It’s no longer business as usual for the world and certainly not for the Body of Christ. Even as we embark on a new year there’s still a lot of upheaval arising with each passing day.
The days of sitting by the sidelines are coming to an end. Our focus on the blog this year will be on some of the battles we have to contend with this decade as Christians.
We begin this month with the battle of sight.
Eyes Wide Open?
Are you able to discern beyond what is happening around you physically at work? Is your direction for your career or business based on physical or spiritual sight? Do you take people, things and events at face value or do you interrogate them further in the spirit?
2nd Kings 6 gives an account of Elisha and his servant surrounded by a Syrian army. They’ve been sent by their king to capture the prophet and his servant is understandably distressed. Yet Elisha is unmoved because he can see something his servant can’t – horses and chariots of fire that far outnumber those of the Syrian army.
Nothing is as it seems in the marketplace. There have been numerous prophecies of even more shaking coming our way this year. Revival isn’t pretty. God has to upset the status quo before He can establish His purpose in the marketplace. Fear and distress can be a natural response. But they’re not our only option. We need to ask God to open our eyes as He did those of Elisha’s servant.
Clarity
If you’ve ever dealt with visual impairment, you know that just because you open your eyes doesn’t mean you clearly see what’s in front of you.
One of filters that greatly impairs our spiritual sight is our physical sight. When God reveals something to us spiritually, but it doesn’t correspond to what we’re seeing or feeling physically, we can easily dismiss what we got from God.
This happens when we prioritise what is physical over what is spiritual. Yet, everything happens first in the spiritual realm, then in the physical realm. Not the other way around. We shouldn’t look around us to confirm what we’re seeing spiritually because we’re the ones meant to enforce its manifestation through prayer and action.
In 1 Kings 18:43-44, Elijah sent his servant to check for a sign that would symbolise the end of years of famine. His servant had to go back 7 times before a tiny rain cloud finally manifested.
There are things God is speaking concerning the business sector that seem like a mirage given the current global circumstances. But in the midst of economic famines, we must be faithful like Elijah’s servant to keep going back until we see God’s word come to pass.
Keep praying. Keep working. Continue diligently pursuing God in all you do. His word will not return to Him void.
Comprehension
Babies are typically born with the ability to see the world around them but they don’t know what they’re looking at. As caregivers, we have to give them the language of sight. Teach them letters and numbers. Shapes and patterns. And well into adulthood, we continue to learn the identity of things we see for the first time.
So it is with the spiritual realm. As spiritual babies, we may be able to see certain things but we have to be willing to learn the language of spiritual sight. Otherwise, we will interpret what we’re seeing spiritually with our physical understanding.
But unlike the independence we gain as we physically grow, the more we mature in the faith, the more we need to submit ourselves to continually be taught and led by the Holy Spirit and fellow brethren.
Just because you’ve been in a career or a business for a given duration of time, or have certain qualifications, doesn’t mean you know all there is to it. There are infinite mysteries to be discovered in God concerning your profession. Don’t settle for crumbs when your inheritance is a feast.
It’s also possible to spiritually discern a matter correctly but interpret it wrongly. For instance, a business is struggling to make ends meet. You discern that it is a spiritual attack. However, you think it is because the business was flourishing and its competitors are jealous. Yet it could be that the season has come for the business to shut down and those involved in it to move on to other things. Times and seasons are as much a reality in business as they are in other areas of life.
We’re living in an age where Christians are too quick to speak. We hear God and take off running without tarrying to make sure we understand what God is saying to us and what He requires of us.
Yet the Bible is clear that we know in part. Anything you get in a moment is but a fragment of revelation – a tiny piece of a greater whole. For you to effectively steward that revelation, you need the requisite divine wisdom for it.
Submit any spiritual matter to your spiritual cover. Partner with a faith-filled believer to pray over it. Tarry in God’s presence until He releases you to act on it and shows you how to do so.
Focus
If you’re able to see and comprehend accurately, there’s one more frontier you must conquer – holding onto the truth that has been made known to you.
If the enemy can’t stop you from receiving truth, he will try to distract you from it. In Matthew 14:22-33, Peter had a revelation of Jesus that allowed him to walk on water. But the moment he took his eyes off Jesus and focused on the storm, he started to sink.
In light of COVID-19’s impact, there are all sorts of hot takes and strategies being given on how to do business and progress career wise. If the wisdom you are getting is taking you away from the initial instructions God gave you and the spiritual foundation He’s laid for you, you need to consider where your focus is.
God is not the author of confusion. He wasn’t unaware of the pandemic when He spoke to you. He factored it in alongside every other challenge He knew you would face. Hold fast to what He told you until He Himself directs you otherwise.
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
Matthew 7: 24-27 ESV
This decade, more than ever before, we must be intentional in building our business and careers on God’s word. The distractions are too numerous to count. The contrary voices a dime a dozen. But we have a steadfast anchor we can hold onto as believers. His name is Jesus.
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