supporting a particular person, organization or belief. Remaining loyal and steadfast is another way an online dictionary describes it. I will use the word faithful here as being loyal to Jesus Christ and steadfast in God’s kingdom service.
After revealing the events of His first phase of coming again, Jesus admonishes His followers to be faithful in serving God because faithfulness to Him guarantees the glorious translation as the rapture takes place.
“Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.” Matthew 24:44-46
Jesus wants everyone to be faithful till the time of His coming. So it is about being loyal to God now and always because there is no holiday in God’s kingdom service. It is not about you being loyal to Jesus today and tomorrow you become loyal to satan and his cohorts. You cannot say you are loyal to Jesus Christ when you are living in unrighteousness.
One starts being loyal to Jesus after confessing Him as Lord and Personal Savior and then forsaking all unrighteousness. Just as Jesus came to do the business of His Father on earth, everyone who receives Jesus as Lord and Savior is saved to serve God acceptably. Acceptable service attracts God’s blessings. Jesus advises us to be in the place of service when He appears. I pray that Jesus will not meet you in a backslidden state in Jesus’ name.
There are different ways to serve God steadfastly. Stewardship in God’s kingdom can be spiritual, physical and financial and so on.
Spiritual Service – Intercessory Prayers
Serving God spiritually involves standing in the gap for His church and praying for the salvation of souls. God gave us instructions to pray for unbelievers to turn to Him.
“Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” Psalms 2:8
Engaging in prayers for lost souls puts the Holy Spirit to work as He convicts and converts them. From today, I urge you to prepare a list of people in your family and neighborhood who are yet to surrender to Jesus and begin to pray for them until they are saved. You can as well pray for God’s servants – workers, missionaries, pastors and so on, asking God to provide for them and preserve them from persecution and all manner of evil; strengthen them and make them super sensitive to His leading.
The Bible says, “There shall be no hurt nor destruction on my holy mountain.” You pray against all forms of attack, violence and emergency in worship centres. There are so many churches or worship centres being attacked in various parts of the world and through prayers some of them would have been averted. May the Holy Spirit guide you to pray for His church.
Spiritual Service – Soul Winning
Aside rendering spiritual service by interceding to advance God’s kingdom, one can also lead unbelievers to Christ rescuing them from perishing. Soul wining is the most rewarding service one can render to God.
Most of the end time signs Jesus narrated in Matthew are manifesting in this generation. Wars and communal conflicts have ravaged people in affected communities and nations. Terrorist attacks have caused loss of lives and property in Nigeria and other parts of the world. Crime rates are on the increase. Armed robbery attacks are heard of almost every hour. Children, girls and women are being raped without pity. For example, the Nigeria Police Force reported up to 717 cases of rape between January and June 2020. Divorce rates are on the increase, as peace is eroded in many homes. Out of frustration and depression, suicide rates are going higher every year across the world. Individuals and families are living in hardship and poverty. Many are suffering from different kinds of diseases, sickness including the COVID-19 pandemic.
How do you and I contribute to bringing solutions to these societal problems? What is the way out? Jesus Christ is the Way out? Working in partnership with Jesus can bring the solution to these problems? Deciding to identify with Jesus Christ and striking a partnership business with Him in soul wining is an honorable service.
According to Luke 15:7, there is joy in heaven over one soul that repents; so soul winners cause God and the angels to rejoice as that is the heartbeat of God. The Bible doesn’t mention that serving as usher, chorister, sanctuary keeper without leading the lost to Christ brings joy in heaven.
Soul winning is simply leading lost souls to Christ. It is telling unsaved individuals about the gospel and through the help of the Holy Spirit ensure they accept Jesus Christ and become His followers. Soul winning is God’s business; soul winners partner with God and this partnership guarantees tremendous success in every area of life.
Jesus said in Luke 2:49, “Do you not know that I must be about my Father’s business. When Jesus met the woman of Samaria and His disciples asked whether He ate anything while they were away, he said, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work.” John 4:34
Jesus, after three and a half years on earth, has continued in this business and has been looking for partners like you. He said, don’t say there are yet four months….lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest (John 4:35). He added that the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
If you cannot preach, you can pray that souls should be saved and abide in Christ; invite sinners to church or sow into crusades and outreaches. Remember to start from your Jerusalem (home) – Acts 1:8, if there are unbelievers. Serving God in soul winning attracts huge benefits from God. Soul winning is God’s business and it is profitable evangelism worth investing in.
