‘I NEVER WANTED TO BE A PASTOR’-Pastor David
‘I LOCKED MYSELF UP IN MY HOSTEL AT COVENANT UNIVERSITY FOR 3 DAYS BEFORE GRADUATION AND TOLD MY FRIENDS-DON’T LOOK FOR ME!-Pastor Steve
PASTOR DAVID OYEDEPO AND STEVE OGAH SHARE HOW THEY RECEIVED THEIR CALLS INTO MINISTRY
AFTER SALVATION AND VISION THE NEXT IMPORTANT THING IS HEARING THE VOICE OF GOD
WE ALL HAVE THE CAPACITY TO HEAR GOD BUT MANY HAVE NOT DEVELOPED THE ELASTICITY TO HEAR HIM
OUR FULFILMENT IN LIFE ULTIMATELY LIES IN THE DISCOVERY AND THE PURSUIT OF THAT WHICH GOD HAS CALLED US TO DO AS INDIVIDUALS
YOU KNOW SOME OTHER WAY YOU CAN ALSO DISCOVER PURPOSE IS FINDING OUT THE THINGS THAT TROUBLE YOU
IF HE CALLS YOU FOR A PURPOSE, THE TOOLS FOR YOU TO FULFILL THAT PURPOSE ARE ALWAYS GOING TO BE THERE
– Pastor Steve Ogah, Pastor David Oyedepo Jnr and Pastor Isaac Oyedepo on “THE BRIDGE.” || PART C
Pastor Isaac:
…Right, because the word teaches us that there are several other ways, but this is the number one way, the ability to hear his voice. I will not trade it for anything, not for money, not for opportunities, not for anything else.
If you can hear God speak to you, It’s very difficult to miss road. I say this with so much passion because I believe that we have heard so much about God from others but very few have gotten to know Him. Philippians 3:10. Paul said I want to know him, I want to hear his voice.
Hear me, there are people with very good intentions that could mislead you. They don’t intend to mislead you but they don’t know tomorrow. Only God knows your tomorrow and knows my tomorrow.
Who’s better to find purpose than the one who said “Before I formed you I knew you”. So you are a finished product that was finished, done and dispatched to your generation through the womb of your mother.
Now having said that hearing God’s voice is very key very practical, we can go all day to talk about how to hear him…you know some other way you can also discover purpose is finding out the things that trouble you. The things that trouble me, you’ll be surprised, they don’t bother you. The things that bother you, probably don’t bother me. The things that you are so concerned about as challenges may be a pointer to what you have been called to solve, what you’ve been called to do, what you’ve been created for. I think we need to go back to the basics of how do I hear God speak to me. You can’t separate that from purpose.
There are also things that you never want to do that God has assigned for you. There are things you never think you are capable of doing that is your assignment and really until you start you’ll never discover that the capacity was there.
Let me give you an example okay, you drove a car today to the interview here and this talk we are having, If you check the speedometer, it probably can go on 260 or 240 thereabout. Have you driven at 240 before? But the capacity is there, so we all have the capacity to hear Him, but not everyone has developed the elasticity of hearing Him. Capacity is one thing, elasticity is another thing. There is what you and I are so loaded with that we have no idea, until we are shown. That’s why I go back to the primary way of discovering purpose. I remember what it took me, how long it took me. If you ask these questions in the future, we can discuss that. Jeremiah 33:3. It took an intentional discovery. So you can ask God, What is my purpose? What on earth am I here for? Once you discover that, it becomes so difficult to be distracted.
Now let me say something that you didn’t ask, it’s also important to know that purposes are in phases, they are in seasons. “He makes all things beautiful in its time”…and if you go back and look at our fathers, you will discover that these things are unveiled in seasons. God told Abraham, he said, “leave where you are to a land that I’ll show you”. So the first thing is to take a step, I’ll unveil the next and then I’ll unveil the next.
So God is so wise that he doesn’t give us all the details at once because if all the details are given at once the fear of even taking a step comes in. Hearing God’s voice is important in following Vision, it’s important in following directions because there are some people that have authentic and real Visions but the directions, the steps are wrong. Never look at anybody and say “God never spoke to him or he probably didn’t discover his purpose”. That may not be the case but the steps may have been wrong, the timing may have been wrong. Because purpose, season and time all have to work together and then you discover that some people might have overstayed in a phase without knowing. The last they heard is the last they’ve heard, yet a new phase has been unveiled and they have no idea. It’s very important to call a generation and say, “Look it’s very important to discover his voice”. The voice of the Lord is powerful, it can break anything, it can give direction to any situation. Let’s go back to learning how to hear from Him and not hearing from others who tell us about Him. Our fathers have learned to hear Him, it’s important for us to be able to say “God said to me”. It’s very important.
