Don't Prostitute Your Gift 4.13.2013

​Hearing and Not Doing
 
30 “As for you, son of man, the children of your people are talking about you beside the walls and in the doors of the houses; and they speak to one another, everyone saying to his brother, ‘Please come and hear what the word is that comes from the LORD.’
 
31 So they come to you as people do, they sit before you as My people, and they hear your words, but they do not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain.
 
32 Indeed you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they do not do them.
 
33 And when this comes to pass—surely it will come—then they will know that a prophet has been among them.”
 
I have been raised in church my entire life. I accepted Jesus as my personal savior when I was 8 years old. It was the best decision I ever made. I am still saved to this day. Of course my walk with Christ has still come with many obstacles, ups and downs but never the less it is a decision I don’t ever regret. If I never accomplish anything else in my life I have accomplished the greatest thing anyone could ever accomplish and that is to serve God with all my heart, soul and mind.
 
I was exposed to Christianity before I born while in my mother’s womb, so if I know anything I know church. Like I said I have been raised in church my entire life. I have attended big church, little churches, store front churches, medium size churches, mega churches you name it. I have been to every kind of church there is. I have been to just about every kind of conference there is. Youth conferences, missionary meetings, Holy convocations, general assemblies etc. I could go on.


When you have been raised in church all your life you know church culture, meaning I know how church goes. Being raised in church you see the good, bad and the ugly. It is when you have a personal relationship with God that he gives you the ability to rightfully discern what is of God and what is not of God.
 
I have learned a lot about church and leadership. One of the lessons I learned is that, just because someone is a great preacher, prophet or some type of prominent person proclaiming that they heard from God concerning a matter doesn’t mean they actually heard from God. I remember while I was in church the pastor began to openly proclaim that he heard God say a young girl who was dying would be healed. The whole church began to cry, jump and shout because when the man of God said he heard from God they automatically assumed he heard from God. I on the other hand heard the Holy Spirit whisper in my ear, “Yes, but you can’t pray past the will of God”. You see, God is sovereign so even though the man of God earnestly wanted the girl to be healed, he really didn’t truly hear from God concerning the matter. He heard from his own heart.
 
Yes, God is a healer but it was not God’s will for her to be healed. I knew this even in that church service as everyone around me cried and shouted the victory. I did not want her to die.. I wanted to shout with everyone, but I couldn’t because I had heard from God. By the way just a few weeks later she died. I don’t know why God didn’t heal her, sometimes God has a will that is beyond our understanding. That is just one example among many. I have learned that people can be sincere and still be sincerely wrong. I have learned that we all can have impure motives for why we are going after something and not know we have impure motives.
 
I remember become frustrated about a particular area. So I cried out to God basically boldly asking Him to give me His promises now and I meant right now. I cried, balled and spoke in tongues for what felt like forever. The bible says that when we ask in faith we received. So I asked, begged and thought I had received. Then I drifted off to sleep. That night the Lord spoke to me and said, “You can not be driven by fear either”. You see, you can have a God given vision and a promise but I learned it is still God who brings it about in His timing. I learned that my motive for wanting it now was because I was being driven by the fear that the thing I wanted would pass me by. I thought I was naming it and claiming it in Jesus name and applying the word out of holy unction but in reality I was acting out of fear.
 
As I write this article I want to preface it by saying I am in no way picking on church, leaders or the cultural of church. My motive for writing this article is so that we develop a level of discernment, so that we are not deceived and most importantly we don’t allow our gifts, talents, the anointing that God has imparted unto us be manipulated, misused and abused by leaders who mean well.
 
God gives us each a promise. He gives us supernatural gifts to walk in the anointing. God expects us to use the prophetic anointing that He has given us to empower the body of Christ but sadly often times our spiritual gifts have been used to manipulate the people of God.
 
Before you read on further I promise I will state my point and make sure that I empower you through the word.
 
Remember the anointing must be protected. It must be guarded. Once God imparts the anointing into our lives He expects us to guard it with our lives. It is like precious jewelry that God has given you. It will attract the good, bad and the ugly. It is who you allow in your space that dictates whether that precious jewelry called the anointing stays in your possession.
 
So how does that refer to spiritual prostitution?
 
Read on and see what God has to say concerning this matter.
 
Most of us know what a prostitute is. Prostitution is the act of setting one's self to sale. A prostitute is someone who solicits and accepts payment for sex acts or one who sells one's abilities, talent, or name for an unworthy purpose.
 
Now as Christians if I would ask you or the church if they wanted to be a prostitute most people would look at me like I was crazy. Most Christians would respond with a emphatically, undeniable resounding no, they would never be a prostitute.
 
Right?
 
My point is, we as a body of Christ would never accept or condone prostitution. Yet, we subconsciously allow and condone spiritual prostitution in our churches. For those in ministry they subconsciously allow there anointing to be prostituted. The prophets allow their prophetic gift to be prostituted. Believe it or not.
 
So what is a spiritual prostitute?
 
A spiritual prostitute is a man or woman of God who allows their anointing, gift and God given position to be spiritually prostituted for monetary gain.


Now you are probably asking how so?
 
I am glad you asked.
 
Let us go there.
 
Remember again the anointing cost you something. Again God expects YOU to protect it at all cost. He wants you to walk in integrity at all times. He expects YOU to set very clear and precise boundaries with people, other ministers, churches and leaders who have impure motives and try to exploit your gift for monetary gain.
 
How is your gift prostituted?
 
