{"id":2780,"date":"2022-02-14T15:46:26","date_gmt":"2022-02-14T22:46:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/?p=2780"},"modified":"2025-12-23T13:01:57","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T20:01:57","slug":"pastors-apply-gods-word-to-themselves-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/2022\/02\/14\/pastors-apply-gods-word-to-themselves-first\/","title":{"rendered":"Pastors apply God’s Word to themselves first"},"content":{"rendered":"

Less than two weeks ago, Pastor Emile was working through the book of Habakkuk with our Pathways network of master trainers in Lome, Togo. Togo is a country inundated with spiritual oppression, the birthplace of voodoo, filled with fear and tribal animism. Yet where evil is darkest, God’s light shines brilliantly! We’ve been working with this delightful network for the past five years, but were forced to take an 18 month break due to Covid restrictions.<\/p>\n

The group just finished workshop eight. During this workshop the pastors must use Pathways principles to construct and preach full-length sermons through the book.\u00a0 The pastors admitted none had ever preached from Habakkuk, nor had they ever heard a sermon from Habakkuk, and many had never even read the book before the workshop. Yet they struggled through the challenging book and emerged victorious in grasping the meaning the author intended and applying it well to their own lives and in their congregations.<\/p>\n

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Pastor Emile and his preaching statement from Habakkuk 3:17-19, in Lome, Togo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One testimony of this personal application came from Pastor Emile.\u00a0Emile is one of the coordinators and master trainers for the Togo network, truly an encouraging brother in the Lord. After each Pathways workshop, he travels 16 hours to the north and passes on the training to 50-60 village pastors. I was texting with him today and he invited me to join him when I return to Togo in June so we can train his pastors together.<\/p>\n

Early one morning, on the day when Emile was scheduled to present his sermon during the workshop, he lost his wallet with 200,000 CFA ($350) and all ID and credit cards. This is a lot of money, especially in Togo, and he was quite distraught. He thought about skipping training that day, but then he remembered the message he was scheduled to preach on Habakkuk 3:17-19.<\/p>\n

17\u00a0<\/sup><\/span>Though the fig tree should not blossom,<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>nor fruit be on the vines,<\/span><\/span>
\nthe produce of the olive fail<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>and the fields yield no food,<\/span><\/span>
\nthe flock be cut off from the fold<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>and there be no herd in the stalls,<\/span><\/span>
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>yet I will rejoice in the\u00a0Lord<\/span>;<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>I will take joy in the God of my salvation.<\/span><\/span>
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>God<\/span>, the Lord, is my strength;<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>he makes my feet like the deer’s;<\/span><\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>he makes me\u00a0tread on my\u00a0high places.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He stated that Habakkuk and the original readers had lost so much, even their homes, farms, and families, to the Chaldeans, and his loss of his wallet was nothing compared to that. His joy in the God of his salvation returned, and 24 hours later he found his missing wallet.<\/p>\n

In his text to me today, he wrote, “This last workshop was the best for me. It turned out to be speaking to us personally and not just showing us how to preach through a book.” In Pathways, we challenge the pastors to first apply the central message from the passage to their own lives, and then flowing from what God does in them, they have a message to share with others. What a great testimony of God’s grace through His Word and His Spirit!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Less than two weeks ago, Pastor Emile was working through the book of Habakkuk with our Pathways network of master trainers in Lome, Togo. Togo is a country inundated with spiritual oppression, the birthplace of voodoo, filled with fear and tribal animism. Yet where evil is darkest, God’s light shines brilliantly! We’ve been working with … Continue reading Pastors apply God’s Word to themselves first<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mission-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2780"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2782,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2780\/revisions\/2782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}