July 11, 2024
The Senior Pastor of Charis Family International Church, Pastor Tunde Jaiyebo, has urged believers to embrace their purpose and identity as God’s workmanship.
He gave the charge during the opening ministration at the 2024 Making Your Life Count Conference, held at the Charis Church Headquarters auditorium on Cultural Center Road, Mokola, Ibadan, on Thursday, July 11, 2024.
Addressing the conference theme “Benchmark, being the Standard to Beat,” Pastor Jaiyebo emphasised that a benchmark is a standard by which something can be measured or judged. “As a benchmark, you are the standard to be met,” he said.
Reading from the scriptures in Psalm 139:14-16 NLT, he stated, “How well you know who you are and the stuff you are made of will determine how far you go in life.”
He continued, “When you say you don’t know what to do, then, you have an identity problem. When things are tough, you must know who you are.”
The pastor highlighted that believers are the workmanship of God, created to do certain good things called purpose. “You are created specially to do certain things. You are alive to do certain projects which God has assigned to you a long time ago,” he said.
He explained that what determines one’s identity are factors such as: what people say about you, what you are going through, and what the devil brings to your mind. “But it is never accurate. It can change. You can’t build yourself on people’s opinions. Everybody has a right to their opinion,” he said.
He said what God says about a particular individual is what truly determines and defines who that person is, exemplifying God’s Kingdom Mandate as established through the scriptures.
Pastor Jaiyebo discussing the Dominion Mandate and Kingdom Mandate, explained that a mandate is a calling, a writ of summons or an invitation to an office, task, or responsibility.
“A mandate is also the calling. A writ of summons or invitation to an office, task or responsibilities,” he said.
He emphasised that everyone has a divine pull to want to do something that others don’t want to do. “You have a divine pull to want to do something that others don’t want to do,” he said.
Continuing his teaching in the second session of the conference in the evening, the pastor emphasised that the things God had planned long ago are one’s purpose.
“Your purpose is where you will have your highest fulfilment and satisfaction,” he said.
He highlighted that purpose is the key to influence and affluence, saying, “Your purpose is the key to your heavenly reward.”
Pastor Jaiyebo said no human can change God’s purpose while cautioning that believers should be wary of prophecies not directly coming from God or the pastors who have spiritual oversight on them.
He explained that relationships and responsibility qualify someone to give you a prophecy, adding, “God is not a gossip, He will speak to you first before speaking to another person.”
He emphasised that God will ask you what you did with your purpose, according to His Dominion Mandate in Genesis 1:26-28.
Pastor Jaiyebo also explained that human beings are deliberate creations of God. “You are under a commission to be fruitful,” he said.
He highlighted that multiplication is part of the Dominion Mandate, that believers are meant to “Subdue the earth,” referencing 1 John 5:4 and 1 Corinthians 10:13.
The pastor made it known that the dominion mandate is not necessarily spiritual, saying, “It doesn’t necessarily answer to prayer, it answers to doing something.”
He concluded by encouraging believers to be the best in their respective fields: “Have at least one area where you are the standard to beat,” he said.
The Kingdom Mandate was also discussed, with the pastor emphasising that it is discoverable only in God. “You’ve existed before you existed. He saw you before you were made,” he said.
The four-day Making Your Life Count Conference is being held at the Charis Church Headquarters in Ibadan from July 11 to 14, 2024.
