Daily Devotional – 7/31/18 “Different level, different labor!”

Some of you are working so hard to be seen, become prosperous and known that you’ve lost the passion within your purpose. What happened to you? You used to love what you do but now, you’re so focused on becoming rich that you’ve lost the fire. What happened to you? You used to preach from the focus of God’s word but now it’s from your flesh because you’ve gotten used to your pictures being on flyers and your Facebook page likes increasing. What happened to you? You used to help because it has always been your passion but now you’re selling your soul for a few minutes of fame. What happened to you? You used to speak from the depth of your soul in order to help free your brothers and sisters but now it’s to go viral. What happened to you? I get it, believe me I do. I get that you want your name known for your hard work and I get that you want to be financially sound but don’t do this at a risk of losing who you are. Don’t rush to be the pastor of a mega church when you’re stressed out over the 30 faithful members. What I am sharing is, don’t rush for the title if you are not prepared for the toil. Folk always say, “Different levels, different devils.” And while this is true, let me add in different level, different labor. Baby, when your business moves from the garage to a store front, your labor is different. When your membership grows, so does your labor. When your calendar starts to fill up, so does your labor.

Are you ready for it? If not, you will quickly burn out. If not, you will no longer enjoy what you used to love. If you are not ready, your passion then turns to pain and you’ll lose your patience and your peace. Look, I’ve been preaching now for almost four years and there are still times I stand and preach a 30 minute sermon that took the Holy Ghost and I hours to put together and I may or may not get paid. I’ve been publishing books for years and up until this year, I rarely received a royalty payment. However, I didn’t stop because this calling on my life isn’t about me neither is it for profit. I show up and preach, I blog this devotional, I answer inbox messages and reply to emails because there are lives on the line. I write books because I need to get people to God, by any means necessary and if that’s through a message on the pages of fiction books like Dear God and 2:32AM, so be it. I don’t preach because it’s glamorous neither is it wealthy, I do so because God trust me enough to carry this anointing. I don’t write because I have nothing better to do but I write because God trust me with this gift. I don’t portray to be holy because I need the likes, I changed the dynamic of my life because of the oil that changed my life. Where is your fire beloved? Where is the passion you once had? Don’t lose your anointing trying to be accepted. Don’t lose your oil trying to get to overflow. Don’t jeopardize your character being carnal. And please don’t lose grace looking for gratification. All that you desire will come, in due time, because we serve a God who can turn the tables in your favor, shift the dynamic of what you know, enlarge your territory and increase you in name and stature; in the blink of an eye. Don’t rush to get to a new level unless you are ready to put in the labor that comes with it.