{"id":93705,"date":"2020-12-07T12:00:48","date_gmt":"2020-12-07T19:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/?p=93705"},"modified":"2020-12-02T12:24:54","modified_gmt":"2020-12-02T19:24:54","slug":"sharing-god-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/blog\/sharing-god-business\/","title":{"rendered":"When God is in Charge of a Business: Sharing the Love of Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Nearly 30 years ago, a couple who wanted to serve God overseas among unreached people learned that people with business experience and teachers are welcome in countries that restrict missionary visas. The doors were opened for them to live in a country with little gospel presence based on their professional experience. For the last 20 years, they have stewarded a business with the goal of spiritual transformation. Here is their story:<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Most citizens in our adopted country belong to a religion that is hostile to the gospel. The people around us have grown up hearing all kinds of untruths about Jesus. Their hearts tend to be resolutely closed to following Him. What a privilege and honor it has been to rub shoulders at work, day in and day out with people who would not or could not set foot in a church building.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u201cGod is teaching us that the only metric for success in the business world, or any other sphere, is love.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"When<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

We steward a business with the goal of spiritual transformation. Our prayer is, \u201cMay Your Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven,\u201d as people in our community are changed through our business activities.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

This calling is birthed\u2014and bathed\u2014in prayer. Our business manual is the living, breathing Holy Spirit\u2014His written and spoken words. What a Guide!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Stewards, Not Owners<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The Holy Spirit is actively involved in every area of the business. God is the CEO and exclusive owner of the company. We are the stewards of what He has given us, not the owners. This subtle difference changes everything.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

When the economy collapsed, we realized that if we were the owners<\/em>, we would have been stressed and sleepless. As stewards<\/em>, we made an appointment with the boss to inform Him of the situation: \u201cBoss, there\u2019s an issue with Your business . . .\u201d We discovered, of course, that He saw the collapse coming. We left the problem on His desk and walked away greatly impacted by His peace.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

God is in the Details<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

We\u2019ve set aside a special \u201coffice\u201d for the CEO. We call it \u201cthe prayer and reflection room.\u201d We invite everyone who enters the premises to come and meet God in the prayer room and spend some time in His presence. Many take us up on it, providing meaningful opportunities to pray with our staff. We have made it our goal to be with the Owner in His office as much as we can. We are learning that when we spend time in His presence, we begin to see things the way He does.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

One night our staff was working very late, implementing new software to manage business operations. After dinner, we were on our way to a prayer meeting when traffic became so bad that we decided to give up and head back home. The Holy Spirit spoke up: \u201cGo and drop by the office and encourage the workers there instead.\u201d We turned around and surprised the staff with snacks to keep them going. We quickly discovered that they had encountered a problem that they expected would take four days\u2014and nights\u2014to correct. The entire business would be on hold until the issue was resolved. We interceded right there, asking God for a creative and quick solution. The next morning, the staff told us that within an hour after we left, they had a breakthrough and miraculously resolved the issue!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

God Cares for Hearts<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

If God is so interested in the operational details, how much more so is He passionate about the hearts of the people. Jesus Himself is actively pursuing every individual we hire and every client we work with. Recently I asked four of our staff if they\u2019ve ever seen \u201cthe Man in white\u201d (Jesus) in their dreams. (In this part of the world, dreams are a way that God breaks through to people.) One of them answered right away, \u201cMy daughter sees Him all the time<\/em>.\u201d Another woman described a dream she\u2019d had just the night before! The Holy Spirit is at work in amazing ways here, wooing and drawing hearts to Himself.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

To sustain and encourage us, God has given us multiple promises for the salvation of the people we work with. The other day, I was in the prayer room when one of the promises, Zechariah 8:21<\/a> (ESV)<\/sub>, came to mind, in which one group says to another, \u201cLet us go at once to entreat the favor of the Lord and to seek Him; I myself am going.\u201d I began to praise God that His promises are Yes and Amen in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20<\/a>), and as good as done.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Fatima walked in, followed by G\u00fcl. \u201cI don\u2019t know why, but it\u2019s like God drew me here with a magnet,\u201d Fatima said.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u201cYes,\u201d G\u00fcl continued, \u201cShe came to me and said, \u2018Let us go at once to the prayer room and ask Elizabeth to pray for us. I myself am going.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Loving the One<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

As He woos their<\/em> hearts, He\u2019s also drawing us<\/em> in. God is teaching us that the only metric for success in the business world, or any other sphere, is love. We take the time to treat each person as valued and deeply loved by God. A few years ago, the Lord challenged us to pray with every person in our company who became ill. Soon one of our leaders had major surgery, and we went to see her in the hospital to pray. We discovered that she had developed an infection and spiked a fever. The doctor had told her she couldn\u2019t leave for at least another week, and that her recovery would take six months. I shared the story of the paralytic with her and asked permission to lay hands on her and pray in Jesus\u2019 name.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

After I finished praying, she said, \u201cWHAT is in your hands? I felt this HEAT \u00a0. . .\u201d That evening, the doctor confirmed that her infection and fever were completely gone. He sent her home the next day! Two\u2014not six\u2014months later, our CFO was back at work, telling everyone, \u201cJesus heals!\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

God\u2019s mercy and love expressed in practical and miraculous ways in our business give us hope for gospel transformation in individuals and society. \u201cAnd hope does not put us to shame, because God\u2019s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us\u201d Romans 5:5<\/a> (ESV)<\/sub>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

*All names have been changed.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n

Praise God<\/strong> that His Spirit is active even in cultures where there are restrictions on Christians. Consider how you can live out your faith in your business and neighborhood, being salt and light for those the Spirit has prepared to hear and respond.<\/em><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the last 20 years, this couple has stewarded a business with the goal of spiritual transformation – here is their story:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_helpful_pro_status":1,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6337,260],"tags":[1483],"mission":[64,60],"topic":[46],"class_list":["post-93705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ministry-impact-stories","category-sharing-your-faith","tag-disciple","mission-navigators-workplace","mission-navigators-worldwide","topic-evangelism"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/12.08.20-Article-Web.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"The Navigators","author_link":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/staff\/thenavigators\/"},"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93705"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102255,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93705\/revisions\/102255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93705"},{"taxonomy":"mission","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/mission?post=93705"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=93705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}