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The Lord Jesus come to earth with an important message that everyone needed tohear. “Jesus travelled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming thegood news of the kingdom of God.” Was He alone in this communication task? No!

We read that He had helpers: “The Twelve were with him and also some women.”We know that then Lord Jesus miraculously multiplied fish and bread, but this was not His normal way to meet the physical needs of His team. Among them were somevery grateful individuals “who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases... These women were helping to support them out of their own means” (Luke 8:1-3).

Christian leadership is a gift from God (Rom. 12:8). Leaders can share a vision,propose a good action plan or design the structure for a useful Christian ministry. But without helpers, they do not get very far! The apostle Paul was a man of greatenergy, contagious enthusiasm and was gifted with a large vision. He also needed
helpers! Some are mentioned by name, like Timothy and Erastus (Acts 19:22),Phoebe, Priscilla and Aquila (Rom. 16:1-3). Tertius helped Paul with his secretarial skills, Gaius helped Paul with his house and resources (Rom. 16:22-23). The church at Corinth helped Paul by praying for him (2 Cor. 1:11). The mother of Rufus musthave been quite a special woman. Paul says that she helped him by being “a mother to me” (Rom 16:13). Local churches and Christian ministries need more of these warm hearted, caring “mothers.” In the various lists of gifts, we also find “those able to help others” and “those with gifts of administration” (1 Cor. 12:28). Can you help? Do you help? Would you like to help?

Sometimes we are called to work alone. But usually the Lord works through a group of people, each person with his or her own personality, experience, gifts and skills.We Christians serve the Lord as members of a body, a body where Christ is “the Head.” This ensures that every person, every function and every task has dignity andsignificance. Christ’s objectives are reached “as each part does its work” (Eph. 4:15-16).
What is your task? Do you do it? Do you do it joyfully?

We can all help in different ways. By praying (Rom. 15:30), by giving (2 Cor. 9:2), by encouraging (2 Cor.7:13) and by joining a team and “doing” (Rom 16:12). Sometimes no one notices what we do. As the years go by, we forget much of what we have done. But our “God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. We want each
of you to show this same diligence to the very end” (Heb. 6:10-11).
Enjoy helping! Don’t give up! It’s worth it!

Philip Nunn
Source: www.philipnunn.com

Suffering is one of the basic prerequisite of success. Though suffering is relative, it is an indispensable experience for a durable breakthrough.
Proverb 13:11 says
“Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished”
Another translation says
“a sudden fortune will dwindle away”
I’m sure many of you are quick to cite examples of people who are succeeding without suffering. Look! If you are succeeding without suffering it means somebody has suffered for you. May be your father, brother, husband or wife.
2Corinthians 4:17
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
For every suffering, there is an accompanying glory. Jesus we all know went down before he was raised up.
He was beaten and humiliated, eating nothing, drinking rubbish, reviled and punished. But today, he has name – respected in heaven, obeyed on earth. That at the mention of that name every knee must bow.
Friends, there is suffering before the smiling you are waiting for.

•  David suffered in the bush, in the caves when Saul was busy pursuing him around, before smiling in the palace.

•  Jacob didn’t find it easy in the house of Laban, he suffered before God gave him his inheritance.

• Joseph was a spoiled child of an aged father. close it the father and pampered in all areas.

But the law of suffering had its way. He passed through the servitude in Potiphar’s estate before tasting what it is to go the prison. But when God turned back his captivity, it was like a dream! I’m sure you know that David, Jacob and Joseph later forgot their suffering – in the name of Jesus you will forget your suffering.

In recent history also, we have records of men and women who passed through the land of suffering, and gloriously moved to the land of Canaan.

•  During the 10 years in which Isaac Newton made his greatest discoveries, he found it very hard to pay 2 shillings a week to the Royal Society of England to keep his membership.

• Chief Obafemi Awolowo of blessed memory though he died as an infidel is an example of how men can rise through the rubbish heaps of life to sit among men that matters. I’m sure you know he was once an houseboy, a sterographer, a poor man by all standards.

•  Late Arch Bishop Idahosa, the man who put the name of Nigeria in the world map of Christianity once pushed truck in Benin, while the wife sells plantain. According to him, he was so poor that the poor called him poor!Look, that you are suffering today does not mean you should lose hope. Don’t ! Don’t !! I know of a man who once hawk bread on the streets of Ibadan, who today is having a growing Pentecostal fellowship in U.K.

•  Thomas Edison, that great thinker and inventor who helped us with the light bulb and many other inventions was once a newsboy on the train.

The Bible saysOur light afflictions of today worketh…
Friends, receive hope! Your suffering today will work out your long awaited success. You are paying the price today, don’t worry you will get the prize. Please take note that by suffering, I’m not referring to punishments received for your disobedience or crime.

The Almighty God will not allow you to suffer in vain!

