Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give
yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in
the Lord is not in vain (1Corinthians 15:58).
There is a paradigm shift going on among a remnant of business people
today. That paradigm shift is a focus on using our business and work life as a
platform for ministry versus a platform solely for material success. There is a
remnant of business people throughout the world today who understand their
birthright in the marketplace is to reflect Christ fully in and through their
work. It is reflected by a commitment to use their resources and skills to
provide a product of excellence with the overall motive to affect people for
Jesus Christ. The difference is these individuals have an overriding ministry
objective to their work.
When the apostle Paul tells us to fully work unto the Lord, he does not
mean we must be in a missionary effort or "full time Christian
effort." He understands that all of life is holy and sacred to God. If our
motive is to serve God where we are, then our labor in the Lord's will is not
in vain.
As you begin your work today, ask God if you are working with the primary
motive of reflecting His life and character through your work today. Let
nothing move you from this motive being central to your activity. The Lord will
reflect His power and leading in and through your life when this becomes your
primary motive.
The Work God Blesses
“And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, ‘Be fruitful, and
multiply, and replenish the earth’” (Genesis 9:1).
Every man and woman has a work assigned to them by God. This becomes their
purpose, their reason for being on the earth, their calling, their destiny.
Abraham had an assignment for his life, as did Joseph. Moses was called to
perform a specific life-task. David had a destiny. So did Daniel, Jeremiah, and
all the prophets. Esther was raised up “for such a time as this.” John the
Baptist fulfilled a definite role, as did Peter and John. Paul had a purpose, a
reason for being.
Only a few of these people realized what their work was. Most of them were
like you and me: we only come into an awareness of our purpose slowly.
Everything seems ordinary and mundane; we feel like there is nothing special
about us, no calling we could possibly fulfill. Moses is a striking example.
The first forty years of his life were spent learning how to be a prince of
Egypt. The next forty years of his life were spent in the desert, unlearning
everything he had been taught. It seemed like a huge waste of a life. When God
sent him back to Egypt at the age of eighty, Moses still did not understand or
appreciate the full extent of what God was calling him to do. Neither did the
Hebrews. But now we understand that God had a purpose for him all along.
Or look at Joseph. At an early age he senses God’s call on his life for
something special. But things do not go the way he expects them to go (things
seldom do). His brothers first seek to kill him, but then settle for selling
him to the slave-traders. His situation improves for awhile, but then he is
framed for something he did not do and gets thrown into the dungeon. As the
years slipped away Joseph must have believed he’d made a mistake when he
thought he heard from God. But when we see the final result everything makes
perfect sense. God used those experiences to shape and mold his character, and
to prepare him for the work he was called to do.
And consider Noah. In Genesis 9:1 we see that God blessed Noah and his
sons. The blessing of the Lord means divine favor and approval. How do you feel
when someone ELSE gets blessed? Are you happy for them? Envious? Frustrated?
All we see is the end result – but we do not see all the labor, the sweat, the
tears, the pain, the struggle, the misunderstanding, the confusion, the dark
nights, all the things that person has endured in order to have the blessing of
the Lord. I am not saying the blessing is something we can earn through
self-effort; but the blessing of the Lord is the benefit of fulfilling the work
He has called us to do.
In this writing we will look at the life of Noah, learn the universal
principles behind the work that God blesses, and apply those principles to our
lives as well. They are not complicated principles, but very, very simple. I
pray they will encourage and strengthen all of us to persevere in whatever
situation the Lord has placed us.
A Heritage of Walking With GOD…
The story of Noah begins over four hundred years before he was born. The
Scriptures tell us that Noah’s great-great grandfather was Enoch. We know Enoch
was a man who walked with God and suddenly disappeared, for God took him.
Exactly what that means we can only speculate, but this much is clear: Enoch
had a close relationship with the Lord.
Enoch was also a prophet. Jude 14, in the New Testament, records one of his
prophecies of a future judgment. But a little closer to his own time, Enoch
perceived that the Lord was about to execute judgment on the earth. So when
Enoch had a son he named him “Methuselah.” You remember Methuselah is the
oldest person in the Bible, living to the ripe old age of 969. The name
“Methuselah” has prophetic significance. Most Bible reference books give the
meaning as “dart man” or “man of the spear”. A less frequently found definition
is of Chaldean origin and means something a little more intriguing: “at his
death, the sending forth.” The sending forth of what?
Perhaps that makes no sense to us – until we use the chronology provided to
us in Genesis 5. All the generations of Noah are given to us with the exact
time frames in which they lived and died. Enoch had a son named Methuselah,
Methuselah had a son named Lamech, and Lamech had a son named Noah. When we do
the calculations from Enoch to Noah, we find that Noah finished building the
ark the same year his grandfather Methuselah died, just in time for the
“sending forth” of a great flood – exactly 969 years after Enoch said that it
would come.
