Last Saturday was the amazing CWM Big Push monthly meeting near Liverpool, led by the amazing Sue Sinclair. As part of the team, I was excited to be there to be part of what the Holy Spirit is doing. I was preparing to lead the pre-meeting team prayer time, asking the Lord what to share. The thought came to me that we must be about our Father’s business.
I was reading the scripture in Luke 2:49 And he said to them, ‘Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My father’s business?’ and this thought came to me, the fact that Jesus said, ‘My Father’s business,’ suggests that there’s business that is not of his father! We have a real enemy that wants to keep us caught up in the cares of this world and doubt the goodness of God! He knows his time is short so he is doing everything he can to stop the advancement of God’s kingdom.
Sadly, we often partner with the enemy, by our lack of knowledge, our lack of grace and our lack of love. We often are too busy fighting each and while we do this our enemy is empowered to ruin lives and ministries!
On the Friday evening, I discovered that my fridge freezer had stopped working. The freezer, which wasn’t a frost free one, was beginning to thaw! In front of my eyes came memories of the last time my kitchen was flooded; I had visions of wading through smelly icy water and the endless washing of bath towels. I "awoke" from this nightmare and thankfully my next-door neighbour had room in their freezer.
I needed an electrician to come and assess the situation. Nothing could be done till the following morning, which was the Saturday. I had a dilemma: miss the meeting to call out an electrician, or put a bowl and large towel in the freezer then close the door and go to the meeting! The enemy was blowing the situation out of all proportion to such an extent that I began to laugh out loud. Smiling to myself I went back the scriptures I’d been reading. I’d made my choice; I chose to be about my Father’s business, and what a business it is!
My attention was then taken to this scripture: This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike, “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who He is, and we know who we are; Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us – an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with Him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him! Romans 8:15 MSG
My question to us all, is, do we identify as a son/daughter of our heavenly father, papa, dad, or are we seeing ourselves as an orphan, standing on the outside looking in! The above scripture will either excite or roll over you depending on how you see yourself and your position in the family of God!
I used to see God as distant, physically and emotionally, and that was because I was viewing Him through my natural relationship with my own dad. I had a narrow view based on experience rather than the Word. Once that changed and my mind was renewed to biblical truth, my heart received the healing it needed so that I could embrace my position as His child and know who He really is! The perfect dad, loving, kind, non-judgemental, funny, wise, easy to talk to and so much more! Everyone, in the depths of our being, wants a dad like Him! We need to run to Him, not away from Him! We need to really know that God is always GOOD!
My challenge is, are we about our Father’s business? As a young Christian in the 80’s (I know….but time flies when you’re enjoying yourself!) I thought being about the Father’s business meant you had to be a professional, in the ministry, a church leader, a vicar, pastor, an evangelist, or teacher; rarely was the title apostle or prophet mentioned as someone who worked full time. Outside of that, you attended all the meetings, gave your tithes and offerings and served faithfully, while the professionals did the real work! There were many ministries outside of the church, who at that time were referred to as para-church organisations, often accused of being a parasite, sucking off the ‘real’ professionals! Thankfully the Holy Spirit taught me that as His child my unbelievable inheritance was for now! I could have access to it 24/7. No longer a spectator but an active participant of receiving on-the-job training in the family business, from the Holy Spirit Himself!
A family business is ultimately created by an individual, a person who had a dream to create something amazing that would change the world for the better, improve lives, produce jobs and wealth. A family business that would develop down the generations as each heir would take the original dream and add further positive advancements to add to the ongoing legacy. A family business that maintains its integrity to continue its good name down through the ages!
This is God’s dream, for His family to establish his kingdom on the earth, just like the one in heaven.
We are joint heirs with Jesus, ‘All who follow the leading of God’s Spirit are God’s own sons. Nor are you meant to relapse into the old slavish attitude of fear—you have been adopted into the very family circle of God and you can say with a full heart, “Father, my Father”. The Spirit himself endorses our inward conviction that we really are the children of God. Think what that means. If we are his children we share his treasures, and all that Christ claims as His will belong to all of us as well! Yes, if we share in his suffering we shall certainly share in his glory’. Romans 8:17 Phillips.