Pastor Steve:
This concluding phrase, I think is one phrase very few believers or even Christians can hardly say “God said to me” and when we look at the whole of the statements you’ve shared, it just points to the Sovereignty of God, the Almightiness of God in creating every one of us as unique entities with unique assignments on the earth…and the truth is our fulfillment on life ultimately lies in the discovery and the pursuit of that which God has called us as individuals to do.
I think that’s why that subject is so crucial. I know many persons would desire to hear us even speak a little bit about how did we find our own purposes and our vision for life. I remember back in the day at Covenant University, one of those days towards graduation time, that should be 2006 or so, I had to literally lock myself up for I think about 3 days in my room there and I was craving, I told the people around, “don’t look for me, I’m not going to come out, just leave me there”. I was craving to understand…this life that I’ve come to live, it’s beyond just acquiring a Certificate as a graduate of a University but what would give me the ultimate fulfillment is to understand the reason for which I was created. What is my own part in this generation?
What’s my contribution by God’s sovereign design? With that dedicated time, the Lord now unveiled it and when I look at the journey over the years till date, everything somehow phase by phase still points towards that ultimate picture…and it’s been unveiled phase by phase, chapter by chapter. Pastor David, we’ve been friends and brothers for how many years now? I think close to 16, I remember we used to have a fellowship when we were all brothers and no one was married, no one was a Pastor then and we used to sit on weekends and talk about vision and where God is taking us and Sincerely, looking back to those days, I just laugh, Those little days, those little discussions, I mean we sit, just as casual, I think in a youth chapel or something and we are trying to share what is God calling everyone to do.
Have you found it out? It’s interesting that years after everyone is beginning to find their rightful thing in where God has called them to be, I’d like you to share your own experience.
I know many people both within the Commission and in the Christian body and even outside, look up to you as another leader in this generation that has found his own unique assignment and I like you to share, “What is that experience, how did you find it out?”
Pastor David Jnr:
My experience was a little bit interesting in that I think as a young child, I didn’t actually want to be a Pastor. I first knew what I didn’t want to be before I discovered what I was going to be and because I knew what I didn’t want to be, I decided, I sort of had my own course and figured out what I wanted to do.
The problem with that was that I started having too many things that I wanted to do. So at a point, you know I always had this half-hearted prayer “Lord, show me my purpose”. In my mind, as long as it’s not this. So I always had that half-hearted prayer. I remember that this was in the year 2005, I can’t forget it. I finally got to the point where I knew I had to find out why I was here or else I was going to waste my life. I was doing my masters at the time and I just had come to the point of concluding that it is clear that a life without purpose is a life wasted.
No matter how comfortable or enjoyable it may be. I had come to that point where it was a crossroad, so I decided that day, I was going to find a place and I was going to pray and I was going to be there until I heard what God had put me here on the earth for…and then I went to find a little hotel and I stayed there. This was in the U.S. on the 17th I checked in and I stayed there praying, searching. I’ll study, I’ll pray, I’ll worship and pray…and I continued that way all through the 17th, I didn’t hear anything. On the 18th in the morning, I heard an audible voice. That was the first time I would hear God speaking like a physical person into my ears and giving me exactly what my assignment was. I jumped up, picked up my Bible and he gave me a very fundamental scripture because one of the things you might want to also do is that when you hear from God, it must be backed by scriptures. So he gave me certain fundamental scriptures, that became the foundation for my life.
Now the truth is this, I believe that with every man’s purpose, comes certain Divine abilities. At the time, there were many things I lacked in terms of the ability to be an effective minister as far as I was concerned, my personality, I was extremely quiet, I was always good by myself.
So I thought there were things I didn’t seem suited for. As soon as I found it, there was a fire and a passion to pursue that purpose, no matter what it took. I didn’t care what I didn’t have…and I found out that as I began to run, He began to open up certain things inside me that I didn’t know were ever there. I tell people for example, the first day I had utterance in my life, I have been ministering for a while, I can remember where I was standing.
Suddenly utterance came for the first time, I didn’t know I had that at all. But God begins to show you that…no man sends a Soldier at his own expense, he would give him all the equipment that is required. So if he calls you for a purpose, the tools for you to fulfill that purpose are always going to be there. So every tool that is required is made available…so for me, that was my experience, I can’t forget it October 17th and 18th 2005. You know, that was where the door of purpose opened up to me and that’s what I’ve been running with…and God has been revealing, level by level, the journey is still long but God has brought us quite some way.
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