With each advance in an area or arena comes the onslaught of opportunism. The Lord wants us to prosper and be in good health, but He is also very concerned about our motives and the driving force behind our actions. If we have spent time honing our skills in movement ministry, our expertise may be in demand as a conference speaker or invited guest. It is wonderful to see the knowledge and training of worship arts grow and become effective.
Receiving invitations to events as a facilitator or dancer can be great, but if we are always expecting to be asked to lead, demand top billing as featured artists, or are looking for opportunities to show our skills, we can cross over into dangerous territory. If movement ministers and the church Body at large are viewed as dollar signs, potential additions to advertisement databases, or a way to profit without spiritual accountability, then we can become prey for those whose motive is to profit from the gospel. In turn, if we are only seeking relationships with prominent people in the Kingdom to gain an advantage, we are preying on them as well.
Honest concern and a penchant for discovering the needs of the movement ministry community does not denote being a victimizer. Ministry entrepreneuership is great if the initial motivation is to provide the people with useful tools to advance the Kingdom. When we seek the Kingdom first, things will be added unto us. If we are employing the methods of capitalism to gain for ourselves only, we too will become victims in the vicious cycle of greed. As we continue to patronize events and purchase products, we must continue to pray so that we do not become prey for the masses.
Proverbs 1:19 (NKJV)
So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain; It takes away the life of its owners.
Isaiah 48:17 (NKJV)
Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, Who teaches you to profit, Who leads you by the way you should go.
Jeremiah 30:16-17 (NKJV)
Therefore all those who devour you shall be devoured; And all your adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; Those who plunder you shall become plunder, and all who prey upon you I will make a prey. For I will restore health to you and heal you of your wounds,’ says the LORD, ‘Because they called you an outcast saying:“This is Zion; No one seeks her.”’
Ezekiel 33:31 (NKJV)
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.
Titus 1:10-11 (NKJV)
For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain.
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