The BiVo Minister Blog

BiVo009:Time Tested Tips on How to Maximize Your Prayer Time as a BiVocational Pastor or Minister

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It’s not how loud we shout or how long we pray that make our prayers effective. It is how much faith we have in God to whom we are praying that makes the difference.

There are long prayers that get little results and there are short prayers that get big results. Short prayers that get big results ride on longer prayers that draw us closer to God and humbles us before God. In this episode, I share some tips on how to maximize our prayer times as BiVocational Ministers. Don’t get me wrong! I am not saying you should not spend time in the place of prayer. I am saying make every minute count, no matter how long you spend. That way, longer prayer times means much more results.

Be in the right state of Mind
Submit to the will of God
Interceed
Be Specific
Cultivate the Presence of God.
Resist the Devil.

Resources

The practice of the Presence of God – Bro Lawrence

2 Habits Every BiVocational Minister must have to maintain Power

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It’s so easy to get too busy to pray or study scripture! It’s easier to stir up emotions than to guide the spirit of people to God!

Before we can move people towards God, we must first be moved towards God ourselves.

Getting great reviews from people is not the goal of the Bivocational Minister. Our goal is to reveal Jesus to the blind heart.

It takes a miracle to get a person to truly yield to God! You can easily encourage people to follow some steps to have a better life! However, it takes the power of the Holy Spirit to move people to lay down their ambition and personal goals to follow Jesus.

The power required to minister to people on behalf of God can only be received in the place of prayer and study of the Word.

On this episode of the BiVo Podcast, I encourage BiVo Ministers to prioritize prayer and Bible Study. I also present some tips on how you can develop a more vibrant prayer life.

Resources

You can get all these books for Free. To get it, simply follow this link and enter your name and email.

Win all these books! Sign up Now

The give away closes on Monday June 18, 2018.

Here is the link – https://adesobanjo.com/giveaway

Why Revival Tarries by Leonard Ravenhill – $16.33
The Complete Works of E M Bounds on Prayer – $24.99
The Revival we need by Oswald Smith – $11.36
Love the way to Victory – Kenneth E. Hagin – $19.12
21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership – John Maxwell – $20.64
Side Hustle – From Idea to Income in 27 days – Chris Guillebeau – $29.90
Will It Fly?: How to Test Your Next Business Idea So You Don’t Waste Your Time and Money – Pat Flynn – $21.96
Crushing It!: How Great Entrepreneurs Build Their Business and Influence-and How You Can, Too – Gary Veynerchuck – $22.64

TOTAL – $166.94 + Taxes = $189.00

BiVo007 – Many Vocations but just One Vision

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Have you discovered that as a saint – Deep within you, every other source of fulfillment pales in comparison to the “Well Done” of the Holy Spirit?

Have you noticed how joyful you feel when you are privileged to lead someone to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?

What about the joy of just helping a believer stay on track? As children of God, we have the very life of Christ. Our life goal (yes every single one of us) is to glorify God by lifting up the name of Jesus.

In this episode, I talk about our many vocations and our singular vision.

We are blessed beyond words!

Dealing with Distractions as a BiVocational Minister

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It is very easy to get distracted when you are not sure of what your goal is. For a person who has no clear goal, everything is a distraction! On today’s episode of the BiVo podcast, I share three things that have helped me minimize distractions in my life as a minister! Listen and be blessed.

What divides the BiVo Ministers attention?

Work – Progress, intensity,
Family – Expectations from extended family
Finances – The need to meet basic needs and measure up to societal expectations
Security – The need to build a kingdom and to be safe
Ego – The need to have a name for yourself – To be useful

Solution

Have a very clear vision of what the end goal is (it is what Jesus wants)
Crucified with Christ (no benefit in seeking your own)
Excellent Time Management – Schedule, Schedule, Schedule.

Schedule Prayers
Schedule Bible Study
Schedule your business or work time
Schedule time with family
Schedule church admin responsibilities (hire an admin person if you can afford to)
Schedule sermon preparation
Schedule visitations and personal interactions
Schedule time for personal growth and development
Schedule time for interaction with other ministers
Schedule time for physical workout and exercise – You can add the BiVo Podcast with that.
Schedule some free time into your day or week and have an idea of what you can cancel on your schedule, should the Holy Spirit change your schedule.
The BiVo pastor must continue to grow in the area of scheduling. Try not to take on any new task without knowing where it would fit on your schedule.

Resource

Any.do – A to do list (app) that I have been using for about 5 years.

Branches of Jesus the True Vine

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Every believer is a minister and a branch of Jesus the true vine. We have the same spiritual DNA as Jesus. On this podcast, I encourage BiVo misters to allow this potential become a reality!

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. John 15:5

Table of Contents

Key Points

You are branches of Jesus – so you have access to all that Jesus has. We are potentially like Jesus. We can and should be as fruitful as Jesus.
Every progress we make in the Kingdom should bring glory to Jesus.
Only actions taking in obedience to the Leading of the Holy Spirit is useful for the kingdom
It is Christ’s design to use all that He put in us to bear more fruit
It is futile to build a life or career that is not yielded to God because it amounts to nothing.

Featured Resources

Christian Classic Ethereal – ccel.org – A library of Christian classics – I have found some amazing resources here.
The true Vine by Andrew Murray – Born 1828 and died 1917

Question

How do I express my love to others especially to family and friends

Respond to the prompting of the Holy Spirit
Act in ways that help the other to be more like Jesus
Refrain from acting from a place of
- Anger
- Disappointment
- Need for appreciation and recognition
- Fear of (anger, rejection, complaints)
- Need to return a favour
Try to act within the culture that you are in

Show Transcripts

Yes! Welcome. Today’s topic is A Branch of Jesus, the True Vine. A branch of Jesus the True Vine. I’m taking this topic because I believe it’s the foundation for ministry. Whether as a bi-vocational or just a vocational pastor or minister, I believe this topic is very foundational. So I encourage you to listen to it and really give as much feedback as you can.

Introduction

So before we go ahead as usual, I’ll just like to give you an update on some things, how our lives are going. Last week, I got a big surprise. A very good friend of mine, we’ve known each other from University. Our families are very good friends with one another, we went to school together. As the podcast was aired, I just checked my email and I saw a donation of $500 to support the Bivo Podcast. That was very encouraging because it makes me see that lots of people are being blessed and resources are being made available to bless more people. It cost time and energy and some software to get this out. And I’m so glad that even just as we are beginning, lots of people that believe in us are able to support the ministry. So if you want to support, you are welcome to do so at any time. I’m recording this today still in Canada, in Cornwall, Ontario. And we hope to have a fantastic time together today.

Discussion

Moving on, let’s get to the topic of today, Branches of Jesus, the True Vine. That’s what I want us to consider and I want us to look at it from the point of view that as ministers, that should be the center of our thoughts. I’ll read a scripture. That scripture in John’s Gospel 15:5, has been very foundational for me as a minister.

[Reads John 15:5]

For a long time I didn’t understand why Jesus would say without me, you can do nothing because I know that people who are not Christians, who do not really know God would do a lot of things – a lot of good things even. So I struggled a little bit with understanding that scripture very early on in my ministry and in my life as a Christian. When I got it, it made a big difference in my ministry. But even after the stroke, I even got a bigger understanding of that scripture. And in today’s podcast, I want to highlight just some points. I couldn’t do a complete exposition on this scripture but as an encouragement to pastors out there, ministers out there who are bi-vocational or even full time, I want to encourage us with some points that the Lord has spoken to my heart over the years.

