Usually, disciples (followers) act in the same manner as their masters. They talk like their master and do the things they see him do. This explains why the disciples of Jesus spoke and taught with authority after His death just as their master used to do while He was with them. (Acts 4:13). In our contemporary society, one can easily know the denomination a Christian belongs to either by the way he/she dresses or the way or things he/she says. In most cases, for example, the women in a church emulate the pastor’s wife in dressing and fashion. This means that a minister’s lifestyle go a long way to affect other people’s lives. If so, it then follows that a minister of God must live the kind of life that God wants his followers to live. The only way to achieve this is to be a doer of the Word yourself.
I once heard a preacher telling his listeners to do what they hear him say and not what they see him do. This is ridiculous and does not conform to what our Lord Jesus taught us. In the book of Acts Chapter 1 Verse 1, we saw what the life of Jesus was and how that of a minister of God should be. “…of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach”. Note the Scripture above didn’t say he began both to teach and to do, rather He started by doing it, then He taught others to do the same thing. That is a minister. “…but whosoever shall DO AND TEACH them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven”. (Matthew 5:19). Apostle Paul is another example of a typical minister of God, and he is always bold to tell the churches to do the things they see him do. “Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me; those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard and seeing in me, do” (I Corinthians 4:16, Phil. 4:9).
As a minister of God, you ought to do the word of God, and teach others to do the same. That is where the progress and maturity come from (I Timothy 4:15, 16). Do you preach godliness? Then live a godly life. Do you preach healing and miracles? Do it first. Do you preach prosperity? Live a prosperous life first. Do you preach faith? First put your faith to work.
Whatever you are teaching others, make sure they are what you are doing.
– segun eshorun
