Maximize Your Impact

By Professor P. V. Ntintili

This book argues that all people are born with an innate capacity to perform extraordinarily in at least one area of life. This inborn capability is a divine endowment for which each individual is accountable to the Giver. Failure to excel in whatever one does, is an indictment to one’s Maker and an irrecoverable waste of rare resources. Readers are exhorted to discover, develop, deploy and maximise their potential while it could still make a difference in other people’s lives. It focuses particularly on the notion of spiritual revival and urges Christians to maximise their potential for revival. This is an urgent call!

About the Author

Professor Vuyani P. Ntintili is committed to the empowerment of Christians and to equipping them to take their rightful stand in society. He does this through teaching and holding seminars, workshops and conferences. He works for the whole Body of Christ (the Church) and also conducts clergy seminars or clergy schools which are meant to equip ministers/pastors to be effective in their pastoral work. He is deeply committed to discipleship and leadership development in the Body of Christ. He mobilizes churches for revival in the nations. Professor Ntintili believes strongly that Christian professionals have not tapped their God-given potential and thus are not contesting the highly contested arena of academia. That is why their voices are deafeningly quiet in society. He does not peddle the Gospel of Christ and he strongly believes in Matt. 10:8 which says, “Freely you have received, freely give.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Professor P. V. Ntintili
• Release date: Feb 6, 2018
• ISBN: 9781370519019

Book preview

Maximize Your Impact

Maximize Your Impact

Professor P. V. Ntintili, Ph.D.; Th.D.

Copyright © 2018 Professor P. V. Ntintili

Published by Professor P. V. Ntintili Publishing at Smashwords

First edition 2018

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without permission from the copyright holder.

The Author has made every effort to trace and acknowledge sources/resources/individuals. In the event that any images/information have been incorrectly attributed or credited, the Author will be pleased to rectify these omissions at the earliest opportunity.

Published by Author using Reach Publishers’ services,

P O Box 1384, Wandsbeck, South Africa, 3631

Edited by Tony van der Watt for Reach Publishers

Cover designed by Reach Publishers

Website: www.reachpublishers.co.za

E-mail: [e-mail]

CONTENTS

Acknowledgement

Preface

Chapter 1: The Dispensation of Maximisation of Impact

Chapter 2: We are Created for Impact

Chapter 3: The Fall Negatively Affected our Impact

Chapter 4: The Restoration of Godly Impact

Chapter 5: God is Demanding Impact

Chapter 6: The Nature of our Impact

Chapter 7: The Scope and Challenges of the Impact

Chapter 8: The Season of the Impact

Chapter 9: The Means of Achieving the Impact

Chapter 10: The Prerequisites of the Impact

Chapter 11: Instruments for the Impact

Chapter 12: God’s Equipping for the Impact

Chapter 13: The Role of Faith in Impact

Chapter 14: Courage and Maximising of Impact

Chapter 15: Professions and Impact

Chapter 16: Servanthood and Impact

Chapter 17: Impact and Teamwork

Chapter 18: Imperatives of Impact

Chapter 19: The Essence of our Impact

Chapter 20: The Secret of our Impact

Chapter 21: The Benefits of Maximised Impact

Chapter 22: God is Poised to Help us

Chapter 23: Personal Ambition and Impact

An Epilogue:

Recommended Books:

Acknowledgements

Sometimes when readers pick up a book to read, they have no idea the pain the writer has gone through to write it. But there are many people who make sacrifices for the book to be published. Those close to the writer have to sacrifice many days without his or her company. I took exactly one month to write this book. This meant that on many days I only went to sleep at three o’clock in the morning. Our children are already out of our house and I live with Felicia (my wife) alone. When I was busy writing this book and burning the midnight oil, she was completely by herself. She had no one to talk to. But she took all this very graciously, knowing that I was trying to maximise my impact. I am not just being courteous in acknowledging her sacrifices. I am genuinely and deeply grateful to her for her understanding and support.

Without a competent publisher, a manuscript will never see the light of the day. We have no idea how hard a job it is to publish a book. It begins with manuscript-reading, which involves rigorous editing. When you get the finished product, the readers do not know of the toils of so many who worked on the book. I pray to God that the labour of those who worked on the publishing of this book will not be in vain. It is my prayer that the book will encourage many to maximise their impact and that doing so will bring honour and glory to our God.