You are branches of Jesus.

That is exciting! Jesus is the One saying, I am the vine and you are the branches and that just gives me joy when I think about that. That I am a branch of Jesus, just as we could say I am a child of Jesus.

That means the DNA, the composition of my spiritual life is the same as the composition of Jesus. Jesus was human on earth just as I am human and whatever He’s able to do or was able to do while on earth, I could do and even more because He is there now in this life powering and inspiring my life. In other words, potentially as believers, we can really act and impact and transform communities just like Jesus did. And I say impact and transform communities because I don’t want people to understand this as something you do to bless yourself or to bless your family.

I have a passion and a desire that people who listen to this are people who want to impact communities, nations and transform the way things are done in the name of Jesus. Bringing light to places where there is darkness and doing that while working in the secular world or whatever way God leads you to do so.

So that’s the first step. You are branches of Jesus and you have access to do as much as Jesus did and the apostles and on and on like that. So that’s the first start. Whether you are working in the workplace or you are working fully behind the pulpit, you are a branch of Jesus. The same power, the same anointing, the same grace… All of it is in us. All! So we especially when we work together, we see even an increase in the move. But even as just one branch – as one time little branch of Christ, you are the composition of Jesus. And I believe that’s what Jesus wanted to impress on the heart of the apostle, to all of us when he made that statement, I am the vine, you are the branches.

To give us an understanding of our potential. What we are made up of. I remember reading about … when I was reading the story of DL Moody that he heard someone say that anyone who is completely yielded to God – to the Holy Spirit can change the nations and make a big impact. And he made up his mind that e will be that person. God used DL Moody to do a lot of work in America and all over the world. And I believe that and that has been very strong in my heart that any man or woman who chooses to allow the Holy Spirit to work fully in them, can change their community, transform the world. So that’s the first point.

Every progress we make in the Kingdom should bring glory to Jesus.

It’s designed like that because as branches, the branches bear the fruit and the glory comes to the whole vine. This is a beautiful vine, it produces good fruit. Nobody praises the branches when the fruit is sweet, when it’s good, big, very juicy. Nobody goes ahead and praises that branch.

What we do usually is kind of praise the vine but really who gets the real praise is the vinedresser. So every progress we make in the kingdom should bring glory to Jesus. In other words, every action we take as pastors, as Bivo Ministers, in the workplace, even in the secular world, must be designed to bring glory to Jesus.

Whatever secular job you do must be designed to bring glory to Jesus. It is important that you are able to think of your work as a tool to bring glory to Jesus. And ask the Holy Spirit to help you see that. Very important. I pray that the Holy Spirit will help each one of us to see how our work contributes to the work of the kingdom. Apart from bringing money, it brings you contacts with people whom your life in the workplace can impact for Jesus and your innovations and whatever you do should at the same time also bring glory to Jesus. That means it will inform the places you can work and the places you can’t work, the types of jobs you can do and the kinds of jobs you cannot do. So think of that and let’s work on that. That brings me to the next step/

Only actions taken in obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit is useful in the kingdom.

You know in that scripture it says He who abides in me and I in him, bears much fruit. Bears much fruit. He who abides in me, that is who rests in me and I in him – allows me to work in him, bears much fruit.

As a Bivo Minister, every time I go to my workplace, every time I’m working, I’m still ministering. And I will like Jesus to work in this workplace with me or in me through me. I want you to imagine Jesus being employed in your workplace or in your business, Jesus is the One that is called to do what we are doing and then try to see how that plays out in your mind.

And then if you can’t see it, if you think that Jesus will not do that work, then begin to ask if it’s time for you to resign and get another job. Now take note that those who are listening to this podcast are people who believe that they are called to ministry. So you are not just a person who is a Christian working. I’m talking of people who are called to ministry.

You see yourself ministering more. You see your primary call as a call to minister and your work in the secular is just a tool. It’s important that you see that. When you see that you have a definite call to the ministry either as an evangelist or helper, musician, teacher… whatever God has put in your heart to do, you see it. You have a heart for souls to be saved. You wish even sometimes you can have all the money in the world so that you can go ahead and spend more time preaching the gospel. And that’s your dream. Your dream is that after a while, your work in the marketplace will become just a provider and a connector to people and you see yourself using the funds and the experience as a tool for ministry. And when you describe yourself to people, you hope and wish there will be a time when you can say to people, I am a minister. I am a servant of the Most High God. That’s my primary definition.

For those people, I want to remind you that even your actions in the marketplace are designed to bring glory to Jesus and you can allow Jesus to work through that to bring glory to Himself and to build the Kingdom.

Only actions taken in obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit is useful for the kingdom. So if you take actions for building yourself, building your ego, making yourself look better without submitting that to Jesus, you may claim that you are doing kingdom work. You may even bring the money that you get by seeking more promotion and seeking your own glory into the church and we may not be able to see that but in the Kingdom, it is obvious that is not what the plan is. And a lot of people have fallen into this trap.

They are pursuing more money, more prestige, more ego at the expense of the call of God on their life. Not that the Holy Spirit wants them to stop their work but He wants them to use it for His glory and they may need to sacrifice some money and some fame in order to get the specific design that God has for them.

And on the other hand, there are people whom God begins to inspire to do more spiritually and in the marketplace to pursue certain innovations and certain businesses such that they can within a couple of years resign from the work.

He is giving some ideas, some focus. Some need to do some excellent work and these people find themselves not focusing on the work and doing it well and bringing glory to Jesus even in the marketplace and so those people too are not doing the right thing.

So if you ought to be studying and really thinking about the work that God has put in your hands – your marketplace work such that God wants you to really become the best in that field so that you can have more influence, if you ignore that and you go spend your time in the church having activities, you are also not doing the kingdom work. And we may be thinking, Wow! This brother is dedicated. He is always at church but that’s not what the kingdom business is.

You’ll notice as you listen to me that I don’t have any formula for anybody. My only formula, my only rule is listen to the Holy Spirit. You should notice that because I have discovered that the Holy Spirit, He’s so wise. He doesn’t work in only one way. He works in so many different ways with every single person.

It is Christ’s design to use all that He put in us to bear more fruit.

It is Christ’s design to use all that He put in us to bear more fruit. So everything can be used. The one who is focusing and developing himself in the marketplace with the heart for Jesus is doing God’s work. The one who needs to let go of certain promotions and some trainings in order to do the work is also doing God’s work. What matters is what is God saying to each person? Last point I have here for today’s podcast is,

It is futile to build a life of career that is not yielded to God because it amounts to nothing.

It is important that we take note of this. I’ve said that before. I want to reiterate that whatever you are building, whether you are building a church or building marketplace career, it is of no use to do all that only to find out at the end of your life that that is not what Jesus asked you to do. People may applaud you that you are doing well, you’ve made a lot of money but that’s not what matters.

When we meet with our Savior, we want to be able to say, “Lord Jesus I have done all that you told me to do.” There is a story about the talent. I’m going to talk about that in another podcast. I want you to remember this. What matters is what God put in your hands, you used it. Not that you impressed the neighbor or you had lots of money or you had lots of fame.

This may be obvious to some people but to others, it may not be. Now I mentioned a scripture about people saying that you cannot do marketplace ministry because you cannot serve God and Mammon. I believe that there are people who are doing ministry within the church who are serving mammon – who are using ministry for money just to get food on their table. That’s also serving mammon and there are people in the marketplace who are using the marketplace for ministry. That’s serving God.