So this judgment had been building for nearly a millennium. Enoch knew it
was coming. Certainly Methuselah knew. Presumably Lamech knew. But none of them
were called to build the ark. That work was reserved for Noah. And even then,
he was five hundred years old before God revealed His purpose for Noah. Think
about it: Noah walked with God for five hundred years before God gave him the
plans for building the ark. If the man is not right then the plans are not
right; but after five hundred years of relationship-building, the Lord finally
said, “Now I can trust you to do the work I have called you to do. The survival
of all life on earth depends on it.” What an awesome responsibility!
The Lord Blesses Us To Be A Blessing…
That brings us to the first principle: the work that God blesses is bigger
than us. The ark was not Noah’s private little retreat. It was not his personal
little ministry, his private little vision. Of course, Noah and his family were
beneficiaries of the work, but the purpose of the ark was to preserve all
living things. Otherwise, Noah would have built a much smaller vessel.
When the Lord gives us a work to do it will be bigger than ourselves. The
size of a person’s heart may be judged by the size of their work. By size I do
not mean numerical or financial strength. I mean this: is the work larger than
the person working? Is it fulfilling a purpose far greater than the people
involved? I say this because I am convinced that most churches exist only
because the pastor needs a place to preach. Entire ministries are created to
give some man or woman an audience. What a tragedy that is. Yesterday I drove
past a little building that calls itself a church. The church was named after
the presiding elder: “Smith Apostolic Church” (not the real name, but a true
story). Such work fulfills nothing of eternal significance, it only meets the
self-serving needs and aspirations of the person leading it.
The work that God blesses is not merely for our own personal benefit, but
for the benefit of the Body of Christ, for the Kingdom of God. Our vision must
carry us beyond ourselves; our vision must survive us. The only vision that is
bigger than ourselves is Christ. If our vision is Christ then we are building
upon an eternal foundation, and the Lord will bless that labor. Noah carried
the Messiah in his loins – the ark was meant to preserve not just physical
life, but a spiritual lineage. Thus, it was bigger than Noah, and the Lord
blessed the work.
The Lord Blesses What We Cannot Do On Our Own…
The second principle is closely related to the first, and it is this: the
work that God blesses is beyond our ability to do on our own. In other words,
if I can do it all by myself, then I do not need the blessing of the Lord. I
can simply call upon my natural talent, experience, and skill to do what needs
to be done. Now, work done in this manner may or may not be successful, but
irregardless, it is MY work; it is not the Lord’s work, and it does not enjoy
the blessing of the Lord.
The Lord delights to place us in impossible situations. Noah was no
shipbuilder. Yet God calls him to do the very thing he cannot do and gives him
specific and detailed plans for doing it. The sheer size and scope of the work
is astounding. First, Noah is to build a boat. Not just a little fishing boat,
but a floating fortress with three levels in it. The Living Bible gives the
dimensions as 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. Nothing this large
had ever been constructed. The project would take one hundred years to
complete. But the most amazing thing about this huge boat is that it was built
on dry land. The Bible says Noah had faith (cf. Hebrews 11:7)!
But building the ark was only part of the work. After the ark was complete,
there was the issue of bringing every sort of animal and bird into the boat. In
the movies you see the animals streaming towards the ark of their own accord
while Noah looks on in amazement. Perhaps that is the way it happened. Yet the
Scripture says that the Lord told Noah to go get them and bring them into the
ark (cf. Genesis 6:19). He had to go and gather them. How does one go about
gathering one male and one female of every kind of animal in the world? And
with some species God said to get seven pairs!
Then there is the matter of food. The Lord told Noah to gather samples of
every kind of food that is eaten (cf. Genesis 6:21). The food was for feeding
his family and all the animals, but it was also for future planting. Today we
have fruits, vegetables, nuts, and grains because Noah somehow managed to find
them all and store them in the ark. Now I ask: is it humanly possible to do all
the things Noah did? Can someone with no experience build a boat that large?
Can an ordinary person gather together every kind of beast, bird, and bug? Can
anyone gather together every kind of food in the world, and store it? The Bible
says, “Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he”
(Genesis 6:22). When God asks us to do the impossible, we can ask for, and
expect to receive, the blessing of the Lord on our work. He will show us what
to do, and He will enable us to do it.