We get to have an exciting role in our Father’s business, the business of establishing His kingdom that will radically change mankind. Being God’s child and being a willing participant in the family business doesn’t mean that you must enter ‘the ministry’ full time, such as leading a church, being a worship leader or conference speaker. There are too many church leader’s kids out there that have been bruised and wounded by seeing and experiencing the awful things that happen to their parents. It’s also true that too many leaders have spiritually abused the sheep! But we don’t throw the baby out with the bath water! God’s family business is vast with an array of callings and destinies, but there is little room for being lukewarm or half hearted.
Sometimes we can use our careers, jobs, and businesses as a way of avoiding the calling of God on our lives. When I became a Christian I was teaching at a very large comprehensive school, and shortly after my conversion I felt led to leave teaching and focus on being a
full-time mom. I love my children, but I have the kind of personality that must be ‘doing’ something. I became involved in a wholesale dried flower business run from my home. I had no previous experience of business other than being married to an accountant! It was a crazy time. Did the Holy Spirit lead me into business? No, He didn’t. I was unfulfilled in church, and I thought to myself, this sounds like fun - and it was initially, as I could work from home, but soon I realised that my hunger for God was growing and that my calling was not in the wholesale selling of dried flowers. For me, my calling was to be in full time ministry. I had made a huge mistake that would have consequences for those working with me. It eventually got resolved and I began my journey into the family business!
Was it plain sailing? Absolutely not! However, I have seen God’s goodness as he has worked all things together for my good!
Maybe you have heard of the phrase the seven mountains of influence; there are seven aspects of society that believers should influence: family, religion, education, media, arts & entertainment, business, and government. Every person is influenced to some degree by these seven areas of society.
“Christianity is the greatest system for securing domestic peace with the greatest possibility of personal prosperity”.Lance Wallnau
We must be about our father’s business wherever we find ourselves planted. How do we influence and change the atmosphere in our homes, places of work and the businesses we run? Our priorities must change; we must realise that we are ambassadors for Christ,and we are to establish His kingdom, changing the atmosphere, bringing righteousness, peace and joy into this world, no matter how small we think our influence may be! We can do this by bringing honesty and integrity where it's lacking. We can model great character; we can be the voice for justice, we can create a bubble of anointing in a secular field to which others can enter into the atmosphere and presence of God while we invade the culture! We can remain silent and try to run a covert operation or we can accept that by being a voice for God we will be open to attack. Either way, at some point every Christian needs to be operating overtly.
People knew Wilberforce was a Christian, but his arguments for reforming the nation weren’t based on the bible. God gave him arguments that would resonate with the constituents he was entertaining. Satan influences the earthly kingdoms, so we are to exercise strategy to influence the leaders of these mountains of influence.
When a good parent starts a business, they have a desire that their children will want to follow in their footsteps, will have a desire and a passion to catch the vision, or be motivated to have a vision and dream of their own. No one in the Kingdom of God is meant to be ordinary, or invisible! There are destinies and callings waiting to be fulfilled. Our father’s business spans every village, town, city, nation, and continent.
It's multilingual, there’s a place for whoever, it has an amazing benefit package, great on the job training one to one with the Holy Spirit. Endless revelations to help you reach your goals, access to vast amounts of wisdom. You will never be unemployed, and there will be times of great refreshing and plenty of opportunities to expand the business and bring others in!
Were you wondering about my freezer? When I got home the bowl and the towel had soaked up the bulk of the water and there was very little to clear up. I sat in my lounge reflecting on the glorious presence of God that we had experienced earlier in the day. It had been a lovely warm day and, on the drive back, I had opened my sunroof. The weather had changed drastically throughout the evening, and it was pouring with rain. As I was preparing for bed, I suddenly remembered that my sunroof was open. My heart sank as I put my coat on, went outside, opened the car, and sat on a very wet seat! Oooooo, the inside of my car was awash with water! I actually sat and laughed! I wasn’t going to let the enemy steal my joy of being about my Father’s business!
We carry the presence of God, the Holy Spirit, the One who lives on the inside of us, into every sphere of the culture we work and live in, and we are much stronger than we think if we work together. It’s a family affair. We must be about our Father’s business if we are to establish His kingdom reign! Besides, think of the benefits!
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