Kenneth Copeland - Six steps to excellence in ministry

Six Steps to Excellence in Ministry

Contents

Introduction

Step One:

DedicationIt's Your Decision

Step Two:

Singleness of Purpose

Step Three:

Follow the Leadership of the Holy Spirit

Step Four:

Strip Away the Things of the World

Step Five:

Look to the Word Day and Night

Step Six:

Spend Time Fasting

Conclusion:

Formula for Success

Introduction

Excellence in ministry...

Whatever price it takes, pay it.

The dividends are out of this world!

As Christians, we demand excellence from our heavenly Father. We expect nothing less than total dedication, commitment, reliability and success from a holy, righteous God. We are not looking for failure in God. Divinity and fallibility are incompatible.

We have every right to expect the very best from God. He, Himself, has set the standard of excellence for us. He is our ultimate example of complete success.

Since we expect excellence from God, we should also be willing to demand that same excellence from ourselves.

Just as the Lord has called us into Christian ministry and service, He also has called us to reach for perfection in our vocation. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect (Matt. 5:48). I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called (Eph. 4:1).

We are also required to demand excellence from those placed in our charge.

If you are a pastor, you are required by God to demand excellence out of your congregation as well as those who work with you in your ministry. As a minister called out on the field, you will demand I

excellence from the people who work for you and from the congregations you serve. We must be willing to demand the highest form of excellence from the ministries we are involved in.

The apostle Paul recognized the gravity of his calling. He knew that the gospel was committed into his trust. According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust (1 Tim. 1:11).

Paul took the training of his disciples very seriously because he realized that they were handling the mightiest power in the universe. He wrote, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth (Rom. 1:16). The gospel is the power of God! The gospel is not only the power by which a person is saved from hell, it is also God's unlimited ability to save, heal and deliver.

As ministers of the gospel, we are entrusted with God's strength and might. We are therefore faced with two responsibilities:

(1) to develop and maintain excellence of ministry and

(2) to deal with Satan.

Excellence in ministry absolutely will not tolerate unbelief, failure or "taking the easy way out." A ministry of excellence will pay whatever price it takes to get the job done God's way. Our ministries represent Jesus Christ to the world. Ours is a sacred calling. It must be executed with dedication and integrity. We are expected to demonstrate absolute honesty and commitment. Without a firm decision to succeed with God's help, we cannot hope to maintain the measure of maturity and perfection which our ministry must command.

Having acknowledged the call and anointing of God upon our life, we pose a serious threat to Satan. In his eyes, we have become the most dangerous living things II

on this globe. Our second responsibility is to contend with him.

Satan is not worried about God. He is postponing that inevitable confrontation as long as he can. But since we represent God's divine power and authority in this world, the adversary must reckon with us. If a person were to die now, the devil would not care whether he went to heaven or hell. Either way, he would be forever removed from the field of battle and out of his way. What Satan does fear is a person who is alive, one who has God's divine nature in his spirit.

Only such a person can wield the sword of the spiritthe Word of Godwith accuracy. We are dangerous to him, and we will have to resist him.

When we strap on the full armor of God (Eph. 6:11), we must be prepared and determined to use it. The evil one will certainly attack us with all the forces of darkness. At the same time be prepared for victory! All of the combined forces of hell are not powerful enough to defeat us!

The armory of the devil and of his cohorts is restricted to that which is common to man (1 Cor. 10:13). He cannot go back into his knowledge of spiritual warfare and make use of supernatural weaponry. His power and his arms are limited! Satan has no secret tactics to call upon to prevail against us if we will but stand firm. The God-given weapons of our warfare are powerful through God to the pulling down of strongholds (2 Cor. 10:4). He is limited. We are not.

The victory is ours! First John 4:4 and 1 Corinthians 15:57 guarantee it. ...greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

In the following pages, I have outlined six basic steps to assure excellence in ministry. Read and study them prayerfully. Learn them. Live by them. Your III

success will be assured. You have my word on it. But most importantly, you have God's Word on it because His scriptural Word is the authority on which they are all based.

Step One:

DedicationIt's Your Decision

he first step to excellence in ministry is dedication.

TTrue dedication is a decision of qualitya decision where there is no turning back.

True dedication simply makes a decision based on one's commitment to God, not on feelings or emotions.

The difference between operating on a decision for dedication as opposed to operating by your emotions can be illustrated like this.

Many people pray and beg God to give them a burden for souls, an overwhelming feeling that will make them win the lost. Such praying is foolish in light of the teachings of the New Testament. Nowhere are we told to pray this way. We are, however, commanded by Jesus Christ Himself to go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15). The very fact that a person prays for a burden is evidence that he already has a heart to win souls. All he has to do is obey the commandment. If Jesus told us to do it, that should be sufficient motivation whether we feel like it or not.

The Bible says that Jesus was moved by compassion. What is compassion? It is love. Likewise, God is love. Therefore, compassion is a Person. If Compassion told us to go, then we should be moved by Compassion and pursue the task. We should be moved by what God has said, not by feelings.

Just as a marriage union is solidified by a commitment of faith instead of emotions, the stability of your ministry does not depend on your feelings. A decision for a ministry of excellence is a deep, firm resolution which men cannot alter and circumstances cannot change.

True commitment can be compared to a pilot in a single engine airplane. If the engine fails in midair, the pilot is committed to landing his craft. He has no choice; his feelings of fear, doubt or inadequacy are of absolutely no consequence whatsoever. He will land his plane one way or the other. If he has committed himself to flying, he will take control and land the best he can and spare his life as well as the lives of his passengers.

A time will come in your life when you will face commitment. How you handle it now may well determine whether you succeed or fail and even whether you live or die.

If you are not willing to face commitment, in spite of emergencies and opposition, do not pursue the ministry any longer in that condition. Take the time to get before God and study His Word until the Holy Spirit and you deal with your willingness to be committed. Philippians 2:13 tells you that God is at work in you to both will and do His good pleasure. He is faithful, and He will create in you the power and the desire to make an uncompromised decision.