The BiVo Minister Blog

When was the Apostle Paul more Fruitful? While Traveling or while in Prison?

While praying yesterday it suddenly occurred to me that it is impossible to limit a person who is fully yielded to God from being fruitful in ministry.

The things that limit our ministry are never external. The devil can only limit us when we yield internally to his tricks.

Attacks of the devil from outside you can only limit your physical movements or activities but not the power or effectiveness of your ministry. I believe that these attacks of the enemy are used by our loving Heavenly Father to teach us to fight and in the process we become even more effective.

When Paul the apostle was traveling around to preach the good news of the kingdom of God he reach thousands of people. And those people reached other people. However when he was imprisoned he was able to mentor those people and more people by writing letters that are read billions of times every year!

Why did God allow Paul to be imprisoned? Because God knew that the prison would not limit God’s plan in the life of Paul.

When you abandon your life and take up the life of Christ. There is nothing that can limit the life of Christ in you. Limits can only come when we still want something for ourselves.

“But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”
‭‭Acts‬ ‭20:24‬ ‭ESV‬‬

I remember moments in my walk with God when I have recognized a new level of surrender. When I knew that I’m letting go of something that I wanted for myself to get whatever Jesus my Lord was asking!

It takes the grace of God to live as if your life doesn’t belong to you. But I tell you the truth. There is no better way to live.

What are your thoughts? What’s going on in your heart with regards to when Paul was more fruitful? Please share with me in the comments section below.

The Story of Dr. Paul! One decision that made a major difference!

Jesus is the savior of many believers! But He is not yet their Lord. I like going back to this story shared by Watchman Nee in his book titled “The Normal Christian Life“.

Please read it and answer this question.

Is there anything that God wants you to do that you think is too much?

Here is the story as written by Watchman Nee (chapter 8).

The Story of Dr Paul

An American friend, now with the Lord, whose name we will call Paul, cherished the hope from his early youth that one day he would be called “Dr. Paul.” When he was quite a little chap he began to dream of the day when he would enter the university, and he imagined himself first studying for his M.A. degree and then for his Ph.D. Then at length the glad day would arrive when all would greet him as “Dr. Paul.”

The Lord saved him and called him to preach, and before long he became pastor of a large congregation. By that time he had his degree and was studying for his doctorate, but, despite splendid progress in his studies and a good measure of success as a pastor, he was a very dissatisfied man. He was a Christian minister, but his life was not Christ-like; he had the Spirit of God within him, but he did not enjoy the Spirit’s presence or experience His power.

He thought to himself, “I am a preacher of the Gospel and the pastor of a church. I tell my people they should love the Word of God, but I do not really love it myself. I exhort them to pray, but I myself have little inclination to pray. I tell them to live a holy life, but my own life is not holy. I warn them not to love the world, and, though outwardly I shun it, yet in my heart I myself still love it dearly.”

In his distress he cried to the Lord to cause him to know the power of the indwelling Spirit, but though he prayed and prayed for months, no answer came. Then he fasted, and asked the Lord to show him any hindrance there might be in his life. That answer was not long in coming, and it was this: “I long that you should know the power of My Spirit, but your heart is set on something that I do not wish you to have. You have yielded to Me all but one thing, and that one thing you are holding to yourself – your Ph.D.”

Well, to you or me it might be of little consequence whether we were addressed as plain “Mr. Paul” or as “Dr. Paul,” but to him it was his very life. He had dreamed of it from childhood, and labored for it all through his youth, and now the thing he prized above all else was almost within his grasp. In two short months it would be his.

So he reasoned with the Lord in this wise: “Is there any harm for me to be a Doctor of Philosophy? Will it not bring much more glory to Your name to have a Dr. Paul preaching the Gospel than a plain Mr. Paul?

But God does not change His mind, and all Mr. Paul’s sound reasoning did not alter the Lord’s word to him. Every time he prayed about the matter he got the same answer. Then, reasoning having failed, he resorted to bargaining with the Lord. He promised to go here or there, to do this or that, if only the Lord would allow him to have his doctor’s degree; but still the Lord did not change. And all the while Mr. Paul was becoming more and more hungry to know the fullness of the Spirit. This state of affairs continued to within two days of his final examination.

It was Saturday, and Mr. Paul settled down to prepare his sermon for the following day, but, study as he would, he could get no message. The ambition of a lifetime was just within reach of realization, but God made it clear that he must choose between the power he could sway through a doctor’s degree and the power of God’s Spirit swaying his life. That evening he yielded. “Lord,” he said, “I am willing to be plain Mr. Paul all my days, but I want to know the power of the Holy Ghost in my life.”