It’s not the outward action that matters the most. It is the inward motivations. Now we know that the inward motivations will reflect on the outward but you need to know the design, to know whether they are doing the right thing or not. Of course we can always know that by looking at the fruit. What do the people who come out of the interactions of these individuals look like? If the people that interact with you over the last 5 years are beginning to look like Jesus, then there’s fruit. But if the people that are interacting with you are not looking like Jesus, you work 5 years with Christ, you walk with Him and you can’t see much then there is a need to go back to the drawing table and see what’s going on there.

Anyway, that’s where I’m going to stop from today’s podcast. Well continue there next week. I’ll go now to the resources I have for you for this week.

Resources

I have 2 resources I want you to take a look at. The first one is the website www.ccel.org. Christian Classic Ethereal Library. A library of Christian Classics. I found this very useful, discovered it long time ago and I’ve found several materials. They are very good. Very good. Old writings by people who have written long time. The Nicene Fathers … that means really old books. Just to know what’s going on. There are some good books that are contemporary. I encourage you to visit that site, you will really be blessed.

The next one is the True Vine by Andrew Murray.

What I was talking about today, you will read a devotional, a 31-day devotional on the True Vine by Pastor Andrew Murray. He was born in 1828. He died in 1917 and I really have been blessed by the devotional and other writings by Andrew Murray. I encourage you to follow Him and read the materials. You will be blessed.

Question & Answer

So finally, the question that I have to answer today, it’s about love. Here’s the audio. I hope you are able to listen to it. It may not be as clear but let’s take a listen.

[Plays Audio]

Voice: Hi Pastor! Thank you so much for your testimony that has really been encouraging. Yeah! You really talked about love. The problem I have is I know I love people but I don’t know how to really express it. It’s a struggle. I struggle a lot. I love people but I don’t know how to really express my love. Even though by the grace, I am a Christian, I have a passion for the work of God. I help people. In fact, I have a helping ministry and I try my best.

But I know that especially people around me, my family, I always felt that I am not expressing my love enough to them or either feeling shy because of the background, I don’t know how to really express it or how will I really call it? But I know I struggle to really express my love especially to my family, most especially. Though people around, I help them, I give things out, I go for evangelism, I have a passion for souls, I have a passion for people but the way you are talking about…

Host: So in answering that, I’ll reframe the question to this way: How do I express my love to others especially to family and friends? How do I express the love of God that is in me?

And I started answering that question last week and I said I’d do some more this week. So here are my thoughts. Just a few thoughts. The first one is – Respond to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. That is always my answer. I know that it’s too cliché maybe but I don’t have any other way to say that. I just have to say it because that’s what I do. Respond to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Whatever He tells you to do for someone that will bless them, do it. Don’t explain it away. Just go ahead and bless them. If you are in marriage already, you are married, you will discuss it of course with your significant other and with your spouse and do what God is asking you to do. Of course, you need to agree to do it. Don’t split the home and say the Holy Spirit said that. Just discuss it and move on with that.

The next one is acting in ways that help others to be more like Jesus. Always in relating to people, that’s what I do, I ask myself how will this action help them to be more like Jesus? If they feel loved and I can share with them, they will feel more like Jesus. And I go for it. I want to do that all the time, as much as it lies within my power.

Number 3, listen non-judgmentally to them. That is, give them time to speak their mind. Whatever is going through their hearts, whatever questions they have, take time to listen to them. This is a very powerful way to show love to people.

Just take your time, sit down, listen, ask questions, don’t judge until you know everything and even when you know everything, begin from the place of understanding.

Imagine you are the one that fell into whatever trap they are in and begin to walk with them out of that problem. See how you can lift them up like Jesus. He who has no sin, let him cast the first stone. That’s the way. Get the person out of the problem and not push them down in the problem and labor them.

The next point is, refrain from acting from a place of anger, disappointment, need for appreciation, fear of the other person be angry at you. I’ll go over that.

Just don’t do anything just because you are angry at somebody. You know some people they are angry about what someone has done so they act based on that. No! Don’t act based on that. You can be angry but when you are taking an action, take it based on the leading of the Holy Spirit.

You can be disappointed. You don’t need to… We can work on not being disappointed because humans can fail but even when you are disappointed, don’t let your next action be based on that disappointment. Stop the disappointment where it is and take action by the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Ask the Holy Spirit, Lord, I’m really disappointed, what do I do now?

Then don’t take action because you need somebody to say, “Oh! What a wonderful person.” Don’t go giving gifts to leaders or to members or to neighbors just because you want them to say Wow! What a good neighbor. Or you want to be recognized in the meeting. Do it because you feel that it will lead them to Jesus or because you feel that the Holy Spirit is leading you.

You sense in your spirit that is what the Lord wants you to do. Don’t act also because you are afraid that somebody will be angry at you. If I don’t attend their birthday party, they are going to be angry at me or they are going to reject me next time. They are not going to attend mine or they are already complaining, so I need to do that. When you do that, it’s not love. It’s fear and love pushes fear away. Faith pushes fear away. So I want you to take note of these things, begin to look at your life and see where you are doing all these and begin to ask the Holy Spirit to help you to overcome them.

The last one is don’t do it because you need to return a favor. Someone blessed you before and you had to bless them back and then that’s why you took the action. No! Let’s always allow our action to be based on the Holy Spirit leading us on what to do and as we practice this, we get better at this. Nobody suddenly does this all the time. It’s because when you begin to be conscious of the fact that where is my action coming from? What’s motivating this action? Over time, you begin to default into really allowing the Holy Spirit to lead you all the time and we’ll begin to see fruit everywhere. Jesus is lifted up all the time and the glory of God is spreading all around our community.

Finally I want to say try to act within the culture you are in. Try to act within the culture you are in. In Montreal, when we greet one another in church, they know we have the kiss at the left and at the right. In some other culture, you can’t do that. That’s just wrong. They don’t see that as right. Some places they hug one another when they meet each other. Other places they have a handshake. Find out what culture you are in and there are so many other things – giving gifts, serving food, not serving food, and family members. If you are really focusing on family, then you know your family. You know what they like, what they don’t like. Work within that and do what the Holy Spirit tells you to do and you will be on your way to learning how to really express the love of God that is already in your heart to others.

So I hope that helps and thank you very much for this episode of the podcast. God bless you. Father, I pray for more revelation of yourself to us. Help us, everyone listening to realize that without you, we are nothing. We really need you every moment to do everything that is useful in the kingdom. Everything we do must be done according to your leading for kingdom building. It must be you.

I pray that all our actions today will be surrendered to you and you will take all the glory. And Father help us. We have done so many things, built so many castles and done many things that we really never consulted you about. We pray that Lord you would take all these things and use them for your glory and guide us on how to move forward from today. Thank you Father, in Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Thank you for listening to the Bivo Podcast. Don’t forget to head onto adesobanjo.com where you can join the conversation. As well, you can see my links to the resources that I mention on this episode and you can also. sk your question. There is a red button on the rright-handside. Click on it and record your questions and I will be glad to feature it on this podcast. If this is your first episode of the Bivo Podcast, then I encourage you to listen to the older episode. There you will listen to the story of how God restored me after having a stroke and I couldn’t even walk. Listen and enjoy and be encouraged and grasp some of the lessons that the Lord taught me without having to go through a similar trauma.

