CHURCH GROWTH STRATEGIES OF

OYEDEPO

How To Superaturally Grow Your Church

Oladimeji Olutimehin

Church Growth Strategies of Oyedepo

Millionaire Maker Publishers
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ISBN: 978-978-55299-7-2
Copyright (c) 2019 Oladimeji Olutimehin
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 Preface

After I published my first book on Dr. Oyedepo, Business Secrets of David

Oyedepo, I was opportune to meet with him. I asked him why pastors were
able to grow their churches whiling serving him but unable to do so when
they leave to start their own.
This question has always been on my mind. It is baffling. How can one
not be able to transfer the results he is producing under someone to his own
organization? It simply means something was wrong and most pastors think
Dr. Oyedepo is the one who has the problem.
Why speculate and assume when I can ask him the question. So I made
maximum use of the opportunity God provided me to ask the question. At
first he was quiet and became thoughtful. The answer he gave me that day
placed everything in perspective.
He answered and said, “There is no father who doesn’t want his
children to be better than him. They got my strategies but didn’t get my
makeup. It is my makeup that drives the strategies.” To me this was a very
profound statement.
So I began to study pastors who are still serving him and those who had
left and started their ministries. Most of those who left had stopped the key
things that really produce results.
Take for instance, studying the word and praying warfare prayers. Many
have abandoned these. They don’t understand that these are the key makeup
of Dr. Oyedepo, which he systemized into their job description. As a result,
even if they copied feet washing, communion, and declarations and so on,
the word intensity and prayer are not in place to make those strategies
produce.
To them the word and prayer are not what brings growth and produce
results in Dr. Oyedepo’s ministry but things like feet washing, communion
and declarations. What they fail to understand is that those things on their
own will never have power. It is the ministry of the word and prayer that
produce tremendous results.
People make the mistake of focusing on what Dr. Oyedepo is doing now
and try to copy it. That won’t work. You must focus on what he did at the
beginning of the church, then you will know what to do to get the results he
has. This book is all about that.
Today, Dr. Oyedepo speaks about where he is. So don’t be carried away
by his results or the things you see him do on the outside. These are just
smokes or effects of what is done in the secret place. If you can get to know
what he does in the secret and do them, you will get his kind of results.
From my studying Dr. Oyedepo, the secret to his success and church
growth is rooted in his word studies and prayer (not the asking type but the
type you enforce the will of God by faith). Without this as a foundation,
nothing will happen in a church.
The word makes your prayer effectual and builds up your ministry
while prayer sharpens the word and makes your ministry impactful and life
changing.
You must be on the mountain (word and prayer) to command crowd in
your church and impact multitudes.
Jesus departed from there, skirted the sea of Galilee, and went up on the
mountain and sat down there. Then great multitudes came to Him, having
with them the lame, blind, mutes, maimed and many others; and they laid
them down at Jesus’ feet, and He healed them. So the multitude marveled
when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame
walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel. Matt 15:
29-31
But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of
the word. Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples
multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were
obedient to the faith. Acts 6: 4, 7
In this book, you will learn what Dr. Oyedepo does to get the kind of
results he produces. If you are not patient you will never get his kind of
result. There is no short cut when it comes to growing a church. Like a
farmer you have to prepare your ground, plant the seed and patiently wait
for the harvest as God does His work.
Patience is doing the right things consistently and persistently till the
results you desire begin to show. If you believe God, you will never act
impatiently.
I have learned from studying Dr. Oyedepo that it’s far better to patiently
implement a solid church growth strategy than to recklessly push for
growth. Patience is a virtue when you want to grow a church. It helps you
master the basics.
Rome was not built in a day, so a church doesn’t grow overnight. It
grows overtime when you keep doing the right things that will bring about
growth.
First you need to know what to do to cause growth to happen, then you
must commit to doing it consistently and persistently. In this book you will
learn what Dr. Oyedepo did which you can also do.
Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a
foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation;
whoever believes will not act hastily.” Isaiah 28: 16
That you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith
and patience inherit the promises. Heb 6: 11
Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how
the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it
until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your
hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. James 5: 7-8
It is not by chance that you have this book in your hand; through it God
will change your story. Welcome to the supernatural church growth.
 Introduction

A call to ministry is a call to share the glory of God. It is not a call to

mediocrity, but to excellence. It is a life of service to people.
When in 1998, God instructed me, “Go to my servant, Dr. David
Oyedepo and learn”, I never knew the learning process will span more than
a decade. There was a time I nearly joined his ministry as a staff. It only
took God reminding me that I was there to learn.
After I got born again in 1998, God placed me under the ministry of
Lester Sumrall for twenty months. I was being feed the word by him. My
small portable radio was able to receive signal from LESEA Radio. But
after the twenty months, I was never able to receive the radio signal again.
It was at the end of this period that I heard God’s instruction to go and
learn from His servant, Dr. David Oyedepo. I had never really attended any
Church on my own, but that Sunday morning in 1999, I carried my Bible
and went to Living Faith Church. I believe my dad must have been very
surprised.
The devil didn’t help matters. He made sure I had a good opportunity to
stay back home. That morning it rained cat and dog. But I have heard God,
so I placed the torn Bible I could find at home in a polythene bag and
headed for the Church despite the rain. That began my journey of learning. I
became an apprentice of Dr. David Oyedepo.
Throughout the time I was learning from him, I never for once desired
to meet him or have him pray for me. That was not part of the instruction.
The instruction was to learn from him and I don’t have to be directly under
him to learn.
If I were placed directly under him, I would have been taken by the
glory and charisma of his presence and his passion would have distorted my
reality. From afar I soaked up knowledge.
There were times when I became angry with him over some things I got
to know. Then I heard him say “If you are here to learn, focus on the good
things and not the bad ones.” I was nearly distracted focusing on the wrong
things.
What really helped me was when I made the decision not to know him
after the flesh again. This opened up a world of revelation and insight for
me. And it speeded up my learning curve.
I believe there are people like me who were sent by God to understudy
him, but they ended up becoming staff of his ministry thinking that is the
way to learn. And at the end, they got offended and left the place of their
assignment.
I served him well. I was the youth president, drama co-coordinator,
sanctuary unit member and even started the student fellowship arm in the
University I graduated from. Yet, like many who were sent to serve him, I
got offended. I called him names. I did those things because I was ignorant.
God was trying to teach me some lessons, but my emotion was getting
in the way. The result was that God instructed me to leave the ministry and
continue my learning from outside. The real lessons were never learnt until
I tamed my emotion. It was becoming so unruly.
Today, when I look back I am grateful to God that despite my
foolishness He never disqualified me. If I had followed my mind, I may not
have been the one instructed to write these books about Dr. David
Oyedepo’s secrets: the things he does that made him what he is today.
I may not know the number of people God would have given
instructions to write this book. But I know I am the least among the food
chain. There are many out there, I believe who may have done a good job in
writing his secrets than I (They worked at a very close range with him,
enough for them to study his person and what he does), but they may have
disqualified themselves through offenses. Nothing kills destiny like
harboring offenses.
Bitterness will always result in offense. Nothing destroys destiny like
strife, bitterness and offense. Many Pastors who had served him have had
their ministries stagnated and some had had their life cut short because they
got offended. Root of bitterness is only there to defile your heart, strife to
manifest the work of the devil and offenses to cause the word of God to be
unfruitful.
And in the same way the ones sown upon stony ground are those who,
when they hear the word, at once receive and accept and welcome it with
joy; and they have no real root in themselves, and so they endure for a little
while, then when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, they
immediately are offended (Become displeased, indignant, resentful) and
they stumble and full away.” Mark 4:16-17 AMP
Exercise foresight and be on the watch to look (after one another), to
see that no one falls back from and fails to secure God’s grace (His
unmerited favor and spiritual blessing), in order that no root of resentment
(rancor, bitterness or hatred) shoots forth and causes trouble and bitter
torment, and the many become contaminated and defiled by it- that no one
may become guilty of sexual vice, or become a profane (godless and
sacrilegious) person as Esau did, who sold his birthright for a single meal.
For you understand that later on, when he wanted (to regain title to) his
inheritance of the blessing, he was rejected (disqualified and set aside), for
he could find no opportunity to repair by repentance [what he had done, no
chance to recall the choice he had made], although he sought for it carefully
with (bitter) tears. Heb. 12:15-17 AMP
For wherever there is jealousy (envy), and contention (rivalry and
selfish ambition), there will also be confusion (unrest, disharmony,
rebellion) and all sorts of evil and vile practices. James 3:16 AMP
I believe many people who served him, should have been challenging
him in ministry (challenging him by their impact and massiveness of
results), but they left offended, in strife and bitterness. As a result many
missed out on their amiable destinies and have no results to show for it.
You can never succeed in ministry when your heart is defiled by the root
of bitterness. The word of God will become unfruitful because of offense
and the devil will be on rampage in your life as a result of strife.
God doesn’t disqualify people from ministry, but anyone who becomes
bitter, strife-full and offended, will disqualify himself.
God told me that the reason most people are offended with Dr. Oyedepo
is simply because they can’t just understand what he is doing to command
the kind of results and prosperity he is enjoying. They have tried
everything, but still they have no results to show for it. So they become
envious and bitter.
The purpose of this book is to unravel that mystery and take you deep
into the root that is producing the result. When you are close to him, you
will see only the glory (harvest of fruits) and not the story (the root). Trying
to harvest his kind of fruits without having the corresponding root system
will only cause a shipwreck of your destiny.
 You can decide to talk like him, walk like him, laugh like him and even
dress like him, but if you don’t develop the kind of root system that can
sustain his kind of harvest, be ready for a breakdown.
This book will place in your hand the Church growth strategies Dr.
Oyedepo employs. Those strategies are taught as tit bits in his sermons. My
role in writing this book is to simply bring them all together.
When I told someone about this project, he asked whether it’s like what
Robert Liardon did with God’s General. I informed him that I was only
instructed to present the secrets/lessons that made him have outstanding and
extraordinary results and not to write about his shortcomings except God
instruct me says otherwise. I am writing after his spirit and not his flesh.
By instructing me to write this book, God wants to break the jinx. He
wants you to have results that will only make Dr. Oyedepo wonder in
amazement. There is no myth behind his success in ministry. It is
predictable and can be replicated by anyone anywhere.
He is not experiencing exploding growth and extraordinary success and
prosperity simply because God loves him more than you or he is God’s
favorite minister. God has no favorites and loves everyone equally.
He is only experiencing success because he aligns himself with the
principles of God. Like God, he designed and created what he wants to
have. So what you are seeing did not happen by chance, they happened by
design.
Principles make everything predictable. His secrets therefore are the
principles he gained from scriptures with which he operates the ministry
with. In this book you will learn about these principles and hear him say
something about those principles.
These secrets were not hidden from you but for you. That you read them
here doesn’t mean they will work for you. You must make them your own
through meditation and must see yourself achieving them and then go out
and apply them.
If I were you, I will stay away from all I am doing and lock myself up
for the next 3-6 months. With my Bible and writing materials, I will go over
each principle and make it a part of me. It is not enough to read them here;
you have to discover them for yourself. You have to own them by
revelation. You have to make them your nature, and then they will work for
you.
 What you are reading is letter, but what is revealed to you as you study
the principles is rhema and that is what places in your hand the keys of the
kingdom that pertains to explosive Church growth and success.
Those principles on their own has no power to make you, but what you
make of them and how you put them to work is what will make them work
for you. This book should move you to deep studies of God’s word, in order
for you to get what can only be gotten in the deep.
The secret things can only be unravel in the secret place of God. Go
there! When the secrets become yours, massive results will be inevitable.
It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to
search out a matter. Prov. 25:2
The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show
them His covenant. Ps. 25:14
As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my
tabernacle; when the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were
about me; when I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out
rivers of oil; my root was spread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night
upon my branch. My glory was fresh in me, and my bow was renewed in
my hand. Job 29:4-6, 19-20
When you know God’s secrets, you will have His covenant established
in your life. The Church growth strategies of Dr. David Oyedepo are the
secrets of God here revealed.
 Chapter One
Develop your Capacity
◆◆◆
Covenant Principle
And the child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom,
and the grace of God was upon Him.
And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God
and men. Luke 2:40, 52
Dr. David Oyedepo’s Saying
“Growth in the kingdom of God is not optional, but mandatory. If you
don’t grow you will groan. However, while some people are growing,
others are busy looking for shortcuts-they want to jump up. But I have
observed that if you jump up, you come down! But if you grow up you
stay up! Someone wisely said that there is no shortcut to any place worth
going. Growth is a must if the miraculous is your desire. It is the extent to
which you develop that determines whether God can entrust you with
signs and wonders or not.”

◆◆◆

There are different foundations for different buildings. The foundation you
make when you are building a hut is very much more different from the one
you build when you are building a high rise building. The former
foundation is shallow while the latter is deep.
The higher the building will rise, the deeper the foundation will be. The
essence of the foundation is to sustain the building. If you try to build a sky
scrapper on the foundation of a hut, it will collapse. It won’t be able to
sustain it.
People look at Dr. Oyedepo and desire to have the kinds of results he is
presently having; not knowing that what they see is really a product of what
they cannot see. That the foundation he has laid over the years, on which he
is building on, caused the results everyone is seeing. There is no way you
can have his kind of results until you have the kind of foundation he has
built.
So those people encourage themselves that if God can do it for him, he
will do it for them. Without the foundation in place, they are in for the
surprise of their lives.
I have seen many pastors who have served under him end up leaving
ministry. While they were serving him, they were getting results: the
Church was growing, money was flowing and miracles were happening.
They really thought those things were happening because of their growth,
not knowing that it has nothing to do with them. It was simply the fruits of
the deep roots he has dug into the soil of God.
He was quipped that even if a dog were placed as a pastor of a branch,
the same things that are happening will continue to happen. It is based on
the firm foundation he has built right from the beginning.
The foundation is not the ministry; rather his walk with God. What he
has today is what God gives to His matured children. He has become a joint
heir with Christ, therefore the results that Jesus commanded are exactly
what he is commanding and much more.
So when those pastors who had never built any foundation step out to
start their own ministry, they soon realized that without a foundation built
by them, their ministry remains still born. No one will be able to do
anything meaningful when his or her foundation is faulty.
You must grow into son-ship to enjoy the benefits of a great foundation.
The foundation is not what you do but how deep you go into God. You must
build deep roots into God.
The foundation is not physical and neither is it mental. It is spiritual and
must begin from the depth of God; but it affects your mentality and physical
environment. If you are not willing to take adventures into God, you won’t
build a formidable foundation.
I must confess that it is not easy to build a foundation. The last thing I
wanted to do was to take time and just be alone with God.
 If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? Psalms11:3
For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s
building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise
master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let
each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone
lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1 Cor. 3:10-11
What most people don’t understand is that church growth or growth in
ministry is first an inner game. Whatever is happening within you will
manifest on the outside. As a result of this ignorance, people prefer to do
things than to work on their intimate relationship with God through Jesus.
Jesus is the foundation you need to build on. But if you are not
intimately connected to God, the life of God will not flow to you. The
manifestation of that life is what brings about growth, prosperity and the
miraculous in ministry.
Dr. Oyedepo’s advice to ministers has always been to stay on their jobs
and labor on the word of God till they have built a fortified foundation.
Once the foundation is in place, everything becomes easy and happens fast.
Like many pastors, I really thought all you need to do is pray for your
members, study to prepare your message and go on outreach or evangelism.
Once you do these, the people will come. So one day I decided I was going
to reach out to three people each day. By my calculation that will be 90
people a month, and if 10-20 percent come to Church every month we will
have growth.
So I went the first day and did that. One of the brothers in the Church
who I asked to joined me agreed, only to stay away when it was time.
So I went and spoke to 3 people that day; then came back home
rejoicing and asking God for grace and direction for the next day. That was
when I heard God spoke to my heart, “if you continue like that, you will die
and no one will come. But stay with me and labor in My word and I will
cause multitudes that amaze you to come.”
Staying with Him and laboring in the word was the last thing I wanted
to do. This is the same advice Dr. Oyedepo gives ministers, because it is the
secret to building the foundation of any ministry.
A friend also started ministry not long after I started. It didn’t take long
for the Church to grow. One day I visited him and asked him what he was
doing. I had to ask because he was thinking of a second service on Sunday
morning. He told me that they go on evangelism on Saturdays, get the
people’s phone number and then send text to them on Sunday morning.
I was happy for him and congratulated him but I knew that was not the
holy grail of ministry success. There was no foundation on which the
growth was happening. It was based on human wisdom and not the wisdom
of God. Not long after, like a mushroom that has no root system, the church
collapsed.
I remember telling him that I want to get to the point where like Dr.
Oyedepo and Pastor Adeboye that I won’t have to labor for members. God,
His wind and angels will be doing that for me. Everything will come
without much effort.
The key is getting lost in God. That is how to build a solid foundation
for ministry. Everything you do will be as a result of instructions from God
and not what someone has done. The proof that you have built a solid
foundation is obedience to God. Once the foundation is in place, everything
built upon it will come directly from God.
People who move from one meeting to another and try to make one
successful pastor or another their spiritual father are only trying to leverage
another man’s foundation and not build theirs. To build yours, God must be
your Father and only source.
If Jesus is not the Lord of all, then you have no foundation because He
is not Lord at all. And if He is your Lord, then you will obey Him.
“But why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do the things which I say?
Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show
you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and
laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat
vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on
the rock. But he who did nothing is like a man who heard and built a house
on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat
vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.”
Luke 6:46-49
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am
the Vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears
much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” John 15: 4-5
Without a solid foundation in place you cannot do ministry. It is not
starting a Church that is the problem, but starting a Church without a
foundation is where the challenge is. That’s where many err. That is the
reason why many Churches don’t grow.
It is not about the foundational prayers, but about getting lost in God
and becoming one with God, so that His desires become yours. It is
growing up into son ship.
Start With the Word
The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way, before His works
of old. I have been established, from the beginning, before there was ever
an earth. Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman; and I was daily His
delight, rejoicing always before Him. Prov. 8:22-23, 30
In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the
word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made
through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him
was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness
and the darkness did not comprehend it. And the word became flesh and
dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:1-5, 14
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For
by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth,
visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or
powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is
before all things, and in Him all things consist. Col. 1:15-17
Why do people start a church? And what do they start with? This will
determine to a great extent the height their ministry will grow and the
spread and impact of the ministry.
When God told me to start the church, all I did was set up my sitting
room and began service on a Sunday morning. I know of many others who
go out first in search of a building and once they found one to rent, church
has started. The next thing on their agenda is to focus on getting members
and this is why we have a lot of churches that are not growing and making
impact.
We must imitate God. Whatever God wants to start, He makes sure His
word is the first thing He gets. This is because God can do nothing without
His word. The word is the architect God employs to create whatever He
wants and to do His will.
And since ministry is simply God’s work, the first thing you need is not
money or building but a word from God concerning what you are about to
embark upon. Not just a word from the Bible, but revelation knowledge
from God. It is on this word that Jesus will develop and build His church to
grow so that the gates of hell cannot prevail against it.
You know what? The devil is busy working overtime to ensure that
churches don’t grow and fulfill their potential. When a church grows, it will
destroy the works of the devil and dethrone him as god. He doesn’t want
that. So he attacks churches at their infancy.
But he will never prevail over a church that is started with a word from
God. That kind of church is not made on earth but in heaven. Jesus, and not
man, becomes the builder of that church.
This means you must wait on God to receive a word before you even
step out to look for a place or place your banner or sign post. You need the
word to battle with.
The revelation of the word of God determines your capacity. It infuses
you with the image of God. You are coming from the world, before you
enter into ministry you need to set your mind free from the world. This
takes time.
God uses your soul to create everything on earth, so if your soul is still
full of the world and the things of the world, the word of God will never
work for you. You have to stay on the word until your soul is free of the
world and renewed with knowledge in the image of God.
Ministry is a partnership between God and man. God wants you to
present your soul to Him so that He can work through it to establish His
kingdom agenda on the earth.
A worldly mind is a dead mind that God cannot use. There is no way
you can even partner with God when your mind is full of the world. The
world and the word of God can never co-exist in your mind. That is there is
no way you can think of the word when your mind is full of the world.
“Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear
the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the
desires for other things entering in choke the word, and becomes
unfruitful.” Mark 4:18-19
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of
the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit, the things of the spirit.
For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and
peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject
to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh
cannot please God. Rom. 8:5-8
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the
world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world- the
lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father
but is of the world. 1 John 2:15-16
Adulterers and Adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the
world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the
world makes himself an enemy of God. James 4:4
From these scriptures above, you can see that no one will ever enjoy
growth and success in ministry who has not first used the word of God to
cleanse his or her mind before starting ministry.
No matter how intense the feeling to start is, make sure the work of
cleaning your mind from the influence of the world is complete before you
step out. If not, the devil will use that as a stumbling block against your
ministry.
You must delight daily in the word of God for it to work for you. Once
your mind is freed of worldliness, the word will become the architect by
your side to build your church and make it grow. Anytime you stop
delighting in the word, your church will stop growing.
And when the word of God is the one building, no devil in hell can stop
Him. Remember, the first church He planted was in hell. The devil still
remembers that. That’s why he will pressure you to start the church without
a word from God and the cleansing of your soul.
Most people struggle in ministry and never see growth after many years
because they possess a mind that is dead towards God. It is impossible for
them to believe God for anything in the ministry.
Total immersion in the word of God is all you need for the word to work
for you. You have to saturate your mind with the word. You have to see,
hear and think it day and night.
Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, Jerry Savelle, David Oyedepo, Bill
Winston and Sunday Adelaja, all did this. By thinking on the word, they
became one with God: partners of God to fulfill His agenda on the earth.
When you start with the word, you will enjoy the following services:
- The word will revive your soul (Ps. 19:7).
- The word will flood your mind with light so you can see and know
what God has prepared for you (Ps. 19:8; 119:130; Eph. 1:18-19).
 - The word will save your soul (James 1:21; 1 Tim. 4:16).
- The word will set your mind free from the influence of the devil
and the world (John 8:31-32, 36).
- The word will cleanse your mind of the impurities of the world
and dead works and make it holy for God to use (John 17:16-17;
Eph. 5:26; John 15:3; Heb. 9:14).
- The word will speak to you and direct you on what to do (Prov.
6:22-23, Isaiah 30:21).
- The word will birth faith in you (Rom. 10:17).
- The word will strengthen your soul (Ps. 119:28).
- The word will establish your soul so that nothing can move you
away from your assignment (Ps. 112:1, 7-8).
- The word will divide your soul from your spirit (Heb. 4:12).
- The word will infuse you with the nature of God so that you can
escape corruption of the world (2 Pet. 1:3-4).
- The word will increase grace in you so that you can do exploits
and greater works (2 Pet. 1:2, Dan. 11:32).
- The word will equip you to do the work of ministry (2 Tim. 3:11).
- The word will approve you to operate in the miraculous (2 Tim.
2:15; Acts 2:22).
- The word will build up your capacity to receive from God. God
only supply growth based on the capacity you have (Acts 20:32).
- The word will fill you with the knowledge of God’s will (Col. 1:9-
11).
- The word will keep you from seductive and lying spirits that will
take you away from your assignment (Prov. 3:21-26; 7:1-5, 24-27).
- The word will keep you from sinning against God (Ps. 119:9, 11).
- The word will make you prosperous and cause you to succeed
(Jos. 1:8, Ps. 1:2-3).
That is why the major work of anyone going into ministry is to labor in
the word of God. Because only the word carries the capacity of God; as you
think on the word, your capacity will continue to increase until it equals that
of God.
And should you stop thinking on the word along the way, your capacity
will begin to shrink. Rather than be a partner of God and do things in His
power and with the strength of the Spirit, you will be doing it in the energy
of the flesh. There is nothing much you can do in the flesh, without God.
 Your job is to plant the word of God into your soul and the job of God is
to cause your church to increase. If you don’t fulfill your part first, God will
never bring about the increase.
Money and friends can never grow a church, only the word of God can.
Watch what you are saying, that will determine whether the word is in you
or the world. Whatever you are full of that is exactly what you will talk
about.
I categorize pastors by the words that come out of their mouths. If I stay
with anyone for twenty to thirty minutes and the person never for once
mistakenly or unconsciously quote the word, I know he or she doesn’t
attend to the word of God.
You will only produce in life what has been abundantly planted in you.
That is what you have given attention to. There is no how you will give
attention to the word that your church will not grow. It’s impossible. The
word will always attract people.
Dr. Oyedepo attends to the word of God as such the word builds his
capacity and increases his energy to handle growth.
Don’t go around town and become the news peddler of all that is
happening in town. That will only make you unfit for partnership with God
and disqualify you from church growth. It only corrupts your mind.
As your mind is so you perceive everything. When your mind is full of
the word, you will see exactly what God is doing and hear Him clearly and
when you do and say those things, you will end up having the results God
will have. If your mind is defiled by your incessant focusing on the world,
you will disobey God and end up disqualified.
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble,
whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are
lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there
is anything praise worthy-meditate on these things. Phil. 4:8
To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and
unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled.
They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable,
disobedient and disqualified for every good work. Titus 1:15-16
Maturing into Sonship
Dr. Oyedepo said, “When the child Jesus grew into a Son, it was written
concerning Him that He returned in the power of the Spirit. It was only after
then that He could take His rightful place and exercise authority as the Son
of God.” A great and prosperous ministry is your portion, but if you don’t
grow up, you won’t have the right to claim it.
Most people who are entering ministry are clearly unready and
immature for it. That you feel the call does not mean you have to just go
and start. You need to grow up into a Son.
Have you ever seen an immature tree bear fruits? Can you eat an unripe
mango? Can you eat an uncooked yam? No! Because they are not ready,
they won’t be able to produce the kind of results people expect.
To grow or mature into sonship means to wax strong in the spirit.
Nothing determines the results you will produce like your spirituality. It is
the pillar on which your ministry will rest. It is either you are spiritual or
you are carnal.
Whatever you gain by being spiritual can be lost through carnality.
Maturing into sonship determines your spiritual strength and stamina.
Therefore if your spirit is weak, you will lose the battle to build a great
ministry/church.
Every ministry requires a spiritual depth and capacity for its fulfillment.
Spiritual strength is the ability to carry a robust spirit that passionately
follows after God. Your spiritual capacity is your potential to hold, store
and exercise the power of God.
If your capacity is big, your words will be deep and your works
monumental. Your capacity determines the people that are drawn to you.
Church growth doesn’t answer to prayer and fasting, but to spiritual
capacity. Prayer and fasting only increases your spiritual energy.
People like Dr. Oyedepo who have large Churches and command great
following spend all of their time building and expanding their spiritual
capacity. But small time pastors spend time trying to build their Church. If
you work on your capacity you won’t need to labor for the Church to grow.
Growth comes naturally to your capacity.
When you continually increase your spiritual capacity, the people will
continue to flow to you. But if you decide to grow the Church rather than
your spiritual capacity, it will seem as if the people are running from you.
There was a time all I was praying for was for God to increase the
number of people in my Church. I prayed this passionately for a number of
months, but there was no result. Then I heard someone say, don’t seek or
pray for more but rather become more (that is, increase your capacity to
have more) and more will come to you. Focus on increasing your capacity
rather than members of your Church.
Spiritual maturity is key to being crowned as king in the kingdom of
God. God’s authority and the right to rule on earth are only bestowed on
people who have matured in Christ; those who have developed their
spiritual capacity, energy and strength.
Love is your spiritual capacity, faith is your spiritual strength and grace
is your spiritual energy.
Your spiritual capacity (largeness of heart) determines the size of what
you will achieve. Your spiritual strength is based on the knowledge of God
and determines the effectiveness of your exploits and your spiritual energy
which is based on hearing and obeying the voice of God determines what
you will accomplish supernaturally. Together they make you operate in
dominion.
Your spiritual capacity determines the size of the vision and things you
receive from God. Your spiritual energy determines if you are able to carry
it. While your spiritual strength determines how you are able to manifest it
on earth.
Revelation knowledge strengthens and energizes your spirit, but praying
in tongues build up the capacity of your spirit. If your capacity is small, no
matter your spiritual strength and energy, you will only do very little. That
is the main reason why Churches are not growing and not because of the
devil.
Your spiritual capacity is key to how big your ministry grows. Your
spiritual energy determines how far you go and your spiritual strength
determines the battles you will win. One battle can keep your
ministry/church from growing for life. Small churches therefore are
pastored by pastors on low energy, small capacity and little strength. You
can increase these. God did not destine all churches to be small. Dr.
Oyedepo had a growth of 12,000 in a year. In one year he also had much
more added to him. He used the principles and reached 800,000 people in
one year in Lagos and had 100,000 gave their lives in the church in one
year.
Ministry is battle and the battles are fought with spiritual strength and
energy and not physical. If you faint in the days of battle, it simply means
your strength is small and your energy is low. I fought battles with physical
strength/energy when I was pastoring and rather than make it grow, I
increased the activities of the devil in my church and he made sure that it
never grew. Fighting spiritual battles with physical strength and energy will
only result in strife which makes room for all kinds of evil. You need to
fight with spiritual strength and energy.
The devil will always oppose any church but with spiritual strength in
place, the church will be built and the gates of hell will not be able to
prevail against it. Carnality is the main reason why most churches are not
growing and making impact. When you embrace spirituality (spiritual
capacity, strength and energy), you’re your church will grow exceedingly.
A car with a battery on low voltage or dead battery will not even start,
so also a car with no fuel. You charge your spiritual battery by speaking in
tongues and fuel your spiritual car by meditating on the word of God to
receive strength.
You must grow your ministry with spiritual energy and not physical.
Whatever God has not commanded you, don’t do it. If you do it, you will
only be doing it with carnal or physical energy, and that has no power to
bring lasting effect.
I was listening to Pastor Paul Enenche and I heard him say Pastor
Adeboye once prayed for seventy-two hours non-stop in tongues. And that
the results he has are based on this. He keeps on expanding his spiritual
capacity and as he does that, the multitude keeps flowing. I just concluded
that it must also be Dr. Oyedepo’s practice too.
The last thing most of us young ministers will do is to deliberately take
out time to pray in tongues in order to grow or enlarge our spiritual capacity
knowing that it is the key to growth in ministry. When you pray in tongues,
you will not only enlarge and expand your capacity; you will also increase
your spiritual energy and strength.
For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no
one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries. He who
speaks in a tongue edifies himself… I thank God I speak with tongues more
than you all; 1 Cor. 14:2, 4, 18
But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith,
praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for
the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Jude 20:21
So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace,
which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those
who are sanctified. Acts 20:32
 Pastors who are not doing exploits have little spiritual strength. They
don’t know God. Pastors who cannot grow their Churches have small
spiritual capacity or none at all. They have stopped praying in tongues and
even if they do, it is just for ten minutes or less. Pastors who cannot do
much have depleted spiritual energy. They have stopped communing with
God.
If you stop studying, your strength will begin to reduce. If you stop
praying in tongues your capacity will shrink. And if you stop communing
with God, you will be on low or no spiritual energy.
Your results in ministry will be the fruit of your spiritual maturity.
Therefore desire God, so that you can grow up spiritually into His son.
Without this in place, forget success in ministry.
Maturing your soul
As you strive to become spiritually mature, you need to also work on
your soul. Your spiritual maturity determines what you receive from God
and how large it is, while your soul determines how you understands and
manifest it.
You don’t understand things with your spirit but with your mind. If your
mind’s capacity is smaller than what God is revealing to your spirit, you
will shrink it. You may not even understand what God is saying, talk less of
applying it.
The ability to understand exactly what God wants you to do will
separate you from a lot of people. And to develop that ability you will need
to work on your mind.
The mind has only one way of developing: thinking. When you begin to
think on what God is telling you, your mind will get built up to that extent,
then you will be able to see and do what most people will never have seen.
Your spiritual maturity is for the spirit realm but your mental
development is for the physical realm. Whatever your mind can think of,
will be created in your world. This is because the mind is the seat of
wisdom. God gave you a mind so that by thinking on His word you can
create it on earth. So be careful of what you are thinking because by
thinking it you will end up creating it. The only work of a spirit is to think
and speak.
To increase therefore in wisdom, you will need to keep maturing your
mind by meditating on the word of God. There are many pastors out there,
who will prefer to pray than to study the word of God, read books and
think. Prayer is good but it has its purpose.
Prayer has never built anything anywhere. But wisdom has. God did not
use prayer to build the heaven and the earth, He used wisdom. So if you
want to build a great ministry/church, you will have to go after the wisdom
of God and it comes when your mind is stayed on God and His word.
Through prayer you download your church’s vision, but through thinking
you create it on earth.
Rather than pray long prayers, ask God for wisdom concerning the
situation you are in. When you connect with His wisdom, you have
connected with all that you will ever need to succeed in ministry. But you
can pray in tongues for long hours while at the same time thinking on God’s
word.
When you increase your spiritual capacity, your ministry will get
enlarged in the spirit, but you will need wisdom to create it on earth the
same way it is in the spirit. It must first be in the spirit before it can happen
in the physical and the wisdom of God is the manufacturing plant that
creates it in the world for everyone to see.
If your mind is not spiritually minded, you will miss the wisdom of
God. Therefore it is your responsibility to work on it.
Dr. Oyedepo said he asked God for wisdom every day for eighteen
months. He was not just asking, he coupled it with laborious studies. He
read the Bible, books and biographies and thought over them. He did this
long before he started the Church and continued even till today.
He did not just blindly ask for general wisdom. No! Rather, whenever
he comes to an issue in his studies that he doesn’t understand what to do
and how to go about it, he then ask God for wisdom. He doesn’t wait until
God gives him the wisdom. He keeps on thinking on the word and as he
does, he gets the wisdom on what to do.
He built his ministry with wisdom. And since, he doesn’t have exclusive
right to the wisdom of God; you too can access God’s wisdom to build the
kind of ministry you have seen in the spirit realm. Wisdom helps you to
download it to the physical realm. With the wisdom of God you are able to
create on earth, all that you have possessed through your spiritual maturity.
O Lord, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom You have made them
all. The earth is full of Your possessions. Ps.104:24
 The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding He
established the heavens. Prov. 3:19
He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by
His wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens at His discretion. Jer.10:12
Dr. Oyedepo puts it this way, “Your spirit receives heavenly ideas from
God and drops them into your mind. Your mind analyses and gets an
understanding of them. The members of your body then put into action
what your mind has worked out. Your spirit cannot carry out the ideas from
God and cannot reach your body except through your mind.”
When your mind is not developed or spiritually matured, everything you
see in the spirit will look big and impossible in the natural. That’s why you
need to have the mind of Christ or Spirit.
Don’t start the ministry until you have developed your mind to the
extent that it can handle the wisdom of God. It really becomes impossible to
do if you have not done that before starting. That is why most people get
stranded in ministry. If you don’t know what to do, you will only fabricate
them.
Wisdom will not only show you what to do, it will bring you promotion.
It is the architect God used to create everything we see and He has made it
available for you only if you will work on your mind.
If your mind is not developed and you start ministry, you will be
confused by voices. You will hear your voice, the voice of your frustration,
the voice of people and the voice of the devil and take them to be the voice
of God.
You’ll see Pastors who are excited about starting ministry talking about
growing and expanding in a few years, but after sometime, they begin to
hear other voices tell them other things. My question has always been, if the
ministry had grown and they have 25,000 people in church, would they
want to do what they want to do now?
Your mind if not develop can frustrate you out of ministry. It has
frustrated many. That’s why you need to yoke it permanently to the word of
God. Think about it day and night. It takes your mind to interpret whatever
God is revealing to you. Your mind must be at the same frequency and level
with God before you can understand what God is telling you to do.
If you spend your time talking with carnal people and watching movies
that have no link with your work, your mind will deteriorate rather than be
upgraded.
 As you think on God’s word, your self-image will get aligned with
God’s (you become a possessor of His divine nature-image and likeness).
As a result you will possess the ability to create your ministry on earth in
accordance to the pattern God had shown you.
While developing your mind, you must stay in vital union with God so
that your spiritual capacity, energy and strength will be continually
increasing.
There is no how you can display the wisdom of God when your mind
has been blinded by the devil as a result of not using or exercising it. You
need a sound mind to build a sound ministry.
When you think on God’s word, you’ll see all that God sees and you
will know what to do to grow your church. But if all you spend your time
on is watching movies, reading newspapers, talking politics and gossiping
with no scheduled time to think on the word of God, your church will not
grow no matter all the gimmicks you try.
If you like, pick all the Church growth secrets or strategies you can get
on the internet or from teachers of Church growth, nothing will happen.
Church growth is organic, like planting a crop in the soil. You don’t have to
force it. Just allow the wisdom of God to do its work. Your job is to stay on
the word and meditate on it.
As long as your mind is conformed to the will of God, that is exactly
what you are going to create. If your mind is not conformed to Church
growth, you will never see it no matter the length of time you pray in
tongues. Reading the Bible won’t make it happen, only thinking on the
word will do.
And don’t for a minute let this Book of the Revelation be out of mind.
Ponder and meditate on it day and night, making sure you practice
everything written in it. Then you’ll get to where you’re going; then you’ll
succeed. Jos. 1:8 The message
Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it
without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be
changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what He wants from you,
and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging
you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you,
develops well-formed maturity in you.” Rom. 12:2 The message
Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you,
the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for
whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves
the Son, and show Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show
Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.” John 5:19-20
If you want to see what God is doing and how He is building the Church
in the spirit, you will have to first think on the word of God. When your
mind becomes saturated with the word of God, it becomes easier to see and
do exactly what God is doing.
Increase in Favor
Let not mercy and truth forsake you; bind them around your neck, write
them on the tablet of your heart, and so find favor and high esteem in the
sight of God and man. Prov. 3:3-4
Good understanding gains favor, but the way of the unfaithful is hard.
Prov. 13:15
Understanding your assignment is key to succeeding in ministry. All
you have to do is strive to understand your assignment; that is the key to
supernatural supply in ministry. It causes you to experience unprecedented
favor.
Don’t just assume you know what God is telling you to do, take your
time to understand what He wants you to do. There are people who start
running without understanding what they need to do.
Another word for understanding is insight or revelation. It is taking
abreast of the facts concerning your call. Of course, you won’t know
everything about where God wants you to be and what to do at the
beginning, but you will understand all that He wants you to do.
Inasmuch as Dr. Oyedepo got the vision in 1981, he has to wait till he
understood his assignment before he started. It took him 26 months of
studies and planning to prepare a blueprint for the success of the ministry.
From then on everything became easy. He was simply following a well
understood script and if anything is not working as planned, he return to
God to make inquiries on how to go about it.
If you don’t understand what you are called to do, you won’t know how
to structure it and how to involve people who are willing to help you.
But once you understand it, you will have access to all that you will
need to study. Young ministers are very much in a hurry. No one wants to
stay for a year or more trying to understand and take full delivery of all that
they need.
 They start with much fanfare but soon lose steam. There is no how they
can profit from the ministry since they did not wait to understand or gain
insight into what it takes and what is required to succeed in ministry.
Any enterprise is built by wise planning, becomes strong through
common sense, and profits wonderfully by keeping abreast of the facts.
Prov. 24: 3-4 TLB
Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all your
getting, get understanding. Exalt her, and she will promote you; she will
bring you honor, when you embrace her, she will place on your head an
ornament of grace, a crown of glory she will deliver to you.” Prov. 4:7-9
When you develop your capacity, then you will succeed in ministry. You
need love, grace, faith, wisdom and understanding to build a great ministry.
Without them in increasing quantity, you are going to be stagnated.
Wherever you stop developing your capacity is the level your ministry
is going to stop growing. The ministry is simply your lengthen shadow. If
you stop growing, it will stop growing. Whatever people are seeing outside
is simply a reflection of what is happening on your inside.
Is there anywhere you can reach and stop developing your capacity?
There is none. As long as you are on earth, keep working on yourself and
keep firing. Don’t ever stop. You can never search the fullness of God on
earth, but that doesn’t mean you should stop. Aspire always to become like
God.
 Chapter Two
The Battle of Ministry
◆◆◆
Covenant Principle
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His
might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand
against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and
blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of
the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the
heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you
may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to
quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. Eph. 6:10-13, 16
Dr. David Oyedepo’s Saying
“By covenant you are an overcomer. The whole world may lie in
wickedness but you will be exempted from it as long as you remain in
God. If you are conscious of your redemptive placement in Christ you
are automatically outside the satanic magnetic field. You have been
translated from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, where
the devil and his spiritual and human hosts of wickedness cannot reach
you.”