There are innumerable other people who have directly or indirectly contributed to the publishing of this book. It is not possible to mention all of them. But God knows their labour of love. May the good Lord recompense them accordingly.

Go away1`4Preface

It is important for me to mention the factors that have led to the emergence of this particular book. I received an invitation from Brother Emmanuel Chuks Chendo to contribute to the Minister’s in-Service Training that took place at the Good News Convention Conference Centre in Honeydew, Johannesburg, in May of 2013. This was for ministers of the Foursquare Gospel Church in Nigeria. They decided to have their conference in South Africa. After prayer, I sensed that God was permitting me to honour this invitation. We truly had a good time in the presence of the Lord. Their fervent love and zeal for God and His work were quite infectious. I was impacted by the input of all those who were invited to be part of the in-service training.

During this conference, friendship developed between me and the National Secretary of the Foursquare Gospel Church in Nigeria, Rev. Ugbaja Ikechukwu. First of all, the contribution of this humble servant of God was extremely edifying to me. But what caught my attention even more than his inspiring paper was his humility and love. He asked me if I would be available to address their international conference for ministers and leaders in Nigeria. Because of our friendship, I impulsively said that I would be happy to be part of it. But after he had departed I apologised to the Lord for my impulsiveness and I asked if he would permit me to be part of it. The Lord had no problem with it. I had to secure the permission of my leader and discipler, Brother Gbile Akanni, and he was more than happy to release me for this assignment.

In the meantime, the Foursquare Gospel Church of Omole-Ikeja, Lagos was having their annual Revival Fire Conference, which took place in October 16-20 of the same year, 2013. When Rev. Dayo Adewumi was looking for a speaker, the national secretary, Rev. Ugbaja Ikechukwu graciously suggested my name. Brother Adewumi trusted his judgement and, even though he had never seen nor heard me speak, invited me to be the main speaker at this revival conference. We became instant friends with Pastor Dayo Adewumi and his wife and their hospitality was quite humbling. Again, I learned a lot from the input of other speakers who were invited to be part of this conference. I must admit that I was falling in love with the Foursquare Church and, even if I was not already a satisfied member of the Baptist Church, I could have been swayed to join the church. Besides, I am too old to be changing churches. I wonder if there would be a church that would be interested in taking a person of my age into new membership. But the Foursquare Gospel Church has a big place in my heart and I am praying for its ministry, not only in Nigeria, but around the world.

True to his word, the National Secretary of the Foursquare Church in Nigeria contacted me telephonically to extend an invitation to be part of their International Conference for Ministers and Leaders, which took place on April 14-19, 2014 at the Foursquare Camp, in Ajebo, Ogun State, Nigeria. When I consulted God about it, He permitted me to accede to the request and my brother, Gbile Akanni, also graciously released me to accept this assignment. He spoke exceptionally well of the denomination.

The theme of the conference was Making Maximum Impact. All those who were to speak were requested to submit a summary of their address well in advance. To my utter amazement, when the conference started, all the papers had been compiled into a book, which was then given to every conference participant. Such competence not only surprised me, but it actually exhilarated me greatly. I was proud that such competence was being displayed in Africa, the erstwhile dark continent of the missionary era. The input from all those who were invited was outstanding. I was greatly edified and equipped by the conference to make maximum impact for the Lord. The excellence that was displayed by the organisers of this conference was very high. It was comparable to conferences that I had the privilege of attending in the West; it actually exceeded some of them. The quality of the presentation was lofty indeed.

You need to realise that the invitation to speak at this conference came from the General Oversee of the Foursquare Church in Nigeria, Rev. Felix Meduoye. What surprised me, and taught me great lessons in teamwork, is the fact that Rev. Meduoye had never seen me nor heard me speak. But he took the recommendation of the General Secretary, Rev. Ugbaja Ikechukwu. He had absolute faith in his judgement and was willing to take the risk of inviting someone he had never heard to such an august conference. This spoke volumes about their working relationships. I felt that there were lessons to be gleaned in mutual trust and respect from this. It was such a privilege to meet Rev. Meduoye. He is such a humble and down-to-earth servant of God. The Lord started to whisper a lot of complementary things about him, which I have no liberty to expose in this preface.

