When you are as wise as a serpent, there is nowhere God cannot send you. Ministers of the gospel are no longer as wise as serpents. Perhaps we can say that they are as wise as a polar bear that means they can only stay in one environment.
A minister must not flourish only in ‘good’ circumstances. He must do well whatever the circumstances. Joseph did well as a slave and in the slave environment. “Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the bodyguard, bought him from the Ishmaelites, who had taken him down there. The LORD was with Joseph, so he became a successful man. And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. Now his master saw that the LORD was with him and how the LORD caused all that he did to prosper in his hand. So Joseph found favor in his sight and became his personal servant; and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he owned he put in his charge” (Genesis 39:1-4).
He did well as a prisoner and in the prison cell environment. In both situations he excelled so much that he was put in charge. Joseph was a survivor. “So Joseph’s master took him and put him into the jail, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined; and he was there in the jail.
But the LORD was with Joseph and extended kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer. The chief jailer committed to Joseph’s charge all the prisoners who were in the jail; so that whatever was done there, he was responsible for it. The chief jailer did not supervise anything under Joseph’s charge because the LORD was with him; and whatever he did, the LORD made to prosper” (Genesis 39:20-23).
One day, I was discussing my troubles with a fellow minister of the gospel. He was a senior minister and a father of many ministers. I told him how I had been harassed by the government. I explained how a government agency had summoned me for investigations and interrogation and had made me fill so many forms about my personal life.
To my amazement, he laughed and congratulated me. ‘Congratulations for what” I thought. ‘My troubles?’
He explained, ‘Ministry is not about how big your church is or what car you drive.
He continued, ‘It is about “what have you survived’! ‘What have you been through?’
He said, ‘Ministry is about ‘What have you suffered?’
Then he told me, ‘I have been harassed by these same people five times. I have filled those same forms that you filled five times.
I was stunned. I never imagined that he had been through all that.
A true minister is a survivor. In spite of the circumstances and environment, he survives and prevails. Paul was a survivor. He described the circumstances he had encountered. Just like this senior minister I spoke to, the apostle Paul seemed almost nostalgic about the troubles he had survived.
Stop giving excuses and become a survivor of different circumstances!
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