◆◆◆

Ministry is a battle between the kingdom of light and the kingdom of

darkness. Most young people are ignorant of this. They think that ministry
is all about phonetics and how they dress. They assume, erroneously
though, that if they can speak good grammar and dress fine they will
succeed in ministry.
Someone must have fed them with that trash. Ministry is battle and if
you are not ready to fight and enforce the will of God, you will be pushed
out.
We all know that the devil has been defeated and no longer has any
power over the earth and heaven. But he has the power of deception. He
controls the earth through the people he has under his control. Those people
do his will.
He was dislodged from heaven with a fight; do you think he will lie low
for you to dislodge him from the earth? The essence of the battles of
ministry is simply to enforce the will of God on earth. His will sent the
devil packing from heaven; therefore your ministry’s purpose is to send him
packing from the earth to hell.
That is your job. The devil is not under the feet of Jesus right now. It is
your responsibly to put him there, where he belongs.
You fight so that:
- The will of God will be enforced on earth
- Jesus will be Lord
- The kingdom of God will come to the earth
- The people the devil has kept and held in bondage will be
released.
- You will take charge of the earth.
The war over the earth is raging and when you are called, you are being
enlisted to join the battle. You don’t go to war without first preparing.
That’s why many Churches are not growing. They are simply losing out and
allowing the devil to take over more territories.
Ministry is war, simple. There is no retirement and no vacation. The war
is constant until the whole world and the earth is taken from the devil and
that’s when the end of the world will come. If you are waiting for Jesus to
come, then you have a long wait to do. Jesus is waiting for you to take
charge of the earth.
This is why you must take your time to build your spiritual capacity
before stepping out to start ministry. The battle is a spiritual one and you
need spiritual weapons to fight.
Most pastors are fighting people for not having the kind of results they
desire, not knowing that it is the devil fighting them back in order to stop
them from advancing.
As the end of time draws near, the devil is intensifying his attacks
against ministries and the Body of Christ, and Christians are busy arguing
over doctrinal issues rather than fighting.
There is even a teaching that has entered the Church that says there is
nothing called spiritual warfare, that the devil has already been defeated. Of
course, he has and that was in heaven, our job is to enforce that defeat on
the earth.
Don’t step into and start ministry until you are fully prepared for battle
and armed to fight. You need your spiritual strength and energy to fight the
battle and if they are not in place, the weapons to fight the battle will not be
potent.
During the twenty-six months of preparation, Dr. Oyedepo was engaged
in battle. He was pulling down all satanic strong holds in the city God has
sent him to. He did not assume that because Jesus has defeated the devil he
would not have any challenge. Attacks on the devil’s kingdom went on
every day with someone praying and fasting each day.
Even after he started the Church, they kept at it. Yet the devil still tried
to stop the Church from growing. He built a canopy over the Church that
blinded the minds of people. Then God opened Oyedepo’s eyes to see it, he
spoke to it and the devil packed his load to look for another Church to sit on
their destiny.
What if he had not taken the time to develop his capacity before
starting? What if like many of us, the moment he was called in 1981, he
went out looking for a hall, made sign board and then started? I believe he
would have been frustrated out of the ministry by the devil.
Your developed capacity makes you strong in the Lord and in the power
of His might; so that when you handle the weapon it becomes very
effective, sharp and accurate in delivery.
“Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit
down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him
who comes against him with twenty thousand?” Luke 14:31
“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of
heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” Matt. 11:12
Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord
said to me: “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have this
day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull
down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant.” Jeremiah 1:9-10
We are to root out, pull down, destroy and throw down the kingdom of
satan, before we can start the Church or ministry. If you don’t do this, the
devil will blind you and you won’t see what God wants to do. But if you do
it, you will see and God will hasten to perform His word concerning your
ministry.
Know God’s Will
“Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it
without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be
changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what He wants from you,
and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging
you down to its level of immaturity. God brings the best out of you,
develops well-formed maturity in you. Rom. 12:2 The Message
Be assured that from the first day we heard of you, we haven’t stopped
praying for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits attained to
His will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God
works. We pray that you’ll live well for the Master, making Him proud of
you as you work hard in His orchard. As you learn how to do your work,
we pray that you’ll have the strength to stick it over the long haul-not the
grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. --It is
strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the
Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and
beautiful that He has for us. Col. 1:9-12 The Message
A wise man is strong, yes, a man of knowledge increases strength. Prov.
24:5
We are in the last days when deceiving and lying spirits abound. They
go around in people giving prophesies to pastors and their churches. Those
people speak lies to the extent that they have lost their capacity for truth.
Only the knowledge of the will of God can protect you from their lies
and deception. There are pastors who were serving Dr. Oyedepo and were
doing well but then, they allowed themselves to be prophesied to and they
left their place to go into a ministry God never called them to.
Others have left a striving church and gone to another only to find out
after many years of fruitless effort that God never sent them there.
Some of those people who the lying spirit will operate through may be
people very close to you. If you know the will of God, you will be able to
judge whatever they say. The only challenge is that most people don’t just
know what the will of God is, so they are open to be lied to and deceived.
I once heard a voice tell me that my ministry will be appreciated more
in places like Lagos and the United States than in Akure where I am. Rather
than give heed or even entertain that word, I rejected it immediately,
because I knew exactly what the will of God for me is. If I don’t, I would
have given heed to the seducing spirit and moved out of the place God had
ordained for me.
And when you are out of your place, you are without grace and
therefore you will fall on your face with shame. Seducing spirits are all
around us.
They will use the voice of your challenges and frustration to move you
out of your place. My advice to pastors has always been, stick to whatever
God tells you before you enter the city where you are to do ministry. Test
every voice you hear with the will of God that has already been revealed to
you. That is your ancient landmark. It is your pivot, from where your
ministry rotates.
Because each city has its own version of the seductive spirit, your only
chance of escaping its snare and lies is to continually fix your eyes on the
word of God and meditate on it.
These spirits will make you start something God has told you before the
timing are right or even move you out of the city where you are to another
that God had ordained that you will go to in the future. The knowledge of
the will of God births faith in you and if you believe God you will never
make haste. You will wait for Him to open the door Himself.
When pastors begin to have financial challenges, those seducing spirits
will begin to speak to them to start a business or get a job in order to
become financially buoyant. It may sound to them like it is God, but that is
not the way He works. His way is for you to live from the gospel or
message that He gave you.
When you know the will of God you will have an enduring strength: a
strength that will keep you going no matter what is happening around. You
will be operating by a supernatural energy that can never entertain
discouragement and frustration.
When the people came to make Jesus King, He would have accepted if
He didn’t know the will of God. But He knew that a seducing and lying
spirit was behind it. He would have missed His place so cheaply had He
accepted their offer.
He was never afraid of death because He knew exactly what the will of
God was concerning Him. As long as He was continually relating with God,
the will of God was fresh to Him.
The aim of the devil is to get you very busy trying to make ends meet so
that you don’t have time for God and His word. The moment you are
distracted, the seducing and lying spirits begin to work to get you out of
your place and eventually out of grace. You can do nothing when you have
no grace.
No matter what is happening, stay on the word and keep meditating on
it day and night. If you don’t have money, work but ensure that your mind
is fixed on God and God will keep you in perfect peace.
Jesus answered them and said, “My doctrine is not mine, but His who
send Me. If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the
doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority!
John 7:16-17
Seducing and lying spirits have deceived a lot of pastors and buried
their ministry. Don’t be a victim. They lie and make you disobey God. You
have to tabernacle with God and His word in order to stay above their
deception.
Battle Of The Mind
I wish I knew this in 2005, when I started ministry. Yes, I prayed for the
success of the ministry. But I didn’t know there was any warfare raging
against my ministry. At times the devil will tell me it’s one of the members
of the church that is stopping the growth of the Church and because I had
not conformed my mind to the mind of God, I began to look at the members
with suspicions.
What was happening? The devil was using me to scatter my church. He
really got all the help he needed from the senior pastor. He was using my
mind against me.
It’s really easy to see people as your problem than to fight the devil.
When you see fight breaking out in a church and church split, understand
that those people are really ignorant. The devil is turning them against each
other.
No one taught me that my mind and emotion are the targets of the devil
or maybe I didn’t expose myself to such teachings. There was a time when I
never wanted to hear anything about the devil. I said he had been defeated;
all I need is to hear about Christ. That was the deception of the devil.
He hides and operates under our ignorance. The devil’s strategy is to
introduce a thought into your mind and as you think of it, you become
emotional about it. Most of the time, he will say someone is the source of
the problem your church is going through.
When you become emotional about it, strife will then break out. Strife is
the door he is waiting to manifest his ministry of stealing, killing and
destroying. I never knew all of these.
After I had done church ministry for four years without much result, I
stopped it. I wanted to know what I didn’t know. It took me a better part of
four years of intense studies and listening to the word to learn.
Some pastors think that with time their Churches will grow. If it has not
been growing, time will never make it grow. You simply have not prepared
yourself thoroughly as God expected of you.
Soldiers don’t wait till bullets are flying all around them and bombs are
exploding to begin preparing for the war. Prepare your mind before hand
and let it conform to the will of God before you start.
Dr. Oyedepo said, “Many ministries are still as dormant as they were
when they first started. May be there was an initial increase of one hundred
members in two years and they called that progress. If God were that slow,
then He could still have been creating some stars or maybe He would have
just been half way through creating the moon by now!” Don’t allow
yourself to get deceived by the devil.
Protect your mind by filling it with the word of God. Use the word as
the filter for anything. If the devil says someone is the reason why your
Church is not growing, begin to love and pray for that person. Don’t give
heed to the devil. Even if those people physically attack you, forgive and
love them. Love should be your weapon. The devil will give you a lot of
opportunities to get offended, but don’t take any offense. Ignore him.
Strife, offense and un-forgiveness are simply a sign of a person with
little or no spiritual capacity. When you walk in love, the devil will never
have a way with you and that’s how to protect your ministry.
Now whom you forgive anything, I also forgive. For if indeed I have
forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of
Christ, lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his
devices. 2 Cor. 2:10-11
 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,
whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the
light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine on them. 2 Cor. 4:3-4
But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness,
so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 2 Cor.
11:3
But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate
strife. And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able
to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God
perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and
that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having
been taken captive by him to do his will. 2 Tim. 2:23-26
For where envy and self-seeking (strife) exist, confusion and every evil
thing are there. James 3:16
I say then; walk in the spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the
flesh. Gal. 5:16
To walk in the spirit is to walk in love. To win the battle, you have to be
living in the spirit and sensitive to everything that is happening around you.
Let your mind continue to think on the word. As you do so, God will
give you strategies or wisdom to fight with. On your own you can never
win the battle.
The devil can never resist nor gainsay the wisdom of God. It is superior
to his level of operation. Through you God wants to display His manifold
wisdom in order to cause you to reign and bring the devil, principalities and
powers in the heavenly places to the feet of Jesus.
Your mind is what the devil is contending over. Don’t give him a
chance. Stay on the assignment God has given you. Don’t leave it for
anything including money and the world. The devil will offer you money
and the world in exchange for your soul. Don’t fall into that trap.
You need your soul intact to make full proof of your ministry.

Constant Spiritual Exercise

Just as you constantly think to develop your mind, so also you should
constantly engage in spiritual exercise to sharpen your sensitivity to
spiritual things.
 It seems every day the devil perverts the scripture by introducing new
revelations through people who are not spiritually sensitive. They tell young
ministers that fasting and praying adds nothing to you.
Any church where the pastor does not fast and pray will soon bow down
to the devil. The devil will enslave the pastor and his church. It is okay if
the Church sings praise and the pastor teach his unscriptural sermons. A
powerless Church is one where the devil has bound the ministry of prayer.
A pastor wanted to start a church and I advised him to take about 3-6
months to fast and pray consistently before starting. Before I knew what, he
had started. People come and leave the Church and within a short time, he
stopped the church only to say he was not called to pastor a church; that he
is a business revivalist.
Don’t ever play with your prayer unit. You as a pastor must engage in
prayer and fasting. You have to lead the Church. No one will do it for you
no matter how much they love you. I hear pastors tell others to pray for
them. If you are not praying yourself, other people’s prayer won’t help you.
You are the target of the devil and not the members of your Church.
Fasting and prayer sharpen your spiritual antennae to detect what the devil
is planning and to receive wisdom from God on how to defeat him.
If you visit most small Churches, you will find out that they don’t have
a functional prayer unit. When they started they did, but since they could
not sustain attacks on the devil, he scattered them and now have a field day
in the affairs of the Church.
When Dr. Oyedepo saw the canopy placed by the devil to blind and stop
people from coming to the Church, they were in a 3-days fasting and prayer.
How come he never noticed it until they were engaged in fasting and
prayer?
And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him
privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” So He said to them, “This kind
can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.” Mark 9:28-29
But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by
reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Heb. 5:14
Fortify your prayer unit and ensure that it is populated by matured
Christians. You the pastor should have a monthly personal retreat and also
declare a weekly fasting and prayer time. And let there be a constant attack
on the kingdom of darkness.
 You are not seated below but above, so don’t become defensive. Your
prayers should always be on the offensive to dislodge the devil. When you
dislodge him, people and resource will come to you willingly for it is the
day of your power. One time, after the annual fasting and prayer, Bishop
Oyedepo started the 4th service and had a growth of 20, 000 in one day.
Gates Of Hell Shall Not Prevail
You are seated far above the devil and you are fighting from a position
of victory, not a victim. You are on the offensive against the kingdom of
darkness.
People are just starting churches left, right and center prematurely
without adequate knowledge of what it takes to sustain the Church. Many
Churches don’t even have a purpose apart from just preaching on Sundays.
Jesus’ idea of a Church is that she should battle to stop the influence of
the devil on earth by closing the gates through which hell has access to the
earth and open wide the gates of the city where it is located. Churches that
are built by pastors that know nothing about Jesus’ idea of Church are
susceptible to implementing the devil’s idea.
Gates serve as a place of assembly and commerce. They symbolize a
place of authority, access and entry. Kings make Judgments and transact the
business of their kingdoms there.
The security of a city relies heavily on the strength of its gates. If an
enemy overruns the gate, the city will be taken. As such whoever controls
the gates of the city controls the city and influences all that happens within
it.
When a city is experiencing an upsurge in poverty, premature death,
stealing, violence, and joblessness, wanton destruction and corruption,
infidelity and abortion, know that the hordes of hell is laying siege on the
gates of that city. The role of the Church is to close the gates through which
hell attacks the city.
Jesus gave the church authority not to fight people but to close the gates
through which the gates of hell influence the earth. So what is the essence
of having churches when the gates of hell are open wide over our towns,
cities and nations?
Your mouth is what you fight with and not your hands. The words from
your mouth are spiritual weapons and carry the authority to either close or
open gates. Anytime a pastor opens his mouth and talks about the evil
happening in the society, he is agreeing with the devil thereby assisting him
to influence the earth more.
I have visited prayer meetings where all they talk or preach about is the
evil prevalent on earth and not the goodness and blessings prevalent in
heaven. No wonder the rate of evil is on the increase. The devil is using
them through ignorance to extend his reign over the earth rather than stop it.
Therefore My people go into captivity [to their enemies] without
knowing it and because they have no knowledge [of God]. And their
honorable men [their glory] are famished, and their common people are
parched with thirst. Therefore Sheol (the unseen state, the realm of the
dead) has enlarged its appetite and opened its mouth without measure; and
[Jerusalem’s)] nobility and her multitude and her pomp and tumult and [the
drunken reveler] who exalts in her descend into it. Isaiah 5:13-14 AMP
Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
Then Jesus answered him, blessed (happy, fortunate, and to be envied) are
you, Simon Bar Jonah. For flesh and blood [men] have not revealed this to
you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter [Greek,
Petro- a large piece of rock] and on this rock [Greek, Petra- a huge rock like
Gibraltar]I will build My Church, and the gates of Hades (the powers of the
infernal region) shall not overpower it [or be strong to its detriment or hold
out against it]. I will give you keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever
you bind (declare to be improper and unlawful) on earth must be what is
already bound in heaven; and whatever you loose (declare lawful) on earth
must be what is already loosed in heaven. Matt. 16:16-19 AMP
For though we walk in the flesh; we do not war according to the flesh.
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling
down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts
itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to
the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when
your obedience is fulfilled. 2 Cor. 10:3-6
If you have not taken your time to develop your capacity, you will
become the captive of the devil rather than liberate the captives. But once
you are able to close the gates of hell, the eyes of the people will open and
they will rush to your Church to be blessed.
But if that gate is not closed through prayers, the people that come to
your Church won’t even understand what you are saying. The Church and
members will be under the siege of hell.
 It is your responsibility therefore to be sensitive in the spirit to know
where and when the gates of hell are trying to invade your Church and city.
 Chapter Three
Die For Ministry to Live
◆◆◆
Covenant Principle
“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the
ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.
He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world
will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me, and
where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My
Father will honor.” John 12:24-26
Dr. David Oyedepo’s Saying
“Until your life becomes a seed; excellence in ministry is not in view.
Like the apostles, I too can say that by the grace of God, I have left all
and have followed Him. There was an attack on my wife’s health in
year 2004. But right in the middle of that attack, I visited 27 nations on
mission assignments. While she was dying at home, I was going about
pursuing the ministry, I left all, because if I had stayed behind, I’m not
the one to heal her; I am not the Healer. My job is to obey Him, and
then He will take care of what remains, which He did, as my wife is
back on her feet today, pursuing and excelling in her ministry
assignment.”

