FAITH MAKES YOU STRATEGIC
Pastor Sam Adeyemi, senior pastor Daystar Christian Centre and Founder of the Daystar Leadership Academy was the first speaker for the evening session.
Pastor Sam taught how Christians can apply Biblical faith as a strategic tool in executing the purposes of God on earth. He described ‘the end-time church’ as a strategic thinking church who will execute God’s plan on earth from their revelation of what the future holds.
WHAT IS STRATEGY?
He defined ‘Strategy’ as a plan that helps you achieve your goals, leveraging on your competitive advantage or whatever resources are at your disposal. With Strategy you can achieve big goals with small resources.
Victory won or lost is strictly dependent on your competitive advantage. Your competitive advantage could be anything; it could be your knowledge of a terrain, a skill, your social network or status, education, height, age etc. God can use anything we have in our hands to be victorious. For David in the Bible, it was his skill in using the sling and stone that God used to kill Goliath.
“With Strategy you can achieve big goals with small resources.”
According to Heb. 11:7, Faith made Abraham strategise when God preached the gospel to him. He started to plan and to look forward to the future that was shown to him.
Rev. Sam said,
“From my observation, Christians who don’t have a winning strategy go from managing one crisis to another, till the goal or initiative is lost in the process. When life begins to happen they become reactive and use their faith in managing the crisis, as a result most of their time and resources are wasted. This kind of faith is known as Crisis Management Faith, i.e. reactive faith or firefighting faith. Majority of Christians wait for the enemy to make the first move and put them in a reactive position. But as Christians we are meant to be proactive, attacking the gates of the enemy and scattering his camp.”
He used the scripture, Matt 16:18, to explain that as Christians, we should first take the initiative and not wait for ‘the gates of hell’ to come up with a fight, and then we become defensive.
THE CHURCH AS ‘CHIEF STRATEGIST’
Through faith the world was framed by the word of God, forming the things which are seen out of those things which are unseen.
The church through faith, can also frame our world. The church can frame every sector of the society by Revelation, which is the strategy. Revelation is the most potent force, the most powerful resource in existence. It is heavens vehicle for conveying spiritual realities into the physical earth.
The most beautiful thing is that the church has access to revelation (the mind of God). According to Acts 2:16, 17, God says “…it shall come to pass in the last days, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.”
The church therefore has the capacity to be strategic since the church has access to heavens plans for resolving every practical issue.
“Revelation is the strategy. It is heaven’s vehicle for conveying spiritual realities into the physical earth.”
The church can cooperate with God to form the world because of her access to revelation. As we receive revelation some of the realities of heaven will be translated to the physical reality instantly. Some realities will be instantly manifested.
For example someone looking for healing will receive it instantly when God’s word is revealed to him. Someone looking for provision, as soon as God shows him (in His word) that his all his needs have been met, he immediately receives his breakthrough. We can apply our faith to our daily needs, healing etc.
However, when it comes to God’s plan for the future for our society, economic and political issue we begin to complain because of lack of patience.
“The church has access to revelation (the mind of God).”
These issues need long term strategy. God is creating the future now, and he is trying to share his perspective of things, people, and world economic issues with the church. God doesn’t waste resources, he wants to open the church eyes and share his perspective on things. He wants us to begin to see strategically.
SEEING STRATEGICALLY
Revelation opens our eyes to see strategically. The Bible says old men shall see visions. When our eyes become open we begin to see things the way God sees them. Not the way they seem to be but the way they ought to be.
David saw and interpreted the situation with Goliath differently. When King Saul, the Jewish army and people of Israel saw goliath, they saw defeat and destruction, but David saw victory and an opportunity to show the Philistines the God he serves.
This is the same for Elisha and his servant. The servant only saw himself and Elisha going against the thousands in the enemies camp, and was afraid. Elisha prayed for God to open the eyes of his servants, to see the host of angels who gathered around them prepared for battle.
“God doesn’t waste resources, he wants to open the church eyes and share his perspective on things. He wants us to begin to see strategically.”
When you see challenges from God’s view you begin to understand you were divinely positioned by God to overcome those challenges for a purpose. Your prayer also becomes strategic.
STRATEGIC POSITIONING
Rev, Sam Adeyemi closed this session by using Joseph as a Biblical example. He said that Joseph was strategically positioned in Potiphar’s house as a slave. Afterwards he was positioned also by God in the prison. God showed Joseph a glimpse of his future. As a little child he had a revelation that he was going to be a leader who will rule his people.
By faith he was strategic both in Potiphar’s house and the prison. You might be thinking how come he was strategic. Yes he was! Joseph acted as a leader everywhere he served. He was faithful with anything he saw to do. He didn’t wait to become a leader in Egypt before being skillful and diligent. He was both diligent as a slave and a prisoner knowing someday he would meet with his destiny. Now that’s being strategic!
You can listen to the full message on the church website. Visit DAY 3 EVENING SESSION 1 REV. SAM ADEYEMI