WINNING IDEAS “Doing business with God”

 

“Moses said to Joshua, "Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands." So, Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up — one on one side, one on the other — so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So, Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.”             Ex 17:9-13NIV

Moses, Joshua and the fighting people of Israel as revealed in the above text on their own does not have what it takes to stand against talk less of winning the Amalakites. Yet God’s servant Moses instructed Joshua to "Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. What was his confidence? In the cause of the battle we saw how God stepped in with what I refer to as the winning idea. Moses and the children of Israel did business with God and won the battle.

The story behind great/winning ideas is often more complex and winding than having an apple fall on your head. But the best part is that creative ideas are not reserved for a special group of people; they can come to anyone even you. Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, says ideas are out there waiting to find the right person who can bring them to life. According to her “Ideas are these disembodied life forms, they don’t have a form, but they have a will. All they want is to be made manifest,” she told Robin Young on NPR’s Here and Now. “If you can manage to open up your consciousness to an idea of living in a world of abundance, then you can believe that, constantly, ideas are trying to find human collaborators.”

To Succeed in this year of a Brand – New Beginning we must be willing to do business with the Excellent God. The Holy Spirit is willing to let us in on Winning Ideas that will change our story as individual, the church, a Nation, family, career and business etc.

In Ecclesiastes 9:10-11 we were admonished “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.” Colossian 3:23-24 also says “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

we must take advantage of our time here on earth to work for His glory and to give it our all because it is only in this life that we can utilize our creativities. It is said that Ideas rules the world, and winning ideas ultimately comes from God. In Psalm 16:3-6 God has this to say about His children. “As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight. The sorrows of those will increase who run after other gods. I will not pour out their libations of blood or take up their names on my lips. Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.”  Of course, we have a delightful inheritance but, we may never access them even when they rightfully are ours until we respect and harvest from the wealth of divinely inspired ideas.  

Winning ideas are wisdom from above. When all was set, King Solomon made the right choice when God confronted him with an opportunity to ask for anything he wanted. He could have asked for wealth or power, but Solomon asked for wisdom and a discerning mind and God honored that request. The result was 1 Kings 3:12 “Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you.” Since Solomon asked for something more valuable than riches, God promised to give him a long life (1 Kings 3:14) and “both riches and honor” (1 Kings 3:13a)

WINNING IDEAS: Doing Business with God

Doing business with God implies living out your faith in the work place, it is a life journey that teaches one to submit to God while serving and meeting the needs of others. It challenges us to revolutionize the way we think about our job, career and work in general learn how to find your best career fit, maximize your job, get promoted, be more creative, Christlike and successful at work.

Note that you will spend one – third of your life at work. Don’t you think God wants you to make the most of it? God wants you to work so you can express what he made you to be.

Those who do business with God

-          Carry the abilities of God with them

-          Enjoy the blessing of God

-          Enjoy the dominion of Divine presence

-          Don’t get trapped by season and terrain

Business is anything you do for a LIVING. It is answering the call to destiny.

   

Prov. 16:3-4 Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. The Lord works out everything for his own ends — even the wicked for a day of disaster.     

Eph. 3:20-21

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

·         Don’t neglect family 1 Tim. 3:1-4 Eccle 4:8

·         Consider your health when during business with God Prov. 23:4-5

·         “for where your treasure is there your heart will be also” Luke 12:34 Mal. 3:10

·         Why must I do business with God. James 4:13-16 John 15:14 – 15

FEAR OF GOD

There is something about during business with God, when it is done rightly if resultant effect is generational blessing and that is has to do with the fear of God.

Nothing secure the future of any man / business life the fear of God in the same way nothing about destiny like the bankruptcy of the fear of God. Nothing make people to build to last like the fear of God.

Adam & Samson – aborted both theirs and the destiny of their generation

Joseph Genesis 39:9, 42:18,

  Gen 39:9 “No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?"

Gen 42:18 “On the third day, Joseph said to them, "Do this and you will live, for I fear God:”

Joseph how long did he last 80 years of generational impact and relevance.

   

Gen 41:46 “Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from Pharaoh's presence and traveled throughout Egypt.”

Gen 50:26 “So Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. And after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.”

JOB  

Job 1:1 “In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.”

How long did Job last in impact? 

Job 42:16-17 “After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation.”

Daniel (a man of notorious integrity) Daniel 1:8, 6:10

   

Dan 1:8.  “But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.”     

Dan 6:10 “Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.”

Lasting in relevance Dan 1:21 And Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.

What does the fear of God do

   Prov. 10:27 “The fear of the Lord adds length to life, but the years of the wicked are cut short.”  

  Prov. 19:23 “The fear of the Lord leads to life: Then one rests content, untouched by trouble.”

How does the fear of the Lord secure the future?

1.      It establishes a leading of protection / preservation around the people and their works Job

   

Job 1:9-10 "Does Job fear God for nothing?" Satan replied. 10 "Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land.

  

Ps 33:18-19 But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.

   

2 Kings 17:39 But the Lord your God you shall fear; and He will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies." NKJV

2.      It provokes the help of God Psalm 115:11, Acts 26:22

Ps 115:11 You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord; He is their help and their shield. NKJV

   

Acts 26:22 Therefore, having obtained help from God, to this day I stand, witnessing both to small and great, saying no other things than those which the prophets and Moses said would come —  NKJV

3.      Gives access to the secrets of God. Psalm 25: 14

  Ps 25:14 The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them. NIV

1.      The fear of God equal wisdom Job 28:28, Prov. 9:10, Prov. 9:1,24:3

1 Cor. 3:10

2.      It is the guarantee of God’s blessing. Job 1:10.

God bless you, have a wonderfully new and pleasant week! Shalom.

Rev’d. Canon Joel C. Nwohiri

Cathedral Administrator