[Outro Music]

The BiVocational Ministers’ Dilemma!!!

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BiVocational Pastors Podcast

Table of Contents

What is the dilemma of the BiVo minister?

You wonder whether to pursue a career in the marketplace or in the ministry. There is always this tension about what to give the most of your energy and time to. This dilemma is not unique to the BiVo minister!

However, for the BiVo minister, you sense a leading not to choose just one. When we all come to the point of making this decision, we must all choose to give our best time to the Kingdom business!

Our King will then teach you how to spend your allotted time! It could be by spending more time within a religious context or in the marketplace or both.

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. – Matt 6:33

How does this play out?

Unite your life – make everything about the kingdom – Don’t look for balance, look rather for unity in your life.
Follow the leading of the Holy Spirit to introduce more people to Jesus! Ask God to help you to have the Kingdom of God as the top priority for your life.
Love like Jesus Loves.

Resources:

Blue Letter Bible – https://www.blueletterbible.org/

Show Transcript

[Intro Music]

Hello and welcome to the Bivo Podcast – A podcast for pastors, church planters, ministers, anyone who is doing the work of ministry and working in the marketplace at the same time. This is your time of encouragement and I’m your host, Ade Sobanjo.

Hello Everybody! Welcome again to the Bivo Podcast.

Yes, as I usually do, I start with just some personal info about myself so you get to know who I am and why I do what I do. Yeah! We have 2 boys, Demilade and Damilola. We call them Demi and Damilola. Yes! And they are wonderful children. They’ve been going with us into the mission field and into the ministry since they were born. So, they are pastor’s kids and we trust God that God would use them even greater than He has used us. They are in school right now and I’m recording this from Cornwall, Ontario. They are in school right now and I’m going to get them in a couple of hours and we are going to be doing what we normally do – hang out and play on the computer and teach them a few stuff. They are good children. So, that’s that for now.

Let’s get into today’s discussion. Yeah, I forgot to mention that this is the weekend when the women in our church come together and invite other people to enjoy the presence of God. So, Pastor Olu my wife, is busy with all that this weekend. It’s Vessels of Grace Conference. It’s a powerful conference and women all over the world are being blessed by that conference. And also, I know that some of us may not know that my wife, Pastor Olu, is also doing a podcast called Like Jesus – Like Jesus Podcast. Powerful podcast! She started it about a year or more ago – about 13 months now and it’s been going very well. So, if you’ve not checked it out, I want you to head over to your iTunes or whatever podcasting software you use and search for Sobanjo or search for Like Jesus Podcast and you will be blessed. I assure you, you will be blessed. She has some very good people on and she has some very good topics. So, go over to that and be blessed.

Okay! Let’s get into today’s discussion – The Bi-vocational Minister’s Dilemma. I want to discuss it because that’s what I felt before I moved into full-time ministry and then back into BiVo ministry. So, here is it. You’re a minister and you find yourself also working in the marketplace, the question is where do you put all of your energy? Because as human beings, I think somehow, we find ourselves needing to put our energy in one thing and doing it well. So, as Bivo Pastors or Ministers, you don’t want to be ineffective in both. You want to be effective as a minister and effective as a worker in the marketplace. Because if you are ineffective as a worker, then you begin to pull down the effectiveness even of your ministry in the marketplace. So there’s this tension – what do I do? Do I pursue a career and go all out to be the best in my career or do I pursue ministry and put this career on a backburner and leave it and get into the ministry all of the time? So, there’s this tension always there for a Bi-vocational Minister.

And today, I want to address that because I felt that. I remember in 2007 when the Lord was guiding me to let go of my business and really put all of my heart into building the church that He has called me to build with my wife. What I felt was that when I meet people, I wouldn’t know what to tell them because if you want to build your business, you will have to have your business cards at hand all time and even in parties, on the way, in the bus. Wherever you meet people, you let them know that I set up computers, I set up websites, I do all that and you give them your card but at the same time, I wanted to build the church. I wanted to let the people know that I am a pastor and I’m interested in the spiritual well-being of people. I want them to know that Jesus is real. God is very real, He loves them and He wants to interact with them. So, when I met people, I had this tension – what do I do? What do I say? I would like to answer that because after growing in this ministry for a while, I have discovered a better way to handle things. Because many people that we deal with, have that question and so, what do you do when you have this dilemma when you have this tension on how do I live my life? I want to use a scripture that has really spoken to my heart and has helped me a lot. That scripture is Matthew 6:33, Seek the Kingdom of God above all else and live righteously and He will give you everything you need. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else and live righteously and He will give you everything you need. That’s the New Living Translation and that’s what I use to answer that question. Seek the kingdom of God above all else. Let it be your driving goal. I know that this is not easy. It’s not what many people would want to hear but for a minister – if you are a minister, if you are called to the work of ministry, then you should seek God’s Kingdom above all else. That’s your life. Your life and my life is the Kingdom of God. And what does that really mean? What that means is that when you wake up in the morning, your goal – you have a goal, your goal should be that the kingdom of God will be advanced in one way or the other. And if that is your goal, then it makes life a little bit easier because now, you have one goal. And what’s that one goal? That the Kingdom of God would be advanced every day of your life. So, the only problem now would be, what tool should I use? Should I use the tool of the marketplace? Or should I use the tool of the vocation of the pastor or minister or evangelist? Or do I use both? Now, once you know what tool to use then problem solved!

But before we go to the tools, we need to determine the goal. Every Christian need to get to a point where they determine in their lives that you know what? I don’t have any personal goal for my life. I’m nothing in the grand scale of things. God is everything. We have to prove that we would live all our lives for His kingdom. We must be able to speak like Paul says, I am the servant of God. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, sent by Jesus, so to say. We must be willing to obey what Jesus says that if anyone would follow me, he must be willing to take up His cross. That means put a hold on your own personal ambitions and your life and follow Him. And so, once you settle this – everyone needs to. I don’t know where you are right now in your journey of ministry. You need to get to a point where you make up your mind and say, You know what? I’m not pursuing no career. I’m just following Jesus. My goal in life is to get as many people into the kingdom of course, myself, to be in that Kingdom and to live fully as Christ wants me to live.

Once that decision is made then you will now ask yourself, what is the best tool to do that? For some, it will be secular ministry – working in the marketplace place. That’s the best way for them to draw others into the Kingdom. And I know I have met people who are doing very well in the marketplace and they are really drawing people. They attract people to Jesus, bring people to their pastors and to the church and they are ministering, leading people to Christ, getting them saved and baptized.

I don’t know if those people will do as well behind the pulpit, serving in the church. So, some are like that. Some will be better off on the pulpit preaching, doing evangelistic outreaches and ministering to people on the street or music. Whatever God calls you to do, if He wants you to do it full time, you do it because your goal is to build the kingdom not to build a career.

The last set of people are those whom He has called to do both. They will focus on ministry because that’s what every Christian is supposed to focus on but they will be allowed and given the grace to balance it out by being in the marketplace. So whatever He tells you to do, you choose to do that. You follow instruction.

So how do I put this? I put it in 2 points. The first point, Unite your life. Make everything in your life about the kingdom. Don’t look for balance. Don’t say, I spend sometime in the ministry and I’ll spend some time doing my own thing. There’s nothing like that. It’s one thing. Everything is for God so unify your life. Don’t look for balance rather look for unity in your life. That’s the first step.