While I was preparing for the presentation I was to make at the conference, God compelled me to deviate from the précis which I had submitted. Instead, He forced me to reckon with the word impact. He stressed that the theme: Making Maximum Impact was not just a theme. Rather it was His mandate to the Church in these last days. I did not know how to adequately convey this to the conference delegates. God insisted that this was a divine imperative and demand. God is actually demanding from the Church maximum impact. If we are to stop the progress of the kingdom of darkness and its negative and destructive impact on earth, the Church has to greatly increase its impact. The gains the enemy has made is the result of the abdication of responsibility of the Church. It is as if we are passive observers of the havoc the enemy is wreaking in our world, including the church. The impact of the enemy has ghastly consequences for our young people and for the future of our nations and the world at large. It is as if God is saying that it is not enough for us just to be observers of what the devil and his followers, both human and demonic, are doing. The Body of Christ has to roll up its sleeves and be prepared to exponentially increase its impact.

God stressed that this mandate or divine imperative is not only to the Foursquare Church in Nigeria. Rather, it is to the whole Body of Christ - the Church universal. When God said that the gates of hell would not prevail against His Church, He meant it. But this would be true only of a Church that has maximised its impact. He stressed that it was wrong to think that the Church triumphant will take place only in heaven after the rapture. The Church must triumph now, if the avalanche of wickedness is to be stemmed and the kingdom of God is to be expanded on the earth. This maximisation of impact is not something that must be done only by those in the high echelons of the Church.

Rather, it is the responsibility of every Christian to maximise his or her impact wherever God has sovereignly deployed him or her. One does not have to be highly educated to maximise his or her impact. He or she has only to be consumed by zeal for the work of the Lord; he or she must be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. In history, we read of ordinary people who turned the world upside down. We must not forget that Peter and some of the apostles were ordinary, uneducated men, who were carrying the life of Christ. They shook their world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Sanhedrin had to convene meeting after meeting to discuss devices to be employed to stop the influence of these ordinary brothers and sisters.

God told me that young people, in particular, must be mobilised to maximise their impact. They will do so only when they have been equipped and trained in the principles and values of the Word of God. They also need formal education. They need to be properly equipped to take their rightful places among men in our world and to tower far above all of them.

When I came back from the Foursquare Church’s International Conference for Ministers and Leaders, I felt constrained to write this book, as my humble contribution to the mobilisation of the Church to greatly increase her impact in our world today. Not to do so would be to throw in the towel to the Devil. We cannot do that at all. We are engaged in a fierce warfare with him and his hordes of darkness. It was this sense of compulsion that made me to write this book within one month and to do so in the midst of other pressing responsibilities.

I request you to kindly forgive me for whatever shortcomings you encounter in this book. The intention is not to display any erudite scholarship. Instead, there is a message to be disseminated. The message is that we are living in the last days. There is a need for the Church to arise and maximise her impact in this sin-infested world. What God is saying to the Church is better articulated by Eccl. 9:10 which says, Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom. I hope we will heed this urgent injunction from God’s Holy Word.

Chapter One

The Dispensation of Maximisation of Impact

It has to be understood that God speaks to His people and communicates plans to them. The Bible says in Amos 3:7, Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets God still has His prophets today to whom He reveals His plans of the ages. God is saying that this is the dispensation of maximisation of impact.

There are two ways in which the word dispensation is used. First, it could be used as the noun of the verb ‘dispense’ meaning to ‘to give out or to distribute.’ In 1 Cor. 9:17, Paul says that the ‘dispensation of the Gospel’ has been committed to him. This means that the responsibility of dispensing or distributing the Gospel, particularly to the Gentiles, has been given to him. The second way in which the word dispensation is used means a special era in which God deals with people in the world. For example, the Bible speaks of the dispensation of grace, in Ephesians 3:2. This refers to the era in which God deals with people in grace, rather than in law. We feel that this is dispensation in which God is demanding maximisation of impact from His church.

