Open Heavens Devotional: VISITATION IS MANDATORY – Thursday, March 1, 2012

By Pastor E.A. Adeboye

Memorise: And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever. Matthew 8:14

Read: Matthew 8:14-17

When the Lord visited Peter’s house, you could appreciate the joy of Peter and his family. From this we learn that leaders should not be too busy to the extent that they cannot visit their close associates or subordinates. If there was a man who did not have time to spare because of ministry, it was the Lord. He was thronged about everywhere He went. Yet, He found time to visit Peter’s house. As a pastor, find time to visit the homes of your ministers. Do you know that some pastors may not know where their ministers live even after staying up to three or four years in the parish? They are not following the footsteps of Jesus. Visiting your ministers is important, so out of your busy schedule, create time for it. They will appreciate the visit and it will endear them to you. In the same vein, ministers should visit the workers while workers should visit the members. This should be done as often as possible. The pastor should also make time to visit workers and members of the congregation. There are issues that may never arise until you visit the homes of members.

Moreover, whenever you visit them you must impact something into their lives. Do not go empty-handed. You could buy a loaf of bread or two, or a token gift. If you buy bread, ensure it is not stale but very fresh. A senior pastor during his monitoring activities visited a church and handed the pastor two loaves of bread. By the following day, they found the bread with moulds all over and had to dispose them. If not that they knew the man to be a man of honour, they would have thought he had ill intentions towards them. Lastly, it was when the Lord visited Peter’s house that he discovered his mother-in-law was sick. He healed her and she ministered to them. The lesson here is that there are several people out there who are destined to be our helpers but like Peter’s mother, they are sick. They need our ministration for them to be up on their feet to do what they should be doing to us. That means, until we positively affect some people, they may never become the helpers they were meant to be to us. Pray for your unknown helpers to receive help from God and men so that they can help you in return.

ACTION POINT:

Ask God to teach you what to do to people to make helpers out of them.

 

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