The second step is follow the leading of the Holy Spirit to introduce you and many people to the kingdom. So, you need to always follow the instructions of the Holy Spirit. Like in my own case, I had to leave the business for a while and spend all my time in the church office praying and then on the street evangelizing, talking to people, connecting with people to build the Kingdom – to build the work of God. In some other people’s cases, that is not what it would require. So we follow. We follow.

The third thing is live righteously i.e. love like Jesus loves. Live righteously! Love like Jesus loves. So that scripture answers that question – captures this dilemma and solves it. Seek the kingdom of God above all else, that is above having a nice car, above having a beautiful house, above having children that go to the best schools. Seek the Kingdom above your own life, above all else then live righteously. Love like Jesus loves and He will give you everything you need. So, all the other things that others are running after, becomes a responsibility of God for your life. So, He may ask you to continue to lecture for example if you are a lecturer or professor, He will ask you to stay in school and teach because He knows that is the best way to reach out to those children, those young ones that He needs them to work in His Kingdom. So, you don’t just jump out of your work and start doing ministry. No! Or set up a program and start doing it or open up a church… No! You don’t do that. You desire to see God’s kingdom expanded and you ask for the instruction on how to do it.

Then, I’m asking and this whole podcast is about people whom God will ask to do the ministry work and also keep their marketplace work. Because there are so many thousands of people that are doing that now because God is asking them to do it. Some people are in a full-time ministry, behind the pulpit, in the street doing some work, who ought to add some work in the marketplace to their plate. And there are some who are in the marketplace, who ought to be in ministry but they are afraid. They are thinking, if I’m going to do ministry, then I have to get out of the marketplace. So there’s that tension. So I’ve heard people say that when you are called to ministry, that’s your work. You can’t do any other thing, you can’t mix it. You can’t serve God and Mammon, that’s how they put it. But that’s not what that scripture is saying. Working in the secular or in the marketplace is not serving Mammon. That’s just a platform for serving God. You can reach more people in the marketplace sometimes than behind the pulpit.

So, this is just what the Lord has opened my eyes to see as I’ve worked in the ministry for a while now. I’ve discovered that everything in one’s life – your home, the way you love your children, the way you play with them, your community, the way you attend the community event, all of them, all of these things are missional work. They are ministry. You can see everything as one. Going to the grocery, whatever you are doing, everything is ministry. There is nothing… We don’t try to balance things out. I’ll do some when I’m in church. It’s ministry and then every other thing is my stuff. There’s no “your stuff”. Everything of the Christian, of the believer is God’s. So, we must see that and that will help us a lot.

Now, the next thing I will like to talk about is just some steps, some practical steps that I have used over the years, some things that I have learnt over the years that can help either way. Whatever type of minister you are, as long as you love to serve the Lord, if you take some of these points, it will help.

I read a lot about God’s provision for His servant. That’s what I do. When I didn’t understand how God is going to provide, I began to read books about men of God – George Muller, John G Lake, Bishop TD Jakes, David Yungi-Choo and different other people. It helped me to have faith to know that God has got my back. He will provide. He will fulfill what He said. He will provide everything you need.
I did not do this enough but I know that each time I look back to how God provided, I feel so blessed. Writing down God’s provision. That’s number 2 – to write down. Each time God blesses you, put it down. Record it so that you can go back to look at it and say, my God is a great provider.
Remind yourself everyday that your Father owns the earth and you don’t lack. God owns the earth. In serving Him, we cannot lack. So it’s important that we think about these things. Even when you are a Bivo Minister and you are working at an office and you are earning good money, you must remember that sometimes He will demand you to have faith for even more to do the work. So remind yourself everyday that God is a provider.
Reject and resist every temptation to complain. So don’t complain that you don’t have time. The people that are Bivo, they don’t have as much time as the people that are working full-time in the ministry, in the church, in the spring context. They don’t have as much time. Don’t complain about time. Those who don’t have as much money, don’t complain. Just believe that Jesus is the owner of your life and that everything is working according to His plans and let’s just listen.
Ask for a wisdom to cut down expenses. Be willing to wear used clothes and shoes. Trust God that your equipment at home will not break down, buy some appliances used, do without anything you can do without. You know, my wife, God helped her and she had the grace to manage things. I believe that as Christians, as children of God, God brings us into different situations at different times even as bi-vocational ministers. The Lord may require that you take a chunk of the money that He is giving you to do some ministry and you may have to do without. Learn to do that. That’s what God is training us to do and that’s what God requires from us.
If your spouse will be available to work, that’s number 6, let him work. Let her work.
Work harder in ministry than you would have worked even in an office. So, if you are in the place where you are working as a minister right now and you are thinking of getting a Bivo job to supplement that, then put a lot of time into the work in the ministry as much as you will put in the work outside. Go in the office… Like that’s what I did. I go in the office, spent time praying, spoke to people and today, I spend a lot of time doing the work of ministry and I spend one or two hours doing the work where God has used to bless the work that we are doing – to provide. I just work one hour or two hours on the computer and some weeks, I don’t touch the computer to do any of my blogging or anything because there is a passion for God’s work.
Produce High-quality content. Record your sermons. Whatever you are doing in the ministry, make it very organized so that you can replicate. As BiVo ministers, we don’t have enough time. We don’t have too much time so you need to be able to recycle what you are doing. I didn’t do a lot of this earlier but I’m seeing the importance of this now which is putting things down things. Write down your sermons, prepare them well, record them, use them over and over again as you disciple people.

Start a family business if God allows you to do that. Be joyful in everything. And lastly, this is a journey. It always gets better. It always gets better. I’m a testimony to that. Our family is a testimony to that. Our lives are always getting better and we are always getting better at doing things in the ministry. Why? Because we are learning more. We are getting closer to God. We have more faith in the fact that our Father knows what concerns us and what’s best to move His kingdom forward.

If you decide to go on a ride with Jesus on the BiVo ministry or full-time [it depends on what God tells you to do at different points in your life], I want to assure you that once you decide that God’s call for your life is the most important thing, the Kingdom of God is your highest priority, it’d only get better.

The biggest problem that many of the children of God have is trying to struggle between their own life and God’s life. They begin to say, what about me? What about me? In the Kingdom, once you are in the Kingdom, God takes care of you. God’s got your back. He will provide everything you need. That’s His own responsibility and your responsibility, your call is to listen and say, Lord, what do you want me to do this week? How do you want to move. I know people have looked at our lives and they don’t understand how we live our lives. Because when we listen, when you listen to God, sometimes He’d ask you to do something that may not be rationally the best. In other words, you may look like… You know you have this job and the job pays so much – say 100,000 a year and the Lord who is calling you to ministry may say, you know what? You need to take a job of 50,000 so that you can have more time. How are you going to respond to that? When you tell your friends that or family that, they think you are foolish. I know the Kingdom needs money but maybe that’s not what God needs from you. He needs your time.

In other case, God may ask you to change jobs or change cities because He wants to give you a job that demands less of your time but pays more so that you can have more money to do the work of God. But you don’t know that at the moment so it looks as if it’s not the right thing to do. How do we know what’s right to do? We wait on God. We let Him guide us.

I want to say this to wrap up this session. There are no fixed answers when working with God. Nobody can tell you exactly what you should do. Each person must receive direction from the Holy Spirit. You need to receive direction from the Holy Spirit for your life, for your ministry and know that those directions will be within biblical parameters. He’s not going to tell you to do something that is not biblical but when you follow, your joy will be full. You will have peace in your heart and you will have fruit in your ministry.

