Whenever I teach on “marketplace ministries,” I often ask in my presentation, “Who wants God to get involved in your business?” The vast majority of those present raise their hands expecting me to help them find effective ways to help them further achieve that “divine connection.” To their surprise, I not only don’t help them, I actually shock them by telling them what I am about to tell you. God doesn’t want to get involved in your business.

Let’s talk about why He doesn’t. First, it may be your “ministry,” but if you’re really serious about God’s involvement, we have to begin on the proper foundation. That means we must recognize that in reality, it isn’t “your business”; it’s His gift-opportunity for you which He is letting you steward in order to serve others and release provision for you while He helps grow you up in the process. As we all know, we actually own nothing, but merely steward things on God’s behalf. Unless we are clear on this reality and remain clear—especially if we prosper—our foundation will be insufficient to sustain a working partnership with God’s Spirit. Indeed, this issue of “who controls and gets credit for my success” was addressed by God as He forewarned Israel:

(11 ) “Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today; (12) otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, (13) and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, (14) then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. (17)”Otherwise, you may say in your heart, ‘my power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’” Deuteronomy 8:11-14, 17

The second foundational issue is closely related to the first one. If God were to join “your business,” who do you think would most likely assume the “senior role,” you or Him? Our fallen nature is not to be trusted as we all should know by now. If God “joins us,” we are in the position of extending an invitation to Him, with us sitting in the position of the resident’s chair. When we do this, God says, “thank you but no thank you.” Obviously, it is absurdly presumptuous for us to even extend Him the invitation. It would be like the pot inviting the potter to the art exhibit where it will be on display! God rejects the proud and exalts the humble. Therefore, a “take your shoes off on this holy ground” attitude is the kind of spiritual posture God will honor. The correct question is not, “will you join me”, but rather, “Lord, could you possibly consider letting me join You in Your business, unworthy as I am?” Joshua experienced a similar situation when he foolishly approached the Angel of the Lord and asked him whose side he was on. The Angel answered, “No”. Wrong question junior. Joshua quickly came to his senses and essentially responded with a recalculated attitude adjustment essentially saying, “since you’re on the Lord’s side, I’m with you!” Fortunately for us, Jesus already extended the invitation for us to join Him in business some 2,000 years ago. Here is His statement:

(28)”Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. (29)”Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (30)”For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

We take note of this essential truth contained in His kind invitation. It is in Christ’s “yoke” (business) that we, “learn of Him”. Common labor together or partnerships (like marriage) is where the deepest transfer of life takes place. In the common yoke we “apprentice” with God in His vision; passion; perspective; labors; challenges and the fulfillment of His heart. Fellowship is deepest with God when we enter His passion and it begins to become ours.

We now arrive at the second correct question. Exactly what business is God in? From our human vantage, He is in the people-empowering business. Whatever business we think we’re in is now about to shift. Guess what. If we go into the people-empowerment business with Him, that must become the foundation of “our business”, no matter what product or service we apparently offer. Christ died to empower people because truly serving people requires a genuine degree of death-to-self on our part. As we become genuine servants to those we interact with in our marketplace ministry the principle of “your good at my expense” will begin to change us and the people within the circle of our spiritual influence.

At last, we come to the really personal questions. Do you really believe my statement that, “God pays for what He orders” or is that really just a religious cliché or platitude? If we follow Christ’s example as a master-servant and give up our “rights” to think of and expect our “returns-on-investments first, what might be our fate? Well, for starters we have now actually gone into God’s business if we’re truly willing to enter this practical law of God’s Kingdom: whoever serves leads. If we join Father’s business, it’s clear that He will “empty us” on the way to exalting Himself through us:

(5) Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, (6) who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, (7) but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. (8) Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (9) For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, (10) so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, (11) and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:5-11

Simply put, God pays handsomely for what He orders.

As we have said for years, for a Christian in business, God’s people business that is, profit is a fruit of obedience not a goal or way of ultimately keeping score. In Father’s business, the real profit is knowing Him, growing in Him, and working with Him in the people-loving business. Is this naïve or “religious”? Let me ask another question. Do you know anyone who is building their business ministry like this with God and complaining? Everyone I know who is on this journey and has paid the initial dues of truly aligning their business with God’s principles of stewardship and strategic and relational building is prospering in every way. So let’s rescind our offer to God to join with us in our business and join His instead. What a deal! He makes us an offer only the foolish would refuse.

Today we have a guest post from Gary Keesee that I’m sure you’re going to enjoy. If you missed it, be sure to listen to last week’s webinar with Gary and find out how to get a free copy of his book, Fixing the Money Thing.

