23 Hard Truths Every Pastor Must Know And Abide By

Here are the 23 hard truths every pastor should know and abide by:

1. A pastor’s true message is the one given to him by God. Get your messages from God. Ask Him every now and then to tell you what to preach and also help you to prepare it. He is God and knows what the congregation needs to hear per service. If you preach your message, that would be off-key. But if you preach what God asks you to preach, the people will be blessed.
2. A pastor’s greatest and most influential message is the one preached by his life. People are watching you. The life you live is a message to them. Let your life be in tandem with what you preach.
3. Whatever a pastor is, is exactly what his congregation will be. Like father, like son; like mother, like daughter. If you are worldly, your members will be worldly. If you are carnal, your members will be carnal, but if you are spiritual, your members will be spiritual. The life the pastor lives is the life the members will live. For by their fruits, you will know them.
4. A pastor’s powerhouse is his closet. It is in the closet you wrestle with God; it is in the closet you receive from God. It is in the closet you build yourself up in the Holy Ghost.
5. A pastor should not speak to men about God until he has spoken to God about them. You are an intercessor. When you pray well for a man, you can talk well to the man.
6. A pastor’s anger is manifested only against sin and everything that dishonors God. A pastor should only be provoked by the same things that provoke and dishonor God – sin. You shouldn’t get angry because your self was not treated well. You shouldn’t get angry because somebody stepped on your toes. No. You are to cease from anger, selfish anger.
7. A pastor should know the Bible at his fingertips. The Bible is the word of God; the word of God is the sword of the Spirit. Satan and all demons cannot resist or withstand the power of God’s word. It is the word that brings transformation of lives. You must therefore give yourself to reading and meditating on it day and night, and from cover to cover. You must know and familiarize yourself with what it says about everything. This will help you to rightly divide the word of truth.
8. A pastor who is weak in prayer is weak in his preaching. Prayer releases unction to your preaching. It makes preaching powerful and effective. A pastor who prays much does much. Be much in prayer, if you want to command great results for God through preaching. It is your prayer life that will set you ablaze for God.
9. A pastor should not depend on men but God alone for the supply of his needs. God was the one that called him into the ministry, and not man. He should, therefore, take all his challenges to the One who called him. When you depend on man, you will only be able to accomplish little or nothing.
10. When a pastor falls into sin, since he is the head of the church, the whole body becomes contaminated with his sin.
    Just as a pain in the head affects the proper functioning of other parts of the body.
11. A pastor must preach both sweet and bitter messages. Electric current flows by a combination of negative and positive wires. Most times it is the bitter pills that do more good to the body. So, a pastor must not only preach “sweet messages”, that is, miracles, healing, provisions, and prosperity messages; he must also the ” bitter messages”, that is, preach judgment, perfection, hellfire, restitution, and such like so that they can become balanced and well nourished in spiritual things.
12. A true pastor dies every day. Yes, he has died to sin, the flesh, the world, and Satan. A dead pastor cannot please the flesh, the world, and Satan. He no longer sins either.
    The world has no offer to him. Satan cannot influence him to displease God.
13. Souls are more valuable to a pastor that is called by God than money. He is dead to the love of money. Soul winning gives him more joy than getting money.
14. A pastor must be ahead of his members, especially, in matters of spirituality. If not, he is not fit to lead them.
15. Until a pastor is willing to die for his members, he is not yet fit to lead the people.
16. A pastor should not be spiritually blind. A pastor who is blind will not be able to see what God wants him to see. Without “vision” – the spiritual sight, his ministry will “perish”.
17. A pastor should not be spiritually deaf. Your ears must be tuned to the Voice of the Holy Spirit. God always speaks to direct His pastors. You must have working ears to hear what God in any given situation you find yourself. You must have ears to hear God tell you things about your members, your life, family, and ministry.
18. The best garment for a pastor to wear is the garment of Christ-likeness. You are to put on Christ and live like Him always. People, both the ones you lead and the ones you do not lead, should see Christ in all you say, and in all you do.
19. Church growth comes from the pastor’s growth. When you begin to grow in your spiritual life, you will see that your church too will begin to grow spiritually. And when there is spiritual growth, numerical growth becomes easy.
20. No pastor is indispensable. God always has somebody even a better person to do the assignment he wants you to do if you are not available.
21. No pastor is ready to fight the good fight of faith, who is not on bended knees.
22. A pastor who does not work with eternity in view will only get earthly rewards.
23. The three primary qualifications a pastor must have are as follows: salvation, sanctification, and baptism in the Holy Ghost.