The Lord Blesses Obedience, Not Originality…
The third and final principle is this: the work that God blesses is
originated by God Himself. This is one of the most important lessons we can
learn. I spent many years creating and executing my own plans, asking the Lord
to bless them. One day I understood that instead of always trying to get the Lord
to bless what I wanted to do, it was much simpler to find out what the Lord
wanted to bless, and simply do THAT. Instead of trying to get God to come down
to my level and do what I wanted, it was far better to come onto the Lord’s
ground and do what He wanted. Great synergy and blessing is released when we
simply cooperate with what God has already purposed to do. Heaven backs us up
with tremendous power and authority. Instead of trying to make something
happen, I simply flow in a current that already exists. The Lord will deny no
request that is in agreement with what He Himself has originated.
Noah could expect the blessing of the Lord on his work because he was
simply carrying out what the Lord had already determined to do. It is so much
easier this way. Often the greatest hindrance to the best is the good. The
greatest hindrance to Isaac is Ishmael. There are many good things we can
create, many good things we can do. But only one thing is needed (cf. Luke
10:42). We have to discover the “one thing,” and we only discover it when we
are seated at the feet of Jesus. When we are only motivated by what JESUS
needs, not what MAN needs and not what we think WE need, then we are on the
path of continual and perpetual blessing.
Noah walked with God, and Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord (cf.
Genesis 6:8,9). It took five hundred years of walking with God, but Noah found
grace, and that made it all worthwhile. Let us learn to do nothing apart from
this amazing grace. It is better to wait five hundred years for grace than to
work for five minutes without it. What is grace? I teach people that Grace is a
Man. Amazing Grace is simply Jesus living in me, doing what I cannot do. It
does not matter if “what I cannot do” is save myself, overcome sin, love my
neighbor, or build an ark. “For by Grace (Jesus) are you saved through faith
(trusting Jesus to do what you cannot do); and that not of yourselves: it (He)
is the Gift of God”Ephesian (s 2:8). I am insufficient; but His Grace (Jesus)
is sufficient. His Grace (Jesus) is more than enough. His Grace (Jesus) is
Infinite Supply! But “without Me you can do nothing” (cf. John 15:5b).
Be encouraged. The Lord has a purpose for you, and a destiny for you to
fulfill. But things will not always go the way you think they should. That is
because the Lord calls you to something bigger than yourself, something beyond
your ability, something you cannot originate or perpetuate without Him. It
takes time. Noah walked with God for five hundred years and spent one hundred
years building the ark. Abraham was one hundred years old before he finally saw
God’s promise come true. Moses spent forty years in Egypt, then forty years in
the desert, before God sent him to Pharaoh. Jesus prepared thirty years for an
earthly ministry of three and a half years. Dear brother, dear sister: walk
with God. Find Grace. Discover the One Thing. Focus on being, not doing. And
when it IS time for you to do something you can be confident that your labor of
love will be the work that God blesses.
Your Work
I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do
(John 17:4).
The Lord has given to every man His work. It is his business to do it. And
the devil's business to hinder him if he can. So sure as God has given you a
work to do, Satan will try to hinder you. He may present other things more
promising; he may allure you by worldly prospects; he may assault you with
slander, torment you with false accusations, set you to work defending your
character, employ pious persons to lie about you, editors to assail you, and
excellent men to slander you. You may have Pilate and Herod, Annas, and
Caiaphas all combined against you, and Judas standing by ready to sell you for
thirty pieces of silver; and you may wonder why all those things come upon you.
Can you not see that the whole thing is brought about through the craft of the
devil to draw you away from your work and hinder your obedience to God?
Keep about your work. Do not flinch because the lion roars; do not stoop to
stone the devil's dogs; do not fool away your time chasing the devil's rabbit.
Do your work. Let liars lie, let sectarians quarrel, let corporations resolve,
let editors publish, let the devil do his worst; but see to it that nothing
hinders you from fulfilling the work that God has given you.
He has not sent you to make money. He has not commanded you to get rich. He
has never bidden you defend your character. He has not set you at work to
contradict falsehood which Satan and his servants may start to peddle. If you
do these things, you will do nothing else; you will be at work for yourself and
not for the Lord.
Keep about your work. Let you AIM be as steady as a star. Let the world
brawl and bubble. You may be assaulted, wronged, insulted, slandered, wounded,
and rejected; you may be abused by foes, forsaken by friends, and despised and
rejected of men, but see to it with steadfast determination, with unfaltering
zeal, that you pursue the great purpose of your life and object of being, until
at last you can say "I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to
do."
Pray with Os Hillman...
Biblical Principles in Network Marketing
As a Pastor, Bill Nissen was against Network Marketing for years. In 2003, a friend helped
him see a new perspective. He still dislikes the ethics of many who do it, but he sees a
biblical perspective that allows him to not only support network marketing, but embrace it as
a way to serve people. Watch This Video. It is longer than most (20 minutes) but carries essential information.
