When I initially set out to build a church for the Lord, I was not remotely aware of the sacrifice and the struggle it would take to successfully do this kind of work for God. I remember the call of God on my life. I even remember the struggle to accept Him calling me, and my wife into the Pastoral Ministry. I knew that this was a big challenge, but I could never have anticipated the struggles that lay ahead.

At the time God called me to leave the comfort of the church where I had been saved and grew up as a Christian, I had a great deal of compassion for the job our pastor was doing and even more so for those who had gone before him. But, it was not until I moved out and began striving to build a ministry to the glory of God, that I got a real appreciation for what it takes to carve out a ministry.

I have often since said, that anybody can attend the church of your choice, but it takes a special gift of the grace of God working in your life to carve out a ministry. There are no specific guidebooks for every individual circumstance. Every situation is somewhat different. Because each person is a unique individual, each circumstance will be unique. What I hope to do in this book, is inspire those who would build and those who are building a ministry of any kind; whether it be music, teaching, preaching, pastoring or any other ministry, to continue doing what God has ordained for you to do, knowing, that "You are Pregnant With An Anointed Ministry". Whatever God has ordained for you through foreknowledge from before the foundation of the world he will do, if we let him.

The Bible says in Isaiah 66:9 "Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth?..." Philippians 1:6 says: "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:..."

From the moment you were saved, God impregnated you with an anointed ministry. But it will take the fullness of God's time to bring your ministry to life. Throughout this process you will go through a number of growth phases. The more you understand about the growth phases and how to handle them, the more inspired you will be as you allow God to birth your ministry.

"Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb
I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet
unto the nations

Jeremiah 1:5

Before I formed thee……….

Pregnant With An Anointed Ministry

I have found that the book of Isaiah is one of the most inspiring books of the Bible. Within its pages are found a great number of outstanding Bible truths, doctrinal statements and revelations about the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But one of the most inspiring scriptures I found in the book of Isaiah is in chapter 66 and verse 8 which reads: "Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children..."

I guess I found this scripture inspiring because, at that time in my life when I read that verse, I was a pastor struggling to give birth to a ministry that God had impregnated me with. I had read this scripture numerous times. I had even heard ministers preach about it. My former pastor District Elder Mayfield, and the saints at Pentecostal Bridegroom Church had instilled this scripture in me when they talked to me and other saints about being filled with the gift of the Holy Spirit. But, it never had such meaning as it did on this occasion. I had been seeking the Lord's guidance in completing a sermon series that he had placed on my heart. At church we were in the process of building a new sanctuary. The process had been somewhat slow, nothing seemed to be going as planned. The financing took longer than we had expected. The various government approvals seemed to take longer than normal, and I was beginning to wonder what was wrong. As I continued to seek God for the completion to the series I had been working on, God spoke a word into my spirit and told me to preach a sermon about the travail of childbirth. Immediately He dropped the scripture from Isaiah 66:8 into my spirit. I kept hearing this scripture echoing in my spirit, especially the latter clause, "...for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children..."

I prepared the message with enthusiasm, knowing that God had inspired me to preach it. Its one thing to prepare a word from a systematic schedule, but its an entirely different thing to prepare a totally God inspired sermon. I finished this particular message with no problem. There was no real struggle in developing the outline. The structure seemed to come naturally. I could not wait for Sunday, I was ready to preach this God inspired message.

Sunday mornings were usually very busy for me, and the Sunday that I was to preach this message was no different. We were at that time having services at a local catering facility. During this time I would get up every Sunday, cart the audio equipment over to the catering hall, get things set up and hurry back home to pick up my wife and daughter. On this Sunday morning as I was making my way home, while sitting at a traffic light, the Lord spoke again to my spirit and said; "Tell the people, Don't abort your baby [ministry]!" My first reaction was Lord, I didn't prepare to speak from that subject. Now I'm like any God inspired preacher, I don't mind changing the subject if God is in it. But on this morning the Lord said, use the outline you have, just change the title.

At 11 O'clock when I stood up to deliver this God inspired message with the new title, I told the congregation the following words. "God told me to tell you, Don't Abort Your Ministry". Then God inspired me to ask them to proclaim to their neighbor that they were pregnant with an anointed ministry. Suddenly so many things began to become clear to me. All the problems, all the struggle, all the trials that we had been going through, were a part of a birthing process. I began to realize that within each and every one of the Born Again children of God is an anointed ministry. I began to realize that many times the struggles of this life are simply the toil of pregnancy and the travail of childbirth. It is a lesson we learn so well from the caterpillar. Within the cocoon of the caterpillar is the beauty of the butterfly. It is the struggle of the caterpillar, as it strives to come out of the cocoon that makes its wings strong enough to fly. We cannot help the caterpillar to exit the cocoon, it must travail on its own, depending only upon the divine mercy, grace and strength of the God who has given it life. It must learn that there is another side to struggle. We like the caterpillar, must learn that if we are going to be able to fly then we must have our wings strengthened through struggle, toil and travail. For as soon as Zion shall travail she will bring forth her children. So then, travail is a natural part of growth. What is travail to the child of God? Travail represents lessons to be learned through experience. And it is the experiences that we encounter that properly prepare us for ministry.

I once took a class in public speaking from The Dale Carnegie Schools. One of the things I remember most about the course was that the instructor said, that a speaker must speak or talk about things that you have earned the right to talk about. The best preacher in the world will be the one who has experienced things that help to make his or her preaching complete or full. I believe the best singer is the one who doesn't simply sing lyrics that have been written but one who sings lyrics based on experiences that have molded and shaped their character. These experiences cause the preacher to preach from the heart and the singer to not only use the vocal gift of God but give a heartfelt expression of the enduring hope and joy of a life shaped through experiences guided by the hand of God.