Q And A - Advance Conference 2026 - Mindset by Apostle Joshua Selman: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

On Calling and Origins

You didn't come from London. You didn't come from Lagos. If anyone would have predicted that a global ministry would emerge, they might have connected it to one of the biggest cities or the biggest ministry connections — but it came from Zaria. What really drove you? What did you see? What captured your heart?

Jeremiah 1:5–12 — "Before thou camest forth, whilst you were in your mother's womb, I ordained you and I sanctified you to be a prophet to the nations."

I don't consider myself to have done anything outside of a divine script. By the mercy of God, I simply stumbled into what I believe had been pre-ordained for me. Zaria happened to be the place that the Spirit of God used for incubation and growth — partly because of the northern environment. There is something about the north. With all due respect, I think there is a greater sense of authenticity spiritually speaking. There is nothing to show off for. That made it conducive.

But the drive itself was present long before Zaria. Even before the ministry was formally birthed, I was already involved in evangelism, soul-winning, hospital visitations. There was a discipler who would gather a few of us on weekends to teach and train. We held concerts, produced an album, traveled for various ministry activities. Zaria gave shape, frame, and definition to what was already happening — but the call of God and the drive preceded it.

In summary: I believe it is simply a pre-ordination from God. I found my place in life and destiny and walked through it by mercy and grace.

On Discipline, Study, and the God-Man Partnership

There are many who have this same pre-ordination — the same call. How important is discipline and dedication to the fostering of God's purpose? Is it going to happen automatically? What is our role in making sure what God has shown us actually comes to pass?

I call it the God-man partnership. God gives the vision, but there is always a role we must play in making prophecy manifest. It is not a straight line — it is a combination of prayer, study, diligence, and more. Paul said, "I am what I am by the grace of God" — but then added that this grace was not without labor. He said he labored more than them all.

The disciplines that shaped the journey:

• The discipline of prayer — consistent, sustained, spiritual investment as a foundation
• The discipline of learning — whatever money was available went largely to books. Christian books, cassettes, concordances. Overnight browsing sessions at cafés to download materials. The resources were limited but the hunger was not. Every opportunity — blessings, gifts — went straight to a Christian bookstore.

notifications_active Stay Updated

Join the Readsermons communities for daily nuggets and new sermon alerts.

WhatsApp Telegram
• Breadth of exposure — studying across different ministries, not limiting to just one stream. The first encounter with Benny Hinn's ministry — watching miracles late at night in a studio — led to seeking out every available material on what God was doing through that life and others like it.
• Teaching others — growth was accelerated because there were always people to teach. Teaching forces you to stay at the cutting edge of what you believe. Answering questions from others strengthens conviction.
• Sheer determination — a resolve to become everything Scripture said was possible. Not just believing it passively, but laying hold of it. Knowing early that destiny is not in anyone else's hands.

The time was largely undivided — not spread across many extracurricular activities. If it was not school, it was study. That focused environment enhanced the growth significantly.

One book that shaped the approach early was The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind. The conviction it produced was clear: invest in transforming the mind, and everything else that should come with growth will follow. Wealth, fame, notoriety were not the focus. Growth was the focus — and the understanding that if you contend for growth, everything that should accompany it will eventually follow through.

On Focus

You seem very focused and very principled. How important is focus in the evolution of a leader — a pastor, whoever wants to become something significant?

You cannot overestimate the power of focus. Focus is as powerful as vision. In fact, it is what drives vision until it fully delivers.

Philippians 3:13 — "This one thing I do." There should always be one thing. There are many things, but there must be one thing. A pilot flying to three cities starts with one city. The goal on paper is three destinations, but upon execution, it is one place at a time.

• Focus gives you the legitimacy to say no. Without focus, you will not have the authority to decline the many things that compete for your attention.
• Focus prunes desire. It aggregates your strength so that it is invested toward a common goal rather than scattered.
• Not knowing too many things can actually help a person be focused. The versatility of useless knowledge distracts the mind. The internet age floods people with conflicting information until they no longer know what to believe. In earlier years, knowledge had to be sought deliberately — it was not flashing at your face. That scarcity of information, in a sense, was a gift. It gave liberty to pursue only what was useful.

On Failure, Restoration, and Finding Your Way Back

Many of us have great calls and great assignments, but we have had mistakes — missteps, wrong turns. Some are still wallowing in past failures. Like Moses, some have run away from the assignment God called them to. Can God still use someone after significant failure — moral or otherwise? Is there hope? How does one come back?

Absolutely. The story of the prodigal son is profound precisely because it shows both trajectories — how to go from grace to grass, and how to go from grass to grace.

