Mastery For Rest by Pastor Lawrence Oyor: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Principle of Practice

If you don't practice, you cannot master. Doing something repeatedly brings you into ease. There is nothing you give yourself to consistently that you will not master.

The only one to whom perfection can be attributed as far as the life lived on earth is the Lord Jesus. Every other person who has walked this earth made mistakes. Yet it did not stop them from making it to Hebrews chapter 11. You will not receive a crown in heaven because you lived a perfect life. That's the reason Jesus came — so that your record can be perfect before God. All your practice on earth flows from an understanding of perfection. Jesus has finished it. Now it is time to learn by doing.

God is not determining how good you will be at anything. You are the one determining.

Before you jump into practicing, find out what exactly is your assignment. The problem is not that you will not succeed. The problem is that you will succeed in what God didn't send you to do.

Masters Still Make Mistakes

In 1 Samuel 16:5-7, we meet a man of God with 20 to 40 years of walking in the prophetic. There is no record of Samuel ever missing it. When Eliab stood before him, he said with absolute confidence — surely this is the Lord's anointed. He missed it.

How many agree that it was not the last time he prophesied? His life did not end that day. He continued. So become comfortable with your mistakes.

In Acts 16:16-18, a woman possessed by a spirit of divination joined Paul's itinerary. The Apostle Paul — chief of apostles — did not catch it for many days. Perhaps two or three months she was in his meetings before he discerned the issue. These things are a comfort — if Paul, one of the greatest apostles, missed something for months, then missing is not disqualifying.

There is no such thing as failure if you are still moving. There is only practice and mastery.

Becoming Immune to Failure

The problem is not mistakes. Your problem is giving up. Your problem is getting tired too quickly. The problem is exaggerating your own mistakes. The problem is pride — being too conscious of yourself. People less capable are stepping out boldly. They don't have everything figured out, but they are stepping out. You have everything, but you want it to be perfect.

Those who are perfection freaks don't make progress. This is a lesson you must keep learning at every stage of your life: start. It is okay to make mistakes.

In Proverbs 24:16, a just man falls seven times and rises — but the wicked shall fall into trouble. The fact that you fall does not make you unrighteous. The righteous also fall. The difference is that they rise again.

Why We Practice

There is nothing like actually doing the work. Nothing compares to being a doer. Scripture says it is not the hearers that are blessed, but the doers.

No amount of theory achieves what practice achieves. In practice you are actively confronted with the reality of failure — not in theory. Theory does not bring you into active participation with the concern of failure, but practice does. It checks the veracity of what you claim to know.

There is a height of consciousness you never reach without practice. No amount of reading gets you there.

One action trumps many words. Your honour is multiplied in the hearts of people when you are an action person. Acts was called the Acts of the Apostles — not the sermons. And they turned the world upside down.

The Benefits of Practice

As you practice, you will experience increase — in your dimensions, in your understanding, in the grace of God being released through your life. God rewards those who do. A person who steps out to pray for one hour will work more miracles and master healing than a person who prays ten hours daily for twenty years but never steps out.

As you practice, you also learn the twists and turns — the specific insights that theory will never teach you. What makes for consistent results. What creates an atmosphere for encounter. The details that a practitioner learns that can never be learned from a book.

Mentorship is only possible because you have practiced. When you step out and encounter obstacles, your questions become more intelligent. You meet the hurdles that require mentorship from someone who has gone ahead. Those who have never practiced are the ones who criticise easily — because they have never stood where the practitioner stands.

Practical Assignments

Write a list of things you have not mastered. Some of you it is hearing God's voice. Some of you it is giving. Some it is forgiveness. Some it is starting. Some it is prayer. Some it is fasting. Some it is words of knowledge. Whatever it is — begin practicing it from today.

Don't practice from difficult mode. Start from easy mode. If someone joins this church five years from now, you think 30-day fasts will be strange to them? No — because by then the community will have years of practice. It is not strange anymore.

Everything you practice you will master. Hebrews 5:14 says strong meat belongs to those of full age, those who by reason of practice have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. And 1 Timothy 4:7 says exercise yourself unto godliness.