I was sleeping at someone else’s house while I was on the road preaching another time, and these people slept in total darkness. That man told me that his family didn’t like any light coming through the windows at all when they slept.
“Brother Jesse,” he asked me, “do you like to sleep in pitch darkness?”
“Yeah,” I said. “It doesn’t make any difference to me.” I don’t care how dark it is as long as I can get a good night’s sleep. So that night he offered to let me use his son’s bedroom, and I got hardly any sleep at all.
Here’s what happened. First of all, I went into the son’s room and turned on the light to make sure there wasn’t anybody in there. When I looked around, I saw that everything looked fine, but I noticed that things didn’t smell so good. And as soon as I got into that kid’s bed, I knew why. They must not have changed that kid’s sheets in months. I mean, those sheets didn’t smell too clean. They smelled like that boy.
I tried to get used to the smell. I cut the light out and tried to go to sleep. With the light out, it was so dark I couldn’t see my own hand right in front of my face. It was pitch black, and all of a sudden I felt a tongue on my hand in the dark.
What! I thought. What kind of creatures do they have living in here? Well, I found out it was that kid’s dog who had come up to sleep with me. He probably thought I was that kid. He jumped up in bed, and I could feel him flop down, but I couldn’t see anything because it was so dark in there.
There I was in the middle of a pitch-black, smelly room, with a dog that I couldn’t see on that bed with me. He was trying to lick me, and I was knocking things over with my hands, trying to find the lamp. When I finally did turn the light on, the dog saw that I wasn’t the kid he thought he was smelling in that room. The dog couldn’t smell me because all could he smell was that stinking kid whose bed I was sleeping in. Once he knew I was not the kid, he took one look at me, growled and started chewing on my face!
It didn’t take long for me to do what I had to do. I took that dog and threw it up against the wall! I wasn’t going to let a dog chew on my face. After I threw that dog against the wall, he got mad. He got up and started chasing me around the room. I was running all over the place, jumping over the bed and such, with this dog chasing after me!
All that noise must’ve awakened the man in his bedroom, because I heard him shouting something at me through the wall. I heard him telling me to kick the dog in the head. “Kick him!” he yelled. “Kick that dog in the head!”
After that instruction, I told that dog to go ahead and get bad with me if he wanted to. “Come on!” I shouted at him. He jumped up, and I swung back my leg. Boot! Boy, I kicked that dog good. He yelped and hit the floor flat on his back on the other side of the room.
For a minute I thought I might have killed that dog. But when I walked over to see if he was all right, he looked up and snapped at me.
“Yeah, you’re all right!” I said.
I went through all kinds of these things during my early ministry. I prayed, “Lord, why must I suffer like this?”
Well, you didn’t get bitten, He said. Then He said, Jesse, I appreciate that you are willing to do anything, go anywhere – even sleep anywhere – for Me.
Then I told Him that I didn’t particularly care to suffer these things. And He told me that He didn’t care for me to suffer that stuff either.
They should have treated you better, and I’ll hold them accountable for it, He told me. But you just preach the Word of God, and I’ll take care of you.
And He will too. God remembers all the sacrifices you have to make for Him in life. He’s keeping track of the way people treat you, and He’s going to reward you for bearing it.
The Bible says that God keeps every one of your tears in a bottle. (Ps. 56:8.) So if God can keep track of all your tears, don’t you think He sees all the little things you go through? He certainly does, and one day He will reward you openly for your sacrifices.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers
Jesse Duplantis, minister of the Gospel, motivational speaker, television personality, and best-selling author, has been in full-time ministry since 1976 and is the founder of Jesse Duplantis Ministries, located in the Greater New Orleans area of south Louisiana in the United States of America. With over four decades of sharing his unique blend of humor and faith around the world, generations of believers have been inspired by his messages and countless numbers have come to know Jesus Christ as Savior through his ministry.
Known for his unflinching, status-quo-breaking messages and humorous take on experiences in the life of the believer, Jesse continues to draw large audiences of believers through social media, television, and meetings held around the world. With speaking engagements booked years in advance, Jesse Duplantis continues to keep an intense traveling schedule, flying throughout the United States and the world preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. With no booking agents pursuing meetings for him and no set fees imposed upon churches for speaking engagements, Jesse chooses his outreach meetings based on the same two criteria he always has: invitations that come in and prayer over each one. This uncommon way of scheduling in today’s world means Jesse’s many followers may find him speaking in some of the largest churches and venues in America and the world, as well as a great many small and growing congregations, too. No church is too big or small for the Holy Spirit, as he says.
Side by side with his wife Cathy Duplantis, the co-founder and chief of staff of Jesse Duplantis Ministries and the senior pastor of Covenant Church in Destrehan, Louisiana, Jesse continues to fulfill his life’s calling by daily taking up the Great Commission of Jesus Christ: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). Through social media, television broadcasts, books, and other ministry products, as well as through many evangelistic meetings, the JDM website, the JDM app, and Voice of the Covenant magazine, Jesse Duplantis continues to see growth in his ministry and expand each year while maintaining his roots. Jesus is the center of his life. The salvation of lost people and the growth of believers is the purpose of his ministry. And for both he and his wife, every day is another day to “Reach People and Change Lives, One Soul at a Time.”