◆◆◆

Real living begins after death. You must die in order for your ministry to
begin to live. Not die in its literal sense, but dying to self, to your ambition
and to your will.
 To die simply means to absolutely surrender to God. There are many
people in ministry today who have not died to anything. If you have not
died to self, you will want God to follow and obey you rather than you
follow and obey Him.
I have heard pastors say that God instructed them to do something but
had refused to do it. Rather than do what God had instructed them to do
they are busy doing what they want to do. They are proud that they are not
following God’s instructions.
Anyone who has died will see God as His ultimate and will submit
absolutely to God in everything. Jesus had to die to everything in order to
follow God to the end. Your mind must be submitted to thinking God’s
thoughts, your emotion to believe His word and your will to do His will.
God cannot work with some people because they act like goats instead
of sheep. They are too much in a hurry to wait for God. They are always far
ahead of God.
If you have not died, you will give God conditions to obey Him. You
will tell Him that “If He sends you to a village, you won’t go” or “I prefer
to be in business than be in ministry.”
Jesus must be the Lord of all or not at all. Two people can never work
together if both of them have strong wills. They will clash. One must
submit to the other. God will never submit to you. The person who God will
work with must abandon his life into the hands of God. It has to be total and
irrevocable.
There are many pastors out there who will never take a step to do what
God instructs them to do. They are afraid of what people will say and how
it will make them look before people. They care more about themselves and
what people will say, than about God.
Men are looking for a god they can control and direct on what to do.
Pastors will tell you that God told me to do this for you, but I refused. Why
stay in ministry when you are not surrendered to the Lord of the ministry;
the person who called you?
People who are not ready to die will never leave all. They will hold
back to something as a surety that should ministry fail, they can have
something to fall back on.
When God called me and I confirmed it was Him, I abandoned
everything and imprisoned my will to His. Not just a conditional
imprisonment where I hope to be release after some years. No! I am
submitted to an eternal imprisonment to His will. I no longer have any plans
for myself.
His plans became my plans. His will became my will. His word became
my guide. I don’t go to a place where He did not direct me to. I don’t enter
into anything He did not instruct me to do. I have died and nothing remains
of me. I died so I can gain the whole of Him.
A branch must be totally surrendered to the will of the vine if it wants to
produce fruit and live. But should it decide that it has had enough of
following the orders of the vine and decide to cut itself off, and then it will
die and not bear fruit. That is the state of many pastors.
Dr. Oyedepo’s eyes are fixed totally on God. He said if the ministry
crash, he will crash with it. He does nothing except what God tells him to
do. You must become the slave of God before you will ever enjoy His
friendship.
Your ministry will only experience fruits that abides when you
absolutely surrender to God, with no other plan outside what He wants you
to do with your life. You must be sold out to Him for the ministry to live
and impact nations.
When God instructed me to get down to Akure, Ondo State (Nigeria), I
readily obeyed and came down not knowing anybody in town. A pastor had
given me a note to another pastor to help guide me. When I met him and
presented the note to him, he told me if I thought I was the only one called
by God; that I should have come to survey the ground first and get a room
before coming. I answered that I am here; if God will abandon me then He
is not fit to be God. I have burnt the bridge. I have nowhere to go except
where God wants me to. I learnt this from Dr. Oyedepo and God never
abandoned me.
I believe the reason people don’t surrender all to God is simply because
they don’t trust Him enough. They see God in the light of their parents or
authority figures who cannot keep their words. They think God too has
similar attribute, as a result they always have alternatives; a plan B and C,
when it comes to God.
Jesus never had a plan B, so also the apostles. They all relied on God’s
plan A. Whatever God instructed them to do, even if it looked foolish they
did it not minding how it makes them look. They know that everything God
tells them to do will result in glory.
 God will not and cannot bless your ministry if you are not totally
surrendered to Him. When you are surrendered, you won’t be distracted and
confused. Your whole spirit, soul and body will be focused on doing His
will and as a result your whole body will be full of light and consumed with
the fire and power of God.
Doing ministry without dying is living with no capacity to bear fruit.
You will struggle through it all and never get the result God intends for you.
Only in dying can your ministry live.
Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and
to finish His work.” John 4:34
“I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and My judgment is
righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father
Who sent Me.” John 5:30
When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He
said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me let him deny himself, and
take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desire to save his life will
lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospels will save it.
For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own
soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Mark 8:34-37
All the benefits of ministry will only be yours when you leave all and
become the slave of God, a bond servant who is imprisoned to the will of
His master. You have to die to self and live to serve God only. But if you
have not died to self you will want to have God and people serve your will
rather than you serve them.
Sold Out To The Assignment
Everyone is called, but only those who are sold out to the assignment
end up operating in the supernatural power of God. Those are really the
people who give life to others.
You will only find God when you are sold out to His cause. Have you
burnt the bridge? If you haven’t, then you are not qualified to give life to
others.
It was after Jesus died to the assignment of the Father that He became a
life giving Spirit. He was not doing the assignment part time or as a
“tentmaker”. He was absolutely sold out to the work of ministry. He
literally left everything, including his family for the assignment. Have you
left everything?
 Until you are ready to be sold out to God’s assignment, you will never
be qualified to enjoy the rewards of ministry. Ministry will make you rich.
The reason most pastors don’t leave all to follow God is because they
see God as a task master and that if they can have money, they will fulfill
ministry. That’s the deception of the devil.
Dr. Oyedepo always says that money doesn’t make ministry, but
ministry makes money. When you leave all for God’s assignment, you will
find all and much more than you need.
You must become the seed. A seed must be committed to the ground
and focused on growing before it can produce what it has the potential for.
Until you are sold out to God’s assignment, you will never have a fruitful
ministry.
“Listen carefully: unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead
to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it
sprouts and reproduces itself many times over.” John 12: 24 The Message
..What you sow is not made alive unless it dies. And what you sow, you
do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain – perhaps wheat or some
other grain. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in
weakness, it is raised in power. 1 Cor 15: 35-36, 43
Then Peter began to say to Him, “see, we have left all and followed
You.” So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one
who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or
children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a
hundredfold now in this time- houses and brothers and sisters and mothers
and children and lands, with persecutions – and in the age to come, eternal
life.” Mark 10: 29- 30
You need to die to yourself. People who are sold out to God don’t care
about themselves; all they care about is God and what He wants them to do.
It is very easy to get offended when you have not died to self. Root of
bitterness, offense and strife will defile you and make you unfit to walk
with God.
You need to die to the world. The love of the world will render the word
of God unfruitful in you. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the
pride of life are manifestations of the world, and they will rob you of the
life of God. If money is upmost in your mind, then you are disqualified
from ministry.
 You must die to the opinion of others. People will always have opinions
no matter what you do. Don’t be moved by their opinion rather be moved
by the opinion of God, which is in His word.
Consecrated To God’s Will
To consecrate means to separate someone for a particular task or
assignment. That is what holiness is all about, being consecrated to the will
of God.
The will is God’s and He chooses men, call and appoints them to
represent Him on the earth. That is, He has set them apart to do His will. It
is your responsibility to separate yourself from the world to God’s will.
If you study the life and ministry of Dr. Oyedepo you will understand
this. He is absolutely separated to God. There is nothing in the world that he
seeks after. He goes after God and His assignment with gusto and so much
fanfare.
If you want to know whether a pastor is dedicated and separated to God,
just look at his congregation. If the people who attend his Church are not
dedicated to the word of God and separated to do the will of God, then the
pastor is not. Like pastor, like congregation.
Today you hear pastors who are called doing ministry part time and as
they wish. There is no fear of God any longer. The only challenge is that
they expect their church members to be consecrated and dedicated to the
church while they are not.
Whatever you want to see in the life of your people you have to model
it. If you want them to give to the work of God, then you have to give your
whole life and everything you have to it. If you want them to be prayerful,
then you have to be prayerful first. You don’t need them to motivate you
rather you are the one to be an example to them by the way you take God’s
work.
Don’t expect dedication from the people when you have not done that.
There are times when I feel like caning some pastors. They complain about
their people not depending on God and not being dedicated to the church.
My question has always been: why should they when their pastor has a full
time job that he is consecrated to and depends on his salary? How can they
be consecrated to the things of God, when evidently the pastor knows more
about what is happening in the world than in heaven?
“They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them
by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also
have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that
they also may be sanctified by the truth.” John 17:16-19
You are either consecrated to the world or to God. You can’t have both.
Like they said, “You can’t have one leg in God and another in the world.”
God’s condition for success in ministry is total consecration or separation to
His will.
You are going to be His messenger and servant to the world and not the
servant of people. The requirement to serve God is consecration (holiness)
;be separated from the world and everything it stands for to connect with
God and do His will.
When you give yourself to the word of God, you become consecrated to
the will of God and separated from the world. This is the way to build an
effective, growing and prosperous ministry.
Therefore “Come out from among them and be separate says the Lord.
Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.” 2 Cor. 6:17
Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the
world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the
world makes himself an enemy of God. James 4:4
Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the
world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on
in the world-wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself,
wanting to appear important-has nothing to do with the Father. It just
isolates you from Him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is
on the way out -but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity. 1 John
2:15-17 The message
When you make God’s will your focus, God will become what you
constantly pursue.
Seeking God
Mike Murdock said, “The proof of desire is pursuit.” That is, whatever
has consumed you is exactly what you will always long for and constantly
pursue. People who desire more of this world and the things it can offer are
always pursuing it. They craze for it, so they go after it.
In ministry, if you are not consecrated to God you will not take out time
to seek Him. People who have scheduled time to seek God are those who
have dedicated their lives to fulfilling the will of God on earth.
There is no how you can go about doing God’s work without spending
time with Him. The more you spend time with Him the more you know
what He desires and want done.
Dr. Oyedepo has time scheduled every day and every month to seek
God. The more you seek God, the more you will know Him and become
lost in His love. That is the key to operating in power and building a
supernatural ministry.
Instead of moving around town, stay on the word. Pastor David
Ibiyeomie, who is a protégé of Dr. Oyedepo, said he was given to moving
around town until his mentor advised him to stay on the word and mind his
ministry. So when he got to Port Harcourt; he stayed on the word and his
assignment for two years. Rather than move around town, he went deep into
the word and the word caused an explosive supernatural growth in his
ministry/church.
Anything that will take you away from seeking God must be fought
with everything you have. Any worker who avoids his employer is bound to
fail in his assignment.
The only way to know exactly what to do and how to do it is to spend
time with God. Even Jesus had to spend time with God to know what He
needed to do and where He needed to go. Your efforts can never bring in
the needed increase in the church. God is the one that will cause the
increase to happen. And He will only do that if you do what He instructs
you to do.
In seeking God, you receive the ability to do what He wants you to do.
Your capacity gets enlarged, your strength increases and your energy gets
recharged. People who seek God run on full throttle and get the kind of
results most people who are too busy trying to make money in the world
will never dream of having.
A lot of people believe that money is what make ministry. Money is
important, but it is God who makes ministry. Go and get all the money in
the world and try succeeding in ministry with the money and see. You will
fall on your face. Money will fail you but God won’t.
Jerry Savelle said he locked himself up and listened to Kenneth
Copeland’s messages for more than eight hours a day for three months and
when he came out after spending that long hours with God, he said the fire
of God was burning in his eyes, hands and body. Kenneth Copland did
similar thing with Kenneth E. Hagin’s messages.
Seeking God is the secret behind the success of men of God like Dr.
Oyedepo. Nothing in the world will ever compensate for the time they
spend seeking God. They know that they cannot do anything without God,
so they make it a major factor in their life to always and regularly seek God.
Check Churches that are not growing and you will notice that the pastor
is so busy that he has no time to seek God. Either he is busy working a job,
visiting members, watching television or chatting with people. Anyone who
has no time for God is really busy.
“For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father
knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and
His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Matt. 6:32-33
O God, you are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You;
my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. So
I have looked for You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory.
Ps. 63:1-2
The young Lions lack and suffer hunger; but those who seek the Lord
shall not lack any good thing. Ps. 34:10
He sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the
visions of God; and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper. 2
Chron. 26:5
You have to keep on inquiring and seeking God. That is the only way to
build a great ministry. If you miss this, your ministry’s foundation will be
without depth and as such the height you will grow to will be limited.
No church or ministry can ever grow beyond the depth in which the
pastor or point man has gone into God. As you seek God, you go deeper
into Him and your results go higher outside for everyone to see.
Tapping Into Power
You need the power of God to fulfill ministry in a grand style. Jesus
instructed His disciples not to go into ministry until they are endued with
power from God. If Jesus needed power and the apostles do too, then you
need it to succeed.
But you must understand that power is the result of time spent with
God. Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness with God and returned in the
power of God. The disciples spent days seeking God before they got endued
with power.
In Acts 13, the Church took out time to seek God, then they heard the
Holy Spirit say, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to
which I have called them.” That would have been enough for them to start
going. But they knew that they needed power to go, so they sought God
some more and they were sent forth with power and as a result, they
commanded strange supernatural results.
Don’t step out into ministry until you have been endued with power.
Remember, ministry is battle. It is war. You have an adversary who will
want to resist and stop you from establishing the kingdom of God on earth.
The only way to overcome him is through the manifestation of the power of
God.
Don’t be in a hurry to start. If you really believe God you won’t be in a
haste. Draw near to God so that you can die and His power will be
manifested in you.
Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan
and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days
by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they
had ended, He was hungry. Now when the devil had ended every
temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time. Then Jesus
returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went
through the entire surrounding region. Luke 4:1-2, 13-14
Say to God, “How awesome are your works! Through the greatness of
your power your enemies shall submit themselves to you.” Ps. 66:3
The Lord said to My Lord, “Sit at My right hand till I make Your
enemies Your footstool.” The Lord shall send the rod of Your strength out
of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies! Your people shall be volunteers
in the day of Your power; in the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the
morning, You have the dew of Your youth. Ps. 110:1-3
Power is a major differentiator in ministry. The reason why you need to
die daily is so that you don’t lay claim to the results produced by the power
of God.
There is no how you can occupy your position and unleash the full
potential of your ministry without the power of God. The power of God
makes ministry work.
There is no devil that can stand the power of God at work through you.
The power will humble every demon. Ministry doesn’t happen by your
human energy, but by God’s power.
Yet, you find pastors trying to make it happen by their own wisdom,
strength and money. Without the power of God you are heading nowhere.
The power of God makes ministry sweat-less.
 The power of God removes burdens, destroys yokes and set the captives
free. The price of power is dying and you do that by constantly drawing
near to God. You have to let go of yourself and ego, and humbly seek God
to have His power work in your ministry.
When God’s power is on you, your preaching will work effectually to
build faith in the people who are listening to you.
But He gives more grace. Therefore He says; “God resists the proud,
but gives grace to the humble.” Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil
and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to
you…… Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
James 4:6-8, 10
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that He
may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for
you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about
like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in
the faith……… 1 Peter 5:6-9
And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of
human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your
faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. 1 Cor.
2:4-5
When you spend time with God, His power can do mighty works in
your life and through you to others.
Ministry is the fruit of being with God. It is serving people with God. If
you have not spent time with God, how will you bring Him to people?
When God shows up, His power will be displayed.
 Chapter Four
Ministry by Design
◆◆◆
Covenant Principle
“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down
first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it-lest, after he
has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to
mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’
Luke 14:28-30
Dr. David Oyedepo’s Saying
“God is a master planner. The entire creation is an evidence of
God’s planning attribute. Before the animals were created, the grass
they would eat was waiting. Before the fish came, the water was already
there. You can see a lot of order, which is a product of planning. A wise
man once said, “Success is a matter of luck, ask any failure.” In other
words, only failures see success as a matter of luck. In the words of
another wise man, “Shallow men think of luck, but wise and strong
men believe in cause and effect.”

◆◆◆

Nothing happens by accident, everything is made to happen by design.

You either design your ministry or no one will. If you don’t design it you
will be depending more on chance and luck to succeed in ministry. No one
can succeed by chance.
I have really searched to see if I can find one ministry all over the world
that succeeded by accident. When I say accident I mean the pastor just
woke up one morning and to his surprise thousands of people gathered
waiting for him to be their pastor.
Anything you did not build by design will collapse. You can’t identify
the factors that made you succeed and grow. As a result it becomes hard to
replicate.
Studying Dr. Oyedepo revealed this strange secret to me. I noticed that
every branch has the same result. Something is just common with them:
they start small, but soon outgrow where they are. Everywhere you go, the
branches have multiple services and overflow.
If it just happens in one location, then we can attribute it to luck. But if
it gets replicated and the same result is obtained, then there must be a
design around that success. So I took my time to begin to unravel the
design.
I placed that aside and began to learn about design and systems. I
studied the McDonald’s system. One thing I read was that anywhere you go
in the world, the products sold by McDonald are the same and as a result
they are able to create the same results. Ray Kroc designed a system called
the franchise to aid them in replicating such success.
I searched online and bookstores for a book on how to design a ministry
or Church. But all I found was how to plant a Church and Church growth.
Those are at the tail end of the ministry value chain. Why is it that no one
has addressed what to do before you plant a Church?
Rather than think of designing the Church, we all think about planting
and growing the Church. How possible can it be if a farmer never designs
his farm but only started planting? There is a great likelihood that he will
fail and not reap that much harvest.
The earth and the galaxies did not happen by accident or any big bang.
When you really observe nature you will know that it was designed. Have
you ever seen a child trying to color an image? He uses any color he can
find not minding how it will end up looking. There is no design in that.
God is a designer by nature. He made sure He had created everything
man would need before He formed man. That did not happened by accident.
He created light, night and day, planted crops and trees, made the fish and
animals and so on and then created man who will use the day to work, night
to rest and the trees and animals for food. That takes a lot of thinking.
If you are not ready to think, you won’t be able to design anything. You
have the power to determine the kind of results you want in ministry. It all
lies in your mind. If you can think it you can create it.
Dr. Oyedepo designed the ministry the way He wants it. Of course, he
did that with God’s input. But understand here that God will not use your
mind to do it. You have to put it to work yourself.
You were given a mind so that like God you can create the kind of
world that you see in heaven. Noah was able to conceive God’s exact
design for the ark and built it to scale. He was a great thinker. His mind has
been so developed to think like God.
How many people design their ministry before starting? Very few and
those who do are pastors with great Churches and ministries today. They
know what God wants them to do and achieve and they go ahead to create
it.
Dr. Oyedepo is fond of saying he is not surprise at the results they are
having. And that he would have been more surprise if they are not having
the results. At first I thought he was just bragging. I was raised to think that
people are ordained to do certain things in life and no matter what, they will
always do it. But he wasn’t bragging. He simply knows something that I
don’t know.
I believed in luck. Yes, he believes in luck too. But there is a difference
between our definitions of luck. To me luck is doing nothing and expecting
something to happen either by chance or accident. So I kept waiting,
expecting the multitude to come. After sometime, I knew something was
wrong. If everything on earth happens by chance, then I don’t need to wait
for long for people to gather.
So I began to study why things were not happening despite my waiting.
One day I was listening to him and he mentioned the Newton’s first law of
motion. This is one secret of a successful life and ministry. It states that “An
object continues in a state of rest until acted upon by an external force.”
Everything including your church will remain as you started it except you
do something different to it.
Wow! It is that simple. We miss great secrets because of their simplicity.
It means if you are doing nothing, nothing will happen. To him luck can be
created by doing the exact things that can produce it.
Here I was waiting and not doing anything and expecting something
profound to happen. I still ask myself how I got to believe that crap. The
good thing here is that you don’t have to wait until you have started to start
doing things.
 The essence of design is for you to have them written long before you
start anything. That is design. It’s like having a blueprint for your building.
All you have to do is follow the blueprint and you will have your house
built to the exact specification on the blueprint and line projection.
What he is saying is that you can predict success. You have the power to
determine whether your ministry grows or remains stagnated. If your
Church is not growing, it is a sign that you have designed it not to grow.
Not designing your ministry is the same thing as designing it not to grow.
This is the law of seed time and harvest, sowing and reaping. If the
farmer gets to the farm with the intention of harvesting maize but found that
the farm is filled with potatoes, he should not be surprise because it took
months for the potato plant to grow after being sown.
If he wants to reap maize then he would have to plant maize seed. There
is always a cause for every effect you see. Anytime you see a smoke, you
know that there is a fire somewhere. The key here is to know the exact
things that produce growth and success and then embed them into your
design. Rather than blame anyone for your harvest, just change what you
are sowing.
Doing what Dr. Oyedepo does will eventually get you the same results.
Once you identify the way he lives, thinks and does things and make them
part of what you should be doing, and do likewise, you will succeed in
ministry. Ministry is not rocket science; it is the continuous realization of a
worthy goal.
Don’t be misled. No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he
will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of
others-ignoring God!-harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for
his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s
Spirit do the growth work in him, harvest a crop of real life, eternal life. So
let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we
will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore,
every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with
the people closest to us in the community of faith. Gal. 6:6-10 The
Message.
Success in ministry is not a matter of luck, chance or accident. It is
based on a law. It answers to covenant. When you do your part, God is
obligated to do His. The law is universal and cannot be broken.
 Ministry success and prosperity is backed by laws and principles. All
you have to do is find those laws and principles and apply them. They will
produce for you. When you design your church, it will function even if you
are not there and you will get the same kind or even more result.
Faith Works With Goals
When I became a Christian, I thought having a goal means I don’t have
faith. I am not sure someone taught me that but I can’t just trace where it
originated from. Without goals, we will never know the ability within us to
achieve all that we can achieve.
I was really ignorant and I paid for it. Goals and objectives are the
building blocks of a well-designed life and ministry. Imagine a football
game without a goal post and you will understand how boring and
frustrating life and ministry will be without a goal.
Today I keep asking how one can do ministry without having a goal or
target in mind. I did learn. I did renew my mind to the mystery of goal
setting and its potential to give you great results.
When I started the ministry I never really know exactly what I wanted. I
was waiting on God to make things happen for me. Unlike me, Dr. Oyedepo
knew exactly what he wanted and was focused single-mindedly on
achieving them, every single day.
Without a target your faith is powerless and will end up confused. Your
faith needs a target, a goal to work towards. Hebrew 11:1 tells us that faith
is the substance of things hoped for. What you are hoping for is the goal
you want to achieve. Not a vague goal but one that is clearly stated and
specific.
Ask many people today who are about to start a Church, if they know
exactly what they want in six months, or a year. Most of them don’t. The
few who will tell you what they want will not state it specifically. Everyone
wants Church growth, but no one has really written down the exact number
of members they want to have. It is therefore not surprising that they
celebrate results that are way below their potentials.
Dr. Oyedepo had a target for each period of time. He knew exactly what
he wanted and was focused on it. Any other thing that will come will
simply be a distraction. Your goals should not be in your head, they should
be written down and declared boldly for everyone to hear.
You must have a clearly defined goal to begin the process of designing
your ministry. The goal is your blueprint which faith and wisdom will help
you to create in this world.
Dr. Oyedepo studied the Church growth secrets of Dr. David Yonggi
Cho, who happens to be the Pastor with the largest single Church
congregation in the world. Dr. Cho shared his experience of goal setting in
his phenomenal book; The fourth dimension. He wrote, “I always ask God
to give a revival to my Church and I ask according to a definite number. In
1960, I began to pray, “God give us one thousand more members each
year.” And until 1969, one thousand members were added to my Church
every year. But in 1969, I changed my mind and thought, “If God could
give one thousand members per year, why shouldn’t I ask God to give one
thousand members per month. So since 1979, I started praying, “Father,
give us one thousand members per month. At first God gave 600, and then
began to give more than 1,000 per month. In one year, we received 12,000
members in our Church. Since then, I increased my goal and we later had
15,000 additional members. The following year I asked for 20,000
members. If you have a definite request you want to place before the Lord
in prayer, if you can really see it, then you will have faith to receive it.”
God doesn’t answer vague prayers. You have to be specific. Dr.
Oyedepo may not have come out to say this is what he does, but I know it is
a principle he operates by. You have to know exactly what you want and
then ask it from God. That’s how faith functions.
Without an end your faith will have no power to operate. It will be
purposeless, as such subject to being misused and abused. Not having a
goal for your faith is like employing a servant and not having any work for
that servant.
“Therefore I say unto you, what things so ever ye desire, when ye pray,
believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” Mark 11:24 KJV
“For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks find, and to him
who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his
son asks for bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he
give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to
your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good
things to those who ask Him! Matt. 7:8-11
“And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you,
whatever you ask the Father in my name He will give you.” John 16:23
…….. You do not have because you do not ask. James 4:2
 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a
wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose
that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man,
unstable in all his ways. James 1:6-8
You ask amiss when you are not specific about what you want. Praying
for Church growth without having a specific number in mind will not make
it happen. If one person comes that is growth. But if you asked for a
hundred in a month and two come, you will celebrate God but still be
expecting the remaining ninety-eight.
And if nothing happens, you know that you don’t have to blame anyone
but to check whether you are actually doing the right thing.
Design your Association
“Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of
the land where you are going, lest it be a snare in your midst. Ex. 34:12
He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools
will be destroyed. Prov. 13:20
As you begin planning to grow your church, you need to begin
designing the kind of people you need to associate with. This is very vital.
If you desire to grow your church you must on design begin to court
relationship with people who are experiencing the level of growth you have
designed. Your church size is an average of that of the five pastors you
associate with.
So if you associate more with pastors who have small churches, you
will end up with a small church mentality. Similarly, if you associate with
pastors with big churches, they will challenge you to develop a big church
mentality.
Your church will only grow to the extent that your mind grows. If you
think small, you will have small results. People you associate with either
shrink or expand your mind. And the influence of association is very subtle.
Never underestimate the power of association to influence the way you
think. People that think alike flock together. Evaluate the results of the
people you associate with and you will know exactly why you are having a
small or a big church.
Your mind is the production center of your church. You have to protect
it from wrong influences.
You won’t know when your friends are mugging you to smallest,
because peer pressure is a very powerful and subtle force.
 If you spend time with people who do not study the Bible, chances are
excellent that you will not study the Bible. If you are around pastors who go
after money, chances are excellent that you will leave ministry and go after
money. If you are around people who don’t pray, chances are excellent that
you won’t pray.
I once had friends who nudged me away from paying tithe. They didn’t
believe that people should pay their tithe and I ended up believing them.
And I suffered for it.
Make a mental note of the people you constantly associate with. Ask
yourself questions about them and know what they are doing. If they have
small vision and churches chances are that you have the same too.
When you are around those people, do you speak negative things about
pastors with big churches or you are excited and talk about you having big
churches too?
Do they challenge you to grow like they are growing? Do they share
with you a good book they just read or message they heard and advice you
to go and get it?
To me a good friend is someone who tells me about a good book he had
read. I don’t appreciate stories about what is happening in town. Its best for
us to discuss what is going on in the mind of God so that our minds can
grow to be like God’s. When we continue to rub minds with God, our mind
will grow, expand and enlarge.
A good friend is someone who is doing great work for God and
encourages you to do the same. If you are not producing the kind of results
he wants, he will challenge you to do more.
I was in a church that was celebrating its anniversary. Then a small
minded pastor was invited to greet the congregation. He began to console
and encourages the pastor for the smallness of his church and compared it
with how small his church is. I was expecting this pastor to rebuke or reject
it, but he didn’t. That means his mind could not think above that.
For your good, protect your mind by choosing the right association. I
befriend people who think big and not small. You will know how a person
thinks by the way he talks. Look for people who think big.
You have to keep checking to find out whether the people you are
around are helping you grow or shrink. Always remember that the size of
your mind will always determine the size of your church. And the people
you associate with determine the size of your mind.
 I learnt from Kenneth Copeland, Jerry Savelle and Dr. Oyedepo that if
someone doesn’t speak the word of God in the first few minutes of talking
with them, they are not delighted with the word. If I associate with them I
might end up like them.
You can never change anyone except that person desires to change.
Reject anyone that will want to conform you to the way he thinks.
I am a companion of all who fear You, and of those who keep Your
percepts. Ps. 119:63
Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.” 1 Cor. 15:33
And have no fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness, but rather
expose them. Eph. 5:11
Do you know about the crab effect? That is exactly what will happen
when you try to grow your church while you keep your friends who think
small. They will always want to pull you down to the level where they are.
They won’t appreciate it when you start nursing the idea of growing your
church at all.
They will mock, scorn and discourage you from pursuing your new goal
of growing your church. If you begin to pray more, rather than encourage
you, they will ask you who you are competing with. Some you have to
completely dissociate from, while others you have to limit the time you
spend with them but the ones who encourage you to go for your goal; your
cheer leaders, are those you should expand your association with.
Developing A Plan Of Action
The preparations of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the
tongue is from the Lord. A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs
his steps. Prov. 16:9
Through wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established;
by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.
Prov. 24:3-4
Growing up my dad will always advise us to read for our exams by
saying if you don’t plan you are planning to fail. I didn’t want to read not
because I was a genius but because I don’t have a goal concerning my
studies. I went through the University without a goal.
I remember at the start I wanted to come out with a first class degree.
But since I never had a plan in place to achieve it, I never got close to it. It
was simply a wish and not a goal. And we all know that wishes are not
horses, so beggars won’t ride.
 Most pastors have small churches, not because they want to have it but
because they fail to plan the growth of their church. We substitute prayer for
planning. They are not the same. If you want Church growth but have no
plan for getting it, you are simply wishing for it and you won’t get it.
Planning is a covenant practice. It is what faith rides on to produce the
miracles you desire. It is the highest form of irresponsibility not to h=0ave
a plan for your ministry. That is breaking the covenant of God. God has a
plan and it is blessed. So if you are created in His image and likeness, you
ought to have a plan on how to achieve your Church growth goals.
Take the woman with the issue of blood for instance. She decided that
she was going to get healed. How would that happen? Her goal was to get
healed and her plan was to find a way to touch Jesus’ clothes. Yes, she must
have prayed to God to heal her, but for God to do that she needed a plan.
Others would have continued praying and waiting for their healing to
happen. She was different; she decided on a plan and acted on that plan.
When she executed her plan, God did His part and Jesus said, “Your faith
has made you well.”
It is not enough to have a goal, you have to sit down and plan how to
achieve it. You have the mind of Christ, a sound one that can come up with
a plan.
A plan is the bridge between where you are right now and what you
plan to achieve. By planning how to achieve your goal, you are designing
your ministry to produce the kind of results you desire.
God won’t do your planning for you. He won’t even give you the goals
to set. You have to do it yourself. If you don’t have a plan, you will do
things haphazardly. Whatever look and seem right can be copied.
You need information about your goal to plan. To travel to Britain, you
need to know the steps you have to take. Those steps are your plan. Dr.
Oyedepo said, “Only tower-planners become tower-builders. If you are after
a bungalow no problem. But if it is a tower you are after, you will need to
sit down first, count the cost or get to know the factors that will help you
accomplish your target, design the steps required to produce results, and
then you are on your way up. Every tower builder is a tower-thinker. Until
you start thinking “tower thoughts”, you will never become a candidate for
building a tower.”
You need information to aid you to plan better. That means you have to
get books and CDs to listen to in order to get clean resources and ideas you
can think over to produce your plan. You can never copy someone else’s
plan. You have to produce yours. It is work and requires thinking. It will
task your brain, but when you have it, it will make your work easy and
sweat less.
No matter how anointed you are, without a goal and a plan, your Church
will never grow sustainably. Whatever power will bring you, planning will
keep it. So without planning they will scatter.
Dr. Oyedepo said, “To start our Bible school (Word of Faith Bible
Institute) for example, we visited 8 similar schools on a fact-finding
exercise; to find out what their mission was and to assess how the mission
was being accomplished. Also, before I came into ministry I studied 39
biographies of other ministries. That enabled me to have a fair idea of what
those giants had to do to arrive at and maintain their “giant hood.” I had a
broad and fair idea of what ministry entailed and also about founders,
evangelists and so on.”
He doesn’t read for the fun of it but to get information to aid his
planning. Each day he has something to do that moves him closer to his
goal.
Study people who have achieved what you intend achieving, pick facts
from their lives and know what they did to achieve it. Then plan your
course with it.
Become Your Goal
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become
children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And
the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John
1:12-14.
Whatever you have not become you will never achieve. Everything you
see and experience is the product of who you are as a person. People, who
say things are difficult, only have it so because they have not become the
kind of people that can achieve it.
Yes, it is good to set goals and have a plan but if you have not become
the goal you set (develop your capacity to achieve the goal), you will
abandon the goal.
You become what you think about always. Thinking on your goals
therefore is the major criteria for achieving your goal. If your goal has not
taken root on your inside, it will never appear on your outside.
This is the one challenge I really fought to overcome. I had a goal (1000
members in a year with a scripture and a plan), but I didn’t have the ability
to bring it to pass. Rather than thinking of my goal, I was thinking of what I
was seeing and how hard it was to have a Church of 1000 in a year.
Nothing happens on your outside until it has first taken place on your
inside. Your goals will only become a reality when it has become real inside
you. Your outer world is simply a duplicate of your inner world.
Your major task is to take control of your inner life and build the exact
kind of ministry you want on your inside, and then you can start work to
produce it for everyone to see.
You will always do things in accordance with the way you feel and
think about your goal. As you think of your goal, it get mixed with your
emotions to become a desire. It is this desire that God will grant you.
I didn’t have any burning desire. I tried everything imaginable to grow
the church, nothing happened. I prayed and prayed and fasted too, binding
all the demons that I thought were against the growth of the Church, not
knowing that the demon was in me.
I was busy thinking about what I was seeing and not what I desired to
see. There is a difference here: the Church was small and I was always
thinking about its smallness and I was continually getting what I was
thinking to the extent that smallness became my desire.
To produce a different result all I needed to do was to alter what my
mind was focused on. It seems impossible than to do so. Rather than do it
myself, I prayed to God to change what I was thinking about (that was
reckless and fool hardly). I prayed it, almost begging God to change me.
God doesn’t change people. He has no power to change anyone. If He
can everyone on earth will be born again today. People can only change
when they change what they are thinking about. You can plant the seed and
when it grows, it will change the person.
What is your mind focused on right now? You have to focus on your
goal for it to happen. Set your eyes on your goal in the morning, afternoon
and night. Think about it always. As you think about it, you become it.
One mistake we make is that after we have set goals, plan and begin to
think of them, we still keep associating with pastors or people who have
smaller goals. If you don’t change your association, you are not serious
about succeeding in ministry. They will mock and scorn you back to their
level.
The influence of association is subtle, yet powerful. Dr. Oyedepo has
this to say, “When you are walking with men that are going nowhere, you
end up nowhere!” They won’t want you to come out of it. They will force
you to remain small like them.
You are not cutting off from them because they are bad but guarding
your heart and mind from distraction. If they don’t have goals like you, they
will distract you from yours. Seek to associate with people with bigger
goals than you. They will challenge and inspire you to become bigger than
you are.
It is your responsibility to think, confess and visualize your goal every
day. Imagine it as already done and act like someone who has already done
it. Feed your mind with the right words and image of your goal.
Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.
Prov. 4:23
He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools
will be destroyed. Prov. 13:20
Do not be deceived: “Evil Company corrupts good habits.” 1 Cor. 15:33
If there is anything Dr. Oyedepo does more than anything is the
protection of his mind. He knows that no matter how little it is at the
beginning, anything that enters his mind has the power to grow and
produce.
You become what you think about always. You can only do things based
on who you are. Your habits are a product of who you are.
You must become the goal first before you can have the goal and
whatever you meditate, visualize and talk about often, that is exactly what
you will end up having.
Faith thinks on the goal or the word of God. As you think on your goal,
your mind gets renewed and because you see with your mind and not your
eyes, you will begin to see opportunities to bring your goal to pass.
I really thought that my mind will of its own accord just think of Church
growth. No. It only thought about what it has been programmed with. To
reprogram it, I have to renew it (ie change its software and makeup so that
thinking on my goals become easy).
To many, growing a Church to a thousand members in a year is an
impossible task. It’s only impossible to them because their mind has not
been renewed. You have to update your mind before it can entertain a
higher thought.
When your mind gets renewed, it becomes very easy for you to see the
ways by which you can grow your Church and meet your target. Your mind
will get ideas and find a way to make it happen.
Don’t ask God for more members, because He won’t give you until you
become more than you are. That is where personal growth is very important
and necessary. You will only grow when you read and think.
Dr. Oyedepo reads to think, that is why he will always see ways to grow
the Church.
But anyone who is not renewing his or her mind will only see
opportunities that will keep the Church stagnated. You should never allow
your mind to conform to smallness. Let there be someone you are looking
up to. As your mind gets renewed with the word of God, you will begin to
know the perfect will of God for your Church. And His perfect will is
unending growth.
This Book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall
meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all
that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then
you will have good success. Joshua 1: 8
Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your
progress will be evident to all. 1 Tim 4: 15
Dr. Oyedepo’s Church growth strategy is based on his ability to think on
his goal and the word of God. As he thinks on the word of God, his
potential and capacity gets increased and expanded to give him the exact
kind of growth he seeks after.
Whatever your mind is renewed with is exactly what you will think
about and if you don’t renew your mind with your goal and the word of
God, it will be impossible for you to think of growth. Church growth
doesn’t happen by accident, it only comes about when your mind keeps on
thinking about it.
Visualizing Your Goal
Whatever you can imagine, there is nothing that can stop you from
having it. The problem of people with small Churches is that they imagine
their Churches small and it remain that way.
Your mind is like a soil and whatever gets planted therein is exactly
what it will end up producing for you. All you ought to do is to program it
so that only what you want is planted there.
This is why mega Church pastors don’t relate with small Church
pastors. It is not really pride but a strategy to keep on thinking and
imagining how to grow their churches or ministries.
Most small Church pastors might even use scriptures to justify their
smallness. The truth is, God has no hand in your growth. Whatever you
decide and imagine you want to have is exactly what you will have.
Remember it is to you in accordance to your faith. You can have faith for
five people or 100,000 people. It depends on you. God will not decide on
the number for you.
Meditation must result in seeing your goals before you will achieve
them. What I mean here is that you must begin to see in pictures what you
are thinking about in words. You have to see yourself preaching to a large
number of people.
If all you can see is ten people, that is all you will have capacity for.
Even if someone gave you a Church of a hundred people, you will bring it
down to ten, which is what you have capacity for.
As you visualize your goals, it becomes mixed with your emotions and
that is when it takes on a life of its own. Whenever you say anything about
your goal, you are basically producing it. What you say transfers the image
of what you have seen into a reality you can handle. That is, the word will
become flesh and dwell with you.
It takes a lot of efforts to make yourself meditate and visualize your
goal. So if you are not doing that, then by default you are thinking about the
lack in your life.
As you visualize your goal of Church growth, imagine the multitude
coming and the miracles that will be happening. And as you imagine them,
keep declaring them. It won’t take you more than twenty minutes to do this.
But as you do it continually, it will become part of you and will happen
faster.
Whatever you visualize end up becoming Déjà vu. It’s like it has
happened to you before it is happening right now to you.
Faith sees what cannot be seen by the physical eyes and speaks of the
things that are not seen as though they exist. Don’t imagine what can be
seen (it is subject to change by what cannot be seen).
Get a picture of a large Church with members and place your picture on
the platform so you can see it every single day and as you do that, you will
begin to see yourself as a mega Church pastor.
You know what; you will end up seeing yourself exactly how God sees
you. The way I do it is like this: I pick a scripture that represents the growth
I desire and read it thrice a day for as long as possible until it becomes part
of my thinking. As I read it I begin to imagine myself in the spirit and when
it becomes real to me, that is when it can easily become a reality to me.
It is the principal visualization that Jacob used to become richer than
Laban, his boss. God visualized everything that He created before they were
created. This is God’s working principle.
The image that is formed within you as a result of visualization is
actually what you will create by the words you speak. What you say only
creates what is abundant in your heart. You will always have whatever you
imagine.
Your mind will find a way, but the image formed in your heart will be
made real by the words you speak. This is exactly how God created the
heaven and the earth and that is how He wants you to grow the Church.
Then He said, “To what shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with
what parable shall we picture it? It is like a mustard seed which, when it is
sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth; but when it is
sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large
branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade.” Mark 4: 30-
32
“For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good
fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs
from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. A good man
out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out
of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of
the heart his mouth speaks.” Luke 6: 43-45
Everything proceeds out of your heart (emotion) and not your mind.
You don’t just stop at thinking, you persevere until you see yourself with a
large Church with the whole chairs filled up and people seating in the
overflow outside.
You have to see yourself having the number of services you want to
have on a Sunday morning with men filling up all the services. It takes time
to see this image but once you can see it, it becomes very easy to produce it
on earth.
 A mega Church is not destined. Rather it is created when you renew
your mind with the word of God and imagines and see yourself as the
pastor of a very large Church.
No one is better than you. You can do exactly what anyone is doing and
get their kind of results.
Executing Your Plan
The person with the plan has the potential of winning, but the person
who will execute the plan will rule. It takes diligence to execute the plan
you have developed.
No plan ever happens on its own. Many organizations have plans, yet
are going nowhere. Does that negate the importance of planning? No! That
someone has a car and never drove it doesn’t mean the car does not have
the potential to move.
Plans don’t happen on their own without someone making them to
happen. It is not the person who plans how he will achieve his goal that
ends up achieving it. The person who does or executes the plan will achieve
much more than the person who simply has a plan. It is the doer of the plan
and not the planner that get blessed.
When you put effort to your plans, God crowns your effort with success.
Don’t just plan and keep it somewhere. Plan and then do it.
Merely having God’s law is a waste of time if you don’t do what He
commands. Doing, not hearing, is what makes the difference with God.
Rom. 2:13 The message
But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man
observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away,
and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into
the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer
but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. James 1:22-
25
Nothing leads to self-delusion, deception and frustration like the
confession and visualization of your goals without acting on them.
No one has ever achieved success alone. Even God! He needed the
contribution of His word and Spirit to create the earth. You will be limited
at what you can achieve if you make a go at executing your plans alone.
You have to determine what needs to be done to achieve your goal and
who has the capability to do them, so that you can be freed to attend to the
most basic tasks that will bring the greatest results.
You have to be careful who you choose to help you, because the people
around you will determine your success or failure. At this stage, you are
trying to create a system or vehicle that will make your plan to work.
Before now I thought all I have to do is employ people. There was a
time when I had more people on my staff than the activities we could
perform. It gave me an air of success, but it was simply foolishness.
I must identify a role that will help me achieve the goal, what to do for
anyone that I will bring on board. If not they will just be there doing
nothing and expecting to be rewarded. And the goal I set will be abandoned
of course, because I will be distracted trying to deal with a non-performing
team member.
Now it was not the team members’ fault. I was the one that was really
stupid. Then I thought all I needed to do was have a staff. I really had no
plan in place and had no well-defined task, key results area and expectation
for the people I brought in. So I ended up with more people than I needed,
doing nothing while I do all the work and pay them for doing nothing. That
was foolish.
In planning, every goal should have objectives and the objectives should
have activities. It is these activities that I needed to systemize in order to
make them functional without me. Dr. Oyedepo puts it this way; “The
strength of a system is determined by the people who make it up. Men are
assets to success. Know those God has provided you with and deploy them
to where they are best suited. A good leader should have the ability of
making men produce results. The only way for maximum yield is to
recognize the talents of those in your ministry and effectively utilize them.”
You need to clearly communicate the task you expect the person to
perform and the results that needs to be produced. Match the skill sets of
people to the tasks. Let everyone on your team know clearly who they are
to report to.
Get people who can execute the plan, not just anyone. Executors require
less supervision. They are goal getters and initiators.
Constantly train them to keep the goal in mind while they perform their
task. You are not employing people just to do anything but to help you
achieve the goal that you have set in place.
The height to which your ministry will reach lies in how you execute
your plan. If you want to have a growing ministry, you will need to design
your ministry for results.
A field only grows according to a farmer’s goals and objectives, plans
and execution of the plan. If he follows his plan, then he will get the results
he had planned.
 Chapter Five
Generate Momentum
◆◆◆
Covenant Principle
Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward.
For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of
God, you may receive the promise: “For yet a little while, and He who is
coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; but if
anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.” Heb. 10:35-38
Dr. David Oyedepo’s Saying
There is a time to write the vision, a time to read it, talk it, share it,
and a time to run with the vision. The running phase is the winning
phase! “So run that ye may obtain.” The running stage is like the
planting and watering stages. All the preparatory processes of the seed
for planting can be likened to the writing, reading or sharing of vision.
But no matter how viable seeds are for planting, until they are actually
planted and watered, no harvest is to be expected. If you expect a
harvest, then plant like Paul and water like Apollo; that way, you have
opened the way for God to bring the increases.”

