Dharius Daniels - Don't Let the Calling of God Fool You (It's Not Going to be a Walk in the Park)

Why did this happen to me? I said, «Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all.» I want you to understand that every calling has a cross, and when you receive this revelation, it reduces frustration in your life. I want you to understand contextually what has happened: God shared with Jeremiah, watch this, what He would do. He didn’t share with Jeremiah that most of the religious people he was speaking to wouldn’t receive it. It’s possible that Jeremiah was listening to God talking about how He anointed him in chapter one, but he didn’t know he would be rejected by the very people he was anointed to help. This is strange because God gives Jeremiah a prophetic ministry, but then He gives him a unique prophetic message. So, Jeremiah has a choice now: whether or not to be faithful to the message God gave him. God did not give Jeremiah a «wow» message, and everybody—or many people—want to have a «wow» message. He didn’t get a «wow» message; he got an «ow» message. The stuff he said didn’t make people say «wow»; it made people say «ow.» There’s a whole book called Lamentations where Jeremiah is lamenting. He is called the weeping prophet because many of his messages were delivered with grief, and he had to deliver warnings to Israel regarding their recklessness. He’s like, «God, when You gave me the assignment, You announced the assignment, but You didn’t reveal the inconvenience. You gave me the calling, but You didn’t give me the cross. I didn’t know about this part.» Are y’all here? Ladies and gentlemen, it can be that way in ministry, it can be that way in marriage, it can be that way in entrepreneurship, it can be that way with promotions, it can be that way when selling a house, and it can be that way when buying a house. There is no such thing as the absence of problems; there’s only the exchange of them. So, Jeremiah is delivering his prophetic message, and I want you to understand what happens to him. He is so hated by one of the temple officials that the official takes him to the gate of the city, shackles him publicly, and then flogs him 40 times. That’s why Jeremiah says, «You deceived me,» because if You would have told me about this in chapter one, I wouldn’t have said yes. But because there’s no guile in God, God wasn’t being deceptive; He was being deliberate. He says there are times I intentionally withhold information from you until you reach a place and a space where I feel it’s necessary for you to be exposed to that. Because if Mary thinks about how she’s going to roll the stone away before she leaves the house, she never leaves! Did you hear what I just said? He said, «I want you to get sometimes so far in the journey that you have no other choice but to stick with your 'yes.'» At this point in the journey, I’m going to use that as a situation for me to give you a revelation—not just of Me, but of you. See, God’s not just trying to show you Him; God’s also trying to show you you. Sometimes He has to put you in a situation where you’re shackled and flogged so that you can see a version of yourself that you didn’t know existed prior to that. Publicly embarrassed, flogged 40 times, and Jeremiah is saying, «If I knew in chapter one what was waiting for me in chapters 2 through 19, I wouldn’t have done it.» But what if I told you—I don’t know if y’all are ready for what I’m about to say—what if I told you that although Jeremiah didn’t get all the information he wanted, he did get more information than he thought he had? Maybe he stopped listening during the parts of the conversation that were more emotionally pleasurable for him. Because when I read Jeremiah 1, we normally stop at verses five and six: «Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.» But that’s not all God said in chapter one. In chapter 1, verse 17, God says, «Get yourself ready.» Did you hear what I just said? He said, «Get yourself ready.» In verse 17, He says, «Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified of them, or I will terrify you before them. Today, I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall to stand against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, the priests, and the people of the land.» Listen to verse 18 and 19: «They will fight against you, but y’all better come get me here: they will fight, but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you.» So if He promises a rescue, He is asserting that I’m going to need it. I think sometimes, when it comes to the assignment, God isn’t deceptive, but He isn’t withholding information as much as we articulate. Sometimes, we’re just not listening. Why did this happen to me? I said, «Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all.» I want you to understand that every calling has a cross, and when you get this revelation, it reduces frustration in your life. Frustration comes from failed expectations. When you encounter something you didn’t expect, that’s frustrating. When you don’t find something you did expect, that’s frustrating too. Y’all follow me? She says, «I want you to understand there’s no such thing as the absence of problems.»