We are living at the end of the end-times and the return of Christ is more imminent today than it ever was. We will deal with this matter in chapter seven. It suffices to say that when we read the Bible, it is clear that just before Christ returns, there shall be a great move of God that will usher into the kingdom multitudes of converted and redeemed sinners. That is why the Bible says in Matthew 24:14, And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. This final push for world evangelisation will require maximisation of effort, which will result in maximised impact in the world. The world will be gloriously transformed and the Bride of Christ will be readied for the return of her splendid Saviour and Groom. This is the first reason why this is the dispensation (era) of maximisation of impact. When God really comes down in power, those aligned with Him are energised and their zeal for the Lord knows no bounds; it surges. That is why the Bible says, in Ps. 110:3, in the Amplified version, Your people will offer themselves willingly in the day of Your power, in the beauty of holiness and in holy array out of the womb of the morning; to You [will spring forth] Your young men, who are as the dew. This will be the Day of the Lord’s power and those that know their God shall be strong and shall do great exploits for the Lord (cf. Daniel 11:32b in the King James Version).

There is the second reason why God is calling for maximisation of impact from the Church. This maximisation of impact is, in fact, a divine imperative; God is demanding it from His people. The reason for this is that the devil, who is aware that his time is very short, has and is maximising his own impact. His messengers and mercenaries are working strenuously to extend the kingdom of darkness. This is patently obvious from all the gruesome and terrible things that are being perpetuated in our day. When we read newspapers or listen to the news on TV or radio, we cannot escape the despicable things that the agents of darkness are audaciously perpetrating in our world. This alarming degeneration of morals and the brazen nature of wickedness is a global phenomenon. We can’t escape the impact of the kingdom of darkness; it has affected and infected even those who are close to us; our own close relatives. What is disconcerting is that it has even invaded the church of God. Now God is insisting that this maximisation of impact by the kingdom of Satan cannot be allowed to continue unrivalled or uncontested by the Church. The Bible says that where wickedness abounds, grace abounds even more. Rom. 5:20b says, But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. There will be a release of grace and anointing that will deal with the avalanche of wickedness on the Planet Earth. This impact will not come from the energy of the flesh. Rather, it will come from the release of power from On High. But God does not waste His divine resources. He releases them on available vessels who will optimally use them for the advancement of His kingdom. The only thing that God requires from us is willingness. The wherewithal of accomplishing what God wants to do will be provided by God. When the Church maximises its impact, this will counteract and neutralise all the efforts of the enemy, the devil. The reason why his efforts seem to be thriving is because his impact is not contested by the sons of light. God is now demanding that the impact of the sons of Belial must be contested by the sons of God. That is why God is demanding from the Church the maximisation of impact.

The last reason why God is demanding maximisation of impact is because the world has been hardly evangelised. Continents and nations are still languishing in utter darkness. We will fully discuss this situation of unreached people in Chapter 7. Let us simply state here that multitudes are still shackled by the chains of sin and are captives of the kingdom of darkness. They need to be rescued from their bondage to sin and Satan. This can only be done through the preaching of the Gospel. What exacerbates this situation is the bastardisation of the Gospel that is preached today. This adulteration of the Gospel has resulted in the spread of nominalism in the Church. Those who call themselves Christians are Christians in name only and not in character. Nominalism has invaded even Evangelical churches (those churches that are supposed to be preaching the gospel and whose members are supposed to be born-again). What God is calling for will deal with the issue of nominal Christianity.

Whatever it is that you are doing for God, you will need to maximise its impact. God is demanding impact. We will discuss in Chapter Six what it is that God wants maximised. Whatever you do, where God has sovereignly deployed you, you need to maximise it. The Bible says, in Ecclesiastes 9:10, Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom. In the first place your hands should find something to do for the Lord and for the extension of His kingdom on earth. This is not optional. There is no place for idle hands in these days. After you have found what to do, the Bible demands that you must do it with all your might. There is no working, planning, knowledge and wisdom in the grave. For whom or for what are you reserving your energy and expertise? Jeremiah 48:10 says, A curse on him who is lax in doing the LORD’s work! A curse on him who keeps his sword from bloodshed! When God is calling for maximisation of our impact, He is actually demanding excellence of service to Him. Just like Daniel, we need to be imbued with the spirit of excellence, if we want to maximise our impact. We can’t produce sub-standard work and think that we will maximise our impact. What is your response to this divine imperative?

I do not want you