The Difference

Matt.5:⁴⁸ (MSG) “In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”

Wherever I find myself, in church and otherwise, I look for opportunities to serve because serving is a priority for me. When I was in RCCG – City of David, I served in the prayer department while my wife served in the children’s church. I served in the prayer department for years. Nobody knew me, and honestly, I really did not care about being known. By God’s grace, I keep my eyes on Jesus and just follow Him. A friend of mine who was pastoring a church at the time said to me that he expected that I would be pastoring because I was like his senior (so to speak). He had that, ‘How can you still be on this level’ tone in his voice. He actually said, “You are just in prayer department, what are you doing in the prayer department? Look at the church I am pastoring.”

I told him that was where God put me and that was where I would stay. He left and I stayed in the prayer department until God announced me by Himself. I became my Pastor’s best man (so to speak) and we were told to go and start a church. Guess what? In two years, the church we started was almost three times the size of the church my friend was pastoring – in just two years. Glory be to Jesus. The point is this; you can announce yourself – but if you lift yourself how high can you carry yourself? – or you can stay where God has placed you and let Him lift you. How high do you think He can lift you? A lot of people’s struggle is to package themselves and announce themselves. When you are done packaging, painting and announcing if heaven does not breathe on it – nothing! Guess what? The path to securing heaven’s breath is this path. We go through the motions of how we intend to announce and package ourselves, “finish it, paint it, package it.” But if heaven doesn’t breath on it, nothing happens – and the path for heaven to breathe on it is this path (Luke 14:7-11).

Jesus immediately turns the attention to the host of the party in Luke 14:12-14 (please read). Be careful when you invite Jesus to your party because He is going to rock the boat. Don’t you just love Jesus? Jesus’ lesson on having a servant-spirit was not only for the guests, but it was also for the hosts. Does this mean that when we throw parties, we should not invite our friends and family? What lesson is Jesus teaching us here? Beyond inviting your family and friends, you need to also consider people that cannot pay you back when you send out invitations to your party. This is something we all need to wrestle with.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, help me to have the right heart as a host and as a guest, in Jesus Name. Amen!