By Seyi Gesinde
August 8, 2025
The passionate teacher of the gospel, Pastor Tunde Jaiyebo, has charged believers to be resolute and make a difference, declaring, “You are the answer to someone’s prayer. You are the advantage to some people.”
Pastor Jaiyebo, the Senior Pastor of Charis Family International Church , spoke during the opening session of Charis Making Your Life Conference 2025, themed Resolute To Make A Difference, a four-day programme running from Thursday, August 7 to Sunday, August 10, 2025, where he emphasised that believers are the answer to someone’s prayer, carrying within them solutions and advantages that others desperately need.
With the scriptural focus taken from Romans 8:18–19, he said that although the scripture makes reference to heaven, “it is enough to convey what God wants to communicate to us,” explaining that there are two time frames of life in the scripture and that these two principles must be understood if one’s life will count.
He identified the first dimension as “the present time, where we are now,” saying its characteristic is suffering for many, adding, “What we are now, what we are doing presently is not in the ideal state. The marriage, business, everything you want to achieve aren’t accomplished yet. Presently, there are deficiencies and delays. Where you want to get to, you aren’t there yet,” he said.
“All you have now are the potentials which you have not been yet. You have dreams and goals not yet accomplished. What is your present tense situation? For some, it is not the ideal,” he added.
Quoting Luke 14:28–30, he said Jesus asked, “Which of you intending to build a tower sitteth not down first?” and added, “That’s the problem with people, they don’t sit down first.”
Reading from Romans 8:18, he urged believers to ask themselves, “Where are you now?” and said they may need someone else to help them with personal assessment.
“Where are you now financially, in the ministry and marriage? Most times, where we are is not the ideal, and you need to have a dissatisfaction to move to a higher and better place. If you tolerate it, you can’t desire a better place. Intolerance of the present is what creates a better future,” he said.
“The present state can’t be compared with the glory that shall be revealed,” he added, explaining that this refers to the future. He warned that “we are ruled by the perplexity of this present time, and that is delaying the glory that is to be revealed. Many times, we are ruled by what we are seeing now. The suffering of this present time makes people operate by what they are seeing.”
He said, “What makes a man depressed is working by sight. What makes a man feel they are not appreciated is working by the present” and read 2 Corinthians 5:7. “We should look at the future, not things we are seeing now,” he said, citing 2 Corinthians 4:18.
“You must understand this thing so that you don’t get stuck in what seems difficult now. God is not time-bound, so don’t put yourself under unnecessary pressure,” he said.
Quoting Zechariah 4:10, he said, “Don’t despise the days of small beginnings. Small beginnings are not depressing. Small beginnings are in our present.”
Citing Job 8:7, he said, “Your beginning may be small but later you…” and from Proverbs 4:18, “The path of the righteous shines brighter and brighter.” He urged believers to manage the gaps between the present and the future so they are not stuck in the present.
“There is more to you than you are seeing. Don’t judge yourself by what you are going through now. God wants you to be resolute and make a difference. There is more to you than we are seeing. Be resolute, be adamant, be stubborn to get to your future. But you must know how to transit from the present to the future. The world is waiting for you to make a difference,” he said.
He read Romans 8:18–19, saying “reckon” means to calculate to get to a conclusion. “Sit down first and reduce your running around. Ask for what you have to finish,” he said, citing Luke 14:29–30: “Look at the man who started and was not able to finish. People are looking at us. You need to calculate that and come to a conclusion. People are waiting for you, waiting for that NGO to start. It is in your manifestation that you make a difference,” he said.
“You must understand you are the answer to some people’s prayer. You are the advantage to some people. Moses showed up to be the advantage to the people of Israel. He made a difference. Paul the Apostle made a difference to tell Gentiles. Abraham built a nation for God. John the Baptist made a difference,” he added.
In the second session, Pastor Jaiyebo said, “Our greatest problem is not the devil, but ignorance.” He explained that ignorance blinds people from the reality of what God has for them and warned, “Don’t miss church. There is an encounter for every service. There is always a deposit of something, the grace and anointing for the future you are going into,” quoting 2 Corinthians 2:11, Hosea 4:6 and Proverbs 11:9.
“You are so important, but we are ignoring certain things that will make our lives different. If you really know who you are, you will work in the reality of what God has made you, and that is why the devil blinds people’s eyes,” he said.
“One area he uses is creating fear in the hearts of people. People are laid back because of fear. For certain people, their lives will be in jeopardy. Some people are to start a new business, but fear isn’t allowing you. Some should have started a new church,” he said.
Reading 1 John 4:18, he said, “Fear is a tormentor. It paralyses you from doing the right thing or pushes you to do the wrong thing. It makes you raise ‘what if’ questions. What if I fail? All the ‘what ifs’ should be done away with.”
From 2 Timothy 1:5, he noted that Timothy was a young man and Paul had to encourage him. “Timothy had unfeigned faith. To deal with fear, understand your spiritual heritage in Christ. We have the Holy Ghost. He is in us, He is with us, and He is for us,” he said, referencing 1 John 4:4, John 14:16–17, and Hebrews 13:5–6.
“Paul told Timothy, I recall the genuine faith in you, referencing his grandmother, Lois, too. We are resolute to make a difference because we have the Holy Ghost. Jesus has to fail first before you can fail. Understand your Christian heritage,” he said.
Reading 2 Timothy 1:6, he urged believers to remember what God has deposited in them. “You are so loaded, extremely loaded,” he said. He explained that believers have gifts and anointings — “1 John 2:20 says you know all things. You have the knower, the Holy Spirit, in you. You have the anointing to do all things. You have already been impacted. These are the things you need to lay hold of so you can overcome fear. When you understand what you carry, it will eliminate fear. You have all it takes to make a difference.”
Using an illustration, he said, “If you drop two cubes of sugar in a cup, will it be sweet? No. You have to stir it first.”
Reading 2 Timothy 1:7, he said, “God has not given us the spirit of fear. Fear is a powerful negative force you must not entertain,” and quoting Proverbs 28:1, “The righteous are bold like a lion.”
“Righteous people should now do righteous things. You behave like a lion because a lion is bold. How you stir up the boldness in you is to pray in tongues. Declare boldly within you that you cannot fail. You need to make a difference,” he said.
Pastor Jaiyebo ended with, “You are delivered from fear, and every limit is destroyed in Jesus’ name.”
