On 27 July, 2019, Bishop Noel Jones, a visiting born-again preacher from USA spoke to multitudes, including Pastors, Apostles, Music Ministers and Evangelists from various ministry organisations across Uganda during a Business Breakfast Meeting at Kansanga Miracle Centre in the capital Kampala.
Bishop Noel Jones used Matthew 25:14-30 which talks about the “Parable of the Talents”, to explain why Christian leaders should do more than passively preserve what has been entrusted to them.
“God has given us gifts, no matter what it is, He expects us to use it,” the preacher said in his sermon titled, ‘Get in the position to have.’
To him that has, Bishop Noel Jones stated, more shall be given, and to him that has not, the little that he has shall be taken away.
Noel addressed the need for accountability among Christian leaders and also noted that God many times holds one’s giftedness until their character is built.
“Each one of us has to answer to God for the giftedness that He has given us. You and I don’t belong to ourselves, we belong to Him. If that is so, I have to answer to Him how I operate whether in bussiness or in Pastor as a Church,” he said.
“Your character has to be built, because your giftedness will put you in the light,” The senior pastor of the City of Refuge Church in Gardena, California, stated.
“God has to hold your giftedness until your character can handle the gift. We have many people who are gifted, who we don’t use because they have no character,” he added.
That was not all.
Bishop Jones told listeners that God does not give multiple gifts to people who will not use them. He explained that in order for one’s gift to be significant, God created a need for it.
“If there is no need for your gift, then your giftedness means absolutely nothing. People will say if you don’t use it [spiritual gift], you will lose it, wrong. If you don’t use it, you will be judged for it. God created a need for your gift, and if you don’t show up to fulfill that need, then he has to judge you. The need is so uniquely yours that no body else can fulfill that slot God has curved out for you. That is why we have to build your character,” he explained.
The Business Breakfast Meeting was attended by several Christian leaders in Uganda including Pastor Godfrey Kamese of Praise Cathedral – Ntinda, Wilson Bugembe of The Worship House, Pastor Robert Kayanja of Miracle Centre Cathedral – Rubaga, Moses and Sarah Mukisa, the senior Pastors Worship Harvest Ministries, Irene Manjeri, the senior pastor of Bethel Healing Centre Church, Pastor and media personality Edwin Musiime and many more.
Bishop Noel urged listeners to act on their faith.
“God doesn’t fall within the parameters of my sensory perception. My senses connect me to my world, but faith connects me to God,” he said.
“Many of us are seated here waiting for a miracle, but we won’t roll away the stone. Jesus resurrected Lazarus from the dead, but he did not roll away the stone. Your miracle is behind that stone, but Jesus is not going to roll it away for you. He has gifted you enough to roll it away so that He can give you what you cannot give yourself. He is not going to do what you can do, because He has empowered you to do it,” he said.
Adding: “When you start believing in who you are, you will get up from where you are, and make somethings happen. The problem is not God, the problem is that we don’t believe in ourselves like we should, and part of that is 400 years of slavery that has left us psychologically debilitated not to have confidence in who we are. When you meet God, you meet yourself for the first time, because God shows you who you can be when you know Him.”
