MINISTRY BEYOND BRANDING

By Isaiah-phillips Akintola

John 15:5-6

I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in Me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire, and burned.…

Not too long ago, I ordered a few products from TakeAlot, a South African online sales company. Only after a few days of the arrival of these products, I realized that what was in the packaging boxes was not to my satisfaction; they are not what I ordered.

One of the well-packaged boxes had a defective product, while the content of the other box was not the exact product I had ordered. So I had to lodge a complaint and then return the orders.

Although this may sound like a normal thing that happens regularly, it is, however, abnormally in kingdom affairs. This mistake carries a deep, profound lesson for all believers who desire to represent heaven’s prophetic assignment at this end of days, filled with high-level, satanic influences on how ministry is viewed and even shaped.

The idea of basing our decisions and preferences on what is viewed with the natural eyes is an unfortunate issue that has caused great damage to lives. It becomes even worse when it seems that it is the same concept many in the Church use to measure what they desire and define to be great or successful.

Many, especially those who are more focused on Western culture, have continued to depend on the exterior packaging and brand of a product. Unfortunately, this is not what matters when it comes to the value standard of the kingdom. Nowadays, many soul-driven mechanisms are being applied to ministry tasks, and this has become a serious problem for the courageous, faith-driven advancement of the body of Christ towards the next confluence of divine intention. The price of living via the Spirit is something most are unwilling to, especially when you consider the partake and system of working in Egypt or Babylon, when you barely have the time for yourself but to service the task master.

When you are not determined to live to please, the Father, regardless of the pressure or circumstances around you, will settle for God’s second best. Let me remind you again that the content and condition of what is in the package of what is called ministry or kingdom service should be our priority, because in the long run this is what changes and transforms people.

When we don’t allow the required, due diligence process to prepare us now as heaven’s best product and content providers, which would ultimately be sought for in the future, we would ultimately be rejected and returned either as a damaged, defective product, or as a wrong (product) incapable and incompetent service providers, which I don’t think anybody would like.

It is not a gainsaying that most of the past season of the Church’s era focused more on the exterior packaging of its product brand. Millions had been spent year after year to make the best impression, only to be reduced to something of entertainment and later rejected for another new gig by those whose souls are ever famished.

The people and what was known as the Church had been reduced to a circus. Most worship centers, what is called ministries, had become basically entertainment centers without the reality of Christ’s life and light, to engage and transform society in a way that brings lasting change.

The inability of those who served in what was known as ministry was so obvious that the things of God were no longer taking serious, but rather a joke. Those whom the Father is preparing for this third day ministry should be aware of what matters to the Father and what it will take to impact, not to merely impress.

In ministry, you don’t have the options or opportunity to impress anyone, but rather to impact lives for God. If you’re going to impact lives, you must shift away from a soul-driving , entertainment type of ministry. Ministry as designed by the Lord is a life-giving matter.

You and I have the advantage of looking back to study the failure of yesterday’s men and women in ministry, and then decide not to follow the same mistakes that led the Church to what we’ve witnessed as a mistake and a failure of precise kingdom representation in the past few years. We must seek to rediscover the ancient designed for what true kingdom represent in Babylon.

Jeremiah 6
16This is what the Lord says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
17 I appointed watchmen over you and said, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But you said, ‘We will not listen.’

It is not something to joke about. We need to see the complex need of the world we live in today, and believe the Lord will truly infuse us with the Spirit of compassion and righteousness that would guide the drifting ships on the high sea towards us, his lighthouse.

If you ever believe there’s a slightest sense of the calling of God upon your life to carry out something, regardless of how insignificant that thing may look, you need to be thoroughly and carefully equipped and filled with the life of God in representing such a task.

The priesthood required to serve at God’s altar in this season must after the order of a life giving Spirit. We all need to be sure that before we start to focus on the packaging of what we think or assume we are sent for it, we must be sure that we have received the fullness of the Spirit and wisdom of Christ.

When you start spending quality time with what matters to the Father, the Lord will start branding you as a quality product that your sphere of service and assignment needs.

It was the Father who announced the readiness of Christ at the river Jordan. For he said just after our Lord came out of the waters, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased, hear him.

Matthew 3:16-17
16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water. Suddenly the heavens were opened, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and resting on Him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!

If we want people and nations to hear us, then we must allow the life of Christ to saturate every fiber of our being until there’s no room for the flesh to interfere with God’s product, ready to be sent to their various places of assignment. We must not allow the unregenerate soul to hold us hostage to carnal attitudes of seeking to impress humans with a false lifestyle that would only bring pain and frustration in the long run.