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By Mike Bamiloye
THURSDAY,JANUARY 10, 2019
DRAMA MINISTERS YEAR OF OVERFLOWING EXPANSIONS.
“SECRETS OF ADVANCEMENT IN LIFE AND MINISTRY”
MATTHEW 14: 25- 32
“25 Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea.
26 And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear.
27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.”
28 And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.”
29 So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.
30 But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lored, save me!”
31 And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
32 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.
Peter wanted to experiment with his faith, he spoke to the Master while still approaching the troubled boat: “ If you are the one, tell me to come” and the Master was impressed by his faith and determination to do, whatever He told him to do. The Master was particularly impressed by the fact that Peter recognized the importance of the Lord’s command before embarking on such incredible move.
Jesus said: “Come!”, and that was all what Peter was waiting for. He stepped out of the boat into the sea and was astounded that he too was walking on the water as his Master. What an amazing sight for Peter! Peter, an ordinary fisherman, walking on the Sea of Galilee! He was walking to meet Jesus, then:
“But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and begins to sink…”
Doubt and fear ended his story of gallant adventure of faith. He looked at the boisterous wind. Jesus pulled him up from his sinking and rebuked him thus:
“O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
So we came to know the secret of it all. The secret of walking on the storms and the sea of life…FAITH! Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and obedience to His command.
The difference between Peter and the rest disciples was that, while Peter acted on the word of Jesus and stepped out into a raging sea by faith, the rest were only watching from afar out of fear. While others were watching him in the troubled boat, while the sea was still boisterous; while the wave was still raging and the wind was still violent against the boat and all those in the boat, Peter, at the command of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stepped out of the boat walking towards Jesus. Peter became the actor of the moment, while the rest disciples became mere spectators.
That is the picture of some children of God these days. Some are out of the boat at the Lord’s command; some are in the boat watching with amazement, with wonder. If Peter had not doubted, nothing would have stopped him from walking on the waters for a long time with Jesus Christ. It was a great spectacle!
Sometimes within the year of 1987, when I was so worried and disturbed about what the future of the ministry held out for us. The ministry was just about three years old by then, and a lot of us were just students of various institutions and some were civil servants and I also was teaching in a secondary school at that time.
The great vision in our heart was to do mighty exploit for the Lord. The visions we saw was to be great ambassadors for the Lord in the field of drama and film productions in Nigeria and Africa and the world. But, we had no examples to look up to, in the areas of our calling as drama ministers.
I so much envied the lives and ministries of those great men of God like: Kenneth Hagins, Oral Roberts, TL Osborne, KC Price, etc. I would sit on the floor of my single room and spread their magazines on the floor before me and began to turn the pages to look at those beautiful pictures of the ministers and their family.
I said that, because, I could not see any other ministry as beautiful and fruitful as theirs around me at that time. As I said that, the gracious Lord Jesus answered me in my spirit as clearly as I could hear it: “ No, I am not Partial to them. They were only operating by Faith” I was stupefied. “FAITH ?”
Then, I remember I asked in my spirit: “Faith? Is that all?” And all I could get the Lord said to me was: FAITH IN THE LORD AND WHATEVER HE SAYS, IS THE KEY TO THE SUCCESS OF THEIR MINISTRY.
I remember that, that evening, as I lied down on the floor of my room, with the magazine of Kenneth Hagins spread out before me, I spoke out very loud in Yoruba: (“To ba je pe Igbagbo ninu Oluwa lawon wonyi nlo, ti won fi de ipo ti won de yi, a o jo fi igbagbo ohun na tan bi owo ni.”) Meaning: If it takes Faith in the Word of God for these people to achieve all these and get to this pòint in ministry, then, we shall go all the way in FAITH to get to where the Lord wants us.”
The name of our ministry then, at inception was Mount Zion Christian Productions, but at that point, in that solemn evening where the Lord was dealing with me, He entered into a new covenant with me and our ministry. He told us to walk with Him by faith if we hope to achieve great things in ministry and get to where He had reserved for us.
So, on that premise, the name of the ministry was transformed by God to: MOUNT ZION FAITH MINISTRIES, with an agreement between us and God that: As long as we move on by Faith, we shall do mighty exploits, however, anytime we deviate away from the path of faith, we shall meet with failure and obstructions.
AND IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN SO IN OUR 30 YEARS OF MINISTERIAL JOURNEY.
We have failed several times. We have fallen several times. We have been seriously disappointed several times. We have shamefuly retreated from our earlier plans of application of human wisdom and adopted our fundamental path of faith several times.
And the Lord has never failed us…though His ways may be so narrow and rough. He has always been faithful FOR more than 30 years.
Lord , increase my faith that I may not fail in fulfilling destiny.
– MIKE BAMILOYE
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