What should be your attitude during suffering?
Don’t lose hope: if you don’t lose hope, you will receive help. Things may not be working as you want today, but you just keep on. Keep on keeping on, you help is coming.
The word of God says “for thou shalt not be ashamed neither be thou confounded; for thou shall not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood anymore”.
How do you generate hope:
- Get closer to God-the hope of all creatures. There is nothing too hard for Him to do. “For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope”. Be saved, forsake sin and begin to follow God, He is able to change your story, He is able to put laughter into your mouth.
Oh thank God for the life of Job throughout his days in the school of suffering, he was hopeful. He said I know my redeemer liveth!
- Hope in His words in accordance with Psalm 119:114 which says Thou art my hiding place and my shield. I hope in thy word.
-Begin to imagine a great tomorrow. (Rf Gen 11:6)
“As a man thinketh in his heart so is he” Imagine yourself getting out of that suffering, imagine a better tomorrow. See yourself succeed .Visualize it in your mind: what you see is what you get.
-Never lose your joy. Suffering is not forever. Don’t lose your joy, laugh often. Laughter has a great medicinal value. “Whether the fig tree blossom or not” the writer of Habakkuk says I will rejoice in the Lord my God, I will joy in the Lord of my salvation. Joseph was a good example of a person who suffered ‘joyfully’. He accused his prison mates of losing their joy, because he was never sorrowful.

Beloved you will succeed. But remember, it is a matter of choice. There will be two teams in heaven. – Abraham’s team and Lazarus the beggar’s team.
To which team would you like to belong? The same scriptures which says the poor shall not cease in the land also declares thou shall lend into nations and thou shall not borrow. IT IS WELL

Beloved, there is nothing that cannot be done. The impossibilities of yesterday are the possibilities of today. In 1923, Robert Millikan a Nobel Prize winner in Physics said “there is not likelihood that man can ever tap the power of an atom”. (But today, we are all aware of Nuclear energy and the reality of atomic bomb)
In 1885, Lord Kelvin said “Heavier than air flying machines are impossible”. But we all know aero planes now! Another man, a Bishop also said its impossible for man to fly and that only angels are intended to fly”. Coincidentally, the first flying plane was made by his two sons!
In 1954, there were medical articles that said human body can’t run 1 mile in 4 minutes. Yet the same year, Roger Banister a young medical student went out and run a mile under 4 minutes.
Therefore, understand that there is nothing that cannot be done. All you need is a strong desire.
Psalm 145: 15 – 16
The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.
God is a specialist in satisfying desires.
Desire is an unbeatable force. It has well been defined as what you cannot live without. And all through the Bible and secular history, we saw the power of desire.
#Moses desired to free the children of Israel from servitude. It made him kill an Egyptian and eventually he ran away. But we all know God later made him a deliverer.
#Jacob desired strongly to escape the looming death from the hand of his senior brother Esau. That desire made him hold tenaciously to the angel and his name was changed for better.
#Jabez had a strong desire for a change of status. The desire propelled him into effective prayer and he received his miracle.
#Henry Ford’s desire was to make automobile available to every family in America. He became one of the most successful business men in the world.
#Helen Keller’s desire was to learn to speak and she became one of the world’s outstanding citizens though she was blind.

Friends, what God has placed in you and before you is far more than your imaginations. You have greater ability than you ever dare to believe. But it will take strong desire to bring it out.
Let me expatiate on what desire will do:
Luke 19: 1-6
[1] Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. [2] A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. [3] He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. [4] So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. [5] When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." [6] So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

Zacchaeus had a strong desire to see Jesus.
1. Desire imparts speed v3 says he RAN. It will also be recalled that when Gehazi desired the clothing materials of Naaman, he received an unction to run and overtake chariots of Naaman
2. Desire overcomes obstacles. The crowd wanted to stop Zacchaeus, but a man with a strong desire cannot be stopped.
A wise man once said:
If you have your heart fixed on what you want, there is nothing that can be done to stop you from getting it.
3. Desire commands divine attention.
When Jesus came to where Zacchaeus was, he was forced to look up!
When your desire is righteous, God will be forced to listen to you. Actually, there is nothing like fruitful prayers without genuine desires.

How do you generate desire:
1. Have a goal, a dream. Dream precipitates desires. Thomas Edison dreamt of lighting the world with lamps and he pursued the dream ceaselessly though he paid the price of 10,000 failures, he gave light to the world. Martin Luther King Jnr had a dream of seeing apartheid eradicated in America. The desire generated by that dream was so great that in the face of death he didn’t budge. When he saw Jr Kennedy shot, he even told his wife categorically that his is how I will die – and truly that was how he was shot!
Paul the apostle had a dream of seeing Isreal converted. He said in Rom 9:3
For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh. KJV
Another translation
Indeed, I could wish that I myself might be sentence to separation from Christ, if that, will benefit my brethren, my own kinsmen race.
That dream brought out an undefeatable desire in him such that when the Holy Ghost said bonds and afflictions were waiting for him in Jerusalem he did not fear.
He said categorically;
“But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself”….he said again in Act 21:13 “I am ready not to be bound only but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus”
To generate desire, have what you are pursuing and know it.

2. Put your goals on paper and keep reading it to yourself. Give yourself a daily pep talk, and stay excited
Hab 2:2
Write the vision and make it plain upon the tables, that he may run that readth.
If you read, you will run.Therefore, put something down to read so, as soon as you begin to read it, you’ll receive power to run.

3. Stay competitive: develop a sense of healthy competition with others involved in the same vocation.
If you desire to excel in business for example,you need to develop a healthy spirit of competition to be the top businessman in your area…

Finally
Are you saved? Do you have the assurance that your name is in the book of life.