◆◆◆

When I started the Church, I began holding a monthly seminar. I must

have done that for a year or two before I stopped it. Why did I stop? I was
seeing no result. Only very few people were actually coming. My first
book, Be the Best, came out of one of those seminars.
 The reason I stopped was because I had no reason or goal for starting it
in the first place. I was just doing it because I heard Dr. Oyedepo said he
did it and that brought about growth in the church.
My spiritual strength and energy were low. That also contributed to me
stopping it. Was it the right thing to do? Yes. What I didn’t know then was
that there was a principle behind holding those seminars. It was part of his
plan to achieve his goal.
Since I had no goal, I was only doing it as something that needs to be
done. He was doing it based on the revelation of the principles of God, but I
was doing it based on third party information. He had staying power; I had
giving-up power. He had results to show for it, I had nothing.
The First law of motion says an object continues in a state of rest until
acted upon by an external force. We understand this law as the principle of
cause and effect: nothing happens by accident, for every effect there is a
cause. This we have seen intensely in the previous chapter.
The second law is the principle behind the growth of the ministry. When
anything starts moving and increases in speed, it becomes hard to stop it.
The key challenge here is to start it moving and make sure the speed or
velocity is constantly either being maintained or increased. This is called
momentum.
Yes, I was taught momentum in physics class when I was in secondary
school. Physics was one of my key areas of strength. I must have passed
exams with questions on momentum. But that is where it stopped. I didn’t
know how to apply it in real life.
When I came into ministry, the last thing on my mind was momentum. I
believe I have passed that exam as such I don’t need it any longer. I have a
certificate from WAEC to prove that I had passed it. Why bother about it? I
was wrong.
It has everything to do with growth and success in ministry. Momentum
is simply the strength or force gained by motion or series of activities.
When it comes to momentum, the frequency of the activities you execute
towards achieving your goal is much more important than the duration of
the activity.
When you start a church, the most important and vital thing you need to
do to achieve your goals and objectives is to make sure that you begin to
generate momentum as soon as possible. With momentum on your side no
devil can stop you from achieving your goal.
 A stationary 18 wheeler can do no harm, but let this vehicle gain
momentum in motion, not even a building can stop it. It will run through
that building and keep going.
Churches that keep fighting the devil and are trying to quench fires,
have not generated momentum. They are stagnant. Taking consistent action
towards your goal is the best way to generate momentum.
Momentum is your friend if you can generate it. This is why you should
design your ministry beforehand. If you don’t know your goals and what
you need to do to generate momentum, you will end up generating
momentum for the wrong things.
Momentum is the unseen energy or force that makes you look bigger
than you are in the eyes of people and brings you more opportunities,
resources and causes people to flock to your church like a river. Momentum
is what opens the room for people to flow into your ministry.
All along I thought it was prayer. Prayer has its place. You can generate
momentum in the area of prayer too. Preaching once in a while will not do
it. But preaching to generate momentum will bring about the kind of results
you envisage.
When you start a Church most likely no one has ever heard of you. But
as you preach and execute your plan more and more, people will begin to
hear about you. In the process, you also become better at what you are
doing.
I believe that was what happened to Paul in Ephesus. Inasmuch as he
started preaching with twelve people, he did that for two years and when
momentum was generated, the whole land heard and was impacted by him.
Miracles happen easily when momentum is generated.
Momentum turns you into a mountain that cannot be moved, but can be
seen by everyone.
“Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the
Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be
exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it.” Isaiah 2:2
Now the men were about twelve in all. And he went into the synagogue
and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning
the things of the kingdom of God. But when some were hardened and did
not believe, but spoke evil of the way before the multitude, he departed
from them and withdrew the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of
Tyrannus. And this continued for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia
heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. Now God worked
unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons
were brought from his body to the sick, and diseases left them and the evil
spirits went out of them. So the word of the Lord grew mightily and
prevailed. Acts 19:7-12, 20
Starting has always been the challenge. But once you start, head
towards creating momentum through massive actions.
Dr. Oyedepo shared his experience by saying: “When we first arrived in
Kaduna city for ministry, quite a number of people were skeptical about our
mission. Some felt I was over ambitious; others were convinced that the
northerners would not receive our message. But I knew the message He
gave me to preach, so I despised the negative reports and challenges. We
pressed on, organizing a lot of seminars with attendance ranging from
seventeen to forty. The people were reached, the news went round and
things began to change. The light had come, darkness receded.”
The price to pay is to start the ball rolling and once it starts rolling, keep
firing and keep moving. Until you stop doing what you did in the first place
and get distracted no one can stop you.
Creating momentum is the most vital part of succeeding in ministry; the
benefits can last for a life time.
You may be executing your plan for months without any result, but then
suddenly you reach critical mass and the multiplier and snowball effect of
your consistent activities take effect, and eventually more people are
flowing into your ministry than you have ever imagined possible.
Stay Focused
All of the attacks you will receive in ministry are to distract you from
generating momentum. A pastor may start a church and begin working to
generate momentum, but because he has not renewed his mind and become
the goal, he gives up after sometime of not seeing results.
One major thing that distract people in ministry is hunger (what they
will eat), money and friends. I have seen many ministers who started well
only to get distracted by these. Rather than continue doing what they have
been doing-taking steps toward their goals; they join other friends to look
for money. You can never make money your focus and succeed in ministry
at the same time. When money becomes your major pursuit, ministry is no
longer tenable.
 I know of a pastor who decided to befriend a business person. That
association never helped him, rather than have ideas on how to succeed in
ministry; he has ideas on how to do business and make money. He lost
focus. You will never know when you are getting distracted, until you are
way off.
You must decide what you are called to do and whether you are able to
stay in it no matter what is happening. It is going to be tough to generate
momentum, but if you lose your focus you will not be able to generate it.
All you need in this life is in your ministry. If you will focus on it, you
will milk it of all good resources. The more you focus on your assignment,
the more ideas you receive on how to make it work. It also results in great
speed.
As long as a tree stay focused and committed to the soil, it will bear
much fruit. But if it decides to get out of the soil, it becomes barren and
dead. Focus makes you to be fruitful in ministry.
No matter what happens, keep your goal in your focus. Don’t allow
anything to distract you from it. Jealously guard your focus. No matter what
anyone says, if it doesn’t increase your focus, cut it off. That person is an
enemy of your focus.
If you have not generated momentum, you are susceptible to being
distracted. When Nehemiah and the children of Israel began to build the
walls of Jerusalem, they were opposed.
Sanballat and Tobiah tried everything they could do to distract them,
including inviting Nehemiah to a meeting. He declined by saying, “I am
doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work
cease while I leave it and go down to you?” (Nehemiah 6:3).
The devil will use people to frighten you. Don’t give up, stay focused
on your assignment and keep doing your job. You have to remain focus
even after you have generated momentum. That is the way to keep it.
The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy
whole body will be full of light. Matt. 6:22 KJV
Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went
out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. And Simon and
those who were with Him searched for Him. When they found Him, they
said to Him, “Everyone is looking for You.” But He said to them, “Let us
go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this
purpose I have come forth.” Mark 1:35-38
 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me; and
to finish His work.” John 4:34
Stick to the one thing you are called to do. You don’t have to be
involved in many things to be successful in ministry. Stay on your
assignment. It will speak if you focus on it.
Stop looking at others. The grass is not greener on the other side by
accident. Those people made it greener by focusing on their assignment.
Whatever you focus on grows and expands.
You may not be able to control what happens in your nation but, you
can control your focus and priority. You can focus on the activities that will
generate momentum. As you keep doing those things, sooner or later,
everything will comply and multitudes will gather to hear you.
Any activity that has nothing to do with your church growth goal is a
distraction. No matter what result you are seeing, stay focused on those
activities. The law of sowing and reaping, cause and effects, always works
no matter what.
Be Consistent
When you are able to generate momentum you look better and bigger
than you really are. Apart from focus, generating momentum requires
consistency. You have to be committed to consistently execute your plan no
matter how things are.
No matter how big a tree is, if you come at it with a sharp axe every
single day, you will eventually bring it down. That is the power of
consistency.
Most of us stay well but don’t have that staying power. We are
infrequent in doing what we started. We may do it this month, then stop for
a while and start it again. You will never create momentum that way. You
have to go all out and have a plan to do the same thing regularly no matter
what comes up or happens.
To be consistent is not just about what you do, it is about your character.
It is conforming to a principle you believe in. You are firm when it comes to
your plans and the activities you need to employ to reach your goal.
You will never be consistent when you are not in charge of your life. It
requires will power to achieve.
Being consistent means that you don’t say one thing while actually
doing something else. Inconsistently in one area of your life or ministry will
affect consistency in all other areas.
 Dr. Oyedepo kept on holding those seminars for 18 months no matter
what happened. He was consistent because he was in agreement with his
goals.
If you want to be consistent, then you will need to be consistent in your
thinking. It really takes discipline to be consistent.
Discipline will make you to be consistent on the things that will bring
you the results that you desire.
Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My
word, you are My disciples, indeed.” John 8:31
Then He said, “Take the arrows”; so he took them. And he said to the
king of Israel, “Strike the ground”; so he struck three times, and stopped.
And the man of God was angry with him, and said, “You should have struck
five or six times; then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it!
But now you will strike Syria only three times.” 2 Kings 13:18-19
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might……… Eccl. 9:10
It’s all about doing the exact things that you have identified will bring
you your desired results. Don’t start something you know you will not
continue in. Keep doing it without fail and you will soon have momentum
on your side.
Don’t break the frequency of your activities. If you plan on praying for
4 hours every day, discipline yourself to do that.
Season Of Dryness
Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though
the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; though the flock
may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls – yet I will
rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is
my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, and He will make me
walk on my high hills. Habakkuk 3: 17-19
There will be a season of dryness when everything looks as if nothing is
really working. You will really be tempted to give up. Prayers become
tough as if the heavens are made of brass.
It will just feel like pouring sand into a bottomless pit. You would try
everything you know but still nothing will seem to be working. And rather
than the Church growing, it looks as if everyone is staying away from your
Church.
What do you do at this stage? Unlike many who give up, this is the time
to pay the price for your dream and intensify whatever you are doing.
 If you have been praying for just two hours, increase it to four. If you
have been declaring growth once a day, make it five times. Increase
whatever you have been doing.
It seems before anything becomes good, it reaches the peak of its
badness. Until the whole earth became totally dark, God did not declare
light. And even when it is glaring that darkness has covered the face of the
earth, God continued to declare what He wants to see.
That is what you need to do. Don’t stop declaring what you want to see.
As you keep on doing this, you are working on generating momentum.
Inertia is what the dryness is all about. But once you overcome it,
everything will become easy for you and the growth will happen easily.
You will really be wondering where the people and money had been all
those times that you were making declarations and intensifying the effort.
There were out there but you were so constrained by inertia that you were
unable to attract their attention.
Momentum attracts attention. Everyone loves momentum, but no one
wants to be the one who generates momentum. That is why only those who
are mentally tough and strengthened in the inner man end up building great
Churches.
Anytime you experience dryness, keep on doing exactly what you are
doing that will bring you results. It’s like priming the pump. Initially
nothing happens, but as you continue to prime it, water will begin to flow in
tinkles and as you persist, it increases until it begins to flow with so much
force. The same thing is obtainable too with Church growth. Keep on
declaring the word and doing what will bring growth no matter what.
Persist in Everything
And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall
reap if we do not lose heart. Gal. 6:9
And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full
assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but
imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. And so,
after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. Heb. 6:11-12, 15
In generating momentum, you have to persist in the faces of
distractions, obstacles and challenges, that you never did considered during
your planning. Everything that will go wrong will go wrong and something
might take longer than you actually planned.
 You must simply refuse to give up. You will encounter mountains that
just won’t move. You will feel as if even heaven is against you. What is
happening is that you are building your muscles and becoming emotionally
mature. It’s like your commitment to your goal is being tested.
People who give up are not committed. They have very little spiritual
strength and it is based on ignorance. They can’t just see beyond where they
presently are and how to get out of it.
The journey to creating momentum may be hard and tough. But the joy
of the Lord will see you through it. Keep learning, developing yourself and
keep doing what will generate momentum for you. Remember, after every
storm, comes rain and freshness.
There is no price too big to generate momentum. It is hard to generate
momentum because it is good and will make life easy for you. Nothing
good, they say comes easy.
Most people look at Dr. Oyedepo and thinks he had everything easy and
that he is an overnight success. I heard one day how as a result of sitting
down on a wooden chair to read, he developed boils on his bottom. Did he
stop what he needed to do? No way. There is no one who ever achieve
success without persisting through challenges.
Persistence is falling down seven times, and getting up eight times. It is
refusing to give up even when it seems as if nothing is working and all your
efforts are for nothing.
Sam Adeyemi shared a story in his book, Multiply Your Success: Lead,
which illustrated this. He approached Dr. Oyedepo and said, “Sir, what do
you do if the Church refuses to grow?” He has tried everything he knew. Dr.
Oyedepo responded: “Whatever it is you are doing, continue to do it. The
growth you are looking for is seasonal. As long as the farmer continues to
sow his seed, he does not actually have a problem, because some day the
power of God will kick in and turn his seed into a harvest. The real problem
happens when the farmer becomes frustrated because he is not seeing
immediate results and he stops sowing seeds. When the farmer stops
sowing seeds, there is nothing for God to grow into a harvest.” This is the
power of persistence at work to generate momentum.
If you run into an obstacle or challenge, persistence means to either go
over it, around it or through it. People who are persistent cannot be stopped.
Those obstacles are there to make you better and are stepping-stones to
generate momentum for you.
 …..Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Neh. 8:10
If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. Prov. 24:10
Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though
the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; though the flock
may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls-Yet I will
rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord is my
strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, and He will make me walk
on my high hills. Habk. 3:17-19
Then He spoke a parable to them saying, that men always ought to pray
and not lose heart, saying: “There was in a certain city a judge who did not
fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came
to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’ And he would not
for a while; but afterward he said within himself. ‘Though I do not fear God
nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest
by her continual coming she weary me.’” Then the Lord said, “Hear what
the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out
day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He
will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will
He really find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:1-8
What kept this widow coming? The knowledge that she will get justice.
The knowledge increased her joy, consequently her strength.
If you ask Dr. Oyedepo all that he went through to generate momentum,
he will tell you he went through nothing; because he was focused on the joy
of the Lord and not the obstacles.
Not persisting in the face of challenges is a sign of lack of faith. Faith
places you in a supernatural position far above whatever obstacles or
challenges that may come your way. They are really “small potatoes” when
compared to the glory and results that momentum will bring you.
Starting is where you need much effort. Each time you stop and start all
over again, you are wasting your efforts. When you have no momentum,
everything will look hard and seem impossible. But when momentum is on
your side, your ministry shall be, “established on the top of the mountains,
and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it. Many
people will come.”
One thing momentum will do for you is to exaggerate your success and
make people perceive you as big. Once you have generated momentum, all
the visions and dreams God has placed in your heart becomes possible-You
can do almost anything.
 Chapter Six
Have A Supernatural Ministry
◆◆◆
Covenant Principle
And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed
on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed
should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth
yields crops by itself: first the blade, the head, after that the full grain in
the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle,
because the harvest has come.” Mark 4:26-29
Dr. David Oyedepo’s Saying
“The knowledge of the supernatural is very relevant to the life of
triumph and fulfillment. Any man will lose control of the affairs of life
without such knowledge. Reason? Every natural happening is determined
by events in the supernatural. The supernatural is therefore the
foundation of all things. And just as the foundation of any natural
building, the reality of the supernatural may not easily be comprehended;
yet it is the control room of all things-the natural answers to it.”

