Working for Christ

By Idemudia Guobadia

Working for Christ challenges the believer to do work that Christ would recognize and commend. It shows that work, no matter how good, that is done outside of Christ is no value in the kingdom of God. Until you work in Christ, you have not worked for Christ. The worker for Christ must be kingdom minded ready to wage spiritual warfare and to intercede as often as the Spirit of Christ demands. There is so much work to be done and Christ is looking for committed workers! This book is written to show you how to make your work for God count.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Idemudia Guobadia
• Release date: Jan 26, 2018
• ISBN: 9781370759712

Idemudia Guobadia

Idemudia Guobadia was ordained into the pastoral ministry in April 2006 and consecrated into the office of Apostle in August 2017. He is the lead pastor of the Overcomers in Christ Group of Churches located in Brooklyn, New York; Newark, New Jersey; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Idemudia Guobadia has resided and worked in four continents of the world and is conversant with various world cultures. He has worked as a university professor, attorney, government administrator, motivational speaker, pastor, and evangelist. He is married to his beautiful wife, Tayo and is blessed with two sons and two daughters.

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A Desperate Call for True Workers

Matthew 9:37-38:

Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’

Indeed, the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Jesus, the Lord of the harvest, is calling on workers to help bring in the harvest. Many are ignoring His call. Many are too occupied with things that do not really matter. A good number of Christians would rather stay home and watch their favorite television shows than labor for souls in prayer and evangelism. Many workers have failed to study to show themselves approved unto God and to learn from Christ. They lack the knowledge needed to bring in the harvest. Many workers have sought to bring in the harvest based on their zeal and limited understanding. Others have tried to employ strategies and tactics of the world to bring in the harvest.

Nothing significant will happen until the church travails in prayer and then by faith goes out to fish for men to work the harvest fields. God needs workers that will listen to the instructions of the Lord of the harvest and not workers who go about doing their own thing or who choose to serve whenever it pleases or suits them.

When we ask Jesus Christ to send out workers into His harvest field, He will do so. Oftentimes the kingdom of darkness will also send out workers to the churches to corrupt and stifle the work of the Lord. These workers may look like the real thing, but they do not have the Spirit of Christ. Not everyone who claims to be a worker for Christ is one. We must test the spirits and evaluate the fruits. A tree is known by its fruit. Workers come in different forms, and we must have the right discernment to know which form is of God. The Bible warns us in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 of deceitful workers masquerading as apostles of Christ.

Some churches may need to assess their workers and take remedial steps to realize their vision if the workers do not bring value to vision fulfillment. In fact, some so-called workers may have actually impeded the harvest. Certain types of workers are just not profitable, and the Word of God admonishes us to examine ourselves to ensure that we do not fall into these categories. Specifically, 2 Corinthians 13:5 tells us: Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?

The following will provide an overview of the different types of workers and what the Word of God has to say about each.

The Neutral Worker

This is the worker that is neither here nor there. The neutral worker is like the Laodicean church in Revelation 3: neither hot nor cold. In Matthew 12:30, Christ makes it clear that if you are not helping to gather, that means you are scattering the harvest. If you are neutral, as far as Jesus is concerned, you are not for Him. This further means that you are against Him. One reason why vision is not being fulfilled is because some of those who are entrusted to run with the vision are mere fence-sitters and benchwarmers.

It is not enough to abstain from evil. You must do good as well. The case of the neutral worker is quite a serious problem in the church. When a significant number of neutral workers are in leadership positions in the church, the church begins to drift. The church is called to go into the world, preach the gospel, and make disciples of all nations. The church is mandated to occupy until the return of Christ. The church is on earth to spread the light and engage the forces of darkness in spiritual warfare. A neutral, complacent church cannot do the work it has been called to do. Ephesians 2:10 tells us: For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

The worker for Christ is called to do good works. Merely attending church services is not enough. The worker should be engaged in activity (which includes prayer) that changes the existing state of affairs for the glory of God.

