“Pastor, I’m tired, people don’t pay me for my talent. Please at what point can my gifts and talents begin to bring me money?

Simple! When your gift is processed into a product or a service that can be paid for.

By the way, I totally understand how you feel. Perhaps you have a special gift for fixing electronics, but even after you fix faulty electronics for people in your neighborhood, they don’t pay you for it. The disturbing part is, maybe they’ve even paid a professional electrician for the repair before it got to you. If they paid a professional electrician for a job he didn’t do, why couldn’t they pay you for doing the job?

Maybe you are really good at being a MC/Compere at occasions like weddings, birthdays and the likes, and instead of sourcing for a professional MC, they simply call you to handle occasions, for free. In most cases, it’s not that your delivery isn’t good enough, it’s just that you haven’t presented yourself as one who is in business.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s totally okay to render services for free at the early stage of developing your talent. I remember when I started doing graphic designing, I’d contact ministries and individuals who had an online presence and volunteered to design their online flyers for free. Ofcourse I wasn’t that good, at least compared to what they had, but that act of volunteering gave me room to become better. The more I designed, the better I became. Actually, you’d always become better at anything you consistently practice. Like they say, practice brings perfection.

Because I was designing for free and had become better, it wasn’t long before people started contacting me for free designs. I wasn’t the best, but I had become better. Let me put it this way, if people were to pay for a graphics job, they probably wouldn’t consult me for the job – even those I had been doing for free. But on the second thought, I realized that there were many people who were doing paid jobs who were not as good as I was. So, I started billing for my designs. Ofcourse, the first thing that happened was that all those people I designed free for withdrew, and I was left with a few people who were willing to pay. Even those whom I called my friends stopped reaching out to me for designs the moment I put a price to my work.

The good part about turning your talent into a product or a service is that your desire to deliver the best will increase, and that’s because people’s money is now at stake. I started studying and reading more about graphics designs, just so I could be better. It wasn’t long before it became a proper business. Surprisingly, those who left because I stopped doing free jobs came back after a while.

If there is value in you, then it means there is money waiting for you. If you can’t reach the money, then it’s because you’ve not turned that value into a service or a product. If you are poor, it is because you did not render services with the talents you were given. Remember the parable of the talents? That servant that was given one talent was thrown out because he didn’t render service with the talent he was given. The talent was supposed to generate profit for him, but he didn’t render service with it.

Poverty is created, it’s not natural. Scarcity is man made; it’s a result of man’s negligence and carelessness to his gifts and talents.

To you it may seem as though I write for free, but it’s not really free, I’m rendering service to God. That’s right! I’m on His payroll. I can’t forget the day He called me into office. He said, “He will be the Author, while I will be His privileged writer”. So if you feel as though God is talking to you when you read my articles, then it’s because God is really talking to you. He is the Author, I’m just His privileged writer. The day you don’t feel God while reading my articles, then it will definitely be my fault, I probably didn’t communicate the mind of God properly.

One day I asked God, “Lord, if I am writing for You, am I not entitled to a pay?”. That day, it was as though the heavens opened, everything around my life took a new turn. That same year, I authored 27 books. He gave me a name and a fame instantly. It was as though my prosperity was put on autogear from that moment.

Now think about it, if God could do all of that when my mind was renewed for service, then it means turning talent into service is very important for success in this world. Bishop David Oyedepo would often share his story with us, how he asked God who will pay him now that God had called him into ministry. According to him, God responded saying, “When I sent the disciples without purse or scrib, did they lack anything?… A laborer is worthy of his hire”. Believe it or not, that man of God is in God’s payroll.

So, turn your talent into a service, and render that service with confidence. Once it becomes a service, the desire to become more proficient will come upon you.

I hope this has brought enlightenment to someone.

Remain ever blessed, in Jesus precious name!

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