◆◆◆

The supernatural is the natural realm where the believer should be

operating from. When you operate from this realm, you get results that no
one can explain. It is the touch of God’s super power on your natural effort.
It is the product of your partnership with God.
If you are getting the results that everyone can explain how you come
about them in your ministry, then you are not operating by the supernatural.
 To have a supernatural ministry is to have growth in one year that is
amazing and unbelieving and operate in a level of finances that astound the
mind of everyone who sees what you are doing.
Like everything that has to do with God, having a supernatural ministry
doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when you attend to God’s business.
It is having the finger of God operate in your ministry.
When you take your place in the realm of the spirit and operate from
that realm, you will command the supernatural and obtain the kind of
results only God can obtain. The supernatural is the place to operate your
ministry from.
Like many young ministers out there, I knew nothing about this realm. I
knew I was a Christian and have been translated from the kingdom of
darkness to the kingdom of God’s beloved Son, Jesus Christ. I read, so to
say, that I am seated in heavenly places far above all principalities, power
and wickedness in high places. I could quote and teach those scriptures, but
they were not just real to me.
I will say one area we experienced the supernatural at the start of the
ministry was in the area of our finances. In the first year with less than five
members who had no job, our income was N480, 000 naira, and in the
second year with about ten members our income was 980, 000 naira. These
I believe was the result of listening to Dr. Oyedepo teach about supernatural
finance in ministry.
Our growth was anything but supernatural. It was not even natural, it
was sub natural. I tried everything I could to make the Church grow but it
just wouldn’t grow. I began to blame everyone and anything except myself.
I bought a book explosive Church growth by Dr. Sam Amaga to read. As I
was reading it he said, if the Church is not growing the senior pastor is to be
blamed.
I quickly dropped the book. Why should I be the one to be blamed?
Surely, I am doing all that I can, but I was just not getting the kind of results
that God expect of me. When I remember the story of Dr. Oyedepo’s
supernatural Church growth, I console myself that he was just different.
At the beginning I didn’t accept the fact that he knows something that I
didn’t know. I had read almost all the books he had written and could
preach his story and was even trying to preach like him, still the Church did
not grow.
 I then told myself that all I need to have the Church grow is to have him
or anyone who is experiencing growth lay hands on me. So in my wisdom, I
fix a date and wrote him inviting him to come and commission me into
ministry. My plan was that, if he publicly endorse me and lays his hands on
me, I will get the same results he is getting. Who will not want to have 10,
000 people or more added to the Church in one year? Of course, he never
came or even replied. Thank God he didn’t, because I would have blamed
him for the Church not growing. Growth is much more than hands being
laid on you. You have to grow and mature spiritually.
I told myself I must find a way to reach him. If the children of Israel
will not come to the mountain, surely God will take the mountain to them I
reasoned. So I embarked on an adventure to Canaan land; my first time
really. My purpose was to have him lay hands on me. Unfortunately, he was
not in the country. That was a big blow. What did I do? I carried some sand
from Canaan land back with me
I carried the sand, telling myself that by the sand I made a connection to
whatever is happening in his ministry to happen in mine. I was definitely
ignorant of the supernatural. I wanted the easy way out and not the hard
way.
If you are laughing at me, know that mine was not that extreme. Other
people’s tales will make mine to look like nothing. We all look for the
supernatural. It is a part of us. We just don’t want to pay the price to obtain
it.
I came back, did some prophetic declarations over the sand and poured
it in front of the church auditorium and not long after, God instructed us to
leave the place. I never knew that walking in the supernatural was an inside
job and not just something that is initiated on the outside.
After trying to grow the ministry for four years, I decided to close down
the Church. God actually instructed me to do that and to learn. Then in
2007, I attended a meeting in Faith Tabernacle, where Dr. Creflo Dollar
preached that if a ministry doesn’t bear fruit of growth in four years, it
should be cut down and that was what I did.
After I stopped, I remember a pastor telling me that I should not have
stopped and that I should have been doing trial and error. I told him that is a
wrong advice to give a young minister. What you don’t know, no matter the
level of your trial and error, you will never know it. I committed myself to
learn from whoever God directs me to.
 So my lesson in operating in the supernatural commenced in 2010. I
actually stopped everything to give attention to learning. I listened to
messages by well-known men of God who operate in the supernatural. I
listened to Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, Dr. Bill Winston, Creflo Dollar,
Jesse Deplantis, Andrew Wommack, Dr. David Oyedepo, Keith Moore and
Jerry Savelle. I read thousands of books both online and hard copies.
When I found out that Pastor David Ibiyeomie of Salvation Ministries in
Port Harcourt Nigeria is a protégé of Dr. Oyedepo and operating in the
supernatural and has the results to show for it, I traveled to Port Harcourt
and bought all of his books. I was hungry for knowledge I didn’t even try to
meet with him to pray for him. I wanted to be a commander of the
supernatural. I devoured all of the books in no time.
While watching one of the DVDs I bought from his ministry, I listened
to a man named Dr. Paul Enenche and how he operated in the supernatural
in a minister’s conference organized by Morris Cerrulo. I made enquiries
and was told he is connected to Dr. Oyedepo. So I travelled to Abuja where
his ministry is located and bought all of his books to read and CDs to listen
to.
I was learning and growing. I didn’t know how I came to learn about
Pastor Sunday Adelaja in Ukraine. But when I heard about him, I got on his
website and downloaded all of his messages. I listened to them on and on
for one year. From him I learnt how to operate in the supernatural.
What I learnt made me understand the secret of Dr. Oyedepo’s
supernatural ministry and this is what I am trying to explain here. Kenneth
and Gloria Copeland laid the foundation for me to understand the
supernatural.
Let me advice you here: if you want to understand Dr. Oyedepo and
how he is getting his supernatural results, study anyone and everyone he
mentions as a source of inspiration to him. Get grounded in those people’s
messages and renew your mind with them, then come back and study him.
You will see beyond the glory to the principles that make up his story.
Seed for the Supernatural
I told myself if laying hands will bring about supernatural results in
ministry, then pastors who have had Dr. Oyedepo laid hands on them should
be doing great in ministry by now. The people struggled in ministry, with
some even abandoning ministry altogether.
 What they never got to learn was that his attention to the word of God
was key to him operating in the supernatural. The word of God is the seed
for the supernatural. It is the door way to the supernatural.
When the word enters you, it brings about an explosion of the
supernatural within you. The word is only effectual when it is sown in the
heart. It turns anyone into a god with the ability to produce the same kind of
result God can produce.
The word of God carries the supernatural nature and ability of God. As
such when it is sown into the soil of human heart, it turns the person into a
supernatural being like God. The word is God!
In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the
word was God. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to
become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born,
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 1:1, 12-13.
Having been born again; not of corruptible seed but incorruptible,
through the word of God which lives and abides forever. II Pet. 1:23
Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, I said, “You are
gods?” If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the
Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified
and sent into the world, ‘You are blasphemy’, because I said, ‘I am the Son
of God?” If I do not do the work of My Father, do not believe Me; “but if I
do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know
and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.” John 10:34-38
Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you unless one is born of
water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. “That which is
born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. “Do
not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again,’ “The wind blows
where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes
from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John 3:5-
8
When the word enters your heart, God enters you and fills you. From
there, everything you do becomes a fruit of God at work within you. Dr.
Oyedepo wrote in his book, Releasing the Supernatural, “Those He called
gods are those unto whom the word of God came. It is the incoming of the
word of God to a man that effects a change in his status. The entrance of the
word of God sparks off the supernatural. It is the entrance, not the reading.
It is neither the preaching, nor the confession of the word, but the entrance
of the word. None of these is an entrance in itself; they are all a means to an
end, only the quickened word gives entrance. The natural reigns until the
supernatural appears. Darkness reigns until light appears. The entrance of
the word brings light.”
The word of God is the foundation of the supernatural and miraculous.
A ministry characterized by signs and wonders and miracles is a ministry
built on the supernatural word of God.
Supernatural results are a proof that God’s word is abiding in the soil of
your heart. When the word enters your heart, light shines within you and
you become the light of the world, a city set on a hill that cannot be hidden.
You become the solution to the problems of people on earth. The word of
God is the foundation of a supernatural church growth. Your church will
only experience growth when the word grows in your heart.
Spreading the Light
What is the essence of you being the solution to the world’s problem
and hiding it? To enjoy the supernatural, you have to spread the light or
declare the word of God boldly by faith.
The supernatural is the realm above all realms. When you are operating
in the supernatural realm of God, you are far above all and as a result the
power of God will create a pressure that will cause multitude of people and
resource to flow into your ministry.
“He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is
earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.
John 3:31
Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the
Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be
exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall
come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the
house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways and we shall walk in
His paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord
from Jerusalem. Isaiah 2:2-3
Arise, shine, for your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen
upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness
the people; but the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen
upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness
of your rising. “Lift up your eyes all around, and see: They all gather
together, they come from afar, and your daughters shall be nursed at your
side. Then you shall see and become radiant, and your heart shall swell with
joy; because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of
the Gentiles shall come to you. Then your gates shall be open continually;
they shall not be shut day or night, that men may bring to you the wealth of
the Gentiles, and their kings in procession. Is. 60:1-5, 11
“For the seed shall be prosperous, the vine shall give its fruit, the
ground shall give her increase, and the heaven shall give their dew. I will
cause the remnant of this people to possess all these.” Thus says the Lord of
hosts: ‘People shall yet come, inhabitants of many cities; the inhabitants of
one city shall go to another, saying, “Let us continue to go and pray before
the Lord, and seek the Lord of hosts. I myself will go also.” Yes, many
people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem
and to pray before the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘In those days ten
men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish
man, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”
Zech. 8:12, 20-23
All the above Scriptures illustrate what will happen when you begin to
shine the light of God that is in you. That is how to obtain supernatural
results. It starts with the word of God being planted in you and you
declaring or shining the light (word) of God to the world.
It takes faith, therefore, to operate in the supernatural. Faith is key to
having a supernatural ministry and it is the word of God in your heart. It is
the revelation knowledge of God and insight into His word.
If your heart is filled with light exploding from the word of God, the
word you speak will be filled with the light of God to shatter every
darkness. God will do nothing for you except through the spoken word of
faith.
The person who dwells above all, in the supernatural realm of God, will
only speak of the things that are above. Those are the things he sees. Those
words that come from faith are creative and have the power to change the
natural world.
The natural man talk of the things he can see with his natural eyes, but
the supernatural man talk or speak of the things that only God can see. The
supernatural pastor speaks of the multitude he can see by faith, but the
natural pastor speaks only of the few members he can see with his eyes.
And both of them will have what they say.
 The supernatural must first be in your heart, before it can be in your
mouth. Those declarations that come from the word in your heart through
your mouth will result in the manifestation of the supernatural in your
ministry.
Do you know why many preachers declare growth and nothing
happens? They are not coming from above all. They have been running
around town and talking everything except the word of God. Why would
God honor such careless words? Only pastors who give themselves totally
to the word of God will command supernatural church growth.
Pastors hear Dr. Oyedepo declares the word and it come to pass,
thinking they too can do the same. If you know what he did to get that
result, and do it, you will get the same. He stayed and labored in the word.
That’s what he did. What you see is just an effect of what he does in the
secret place.
The supernatural doesn’t answer to prayer but to the word of God in
you. When the word is in you, the word you speak and your prayer will
bring quick answer. To get supernatural results, get the word planted in your
heart.
Faith will always speak out boldly. That is the way to obtain
supernatural results in ministry. When you speak words of faith, God gets
committed to make them happen. Faith gives voice to the word of God; it’s
like God saying it Himself. The words of faith you speak is the resource
God needs to grow your church with.
You will also a declare thing, and it will be established for you; so light
will shine on your ways. Job 22:28
By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of
them by the breath of His mouth. For He spoke, and it was done; He
commanded, and it stood fast. Ps. 33:6, 9
“Search from the book of the Lord, and read: not one of these shall fail;
not one shall lack her mate, for My mouth has commanded it, and His Spirit
has gathered them.” Isaiah 34:16
Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass, when the Lord has not
commanded it? Lam. 3:37
By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of
God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are
visible. Heb. 11:3
 Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord,
who was bearing witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and
wonders to be done by their hands. Acts 14:3
I have heard a lot of pastors talk about the need of the anointing when it
comes to growing a church. But without the word, the anointing will not
function. In Genesis chapter 1, the Holy Spirit could do nothing until God
spoke the word. This means that the Holy Spirit will only gather multitudes
in your church when you begin to speak about multitude coming to your
church.
For your word to become effectual and produce supernatural results,
stay on the word of God and allow it to take deep root into you.
Do As Commanded
Dr. Oyedepo would always say that they got to where they are by doing
all that God commanded them to do. That is relying so much on God’s
direction that they have never known a better yesterday or last year.
When you study smaller Churches, you will discover that as they
progress their yesterday always seem to be better. A supernatural ministry
happens when you follow the leadings of God and do all that He commands
you to do. If you do as commanded, you will have the commander’s results.
This is one of the teachings I took to heart. I knew that my mind was too
small to lead me; as such I refused to rely on it. The person who called me
must have the ability surely to lead me. I refused to cut off the yoke that He
has bound me to Himself.
I have heard people talk about God’s leading, who don’t spend time in
the word and with God. When something doesn’t go as they expected it to
go, their emotion begins to lead them out of it.
Ministry is a hard calling. There is nothing easy about pursuing your
call in ministry. It is tough on the flesh. When it gets tougher that is a very
good sign that God is very much involved in it. Be careful when your
ministry becomes easy or you decide to ease up.
People see Dr. Oyedepo today and don’t realize that he had to make a
choice between his ambitions and the leadings of God. He shared a story of
how in Kaduna they had planned to build the seven-spirit-of-God
Auditorium. He said people gave everything they had for the project and
after they had dug the foundation and erected the pillars, he was informed
by God that it was not God’s project.
 He called the people together and told them this. He said one of the
elders said if he dared abandon the project, he and his family will move out
of the church. He had an option between following the man or God. He
decided to follow God. And the elder, true to his threat, moved out with his
family. As the elder moved out, God moved in and cause supernatural
restoration and growth.
Every minister will come to a point where he will have to choose
between following the natural and the supernatural. Many ministries have
become still born because the minister chooses to fear man rather than obey
God. I had my fair share. Most times the people who do this either have
influence over more people in the Church or are the highest givers. Who
would want to lose a “pillar” or as some people call it “destiny helpers?”
If a man is the pillar of your ministry, it will collapse and if a man is
your destiny helper, your ministry will go nowhere. If that man falls, you
will go down with him. God must become the only helper and pillar of your
ministry/church. The wisdom of God is your pillar and the Holy Spirit your
destiny helper.
“Anything that God would not do, let it remain undone” is one familiar
word I constantly hear from Dr. Oyedepo. That is absolute dependence on
God for everything. You must get to a point whereby God becomes your
ultimate and you are ready to obey Him.
Radical Obedience to God’s instruction will land you on the highway of
the supernatural where miracles are a norm.
Many people call a lot of things the leading of God. The only yardstick
for God to lead you is for His word to dwell abundantly in your heart. If the
word of God is not in your heart forget His leading and instructions. Any
voice you will hear will come out of what is abundant in your heart.
You will never have a supernatural ministry if you don’t follow God.
Look at Dr. Oyedepo for instance. He was having a great time in Kaduna,
when God instructed him to get to “Lagos and make His people rich.”
When they got to Lagos, the Church quickly exploded. He said they had
7,000 and 12,000 addition of people in a year.
In Raji Oba, after building a massive structure and were celebrating the
goodness of God; God instructed him to move to the forest which is now
Canaan Land. Rather than people stop coming (it was a journey on its own
to get to Church), by 5:00am on the first morning of service, the auditorium
was filled up.
 I know of pastors who have dared this kind of move and ended up
losing their Church and ministry. I heard of a pastor who was having a level
of growth and support from a partner. The partner asked him what he
wanted to do if money were not a problem. He answered that he wants to
build his Church auditorium.
So they looked for a land, bought it and the partner made available
money for the construction of the auditorium. On the first day of service, he
was the only one in the big auditorium. Money and need led him and not
God.
Many ministries have been buried and many would be who don’t
subscribe to God’s leading and instruction. A lot of pastors are simply goats
who will never do as commanded by God. They are lord of themselves.
I don’t do anything no matter how fanciful it looks except God is
leading me into it. A slave never does anything without the instruction of
his Lord. I am a slave of God and I don’t intend to ever ask for freedom. I
am a donkey yoked to Jesus, anywhere He wants me to go to, I am ready. I
have no condition to do His will. His will is my food. That’s why I am on
earth.
One day I heard a voice within me say “Your ministry will be
appreciated in Lagos and the US more.” I bound that voice and declared
that from where I am my ministry will reach Lagos, the US and beyond. I
don’t have to move anywhere. Be careful of the voice you hear and obey,
because they are many voices in the world and each has a consequence.
Dr. Oyedepo wrote in his book, Commanding the Supernatural, “All
that a man needs to do to provoke signs and wonders is, “Whatsoever he
saith unto you, do it” (Jn. 2:5). Until you do what He says, miracles are not
in view. A business man for instance, who knows what God says he should
do and does it, will have a flourishing business, the devil notwithstanding.
In the same way, if a pastor knows what to do about his ministry and does
it, he will succeed, no matter how many devils in hell are ganged up against
him!” The secret is in hearing the voice of God and doing as commanded.
When God speaks to you, what He speaks are instructions and
commands and not suggestions. It is not for you to discuss and debate it
with a committee or even your wife, but to heed and obey it.
Others may choose not to obey God, I don’t have a choice. I am sold
out. I prefer to be a slave in the will of God than a king outside of His will.
 When you become a willing servant of God and ready to obey His
instructions, you will eat the good of the land where He sent you. If not,
you will be devoured by the sword. This book in your hand came to be by
reason of my obedience to God’s instruction.
Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy one of Israel: “I am the
Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way you
should go. Oh, that you had heeded My commandments! Then your peace
would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the
sea. Your descendants also would have been like the sand and the offspring
of your body like the grains of sand; his name would not have been cut off
nor destroyed from before Me.” Isaiah 48:17-19
When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the
deep and let down your nets for a catch.” But Simon answered and said to
Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at
your word I will let down the net.” And when they had done this, they
caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. So they signaled
to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came
and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. Luke 5:4-7
Instructions from God when obeyed are the precursor of supernatural
ministry. Don’t do anything base on convenience or money but as
commanded by God. Money shouldn’t stop you from obeying God. If God
instruct you to do anything that requires money, don’t resist because you
don’t have the physical cash, rather take a step in obedience and the money
you need will come in.
When God gave the instruction concerning these book series, there were
no funds on ground to publish them with, but as we began to take steps;
writing, typing, editing, laying and working towards the project, the money
began coming in and the first book in the series, “The Business Secret of
David Oyedepo” was published. If we had first waited for the money to
come in, things would not have worked out the way God had planned it and
am not sure you would have had this book to read today, because the money
would have been used for other pressing needs. But I have learnt from Dr.
Oyedepo to always obey God no matter what. When you obey God’s
command, the word of God (Jesus) will be manifested and God will make
His home with you. Obedience to God as your Lord at all times is the only
security your ministry has.
 If you wait for money, God is not your Lord; money is. Many pastors
who do not obey God because they have no money, are obeying money
rather than God.
Your ministry will never experience success, prosperity and growth
beyond the level to which you submit to obeying God.
Your entire struggle in ministry will end when you choose to obey God.
One word from God will change your life and ministry. Wait for that word
before you take a step.
Speak As Commanded
Supernatural growth only comes when you begin to declare the word
that God stirs up within you. What this means is that, the word of faith you
speak is the word that engages God to act. The supernatural growth in
ministry is a function, therefore, of the words that you speak.
Faith is the substance of the goal you hope to achieve and the evidence
or receipt of what you want. Faith that makes everything possible is
released through the words you speak. Faith is simply speaking the word of
God that is abundant in your heart.
You have the same ability that God has to declare the word of God and
obtain the supernatural Church growth results that only God can have.
When you speak words of faith (from your heart), your words will carry the
same power as if God is the one saying them.
The problem of most small Church pastors is actually the words that
they speak. There was a time I was praying and declaring Church growth
continuously, then one Sunday morning the whole Church was filled to
capacity without any special invitation sent to anyone. But then I spoke
words that scattered the Church and brought it down to my level.
Every time you talk with your spouse or pastors how Church growth
doesn’t happen, you are simply causing your Church to stagnate
supernaturally. The supernatural is released by speaking the words of faith.
Dr. Oyedepo wrote in his book, Commanding the Supernatural, that “A
preacher who wants the supernatural to manifest must first proclaim it with
his mouth. That is why during healing meetings; one often hears preachers
making great proclamations of what the power of the Great Jehovah can do.
You hear them declare confidently that blind eyes will be opened, the lame
will walk, the deaf will hear etc. they are giving sound to what is in their
hearts. As such proclamations are being made; supernatural forces are
called into action.”
 When your church is not growing rather than say what you see, say
what you desire to have. Declare growth boldly. But if the word of God is
not first planted in your heart, you can declare loudly till you lose your
voice, nothing will happen. The supernatural only happens when the word
comes from your heart.
If you will not declare growth, don’t expect supernatural growth. You
must not only declare it in your closet, you must come out where people are
and declare the word publicly. People may ridicule you, but you will have
supernatural results. Like God, you should declare only the things you want
and desire to see. If you want a great church, declare it before everyone.
Before I started the church, God instructed me to build with Him the
fastest growing and most flourishing church. I was too timid to declare it to
people because I was focusing more on what I see and what people will say
rather than what God had told me. As a result the will of God for the church
was never fulfilled.
But now God wants through my teachings, manuals, books and CDs to
grow the fastest growing and most flourishing churches in every cities and
nations. And that is the purpose of this book.
God personally gets involve in implementing what you say when the
word comes out of the word of God that is planted in your heart. God helps
you make the word flesh.
Speaking words of faith is simply giving voice to the word of God and
that engages the angels of God to bring it to pass. When God’s word is in
your heart, the ability of God to create by the words He peaks becomes your
ability. The word carries the power to implement what it is assigned to do.
It will not return to God without manifesting in reality.
The word in your heart is the source of all supernatural growth and
results in ministry.
You can only have what you say that is in line with the word of God that
has been planted in your heart so that you become a commander of the
supernatural on earth.
Whatever you declare that is not in your heart has no power whatsoever.
Who has ever said a thing and it comes to pass when it’s from the mind and
not the heart? No one: it must be from a heart full of faith (Lam 3: 37).
Receive, please, instructions from His mouth, and lay up His words in
your heart. You will also declare a thing, and it will be established for you;
so light will shine on your ways. Job 22: 22, 28
 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of
them by the breath of His mouth. For He spoke, and it was done; He
commanded, and it stood fast. Ps 33: 6, 9
Bless the Lord, you His angels, who excel in strength, who do His word,
heeding the voice of His word. Bless the Lord, all you His hosts, you
ministers of His, who do His pleasure. Ps 103: 20-21
“Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The
words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the
Father who dwells in Me does the works.” John 14: 10
You must declare all that you want to see on the roof top before
everyone around. Jesus said the revelation you get in the secret place should
be declared on the roof top, publicly and loudl, then you will commit God
to make it happen.
The Lord is in the business of confirming the words people speak that
aligns with His word. When such word is declared boldly, the Lord will
confirm it. He doesn’t confirm the word you think (that only renews your
mind). He confirms the word you speak out of faith.
The words of your mouth which proceeds from your heart are the raw
material God requires to perform the supernatural. When you labor in the
word, the word will get planted in your heart and when you speak it, God
confirms it.
For with the heart one believes unto righteous unto righteousness, and
with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Rom 10:10
Who (God) confirms the word of His servant, and performs the counsel
of His messenger; who says to Jerusalem, ‘you shall be built,’ and I will
raise up her waste places.’” Isaiah 44: 26
And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with
them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.
Mark 16: 20
Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord,
who was bearing witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and
wonders to be done by their hands. Acts 14: 3
The supernatural growth of your ministry is near you. it must first be in
your heart and then in your mouth. If it is not in these two places, then don’t
expect supernatural growth.
Evangelism won’t bring you the kind of results that speaking word of
faith will get you. You can go about town trying to win everyone to Christ
and get no results. But there is no how you can speak words from your heart
and not get results.
That is how God operates and when you act like God, you will
definitely get supernatural ministry just as God would if He were on earth
today. Like God, you are calling things that are not as though they exist
because they exist.
 Chapter Seven
Growing the Ministry
◆◆◆
Covenant Principle
Then He said, “To what shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with
what parable shall we picture it? It is like a mustard seed which, when it
is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth; but when it
is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out
large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade.”
Mark 4:30-32
Dr. David Oyedepo’s Saying
“Impactful word ministry is a vital factor for commanding
supernatural Church growth. For wherever the carcass is there the
eagles shall be gathered. Eagles don’t feed on dead kills, they feed on
fresh kills. So the fresher the word the more eagles gather. If you check
the vultures when they come in on the carcass and the number of
vultures is too much, what do they do? They take off to look for the
next carcass. Because there is nothing more here to feed on. Nothing
establishes souls like the word. Prayer will bring them. Evangelism will
bring them, only the word will established them.”

