Obedience-Based Decisions

One of the more difficult task of operating a faith based business is making decisions rooted in the leading of the Holy Spirit. We hired our first employee on such a prompting. The Lord showed us we would be better off paying someone a full time wage than bringing in guest help for our events.

That was a scary time for us. We are not a company with lots of capital, nor do we have the ability to borrow much money to cover operating costs, so we were stepping out in faith to do what the Lord wanted us to do. It has been one of the best decisions we’ve made to date. Next month we will be hiring two more people in a similar full time capacity. Had we not been obedient to the Lords leading when we hired our first employee, I doubt we would have been able to grow our business to the point where we needed to hire additional help.

How did we know it was the Lord leading? It’s not magic, it’s relationship. When you spend time daily with the Lord, you become accustom to His ways. This is no different than your relationship with your spouse. The longer you are together, the better you understand how they do things which makes it less likely there will be a misunderstanding. So it is with the Lord.

There is no hidden secret to success in life that I know of. However, what I have found is if we are willing to listen to His leading, we stand the best chance we have at succeeding in any endeavor.

Blessings

Obedience-Based Decisions
by Os Hillman

“We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.” – Acts 5:32

So often we as a society equate numbers with success. The larger the conference, the more successful we deem it. The larger a church, the more we believe that God is blessing. And so on. I recall planning a conference one time. Registrations were not where I felt they needed to be a few weeks before the date of the event. It wasn’t long before I began to get “under the pile” about the level of attendance. My friend, who was organizing this conference with me, called and asked how I was doing. I had to confess where I was. He immediately reminded me of my own teaching in this area. We are all called to be led by the Spirit, not by outcomes. “If God called us to put on this conference, then the outcome is up to Him if we have done our part.” He went on to explain how he learned this lesson in a similar way a few years earlier.

He and a friend were led to host a Bible study group. His friend was to speak. It was nine o’clock and they were the only two people there. His friend was discouraged and was ready to leave.

“No,” said my friend. “We have done what the Holy Spirit directed.” He then stood up and began to welcome people as though there were many in the room. (No one was in the room.) He introduced his friend and they began the meeting. A few minutes later, people began to straggle in. By the time the meeting was over, ten had shown up, and one man in particular was impacted by the meeting.

Being led by the Spirit often means we must not use the world’s standard for success as our measuring stick. You never know what an act of obedience will yield at the time. We must leave results to God. Our role is to obey. His role is to bring results from our obedience.

Do you make decisions based on the potential outcome or by the direction of the Holy Spirit in your life? Do you overly evaluate the pros and cons without consideration to what the Holy Spirit might be saying deep inside? We are all prone to make decisions based on reasoning alone. Ask God to give you a willingness and ability to hear the Holy Spirit and to obey His promptings.