Push Buttons
Marching on Forward!
One of the things I really admire about the business landscape in developed countries is the multigenerational sustainability undergirding businesses. Take, for example, America; you easily find a handful of businesses started by one man and has now become a family business lasting over several decades because it has been passed down across generations of that same family. A research showed that family businesses are easily best performers being either number one or number two in their industries. What was more staggering is how these businesses outperformed non-family-owned businesses in times of recession.
An exceptional business case for continuity and strong brand influence is the church. Jesus Christ has built the longest-standing family business in all of history and for all eternity. Christianity is over 2000 years strong, and business leaders have investigated the setup of Christ’s discipleship as a model for building enterprise. The question is, how does one build a sustainable and progressive enterprise with just about three years of active and visible involvement in the said enterprise? How do you win over such loyalty, fiery passion, and enthusiasm when you are not visibly around?
There were possibly over 5000 people that witnessed His death on the cross, seeing the man who was the Son of God and the acclaimed Messiah die, and then when He rose, He decided to only show Himself to a minute fraction of the people that witnessed the crucifixion. How do you reconcile the strong following and influence to such an anti-climactic exit? How does the same claim of victory that held true when God’s glorious power raised Jesus Christ from the dead over 2000 years ago still hold in the lives of those of us called believers today? It’s mystifying, really.
The research attributed the sustainability and outperformance of family businesses to the four concepts of Continuity, Community, Connection, and Command (Authority). A key realization is that the strength of the church is predicated upon the strength of every individual Christian. God is apathetic about building a disconnected silo of a church that is still progressing; you cannot have a strong whole whose individual components are in themselves weak. It’s an anomaly.
This tells me that the power and force of progress at work in the church on a global scale is at work within every one of us. The strong pulse of continuity, community, connection, and authority sponsoring our individual Christian journeys is the collective force propelling the church forward. This has got to get you excited!
You may want to give in to thoughts of discouragement about how bad you’ve had it, how weak you are, or how appalling your current situation is. You may want to say, ‘Oh, I am definitely not counted among those sponsoring the church’s progress,’ but that’s a lie! There’s a glorious transformation taking place within you. God’s church is glorious because we are each experiencing glory in our individual contexts. I encourage you to believe that report. Hallelujah!
God established the concept of continuity to the Israelites when He instructed them to recount the story of their salvation and exodus from Egypt to every child. It’s a system of personalized storytelling that builds conviction and surety. That is what we have in the Holy Ghost. Jesus’ exit marked the ushering of a Helper whose assignment is to energize our Christian walk by furnishing our hearts with truth and conviction. Conviction sponsors continuity because it reignites fire and purpose.
Added on the layer of continuity is community, a sense of stakeholding and partnership fueled by a sense of responsibility. Community is fostered by a sense of belonging, knowing that you are not the only one in it. You can always draw solace from those that have gone ahead of you, providing perspective and those that are on the journey with you, providing a strong sense of encouragement. The Holy Spirit facilitates the brotherly affection and a sense of joint stewardship.
Connection is how the Holy Spirit brokers the intimate affection between you and the Father, continually assuring you that you are a Son, not a slave, not a hireling, or a servant. He assures you of your close proximity with the Father, your unique place in the company of the beloved. He tightens that bond in the place of fellowship and communion, assuring you that you are not an outcast!
Jesus started by telling them in John 14 & 16 about the teaching dimension of the Holy Ghost. In John 17, He prays for a strong sense of community and connection for all believers. In Acts 1, just before He ascended to heaven, He gave them the last cheat code — the power & authority dimension of the Holy Ghost as the facilitator of a life of proof and results! It’s on the premise of this consolidating experience that Jesus was sure that Christianity is going to the end of the earth, the world is just catching on to the realization of that.
So when Jude admonishes us to fortify ourselves on our most Holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keeping ourselves in the love of God, from which point we search out the mercies of Jesus Christ unto eternal life (Jude 20–21). He is saying that our communion with the Holy Ghost is the vantage point for progression in our Christian walk and the collective progress we make as His body when we each insist on handling eternal life in our individual experiences is what continues to propel the church forward.
Declare with me the church continues to grow because I am insistent on my growth and transformation. The church is moving into unprecedented seasons of grace and favour because I am experiencing a revival and touching on new currents of His anointing in my unique content.
Stay encouraged.
Yinka Adebayo
Push Buttons is a weekly devotional of The Powerpoint Tribe
