Has God Called You to Minister in Your Marketplace?
I have a confession: I first came to a relationship with God because of a girl. I liked her. I wanted to make her happy by going to church with her on Sundays.
Listen, God will use whatever he can to bring us into relationship with him.
I have another confession: when I read the Bible now, I mostly see messages on how Jesus wants to partner with me on my entrepreneurial journey and how God wants to grow my influence and business. I see it as the ultimate guide to owning a business! Am I crazy?
With this insight and knowledge, I can't help but to want to show other entrepreneurs how God and the Bible are relevant to their business growth and success. I think that if I can translate that to others, I’ll actually be helping people develop a stronger relationship with God.
Like I said at the beginning, God will use whomever and whatever to bring you into relationship with him.
We all see the world through our own passions, gifts and talents. We all fall in love with God and the Bible in different ways. It’s part of the beauty of the omnipresence of God.
Some of us find the Bible confusing. Some find it irrelevant to the times we live in. Others think it’s a bunch of folktales told by some good people, but likely never happened.
I believe these thoughts pervade the mind because we haven’t made the Bible relevant to our lives today. If we can see the Bible as a manual to entrepreneurship, then I think more entrepreneurs would read it. To this end, God uses ministers to translate the Word into ways we can make it practical in our lives.
God inspires people like me to do that translating, and then he wants you to go out and teach other entrepreneurs the same.
In Nehemiah 8 we read that the people were hungry for the word, but not everyone understood it. So watch how a group goes out to bring understanding.
Nehemiah 8:5-8 says
"Ezra opened the book. All the people could see him because he was standing above them; and as he opened it, the people all stood up. Ezra praised the Lord , the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, “Amen! Amen!” Then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. The Levites—Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan and Pelaiah—instructed the people in the Law while the people were standing there. They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read."
Ezra and his band of Levites read from the Book of the Law of God and made it clear, giving meaning, so the people understood. God designed the Bible to be expounded on by ministers so that it's better understood.
It would please God if you were able to give your views of Divine truth in your respective marketplace.
You might not feel equipped, yet. You might not understand every part of the Bible. However, you also don’t understand every part of business, and yet you’re committed to moving forward, growing, learning, and building, right? The same is true with the greatest business book ever written: the Bible. The best MBA course you will ever enroll in happens Sundays and in Bible studies at your church.
If all of us Godpreneurs can fall in love with the Bible as our business handbook, then we can not only help our businesses succeed, but we can now have a way and reason to go out and ‘spread the gospel’ in ways we entrepreneurs can uniquely understand.
P.S. I did a Business bible study called 40 Days to Restarting Your Business, God's Way. Check it out:
A business Bible study to help you rethink, reinvent, and restart your business, but this time, God's Way!
We parallel Nehemiah's rebuilding of the wall to your journey in rebuilding your business.
Also, coaches and Christian business leaders, you can use, edit, and repurpose the teachings for your own tribe! Check it out.