Thank you. That’s where I’m going to stop for now. And in the next session where I talk about resources,

Resources Segment

I will like to mention that the resource I want to leave with you this week is a website called the Blue Letter Bible. So you just go on Google and type Blue Letter Bible. It’s a website that I have used since when I was in theological school. It gives you an interlinear Bible ie it shows you the Greek and the Hebrew words for each of the words that you read in the Bible. And it’s very helpful. I’ve found it very helpful so I encourage you to go to Blue Letter Bible and it has several commentaries and comments. It’s a very useful resource. I used it and I encourage you to use it as well. So thank you very much.

Question and Answer Segment

Now, let’s get into the question and answer time. Today, I don’t have a lot of time to answer questions. I have one question that I want to answer in today’s segment and that is something someone asked me a few weeks ago that I’d like to talk about – love. She says she doesn’t really know how to express love and I think that’s a big question. Any Bivo pastor, any minister actually, our work is loving like Jesus loves. So, the call for a pastor is to love exactly and allow love to flow from their heart to the other person. And this sister says, I don’t know how to express the love especially to my family members. I don’t know how to express love.

I’m going to answer that question briefly today and the next week, I’ll answer it more. I’ll take more time to talk about how to express the love of Christ. How to love like Jesus does. In answering that question briefly, I would say this.

To love is to respond the move of the Holy Spirit in your heart. The way to love is to respond to the move of the Holy Spirit in your heart. Because we are filled with the love of God even those who are shy, find themselves taking the right action. If you find a woman who is so shy or a man who is so shy, doesn’t really like to talk in public or does not really like to act out in public and you set their car or their home or their dogs, (God forbid ) even something very precious to them on fire, you will see them act.

Why did they act? Because they love that stuff and that stuff means a lot to them so you’d see them act. Something they live is being destroyed then you will see them act. At that point, nobody is thinking about, “Oh what would people say about me, the way I’m running to pick my phone out of the fire or the way I’m trying to rescue my dogs from the fire or the way I’m trying to rescue my child from the fire [God forbid]?” Now, why am I saying this? I’m saying that when the live of God fills our heart, we find ourselves responding the way Jesus will respond.

So what do we do? We allow the love of God fill our hearts. How do we allow the love of God to fill our hearts? By faith. Everything in the Kingdom is done by faith. We got born again by faith. We simply believed the Word that God made real to us and we started acting on it. So how do we respond in love?

How do we act in love? First thing we do, you believe that the love of God is in your heart. I think for that sister, she knew that… She says, “I know that I love people in my heart but I don’t know how to act, I don’t know how to respond…”You don’t need to think about how to respond for now. You just think about what’s best for this person and as you meditate on what’s best for this person and you meditate on Lord, how do I express this thing that is the best for this person in the capacity that I have? And the you act. Some people would respond by giving. Some would respond by praying. Some would respond by talking to the person. Some would respond by sharing. Some are very touchy-feely, they hug and they touch. What matters is that you move that person from where they are to the better position that is within your power as the Holy Spirit walks with you. As you do that, you are loving. You know, there is no fixed way of loving.

Every person will love in a different way. That’s why we are unique. So that’s the answer to that question. As BiVo Ministers, that’s our big work because you bring in love to the workplace. It’s not the same as in the church where the people are expected to love, there is an expectation. But you are in a place where there is no boundary. In short, you are not expected to act in love. You are expected to work and find a way to outsmart the other person. Sometimes, the environment that we work in, you are trying to be the better person and to rise up beyond the other person but we are called to love within that context.

So, I encourage you. Next week, I’m going to talk more about that – how to really love like Jesus loves. God bless you. Thank you for listening. Don’t forget to head over to adesobanjo.com and leave your questions. This segment is for questions and answers and I will like to share the recordings with people. So go to the website, click on that red button and record the question. It’s only 90 seconds so make it sharp and make it fast and concise. I’m going to be willing to share some of it with us and answer them. God bless you.

Father, we thank you for everyone that has listened to this. We pray that your blessing will rest on this and the words will impact everyone that is listening. Faith will rise in our hearts and we will take actions and live for you and build this kingdom that you have given to us. You brought us into this kingdom and we appreciate it and we pray that many more will be brought into this kingdom this week, in Jesus name, Amen.

God bless you. Bye Bye!

My BiVo Story – How God Provides for His Servants

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Every skill, experience or training you have can be used by God when truly surrendered to Him. God is using so many BiVocational Ministers today to do great exploits. This is a summary of how God has been providing for me and my family as we yield to His leading daily.

Resources

BiVO: A Modern-Day Guide for BiVocational Saints buy Hugh Halter.

George Muller

Who is a BiVocational Pastor or Minister?

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Who is a BiVocational Minister?

You sense a call to ministry or you are already in ministry and

you need to work in the marketplace to supplement your income.
you do not want to burden the people you are ministering to at the initial stages of the work.
you have a call to the marketplace as well. And you use the marketplace to do effective ministry.

Resources!

Chapter 1 – Introduction (Stroke Recovery Story)

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Ade Sobanjo - My Stroke Recovery Story

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Hello and welcome to the Bivo Podcast – A podcast for pastors, church planters, ministers, anyone who is doing the work of ministry and working at the same time. This is your time of encouragement and I’m your host, Ade Sobanjo.

Welcome!

A stroke will change your life. It has changed the lives of millions of people all over the world and it has ended the lives of many as well. I suffered a stroke on April 7th, 2017 and it has changed my life. Without going into details, let me state that stroke is the leading cause of disability in the USA, Canada and the UK, and it may be the same for most other countries too.

So, this is my story of how God has helped me to recover from stroke and to change my life as a result of that. I want to use this opportunity to share with people who are listening to my podcast, the Bivo Podcast, to know me – to get to know what God has done for me, where I’m from, how I’ve come to become what they hear me. You see, whenever I listen to a speaker, I listen to podcast, I always imagine what’s behind the story of this person that is doing this podcast and what are they? What their story? What has God done in their lives? So I’m giving this out to all my listeners, anyone that is listening to this podcast, you can get to know exactly how I got where I am now especially with regards to this podcast.One of the things that has informed or inspired me to get back on this and really do this very podcast, is the stroke and how I recovered and how I want to live my life as a result of the transformations that have happened to me over the period of about 11 months now. It’s about 11 months since the stroke in April 2017.

So there are a few things that I have learnt and over the next couple of episodes or chapters because this is not… I’m going to release every chapter – all the chapters at once and I’m just going to give it out to everyone to listen. And over this next couple of chapters – I don’t know exactly how many – maybe 8 or 9 chapters, I’m going to sharing what I’ve learnt, the things that have happened to me and what kind of a person I am as a result. I’m going to list them and as I go on, I am going to give you details on how I came to really realize some of these truths – things that I have been talking about that they’ve been become stronger. I’ve known them more, I’ve understood them more and I’ve embraced them some more.

So here’s a list that I have. It’s not exhaustive. It’s just something that we can start with. Before I go on to mention those, I want you to know that I’m doing this because I’ve not yet taken out the time or maybe I’ve not taken enough time to write out. I know that our experiences as we go through things, can bless others and the best way to do it now, is to put it out there in audio format and when I have some more time, I can put together a book which other people can read and help them. I remember when I was going through the stroke and wondering about my recovery. I really wanted to know what has happened to other people. I wanted to know also from a Christian background, a believer going through stroke, what is it like? What were the things that they had to do? So it’s good to put that out. I’m putting it out for everyone to really listen. I pray it blesses you and blesses everybody that gets to download this audio series.