Now, here’s Gary…

Gary Keesee, Entrepreneur, Pastor, Television Host & Successful Author

When was the last time you failed at something? Was it something small, or something big? Was it fun? Of course not! Failure is never fun. And it’s not a cliché to say we can always learn from it. In fact, having a proper understanding of failure is vital to our success.

Honda has a proper understanding of failure. Their engineers spend 95% of their time studying why the lawnmower wouldn’t start the first time, or why the gas mileage is higher on their new car model than it was on the old one. They know that their success lies in those failures.

We have to look at failures that same way. We’re all going to make mistakes. Most of us come into God’s Kingdom and we don’t know how to live life, so we fail. And the enemy loves to pervert our failures. He wants us to hesitate. He tries to rehearse our failures or paint a picture of the risks. He tells us that they’re permanent and we believe him. We stop. We don’t move forward because we’re afraid we’ll fail again.

Or, he blames the failure on God. That’s one of his favorites. He gets us questioning God. He used it on Joshua. In Joshua 1, Moses had died and God had put Joshua in charge. So, Joshua took off. He led the people to Jericho and the walls came down. Things were working just like God had said…until we get to Chapter 7.

Everyone has a Chapter 7. That’s where failure happened. There was a guy named Achan in Chapter 7. Achan had stolen some of the spoils from battle and Joshua had no clue. Unaware of Achan’s failure to follow God’s instructions, Joshua went ahead and sent men on to the next battle at Ai only to see his men killed.

We’ve all had those moments when we begin to follow Christ and something happens that doesn’t match the picture, or the promise, in the Bible. If we don’t understand how to deal with failure, those moments may make us lose our courage. We might hesitate, or we might set up camp and never try again, or we might just try to run back to Egypt. So, we have to understand failure and how to deal with it.

Joshua had to learn. At first, like we all do, Joshua reacted. The enemy’s plan to have him blaming God worked. Joshua questioned God. Ever done that before? We all have. But God wasn’t having it. He told Joshua to GET UP!

See, people say that they wish Jesus would just show up. Trust me, you DON’T want that. Jesus isn’t going to show up and say, “Let’s have a group hug.” When the disciples freaked out that they were going to drown in the storm at sea, Jesus didn’t get up and comfort them. He said, “Where is your faith?” He’s going to say, “GET UP! Have you not read MY WORD? I already paid the price!” He WILL correct you.

That’s exactly what God did to Joshua. He told him to get up. Then, He told Joshua exactly what had happened. See the failure wasn’t just on Achan’s part; it was also on Joshua’s. Joshua hadn’t sought instruction from God before he engaged Ai. God could have told him about Achan before they went to battle. Instead, Joshua assumed. We can NEVER assume things in the Kingdom. We can’t do anything based on our past victories. The enemy is already wise to them, and he’s already changed strategies.

Like Joshua, we don’t have to fail. If we go to God first, failure doesn’t have to happen. But, if we do fail, there are steps we can take to overcome the failure and move forward:

1. Ask God what happened. If the Word says it, it’s God’s will. There are a lot of variables—things like unbelief and wrong expectations—that mess with the heart and can short circuit faith. If it didn’t happen, you need to ask God why.
2. Pinpoint the short circuit. Know who, what, why, when, where and how so it doesn’t happen again.
3. Ask God how to fix it.
4. Get the plan on how to restore the loss.
5. Stand up and take action.

Sure, you’ll be tempted to be afraid. Ignore your feelings. God commanded Joshua to be strong and courageous. You will have to be, too. You can feel afraid, but don’t act like it. Remember, if you’re not doing the hardest thing in your life, then you’re not growing.

God has already prepared a way for you to go and succeed in a big way. Be confident to let the Holy Spirit teach you and train you, and reveal unique strategies to you. Keep your vision in front of your face. Write it down! Believe it’s possible; otherwise you’re destined to stay right where you are.

God wants to advance His Kingdom in the earth through you. He’s depending on you to overcome failure and kick butt!

Gary Keesee was the “poster child” for debt and poverty until he discovered how the Kingdom of God works and started his first business more than 25 years ago. His businesses continue to produce millions of dollars each year in gross revenues and he now pastors a church in Columbus, Ohio, hosts a television program and has published several books. Don’t miss what Gary has to say at Nourish The Dream in Tampa, Florida March 30-31, 2012!

Note: Thanks to some recent developments, we have quite a few new readers who may not really be familiar with what Nourish The Dream is all about… so we felt it was time for an introduction of sorts. Enjoy!

Has God Called You To Business?

A little over ten years ago, I stepped out of my full-time job as a Pastor and went full-time into the business my wife & I had started several years earlier. It was a gigantic leap of faith for us at the time, but we were responding to a strong sense of calling and the belief that we had clear direction from God.

The problem was that the idea of being “called” to do something other than “ministry” (as we understood it) didn’t jibe with our training. After all, once you were “called to the ministry,” the gifts & calling are without repentance, right?

