STEPPING UP THE GAME IN 2025

APOSTLE SAMUEL EFFIONG

His Secrets of Success In Life
and Ministry

Yes, it’s so because everything happens by design; that is, you create it. I have a time table for my daily routine, Monday to Sunday, 5am to 8am. I have a time schedule with God, prayer time, study time, counseling, Choir rehearsal, evangelism.

I have schedules for preparing for service, preparation for workers meeting, time for rest and family. This is how my life is. This is my day planner; I plan, I dream for the future, what happens next. I have the planner everywhere I go; in my house, wherever I am I know what I’m supposed to be doing per time, because anything left to chance has no chance, you don’t leave life to chance, you order life, you instruct life, you discipline life, you streamline life because your time is your life, if you waste it, you waste your life.

I have noticed in your planner more quiet time in a day than others. Why?
That’s the root! The root is more important than the fruits, it is the root that bears the fruits, the foolishness of people is appreciating more of the fruits than appreciating the root, and the root is the source. It takes the source to bear the resource, so resources come from a source, if I don’t have a source, I can’t have resources.

God is the source of everything you see, know, hear and believe about me, if I lose my contact with the source which is God, I’ve lost everything you know about me. So, God is the most important. He is number one, the first, the last, beginning, the ending, alpha and omega. The time spent with God produces the results you admire.

So, I rather have time with God than for activities. Anyone who cannot prevail with God for men, can never succeed with men for God, it takes winning with God, to win men for God. He who must successfully talk to men and convince them about God, must first successfully talk with God and convince God about men, so the result we see is because of the foundation we have laid.

I’m so thrilled to see that in the 21st Century, where everything happens at the speed of the button, that there are a few who are devoting time to read books in black and white?
There is a difference between reading a book from your screen, and reading a book from the print. I can say the print is very strong, very powerful.

There are things called ancient landmarks, a book you read in print, you can underline, you can flip through the pages, you can easily make references to the point you studied, but on your electronic device, it’s hard to make notes page by page, in the electronic book you have to scroll back to re-check where you underlined something. It’s more difficult to find a point of reference so readily and quickly from your e-device, but in printed books, it is segmented in chapters you easily mark and flip to for references. In my studying, you’ll see lots of paragraphs I’ve underlined in the pages of the book, which I can get at any time I want it, and it saves time because the printed book is so easy to interact with.

Reading the printed Bible gives you more clarity, because as God’s spirit speaks to you, you have something to write down right on the sides of the pages. And this helps you make reference faster, it boosts your study life, boosts your understanding of the word better, this can help you when you’re preaching or studying.

This will give you fast references, for the audience, unlike the e-devise which no matter how familiar you’re with its use, it’s still complex, it cannot give you what you need in time. And that’s the benefit this generation is gradually losing, because we are fast departing from some major traditional learning tools. But the Bible says, Remove not the ancient landmark (Proverbs 22:28).

No matter how much you admire e-books, you pay more attention to the printed books on your shelves. Besides, your e-device can crash, you can lose everything you thought you had at a click but the ones on your shelves are an asset of a lifetime and beyond.

In retrospect, the year 2024 was a tough year; only few strong men like you smiled through it. What do you see about 2025? Before 2024, there was a shaking economically in 2023 in the country; there was hardship all over the place. But it was then God said, “For you and those who believe you, this year (2024) shall be your year of rest on every side.”

It was crazy for me to announce that to thousands of people during the Crossover night of December 31, 2023. But I told them, ‘God said 2024 will be a year of rest, ‘despite the economic turmoil. Today, I can tell you unequivocally that 2024 was the best year ever for me and my ministry. People have had mind-blowing blessings, the kind of financial favour I have never had all my life as a pastor, I had it in one month, January 2024. And from that time till now, even as it is dry everywhere, I am supporting other pastors, I am helping others financially.

God did in one month what he has not done in 50 years, till now I am in shock. In our church, testimonies are everywhere, because God said it is, ‘Our year of rest.’ When God speaks, he performs it; He started the year with a bang, and God has ended the year again with a bang.
Given this backdrop, God is telling me to tell our people that 2025 is our year of Greater Glory. That means whatever we saw in 2024, God is stepping up the game. When others say, ‘There is a casting down, for us we say, ‘There is a lifting up!’ What you see, what you hear and what you say matters a lot.

How can the young people who are your teeming followers get it right?
I think every young people should learn to live life from the inside out, not from the outside in. The problem with our young people is that they are living life based on the circumstances surrounding them, instead of based on faith that resides in them for the just shall live by faith (Gal 3:11). Every young person should remember the Lord his God in the days of his youth; and that is what gives you a platform to launch out. I’m talking to you based on what I hear from the inside; the mental shift is what we need, we need to start thinking how we can be part of the solution, rather than the problem.

God will only bless the works of your hands; you can’t therefore fold your arms and run around people, run around politicians to think you will be blessed. Young people must think proactively this year. Decide that, “I won’t be a liability to anyone this year, I’ll take responsibility, I will do one, two, three things, while I’m doing that, God will see what I’m doing and then can make even those in authority to connect to what I’m doing, and then, we’re rising.”

When you are focused on what you are doing, step by step, ‘the Lord is your shepherd, you shall not want,’ but when you look unto man, you’ll want.
So, the pastors must work from the pulpit to groom the people, let them know that we are the gods to our world, we have this image in us, we can create things, because God has since stopped creating things, and has handed over creation back to us. We are the creative agents, turning things around. We are here to change things. For God to walk with you, you must be working, you can’t fold your hands and look at someone else’s hand.

There’s a lesson from Eliezer, Abraham’s servant who said, I being in the way, the Lord led me (Gen 24:27). So God wants you on the way, then He’ll order your steps into your rest. Pastors must teach young people to be more industrious, anyone who is busy doing something for himself, is too busy to be distracted by other vices, but an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.

I teach young people to get engaged on start-ups, I support many young people in their businesses. At the end of 2024, God led me to supporting some families for business start-ups, I’ve done some already, I’m going to do some more.