A neutral Christian is one who lacks passion for the things of God. He may not necessarily be lazy, but he just does not expend his labor on the things that count for eternity. This apathy toward the things of God has led to many comatose churches just like the church in Laodicea that was neither hot nor cold. Many churches today have lost their fire or never even really had the fire to begin with. They are content to stay in their comfort zones rather than extend themselves to be used by God in unimaginable ways. The point is that a neutral church is a dead church. Christ is alive, and He demands that His church be alive as well. He demands that His workers also be alive. In Revelation 3:15-16, Jesus says He will spit a church like the Laodicean church out of His mouth: I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

Christ requires commitment and zeal on the part of those that follow Him. The Laodicean church was content with its condition. They saw themselves as rich and in need of nothing (Revelation 3:17). They had acquired wealth and yet were lukewarm. That was wealth they could have used to advance the work of Christ, but they chose to relax, enjoy their wealth, and take things nice and easy. On the other hand, Jesus described them as wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. This is the state of the neutral worker and the neutral church. These are not the kinds of workers that Christ desires for His work. One of the Holy Spirit’s assignments on earth is to put fire into neutral workers that are willing to repent. Neutral workers fill up spaces and positions that could have been filled by others with commitment, love, and passion for the work of Christ.

Our living Savior will not permit a dead church to be part of His body for long. The church needs the fire of God in order to come alive again, and it begins with those who are called to labor for Christ. For the neutral worker to come out of complacency, his mind must be renewed. He must take on the mind of Christ. He must be baptized in the Holy Ghost and with fire. This kind of worker just cannot sit on the fence. The body of Christ urgently needs workers that are hot—on fire for God.

An on-fire worker is filled with passion for the things of God and is never content with being a spectator. He realizes that it is more blessed to give than to receive. There is enormous work to be done in these last days, and the worker who takes a neutral stance has done nothing to shine the light of Christ into the world. He has done nothing to arrest the powers of darkness. Christ has given him authority, but just like the slothful servant in Matthew 25:18, 26-27, he chooses to bury his talent and authority under the ground.

The Worker That Complains

A second type of worker we find in the church is the worker who complains. The complainer—especially the one that complains against leadership—sows seeds of division in the church. In Numbers 12, Miriam and Aaron grumbled against their leader, Moses. They took issue with Moses because Moses had married an Ethiopian woman. Miriam and Aaron equated themselves as being on the same level as Moses before God. Miriam and Aaron had been called to labor alongside Moses, and now they were attacking him by grumbling against him. This form of complaining had the potential of undermining not only Moses’ effectiveness as a leader but also his divine authority. In essence, Miriam and Aaron were scattering what Moses sought to gather and build. They were out of order, and so the Lord severely rebuked and punished them.

In the Lord’s work, you don’t complain. You pray for changes. You cry out to God to make the necessary amends. God is the unchangeable Changer. The worker in Christ must trust in God for the changes needed in His work.

The complaining worker is always quick to criticize. Often he has no credible and proven solution to the problem at hand. His complaining, criticism, and accusation only serve the agenda of devils by seeking to divide and create factions within the church. Very often a complainer finds an outlet through gossip. Instead of channeling his concerns directly to the persons concerned, he ends up telling all who care to listen about the wrong he perceives as having been done. Complaining and gossip create tension and disunity in the church. A church divided against itself cannot stand.

The Slothful Worker

Another kind of worker who does not help the church in realizing its vision is the lazy worker. No matter how good his intentions may seem, he is lazy. The book of Proverbs contains many warnings against the slothful worker. Proverbs 10:4 says that lazy hands make a man poor but that diligent hands bring wealth. Bringing the harvest into the storehouse is indicative of prosperity. A lazy hand is not willing to bring in the harvest. All he does is watch, and before he realizes it he and the house he is in come to decay and ruin. Proverbs 12:24 (NLT) says, work hard and become a leader; be lazy and become a slave. A house with too many lazy workers cannot go very far.

Jesus Christ commands His followers to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching