Every maker puts its best work on show to prove what it can do. God's demonstration piece is you — and the instrument He uses to build it is the Scripture, whose target is your mind.
"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."
Ephesians 2:10 (NKJV)
Pastor Sam Shekari
Founder and Convener, Army of One Gathering · Senior Safety Manager, Performance Contractors Inc., Texas
Third session · 35 minRecording coming soon
The video and audio for this session will appear here once published.
"Let me pick up from where Bishop left off." He took the same text Bishop Wale had opened on Day 1 — Ephesians 2:10 — and carried it one step further. Day 1 settled who you are; this session asks what God intends to do with what He has made, and what instrument He uses to finish it.
There is only one message we have. Whatever you are close to, whatever ministry you carry, it is easy to pick it up and run with it, because the gospel is one thing. Everything else we do is good — but it is not the thing itself.
His running argument: we treat the Bible as material to preach from, when its design is to work on the preacher first.
Not your notes. "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind" — you have not seen the best of God until you start thinking differently.
The more you stay with Him, the more you are changed — until you look in the mirror and hardly recognise the person there.
Scripture becomes the measure you judge everything by — so that whatever your field, you always know what to do.
He remembered when a believer was built up in stages, and you had to graduate through them before you were even allowed to lead the prayer in church. Precept upon precept, line upon line: the foundation had to be laid. Nowadays, he said, we are interested in how many members we have. The counting replaced the building.
Isaiah 28:10Reading Ephesians 2:10 in the New King James and then the Amplified: we are His workmanship — recreated, born anew in Christ Jesus — ready to be used for good works which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. The works were made ready before you were. Your part is to walk into what has already been laid out.
Ephesians 2:10 (NKJV, Amplified)Every manufacturer keeps a demonstration piece. You go and look at what it can do, and the display tells the world what the maker is capable of. He pointed to the launch footage many had just watched: the car rose, suspended itself in the air for a few seconds, flipped over and flew — defying the law of gravity in front of everyone and demolishing the mindset the audience walked in with. Everyone who saw it now looks at the future differently. That is a display. And God says: you are the display. When people meet you, and when they leave you, they should be able to tell what your Maker can do.
You are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read by all men. A written text can be restricted, banned, shut down — but a life that has been changed walks into rooms no book can enter. So the Scripture is not merely material for preaching; it is designed to change you, so that you become the letter people read. He recalled the testimony from the day before: a man was simply talking, and in the middle of it the listener turned and forgave.
2 Corinthians 3:2–3When money is tight you drive from one gas station to another hunting the cheapest price in town, and you know exactly which one it is. Then God brings you to a level where you simply fill up — and when someone says "did you see the price of gas?", you genuinely do not know what they are talking about. The price did not change; your position did. Once you can solve a problem, it stops being a problem — and what problems you can solve depends on where you are. That is what this conference is designed to change.
Two houses built of the same materials, and one of them collapsed. The difference was never the materials. This is why Paul could say he glories in tribulation — because he knew that everything was working together for his benefit, and that he was not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation.
Matthew 7:24–27 · Romans 5:3 · Romans 8:28 · Romans 1:16There is no sickness that can stand against the principle of the kingdom; no disease, no poverty, no culture. That is why Jesus taught the way He did — "the kingdom of God is like…", over and over — to colonise our minds until we think in kingdom principle. The separation we see is simply that we are not thinking that way yet. So the assignment of the Scripture is to bring us to the place where we start speaking His words and living His words. Search the scriptures: they are the ones that testify of Him.
John 5:39 · Romans 12:1–2They dragged a woman caught in adultery before Jesus and quoted Moses at Him as a trap. He stooped down, and came up with an answer that was in no book anywhere — it came out of real life. Nebuchadnezzar demanded that his wise men tell him a dream he himself had forgotten, on pain of death; Daniel said that what the king asked could not be told by any man, only by God — give me time — and that night the secret was revealed. And He is still revealing secrets, so that you become a solution everywhere you are.
John 8:3–11 · Daniel 2:1–19There are people in your workplace and on your street who will be lost if nobody speaks. That is why Paul said compel them to come in. What you carry on the inside belongs to somebody on the outside who is waiting for you to speak to them. So do not only quote the Bible — be the Bible. They can shut down a written text, but they cannot shut down a life; you may not even need to say "God bless you", because it is the witness of God on a person that draws people. And treat the commodity as precious: what we hand people is not cheap, it is not merely work but the works of God — you are transferring the life of God. When a heart has to reach a patient, they charter a helicopter to beat the traffic, because that heart must get there. Carry it with that urgency. Then live it where you are: let your neighbours know you exist, let your mother-in-law know you exist, let the way you treat your family at home match what you preach, and when you see a colleague with no money for lunch, buy it. It is just human.
Luke 14:23 · 2 Corinthians 3:2"God says: you are the display."
"The written epistle can be limited. The living epistle cannot."
"What problem you can solve depends on where you are."
"The target of the Scripture is your mind."
"When you stay with the Scripture, you will never be stranded again."
"What you carry on the inside does not belong to you."
"Don't just quote the Bible — be the Bible. Every pastor, every minister here: our assignment is simple. Equip the people. Everything else that we do is just by the way."
A serious incident had put an employee in hospital, and nobody knew whether he would make it. The client called a meeting to go back through every policy. He was in the room although it was outside his area — he was a contractor, not even staff. While the discussion went on, he bowed his head and activated the connection. What came to mind was the roadside seat-belt campaign — which has nothing whatever to do with the chemical industry. But it gave him the answer: men were falling because they were not tying off their harness, so put the reminder at ground level, before they ever leave the ground. The room went silent. Then they asked, "How come nobody ever told us?" The next time he was in the field, the position had been given to him — he had not asked for it. "We think you're right." One idea makes you a force to reckon with.
When the Lord called him into ministry, he laid down a condition: "I am not going to preach the gospel until my wife can call me." By his own description she was the least likely candidate imaginable. "Until this woman can pull me out — until you do it — I'm not qualified." She was in the room as he told it.
Work through these alone or in your small group. Try answering before you open the answer, then check it against the scripture.