He rose from his knees, and wrote a letter to his examiners asking to be excused from the examination on the Monday, and giving his reason. He retired, very happy, but not conscious of any unusual experience. Next morning he told his congregation that for the first time in six years he had no sermon to preach, and explained how it came about. The Lord blessed that testimony more abundantly than any of his well-prepared sermons, and from that time God owned him in an altogether new way. From that day he knew separation from the world, no longer merely as an outward thing but as a deep inward reality, and as a result, the blessedness of the Spirit’s presence and power became his daily experience.

God is waiting for a settlement of all our controversies with him. With Mr. Paul it was a question of his doctor’s degree, but with us it may be something quite different.

Our complete surrender of ourselves to the Lord generally hinges upon some one particular thing, and God waits for that one thing. He must have it, for He must have our all. I was greatly impressed by something a great national leader wrote in his autobiography: “I want nothing for myself; I want everything for my country.” If a man can be willing that his country should have everything and he himself nothing, cannot we say to our God: “Lord, I want nothing for myself; I want all for You. I will what You will, and I want to have nothing outside Your will.” Not until we take the place of a servant can He take His place as Lord. He is not calling us to devote ourselves to His cause;

He is asking us to yield ourselves unconditionally to His will.

Are you prepared for that?

Conclusion

Yes Lord! I devote myself completely to You!

I remember very well, how God opened my eyes to see that there is no better job to have on earth than servant of God.

Thank you Lord for choosing me to serve you. And for showing me that Making Disciples is my first and only occupation.

Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Do you know what God is up to in your city?

I sometimes wonder if we as believers know the meaning of the things we claim. For example when we say things like “I spend time with God”. Do you ask about what’s top on God’s mind for your city?

The truth is:

To know what is most important to God in any city, you don’t need a prophecy!

God makes this clear all through scriptures.

God wants all His creations to glorify Him. In particular He wants all humans that are lost to be reconciled to Him. (Luke 15).

So what is God up to?

I’m glad you are asking! This is the first step. To be aware that God has a plan for the city where you live is a good thing.

The next step is to accept that whatever God’s plan is, it has the highest priority on your life!

After that, the next step is to make that plan or desire the most important thing you ask for in prayers daily. Pray about it daily and many times during the day.

Now, what is God up to?

God is drawing people to Himself! God wants everyone in your city to have a taste of His kingdom! And you are just one of His partners.

As you pray for more laborers (Luke 10:2). You will discover more details about what God is doing.

Don’t let anyone deceive you with high sounding prophecies! If you focus on the revealed truth, God will give you more details.

And He will make disciples through you!

In the city of Cornwall, Ontario we are believing and praying to God for 2,500 simple expressions of church (House Churches) to display the Kingdom of God and the love of Jesus in the city!

Share with me! What is God up to in your city?

Do you use a prayer calendar?

I started using a prayer calendar last month and it’s been very powerful! Since last month.

  • It has helped me to pray more specifically for people.
  • It has stirred other believers to pray for members of the body of Christ.
  • It has also helped me to see more clearly that the body of Christ is one.
  • With the prayer calendar, I was inspired to pray specifically for some people that I had not prayed for in a while.
  • I was able to keep in touch with family and friends and pray for them at the same time.

I love praying for people around me and I pray for believers and not-yet-believers. But before now I prayed for them when I remembered and for a smaller group of people regularly. And for these people I prayed as the Holy Spirit led me.

With the prayer calendar, I get to pray for more people and get them involved in the process. I still pray as led by the Holy Spirit but I pray for more people.

What is a prayer calendar?

I didn’t come up with the idea! Here it is in the video below.

So dear one, make your prayer calendar today. Write your list of 30 people or 31.

Try to get them from different church families and cities.

On my list I placed couples on the same day!

Have a blessed time praying for the body of Christ and don’t forget to share your experience with me.

If you have a prayer calendar please share your thoughts in the comments section below!

Save it onPintrest

The Prayer Calendar - This is a good tool to help you pray for family and friends.

Heal the sick? Not just pray for the sick? Yes you can!

Yes! Heal the sick then announce that the kingdom of God is near. (Luke 10:9).

This is a part of the instructions that Jesus gave to His disciples. Please take note that He did not say:

Preach to the sick

Pray for the sick – we may choose to pray for them for other things.

He said heal the sick!

To me this means the the disciples knew how to heal the sick.

Also take note that Jesus instructed them to heal the sick even before announcing the kingdom.

The way I read this is that healing the sick is the first demonstration of God’s Kingdom to the people who are open to knowing God.

Those who ask for help in the area of healing! Any type of healing!

Another point I have noticed from this instruction is that Jesus knew that they could heal the sick. He told them to do it.

He did not say try to heal the sick!

