Hey guys, we’re going to talk about hearing the voice of God as a Christian, as an entrepreneur, as a business owner or even if you’re working a 9-5 on how to flourish in your vision and how to obtain that vision from the Lord to grow your business.
because ultimately what we need to do is take hold of the kingdom of God.
we need to flourish just as the word of God says that “he wishes that we prosper even as our soul prospers”
that’s a promise and that’s a purpose but a lot of the times we don’t really know where to go or how to do a certain thing and that’s what we’re going to touch on and it’s going to be great.
we’re going to do things a little bit different today and I think it’s really important you know you’ve been with me for a few times and i think it’s very important that we pray right?
Because as believers we need to have a relationship, we need to have a first love relationship and be able to commune and talk with God.
you know a lot of the times what i say and what i tell everybody else:
you know how do i hear from God?
how do i learn from God ?
you have to be in your bible. you have to be in your word, you have to bring what the bible says to the Lord and that’s how you grow.
you don’t come to the Lord with your emotions and with your “this and that” and try to argue and fight.
what you need to do is to come to God and you need to say “Lord, this is what your word says” and how do you have that ammunition?
if you don’t know, let’s say a prayer “father I thank you for every believer, i thank you Lord for their life. i thank you father for them reading this article to hear your message and your your grace.
Lord i ask, holy spirit that you just open the ears of the believer, father you open the mind in the heart of those that are listening that we would just learn and behold wondrous things from your word.
that you grow us in your stature that and in your anointing and we’ll be mindful to give you the honor and praise, Amen
All right, let’s get into it.
we’re going to go straight to luke 16, starting in verse one.
The parable of the shrewd manager and this is a a good example when we’re talking about our business and our entrepreneurial life.
jesus told this story to his disciples there was a certain rich man who had a manager handling his affairs.
one day a report came that the manager was wasting his employers money. The employer called him and said “what’s this i hear about you? Get your report in order because you were going to be fired.”
Verse 3: “the manager thought to himself “now what?”
My boss has fired me, i don’t have the strength to dig ditches and i’m too proud to beg.
“Oh you know what i know what i’ll do? I will ensure that i have plenty of friends that’ll give me a home when i’m fired”
so this manager he’s about to get fired because he’s not using the money properly.
he later comes up with the plan.
He invited each person who owed money to his employer to come and discuss the situation. he asked the first one “how much do you owe him?”
the man replied: “i owe him 800 gallons of olive oil”
The manager told him, “take the bill and quickly change it to 400 gallons”
he asked the next man, “how much do you owe my employer” i owe him a thousand bushels of wheat was the reply.
Here the manager said take this bill and change it to 800.
the rich man had to admire the dishonest rascal for being so shrewd and it is true that with the children of God in this world are more shrewd with dealing in the world than they are with the children of light.
here’s the lesson, use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends, then when your earthly possessions are gone they will welcome you into an eternal home.
if you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large things but i you are dishonest in little things.
You won’t be honest with greater responsibilities and if you are unsure, untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches of heaven? And if you are not faithful with other people’s things, why should you be trusted with the things of your own?
no one can serve two masters for he will hate one and love the other or you will be devoted to one and despise the other.
you cannot serve both God and money. the pharisees who dearly loved their money heard all this and scoffed.
so we have an example. we have the the ruler saying “hey listen, you’re not dealing with my money properly and it’s super important right as believers, as Christians, as entrepreneurs, where is our money going?
what are we spending it on?
Are we advancing the kingdom?
if we’re really serving God and if we really want to serve God with our whole heart and we want to have the blessings and the promises that the bible shows us in deuteronomy 28, then we have to be diligent to exceed and press forward on what God has for us right?
well, what are those blessing? because there’s blessings and promises so your towns will be blessed.
This is out of deuteronomy 28, your children and your crops will be blessed, the offsprings of your herds and flocks, your fruit baskets, and bread baskets.
Wherever you go, and whatever you do will be blessed. The Lord will conquer your enemies.
when they attack you they will attack you in one direction but be scattered in seven. The Lord will guarantee a blessing on everything you do and will fill your storehouses with grain.
the Lord will bless you in the land, that he’s given you if you obey the commandments of your God and walk in his ways.
The Lord will establish you as his holy people as he swore he would then all the nations of the world will see that you are a people claimed by the Lord and they will stand on all of you.
If you want those blessings, you have to be wise, you have to be shrewd in your dealings.
You have to maneuver your money properly.
So this example here, is the manager. Hewas mishandling his money and he was actually losing money.
if you’re in business, you know stuff happens.
we just need to get the money so in order instead of like fighting and arguing with this individua, figure out a way to get paid.
figure out a way to say, “listen, this is what we can do.”
that’s what thisshrewd manager did and then he goes on to say, “if you’re faithful in the little things, you’ll be made ruler over much.”
for instance, you want to get a vision and you want to grow in God. you want to start a business or maybe you have a business and you say “how do i get from point A to point B?”
well you need to be in the word, you need to pray, you need to say “Lord, what is my vision?” and you need to take steps and actions towards that vision, even if they’re small.
According to the bible as a promise.
Remember when we talked about you coming before God, you don’t necessarily want to come before God with your emotions right?
Why? because your emotions will go up and down, left and right.
