Hey, friends! Jennifer Devlin again. For this second post of the week, I’m switching hats from a “board” post to a “speaker” post. Bear with me; I’d like to continue the thought I started earlier this week. Let’s think about our drive to proclaim the gospel — now in our speaking rather than our writing.

I included this specific photo because it reminds me of a wonderful opportunity I had to speak to a group of believers. We spent the weekend encouraging, teaching, training and discipling. We shared meals, Scripture, prayers and hearts. We experienced a bigger sense of God’s family. And, the team I took with me got to see a glimpse into the power of selfless ministry not experienced every day here in the fast paced lives we lead.

See, this was taken on a short-term mission trip. We were a team of gringos pouring into the lives of some amazing Ecuadorians. We didn’t get paid for our stint in country or for our superstar presence on a stage. In fact, we saved up and paid out of our own pockets for the opportunity to share our hearts with a people Jesus loves dearly. The group couldn’t care who is on our best seller list back home, and they didn’t insist on the infamous conference speakers. They just wanted someone who loves Jesus. And we answered the call.

Why bring this up? Well, if we go back to Acts 4:20, we are called to be a people so passionately sold-out to Jesus that we can’t not share the gospel. As speakers, then, we are called to go wherever God tells us to go, and to share the message He has placed on our hearts, whether the crowd pays our set fees, and even if they couldn’t care less if we had a book in print or ever stepped onto a stage. On the surface you might think, “well, yeah, of course I’d go speak for free.” But think about it. In this age of agents, booking agencies, contracts and fine print, is it still easy for us to listen to the whisper of God over the clamor of the industry? To me, the greater choice is to be open to God’s leading, even in the midst of our professional, platform-ladened lives.

I believe these moments of true obedience to the Lord bring forth greater blessing than any paycheck we could receive, or Amazon feedback someone might write. See, Acts 4:20 people don’t focus on the result of the work. The results are left to God. They just know they couldn’t make it a day; not even a minute, without sharing why and how Jesus has rocked their world.