The young man in that story did not make his destructive friends inside his father's house. The father mentored him, taught him. But there were others outside the father's reach — and they ill-advised him into a poor decision that led to decline. Yet the most powerful part of that story is four words: he came to himself.

• Every person has the power to come to themselves. Self-examination is one of the foundational principles of restoration.
• We do not choose consequences — we make decisions, and the decisions decide the consequences. When you discover you have taken a step outside of destiny, the first response is to run to God, not away from Him. No one else can help.
• Psalm 51 — David's declaration of brokenness and repentance — is one of the great models of restoration in Scripture. Failure is not the end. Remaining in failure is where the real loss happens.

People don't miss it in life simply because they fail. They miss it because they remain there. The ability to get up, retrace your steps, find the God of your salvation, and begin making your way back — that is where the power is.

When you return, you come back carrying two things:

• The memory of how not to repeat it
• The capacity to comfort others with the same comfort you received

There are many reasons people fail. Sometimes it is not rebellion — it can be the absence of mentorship, a lack of information, or yielding to temptation. Regardless of the source of the failing — moral or technical — the path is the same: return to God to find your bearing again.

You may also like

2026 Pfn School Of Ministry Edo Chapter

by Apostle Johnson Suleman

arrow_forward

On Building Strategic Relationships

You build relationships across the corporate world, business, governance — all kinds of people. You mentor leaders across sectors. And you seem genuinely non-judgmental, which makes it easy for people to come around you. How important is building strategic relationships in the 21st century, and what are the principles behind how you do it?

The first way to build relationships is to build yourself. The greatest gift you can bring to any relationship is the gift of your own transformation and preparedness — because you give of who you are before you give of what you carry.

Most people are not able to build relationships not because they lack technical know-how — they simply have not become good people. There are two things that constitute value in a person:

1. Virtue — character, who you are as a person
2. Transactable skills — technical competence

Character comes first. One of the most visible expressions of God's glory in the Bible is His goodness — and one of the greatest keys to building relationships is simply being a good person. Being good is an aggregate of three things:

• Thoughtfulness
• Kindness
• Compassion

You cannot be called good if you are not all three.

Loving people genuinely — truly, not performatively — gives you the ability to navigate through their limitations. It gives you an eagle's view of the motivation behind what people do, good or bad. It produces the staying power to overlook certain things, to see that someone who acts foolishly is often responding to ignorance, not wickedness.

The operating posture in every relationship is to seek the greater good of the other person — to have their best interest at heart. If someone abuses the investment of time and emotional space consistently, the response is not to fight or tear down, but to love them, respect them, and create a distance that still allows respect. They have the right to their own values. If those values are inconsistent with the direction you are moving, you do not allow it to become a distraction — but you do not go to war over it either.

Another foundational key is honor. Honor is the discerning, celebrating, and rewarding of people for their distinctive difference, their uniqueness, and their value. It is a powerful law. You cannot build lasting relationships without understanding it. When you trivialize people's sacrifices or make everything about yourself, you forfeit the currency of honor.

A principle learned from studying Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People as far back as 2004–2005: always focus on people's needs, not your own. When you become selfless and intentional about helping people meet their needs, you plant seeds that become a harvest. If you use people, they will eventually know it — and they will never give their best, knowing they are only your most available option in the moment. You must become an active contributor to the growth of every relationship you are part of.

On Leadership and Galvanizing People Toward a Common Cause

What are the qualities a leader needs in order to galvanize people to pursue a common cause? What does a leader need to know, to do, and to be, in order to influence people in that manner?

People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. You must be genuinely invested in people — not treating them as tools toward a goal, but as destinies worth building.

When people know you want to use them, you will not have their loyalty, and they will not give their best. A true leader is a builder — of people, of destinies. The grace to see potential in people and take the risk of investing in them until they are developed into people of capacity — that is one of the defining qualities of effective leadership.

Leadership is defined as the ability to harness and coordinate human and material resources so as to meet a common goal. Three elements:

1. Ability — it is a skill, developed and sharpened
2. Harness and coordinate — the capacity to see potential and aggregate people so that together they produce something greater
3. A common goal — vision that unifies. It is vision that holds people together, not sentiment. If you cannot give people a vision greater than their individual sentiments, you will have a divided people.

You must be the first model of your own convictions. If you tell people to fast — lead the way. If you tell people to give — lead the way. If you tell people to show honor — lead the way. People watch to see whether you are a living testament of what you teach before they follow. This is one of the primary areas where leaders fail: they set rules and exempt themselves. Every rule you establish as a leader applies to you first — and should be stricter on you, because you are the model the people follow.