How to be a Christian Speaker

More than any other question I get asked is this one:

“How do I become a Christian speaker?”

While the question is meant to be flattering at first, it’s come up enough to beg an answer. But perhaps I should start with the obvious:

Biblically speaking, there is no such thing as a “Christian speaker”.

Ironically I’m coming off a month of what most would consider successful Christian service, peaking with an amazing God inspiring conference in Oklahoma where many lives were impacted and eternally changed.

Yet this morning I was brought back to reality by my favorite Christian author Oswald Chambers, who doesn’t mince words and said this in “My Utmost for His Highest”:

“The trap we fall into is extravagantly desiring spiritual success; that is, success measured by, and patterned after, the form set by this religious age in which we now live. Never seek after anything other than the approval of God, and always be willing to go “outside the camp, bearing His reproach”. In Luke 10:20 Jesus told the disciples not to rejoice in successful service, and yet this seems to be the one thing in which most of us do rejoice. We have a commercialized view – we count how many souls have been saved and sanctified, we thank God, and then we think everything is all right. Yet our work only begins where God’s grace has laid the foundation….One life totally devoted to God is of more value to Him than one hundred lives which have been simply awakened by His Spirit.”

One life totally devoted to God is of more value to Him than one hundred lives which have been simply awakened by His Spirit.

Let the one who has ears hear.

God calls us not to be Christian speakers but to be fully devoted to Him. He gives us spiritual gifts and calls us to exercise them according to His leading and choosing.

Do you want to be a Christian speaker? Become fully devoted to God.

Do you want to be a Christian speaker? Become aware of your spiritual gifts.

Do you want to be a Christian speaker? Do what you can where you can with what you have.

Learn to fight for a close and unhindered intimate relationship with God believing that the depth of your vertical relationship will always determine the breadth of your impact and service.

What that means is that you must make pursuing God your first and foremost priority – before networking, before strategy, before blog building, before platform developing, before service in your church, before any other thing.

Make pursuing God the one thing you desire and seek. Give it your time and your attention and your focus and your vision. Fix your eyes on Jesus until you really fix your eyes on Jesus.

Then get used to the valleys. Between mountain top experiences are the deep and arduous valleys. That’s where the mettle is made. To give you an idea of what I think of this process I wrote a book called “Stripped” to define it. You will literally feel stripped in the valley of becoming what you are meant to become.

And that is a good thing.

Get used to the valleys and let God use them to make you. You will learn that brokenness is the way. Weakness is where you will learn His strength. Surrender is non negotiable.

Do you want to be a Christian speaker? Don’t rush the time in the valley. Don’t manipulate to get out of it. Don’t breathe a sigh of relief if you find a short cut.

There is no short cut to your calling.

And above all stop looking at everyone else’s mountain top experiences. It’s easy to lose perspective in the valley but remember that your perspective in the valley is limited. When you see someone else’s mountain top experience, remember that they’ve been in the valley too and more likely will head there again soon.

Mountain tops and valleys.

And that is a good thing.

Don’t despise the day of small beginnings.

Small beginnings give you time to learn, to grow, to develop your voice. Small beginnings shape who you are and give you space to make mistakes without the scorn of the crowd.

Above all don’t quit. Don’t ever ever ever quit.

Find God’s promises and make them the broad ground you stand on. Hang on to them and live in them. Breathe them. Trust the One who gave them. Love Him with all of your heart and commit your way to Him resting on these words of His, words He cannot but fulfill.

Finally, never ever underestimate the power of prayer. It is in your prayer closet that you will shed tears and wrestle with doubt and confess disappointment and admit despair and then it is in the prayer closet that you will slowly but surely feel the everlasting arms beneath you.

Slowly but surely, it is in the prayer closet that a shift happens in your heart. You start to actually believe that God is good. That His plan is best.  That He knows the way and that His timing is best.

The problem is that most people who ask the question “how do I become a Christian speaker” never stop long enough to pray. They’re too busy making a dream come true, a dream that will never satisfy and never deliver.

Because you see, it is only when you quiet down enough to make it to the prayer closet that you finally understand:

There is no such thing as a Christian speaker.

It’s all just a mirage.

The truth is far better: we are followers of Jesus Christ shouting out His name and declaring His praise from the mountain tops – sometimes loudly, but most days unnoticed, or perhaps heard only by a few.

A few that we don’t think matter at all – our neighbors, our kids, our nephews and nieces, our co-workers, our people – but the few who might ultimately change the world, if we only understood the truth about what it means to be a Christian speaker.

And that, my friend, is a very very good thing.

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