When you meet a person who is open to you, shows you love and respect even when they know how much you love God. If they open up their circle of influence to you then, bless them! Pray for them and heal the sick among them!

Tell them about the Kingdom of God and invite them to start a discovery group. Stay with them and guide them until they believe in and commit to following Jesus!

Then baptize them in water!

Don’t stop until they are baptized!

Then coach them until they baptize someone else!

Hallelujah!

What is your Disciple-Making Routine (Little Steps)?

Growing up I heard people say things like: “A journey of a hundred kilometers starts with one step”, and “little drops of water make a mighty ocean”.

These things are very true for every goal you want to achieve.

To achieve a big goal, break it into very small bits and repeat those small steps consistently and you will achieve your goal.

To write a book, you can write a sentence every day. If you can be disciplined enough to write that sentence every day, you would have a book written eventually. Some days you may write a few pages and other days you may struggle to finish that one sentence but after some time, the book will be done! Right?

The same principle works for disciple making.

Let’s break it down into smaller steps that you can repeat every day and every week.

  • Pray every day for a lost person by name
  • Spend at least 1 hrs daily alone with God (you can do it in 1-4 chunks)
  • Make someone smile every day (don’t worry if they are believers or not. Just love people unconditionally and pray for them).
  • Go out among the lost and aim for a meaningful conversation every week (this doesn’t need to be a spiritual conversation).
  • Trust God to invite someone to do a Discovery Bible Study once a month.
  • Pray with another believer about disciple making for at least 30mins once a week.

If you are doing these consistently and looking out for people of peace, you would soon begin to see Discovery Bible Study Groups start.

Please let me know your thoughts about these steps! Share with me in the comments section below.

3 things you can do to reduce the effects of rejection and persecution!

As a disciple of Jesus, you may have tried to share the good news of the Kingdom of God with someone and they got offended!

How did you feel?

Maybe you felt like you failed! “I said too much”, “I did not say enough”. “I should have said that”…. All these thoughts float around in your head!

Then you find it challenging to speak to another person. In some cases you get some negative push back from the person and other people in the office or community.

I have been in these situations a couple of times and here are 3 thoughts I have for you.

Expect rejection and persecution

A lot of people will reject your message for different reasons. Although you and I have the best message in the world, some would still say no. It may be because they don’t know you enough. It may be because they are not ready. It may be any reason. Don’t worry too much about the reason just expect some rejection and some persecution because Jesus got rejected and persecuted and you are representing Jesus (Luke 10:16).

Expect God to touch some of those who reject the gospel!

If you are like me, I like the truth that we are called by God to reap the harvest. We are to find people who are ready and lead them to Jesus! However, the process of finding the people of peace who are ready involves sharing your love for God with everyone that God places around you to so that you can determine those who are ready.

Some of those who reject at first later become the most prolific disciples in terms of making other disciples. Think about Paul the apostle. (Gal 1:13)

Think of a process instead of a decision.

For years I thought that the fruit of a day out in the community sharing the good news was decisions made. And we got some decisions but only a fraction of those people remained in the faith.

A better way is to plan and pray that you find a person who will receive the message of the Kingdom of God and open up his or her family to the same message and you stay with that one as you meet them over a period of reading scriptures with them to discover God for themselves. So you take them through a process while building a relationship so that when they commit to Jesus, it is solid, and they are fully aware of what they are doing. (Luke 10: 1-16)

With this process, rejection is less because you are building relationships as well as sharing the good news of the kingdom! Many times you can continue to build the relationship even when the person rejects the scriptures at first! Read the story of Nora!

When you go out this week, look for people who will be willing to explore scriptures with you in a Discovery Bible Study. Whether they say yes or no, still go-ahead to explore building a relationship if they are open.

Disciple Making is spiritual warfare!

This is how I think of it. God loves everyone He made. However we all have free will and as you know very well, we all make bad choices.

As a disciple maker or what I refer to as a BiVo Minister, you desire is to see as many of God’s children return to Him in love.

Why are they not willing to return?

There is an enemy! A spiritual enemy! The devil whose goal is to disconnect as many children of God from the love of the Father. (Mark 3:27)

This means that you can’t simply try to reason with people to become disciples of Jesus. First you must stand with them against the lies and tricks of the enemy.

We do this in the place of prayer! As a BiVo Minister, 80% of your work for a person or group of people is prayer. Prayer that is inspired by your love for God and for the people of God. Prayer against the enemy and for the people you are sent to by God.

I believe that the best thing that can happen to any person on earth is to be completely united to God and to be a reflection of His unconditional love. This love is demonstrated to us in Jesus Christ.

So dear BiVO Minister! Spend much time in prayers and don’t be surprised when the enemy tries to stop you with all manner of distractions.

