Ministering: Sunday Adebamiro
Topic: Years Ago, I Was Living In A Nameless Address In Maraba, Dating A Lady In Asokoro. The Rest They Say Is History: The Power Of Vision
“Years ago, as a single guy, broke, busted and disgusted, I was living in a nameless address in Maraba, the outskirts of Abuja, and the lady I intended marrying was living in Asokoro, one of the most expensive areas in the city of Abuja. What a risk. The lady today is my wife of more than twenty years today: this was attributed to clear-cut vision, divine direction and hard work”
“Do not despise the place of ‘little beginnings’ because it is a fertile place for the birthing of visions. It does not matter where you start from; it does not matter where you were born, however, with vision, you can determine where and how you will die”.
Pastor Sunday Adebamiro, the Executive Pastor of The Transforming Church, Gwarimpa, made these profound statements on Sunday 10th September at the Church Auditorium, while preaching on Covenant Secrets for Supernatural Exploits in the Marketplace and Workplace.
A highlight of the Church service was Pastor Sunday welcoming back Rev. Sam Oye, the lead Pastor of the Transforming Church back to Church, after several weeks of foreign missions to the USA, Canada, Bahamas and London later in the week. The excitement was palpable seeing the lead Pastor after a long time and the service doubled as an appreciation service for the resident pastors.
Pastor Sunday, the audacious preacher took his text from Gen. 13: 14-18, exegeting on the Secrets of making an impact in the Market and Workplace, and one of the secrets is VISION. “The main secret of how to make an impact wherever you find yourself in the world and do exploits is the Secret of Vision. Visionaries are transformers and impact makers” he said.
Expounding on the concept of vision, he defined vision as the Revelation and Discovery of God’s purpose for one’s life. “We are not the ones to determine our life’s purpose; God does that. However, it is our task to discover it. We must understand that we were created for a purpose. We were made for a reason and an assignment”.
“To discover the reason that we were created by God, we need Vision. Vision is the revelation of our assignment. Also, Vision should not be confused with Ambition. Ambition is what you want to become and achieve; Vision is what God wants you to achieve. Ambition is essential to us as humans but it must not conflict with the purpose of God for our lives. If there is a conflict between our ambition and vision, then that becomes a problem for us” he said.
“We must understand that vision involves dwelling and staying in the land that God orders us to stay. The land where you will be blessed is the land that God sent you to. The reason we struggle wherever we dwell or work maybe because it is contrary to where God wants us to be. We must locate the land that God wants us to be and dwell there”.
“It is impossible to do great exploits in a land within a short period. Exploits across the world cannot be achieved by moving from one place to another seeking opportunities and not dwelling anywhere. Environment matters when it comes to doing exploits. A fish outside of water will not be able to do anything great but die eventually; a plant will not become a tree when it is not in the right environment to grow” he said.
Furthermore, he defined vision as a revelation of a better or preferred future. “It is possible to get the vision that can catapult yourself, your family and future generations to perform great exploits from where you are currently. Do not let where you are currently in life regulate the opportunities that you seek”
“From wherever you are, you can see the world and grasp it. After all, what is the cost of having visions and dreams? It is free. Do not wait for everything to be perfect before discovering your life’s vision; do not relent with all the woes of your life currently, discovering your life’s vision will make a difference. From whatever position you are in life, vision can be developed. Visions are developed from the vacuums of life” he said.
He also defined vision as a revelation of your greatest possibility and potential. “One of the major differences between mediocre or average people and visionaries is that mediocre people tend to see things the way they are (they only see what is); while visionaries focus on things that can be (they see possibilities). The transformation of industries, nations and anything significant involves the ability to analyse concepts and brainstorm about what these concepts can become”
“We, as Christians, must engage our minds continuously. We must believe that our best days are not behind us; they are ahead of us. We are capable of a lot more than where we are currently. Do not focus on lost positions and opportunities”
“Regardless of our current positions and circumstances in life, we all possess within us the capabilities needed to transform our lives to become the greatest versions that they can be. All it takes is to discover God’s purpose for our lives and focus on our vision of it. In the realm of gains and losses, the sign of a good ministry reveals to us all that we have left (and maximizing it), and not what we have lost. Do you know what the scraps of your life are capable of when vision is applied to them?” he said.
Expounding on being Change agents in the Marketplace and workplace, he said, “We are meant to be light to the world; not light to one another. Wherever there is darkness, light will be appreciated there. Where we will be appreciated the most is not within the church, but in the world because that is where darkness is. There is no appreciation for shining light where there is no darkness”. “The church can be likened to a fuel station. When you refill your car with fuel, you do not remain in that fuel station, you drive your car to your determined destination. As Christians, what we do is to be filled with fuel (sermons, teachings etc.) from the church constantly and remain there. We do not use the fuel to fulfil any purpose in the world but return to the church for more again. We need to explore the world and use our fuel out there”.
“Our exploits on earth are not meant to be limited to the church world; it was also meant to be effective in the marketplace and workplace – wherever you find yourself or are planted because we are the light of the world, not the church. As the salt of the earth, we are not meant to remain in our salt containers. We are not relevant if we remain in our containers. We become relevant once we are applied to the soup. The soup being prepared cannot be affected by salt if salt remains in its container. As salt, we cannot change the taste of the soup when we are not connected to the soup” he said.
“We are meant to be the light of the world; be the light of the sector we operate in; give hope to the sector we are planted in. We are the salt of the earth and society”
Concluding on the sermon, Rev. Sam Oye, the lead Pastor of the Transforming Church drove home the Points.
“A Visionary can be likened to a pregnant woman. To successfully nurture and birth the baby, the mother becomes extremely cautious about her actions and the food she takes. Even her sleep position becomes different for the period of pregnancy”.
“The right approach to achieving anything significant is to see what you want before getting it. You do not start hoping to achieve better results after things become better or you become wealthy. You cannot attract the provision made for a giraffe while having the vision of a turtle. Your legs can only go as far as your eyes can see. In the world of visions, the eyes must see first before the legs can go”.
“You eat at the level at which you see. Food is available at every level. The turtle and the giraffe both eat. However, they all eat at their own levels because they do not have the same appetite. The turtle cannot eat at the level at which the giraffe eats. It cannot even begin to develop the level of appetite the giraffe possesses. The turtle cannot see at the level at which the giraffe sees. The giraffe is capable of eating fresh leaves still on the trees; the turtle eats dried leaves after they fall to the ground”.
“Momentarily, the giraffe stoops low to eat what is on the ground, however, we can see it seems like an unnatural thing for it to do. This is because looking at the build of the giraffe, it is not built to always be looking down. This teaches us that at certain heights in life, you have to stop looking down”.
“When we translate this concept to humanity, sometimes, the problem is that people with the vision of giraffes respond to the criticism of turtles. In this context, as a giraffe, when we let turtle-visioned critics get our attention, we have to look beneath ourselves to understand them and this can cause the heart of the giraffe to develop problems”.
“The heart of the giraffe can be swayed due to subjecting itself to continuously looking down to the level of the turtle. It can be postulated that the giraffe is designed not to pay attention to the criticism of the turtle. The problem is that high-flyers who respond to low crawlers will always fall and get down”.
“One of the challenges of life is that the turtles will always criticise the giraffes because the turtles cannot see things at the level of the giraffes. If all you see is salary, you will eat at that level. If you hate the way you are eating from the fruits of your labour, then change the level at which you see”.