Stay in your place of assignment and God will meet you there. In the book of Luke 1 vs 5-17, Zechariah was a priest and was married to Elizabeth, both were righteous in the sight of God, but they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive and they were both old, but the couple continue to believe God and keep on serving God regardless of their circumstances. Many people will stop serving God or even attending church service because of the challenges they have at the time. This couple has enough reason to stop serving and give up on God especially the husband, if the wife is too old to have a child, you can imagine how old the husband will be, and he was still burning incense in the temple and remained in his post. On the day of his visitation, he was on the rota to served. The bible says he was chosen by lot according to the custom of the priesthood to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. Let’s picture you are in the worship team and you are on the Rota to lead God’s people into the presence of God, and you refused to serve, because of what you are going through, and not knowing that God has prepared an angel to bring your answer to you on that day. I am not saying God can only answer your prayer if you are serving, l am saying there is more benefit for faithfulness. I want you to imagine you are in a restaurant and you have a diligence waiter that served you and make you so welcome and you enjoyed your meal, when you are leaving you will definitely leave a good tip, it doesn’t mean you will not pay for the food but you gave to the waiter extra gift apart from the others, now imagine giving your best to the King of glory. You will be rewarded greatly. God gives the best gift to people that served him faithfully and diligently.
I can recollect many times my name will be on the roster to lead years ago and it will be a very challenging time for me, that l don’t want to see anyone, not alone ministered and my leader at the time will encourage me to lead and refused to cover for me, and do you know l will feel so much better after the ministration. I will be ministered to and the people of God will be blessed too. An Angel visited Zechariah while serving, not while he was complaining and blaming God for not having any children. Let’s imagine for a second, what this couple’s life must have been like. They are always in church day in and day out, first to be there and probably the last to leave. They must have witnessed many couples rejoicing to have babies and yet they are there with nothing to rejoice over, l am sure they must have time that they must be down and miserable, let’s face it we are all human, but they carry on serving and pleasing God because the bible says both of them observe all the Lord’s commands and they are blameless before God. I say this all the time that if the word of God cannot change you, nothing else can. If you study characters in the bible and you see your character in them, what do you do? Do you pray for a change if you don’t like what you see or you continued to deceive yourself? If God did not answer your prayer on your time schedule what do you do? I want you to be real. Do you backslide or do you stop attending church, and by the way, backslides don’t mean you don’t serve, you just reduced your passion for the things of God. Why do you serve God in the first place? What is your true motive? Are you in for what you can get? How did you receive christ or how is the gospel preach to you before you give your life.
I have heard many people preach the benefit of serving God without preaching the cross of Jesus you have to carry. Roman 8 vs 17; “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children and if we indeed suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him”. God never says it will be easy but he did assure us that if we walk through the fire we will not be burned (Isaiah 43vs 3); Zechariah stood and God remembered him and gave him a testimony that even shocked him. He has given up on his dream, but God did not. If you read the story, you will see that, he was actually challenging the Angel, so for his negative word not to stop the process, he was struck dumb till the prophecy came to pass. This shows that he is human, but l commend him that he still continues to serve even when all hope is gone. Don’t give up on God because he will not give up on you. I know it can be frustrating and some unbroken pastors take advantage of your heart. I have been there and l have heard many stories of genuine children of God that have been abused all in the name of the Lord. We can learn a lot of lessons from the life of King Saul in the book of 1 sam. 9- 1 sam. 18. Saul was God’s chosen to lead the scattered nation of Israel, a collection of tribes that did not have a central leader other than God until they requested a King. Years before Saul’s rule, Samuel the prophet was Israel’s religious leader but not a King. The Philistines were Israel’s sworn enemies, and war brick out between the two on a fairly regular basis (1 sam. 4) because of this constant threat of war, the people pressed Samuel to appoint a King to rule over them. King Saul was the king and has so much authority and yet was still very jealous of David.
I used this story a lot to illustrate how a pastor with so many gifts and anointing will be so jealous of a member that they will do anything to put that member down. They always forget that somebody gave them the opportunity to use their own gift too. Saul has forgotten the good deed God has used David to do for him. David kills Goliath to save Saul’s face. How can you be a king and you can not fight Goliath that keeps mocking you, your God, and your people for days, but God used David to save the day. So many times, God has used many gifted members in our churches to help the ministry, and when it’s time for the pastor to bless and release the individual to fulfill their own God-given dream, all of a sudden the pastor will turn to King Saul. I have to counsel many believers in that situation right now. I always ask this question ‘whose church is it anyway ‘ if it’s a church of God, why are we fighting for position, and truly If God has called you why are you so insecure? We have turned the church of God into our personal business and we know God more than God. May God help our leaders. Many people have walked away from faith because of selfishness and politics in our churches. I say this all the time, we need to pray for our pastors. We can talk and roast our pastor for roast dinner, but it will not change anything but prayer changes things. I have seen a pastor who started well and fell because of Satan’s devices and yet the bible says we should not be unaware of Satan’s devices. If you find yourself in that position do not stop serving and doing what is right before God knowing your service is unto him and at the appropriate time God will vindicate you. There is no perfect church or perfect pastor after all you are not perfect too. The church is full of imperfect people living by the grace of God. If you study the lives of Jesus’ disciples you will see how imperfect they are. God uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. We have Judas who is a betrayer, and we have Peter who talks before he thinks, we also have Thomas the doubter and yet God used them to accomplish his purpose. You are where you are for a specific purpose and for a specific time. When your assignment is over you will know. Do not run ahead of God. Stay in your place of Assignment and see how God will move on your behalf. l am talking from experience, God knows how to reward his servants. If you are being abused and pressed down, and you are close to giving up on serving God and even being a Christian, then it is time for you to move on. You are better to be in the kingdom than to miss heaven because you want to please men. When you pray, God will lead you to your next place of assignment where you will be appreciated not depreciated. Whatever you do never give up on God.