Kingdom PioneersSample

Day 3: The Broken Ladder:
You can sprint at a wild pace, but try enduring a marathon at that same speed. Not possible. The energy can only last a very short distance. Ministry is not a sprint. It’s a marathon. It requires longevity. What’s the point of getting somewhere fast if you’re uprooted by the warfare when you get there? You can’t go the distance and take your spiritual health lightly. Striving is a big red flag that you’re attaching your identity and value to your assignment and the approval of man instead of the “well done” of the Father.

Hosea’s prophecy about Israel is relevant to all of us:

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,

and bring her into the wilderness,

and speak tenderly to her.

And there I will give her her vineyards

and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.

And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth,

as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

“And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more.” —Hosea 2:14-17 (ESV)

There have been times in my life that God set me free in a wilderness. He kept me warm by the fire He built with my little “broken ladder”—the one I built as I tried to self-improve and self-promote my way closer to Him. He turned my valley of trouble into a door of hope. Doors swing both ways. Hope for me. Hope for you.

Living under that yoke of striving is weary. If you’re reading this devotional, I’m guessing you’ve been feeling a pull into something more. Something different. You’re frustrated by the long season of silence, longing for change but not even knowing what that looks like, expecting a door to open, but it hasn’t. I just want to speak encouragement to your soul. This wilderness isn’t punishment. It’s preparing you for the promise. It’s preparing you for longevity.

The church didn’t stop when the apostles were martyred. It doesn’t stop when we are promoted into a wilderness of obscurity. It doesn’t stop when houses split and leaders fall and friends betray. The church never stops because Christ is the head. So why are we striving so hard to hold everything together like it depends on us?

Let me say it again: We are working from love. Never for it. From identity. Never for it. Don’t confuse your do with His done. He said, “It is finished,” so we’d know for certain we earn nothing in the exchange. Your gifts, anointing, assignment, and calling are NOT platforms you build on, trophies you earn, or ladders you climb. You have an assignment, but you ARE a loved child—born of promise with nothing to prove, just like the apostle Paul said:

“And you did not receive the “spirit of religious duty” leading you back into the fear of never being good enough. But you have received the “Spirit of full acceptance,” enfolding you into the family of God.” Romans 8:15 (TPT)

The titles, platforms, and influence you’re seeking won’t deliver you from rejection or mask the shame and inadequacy you feel in secret. If anything they will magnify it. Christ is the only one who can heal your identity and deliver you from the bondage of striving, performing, and ladder climbing. If we’re living for the approval and praise of man we will be a slave to the fear of rejection.

Your gifting and anointing make space for you at the table. You don’t need to self-promote. You don’t need to announce your worth to a room you’re called to be in. Your Father actually delights in introducing you to that room. He sees the shepherd king in a field. He sees the thief on the cross who didn’t have time or opportunity to do anything impressive. And He sees you too.

What if that broken ladder is a gift? What if that rejection was a rescue plan from a life of striving for significance? What if the stripping away is actually taking you down to the very foundation of just being loved by Him? Friend, don’t attach your identity to your assignment. You’re more than what your hands can build. You’re more than what your gifts can do. If you don’t have an identity deeply rooted in sonship, you will spend a lifetime looking to things and people to give you what only Jesus can. Ask the Lord to dismantle the ladder of striving.