You want to come before God with the word.
when you come before God, you say:
“Lord, if you are faithful as you said i’m being faithful with these little things, you’ll make me ruler over much”
That is what you do. You pick something, pursue it, do it diligently and you have your heart and mind fixed on God and he’ll make you ruler over much.
This is an example of what this manager did.
He says “fine, i need to make an effort to press forward.”
let’s go to another example over in matthew 25. we’re going to go to matthew 25 and it’ll be starting in verse 14.
The parable of the three servants.
*the kingdom of heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone…”
Remember we’re comparing what the kingdom of heaven is, okay? this is important.
“He gave five bags of silver to one, two bags of silver to another and one bag of silver to the last person. Dividing it in proportion to their abilities and then he left”
Everybody has a different ability,you have a different ability than i do.
The importance is your ability. Are you making use of it and is that ability bringing you into fruition to grow?
Are you growing your company based on your abilities?
Are you using your abilities to create wealth?
yes or no?
The bible says God has given us the ability to create wealth.
Verse 16: “the servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more. The servant with two bags also went to work and earned two more but the servant who received one bag of silver, he dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money.
After a long time, their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they used his money. The servant to whom he entrusted the five bags came forward with five more, he did good.
master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest and here i got you five more. The master was full of praise “weldone my good and faithful servant, you have been faithful in handling this small amount so now i will give you many more responsibilities, let’s celebrate together.”
The servant who had received two bags of silver came forth and said here are two more that i’ve invested and i’ve got two more. The master said “weldone, my good and faithful servant you’ve been faithful in handling, this so now. I will give you many more responsibilities let’s celebrate together.”
Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said master, “i knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. i was afraid i would lose your money so i hid it in the earth look here’s your money back but the master replied “you wicked and lazy servant, if you knew i had harvested crops and i didn’t that plant and gather crops that i didn’t cultivate, why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least i could have gotten some interest on it then he ordered “take the money from the servant and give it to the one with the ten bags. To those who use well what they are given even more will be given and they will have an abundance but from those who do nothing even what little they have will be taken away. Now throw this useless servant in the darkness where they’ll be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
it’s interesting to that what happens. you have three different accounts, you have two gentlemen that were given five talents, okay?
they were given these bags of silver okay?
The one made five more, the other one made two more, the last one he says “Lord i know you were a harsh master and i didn’t want to disappoint you.”
what i would encourage and submit to you is to understand that the third one may not have known his master because he says if you knew these things why didn’t you at least invest them.
The third onetried to just keep the money and he wanted to say “hey listen, i’m too scared to do anything right”
The word of God says that perfect love casts out fear. Anybody who fears has not been made perfect in love yet we have to continue.
Galatians 5 vs 6 says all that matters is faith expressing itself through love.
if that’s true faith expressing itself through love.
if you have a vision you’re walking with the Lord and he gives you an idea or an opportunity and you pray on it and you’re submitted to God you submit it to your pastors — if it’s a life-altering decision — then you’re going to walk in it with faith because it’s by faith that we walk and we move and have our being.
That is how we grow. We grow with the with the submission unto God and the lazy servant didn’t do that.
I would say right he didn’t actually have a really deep relationship with God because if he did he would have known:
“hey i have to make more. i have to create, i have to advance what my master has given me” and ultimately that’s what he wants you to do that’s what God wants me and you to advance.
he wants us to grow in what we have, maybe you start with X amount of dollars and you invest X.
Whatever that situation is, whatever that idea is, you have to press forward or you’re not going to receive the fruit.
if you don’t sow the seed, you’re not going to reap the crop.
It’s very important and it’s not always easy.
there’s sometimes pain, there’s troubles, there’s issues, and there’s a lot of self excuses that we get on but we cannot do that.
we have to press forward, we have to forcefully advance and we have to forcefully go forward. we have to most importantly know who God is.
We have to understand that God wants us to be blessed according to deuteronomy 28 and all the promises.
He wants us to prosper,he gives good gifts, he doesn’t seek to do us any harm.
He wants to give us good things according to jeremiah 29 vs 11.
There are many verses and many bible truths and hosea 4 vs 6 says my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge.
The problem is when we don’t know the bible., we don’t know God, we have to be submitted.
we have to do foundational truths in order to grow.
The bible says that God gives seed to the sower, are you sowing?
are you planting? are you reaping?
what are you doing to further your life?
your family?
your ministry?
your your marriage right ?
what are you doing to increase yourself on a day-to-day basis?
Dooes it line up with the word of God?
because if it doesline up with the word of God, you get to have the word of God blessings.
That is what we want to touch on and that’s how we want to grow because that’s ultimately how we get that vision and that’s how it comes through fruition. it’s not by how hard we work.
it’s about how hard. we work with faith in jesus
God’s designed it to where we can grow and flourish in him, we move and have our being and as many that are led by the spirit of God, those are the sons and daughters of God.
we have to advance, grow and we have to have the ultimate truth which is the word of God, understanding the word of God, seeking the Lord’s face and the bible says that forever in his right hand are pleasures forevermore and there’s fullness of joy.
He wants us blessed.
we have to be understanding, and and receive that in faith and press on.
If you don’t do it, you’re going to be like the third servant who was considered wicked because he wasn’t understanding who God was.
you have to understand who God is and in order to do that, we have to read the word.
we have to spend time with the Lord and we have to love the Lord and that’s what i have for you today.
thanks for reading.
I love you guys and take care.