Character Development. (Rom 5:1-5)

Character development is pivotal to one’s success in life. It might take skills to get up, but it takes character to keep you there (Isaiah 9:6-7). 

If you must become sustained as a man of influence, reverence, efficiency and effectiveness in your generation, you must develop godly character.
Even the sustainability of your business/marriage is answerable to cultivating godly attitude.

Your attitude sharpens your aptitude while in turn determines your altitude in life. The essence of cultivating godly character is to be in perfect alignment with the Holy Spirit. When your promised dreams are not coming to pass, how are you behaving? What do you do when on the field of play, the ball is not within your reach?

How does God take us through the Character Development Process?

By Faith: To every man, some measure of faith is given (Rom 5:1-5). It all starts with faith. This faith births the peace of God within us. When faith is birthed in you, you have the peace of God. Every character development starts with the perspective of the Gospel of Christ. If your humility is not born out of Christ’s perspective, it is self-driven. This faith births peace and peace births joy. Every tribulation is meant for the building up of your most Holy Faith. The peace of God dwells with you even in trouble (Rom 5:3, James 1:12). Through faith and patience, you become an imitator of those who inherited the promise (Heb. 6:12).

The patience that is birthed from tribulation leads to experience (Acts 20:32). Without experience/character, any inheritance you receive can be swept away by tribulation. The experience keeps you alert for what God is about to do (Job 23:10).

Why This Process of Character Development -2^nd Peter 1:5-11

This is so that we can become partakers of His divine nature (holiness).
In Isaiah 53, we note that chastisement is key in the process of character development. We are made perfect through suffering. God takes us through a process to protect the posterity He has given us (Heb 12:6-11).
God takes us through character development so that we can match up with the image He had perfected in us before the advent of time.

Gen 39:7-13 (Joseph as an example)

A man who will be used mightily by God will be tested thoroughly. If your dreams are God-given, your life must be God-governed. Everything we have received and heard stands before us at every point of our decision making.

Daniel 1:8 (Daniel as an example)

Daniel also purposed in his heart that he would not have any portion of the king’s food/meat.

Deal with the appetites that might put you in trouble, before the day of trouble comes. You prepare for war in the time of peace.

PASTOR NATHANIEL SADELA

Resident  Pastor 

Kingdom Investment (Part 3): Tending and Keeping Your Garden. (Genesis 2:8,15; Matthew 13:44-46)

We have looked at Kingdom Perspective from the ‘one thing’ analogy. In this discussion, we would consider ‘tending and keeping’ one’s garden. 

To tend means to ‘care for’. It implies being a caretaker. It means you watch over, take care of, guide, nurse, dress, or cultivate something.

The word ‘keep’ implies maintaining and improving. When God commits a garden into your hand, he has already given you the ability to bring the garden to the desired level. There are standards to be met where God has placed you. In Genesis, when God created the plants, they did not come forth immediately. There was also no rain because there was no man to bring them forth, that is to cultivate them. Tending and keeping the garden means to manage effectively and generate surplus value out of something that looks insignificant.

Some people do not place value on their God-given garden. In your garden lies your greatness, fulfilment and success (Job 8:7). Your garden is your place of establishment. It might not look like it in the beginning, but God has placed everything that would bring that which He has committed to your hands to a place of envy within you. It is your place of grace. The anointing of the Holy Spirit flows in this garden. Your garden is your God-appointed place/location.

It is not just about a geographical location. It might be a gift or a circumstance of blessing (for example, a good home). Your garden is your future. God places your future in your hands- tend it, keep it, nurture it. As a wise master builder, you commit your time, energy and money to it. Your garden might even be your career, business, ministry, family or relationship that you take for nothing. Your garden could be your skillset or gift. Nurture it and take it to the next level (Prov 12:27).

It takes a God-formed man to locate the treasure in the garden that God has given Him. It takes a God-formed man to connect to heavenly wisdom; fashioning solutions out of problems.
The LORD by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding He established the heavens (Prov. 3:19).
Through wisdom a house (enterprise) is built; and by understanding it is established (Prov. 24:3).

Matt 13:44-46

A merchant is a service provider (Prov 22:29, Eccl. 9:10). He is not a parasite, trying to reap from where he has not sown. It takes a merchant to see a pearl of a great price and identify it. In keeping and tending your garden, you generate surplus value. The Christian life is not just lived within the four walls of a church. The ‘wheat’ as described in the Bible is the seed that has been thoroughly established by the Word of God. They remain unperturbed even in the time of persecution, nor are they blown around by every wind of doctrine.

What is your garden? Where is your garden? When you dwell in your garden, you are guaranteed of a hundred-fold increase. The power and grace to tend and keep your God-given garden, God grants you in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

PASTOR NATHANIEL SADELA

Resident  Pastor