God’s Preparation for Moving Out

A friend of mine has a saying, ‘Not every good idea is a God idea’. She uses this thought in the context of work and ministry. We adopted this concept the instant we heard it. It has served us well as we walk through life. This is why we take all significant changes or ideas about our business or ministry or lives to the Lord. Once we know the idea comes from Him, then we can move forward with confidence that it will prosper.

This has been the case with our recent expansion. We took it before the Lord and He provided the resources, physical and financial, to move the program to the next level. Our Lord took people (us) who had no idea how to do something (live event streaming) and made it work and work well. We’ve had TV industry experts look at how we do things and they marvel at the simplicity. What we do with 2 or 3 people would take them 5 or 6.

Are you wanting to move in a new direction? Have some ideas but are not sure they will work? Then it’s time to lay it all before the Lord to see what He would have you do.

Blessings

God’s Preparation for Moving Out
by Os Hillman

“In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and maidservants and menservants, and camels and donkeys.” – Genesis 30:43

Jacob left his homeland after suffering a broken relationship with Esau for stealing the family blessing. He went to work for his uncle Laban where he stayed for 20 years. It came time for him to leave, but he had no physical assets to show for those years under Laban. Laban had taken advantage of his nephew in every way. (In some ways, Jacob was reaping the seed he had sown his entire life as a manipulator and controller.) Nevertheless, God’s hand was on Jacob, and He had plans to prosper him. However, Jacob had one problem – he had no resources of his own. For Jacob to launch out on his own, he would need resources. In those days, resources often meant large flocks of animals. God gave Jacob a dream that resulted in a strategy for creating wealth by multiplying his sheep. Even though Laban sought to thwart Jacob’s efforts, God overcame the evil in Laban to allow Jacob to prosper.

There are many important lessons for us in this story. First, when God decides it is time to move you into a larger place of His calling, He has the ability to provide the resources you need to support the call. God gave Jacob a dream that resulted in a strategy never used before to build wealth. It was totally from God’s hand. It was creative and new. God called Jacob to move out after he had demonstrated his faithfulness in 20 years of serving Laban. He learned to live under authority and served Laban faithfully, even though he knew he was being taken advantage of.

God will do the same for you and me. However, a word of caution: Be sure the strategy is born from above, and not from self-effort. The difficulty for most of us workplace believers is to learn the difference between the strategies born of God versus the strategy of self-effort.