Physical Service
Another area one can serve God steadfastly is rendering physical service. This entails using one’s physical ability, talents, gifts, beauty and so on to promote God’s kingdom. You can join a service group or department as the case may be in your local church.
Over time, in my little walk with God, I served in the choir, training members how to sing and leading praise and worship sessions. God has used me to bless lives in this area of service. Further, I served in the evangelism and souls’ establishment unit proclaiming Jesus and following up first time worshippers and new converts. I was part of the missions team that was deployed to a new satellite church planted by one of the fasted growing churches in Nigeria. When we arrived, the worship centre was dilapidated and water flowed into the church any time it rained but God used us to make the place befitting for worship after a couple of years. Glory to God!
So you can be in more than one service unit as you are led to serve by the Holy Spirit. I encourage you to stop being a church goer without faithful service. Look inwards and ask the Holy Spirit to show you what He wants you to do for God. He will guide you either to serve as choir member singing to glorify God or sanctuary keeper cleaning the house of God or place of worship. Some churches have up to 10 service groups to serve in. Take a bold step today to identify with one of these groups. In the day of your challenge, it is your service to God that will speak for you.
In Job 36:11, the Bible says, “If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures”
God’s blessings are guaranteed as you serve Him thereby enjoying long life in pleasures.
Financial Service
One can as well serve God with finances giving to God, His servants, parents and the needy. Giving to God may sound strange to someone reading this article now. It is a matter of your faith in God. When you give to the poor you lend to God. That means He pays you back in multiples of what you gave (Proverbs 19:17).
“He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack.” Proverbs 28:27
You live in financial overflow when sow financial seeds because God multiplies your finances.
“Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown..” (1 Cor 9:10)
There was a time I sowed all my salary for the month to a church project in a local church. Then I earned less than N100,000 in a local non-governmental organization; but after sowing that seed, I got a better job earning five times my previous salary in an international organization. My tithe has not dropped since then. Like I said earlier, it is about your faith in God and His ability. The Bible says we should not appear before the Lord empty.
“And they shall not appear before the LORD empty: Every man shall give as he is able according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee.” Deut 16:16-17)
This tells us that everyone has something to give from God’s blessings, which is applicable to giving your finances. You can sow financial seeds as offerings including prophet offerings and church project offerings, tithes, first fruit among others. So many people are very stingy despite God’s abundant financial blessing upon them. As a result, the flow of financial blessings to them is cut off. You can sow financially as you are led by the Holy Spirit and as the situation demands. In Luke 6:38, the Bible says,
“Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaking together, and running over, shall men give unto your bossom.”
This reveals that when you give your finances, you will definitely reap financial blessings. When you sow, just believe that God has received it and expect your blessing which sometimes come in another form.
Whatever service you are rendering, ensure it is acceptable to God. Paul admonished us Christians in Romans 12:1-2 to render acceptable service by presenting their bodies a living sacrifice.
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
Not all services rendered to God are acceptable. A case in point is Saul, one time king of Israel; he failed to obey God’s instructions and was disconnected from God. Any service rendered in disobedience is in vain. That usher, sanctuary keeper or praise and worship leader that is addicted to fornication, adultery, deceit, telling lies and so on ceases to walk with God. In the area of spiritual service, interceding for the body of Christ, the Bible says the prayer of a sinner is an abomination unto God.
“Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” Isaiah 59:1-2
Remember, Enoch walked with God and was translated. Only those who walk with God can be caught up with the saints. So you can be working for God and not walking with God. What happens to an armed robber who says, “Let me pay my tithe and give offering to appreciate God for a successful bank robbery operation”. Of a truth, that financial service is not acceptable to God.
Jesus said, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in Heaven.” Rendering acceptable service shows one is faithful to God.
Remember, Jesus said He wants to find you faithful in kingdom service when He comes so that you can join Him in the marriage supper (Rev 19:6-9). God bless you as you engage in God’s kingdom service from today.
Sunday Omori
HEM Int'l 