So here are a few things that I’ve learnt.

Life is a gift from God and we should all make the most of it.
We should live our best life always – I should live my best life always.
The Word of God to us – what God says to you in your heart, is your biggest asset. There’s nothing bigger than that.
There is healing in the name of Jesus and you should speak that name with confidence, knowing that there is really healing in that name.
Another point is that it is wise to know how your body works. It’s important to know that.
Using your medication is not a sin.
All things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose. Things really work out for the good of the children of God.
It is a big and important task to strengthen the weak members of the church. The weak members need to be strengthened and it’s very important.
There are some simple but vibrant members of the body and we need to encourage them. So there are people in the church who are just simple, maybe young, maybe they don’t do some complicated things but they are important. They need to be encouraged.
We need to work more on coaching and strengthening our team. It’s a better plan on the long term.
Also, it is impossible to serve God and lose. You don’t lose when you serve God. Every service we give to God is a blessing.
The last one I have here is that pride is a limitation. We should always seek humility. Pride is a limitation. We should always seek humility.

So the way I hope to present my story is to break it down into chapters so that if someone wants to listen to just my recovery story then they can just listen to that episode or that chapter on the recovery. And if someone wants you listen to the different lessons that I’ve learnt, then they will just listen to the lessons. Someone wants to know the background – where were you before the stroke and how did you get to this point before the stroke, then they will just listen to that episode. So, I will share them into those chapters and discuss. I’m just going to discuss as if I’m doing an interview so that I can get this out. I don’t want it to stay too long. It has taken long already and there are some things that I should have put down that I didn’t. So if I put them down now, it’s better than another 2 months when I’ve forgotten some more things.

So, I’m going to go ahead and just begin by saying right now, I’m still recovering from the stroke. It’s not yet 100% but if you see me and you didn’t know that I had a stroke, you wouldn’t think that I had a stroke. In other words, I look as if I’m back but when you watch me walk, you’d notice that there is a limp and when you listen to my speech and compare it very closely with my speech before the stroke, you may notice also that there is a little difference. I do. Maybe no other person does and I think my wife would also notice that but otherwise, you wouldn’t notice. I’m very grateful to God for that and I believe that all that I’ve learnt, is because of God’s mercy.

The chapters that I have written down here is

Number 1 is Introduction, which is what I’m doing. I’m just sharing with you what the whole book is going to be like or the series or the story is going to be like.
And then the first chapter, chapter 1 is about before the stroke. Who was I? Who is Ade? Where was I born? And all that story. My whole background until the stroke.
Chapter 2, I’m going to talk about the stroke.
In chapter 3, there are 3 questions that kept on coming to mind during the stroke and during my recovery in the hospital and the first few months. I’m going to answer those and tell you those questions. Those questions and their answers are the ones that are propelling the rest of my life.
I’m going to talk about living your best life always, loving truly and fully and giving it all away. Those are 3 chapters that really capture those lessons – The major lessons.
Chapter 7 talks about humility. It’s a big one.
Chapter 8 is going to be what I learnt about the brain and my stroke recovery plan – what I trust God to help me to do.
And the last chapter is about the actions that I need to take and encourage you to take.

So that’s the outline of this story and I’m just going to do that as freely… Like I said, I’m going to assume that you are sitting with me at a coffee shop and you want to know, “Tell me about yourself. What happened to you…” I’m just going to answer it that way. It’s not academic. I’m not going to be able to give you very clear references to things or books that I read. I’ll just mention the ones that I have and anyone that I can recall, I will recall them so that other people will get blessed by it. So, each of these recordings, I don’t know how long it will be. I’m just going to talk for as long as it takes to cover each topic and I pray that it blesses you.

So, that’s it for the first chapter. Thank you for staying with me till the end. And see you in chapter 2!

God bless you.

Chapter 2 – My Life before the Stroke (Stroke Recovery Story)

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Ade Sobanjo - My Stroke Recovery Story

Transcript

The 2nd chapter of the book and that is “Before the Stroke, What was my Story?” So once again, my name is Ade Sobanjo – that’s pronounced So-ban-jo. Yeah! That’s not how it was pronounced when I was born but I have since changed that. My wife and I, we decided to change our names because the way it was pronounced, it refers to some deity that my ancestors were worshipping. So now as a family, we call ourselves the “Sobanjo Family”… You remember the instrument of the Banjo? Yeah! We are the happy people – Sobanjos. Yeah, Sobanjo. That’s my name, Ade Sobanjo. That is my name.

Well, I was born in Benin City in Nigeria, in 1975. So now, you guys know how old I am. I am the first of 5 children. One thing I realized when I was growing up as a child, was that I don’t get tired. I don’t want to sleep. I could work as long as it takes. If I have to watch a TV program or a movie, as long as the movie is on – unless it’s really very boring, I could just go on and on, just watch it all through the night and then sleep in the morning. So there was the energy – I had lots of energy. I loved running and I loved good food. I loved the Lord and I gave my life to Christ quite early – when I was just about 8 years old. I went to church – I went to Sunday School and I was thought that Jesus loves me and He wants me to be His friend and He wants to be my friend. And by His mercies and by the cross, I’m going to be cleansed from my being naughty. For some reason, the Holy Spirit used that to touch my heart and that’s how I became born again. I gave my life to Christ that day and I remember! I remember God changing my heart and one of the big things I noticed after I got saved is that I began to love. I began to love people more. And it’s still very characteristic in my life. I love the people of God so much. My heart just breaks when I see people of God suffering. I love people and I think it is not me. I think it is Christ just growing bigger and bigger in me. I really believe that God loves people. God loves people because He has poured that love in my heart.

So, I grew up in Benin City. At the age of 11 in 1986, my mum died. She was shot and that made an impact on my life. She was shot by armed robbers. She was really a rising star – she was a chartered accountant and she was doing very well in the city then with my dad. They both owned their own practice as chartered accountants. One day, they went to work on the 1st of August, and that day, they were supposed to pay the workers and armed robbers came and she was shot. To cut the long story short, that was the last day I ever saw my mum on earth. But I’m really looking forward to seeing her in heaven and I’m sure when she sees me, she’ll say, “Wow how come you are here so quickly?” And I will say “Mom, it’s been a very long time.”

[Chuckles]

Yeah! So my mum died at the age of 40 when I was 11 and I believe that I’m still here for a while. I won’t be surprised if I’m still here at 95.

[Chuckles]

So that’s it! That’s my upbringing. I grew up in a loving home while my mum was there. My dad was very heartbroken. He recovered and started doing some great work. God blessed him, God saved him and he really challenged me in Christian walk. I really count some of the things that I do and I enjoy in life now to just seeing my dad pray in the night and really love God and be transformed. I just enjoy imagining and remembering the way my dad just transformed after he got saved. I remember my transformation and my sisters, they got transformed also and I’m so grateful to God for that. My brother is the last born of the family from my step mom. You know, it’s just a beauty to see what God has done with me.

So, I grew up and went to the university to study Electronics & Electrical Engineering in Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria. I then went to do my Masters in Electrical Engineering,Concordia University in Montreal. And I was looking forward to working as an Engineer and I felt the Lord say to me, “Start your own business.” So we started a computer company – networking, just helping people set up network for small businesses, set up their websites, maintain their computers and I had a string of customers and clients that I was servicing monthly. The company was growing and then I started a school where I was teaching people the same – do websites, and start their own computer repair company.