◆◆◆

It is the will of God for Churches to grow. This is easy for me to say now.
But then, it was not. If anything, it was the last thing I wanted to believe.
Like many small Church pastors, I always console myself by saying
“wherever two or three people are gathered, God is in their midst.” God
wants multitude to work through.
Looking back now, I can see it is a lame way to excuse my not having
results. Everywhere I go in the Bible, all I see is God talking about growth.
If anything, staying small should be seen as wickedness and rebellion
against God.
God did not send anyone to pastor a small church. You can start small,
but you should not remain small. God believes in growth and the Bible and
His kingdom are a proof of that.
Growth is organic to everything that is living. Whatever you see that is
not growing is dead. One thing every pastor must know is that growth is a
choice. God will not force your church to grow. He has set principles in
place that when followed will result in growth.
If church growth is the will of God, then not growing the church is not
doing the will of God. God is glorified when you bear fruit; when your
church grows. Church growth is therefore a fruit or an effect. If you love
God, you will grow your church.
There are things to do to bring about growth and anyone who stops
doing them will stop growing.
God is looking for men who will partner with Him to bring heaven to
the earth and establish His kingdom on the earth. The church is the power
house of God and the pillar of truth. If it is not growing, it loses its
relevance.
A growing church is an influential church. I have never seen a pastor of
a small church who is able to influence the governmental and business
authority in a city. He may be wise, but because his church has not grown,
his wisdom will be despised.
The growing church is like yeast placed in dough, it should have
influence in every facet of the society. A small church has very little or no
power to leverage. But a big church does. That’s what God needs.
Jesus never said He will keep His Church small. On the contrary, He
said He will build His Church. You don’t build a Church to remain small
but to become big.
God has no specific number of people that should come to your church.
But as far as you can see and imagine will be given to you. So if you have a
small church, it’s because that is what you can see and imagine. If there is
anyone to blame for a church not growing, lay it at the feet of the senior
pastor not the devil.
Church growth is therefore a tool for the fulfillment of God’s agenda for
the earth. God is looking for men who will partner with Him to grow the
church so that His will can be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Look at Jesus and the disciples. Everywhere they went multitudes
gather, not a small number. In one meeting Jesus had more than 20,000
people gathered including men, women, ladies, youths and children. The
church in Jerusalem was born with more than a hundred people and in one
day, 3,000 were added to it. Another time 5,000 were added. Then the
addition became daily until they graduated to multiplication and a whole
city was added in a day.
If growth were not God’s will for His church, He would have stopped
them. Instead, God was working with them confirming their word with
signs and wonders and the Church kept growing.
God will never lie nor change His mind. Whatever He has said whether
in the old or New Testament is covered by His covenant. He keeps His
covenant by not breaking His word. He promised in Isaiah 60:22, that “a
little one shall become a thousand and a small one a strong nation” and in
Jeremiah 30:19, He said, “I will multiply them, and they shall not diminish;
I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.”
The future of this world depends greatly on the growth of your Church
or ministry. If the church or ministry is not growing, then evil will be on the
increase. A supernaturally growing ministry is the ministry that is defeating
the devil and bringing the kingdom of God to the environment where it is
located. That ministry is increasing the influence of God in the society by
shinning the light of God in darkness. It is pushing back darkness.
I wish my mind could accept this when I planted the first church. I was
really green with ignorance. I thought God was against all mega church
pastors: they and their members would go to hell. Meanwhile in my heart I
was really envious of them. I wanted to preach to a large number of people
and influence the world for God, but my mindset was holding me back. God
planted that desire in me because He desires every church to grow.
In my search for the ingredients that make a church grow, I came upon
three in the book of Acts. Dr. Oyedepo also confirmed them at Shiloh 2013
Ministers Conference tagged: Keys to Supernatural church Growth. He
said, “Every act of God on earth is processed through the hands of man.” So
if man doesn’t take responsibility for church growth, the church will never
grow.
There are demands for ministry growth and anyone who meets the
demands will have God supply the growth. An influential church is one that
grows spiritually as well as numerically. The spiritual depth of the members
determines the numerical height of the church.
And through the hands of the Apostles many signs and wonders were
done among the people. And they were all with one accord in Solomon’s
Porch. Yet none of the rest dared join them, but the people esteemed them
highly. “And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of
both men and women.” Acts 5:12-14
Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, “It is
not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables.
Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good
reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over
this business; but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the
ministry of the word.” Then the word of God spread, and the number of
disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great number of the priest
were obedient to the faith. And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great
wonders and signs among the people. Acts 6:2-4, 7-8
When the leaders took responsibility for growth things began to happen.
They paid the price that was required to see growth, and multitudes were
added to them. I never did take responsibility. I blamed the devil, my wife,
God, members, the street and the town. I never blamed myself.
Today, most pastors have perfected another method of playing the
blame game. After four or more years of no growth, they change the name
of the ministry so that it will seem as if they are just starting afresh.
No matter what anyone does or don’t do, ministry growth is not based
on time. If not Churches that have spent twenty years would have grown. It
is based on meeting the demands of growth.
Prevail in Prayer
“Before she was in labor, she gave birth; before her pain came, she
delivered a male child. Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such
things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation
be born at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her
children. Shall I bring to the time of birth, and not cause delivery?” says the
Lord. “Shall I who cause delivery shut up the womb?” says your God.
Isaiah 66:7-9
My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed
in you. Gal. 4:19
To succeed in ministry, you must make sure you have a breakthrough
first in the spirit before doing anything in the physical. If you have not
prevailed in prayer, you will never prevail in real life.
No one taught me this. I thought all I needed to do was ask and then
believe I have received, after which I should step out and act. I never
became successful in what I was doing.
The prayer you are praying is to unseat the devil and deliver the people
from his hands. You must break his influence over them. And this is not just
the kind of prayer you pray once. You have to keep praying it until you feel
God has given you peace over it.
The devil will keep people from coming to your ministry. You have to
ascend to seat in your position of authority above him and take authority
over his works, bind and break his power over the people. You have to
command the veil he has used to blind the people to be removed.
Only through fervent prevailing prayer can you unseat the devil and
release his captives. This is because fervent prayers make tremendous
power available, which is effective in its working.
Wherever your praying stops, growth and enlargement will definitely
stop. You have to enforce the will of God concerning the ministry through
prayer. Dr. Oyedepo said, “A praying Church is a growing Church.”
First move in the spirit, then follow it with action based on the
instructions and directions of God. You have an adversary who is clearly
against the growth of your ministry. You must never give up on praying.
And do you know that is one area young pastors miss. They will tell you
that prayer and fasting is out of fashion and as such don’t need that to
engage the devil, since they already are seated above him. No wonder many
are defeated. Yes, Jesus has defeated the devil but you and I still need to
enforce it on earth and that requires a fight.
The devil no longer has authority over the earth, you do. But he still has
the power of deception and lies. He has deceived a lot of pastors and they
have ended up not exercising their authority against him. Some have even
been using their authority over the earth to aid and abet the works of devil.
 Prevailing prayer means you are praying a warfare prayer against the
kingdom of darkness from the place of victory. If you don’t pray, the devil
will keep your church from growing.
Your prayer is the visa God needs to enter the earth to help you build
your church. So if you are not praying, there is no how God and His angels
will come to your aid. God only grows a church and makes things happen in
answer to prayer.
The will of God for church (which is explosive supernatural growth)
can only be done when you and members of your church prays. God is
looking for a people who will pray so that He can heal and clean the land of
the devil and bless their work.
So when a city is falling apart and all kinds of evil are happening in it,
just know that the pastors and churches in that city are not really prevailing
in prayer.
God releases His blessings when we begin to pray. The good part is that
God shows you exactly what you need to do to grow your church.
After learning those lessons, I told people if God gives me go ahead to
start a church, I am going to have a church of 7,000 people in one year. I
began by spending three days each month just seeking God in prayer. Then
every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, am engage in all-night prayers. I
don’t pray for my needs, but engage in warfare against the kingdom of
darkness.
As a result, I began to see how cheap it is to have 7,000 people in a
year. I started acting on what I saw but God stopped me and said He made
me learn these secrets so that I can teach other pastors. If you desire growth
then pray and fast.
The devil makes sure people are deceived first. He uses scriptures and
turns them upside down to deceive. And once prayer is out of place, the
altar will definitely lack fire. Without fire to burn the devil’s chaff, the
ministry of the word will become ineffective. The word is only a fire and a
hammer as a result of prayer.
Dr. Oyedepo shared this in his book, Winning Prayer; “When God
called me in an 18-hours long vision. I began intense preparations for
takeoff in prayers, fasting, studying and programming for 26 months. After
all these, anyone would have thought the way was clear for great results.
But when the ministry went into full operation in Kaduna, things did not
happen as we expected; they were just dragging. There was stagnation.
Often, there were only two people at our meetings, and they were my staff.
One day, I called the men together and told them, “This is not the way
things should be, so let’s rise up to the challenge.” We set out in prayer for
three days. On the third day, the Lord said to me, “my son, get up and walk
down the Church area” I did that and when I got to the river bank, He said
to me, “Turn back.” I turned around and He opened my eyes to see a layer
of thick darkness sitting on the roof of the Church. I then began to challenge
it audibly with the word of God. I said, light the shines in darkness and
darkness comprehends it not. In the name of Jesus Christ, I challenge you
force of the enemy, fold up and get out of here.” Immediately, I saw the
layer of darkness fold up and roll away! From then on, things began to
happen in the Church. People began to pour into the Church and the
ministry began to grow by leaps and bounds. If I had done nothing then, our
glorious ministry today, would not have been here.”
Today, we have a lot of ministers who are not spiritually sensitive. They
think ministry is all about phonetics and fine grammatical construction. For
your information, you need faith and prayer to release the power of God.
Fasting is the price you pay to unearth the power of God in you but, you
need faith and prayer to put it to work. Faith unleashes the power of God.
Your ministry will always be under attack and contention from the
devil. And prayer is the key to being on the offensive. Prayer is the way to
receive the stimulus package of heaven and to sharpen your sword.
You should always be on the offensive. There is no vacation when it
comes to spiritual matters. You are a soldier of Christ who is always at war.
When the apostles came under the attack of the enemy, they didn’t give
up their position. The devil only opposes those who have a position. So
instead of folding up the Church and going home, they assembled together
to pray. Every challenge in ministry is a call to take up arms in prayer.
Don’t run around discussing what attack you are under, get on your
knees and connect with heaven over it and from your place in Christ scatter
the gathering of the enemy against your ministry.
Many ministries and churches have been relegated to early graves
simply because they don’t pray. One Church announced an all-night
meeting, and since no one came the pastor decided to sleep through it. It
didn’t take long for the devil to close up that church.
It is when you sleep at night that the devil comes in to plant tares so that
he can corrupt your work and discourage you. Stay awake and fervent in
prayer.
And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all
that the chief priests and elders had said to them. And when they had
prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they
were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with
boldness. And with great power the apostles gave witness to the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all. Acts
4:23, 31, 33
Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to
God for him by the church. Acts 12: 5
Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every
circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (definite requests),
with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants know to God. And God’s
peace [shall be yours, that tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation
through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and being content with its
earthly lot of whatever sort that is, that peace] which transcends all
understanding shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus. Phil. 4:6-7 AMP
Every challenge or opposition, no matter how little should move you to
your prayer closet. The devil’s aim is to get you out of the closet. It’s a
distraction. Prayer makes your church too hot for him to handle.
You must strive to win the spiritual battle before moving, doing
anything or taking a step in the physical. It takes prayer to win souls and
grow a Church. Never neglect the altar of prayer.
Don’t pray for God to send prayer warriors. No one can do the praying
for you. You have to be your ministry’s prayer warrior. You have to birth
souls and grow your Church on the place of prayer first.
Through prayer, you turn the people God has given you into battle axes
and weapons of war in the hands of God. When you become the warrior, it
becomes easy for people to catch the spirit of prayer. You can never teach
people how to pray, they will only catch it when they see you pray.
And in praying, pray more in the Spirit and declare the words of God
boldly and by faith. Praying in tongue energizes your faith and you have to
release it by the spoken word to quench every fiery dart of the devil and
create for you the kind of ministry you desire. I could only pray for few
minutes in my understanding, but I can pray for hours in tongues and still
be energized.
 Any demon that stands against the growth of your Church can be
cleared when you engage in prayer and fasting and release your faith. You
must therefore have a structured schedule for fasting and seeking God.
Pastors who serve Dr. Oyedepo have been trained to pray warfare
prayers each time they pray. Pray violently for at least an hour a day. Only
those who are violent in prayer experience growth in church.
To engage in warfare, you have to know who you are in Christ, who
Christ is in you, your rights as a son of God and what Christ did on the
cross of Calvary. You need a revelation of these truths. When you have
revelation into these, the devil will be no match for you.
Dr. Oyedepo operates in the reality of redemption and in the authority
which the revelation bestows.
Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, ‘why could we not
cast it out? So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly,
I say to you, if have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain,
‘move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible
for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”
Matt17: 19-21
Ministry Of the Word
“And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed
you with knowledge and understanding. Then it shall come to pass, when
you are multiplied and increased in the land in those days……. Jer. 3:15-16
“But I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries where I
have driven them, and bring them back to their folds; and they shall be
fruitful and increase. I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them;
and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking,”
says the Lord. Jere 23: 3-4
Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers,
not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; not as
being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock;
and when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory
that does not fade away. 1 Pet. 5:2-4
The shepherd uses the rod to shepherd the flock under his care. The rod
here stands for the word of God.
There are pastors who will tell you that they have been sent to preach
the whole counsel of God. You see if you are sent to peach the whole
counsel of God, then there won’t have been any need for God to send other
people into ministry.
I believe that each one of us is sent with a part of the whole counsel of
God. Every minister is a messenger and we are sent with a message. God
expects us to preach the message He committed into our hands and not the
whole counsel of God.
Of course, the message must be part and parcel of His word. The power
of your ministry is in you declaring and teaching the people the message
you are sent with.
When you preach a message that you are not sent to preach, no one will
gather. You will just be helping advertise the ministry of the person who is
sent to proclaim that message.
Another word for the message is the word you are sent to preach. In my
studies, all the mega church pastors know their messages and they stick to it
and become very proficient in it. But small church pastors are the ones who
preach the whole counsel of God.
It is the message you are sent with that God is committed to confirm.
There is this humorous story I heard of a lady who prayed to God to make
her live long on earth. She then went for a plastic surgery and in the process
she died. That’s when she appeared before God, she inquired why God had
not kept His side of the bargain and He answered that because she changed
her looks he did not recognize her. God doesn’t recognize messengers who
preach what He has not sent them to preach.
God is committed to growing our ministry only to the degree that we
faithfully stick to the message He has committed into our hands. It is a
requirement for growth to happen that we remain faithful to the word we
have been sent to proclaim.
If we don’t do that, God will not recognize our ministry so to say and
would send the people to other ministries that are being faithful. We may
even confuse the people who are coming when we are not faithful to the
message we are sent with.
There is no one who doesn’t know the message Dr. Oyedepo is sent to
preach. And one thing I have noticed with him is that no matter how
fanciful a new message is, he still sticks to his message. He never deviates
from what he is sent to preach. He knows that by deviating, he will only be
confusing the people.
 God promised to add more people to anyone who is faithful and
forcefully take away people from the person who is unfaithful (1 Cor. 4:1-2,
Luke 19:24-26)
Everything you do should be focused on preaching the message you
have been sent to deliver to the people. What most pastors don’t understand
is that their support and financing from heaven is based on them faithfully
adhering to the message of their assignment. Your assignment is a project
before God and it has a budget. God doesn’t allow for the misappropriation
of funds. That’s why He doesn’t release resources and power to a ministry
that doesn’t know its message.
God is only committed to confirm the message He sent you to proclaim
no matter how unpopular it is. When Dr. Oyedepo began to teach faith and
prosperity, it was very unpopular and he was the only one preaching it. If he
had decided to abandon it because it was not in vogue and settled with the
popular message of that time, I believe he would still be a glorified small
Church pastor or may have been frustrated out of ministry.
To receive better pay and results in ministry, you have to work hard or
even harder than everyone in preaching and teaching the message you are
sent with. That is the only way to impact people.
That message in your mouth when backed by prayer becomes fire to
burn off every evil seed, a hammer to break off every yoke of the devil and
water to cleanse and sanctify the people.
Jesus did not preach what the Pharisees or Sadducees were preaching. If
He had, the multitudes would not have come. Your message is as unique as
you are. No two people are sent with the same message.
Jesus echoed His message more than anything else. He breathes it. Paul
was so committed to his message to the Gentiles that he was willing to risk
everything including his life for it.
The strength of every ministry is its understanding of what message it is
sent with. Your commitment, dedication and determination to preach your
message is a key determinant of the success of your ministry, because that
is what God is obligated and in covenant to fund and provide for.
Your message is you saying what God is saying to you and doing what
He tells you to do. Don’t copy anyone’s message, instead go and get yours
directly from God. The message is part of your DNA. You were born with
it.
 No matter how another shepherd tries, if he doesn’t carry the rod the
main shepherd had been using for the flock, they won’t follow him. And if
he decides to mimic another shepherd, the flocks would just be wondering
at the person making so much noise and wander away from him.
If you are not preaching your message, you are simply making noise
and that will never impact anyone. It will rather keep people away from you
than bring them to you.
Your message is the only thing that validates your ministry and connects
it with God. There are ministries who pray more and are more fervent in
prayer than Dr. Oyedepo but don’t have his kind of result because they
don’t know their message.
When you don’t preach your message, you are forsaking the glorious
destiny of your ministry. You must therefore be very sure of your message
because that is what will attract and keep people in your church.
Like the cold of snow in time of harvest, is a faithful messenger to those
who send him, for he refreshes the soul of his masters. Prov 25: 13
A faithful man will abound with blessings. Prov 28; 20
Remember when God was to differentiate between those He sent with a
message (Moses and Aaron) and others who He didn’t send, He used their
rods. The rods were their messages. It was the rod of those sent that budded
and blossomed. The rod, message, is what you use to gather multitude. It is
what validates your ministry with supernatural power.
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Take the rod; you and your
brother Aaron gather the congregation together. Speak to the rock before
their eyes, and it will yield its water; thus you shall bring water for them out
of the rock, and give drink to the congregation and their animals.” Num.
20:7-8
Now when it was day, He departed and went into a deserted place. And
the crowd sought Him and came to Him, and tried to keep Him from
leaving them; but He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to
the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.” Luke 4:42-
43
From that time many of His disciples went back and walk with Him no
more. Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” But
Simon answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of
eternal life.” John 6:66-68
 …… For no one will recognize the melody unless the notes are played
clearly. And if the bugler doesn’t sound a clear call, how will the soldiers
know they are being called to battle? And it’s the same for you. If you talk
to people in a language they don’t understand, how will they know what
you mean? You might as well be talking to an empty room. 1 Cor. 14:7-9
NLT
Of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God
which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, the mystery
which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been
revealed to His saints. Col. 1:25-26
…….. When they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had been
committed to me, as the gospel of the circumcised was to Peter (for He who
worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised also
worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles). Gal 2: 7-8
The message is what God confirms. You can preach everything in the
Bible and not impact a fly. You can shout all you can until you lose your
voice. It is not in shouting but in being faithful to the message committed
into your hands.
Your message is the covenant base of your ministry and that’s what the
eagles will gather to feed on. If you believe God has called you, you won’t
go out in a hurry without knowing your message. Tarry until you know it.
Send out the Word
The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that publish it.
Ps. 68:11 KJV
And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with
them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen
Mark 16:20
On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the
word of God. And word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the
region. Acts 13:44, 49
For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in
Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith towards God has
gone out, so that we do not need to say anything. 1 Thess. 1:8
Any ministry that is serious about growing must also be on the offensive
by sending the message out. God is committed to the word He gives you
and as long as the message is being sounded and proclaimed, God will
confirm it with signs.
 Your responsibility is to continually look for avenues to send the word
out. You must reach out into the town where you are to shatter the darkness.
If not it will gather around your ministry and snuff out the light.
Today, you have all kinds of means and vehicles to take your message to
the city where you are and to the world. Even Jesus embarked on
outreaches. He raised up men who will take His message and proclaim it in
a city before He gets there.
The Bible is an outreach of heaven to the world. God packaged His
word and sent it into the world to prepare the ground for His coming. And
as the light shines in the midst of darkness, darkness has no option but to
give way.
How often and wider you spread your Message will determine the
enlargement of your ministry. You must saturate whatever vehicle you are
employing with prayer. Prayer infuses it with the power of God.
You can use newsletters, tracts, television, books, radio, internet, bill
boards, banners and many more ways to spread your message. You have to
be innovative as well as resourceful.
Those things can reach places you may never be able to go to. They will
announce you long before you get there. When the Bible said that the news
of Jesus spread throughout all the regions; I believe that is the power of
leveraging the media to reach out to a city.
China and Russia were reached with the message in print even though
there was official restriction on humans coming to those nations to preach.
The word of God cannot be restricted or bound if you leverage the use of
media to send it out.
Wherever you cannot go to, simply send out your message to the place.
As you remain consistent doing this, the word will prevail and subdue the
darkness and the multitude will come.
Reinhard Bonnke commands large number of people in his crusades
simply because before the crusade date, he would have saturated the whole
place with his literatures. The same anointing that is on the message he is
proclaiming is also on the message he sends out.
Kenneth E. Hagin stayed in the US but influenced the whole World
through packaging his messages and sending them out. Don’t restrict your
message to your meetings, get them out even if it means for free.
When you study the ministry of Dr. Oyedepo you will see that in force.
As they were holding seminars and crusades, they were committed to
sending out copies of their news magazines (Winners’ World and Signs and
Wonders). And as the people get reached and the devil’s cover was blown,
people began to come from every angle to the church.
He said, “Our ministry, which today has spread all over Nigeria and
abroad, moved upwards from a games room office through constructive
creative reasoning geared towards achieving our set goal. We pressed on.
We looked out for avenues to reach the people, because we know our
message was not just for those coming to the church alone, but for the
whole world.”
In my studies of why churches don’t grow, I find out that small churches
hardly engage in massive outreaches. They prefer to spend money on looks,
decorations, the auditorium and musical instruments than on sending out
their message.
Their churches are under attack and rather than attack back, they are
busy being on the defensive. You attack the devil’s kingdom through prayer,
preaching and sending out your message.
Your ministry can never grow beyond your level of sustained outreach.
Remember, that you must generate momentum in whatever you do. Sending
out the word once in a while won’t cut it. It has to be sustained. You have to
blanket the whole city with the message God has given you. Let people
perceive that you mean business and the devil get to know that you are here
to take over and not to take sides.
Kenneth Copeland said that if you lack anything in ministry, all you
have to do to get it, is send out the word. Always be sending out the word.
Don’t be discouraged. Therefore most churches don’t grow because they are
not sending out the word.
When the words reach critical mass in its spread, it multiplies until it
prevails over evil and subdues the devil.
When I planned to have 7, 000 members in one year, I got prepared to
send 250, 000 tracts every month into the city. So I wrote about one
hundred tracts for that purpose.
Sending out the word is the sickle for the harvest of souls. Prayer ripens
the field, then you reap it by sending out the message God has given to you.
But preaching your message is where the barns are prepared for the harvest.
Once you have got this in place, you have to stay patient. Patient means
you keep on doing exactly what is required. Based on principles and
covenant, the harvest will come in.
 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down; for the wine
press is full, the vats overflow-for their wickedness is great. “Multitudes,
multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the
valley of decision. Joel 3:13-14
Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the
word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to
them. And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by
Philip, hearing and seeing miracles which he did. Acts 8: 46
“Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the
harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for
they are already white for harvest!” John 4:35
Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord! See how
the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it
until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your
hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. James 5:7-8
Angels are the reapers of the harvest and you can only engage them
through the bold declaration of God’s word in prayer and before men. You
must give voice to the voice of God for things to happen to you.
When you pray, burdens gets lifted, yokes destroyed, chains get broken
and the gates of the city gets open for your ministry. When you preach the
message God has given you, you prepare the food the people will eat. When
you send out the message, you invite people to come and eat the food you
have prepared.
Multitudes out there are hungry. The best food is your message. Don’t
dilute your message by preaching or sending out another person’s. Don’t
advertise their ministry, except God instructs you to do that. Know your
message, then preach and send it out and reap the harvest that is ripe.
Make the City Your Parish
One of the strategies of church growth of Dr. Oyedepo is that he makes
the city wherever God sends him to plant a Church his parish. That is, he
focuses on becoming the pastor over that city.
How can that be since he only preaches in his Church every Sunday
morning? He sees his pulpit or church as a platform to reach the whole city
and as he reach out to the whole city, the whole city will definitely hear
about him and then reach out to his church in multitude.
You can start with one person in your Church yet be reaching hundreds
and even thousands in the city where you are located. It is very possible.
And today with the internet, you can reach millions or billions of people at
once.
When you reach out to the city, your fame will spread throughout the
city and people will be drawn to your ministry if your fame has to do with
the ability to meet needs, solve problems and enrich lives.
And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues,
preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and
all kinds of disease among the people. Then His fame went throughout all
Syria; and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with
various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed,
epileptics, and paralytics and He healed them. Great multitudes followed
Him- from Galilee and from Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond
Jordan. Matt 4: 23-25
At that time Herod the tetrarch heard about the fame of Jesus. When
Jesus heard it, He departed from there by boat to a deserted place by
Himself. But when the multitudes heard it, they followed Him on foot from
the cities. And when Jesus went out, He was moved with compassion for
them, and healed their sick. Matt 14:1, 13-14
When you only preach in your church no one will know about you. I
have seen pastors who have been in a town for years that even the people
living near their Churches don’t even know anything about them.
But when you begin to preach to your city, everyone including demons
and people in authority will begin to take notice of you. It is not just what
you confess but what you do after you have made your confession. You
have to be deliberate about taking charge of the city. You have to see
yourself as the answer to all the problems of that city.
Dr. Oyedepo reached out to the city through a weekly Signs and
Wonders newsletter and crusades. In the newsletter, the message he
preaches in the church and the testimonies of people whose lives were
impacted and transformed by the message are included. It is strategic.
Television and radio is another means by which you can preach to any
city. In consistency lies the power of whatever strategy you choose says
Gloria Copeland. You must be consistent in the using the same media to
reach out to your city. Don’t stop even if you don’t see quick results. Keep
sending them out and you will get the results you desire.
The only way to dethrone the devil over cities is to preach the
uncompromised and undiluted word of God to that city. If it is full of the
wisdom of man, it will never dethrone the devil. The devil will not lie low
and just watch you dethrone him. He will fight you back. That’s why you
must use the wisdom of God and back it with intercessory prayers. Without
that, you will just be sending out words that have no power to command
effects.
The devil has blinded the minds of the people and only light from
heaven can shatter the darkness and remove the blinders the devil has used.
Through prayers you can short circuit the devil’s powers and frustrate his
plans so that he cannot perform his enterprise. Through prayers you can
bind him and stop him in his tracks, so that the word of God can have free
course into the people.
I observed that young pastors start out thinking of reaching out to their
city but stop when they don’t get results after a few trials. The devil ensures
that he attacks their prayer base and finances first. Most churches that are
not growing have stopped praying long ago and it starts with the pastor
losing interest in prayers. So they get deceived by the devil to think that it is
far better to decorate their altar than to pray, print tracks and newsletter and
send them out to the city. As a result, after a year or two, their churches
stagnate with no one knowing about them.
The first place the devil attacks in any church seeking growth is their
prayers. Once that is neutralized, he goes for their finances. As such they
leave the prayer and the ministry of the word in search of money to make
ends meet and make ministry work. Money doesn’t make ministry but
rather ministry produces money.
In 2014, we experimented with reaching out to the city where we are
located. When we massively blanketed the city with tracts was exactly the
time the devil attacked our finances. Rather than run around looking for
money, we stayed with God to learn lessons from what happened so that
when we launch out we will plan counter measures.
If people are not attacking you and your ministry, you have not yet
prevailed over the gods of the city. When the city becomes your parish,
persecution and lies becomes a major part of your ministry.
Only very few churches really preach to their cities the word of God
with power and those churches are the fastest growing churches. Don’t be
moved by ministries that preach on television and radio. They may just be
doing it to advertise their ministry and not meet the need of the city where
they are. Most pastors don’t even know the need and problems of the city
where they are.
And even if they do, they see themselves as unable to meet the needs
and solve the problems, blame the government and the rich rather than see
themselves as the solution. When you meet the needs and solve the
problems of your city by preaching to it, multitude will come to you.
Now the man from whom the demons had departed begged Him that he
might be with Him. But Jesus sent him away saying, ‘Return to your own
house and tell what great things God has done for you.’ and he went his
way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had
done for him. So it was, when Jesus returned, that the multitude welcomed
Him, for they were all waiting for Him. Luke 8: 38-40
The woman then left her water pot, went her way into the city, and said
to the men, “Come, see a man who told me all things that I have ever did.
Could this be the Christ? Then they went out of the city and came to Him.
And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the
word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.” John
4:28-30, 39
Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the
word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to
them. And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by
Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits,
crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and many
who were paralyzed and lame were healed. And there was great joy in that
city. Acts 8:5-8
What you send out can go to places you will never dream of going to.
You must send them to the city backed with prayer in order to produce the
kind of results you desire.
Develop and Equip People for Ministry
For the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying
of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the
knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed
to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of
men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth
in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head- Christ from
whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint
supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its
share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Eph.
4:12-16
And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses,
commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 2 Tim.
2:2
Growing leaders is one of the very strategies Dr. Oyedepo employs to
grow his church exponentially. Most pastors leave their people the way they
are and never experience growth.
Right from the beginning, Dr. Oyedepo developed a comprehensive
plan for the development of people into leaders. The goal is to turn ordinary
men into giants. He was not just doing church for the sake of it; he was
birthing a movement that would outlive him. I always tell people that he has
produced more leaders than any other ministry I know of in Nigeria.
Everything you do should be targeted at developing leaders and not just
having programs. Nothing should distract you from it. You have to see the
potential in people and help them unleash it and become who God created
them to be.
Most pastors who want to start a Bible School to train their people copy
the notes of other Bible Schools. Dr. Oyedepo didn’t do that. He developed
his own materials based on the assignment God had given him. He therefore
developed a curriculum and structure of training that will see everyone
passing through it getting schooled in the vision, mission, structure and
pillars of his ministry.
The only drawback with his system is that it only trains you on how to
function in his ministry and not outside it.
If you don’t want your church to grow, don’t develop a program to
empower people to be more than they are. Just keep preaching whatever
comes to your heart. But people who desire supernatural multiplication in
ministry must of necessity develop a well-structured and defined system
and strategy to turn ordinary men into excellent leaders.
You don’t have to wait until your church has grown, start with the few
people you have. You can start it from the pulpit and become intentional
about people’s development. So that every opportunity you have to
influence them will be used to develop their leadership potential.
Jack Welch grew General Electric to be one of the most valuable
companies in the world simply because he invested in the development of
leaders. When he finally left the CEO position, most of the key leaders had
to leave to head other companies.
Your time should be spent in finding potential leaders and training them.
And once you have trained them, you have to empower and release them to
train others.
The only challenge most pastors have is that they are not leaders and
even if they are, they are insecure leaders who will never train and
empower others. They are afraid that when they train others those people
will leave them. This will lead to manipulating people. Churches don’t
grow when the pastors refuses to train people simply because they are
afraid they will leave.
The truth is that for every person you train, your leadership capacity
increases and your leadership lid goes up. Even if one or two leaves, you
are getting better and attracting much better leaders.
The only way your church will continually exceed its goal and potential,
year in year out is to focus on developing leaders. That is the key to
explosive growth. It gives you the ability to leverage the influence of those
leaders.
Teach your people how to operate in the supernatural and release them
to operate in the supernatural wherever they are. You are limited in where
you can be at a time. But as you develop your people and release them, you
will shake the city where you are.
Let’s say you have 40 people who attend your church and you decide to
develop them and they become supernatural leaders like you with the fire of
God in their eyes and hands, imagine the impact they will cause when they
go back into that city demonstrating the power of God. That city will bow
to you and your church will grow supernaturally.
The disciples were just preaching and teaching, but then they noticed
that other things were constantly distracting them. So they decided to
develop, empower and release seven leaders. They not only experienced
growth in the church; through Stephen Paul was touched and through Philip
the whole city of Samaria was reached for Christ.
Paul planted churches then developed, empowered and released leaders
to oversee those churches and the church kept on growing. I learnt that
Timothy pastored the Ephesus church and that by the time Paul wrote 1st
Timothy it was above 50,000 and when he wrote 2nd Timothy, it was way
over a hundred thousand.
 Insecure pastors will never experience supernatural growth. Rather than
release people, they keep and oppress them. Train your people to be the
best. School them in what God has called you to do.
Don’t give them titles to deceive them that they are leaders. Train and
develop them to be leaders without titles who will shake the city for Jesus.
Developing leaders helps you to impact people far beyond your
personal circle. Every time you develop leaders and released them, you
make them capable of influencing an even greater number of people. They
will bring others with them to be developed.
Most importantly, you need to train the people to put God’s word to
work, operate by faith, walk in love, exercise their authority, live in honor,
follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and obey God.
Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and
authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. He sent them to preach the
kingdom of God and to heal the sick. So they departed and went through the
towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. Now Harold the
tetrarch heard of all that was done by Him; and he was perplexed, because it
was said by some that John had risen from the dead, and by some that
Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the old prophets had risen
again. Luke 9:1-2, 6-8
Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, “It is
not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables.
Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good
reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over
this business; but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the
ministry of the word. And the saying pleased the whole multitude. And they
chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip,
prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas, a proselyte from
Antioch, whom they set before the apostles; and when they had prayed,
they laid hands on them. Then the word of God spread, and the number of
disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests
were obedient to the faith. Acts 6:2-7
You are not a failure when the people you developed begin to leave to
start churches that are growing. You are only a failure if they are not leaving
or when they do get called by God and leave, their churches doesn’t grow
like yours. Your success is based on the fact that they are able to succeed
without you.
 Kenneth Copeland exposed Jerry Savelle to everything he knew
knowing fully well that one day Jerry Savelle will leave to start his
ministry. His leaving has increased the influence and reach of Kenneth
Copeland. What if Brother Copeland had refused to develop Jerry Savelle?
One thing is sure to happen, Kenneth Copeland Ministry would have
remained small and Jerry Savelle would have left offended.
As you develop people and release them, so your influence also
increases and your church’s impact escalates.
There is no guarantee that the leaders you developed will stay, except
you keep on growing as a leader. Your church is your lengthen shadow. So
if you stop growing personally and those leaders keep growing, they will
soon catch up with you and you will have to create a place for them to
unleash their leadership potential or they will find one for themselves.
This means that as you are developing leaders, you need to begin to
think of areas you can create within your ministry so that they can have
places to unleash their potential. A stream is a small place for sharks,
dolphins and whales to operate in.
It is very dangerous for a church to develop leaders without creating a
place for them to unleash their leadership potential. It is very frustrating for
those developed leaders. And frustrated leaders do dangerous things.
And once you begin to develop leaders, your church will begin to
become a place where leaders are attracted to. Wherever leaders are other
leaders and the people they influence follow them.
As you keep on growing as a person, you will create room for the
people under you to grow their potential and capacity. And as you
continually empower them, your church will keep on growing and
multiplying.
And there is no way you will keep on growing if you stop seeking God,
studying the word and books, meditating on the word and applying
whatever God reveals to you.
 Chapter Eight
Making Impact
◆◆◆
Covenant Principle
soon afterward, (Jesus) went on through town and villages, preaching
and bringing the good news (the Gospel) of the kingdom of God. And the
Twelve (Apostles) were with Him. And also some women who had been
cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary called Magdalene, from whom
seven demons had been expelled; and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s
household manager; and Susanna; and many others who ministered to
and provided for Him and them out of their property and personal
belongings. And when a very great throng was gathering together and
people from town after town kept coming to Jesus... Luke 8:1-4 AMP
Dr. David Oyedepo’s Saying
“It takes spiritual impact to enjoy material returns. If you must
have your wages, labor in the word and in prayers to impact the lives of
men positively and they will respond gladly by ministry their substance
to your life and ministry. This is the way it works, not the other way
around….. Note also that it takes a spiritual man to impart people
spiritually. A carnal man cannot impact people spiritually.”

◆◆◆

Ministry is service to people. When you look at the way businesses serve
people, you will understand how God wants people to be served. For
instance, you don’t buy soap simply because you want soap. There must be
a very good reason why you want it. There are many kinds of soaps out
there but among them you have the special soap you always use.
That’s because the people who make that soap have you in mind when
they were making it.
Also there is a specific store you always go to buy the things you want.
You may be going there without really having an idea why you do go there,
there is always a good reason why you go there. Possibly they attend to you
in time or someone treat you with respect there.
Businesses really understand how to serve. The first time I went to the
US embassy for a visa interview, I was wowed by the kind of service they
rendered. I really didn’t want to leave the place. It gave me a good
impression of the United States and its people.
Before then, I had been at the French embassy and comparing it with
my experience at the US embassy is like comparing black and white.
One thing I took away from my visit to the American embassy was that
excellent service doesn’t happen by accident. It is programmed and
delivered. The embassy staff were courteous, graceful and professionals.
And they were not pretending or acting a script, they were being
themselves. I fell in love with the USA all over again.
From the time you get to the embassy, till you eventually exit,
everything was planned. Real planning is foundational to excellent service.
I believe they had us in mind when they were planning the visa interview
process which simply means, they cared for us.
That is what service proves. It demonstrates your heart for people.
Service has nothing to do with you, but everything to do with the people
you target to serve. When you consider people as you plan to serve them,
you are really telling them that you care.
Did the embassy meet my needs? Yes, they did and much more. The
experience was simply exceptional. I have been a student of service before I
visited the embassy. What I experienced there unfortunately, I have never
experienced in my whole years growing up in Nigeria. Their system may
not be totally full proof and perfect, but it is good.
You can imagine how I felt when I came out of the embassy to the real
world of Nigerian service. I wish we could have such everywhere we go
and I believe we can and will.
Ministry is not just all about preaching inasmuch as preaching is one of
the most fundamental parts of ministry. It is simply serving God and then
serving people with what we got while serving God.
This is why Church meetings are called services; because it is the place
where people are served with God. They are taught the principles of God
and how they can also best serve the world with God.
Anyone who is served well will keep on coming. Ministries don’t
compete because every ministry you see is unique. We are all really in
different businesses. So you don’t have to bother about the Church next
door. Just concentrate on your uniqueness. Serve the people with what God
gave you and exceed their expectation.
‘And it shall be that if you earnestly obey my commandments which I
command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your
heart and with all your soul, then I will give you the rain for your land in its
season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain,
your new wine, and your oil.” Deut. 11:13-14
And the Lord said, “Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom
his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of
food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so
doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over
all that he has.” Luke 12:42-44
And He said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over
them, and those who exercise authority over them are called ‘benefactors.’
But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you let
him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. For who is
greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at
the table? Yet I am among you as the one who serves.” Luke 22:25-27
You can only feed people who are hungry and with the kind of food you
have resources to produce. That is how to enjoy growth in ministry. When
you serve well by feeding people well, with wisdom and understanding,
they will settle down.
People act like animals. Cows will always seek out green pastures to
feed from. Once that pasture is no longer green, they look for another
pasture. Which means that, if you stop serving people, no matter how long
they have been with you they will begin to look for greener pastures to
migrate to.
When I started the Church I didn’t know how important this was. I
preached everyone’s message. If I listened to a pastor and love his message,
I will deliver it. One day someone joined our Church and said he thought it
was a branch of Dr. Oyedepo’s church. I was preaching his message and
even mimicking his intonation and gesture.
When I move on to preaching the message of Kenneth Copeland, the
guy was confused and had to leave. I didn’t really know my message yet.
But as I kept on preaching Kenneth Copeland’s message, I found mine. God
had told me to pattern my ministry after his.
There is a time allowed to preach other people’s message, but don’t do it
forever. You won’t stand out and prepare the kind of food with which you
can serve the hungry people God will be bringing you.
There are people hungry for the message of holiness, others is faith,
others is prosperity and that of others is wisdom. Even if they are not
presently hungry for your message, when you are faithful, God will make
them hungry.
“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God, “That I will send a
famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of
hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from
north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but
shall not find it.” Amos 8:11-12
‘So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger and fed you with manna
which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you
know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word
that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.” Deut. 8:3
The message God gave you is the word from the mouth of the Lord with
which you are to serve the people. When you serve them with it, their lives
will be greatly impacted.
Know the People’s Challenges
How was the American embassy able to come up with an experience
and service that was exceptional? Like I said earlier, they planned how to
serve people. They studied the challenges everyone encounters when they
visit the embassy. They must have done some surveys to learn about the
pains and challenges people go through.
As long as they keep an eye open to learn this, they will continually
serve and exceed the expectations of people.
Because Dr. Oyedepo sees the ministry as a business, he was able to
integrate this concept into his ministry. They observe and study people
constantly to know their challenges and problems in order to serve them
better.
 As a pastor or minister, you are in the service business. One way or the
other you are serving people. One challenge pastors have is that, they live in
a different world from people. There is a complete disconnect. As a result
the pastor preaches any word and not those targeted at the needs, pains and
challenges of their people.
Faith doesn’t mean you should pretend that people don’t have problems.
Faith is you knowing what their problems are and using the message God
has given you to meet their needs.
Now if you don’t know their needs, pains and challenges, your
preaching will just be like a soldier who is firing his gun at no specific
target. Your preaching must be targeted at a need.
Pastors who do not take time to know what their people are going
through are like the medical doctor who simply prescribes the same drugs
to any patient who visits him without first knowing and diagnosing the
problem they are going through.
Every ailment has a specific drug that can cure it, if you don’t know the
ailment you will be prescribing the wrong drugs. And that can lead to death
or irreparable damage.
How can a pastor be preaching about holiness or staying away from sin
when the congregation is poor and jobless? That is not service. You will
never impact anyone. If there is darkness, you don’t need sugar cane to
quench it, do you? You need light.
What is the benefit of a car to a man who is dying of hunger? If your
people are sickly, preaching prosperity won’t help them. You will only be
wasting your time and theirs. That is not serving them. Serving them is
meeting their needs and solving their problems.
When you serve people by meeting their needs, they will in turn serve
you by providing for all your needs.
Dr. Oyedepo blesses people with the whole of his heart; as such the
people in appreciation give with the whole of their heart.
To serve people you must first of all know exactly what their challenge
is (or are) and then work out the way to solve it for them.
I preached healing and prosperity and no one got sick and the church
prospered but the challenge of the people was that they had no job. I began
to study why they have no job and to know if they are really choosy about
jobs.
 I also went to town, acting as if I was looking for job to know the
process of getting a job. I interviewed people on what they needed as an
employee and I got involved in a job interview. All was in order to know
the problem of the people.
When I discovered that people have challenge with becoming
millionaires, I started another research to find out the root cause of the
problem. I asked myself why the present prosperity message is not really
working. What are its pluses and minuses? Do the people really understand
it? How should it be packaged for them to understand? Why are people
corrupt? Why are they controlled by mammon? If they know better, would
they prefer God’s way of becoming rich? Would they believe it if I have not
experienced it? I had to answer all of these questions and more.
What was I doing? I was getting at the root of the problem. I don’t want
to assume the problem; I want to get at the root of it. To unearth what the
real problem is or are.
It is laziness not to know the state of the people and city you are sent to.
If you want to be influential in that city and nation, get to know the
problems and challenges of people.
The hand of the diligent will rule, but the lazy man will be put to forced
labour. Prov. 12:24
Be diligent to know the state of your flocks, and attend to your herds;
for riches are not forever, nor does a crown endure to all generations. When
the hay is removed, and the tender grass shows itself, and the herbs of the
mountains are gathered in, the lambs will provide your clothing, and the
goats the price of a field; you shall have enough goats’ milk for your food,
for the food of your household, and the nourishment of your maidservants.
Prov. 27:23-27
Success in ministry begins with knowing the challenges people are
going through. Poverty has its share of problem so also does prosperity.
People can be so blessed and prosperous that they don’t know what to
do with money. That is a problem. There will always be problems as long as
humans exist. Your task is to always be in the know of what challenges they
are going through. That will help you better prepare to serve them better.
Turn Your Message Into Solution
The lazy man does not roast what he took in hunting, but diligence is
man’s precious possession. Prov. 12:27
 The lazy man says, “There is a lion in the road! A fierce lion is in the
streets!” As the door turns on it hinges, so does the lazy man on his bed.
The lazy man buries his hand in the bowl; it wearies him to bring it back to
his mouth. The lazy man is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can
answer sensibly. Prov. 26:13-16
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God
to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the
Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it
is written, “The just shall live by faith.” Rom. 1:16-17
When Dr. Oyedepo went to Kaduna, he must have first of all studied the
challenges of the people before starting the ministry. After which he took 26
months to plan out a solution to their problems.
He broke down his message, “The hour has come to liberate the world
from all oppressions of the devil, through the preaching of the word of
faith,” into 12 different areas of target (faith, prosperity, divine health,
vision, wisdom, word, supernatural, prayer, success, consecration, praise,
and Holy Spirit).
Why do that? So that each month, they can focus on addressing the
specific needs and challenges of people. This means every year, there is a
system in place to address the specific needs of the people.
He made sure that from the headquarters to all the branches, this is
adhered to. He wrote books on each pillar so-that people can have access to
reference materials in case the pastor is not following that. He was not done
yet.
He instituted a program that will have each member fasting once a week
and for three days at a stretch in a single week, which ends with an all-night
prayer on Friday. The all-night is a telecast with him delivering solutions.
While many pastors preach the gospel, he delivers solutions. He is a
dealer in solutions to the needs and problems of people. Impact is where
solution meets the needs of the people.
Since people know his ministry as a solution center and not a preaching
center, people with all kinds of challenges are directed to the church.
And the people who attend don’t mind the distance it will take them to
travel to get to the church. Everyone is in need of solution.
He said, “The testimony of changed lives is the cheapest way to grow a
church. There was this story of a Muslim landlord whose tenant had a
problem and couldn’t pay his house rent. The landlord said to his tenant, “I
see everybody coming out of this church (referring to our church) smiling
every day. Now that you have this problem, why don’t you go there?” The
man came and Jesus touched his life, and few months later, he was
celebrating his birthday and now had a car! When the next tenant had a
problem, the same landlord told him, “Go to that church.” The tenant came,
and he also had a transformation in his life. The landlord then said to
himself, “I’m going there too!” He came, gave his life to Christ and became
a member of the church. He’s still a strong member of our church.”
This is impact. It did not happen by accident but by design. When you
design your ministry to solve problems for people; people will be drawn in
great number to it. It becomes a lighthouse in your city where every
darkness is dispelled.
The best advertisement you need in ministry that is full proof is the
stories of people who had contact with your message and had their lives
changed.
Developing solutions to people’s challenges from your message is what
birth a growing and great ministry and that’s the secret to Dr. David
Oyedepo phenomenal growth.
Signs and Wonders
This is the means whereby God meets the need of people supernaturally.
It is provoking miracles to solve the problems of people. That’s how a
supernatural ministry operates.
When pastors around me were looking for easy ways to grow the church
they pastor, I told them that I will pay the price until am endued with power
from heaven to command the miraculous.
People naturally flock to a place where their needs are being met and
problems are being solved by the demonstration of God’s power. This is one
of Dr. Oyedepo most potent ministry strategies. He thirst and hungers for it
until he had encounters with God that established his walk in the
miraculous.
Now people who have problems from all over the world are directed to
his ministry to have all their problems solved by the power of God. When
someone has a challenge people will ask him whether he has gone to
Canaan land or visited Dr. Oyedepo. He has been able to brand his ministry
as one that is characterized by miracles, signs and wonders.
Many people flock to Jesus ministry not because they love him but
because they know that when they meet Him, all of their problems will be
solved and their needs met by the demonstration of God’s power.
This proved one point that people don’t come to a church because of the
pastor, but what they can get. People are naturally selfish but supernaturally
selfless. If there is nothing for them in your ministry, they will gladly look
for a place where their needs can be meet.
No one owns the sheep, they belong to Jesus. They follow their master
wherever they see Him at work. Jesus’ work has not ended; it still continues
on the earth today and is displayed in power. He is the same yesterday,
today and forever.
If He solved people’s problems and meets their needs by the power of
God during Bible days, then He is still doing it today and will continue to
do it forever. He has not changed and will never change. So if you want a
great ministry, operate in the miraculous. Thirst and hunger for it and let
your flesh long for it.
Kenneth E. Hagin said miracles are the bell you ring to attract people to
the church. The miraculous must be programmed. It doesn’t happen by
chance. Dr. Oyedepo said, “When you do whatever He tells you to do, you
have committed Him to confirm His word. There is nothing magical about
the miraculous; miracles are no accidents, but the deliberate acts of God
provoked by the desperate faith of men in the living word of God. When
your faith comes alive on every scriptural demand and you respond
positively to them, you birth sign and wonders at will.”
And these signs will follow those who believe: in My name they will
cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up
serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them;
they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” And they went out
and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the
word through accompanying signs. Amen. Mark 16:17-18, 20
And He came down with them and stood on a level place with a crowd
of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and
Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him
and be healed of their diseases, as well as those who were tormented with
unclean spirits. And they were healed. And the whole multitude sought to
touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all. Luke 6:17-
19
Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you
will by no means believe.” John 4:48
 And through the hands of the Apostles many signs and wonders were
done among the people. And they were all with one accord in Solomon’s
Porch. And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of
both men and women, so that they brought the sick out into the streets and
laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by
might fall on some of them. Also a multitude gathered from the surrounding
cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by
unclean spirits, and they were healed. Acts 5:12, 14-16
Ministry is simply solving the problems of people using the
supernatural power of God. Any ministry that does this is the ministry that
will experience unprecedented growth.
Signs and Wonders did not pass with the apostles of old. They are here
with us and anyone who will labor in the word of God and commune with
God will experience the miraculous in ministry.
Miracles are the means to prove that Jesus is ali01ve. The church that
does this will have multitude flocking to it. A miraculous ministry is one
that cares for people and solves their problems.
 Chapter Nine
Power to Solve Problems
◆◆◆
Covenant Principle
Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to
them. And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by
Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did for unclean spirit,
crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and
many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. And there was great joy
in that city. Acts 8:5-8
Dr David Oyedepo’s Saying
“Publicity is not what grows a church, but transformed lives.
Testimonies of changed lives are what birth great ministries.”

