God Sees, Knows, & Rewards

John 10:^12–13 “But the worker who serves only for wages is not a real shepherd. Because he has no heart for the sheep he will run away and abandon them when he sees the wolf coming. And then the wolf mauls the sheep, drags them off, and scatters them.” (TPT]

We will start today’s devotional by wrestling with this question: with God’s work, are you a hireling [a hired servant] or a shepherd? What is your approach to your work, your vocation in the market place? Do you approach it as a hired servant or is it as an owner? The truth is, wealth does not flow to you until you approach your job as though you are the owner even though you are not the owner. That is how God works. Until you walk into that office, that business and you refuse to turn a blind eye on what you will not turn a blind eye to if it were your own. If you go to your office tomorrow and something happens, and you do not take responsibility, heaven is watching you. But when you take responsibility as if you are the owner, God will make you an owner. The problem is that we want to be owners before we take responsibility.

God says, “he that is faithful in little will be faithful in much.” [Luke 16:10-11]. How do you respond? Do you have your bags packed even before the closing hour, ready to go on the click? Listen, God does not promote such, and remember, promotion does not come from the East or the West, promotion comes from above, from God. If you do not work as unto the Lord, promotion does not happen. ‘As unto the Lord’, that is the key to greatness. You have to serve as though your life depends on it because it does. I remember back in the day in the previous church we were pastoring, by God’s grace we threw everything into the work – everything no looking back.

Someone, he became my friend eventually, called me and I greeted him because I knew him. He was surprised that I knew him. He said, ‘This thing you are doing, why are you doing it?’ I said, ‘It is God work.’ He said, ‘Don’t you know how they are going to treat you in the end?’ and my response was, ‘It is still God’s work.’ He said, ‘I have heard what you are doing, so you are going to continue giving that much? Is this how you waste your life?’ At that point, I said to him, ‘Listen, God sees, God knows, and God rewards! I will give my all’ And I gave my all to my last day there.

When things happened the way they happened, someone suggested we take the church and change the name. I refused and the person asked what I was going to do. I said, ‘Start afresh.’

When it was time, I took all the money I had, paid for the then Protea Hotel in Lekki for two Sunday services, to show you how much I had. Meanwhile, I cannot even tell you how much we left in the other church. It was a whole lot. After two Sunday services at the Protea Hotel, I did not know what was going to happen. But here we are today to the glory of God and to the praise of His Name. If you are not faithful in that which is another’s, how can God commit even yours to you? And it is because what you think is yours is actually not yours. You are a custodian for God’s children. Back to the question, with God’s work, are you a hireling or a shepherd?

Prayer: Father, I ask for the grace to be faithful in all that You have committed to me and to be faithful in seeking Your face in all things, in Jesus Name. Amen!