1. For the minister, when you are a minister and you are brought to a church with the expectation that you are to prophesy over everyone in order to get a sizeable offering. YOU ARE a spiritual prostitute.
 
Again being raised in church, yearly conferences or themed conferences are just apart of church culture. You know conferences with a theme. Where all the big who’s who’s come to your church. These conferences are not wrong it is the real purpose behind the conferences that makes them wrong. If you want the people to be empowered or some other spiritual reason then that is fine. However, if the motive is because the church is behind in their mortgage payment and is in a financial crisis that is wrong.
 
Mind you I am not saying that men and woman of God who minister should not be compensated to the contrary they should. However, your motivation for ministry should be because you have a word from God not how the big the offering you can get. Even if you don’t have pure motives for ministering, if the ministry has impure motives for having you there YOU are still a spiritual prostitute.
 
So what should you do? State you claim, make it very clear your reasons for ministering and don’t allow other’s impure motives to reduce you to being their spiritual prostitute.
 
2. If your church/ministry has a financial need and you are bringing the big wigs in to get the offering you need. YOUR MINISTRY IS a spiritual prostitute.
 
Remember God provides provision for what is His. If He doesn’t provide the provision your expectation is to wait on Him. It is either not His will or not His time, trying to prostitute yourself or someone else may get you somewhere by the world standards but God has the final say.
 
3. Whenever you use any other tactic to get monetary gain for a ministry whether it be yours or someone else’s YOU ARE a spiritual prostitute whether you like it or not.
 
4. Imagine this scenario. You are sitting in church. It just so happens to be offering time. It just so happens that every Sunday, when God has a prophetic word to give it is during offering time. God is so concerned about the ministries budget that He gives the people a specific dollar number to give every Sunday at the same time. It just so happens to be right after the praise team has sang us happy. Right after you have been admonished to shout like you have never shouted before. Before the word has been brought forth. Incidentally the music is still playing just so that you are still in the spirit. And then He speaks, “the next 300 people who give a 1,000 dollar seed, God is going to manifest it in 24 hours.” Ummm yes this is an example of spiritual prostitution.
 
Again, please under no circumstances go to the extremes. I am not saying that this does not happen in fact it does. But if you read the bible Jesus never had any 20, 30, 50 dollar lines. He never used any emotional tactics to gain monetarily or to grow His ministry yet He attracted the masses. If He grew His ministry to the masses without any form of spiritual manipulation then so can we. He is our example.
 
Any form of spiritual manipulation by ministers trying to sway your emotions to do so is spiritual prostitution. Including fear. Making statements like if you don’t give this seed right now you are going to die. Or if you don’t praise God you will die. Fear is not of God.
 
Let us look at what the scripture has to say about this.
 
2 Corinthians 9:7 (NKJV)
7 So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver
 
2 Corinthians 9:7 (MSG)
 
6-7 Remember: A stingy planter gets a stingy crop; a lavish planter gets a lavish crop. I want each of you to take plenty of time to think it over, and make up your own mind what you will give. That will protect you against sob stories and arm-twisting. God loves it when the giver delights in the giving.
 
A church that is overly concerned with monetary gain is not operating under kingdom principles. Because kingdom principles releases the wealth and finances that God has to give.
 
You don’t use people to build ministries. You use ministries to build people. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE.
 
5. When you are a spiritual prostitute you have been reduced down to being the people’s entertainment. Nothing less, nothing more. Look at the scripture we read in the beginning. Let us look at the same scripture in the message bible.
 
Ezekiel 33:30-33 (MSG)
 
30-32 “As for you, son of man, you’ve become quite the talk of the town. Your people meet on street corners and in front of their houses and say, ‘Let’s go hear the latest news from GOD.’ They show up, as people tend to do, and sit in your company. They listen to you speak, but don’t do a thing you say. They flatter you with compliments, but all they care about is making money and getting ahead. To them you’re merely entertainment—a country singer of sad love songs, playing a guitar. They love to hear you talk, but nothing comes of it.
 
33 “But when all this happens—and it is going to happen!—they’ll realize that a prophet was among them.”
 
When you are a spiritual prostitute according to the scripture people come here you preach, sing and prophesy the words of God but they have no intention of making any changes or living a life that is holy and pleasing before God. You are as the message bible says, “merely entertainment”.
 
So how does one not be a spiritual prostitute? You can’t really determine or control the motives for why people come to hear the minister preach. We’d hope it would be to hear what the Lord is saying but we don’t rightly know.
 
The answer is no you can’t control people’s reasoning for coming to church, requesting that you minister at their church or much else for that matter. You do have a responsibility to make sure your motives for ministry are pure. You want to make sure that your reason for ministering are to honor God and bring His words to His people.
 
A spiritual prostitute’s major motivation is always monetary gain, for notoriety and for the accolades of man.
 
When you love God and your motives are pure your reasons for ministering is purely out of your love for God and His people. When you are a true minister you speak the words of God whether or not you get paid, and whether or not the people like what you have to say or not. God isn’t always giving you a flesh pleasing, get ready word. Often times He will give words of correction, admonishment or warning. When you love God you can deliver the word with the same level of relevancy that you would a “flesh pleasing world”.
 
I conclude by making the same statement I have through out the entire blog. The anointing must be protected at all cost.
 
Protect your position with God not man. Protect your authority in God not man.




Lastly and most importantly, you must protect the anointing that God has released to you at all cost.
 
Don’t be a spiritual prostitute we have a overflow of them in the church already.
 
God Bless
 
Samaria M Colbert 2013 ©