The other day I stumbled across some letters some friends once wrote to me to share how I impacted their life.  Tears started running down my tense cheeks.  Hearing people share things like that makes it all worth it.  It really snapped me out of the little puddle of gloom I happened to be sitting in.  I realized ‘perhaps I’ve done more than I tend to realize when I’m feeling down.’

Any ministry is like a business.  You have to work it.

If you plow and plant seed, it’s not easy, but it pays off.

You don’t have to be super anointed and gifted, and charismatic, or an incredible public speaker.

You just have to take what you’ve got and work it.

Call people. Plan. Meet with people. Visit people. Pray. Journal.

Find time for God to speak to you, and to be in His presence.

Listen to people, and encourage people even if you don’t have all the answers.

Read your bible.

It’s not really that complicated.

It’s just as tough as hell sometimes.

But it’s worth it.

Sometimes the biggest challenge is not some complicated task, that requires exceptional training or IQ.

It’s simply the challenge of staying consistent, and being faithful.

One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much” – Jesus

Faithfulness tends to be underrated in the Body.  

It’s just not as sexy as preaching on TV or pushing your foot into your volume pedal as the crowds go crazy.

Kris Vallotton is someone I look up to as someone very successful, as a minister, a father, prophet, businessman, writer etc.

Well it didn’t happen over night.

Kris spent years. Not months. Years.

Years of being faithful in the little.

Before he was a famous preacher, he preached in a senior citizens home for years, where if he got too excited in his preaching some people would wet their pants.  That would frustrate the nurses. True story.

When he was learning to prophesy, the Lord once told him to pick up trash along the highway for a whole month.

And he did it.  Faithfully.   Even though he owned a business at the time, and his employees couldn’t figure out what the heck he was doing.

I preached in home groups for years, then in youth group for years, before God released me to preach and prophesy in churches.

Find your field and plow it.

You have to do a lot of plowing to see a beautiful crop.

You have to pray for a TON of people if you want to see a lot of miracles.

“What if I’m not sure it’s the field God called me to though?”

No big deal. Plow it anyway.

And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? “ – Jesus

The best way to get your own field, is to plow someone else’s field.

Serve someone else’s vision if you’re not sure what your own is yet.

The best way to have a great ministry is to not try to have a great ministry.” Roland Baker

Once the Lord spoke to Steve Backlund and said:

How you serve and how you act and think under your leader, is you’re sowing seeds for your leadership, how people will serve and act under you”

Here’s the problem though.
Ministry and church is easy… until people get involved.
Jesus said

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19-21

But what on earth is treasure in heaven?

I would like to propose to you, that this intriguing heavenly currency is your neighbor.

It’s people.

Out of all that’s in heaven what does God treasure most besides his Son Jesus?

It couldn’t be gold. They make roads out of that stuff up there.

It’s people.

Invest in treasure in heaven.

That’s the stuff that doesn’t crash when the market goes down, and it doesn’t rust on rainy days.

Invest in people.

And never stop plowing.

The reward is worth it!  It’s better than the most expensive vintage wine.  

Please comment.  I’m here.  Listening.  This blog post is potentially interactive.    :)

 

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Image courtesy of LookOutCourt on Flickr