Keep praying, keep loving, and keep inviting people to discover Jesus with you in Discovery Groups.

Nora the unlikely Person of Peace!

When Nora was invited to the discovery bible study, she told Regina, the disciple-maker that she doesn’t like religion and that she is not interested in the Bible.

I read this story in a book titled “The Father Glorified” by Pat Robertson and David Watson. I highly recommend this book.

Here is what happened next..

Despite this disappointment, Regina invited Nora to join her for lunch that day, and a friendship developed between them. They would meet several times each week at the union hall, and that grew into frequent visits at one another’s homes, which grew into Nora stopping by for dinner with Regina and Raul once or twice a week.

Regina did not try to broach the topic of God’s Word any further after Nora’s initial rebuke, yet she continued to be a good friend and a sympathetic ear. Then one week, quite unexpectedly, Nora arrived at Regina’s house just as their Discovery Bible Study was beginning. “Oh,” said Nora, “you have some friends here tonight?” “We’re just about to sit down for Bible study,” Regina answered in a nonchalant fashion.

Nora knew full well that they held Bible studies on Wednesday evenings, but Regina did not allude to that. “Well, don’t let me stop you,” Nora said as she settled herself into an armchair in the living room.

The couple’s home features a large room, part living room and part dining area, and the Bible study group would crowd around the large dining table at one end. Nora sat at the far end of the room and turned up the volume on the television. This was the beginning of a regular pattern, as Nora would “coincidentally” stop by the couple’s home every Wednesday evening, just as Bible study was about to commence.

Regina never commented on the timing, nor did she urge her friend to join them. She would have some popcorn all ready, the TV remote control handy by the armchair, and Nora would settle in to watching her favorite programs without more than a hello.

The second or third time this happened, Raul raised an objection to his wife in private. “She turns up the volume to drown us out,” he said in exasperation. “We’re just encouraging her to disrupt our Bible study!” Regina nodded in agreement, but then added thoughtfully, “But at least she’s here. We can still do our study—we just need to talk a little louder.” Raul was not convinced. “I’m afraid that some of us find it a distraction. I know I do. We need to provide an environment that’s conducive to studying God’s Word.”

“I agree,” Regina answered, “but God has brought her here to us. Don’t you think we should let Him do His work?” Raul finally saw the wisdom in his wife’s gentle urging, and the couple began to pray intently that God would change Nora’s heart.

It did not happen immediately, but God’s answer did come. One night, after about two months of the loud TV, Nora left her armchair and came to the dining table. “I’m out of popcorn,” she announced without preamble.

Regina looked up from her Bible. “There’s the kitchen,” she answered with a smile. Nora was not offended by the pointed response, but her next move surprised the dozen or so people gathered at the table. She picked up an empty chair from nearby, set it down in the kitchen doorway facing away from the dining room, then knelt herself down on it—facing backward and staring at the people gathered to study God’s Word.

She did not say anything further, but she also did not make any more popcorn. She simply sat backward on that chair and watched as the study continued. When the study ended, Nora immediately rose from the chair and left without a word.

The next week, Nora forsook the television altogether, hovering in the kitchen until the study started. She then took the same chair, positioned it the same way, and repeated the previous week’s silent observation. The people around the table found this somewhat disconcerting, perhaps even more distracting than a loud TV, but they had all been praying every week for their strange guest, so they made the best of the situation.

And Nora repeated the performance the following week. About halfway through that study, however, something happened. The group had been studying Genesis, and someone raised a question about what constituted a “day” in the passage. They were wrestling with the question of when a day begins in God’s timetable, when suddenly a strange voice was heard.

“A day starts at midnight.”

Every head around the table started up, and wondering eyes turned toward the kitchen. There sat Nora, looking as though she had merely stated an obvious fact. There was a moment of uncertain silence, then Regina started to laugh.

“Okay,” she said, walking toward her friend with open arms, “I think it’s time for you to come sit at the table now.”

Since that time, Nora has become a committed follower of Christ, and she is one of the most active participants each week in Regina and Raul’s Discovery Bible Study.

But when Regina first met her, she immediately assumed that Nora was not a person of peace; indeed, she was openly hostile to Christianity. Yet we can never assume that we know what God is doing in the life of another person, and there are times when He leads His followers into unexpected relationships specifically because He has a miraculous plan to unfold. And He was busy at that time unfolding yet another such plan for Raul and Regina.

The Father Glorified: True Stories of God’s Power Through Ordinary People, by Pat Robertson and David Watson.

The Father Glorified!

Like I said earlier. This is a good book to read. (If you buy the book through this link, I would get a little commission at no extra cost to you).