An Anointing for Business?

We were in for a few paradigm shifts, some of which had been bubbling below the surface in me for a number of years. One of the first ones that crystallized for me was that the “anointing” of God isn’t reserved for people behind a pulpit or leading worship or working on the mission field.

Today, I would argue that there’s an anointing available for anyone doing what they were created to do.

Business may not seem very “spiritual” on the surface, but there are numerous examples in Scripture of people who were anointed to do very “non-spiritual” things. Metalworking (Exodus 31) and killing giants (1 Samuel 17) are just a couple of quick ones that come to mind.

“But business deals with ‘filthy lucre’!” some may argue.

It’s true that “greed” is going to come up in this discussion. We might as well get it out of the way. Anyone who has a greed problem or deals with love of money needs to take it to God and get rid of it. But I would argue that more people struggle with “love of money” and misplaced trust in money when they don’t have any or have no means of getting their needs met than those who have some. Perhaps that’s a debate for a different day, but you can think about it. Either way, without the manifest Grace of God, any fleshly lust can consume a person regardless of their position, calling, daily work or status in life. Enough said.

Staying Away From Evil

That said, it’s time to address something that’s a real problem with the Church today. To some extent, it’s been an issue for hundreds of years, but it seems that in the United States it really matured in the latter half of the 20th Century. Somewhere along the line, we decided that certain elements of society were inherently “evil” and Christians should stay away from them. Politics, Hollywood and business are big examples.

After years of study, I’m more convinced than ever that God doesn’t think like this. Quite the opposite, in fact. From Scripture, it’s clear that God is trying to invade every corner of society and infiltrate it with His Kingdom. (If you need a Scripture to start with, let’s take Matthew 28 back out and study the Great Commission.)

But we’ve raised a few generations of believers who don’t see things that way, so we have some unlearning to do.

And those who—like me 10 years ago—have a sense of calling or anointing where business is concerned, need to be retrained with a new Biblical foundation for work.

We also need relationships with others who share our calling.

We need to be authenticated in our callings and allowed to dream about not only what we’re built to do here on the earth, but also about what a future would look like with believers in every corner of society who are authenticated and functioning in their callings.

Wow… what a dream!

My friend… this isn’t just a dream born in the hearts of some radical people. This dream was born in the heart of God. It’s His dream… and it’s time for us to bring it to life!

Care to join me?

If this resonates with you, don’t miss your opportunity to connect with others like you in Tampa, FL March 30th & 31st, 2012. This will be 2 days of life-changing teaching, training, equipping & inspiration from Godly business leaders who taken major territory for the Kingdom and unabashedly created millions of dollars in profits along the way! Check out the details now!

Hat tip: Marcus Goodyear

CNN talks about the Faith At Work Movement and even manages to talk with one of its actual leaders (Os Hillman). The story is worth a quick read, although it focuses a bit heavily on the legal implications of religion in the workplace. They also manage to connect with David W. Miller, the head of Yale University’s Center for Faith and Culture.

You can catch a one-hour audio interview that I did for ChristianBusinessDaily.com in January with Os Hillman here (membership required).

Tune in to CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 tonight!
Airing between 10:00 pm and midnight Friday 12/15

CNN spent some time with the Tampa C12 group and Bart Azzarelli of Dallas 1 Construction and Development. The story will be aired on the provocative show Anderson Cooper 360 sometime between 10:00 p.m. to midnight Friday, December 15. We encourage you to tune in!

A gigantic “Thank You” to everyone involved in the first ever “Nourish The Dream” event! The feedback from attendees and sponsors alike has all been very positive. We appreciate everyone who invested time, energy and money in making this event a success!

Keep your eye on this space!
There is more to come! Whether you’re an employee, manager, business owner or executive, you’ll find articles and information as well as first notification of upcoming events.

A few questions we’ve been getting:

Will there be another Nourish The Dream event?

• Yes. Plans are underway for 2007.

How can I get involved?

• The best thing to do is to “Subscribe” to updates to this website. (You can easily do so by choosing the “Subscribe” link at the left or clicking the “Email Updates” button at the top of most of the pages on this site. If you have an RSS reader, point it to our URL for RSS 2.0 or Atom feeds.)
• You may also post comments to the posts on this page. This is a great way to facilitate discussion!
• You may also contact us

I’d like to network with other Christian businesspeople. How can I do this?

• We’d like to hear from others that think this would be a good idea. Please post a comment if you’re interested.

I missed the first “Nourish The Dream” event. Is anything else coming up that I would be interested in?

• The Southwest Florida Christian Chamber of Commerce has an important event on November 30, 2006 in Fort Myers, FL. Visit http://power06.org for more details. Tell ‘em we sent you!