A church is not totally about what the minister does. A minister is to equip, however it is what the members being to say and do, that will make the church what it is. A church can be healthy, vibrant and alive, or it can be sickly, colorless, and dead.
When I say healthy, vibrant, and alive. I am talking about more than Sunday Morning Sermons and Shouts. I am talking about lifestyles of the people, about the fruit that is being produced throughout the week.
I am talking about well rounded lives. I am talking about personal devotions of the Word and prayer times. Quality time given to family, friends, church and community.
I am talking about acts of kindness, healthy communications, and godly relationships. I am talking about contentment with godliness.
Even simply things like, the we care for our self and family, keeping the laundry, house, car, yard and so forth.
Things like: Men laboring as head of their homes, women loving their husbands, children being trained instead of provoked to anger whereby they lose the faith, and the way you handle your finances.
The Late Rev. John Osteen once said, "I can go into any home and find out if they were called to be in the ministry." He also said, "I never ask a staff member how they are doing, if I really want to know, I ask their spouse." Rev. Happy Caldwell, said, "I can tell a lot about you just by looking inside your car or garage."
Any minster that is worth his weight will not put a member into pulpit capacities until they have served faithfully in helps positions. Helps positions are training fields, and God's character building firms. These are the places the real you come out. Just ask Joseph, who by the way ... did it right.
Promotion will not come to those who refuse to be faithful over their little lives. In Luke 19:17
Jesus says: ...Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.
It is the ministers jobs to teach, to instruct, correct, and to reprove unto edification and growth, but it is a personal responsibility to receive and become doers of God's Word. When our character and lives line up properly with the will of God, He will promote us.
So begin to position yourself for promotion by getting your personal life in order. Add a corporate connection of excellency in serving within your local church and soon God will reward faithfulness. Promotion will come, but remember ... it comes from God, and not man. So don't be striving with God and yourself for positioning. Don't strive with your Pastor, other minsters or ministries.
Psalms 75:6-7
For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south.
But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.
I Cor. 12:28, tells us that God sets the gifts into the church. And when it comes to the nine-fold gifts of the Spirit those will be upon the believers who covet them and upon whom God can entrust. So show yourself faithful in the little things and then let God promote you to much.