◆◆◆

I use to think that ministry is all about preaching. All I need to do is to just
climb the pulpit and preach whatever came to my mind. But studying Dr.
Oyedepo completely changed that perception. He was very intentional
about everything he does and that’s why growth happens naturally in his
ministry.
Ministry is not about having your name on the side of a building or
having a fancy title; it is all about meeting the needs of people and
enriching their lives.
God doesn’t call people just to have a fancy title and a place to preach.
He calls so he can meet the needs of people solve their problems and make
life better for them. That is why ministry is called service and not lordship.
This service or making life better for people is what ministry is all about.
The church is the place where God perfects people so they can live as
He created them to be; in victory and dominion.
When you study businesses, you will understand that any form of
service that doesn’t elevate the status of the people is not seen as service.
That is why only people who appropriate the power of God to meet the
needs of people and solve their problems actually have a growing church.
I have seen pastors who share their challenges and problems with their
congregation. People will run away from such a church. The people have
their own problem already. The reason why they come to church is to have
their needs met and problems solved and not for the pastors to add to their
problem by telling them about his.
Whatever you talk about is exactly what you will see happening in your
congregation. If all you share with them are your problems, everyone in that
congregation will have the same problem.
Mega church pastors like Dr. Oyedepo understand this. So even if he is
going through a personal challenge, he won’t mention it on the pulpit. He
will continue to preach the gospel which is the power of God to meet the
needs of people. As long as he is solving people’s problems and enriching
their lives, they will keep on coming in multitude.
Everyone has one kind of problem or the other. And they are on the
lookout for a church where their problems will be solved. If your church is
the place where such problems are being solved, they will keep coming as
they did to Jesus’ ministry.
And he came down with them and stood on a level place with a crowd
of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and
Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him
and be healed of their disease, as well as those who were tormented with
unclean spirits. And they were healed. And the whole multitude sought to
touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all. Luke 6:17-
19
Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His, signs
which He performed on those who were diseased. Jesus answered them and
said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw the
signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.” John 6:2, 26
 And through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were
done among the people. And they were all with one accord in Solomon’s
Porch. Yet none of the rest dared to join them, but the people esteemed
them highly. And the believers were increasingly added to the Lord,
multitudes of both men and women, so that they brought the seek out into
the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of
Peter passing by might fall on some of them. Also a multitude gathered
from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those
who were tormented by unclean spirits and they were all healed. Acts 5:12-
16
The church is a healing, restoration, equipping and empowering center.
It is a place where the power of God is manifested to meet the needs of
people. No matter the need or problem, the gospel has it covered. There is
no problem anyone can have that is above the power of God.
Pastors with small churches are those who condemn miracles and
criticize the power of God. Go to those places and rather than have your
needs met, problems solved and life enriched, your needs and problems will
become like a insurmountable mountain.
I learnt from Dr. Oyedepo that you should never organize a program just
for the sake of it. The power is not in event or program but in your
willingness to want to advance the kingdom of God to meet the needs of the
people and have their problems solved.
People don’t care about what you know. All they care about is whether
what you say you know will translate into them having a better life.
Whether you like it or not, agree with it or not, there is competition
among churches. The competition is not caused by Pastors but by members.
Like sheep, they are looking for green pastures and wherever it is, is exactly
where they will settle down. So if your pasture is not green and fresh no one
will come there.
There are many people in ministry who can speak great and enticing
words with flattery but who unfortunately have not experienced any notable
growth. Church growth is predicated on meeting the needs of people and
that is what he continually strive to do. He labors in the word in order to
meet the needs of people.
It requires a lot of sacrifice to meet the need of people. Anyone who is
ready to pay the price of power will be ready to enjoy ceaseless and all
round growth in ministry.
 I told pastors that I am not ready to just seek growth like everyone does.
I desire to get to a point where I will practically meet the needs of people
through the power of the gospel. This is exactly what draws people to a
ministry.
The demonstration of God’s power to solve human problem prove that
Jesus is alive and not dead. If Jesus solved the problem of people when He
walked the earth surely He should still be solving problems now that he is
much more alive. The Bible says He never change (He is the same
yesterday, tomorrow and forever more). So whatever He did while He was
on earth, He still does today through men.
Nothing draws people like the demonstration of God’s power in
ministry. Without power, you will never draw multitude to your church
power is what will make them come willingly to your ministry.
People don’t visit Dr. Oyedepo, Reinhard Bonnke, Pastor Paul Enenche
and Benny Hinn’s programs to just hear them; they come expecting a
demonstration of power to meet their needs.
If their ministry is not characterized with the demonstration of power no
one will come to hear him. They may attend to laugh at his event and
intonation.
Any means you use to draw people to your church will be the same
means you are going to be using to keep them. If you give them money to
come, you will have to keep giving them money to stay. And if you use the
power of God to draw them, you must continually apply the same power to
keep them. People were drawn in multitude to Jesus and the early Church
by the power of God in demonstration not the fine marketing system people
put in place.
People are selfish and will only do things for what they can get from it.
People don’t come to church because they have no place to go; they chose
to come because of what the church will do for them. People haven’t
change yet.
Thy people shall be willing in the day of the power, in the beauties of
holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of the youth. Ps.
110:3
“How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with
power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by
the devil, for God was with Him.” Acts 10:38
 The essence of power and miracles is to solve people’s problem
supernaturally and it is the only instrument to enrich people’s lives. You
must strive to always operate by the supernatural power of God. God
demand a price from anyone who wants to operate in His power.
Unfortunately most pastors are not willing to pay the price but are
desirous of operating in power. Rather than pay the price, they go after
demonic powers and those who won’t do that, criticize those who operate in
the power of God.
Miracle seekers are people who are seeking places where their problems
will be solved for them and their lives made better. No matter how things
are, and whatever you say, people will seek out anyone who can solve their
problems, whether it is a church or a native doctor. People are selfish. The
choice is left to the pastor.
Ministry is all about preaching the word of God to make people’s lives
better. Programs won’t do that so also will building or the decoration of
your altar do it. Only preaching the word of God with faith in the heart with
demonstration of power will do it. As such the purpose of every activity in
church should be to get the word out.
Stay with God
O God, you are my God; early will I seek you; my soul thirst for you;
my flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. So I
have looked for you in the sanctuary, to see your power and your glory. Ps.
63:1-2
At evening, when the sun had set, they brought to Him all who were
sick and those who were demon-possessed. And the whole city was
gathered together at the door. Then He healed many who were sick with
various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He did not allow the
demons to speak, because they knew Him. Now in the morning, having
risen a long while before day light, He prayed. And Simon and those who
were with Him searched for Him. When they found Him, they said to Him,
“Everyone is looking for you.” Mark 1:32-37
People will always search for people who are seeking God. When I
studied the habits of small churched pastors, I noticed that they don’t have a
regular regimen if seeking God. Once they read a devotional and pray a
short pray that is enough for the day.
Dr. Oyedepo had scheduled a regular time each day to seek God
fervently. It has become a major part of him and as a result multitudes
throng his service to hear what he receives from God.
There is nothing really new about the message he preaches. It’s still the
liberation mandate he has been preaching but what makes the difference is
the fire that he contacts each time he hangs out with God. That fire makes
the word fresh and new. Each time he preaches, it comes with fire with a
different heavenly perspective and power to prove its newness.
Ministry that carries the power of God to meet the needs of people,
solve their problems and enrich their lives begins in the place of seeking
God; the prayer closet. That is the place where God robes you with His
anointing and power.
Effective ministry to people is determined by the time you spend
seeking God. Anything that affect your seeking God, will affect the growth
of the church. When you seek God, church growth will simply be an
addition and at an exponential in nature.
I was listening to Dr. Oyedepo one day and he said that in one year they
once had a growth of 7,000 and 12,000 people added to the church. I was
listening to hear the cause of that and he explained that they are as a result
of what he heard from God when he sought Him.
Jesus sought God and all men sought Him. Men will always seek men
and women of God who make it a duty to always seek God. In seeking God,
the manifest presence of God comes upon you. It is in the secret place that
you hear mysteries that results in church growth.
Ministry or church is God’s work and not the work of man. You will
never be able to solve people’s problems with your own power, wisdom or
might. Many people who have tried doing so have found out that it doesn’t
work that way. God must do His work Himself: by His power and wisdom.
The call to ministry, therefore, is a call to seek God. As you seek God,
you die in the process so that He may live and work through you. Seeking
God is the price you have to pay to operate by the power of God.
Growth and promotion in ministry begins in seeking God. If you seek
God, you will have His power and wisdom to solve people’s problems, then
people in multitude will always seek you out.
When I learnt this, I immediately implemented it in my life. Yes, I
experienced growth when I did. Without invitation, one Sunday morning all
of our chairs got filled with people but because I have no capacity for it, I
used my big mouth to scatter the church.
 If I had known what I know now then, I would have grown the church
into a thousand or more within one year. Today, I tell people that if God
tells me to start a church, I will have 7,000 members in one year. I now
know that the secret is in seeking God and not wasting time going around
town trying to visit and greet everyone.
Dr. Oyedepo is an unrepentant seeker of God. So also are all the pastors
who have grown their churches using the power and wisdom of God. What
it takes to grow a church supernaturally cannot be found in the surface; you
must get deeper in God to get it. When you labor in the deep, your catch
will be great.
The wisdom and power of God is within me and as such to draw it out I
need to seek God. Outside of God, I can only draw out the wisdom of this
world so I spend time with God praying in tongues. At times I pray all
through the night and by day time I know exactly what to do and how to go
about things.
By praying in tongue you are able to search out the wisdom and power
of God that is within you and then apply it to solve the problems that people
are going through.
Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of
understanding will draw it out. Prov. 20:5
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellence of the
power may be of God and not of us. 2 Cor. 4:7
And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of
human wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, that your
faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
However, we do not speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the
wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.
But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which
God ordained before the ages for our glory. 1 Cor. 2:4-7
When you have God’s wisdom and power, then you are not the one
doing the work. It is God now doing His work: solving people’s problem.
You are just the delivery boy. When you allow God to do His work through
you, you will definitely have people in multitude forcing their way into
your meetings in order for their lives to be bettered.
Come From Above
“He who comes from above (heaven) is (far) above all (others); he who
is from the earth belongs to the earth, and talks the language of the earth
(his words are from an earthly stand point). He who comes from heaven is
(far) above all others (far superior to all others in prominence and in
excellence). John 3:31 AMP
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above,
where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things
above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with
Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will
appear with Him in glory. Col. 3:1-4
I mentioned earlier how a lady possessed of the devil was brought to the
church and I was unable to deliver her. Rather than give excuses, I knew the
problem was not God but me. I knew that I will have to seek God for the
reason why I was unable to do it.
It’s similar to what happened to his disciples when they would not cast
out demon. He told them it’s because they lack faith. That fasting and
praying (seeking God) will get the job done.
What Jesus was trying to make them understand is that where you are
coming from really matters when it comes to solving people’s problems.
Jesus was coming from above the realm where the problem exist therefore
He was able to solve it. Meanwhile the people are just coming from under
the problem.
The presence of God is above any mountain, demon, problem and
challenge you can ever experience. He who is coming from the presence of
God is above of all and as a result able to solve every problem.
When you are coming from God, you will see everything through God’s
eyes and you will know that there is nothing called impossible with God.
Whatever men see as impossible, you will see as very possible.
One challenge pastors with small churches and ministry have is the fact
that they associate too much with ordinary people and as a result they are
robbed of their divinity. Everything becomes big and impossible for them.
If solving people’s problems looks impossible to you, then it’s high time
you abandon everything and seek God. Don’t leave until you begin to see
things the way God sees them. No matter how long it takes, stay there.
When you are coming from a job and being affected by the economy of
your city and nation, there is no how you can help the people you are
ministering to. Why? Because you can never solve a problem for anyone
when you are also under it or are experiencing it.
 I could not help the lady because I was also under the influence of the
devil. I was operating under his system and not the system of God. I was
operating by fear rather than by faith in God. I lacked faith. Deep inside I
was even afraid of the devil I wanted to cast out. How could I cast out
someone who is above me in rank and authority? My lack of revelation
knowledge in that aspect kept me under.
It’s impossible for an employee to sack his boss. The devil is your boss
when you operate in the flesh and fear.
This is the reason why organizations bring in consultants to solve their
problems. Those consultants are not affected by the problems plaguing that
organization. So since they are above the problem, they are able to solve it.
But people working within that organization are affected by it so there is no
how they can solve it.
As a minister, you are a consultant of God deployed to the earth to solve
the problems here. But if you allow yourself to get involved in the activities
of the earth so much so that you come under its influence, you will lose
your ability to solve problems and that’s when you basically become useless
when you become carnal, lose your spirituality, you will not be able to solve
problems.
How do you know whether you are above the problems of the earth or
not? Check what you are constantly thinking and saying. If you find
yourself always talking about the problems around you, then you are
affected and influenced by it, therefore you have been robbed of the ability
to solve it. But if you constantly speak the word of God despite what is
obtainable around you, then you are above the problem.
For instance, if all your church members are poor and don’t give and
you keep on justifying it and talking about the fact that the economy is
down and people are poor, it means you are equally affected by it. As a
result all the people in your church will continue to experience poverty. The
solution will be to take them above their problem, so that they can give.
But if rather than talk what people are going through in your city, you
are talking about the economy of heaven; people in your church will end up
rich. People will never experience life beyond what their pastor is currently
experiencing. They will never reach where their pastor has not gone to (that
is, no pastor can take his people to the place where he has never been to and
experienced).
 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it
be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled
underfoot by men.” Matt. 5:13
“No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless
he first binds the strong men. And then he will plunder his house.” Mark
3:27
And he said to them, ‘You are from beneath; I am from above. You are
of this world; I am not of this world.’ John 8:23
Jesus answered, “You could have no power at all against me unless it
had been given you from above. Therefore, the one who delivered me to
you has the greater sin.” John 19:11
You can never solve a problem that was created at the level where you
are right now. You must go above it to have the authority to solve it. From
that position of power and authority, you can break the power of the devil
and problems over the people and set them free.
In order to do greater and amazing things in ministry, you must go
higher in the spirit realm, the heavenly place where you are seated in Christ
Jesus at the right hand of God. There you are above all impossibilities,
problems and challenges from the pit of hell.
You can only help people when you are operating from above the world
system. When you come from above, like God, you will be above poverty,
unemployment, sickness and diseases marital issues and all kinds of
problem from that position, the word of God in your mouth will prevail
over every circumstance anyone is going through. Miracle therefore
becomes a norm.
When you come from God to your congregation you are:-
- Armed with His blood to overcome every challenge
- Equipped with His word to prevail over every circumstance people
are facing
- Shielded with faith to overcome the world and its problems
- Covered with His name to cast out devils and heals all kinds of
sickness and disease
- Sealed with His Spirit to create heaven on earth
- Ordained with His power to humble the devil and set free, people
under his captivity.
- Sent with His grace to do greater works.
 When you make it a priority to stay with God, His potential becomes
your potential. You become a problem solver for people; consequently you
will experience supernatural growth in ministry.

Cater For Your People

“And I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who will feed
you with knowledge and understanding then it shall come to pass, when you
are multiplied and increased in the land in those days…….” Jeremiah 3:15-
16
And the Lord said, “Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom
his master will make ruler over his household, to give their portion of food
in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing
when he comes. Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that
he has.” Luke 12:42-44
To cater for means to supply what is required or desired. It’s all about
taking care of people. God brings people to you so you can care for them.
You are a care-giver. Your role is to bandage and cleanse the wound of the
people and you do that by feeding them with wisdom and knowledge.
At times all it takes to solve people’s problem is just to preach and
allow the gift of the Spirit to be at work. The Holy Spirit knows what the
need of each person is and when you allow Him, He will give you the right
words, word of knowledge or wisdom, that will explain to people
specifically how they should go about solving their problems.
There are times when you are under Dr. Oyedepo ministration that you
feel as if he really understands what you are going through because as he
speaks you are getting the wisdom on how to go about solving the problem.
When you feed people with the right word, no matter how their situation
and status before they come to you, the word of God will cleanse and
transform them.
For instance when someone comes who is poor, the word he needs is the
word of prosperity and as you preach it in the demonstration of Spirit and
power, the person’s faith is built up and he begins to prosper. That is what
the word of God will do when it is preached with power.
It takes an encounter with the word for you to feed people with the
word. And when you feed them with the right word, be sure of one thing;
they will become fat and rich.
 There is a world of difference between preaching and feeding people. I
can preach anything I want at any time but to feed people I have to know
exactly what their status is and what they need, and then I can cook up a
meal that will satisfy them.
You don’t cook carbohydrate and give to someone who lacks protein in
the body. You are going to make sure that what they need is exactly what
you are cooking.
The proof that you love Jesus is to feed His sheep, not preach at them
which is what we do. People should be able to pick your message or book
and search out a solution to their problem from it. That is what it means to
give people their portion of food in due season.
You have to be solution minded, and let that show in everything that
you do. Being a supernatural minister like Dr. Oyedepo comes with great
responsibility. And of course it comes with great results when you do it
right.
God may have given you a picture of great people coming to your
church but when you start, the people who will come are the down trodden,
rejected, poor and problematic. Will you feed them with the word or
complain to God about them? When you are faithful feeding them, then
God will add more people to you. God is the one who brings the increase
when you faithfully care for the people.
If sickly people are the ones God brings then start a series on healing
that will last three to six months. If it is the poor, prepare series of messages
on prosperity. And if it is the unemployed, do same. By all means feed the
people you have. The word in your mouth is the wisdom and power of God.
Dr. Oyedepo does this by organizing specialize services. In each
service, different problems and needs are handled. There is a service for
health problems, marital problems, unemployment, business, ministry and
so on.
He also analyzed his message into twelve (12) things that serves as the
pillars of his ministry. The pillars are simply solutions to problems and each
month, there is a focus on each.
People are constantly being fed solutions to their present and future
problems and empowered and impacted to use the power of God to solve
their own problems.
No matter how dirty and sickly the people that come are always
remember that the word will cleanse them, build them up and give them
faith for whatever you have been preaching. Feeding them with the right
word is your job.
He said to him, “Feed my lambs….” “Tend my sheep……” “Feed my
sheep…..” John 21:15-17
Make them holy. Consecrated with the truth; your word is consecrating
truth. John 17:17 The message
So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace,
which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those
who are sanctified. Acts 290:32
That he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the
word. Eph. 5:26
That is your work: to feed them with the word of God so that they can
grow fat and robust, able to know and to the will of God. Your
responsibility is to feed them with the word so they can conform to the will
of God and experience it.
There is no situation that the word of God cannot change. When you
feed them the wisdom and knowledge of God, they develop faith to become
overcomers in life and that is the key that will bring growth in your
ministry.
 Chapter Ten
Triggering the Supernatural Flow of
Multitudes
◆◆◆
Covenant Principle
The Lord your God has multiplied you, and here you are today as
the stars of heaven in multitude. May the Lord God of your fathers
make you a thousand times more numerous than you are, and bless you
as He has promised you. Deut. 1:10-11
Dr. David Oyedepo’s Saying
“Supernatural church growth is growth beyond what any person
could think of. Growth that can only be defined as the hand of God.”

