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Put Your Business Under the Kingdom
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At our recent Nourish The Dream event in Tampa, Gary Keesee shared a powerful nugget from the early ministry of Jesus. In Luke 5, Jesus was teaching a crowd of people and was soon surrounded and pressed. He was backed up to the water where Peter and his partners in their commercial fishing business were cleaning their nets after having toiled all night with nothing to show for it.
Can you identify with that? Working… slaving… tearfully laboring without the results you need?
Jesus called upon Peter to allow Him to use one of Peter’s boats. Peter agreed, so Jesus stepped into the boat and asked Peter to push away from the bank so he could teach the crowds from there. After Jesus finished, he told Peter to let down his nets for a catch. (One translation says, “Let down your nets for a haul.”)
You know the story: They caught so many fish that the nets began to break and the boats began to sink.
Why Did Peter & His Partners Catch So Many Fish?
Let Down Your Nets for a Catch!
It sounds like a nice miracle story—especially when you’re in business and you recognize all those fish for what they represented to the business owners: profit.
But Gary pointed that this wasn’t just an arbitrary miracle that Jesus sovereignly chose to perform. Instead, it was an operation of the laws of the Kingdom of God.
When Peter permitted Jesus to use his boat, he placed his business under the jurisdiction of the Kingdom of God. The government of God came over the business. That permitted the laws of the Kingdom to operate.
Just like the widow’s jars of oil (see 2 Kings 4) which Elisha commanded to be filled and sold; when the government of God comes over a business enterprise, the business will be filled to capacity.
For Peter and his partners to be blessed financially, they had to take something they had authority over (something under their control) and place it under the government of God. (Have you ever thought about Peter’s partners and how blessed they were that day to have been in partnership with him?)
Here’s What Was Really Amazing
After Gary shared that particular incident with the Nourish the Dream audience, one of our other speakers had an opportunity to reflect on it. You see, he had been the CEO of a public company for a number of years. He had always attributed the success they enjoyed under his leadership to his own relationship with God and to subjecting his decision-making to the Scriptures.
But he experienced an “epiphany” that day. He said he had never understood previously that what he had done was placed that company under the authority and government of the Kingdom of God. This was why they experienced some otherwise-inexplicable successes and pulled out of some difficult places!
What do you have today that you can place under the government of God? Is it a business? Is it a business idea? Perhaps it’s an invention or a product idea. Place it at the service of the King. Lay it at His feet. Ask Him to show you how to place it at His disposal. Then proclaim a blessing over it and watch it produce like never before!
About David G. Johnson Entrepreneur, Writer, Speaker and Consultant... David founded Nourish The Dream in 2006 to help connect entrepreneurs, business owners and Kingdom-minded people from all walks of life with world-class resources, training and resources to increase impact.
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4 Comments
Yes! I love this because it reminds us that God cares about our work and the effectiveness of our work.
I do wonder about the times when the Kingdom of God calls us to something other than financial success. Sometimes God in charge of our business means we will turn the other cheek to businesses. Sometimes it means we will take up our cross and suffer.
But I love the reminder that many, many times, God honors our work and our submission to him by filling our nets!
Excellent article. Thank you for sharing it this way, what a profound and insightful explanation. I really appreciate this reminder and insight, as I certainly have dreams and plans that must be laid at Hs feet. Bless you, this really blessed me!
Hi David! Great post. I am a newbie blogger. I intended to start my blog first of all for the Glory of God and second to monetize. Lately I have been offered $$ for links. I have been very tempted to sell out..and then I go back to WHY I started in the first place and bring the whole thing back under God's plan.
I do do sponsored posts, but I don't sell links.. This is timely for me to read..since I was just offered ANOTHER link for quite a bit of $$.
God owns my blog and it may be used for his glory alone..and maybe I'll make an honest buck :) Learning and growing all the time!
Thanks again and Blessings to you!
Shari Lynne
Saw this over TheHighCalling.org. It's an interesting take on an old story, making the business supplies (boat, nets...) into tangible/earthly goods for God's purposes. It weds our work and our faith.