It was really getting fine when the Lord began to knock on my heart again that He wanted me to plant a church for Him. Before that, I was part of another church and I was gradually becoming one of the pastors there and I was serving. And the Lord said to me, “It’s time to pull out and plant the church that I’ve been talking to you about.” Yes, it’s true I’ve always had that desire to serve God with all my heart and I knew that God was leading me towards planting a church. So, that’s how I was and I gave in and spoke to my pastor. We were prayed for and in July 2005, we launched the Overcomers Assembly in Montreal West in Canada. So that’s as our first church plant. The story of the church plant is another story entirely. How God led us to that particular church building, how it was just the time when another church was moving out and we were coming to share that space with them. They embraced us, gave us space to put our sign and the money was about i think $400 to rent the place then. My tithe and my wife’s tithe was enough to pay the rent and that was how we started. We didn’t even have any children then so it was just 2 of us, the first two members of the church. To cut the long story short, we started the service, the first service and people came and then people left and then people came and then people left and just the story. And after a while, we give glory to God, we went to plant some other churches.

Before the stroke, I was doing well, working really hard. I’ve always been a very hard worker. I really don’t understand when people get tired. I think the way I was wired, I was wired to work and run and I love to run. I could do all that and I thought I was really very healthy. So when we planted the first church, planted the 2nd church in Quebec, planted the 3rd Church in Kingston Ontario. We were doing pretty well in Kingston Ontario. We didn’t know anyone in Kingston when we got there but the Lord led us again and said, “I’m sending you to Kingston Ontario and I want you to plant a church.’ We got there, rented a space. God so worked miraculously to give us that space. We were already planning on go somewhere, a hotel and the Lord sent us to this person “Go to another hotel, the peachtree in the center of Kingston.” You know what? That space became our space and we eventually moved the church now, the new leadership team, we moved them to a bigger space. It’s rare for you to rent a hotel and it becomes a permanent place for the church to rent regularly all year round. It’s rare. There’s no way we could have known that. And it’s just a beautiful place, open and very central, easy for people to get to. All these we did not by strength, just by God’s grace. But of course, a lot of hard work went into it.

We also have this online business that I do, writing some posts and answering questions – information. I do all that. Prior to the stroke, I will work easily – I’ll just be awake. I didn’t count all these as work. I thought I was just having fun but I would work easily just like 12 hours a day, 20 hours a day. I would do my work in Nigeria. Well, I didn’t say that. After a while, in 2014, we actually moved and we felt the Lord leading us to move to Nigeria in Kuje to plant a church. So, we relocated – family, every one of us, we came to Nigeria to plant the church. Of course, we would go back and forth but we came – the whole family. We came not just one person. We all came to Nigeria and we planted a church by His grace in 2014. We started around November. Before that, we had come earlier. I had come earlier to get a space and begin building – physical building, a structure where we have meetings. So we moved in 2014 to Nigeria and so my work increased in the sense that the church is now 4. After that in 2016, we started another church, the St. Lawrence church in Quebec. So now we have 5 churches that I was overseeing and my wife and I being the pastors – the main pastors in the church plant in Nigeria. It was like from scratch and I would work. I loved this work. I loved the people. I loved to serve. And we will serve them all day long. By 9 o’clock here in Kuje in Nigeria, it’s just 3 o’clock in the afternoon in Montreal. So when we are done with that, 10 o’clock, 11 o’clock, I’m still talking with people on the phone in Canada on and on and I will sleep around 3 o’clock and wake up at 6 o’clock and we are out again the day’s job. That’s how I was. I was having lots of fun. I’d run once in a while; I’d try to eat healthy – Nothing fried and no meat. Just chicken and all that stuff and add some fruits and vegetables but not structured. But to the best of my knowledge, I was doing my best and this was going on and that’s how I was living my life.

In 2017, I started with all my heart, ready to even take this to the next level and it’s amazing that somehow my life has gone to the next level but not the way I thought. So I started the year 2017 saying, “You know what? I’m going to do something that I’ve never done before so that I can begin to see more of God in my life.” One of the things that I started to do in 2017 was take 3 days of fasting. I know fasting is good. I’ve been doing fasting before. So in January, the first day of January, I started a fast – 3 days – just water fast, cleansed my system, spent time to pray, studied the Word and I was being loaded with words. God was encouraging me, telling me that He is with us and He is working on us and things are going… February, the same and March the same – at 1st, 2nd & 3rd of March. April the same – 1st, 2nd & 3rd of April, I was fasting, waiting on the Lord in prayer and that’s one thing I don’t think I did, knowing that fasting… Usually I check my blood pressure and see what is going on. In April, I didn’t. Usually when I’m fasting, I don’t check my blood pressure because it usually goes down. It’s lower when you are fasting. But you know what? This time around I didn’t and I still don’t know it was but I didn’t. Anyway, the fast ended I think on Tuesday or Wednesday. Tuesday was the last day I believe or Wednesday. Anyway, the fast was over and I started eating back and things were good. And on Friday, everything was good and I was living the life, I was enjoying myself – really enjoying the word, enjoying prayer. It’s so fun to spend hours and hours just studying the Word and when you are fasting, you are weak so you are not able to run around too much so you are going to sit down and just face the Word and enjoy. I was really – I was having a great time with God. But anyway, I began to… the Friday the 7th of April began very well. I woke up, ready to go to the church to go and start the day. That day, I didn’t go early. I think I just decided to rest at home, be with my wife for a while before we go. She wasn’t feeling well. Anyway, I heard that the storms had taken out the roofs of the church opposite us – taken out the roof completely. In our church, not much affected and I said, “you know what? I’m going to go.” They were building also a baptismal tank in the church and I wanted to go see. And so I got up, ate my breakfast I believe, got into the van and drove down to the church. That’s when I got off the van and I walked to the place where they were doing the work on the baptismal tank behind the church. As I was standing there, I felt that I was about to trip and I noticed that that is not usual. I’m not supposed to be finding it difficult to get my balance and I noted that and that’s the first time I noted that something was wrong. So I really don’t know when the stroke happened or when it started. I have no clue but that was first sign that something had happened. I didn’t take it serious. I just went into my office and relaxed.

So well, I’m not going to go into exactly what happened on the day of the stroke. That’s for the next chapter. I just wanted to use this opportunity to give you just a background of who I am and what my life was all about. I also think I didn’t mention that usually I don’t take time to sit down and watch TV. I do. Not that I have anything wrong with watching some good programming but most times, my hobby was that I will get home, sit on my computer and just write some blogs and answer some questions on my information sites and just research on things. I love reading about business and about innovation and things like that… leadership. So I will spend more time. And I won’t be tired! I’ll just worked on the computer once I’m home. That’s my… Once the boys are in bed around 8:30 in the night, I’ll take my computer and I’ll work on it for a while before maybe taking some calls in Montreal. So that was my life. It was really lovely, really enjoyable. I was having fun. I was energetic. You will never expect stroke. Stroke was the last thing that you’d think will happen to me at that age and with that level of energy.

So that’s it for chapter 2! Well, that’s the first story about myself. So wait for… stay tuned for the next chapter! I’m going tell you about the day of the stroke, my stay in the hospital and maybe a little bit about my recovery. Thank you and see you soon!