◆◆◆

A church that experiences supernatural growth is one where people flow

into it like a river flowing into an ocean. They don’t come tinkling in, but
press into the church forcefully. This is the kind of church that Dr. Oyedepo
shepherd. Multitudes not only flow into the church, they fill it up and
overflow its building.
You too can have a church that always fills and overflow your building
no matter its capacity. We are living in a time when either people are
flowing into your church or they are not.
It doesn’t take time for a church to grow as many people thinks. If that’s
the way churches grow, then some churches will take the lifetime of the
pastor before they reach a hundred members.
 God wants your church to experience supernatural overflow of
multitudes of people. This means that when it happens no one will be able
to understand and explain how.
When I started pastoring a church, all I saw was a church where two or
three were gathered. That wasn’t my desire. I always look to the day when
people will rush over themselves to attend church as if they were blown by
an invisible wind towards our church. The best Sunday for us was when we
got to seven.
Then I began to learn these strategies and implement them and then one
day it happened. The flow happened; it was really exciting to see the
supernatural happen on its own without much effort on my part. It was
really gratifying.
That Sunday without any advert, invitation or evangelism, people just
came to church as if they were woken up by the spirit of God and told to
come to our church. And that was exactly what happened.
When people talked about evangelism as a way to make the church
grow, I asked myself what kind of evangelism is Dr. Oyedepo doing that is
bringing about the kind of growth he has.
The best place to be in is in the supernatural if you desire to experience
church growth that no one can really explain. If people can explain how it is
happening then it is not supernatural. When you have supernatural results
people will be astounded.
If church growth is based on time then people who have been in
ministry for 40years should have had a much larger ministry than Dr.
Oyedepo who is just celebrating 35years in ministry. A church only grows
base on the strategies you employ and not how long you have been in
ministry.
In 35 years in ministry, Dr. Oyedepo ministers to hundreds of thousands
if not millions each week. In the same breath, you will find pastors who
have been in ministry for that length of time with only 50 or less members.
I am amazed at how contented someone will be with a small church.
There is no glory for any pastor in pastoring a small church. You should
never excuse lack of growth in your church. The reason may be because
you do not have a strategy for growth. Many of us don’t, but Dr. Oyedepo
had long before he started the church.
The person with the strategy will trump the person who doesn’t have
one. And supernatural flow of multitude into your church is a function of
strategies. It doesn’t happen by accident. You have to work the strategy.
Even though I experience the flow of multitude in one service, I never
knew it was as a result of executing a strategy. I thought it just happened by
chance. I was really mistaken.
If I had known what I know now, I would have built a system around
the strategy so that the supernatural flow will be sustained. The flow
stopped next week. I thought it will just continue to happen by itself. It
never happened again and I couldn’t remember the exact thing I did till
years later when I was reviewing the experience.
It was a good thing that I didn’t remember it then. If the church had
grown it would have been very hard for me to obey God and leave. I was
being prepared not to plant a church but to teach people the exact strategy
Dr. Oyedepo uses.
If I had not experienced the flow, I won’t have been in a good position
to write and teach these strategies. I am not teaching from Dr. Oyedepo’s
experience but from my personal experience of failure and success. The
strategy has become more mine than Dr. Oyedepo.
You can build your church by your own personal effort. But it will
never grow beyond your personal capacity. The goal then is to employ God
so that He will grow it based on His capacity. And when God grows it, it
will definitely grow.
When God builds and grows your church men will river and ocean into
it. Even you will be amazed at the multitude that will come and how they
will struggle to get into the auditorium. Nothing has that power to draw
men like God.
When God is involved, He will attract people from everywhere in the
world. They will come willingly, compelled by the Spirit of God. They may
not be able to explain why they are coming to your church; they just know
that they have to be there. There is an irresistible attraction from your
church and that attractive force is the love of God.
Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the
Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be
exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall
come and say, come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the
house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in
His paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord
from Jerusalem. Isaiah 2:2-3
 The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of
your rising. Lift up your eyes all around, and see: They all gather together,
they come from afar, and your daughters shall be nursed at your side. A
little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation. I, the
Lord will hasten it in its time.” Is. 60:3-4, 22
Then out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of those who
make merry; I will multiply them, and they shall not diminish; I will also
glorify them, and they shall not be small. Their nobles shall be from among
them, and their governor shall come from their midst; then I will cause him
to draw near, and he shall approach Me; for who is this who pledged his
heart to approach Me?’ Says the Lord. Jer. 30:19, 21
I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither
he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the
increase. 1 Cor. 3:6-7
Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee and Samaria had peace
and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of
the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied. Acts 9:31
Supernatural flow of multitude only happens when you are in
partnership with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is in charge of the
supernatural here on the earth and as such you must be in agreement with
Him to enjoy supernatural flow of multitude.
Once you implement the strategies for the supernatural flow, the Holy
Spirit will then take over and will cause the people to keep on streaming
unendingly into your ministry.
See the Invisible
Visions are God’s way to seeing into the supernatural. In the natural,
having supernatural flow of multitudes is a very impossible task. But once
you are able to see into the supernatural, you are going to do what many
termed impossible.
Everything Jesus did was based on what He saw in the invisible. That is
why everyone who heard about it was amazed. When an ordinary person
goes through the books of Matthew to Acts of the Apostles, he won’t
believe that a man could do that. But men who have access to the spirit
realm can do signs and wonders.
There is no way you can partner with the Holy Spirit if you are unable
to see into the supernatural. The Holy Spirit cannot help you grow your
church supernaturally if you are spiritually blind.
 Being born again gives you the ability to perceive or peer into the
supernatural but renewing your mind grants you entrance into the
supernatural to see all that God is doing so that you can replicate it here on
the earth ( John 3:3, 5).
Your ability to see what God is doing in the supernatural realm will help
you to receive and experience supernatural church growth.
One vision from God can result in a thousand people joining your
church in a day, month or year depending on your spiritual and system
capacity to handle the growth. One vision from God can provide
instructions or strategies on how to grow your church supernaturally. By
means of seeing into the invisible, God can show you people who need your
ministry and how you can reach them. He can show you the exact number
of people that will come to your church.
A vision of growth for your church is exactly what God Himself wants
you to have in your church. Once you can see it, know that it is already
established in heaven but now it is your responsibility to establish it on
earth.
God instructed Abraham in Gen. 13:14-16, “Lift your eyes now and
look from the place where you are-northward, southward, eastward and
westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants
forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if
a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could
be numbered.” I once heard Dr. Oyedepo likened the North to Genesis,
south to Malachi, East to Matthew and west to Revelation.
Meaning that God expects you to see beyond the written word, behind
the veil to the Holy of Holies where God dwells. That’s where God
conducts all of His activities.
I didn’t know this. I focused my sight on what my physical eyes were
seeing and it was seeing a church that was not growing. My inability to see
into the invisible became the undoing of the church. I was limited by my
physical sight I couldn’t see what plan God had for me and the church.
As a result I came under the devil and the conditions in that place where
the church was planted. So like everyone I began to blame everyone and the
location of the church except my blindness. I was blinded to my
supernatural abilities. The devil robbed the church silly as a result of my
blindness.
 “Hear, you deaf; and look, you blind, that you may see. Who is blind
but My servant, or deaf as My messenger whom I send? Who is blind as he
who is perfect, and blind as the Lord’s servant? Seeing many things, but
you do not observe; opening the ears, but he does not hear.” But this people
robbed and plundered; all of them are snared in holes, and they are hidden
in prison houses; they are for prey, and no one delivers; for plunder and no
one says, “Restore!” Isaiah 42:19-20, 22
Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you,
the son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for
whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves
the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show
Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.” John 5:19-20
But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered
into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love
Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit
searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 1 Cor. 2:9-10
Jesus only worked His works based on what He saw the Father do in the
spirit. He acted the script God had already written which He saw.
Everything the Father showed Him was something that had already been
done in the spirit realm.
Therefore, to experience supernatural inflow of multitudes into your
church, you must see the multitudes flowing in the supernatural first.
Whatever you see in the supernatural is exactly what you will do in the
natural. So if you don’t see growth in the supernatural, you won’t see it
happen in the natural.
Seeing into the spirit should be the foundational principle upon which
everything you do in growing your church is base. If you can see, you won’t
do trial and error to get the right strategies.
Don’t be moved by people or need; rather be moved by what God
shows you. You will really have the opportunities to try different things, but
if you have made the quality decision to only do what you see, you won’t
give in to other options.
Seek God’s Strategies
Therefore David inquired of the Lord, and He said, “You shall not go
up; circle around behind them and come upon them in front of the mulberry
trees. And it shall be, when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of
the mulberry trees, then you shall advance quickly. For then the Lord will
go out before you to strike the camp of the Philistines.” And David did so,
as the Lord commanded him; and he drove back the Philistines from Geba
as far as Gezer. 2 Sam. 5:23-25
If the ax is dull, and one does not sharpen the edge, then he must use
more strength; but wisdom brings success. Eccl. 10:10
For through we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling
down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts
itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to
the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when
your obedience is fulfilled. 2 Cor. 10:3-6
You need God to show you the exact strategies that will cause the
supernatural inflow of souls into your ministry. No textbook strategy can
help you here. You have to get yours straight from the throne of grace.
That Dr. Oyedepo used a particular strategy and it worked for him
doesn’t mean it is universal. It is copyrighted to him and cannot be used by
any other person. The strategy God reveals to you is for you and your
children, meaning no one can copy it.
Why would God protect His strategy? Because each ministry has its
own strategy with God and each person must seek God for their own
supernatural growth strategy. Instead of running from one place to the other
trying to pick and copy strategies, why not just lock yourself up in a room
until you get yours.
You must understand God doesn’t have a grandchild. He deals with us
as His sons. He expects each one of us to come boldly to Him and get the
strategy on how you can cause your church to grow.
Many pastors have made the mistake of trying to copy the strategies
God revealed to Dr. Oyedepo. The end result has been very tragic for many
of them. Apart from not having their church grow, many have been
frustrated out of ministry.
That you grow a church when you served under someone doesn’t mean
the same strategy will work for you when you start yours. I always advise
pastors to take a year to three years break after they leave a church before
they start theirs. The reason is to clear your heart, in order to seek God.
When you seek God for the strategy, you are basically calling on the
Holy Spirit to get involved in the growth. As you leave the presence of God
and executes the strategy He has shown you, the Lord will release the wind
from His presence which will blow the multitude to your church. People
will always rush to where God is being manifested.
Jesus likened the multitudes to a harvest. This means you need a sickle
to bring in the harvest. You don’t use the same sickle to harvest different
kind of crops. You need to engage the right sickle to bring in the harvest.
And anything God shows you to use as a sickle will become mighty.
When God delivered the mantle to Dr. Oyedepo as a sickle, ordinary
handkerchiefs became a mighty weapon in the hand of God to bring about
supernatural inflow of multitude. Many ministers have tried to copy this but
with minimal and incomparable results. Why? It was not revealed to them.
Many people have end up turning it into an idol and a weapon to control
and oppress people. But in Dr. Oyedepo’s hand, it is a mighty sickle of God
for the harvest of multitudes.
Stay on the word and seek God. He will show you the exact sickle He
wants you to use to bring in the multitude into your church. If you are too
busy to seek God, then you will be too busy to receive anything from Him.
The strategy or sickle God will reveal to you will always seem foolish
to human wisdom but in it lies the power of God. Check through scriptures,
you will see that God never delivers the same strategy to people to use.
Samson used the jawbone of a donkey as a tool, David used a sling and
a stone, Jesus used mud, Peter used his shadow and Paul used
handkerchief. Go to God and find yours.
It may seem foolish but the result it will bring will surpass anything
human wisdom will bring you. God specifically chooses the things that
sound foolish to man so He can put to shame and baffle the wisdom of man.
The strategy and sickle God will show you are very strategic, potent and
superior to any human wisdom.
But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the
wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the
things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things
which are despised God has chosen, and things which are not, to bring to
nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. 1 Cor.
1:27-29
If your own strategy and any sickle can bring in the supernatural
harvest, surely you won’t need God to get involved. But it can’t. Only what
God reveals to you can bring about supernatural results when put to work.
 There were times when I used the anointing oil and someone who came
to church for the first time thought we were a branch of Dr. Oyedepo’s
church. I didn’t know anything then about strategy or sickle. I was just
copying a strategy that worked for him. If I had continued that way, the
church would have grown but it would have lost its unique identity.
Because everyone will see it only as a branch of Dr. Oyedepo’s church.
I am not saying you should cut off from the person God sent you to
serve. But seek God for yourself to download the unique strategy for your
ministry. The potency and sharpness of your strategy and sickle depends to
a great deal on the amount of time you spend seeking God.
In Acts 2, the disciples obeyed the instruction of the Lord to remain in
one place till they are endued with power. As they stayed seeking God, the
wind from the presence of God was released and as it moved, it drew
multitude to where they were. The devil would have kept the multitude
from attending their first meeting, but the potency of God’s strategy and the
execution of it punished every act of disobedience the devil would have
ever tried. As a result, three thousand people joined the church on the first
day. That is supernatural inflow of multitudes.
Give Angels Assignment
Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the
harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for
they are already white for harvest!” John 4:35
Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down; for the
winepress is full, the vats overflow- for their wickedness is great.”
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is
near in the valley of decision. Joel 3:13-14
“But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because
the harvest has come.” Mark 4:29
Any activity that doesn’t help you to harvest multitudes supernaturally
is actually a waste of effort. Anything you spend money on that is not a
sickle to help you in the harvest is equally a waste.
The main purpose of a church is to grow. If it is not growing it is dead.
And since it is linked to Christ, it must grow supernaturally. You must
therefore focus on the activities will that bring about the supernatural
growth of your church.
A foolish farmer is one who rather than use his sickle to harvest his
crops, decide to join a band around his farm to play music during the time
of harvest, while other farmers are harvesting their crops.
This is the challenge of young pastors. Rather than focus on the specific
activities that will bring about growth, they engage in everything that is
happening in town. As a result they are busy, but the church is not growing.
They are full of activities but not going anywhere. They are moving but not
making progress.
How do you know when the harvest is ripe? When wickedness increase.
Most pastors complain and blame everyone for the increase in evil but what
they don’t know is that corruption and wickedness is creation crying out for
salvation. When corruption and wickedness increases, send in your sickle.
Yours is the responsibility to send in the sickle while the role of angles
is to reap the harvest for you. They are the reapers. And they will only reap
the harvest for you when you send in the exact sickle that God revealed to
you.
We understand from the book of revelation that each church has angels
attached to it and those angels will only act on what God gave you. Angels
are ministers to bring about the will of God on earth and not yours. But you
are to be the channel through which they do God’s will.
They won’t act when you use the sickle God gave another ministry. The
angels attached to the church you copied the sickle from will use the sickle
you send in to harvest for the church they are attached to. Meanwhile your
angels are waiting for you to tell them what to do to bring in the harvest for
you.
It is easier to copy another man’s sickle but it is costlier in the long run.
While on the other hand, it is costlier to get your own sickle fashioned
under the breath of God and rewarding in the long run.
Stop putting someone’s ministry’s angel to work while yours is waiting
on your orders.
Bless the Lord, you His angels, who excel in strength, who do His word,
heeding the voice of His word. Bless the Lord, all you His hosts, you
ministers of His who do His pleasure. Ps. 103:20-21
“The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the
age, and the reapers are the angels. Matt. 13:39
Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat one like
the Son of man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a
sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud
voice to Him who sat on the cloud, “Thrust in your sickle and reap, for the
time has come for you to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” So He
who sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth, and the earth was
reaped. Rev. 14:14-16
For the angels to reap the harvest, you must be in time following the
commands of God. You are on your own if it is your decision. But when
you heed and act on God’s voice, your church will be lifted high above so
that everyone will see it and they will flow into it (see Deut. 28:1, 11)
The angels know when the instruction you are following is not from
God. They can speak to people in dreams, visions and different ways about
your church and direct them there if you are in time following the command
of God to thrust in the sickle He revealed to you.
Supernatural inflow of multitudes is possible if you will make seeking
God and obeying His instructions the cornerstone of your ministry. This is
one of the strategies that have resulted in the monumental growth of Dr.
Oyedepo’s ministry and it will work for you if you embrace it.
 Chapter Eleven
Starting Branches
◆◆◆
Covenant Principle
“It is like a mustard seed which, when it is sown on the ground, is
smaller than all the seeds on earth; but when it is sown, it grows up and
becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that
all the birds of the air may nest under its shade.” Mark 4: 31-32
Dr. David Oyedepo’s Saying
“The strength of any ministry is largely dependent on the efficiency
of its organizational structure. It takes more than anointing to succeed
in ministry. No ministry succeeds without a good administration.
Nothing takes the place of planning for productivity and profitability in
ministry. A good administration is the number one wisdom seed for
productivity in ministry. Once this seed is sown, it cannot but bear
fruits.”

◆◆◆

Don’t ever make the mistake of starting a branch when the main church
has not grown. Having branches is a natural product of a growing church. It
is signing the warrant to kill and bury your church and ministry when you
begin other branches when the main one has not grown.
God did not create the earth and the planets as a branch of heaven until
He had completed and dominated heaven. If God had left heaven and gone
around creating other planets, the devil would have taken over heaven.
 When the main church is not growing, it is hard for the branches started
by that church to grow. It is what the pastor is doing that is making the
church not to grow.
So since he doesn’t know what to do to make the church to grow, there
is no way he will know exactly what to do to make the branches grow.
When you check all the branch churches under Dr. Oyedepo’s ministry,
you will notice that they are all characterized by the same level of growth.
He knows what to do to make the churches to grow because he learnt it
from growing the main church he pastors.
When a pastor does exactly what makes a church to grow, he will
manifest predictable results.
One should never be too impatient as not to wait to grow the main
church before starting branch churches. I have seen pastors who wasted
their efforts doing that without any result to show for it.
One particular pastor had to close up all the branches he started when
they were not growing, not knowing that it is the lack of growth of the main
church that flowed to the branches that were stated by him.
He must have believed that one of those branches will grow when he
started them. Dr. Oyedepo doesn’t do his things this way and he has results
to show for his ways of doing things.
The key to success in starting branches that will grow is to know exactly
what pastors with growing branches like Dr. Oyedepo are doing. Study and
copy them. Do what they do, day after day, until it becomes second nature.
When you do what they do then you will have branches that will grow.
If the main church is not growing, don’t start a branch. Close it and find
out what you need to do to have a growing church, then after you have
learned it, start the church and grow it first.
When you learn what Dr. Oyedepo is doing to get his results and do
them over and over again, you will get the kind of results he is getting.
If you don’t know what it takes to grow a church, there is no way you
are going to teach and equip another pastor under you to grow a church.
What I found out from Dr. Oyedepo is that there is no pastor under him
who will have greater results than him. So if you sent a pastor to start a
branch when the main church is not growing and he grows the branch, then
hand over the whole church to that pastor or go and learn from him.
This clearly shows that he knows something that you don’t know. It’s
not a sign of not being called to be a pastor when your church is not
growing. It’s simply a sign of ignorance; you don’t know what to do to
grow a church.
God’s will for every church is that when it grows in Jerusalem, it should
start a branch in Judea, after that Samaria and then to the ends of the earth
(Acts 2: 8).
If your church is stagnated in Jerusalem, going to Judea to start a church
will not help you and neither will it change your results. You will still
continue to use trial and error. And we all know that churches don’t grow
by accident; they grow by design.
A branch can only grow when the main church (the vine) it is connected
to is growing. It is only a main church that is alive and growing that will
produce branches that will be alive and growing. Growth is a major
characteristic of a living church. Every branch that such a church starts
must grow.
A church that is not growing cannot produce a branch that will grow.
Instead, the branch will bring frustration to the pastor.
Starting a branch is not dependent on the number of years the church is
in existence but the growth of the church. Until your church grows, it would
never bear fruit. Branches are one of the fruits that a growing church
produces.
Those who come He shall cause to take root in Jacob; Israel shall
blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit. Isaiah 27: 6
“And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every
tree which does not bear fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Matt 3:
10
He also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his
vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to
the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit
on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; thy does it use up the ground?’
but he answered and said to him, ‘sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig
around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you
can cut it down.” Luke 13: 6-9
I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall grow like the lily, and lengthen
his roots like Lebanon. His branches shall be like an olive tree, and his
fragrance like Lebanon. Those who dwell under his shadow shall return;
they shall be revived like grain, and grow like a vine. Their scent shall be
like the wine of Lebanon. Hos 14: 5-7
 “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every
branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Abide in Me,
and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the
vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the Vine, you are the
branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without
Me you can do nothing.” John 15: 2, 4, 5
The main church is the vine and only branches that are linked to a
growing vine will grow. It is really that simple.
What Brings Growth
If you don’t know what it takes to grow the main church, how can you
demand growth from a branch church? If you do, then you must be very
wicked I will say.
Dr. Oyedepo demand growth from pastors who work with him. He is
able to do that simply because he knows exactly what needs to be done to
bring growth. He not only knows it but has proven it and it is working for
him.
A pastor that served Dr. Oyedepo once told me that when he was being
sent to start a church, he was told that he should just go to his village if the
church doesn’t grow. You can only tell someone that when you have proven
what works.
The key thing really is to know what you need to do to grow the church.
Things become much easier when you have this knowledge. But without
the knowledge you will end up wearing yourself out and everyone around
you.
Don’t send anyone to go and start a branch church based on trial and
error. Life is too precious to leave to chance.
When I learned this from studying Dr. Oyedepo, I decided on exactly
what I need to do to ensure that the church God will assign me to pastor
grows. The first time, I was ignorant and naive. I started the church without
sitting down to find out what makes a church grow.
But as I prepared, I searched the Bible and books to glean what exactly
has made other churches grow. I found out that was exactly what Dr.
Oyedepo did before he started the church. He was so confident of not
failing because he took delivery of what needs to be done.
If you are too impatient to start the church, you will never take full
delivery of what you need to know to produce predictable growth. When I
was reading those books many people thought something was wrong with
me. Yes, they were right.
Ignorance was wrong with me and I was too hungry for knowledge on
what will make a church grow. I know that if I can grow that one church, it
will be very easy for me to have branches that will grow.
I knew that when I study those who have results, I won’t be ashamed in
ministry. Rather, I will be approved to have similar results like them.
A day came when I began to ask the question, what is it Dr. Oyedepo
does every day that makes the church to grow? Others may attribute the
growth to grace; I knew that even grace doesn’t come by accident. It comes
by effort.
There must be something he does that pastors whose churches and
branches are not growing don’t do. I became fully committed to finding out
what those things were. I searched all his books and listened to his
messages. At first I missed them but eventually I stumbled on them through
meditation.
I didn’t get them all at once. They came little by little, but come they
came and I gathered them. I found them so my expectation of growth in the
church would never have been cut off had God allowed me to start the
church again. It was a eureka moment for me when I found them.
When you know exactly what to do to get results, keep doing them over
and over again. Doing them once will not bring the results, in consistency
lies the power of church growth.
The labor of fools wearies them, for they do not even know how to go
to the city! Eccl 10: 15
Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God
approved (tested by trial); a workman who has no cause to be ashamed,
correctly analyzing and accurately dividing [rightly handling and skillfully
teaching] the word of truth. 2 Tim 2: 15 AMP
You men of Israel, listen to what I have to say. Jesus of Nazareth, a man
accredited and pointed out and shown forth and commended and attested to
you by God by the mighty works and [the power of performing] wonders
and signs which God worked through Him [right] in your midst, as you
yourselves know. Acts 2: 22 AMP
Then he said, “Take the arrows”; so he took them. And he said to the
king of Israel, “strike the ground”; so he struck three times, and stopped.
And the man of God was angry with him, and said, “You should have struck
five or six times; then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it!
But now you will strike Syria only three times.” 2 Kings 13: 18-19
In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening do not withhold your
hand; for you do not know which will prosper either this or that, or whether
both alike will be good. Eccl 11: 6
Hard work is not what brings growth. You can be diligent doing the
things that doesn’t bring growth and even be extremely focused on them.
You have to know what brings growth in a church and then commit to doing
them on and on.
Dr. Oyedepo has proofs of it. So if you will learn from this book and do
what he does continually you will have the same kind of result.
Systemize What You Do
When you try to build branches without first building and growing the
main church on a solid foundation, the church will eventually cave in.
A church with branches that works is simply one that has been
systemized. A system is simply a repeatable process that produces the kind
of results desired. In this case, the result desired is church growth.
With a system in place, you don’t have to be there for the church to
grow. Anyone can be there and the church will keep growing as long as the
person keeps to the system.
I once heard Dr. Oyedepo say that even if they place a dog as a pastor in
any one of their branches, it will still grow. At first I said this man is too
proud and doesn’t know God. But the truth is he knows something I don’t.
Most pastors serving him don’t even know that the secret of the growth
and result they are seeing is as a result of the system he has put in place. He
simply systemized what he did that brought growth to the main church.
Don’t work in the church; rather work on the church so that you can
systemize what works. Then train people about the system and commit
them to sticking to it. The same results you get in the main church will
repeat itself in the branch church and the growth can be predicted.
A system will give you freedom. If your church can grow in one
location, when you systemize what you did to have the growth, it will grow
in many other locations.
What did Dr. Oyedepo did? He started with a small church in Kaduna,
and then grew it. After that, he systemized what brought him the results and
then trained people in it, after which he released them to go and plant
churches.
 Whenever he discovers something that works and brought him a bigger
result, he systemizes it and then trains his pastors on what to do. As a result
all the branches have unending and phenomenal growth.
When you systemize your church, you are building a model church that
can grow without you being there. That way you can have as many
branches as you want and they will all be efficiently run and effectively be
producing the same results as the main church.
And if the church is not growing, all you have to do is check adherence
to the system. The system will always produce anywhere. A system
empowers.
After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them
two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was
about to go. Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the
demons are subject to us in Your name.” Luke 10: 1, 17
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you;
and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and
Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1: 8
“You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then,
your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one
another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I
have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than
his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know
these things, blessed are you if you do them.” John 13: 13-17
You must train people to man the system and replicate your results
everywhere you sent them to start a branch. A system will only fail to
reproduce the exact kind of results you want only when you don’t train
people to man it.
Dr. Oyedepo said, “The strength of a system is determined by the
people who make it up. Men are assets to success. Know those God has
provided you with and deploy them to where they are best suited. A good
leader should have the ability of making men produce results. The only way
for maximum yield is to recognize the talents of those utilize them.”
A system gives you the power to work through others to get the exact
kind of results you want to have.
A system spells out to people what you expect them to do. If they do it,
they will always produce the kind of results you so desire.
 The true success of a pastor is when he reproduces himself and the true
measure of a church’ success is when it can reproduce itself and still keep
getting the same kind of result.
The problem is that most small churches don’t even know how to create
a system. I also didn’t but I forced myself to learn how to create one. I was
really ready to have branches if God had allowed me to start the church
again.
Don’t be in a hurry to start a branch church. If you believe you will
never make haste. Test every strategy you know and the one that works turn
it into a system and train people to put it to work and you will have
branches that are replicas of the main church.
 Chapter Twelve
Managing Building Projects
◆◆◆
Kingdom Principle
“Through wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is
established; by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and
pleasant riches. Prov 24: 3-4
Dr. Oyedepo’s Saying
“Wisdom is the ultimate in creation or building. It is a creative
force that produces something out of nothing… Wisdom founded the
earth and understanding establishes it. Wisdom and understanding
establish it. Wisdom and understanding go hand in hand. Wisdom
creates, while understanding concretizes what has been created.”

◆◆◆

It pains me whenever I see a church project that has not been completed
simply because the church lacks funds. It’s really an eyesore and a disgrace
to the kingdom of God and a misrepresentation of who God is.
God doesn’t abandon projects. He all the resources He needs to start and
complete every project that He initiated. So when projects are not
completed as a result of funds, it may be that either God did not initiate the
project or the pastor doesn’t understand how God wants projects to be
executed.
Dr. Oyedepo has become a master at starting and completing projects.
Whatever they start in their ministry, they finish in record time. I have seen
a project that is abandoned and uncompleted.
 Though I have not really done a major project, but the ones I have done,
I applied the lessons I learned from him. After moving our church from the
living room to a piece of land, we needed to build a roof over the ground to
serve as the auditorium of the church. We sent for someone to give us the
quotation we needed and prayed about it, releasing the project to God. In
less than 7 days, all that was needed to execute the project was made
available and we did the roof and the floor in record time.
If you have handled a small building project well, you will know how to
go about handling a bigger project.
An uncompleted project simply demonstrate that the person in charge of
the project really lack wisdom. Building projects are executed by wisdom
and not money.
Of course, money is needed but it is wisdom that controls the money. So
if you can have and exercise wisdom, you will never lack money to start
and complete the project.
It is really foolishness for a church to start a building project that will
house more than a hundred members when they only have about twenty
regular members on Sundays.
What I have learned from Dr. Oyedepo is that before any church should
think of starting a building project, they should have filled their present
building and had multiple services. He does it this way so that when they
move into the new building, it will be filled up and they will be looking at
starting multiple services.
When you move from a small building where you have few members to
a larger one, the empty space will become an albatross to you. It will
discourage and frustrate you.
Dr. Oyedepo did not just move the church from Raji Oba to Canaan
Land. He first made sure that they have grown to above fifty thousand
members in Raji Oba and are having multiple services. So when they
moved to Faith Tabernacle, they filled it up and then began multiple
services.
Now he is starting a new building project that will seat a hundred
thousand people because he knows that he has the multitude that will fill up
the new auditorium once they moved in.
The wisdom here is never to start a new building project until you have
filled and are experiencing overflow in the building you are currently using.
 Having your own building is not what brings glory to ministry. It is the
multitude of people that you have. What is the essence of having a building
with very few people in it?
And to many pastors, it is an achievement to have their own building.
They have a sense of we have arrived. As a consequence the ministry
remains stagnated in that place.
Instead of using the funds you have to buy land and build, why not
invest it into growing your church? Most of those church buildings are built
with the personal finance of the pastor and not those God has supplied to
the ministry through its growth and impact.
I have seen pastors who have their buildings, who have never printed
tracts or newsletter. One needs to be ashamed of it; because God has
ordained acres of land for your church and not just one or two plots. Your
church must first realize its full potential then it can get all that God has
purpose for you.
The major aim of each church is to first grow and not to own a building.
Having a building should be the result of growth. When you grow and the
place where you are becomes too small for you, then you can search for a
place or build a place that will accommodate your growth.
The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding He
established the heavens; by knowledge the depths were broken up, and
clouds drop down the dew. Prov 3: 19-20
One day the seminary students came to Elisha and told him, “As you
can see, our dormitory is too small. Tell us, as our president, whether we
can build a new one down beside the Jordan River, where there are plenty
of logs.” “All right,” he told them, “go ahead.” 1 kings 6: 1-2 NLT
The children you will have, after you have lost the others, will say again
in your ears, the place is too small for me; give a place where I may dwell.”
Isaiah 49: 20
For every church that God has ordained, He has provided land that will
accommodate their growth. Don’t focus on getting the land, rather focus on
growing your church and when the need arises God will manifest the
provision.
Seek God
Dr. Oyedepo said they bought a piece of land and began building on it
but when he went to seek God, God informed him that if the church goes to
that land that will be the end of her.
 If he had sought God before purchasing the land, God would have saved
him the stress they went through. I discovered that when you seek God,
your ambition dissolves so that you can know the will and plan of God.
You don’t make a major decision like buying a land and building an
auditorium without first seeking to know God’s mind. He knows exactly
where your church needs to be planted. He has planned a place for your
church and His eyes is upon it 24/7.
If you take your church into a place where God has not ordained it to be
and at the right time, you are destroying the church.
Dr. Oyedepo seek god in order to know his mind about the place the
church should be planted before thinking of buying the land and building an
auditorium there.
I once wanted to buy a building for the ministry and God frustrated my
effort. I really felt bad then, but now looking back in retrospect, I am glad I
didn’t. Because I won’t have know what I know now. If we had purchased
the building, I would have been so frustrated that I would have either sold it
or given it out.
It is always better to stay with God to enquire about what He wants you
to do and if He wants you to purchase a particular land and build on it.
That you have the money to buy a land and the land is available doesn’t
necessarily mean that God has approved you to purchase the land. It can be
a trap. Seek Him to know His mind. Don’t be lead by circumstance, instead
be lead by God.
When you follow God’s leading, He will go ahead of you and make sure
the place is prepared for you. All you need in seeking God is a word. And
when you act on the word, you activate God to act on your behalf.
No one will be able to stand against and resist you if you seek God and
follow His leading. You will not only scare them, but also you will possess
the land and uncover all the wealth that is in it.
There is a way that seems right to a man but its end is the way of death.
Prov 14: 12
“Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful
to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land
which the Lord swore to your fathers.” Deut 8: 1
:For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command
you to do- to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold
fast to Him- then the lord will drive out all these nations from before you,
and you will dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves. Every
place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours; from the
wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even to the
Western sea, shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand against
you; the lord your God will put the dread of you and the fear of you upon
all the land where you tread, just as he has said to you.” Deut 11: 22- 25
“I will go before you and make the crooked places straight; I will break
in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron. I will give you
treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know
that I, the Lord who call you by your name, am the God of Israel. Isaiah 45:
2-3
God will lead you to your wealthy place if you seek Him. Your wealthy
place is a land that flows with milk and honey, where there is no scarcity of
anything. Everything is in abundance. But if you miss God, you will choose
a land where things are scarce.
The key here is never to be in a hurry. Only buy a property when your
church has outgrown your present building and as God directs you after
seeking him.
Engage the Enemy
I was told that Dr. Oyedepo and his team of pastors walked through out
Canaan land to purchase it long after they have paid for it.
That you bought the land doesn’t mean you have possessed it. You
bought the physical land, but the spiritual part of it is in the control of the
devil. You have to dethrone him first in order to possess the land before you
start any construction or development on it.
God instructed the Israelites to drive out all the nations in the land He
had given them to possess first before settling on it. If not, they will end up
being influenced by that nation.
Dr. Oyedepo uses various dominion tools to possess any land they
purchase. He walks on it, anoints it, makes declarations of faith, and uses
the blood of sprinkling and so on. Those are spiritual tools to break the
devil’s influence over the land and to possess it for God.
I see many pastors making the mistake of not engaging the devil over
the land they bought and dispossessing him of the land. Their church ends
up being limited and stagnated because the devil still has possession over
the land.
 You have to engage the devil in spiritual warfare to wrest the land from
his possession and cut off his influence over it.
You have to pull down the devil’s influence first before you should
build. Canaan Land used to be the coven of witches. They owned the land,
but were dispossessed of it through spiritual warfare.
Some lands have been dedicated to some gods and idols and sacrifices
to those gods had been done on them. You need to cleanse it from dead
works by the blood and destroy every yoke by the anointing oil.
“Rise, take your journey, and cross over the River Amon. Look, I have
given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land.
Begin to possess it, and engage him in battle. And the lord said to me, ‘see,
I have began to give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to possess it,
that you may inherit his land.” Deut 2: 24, 31
For they did not gain possession of the land by their own sword, nor did
their own arm save them; but it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the
light of Your countenance, because You favored them. Psalm 44: 3
Then the lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord
said to me: “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth, see, I have this
day set you over the nation and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull
down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant.” Jere 1: 9-10
Don’t build until you have root out the influence of the devil and broken
his hold over the land.

Plan and Execute the Project

“But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin
construction of a building without first getting estimates and then checking
to see if he has enough money to pay the bills? Otherwise he might
complete only the foundation before running out of funds. And then how
everyone would laugh!” Luke 14: 28-29 NLT
Any enterprise is built by wise planning, becomes strong through
common sense, and profits wonderfully by keeping abreast of the facts.
Prov 24: 3-4 NLT
Even if god gives Dr. Oyedepo the go-ahead to buy the land and build,
he makes sure that he has a plan in place for the construction. Having a plan
is wisdom. Trying to build with faith without a plan is foolishness.
A plan is different from a vision. You might know what you want to
build on the land, but without a plan and the willingness to execute it, you
will start but not complete it in time.
Building Faith Tabernacle is a lesson on planning. Without a plan, it
would have taken Dr. Oyedepo ten or more years to complete it. Instead, it
took only a year. A man of faith must be a man with a plan.
He knew how much it will cost before they started building. They got
quotes from various contractors. And the cost was something else. So by
wisdom, he planned for the church to handle the construction.
He set up a building committee with one of the pastors as team leader.
That eliminated some cost. Again he was able to eliminate other cost by
using direct labor and also asking members to come on Saturday and work
as a seed.
I was told that before he starts any project he makes sure that he has half
of what it takes to finish the building. He asks the people to give towards
the project. Before he does that he impacts them. The impact makes them
give and sow in faith to receive harvest. God rewards people for giving
towards his work.
The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of
your rising. Then you shall see and become radiant, and your heart shall
swell with joy; because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you. The
wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you. The sons of foreigners shall build
up your walls and their kings shall minister to you. The glory of Lebanon
shall come to you, the cypress, the pine, and the box tree together to
beautify the place of My sanctuary, and I will make the place of My feet
glorious.” Isaiah 60: 3, 5, 10, 13
It pleased them indeed, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles
have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minster to
them in material things. Rom 15: 27
Dr. Oyedepo does not just raise offering for projects, he impacts and
bless people. He knows that when people are blessed, they will give
generously and cheerfully. Many pastors will rather pressure people to give
than impact them.
The quality of his spiritual impact is what generates the material things
needed to complete the project. He impacts people not raise money and the
proof of the impact is that he doesn’t know what it means not to complete
projects in record time.
 About The Author
Oladimeji Olutimehi is a apostle of God called to bring the kingdom of
God to families, workplaces and cities. He was given the assigment to study
Bishop Oyedepo from 1999 and then to teach people the secrets of Bishop
Oyedepo. He is the author of Business Secret of OYedepo, Wisdom of
Oyedepo, Church Growth Strategies of Oyedepo, Faith of Oyedepo ad
Think Like Oyedepo.

He runs a Facebook Page, Oyedepo Secrets. To have him teach your

people to bring the kingdom of God to families, workplaces and cities. He
lives in Akure, Nigeria. He ca be reached through +2349071602727 or
[email protected]