This topic came to me minutes before I was scheduled to speak at a Church conference. I had prepared for the topic the organizer had asked me to speak about, but I wasn’t sold on the topic which went something along the lines of Finance and Business for Believers.
I have been a born again christian for about 3 years, and in that time I have come to see through my childlike believer lens that my brethren seem to struggle reconciling Godly principles with Money concepts. We speak power over cancer, but when it comes to Money, our prayers become quite timid. We pray over rent, and school fees, and job promotions, and the ability to pay Salaries, when Worldly people are building Multi-billion business portfolios and constructing their second, third beach houses.
Granted my sample is only the services in the Pentecostal church I attend, and hence my findings could be anecdotal, but in 3 years I haven’t been in a service where we prayed for the Millionaires & Billionaires in the room to experience multiplication. So I figured maybe they go to a different church where their Prayer needs are met.
As I looked out across the hall, trying to visually profile my audience, I asked the holy spirit to give me insight on how to frame my message. God used the speaker who went before me to give me an answer. He seemed to know the people in the room, referencing some of them by name as he went. We had lawyers, merchants, startups etc represented. The age group range was early 20s to 60s, quite the spread if you ask me. How would God use me to speak to such a diverse audience?
What stood out to me though was the feel of uncertainty in the room. I could sense business owners who were stuck, losing hope, struggling yet hopeful. They had come to be empowered, to find answers from God on what to do about their Business and Financial circumstances. This was not a prosperity gospel audience. They wanted practical concepts, not spiritual hyperbole. Was I the man for the job? I wasn’t, but God had chosen me as the conduit for his message, and so when my turn came, I took the podium, looked out into the audience, and told them I would be speaking about the Godly Man of Business.
If I say someone means business, I don’t need to explain what I mean. You just know. They have a vision. They have goals. They are focused. They are uncompromising. They embody excellence. They are disciplined. I could go on, but I know you already have someone in mind if that person isn’t you.
My message was anchored on the book of Luke 2:52 which says, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man”.
If there ever was a man who meant business, it was our Lord Jesus Christ. At age 30, and over the course of only 3 years, he established an organization that remains the largest and most successful ever over 2,000 years later. None of the ancient Kingdoms lasted this long, and no known Business has lasted this long. His credibility as a Man who meant Business is unquestionable. He was so committed to his Vision that he chose to die for it rather than give it up.
Inspired by our Lord’s life, I spoke of 3 Characteristics of the Godly Man of business.
GODLINESS
In Mark 8:36, Christ asked his disciples, “For what does it benefit a man to gain the whole world [with all its pleasures], and forfeit his soul?”. Christ was very clear, that the Kingdom he was building wasn’t of this earth, but for his Father. Prosperous Merchants & political leaders came to him, Multitudes followed him, Rich people invited him to their homes…in earthly terms Christ could have done pretty well for himself if he wanted, but being a Man of Business, he didn’t. He didn’t even have a home of his own to lay his head (Matthew 8:20). Through the example of his life, he reminded his followers, and us all, to be careful about what we choose to treasure (Matthew 6:21).
Godliness comes with a God given Purpose. In Jeremiah 29:11, the bible says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”. All the great men and women of the Bible had a God given mission that superseded anything else they would have wanted to do with their lives. Moses would have preferred to live peacefully as a herdsman in exile, but God wanted him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Esther was a beautiful woman who had just won the jackpot by being chosen as the King’s wife, but through her Uncle Mordecai God showed her that he had grander plans for her than being a royal second Wife.
My call to action for my audience was for them to prayerfully question their motivation for starting or being in Business. Were they serving God’s purpose or their own? I assured them that God speaks when we listen.
Godliness comes with Provision. I reminded my audience that when God gives you an assignment, he gives the provision for it. It doesn’t matter if the economy is bad, or there is a drought, he is a God who produces water out of a rock, who sends Ravens to feed his servant, who pours Manna out of heaven for his people. I can testify from my own life experience that God can miraculously make a way where there is no way. I have seen him bring Investors, customers and partners in ways I still can’t explain.
Godliness comes with People. The very first commandment that God gave man after creation was to go out, to be fruitful and to multiply. I have come to learn that when Christ said the greatest commandment is to Love God with all your heart, and to Love your neighbor as yourself, he was saying that my life isn’t all about me. In the great commission in Matthew 28:16-20, he instructs his disciples to go and make disciples of all Men. Your employees, your partners, your customers…those are all souls that God expects you to win over for him through your Organization. Woe unto you if through your business people are led to sin, be it through your products, your business practices, your company culture, lack of values, your advertising methods etc (Matthew 18:6).
CHARACTER
Our Lord Jesus Christ grew in Stature and in Wisdom. His years of obscurity were not in vain, but rather served to facilitate this growth. At age 12 he was already quite clear about his God given Purpose, and what a child prodigy he would have made. Yet it would take another 18 years before he would begin his ministry.
We live in a headline driven generation, where ‘overnight’ successes and glorious triumphs are celebrated more than the process. I’m still baffled by the Venture Capital economy where every capital raise is celebrated as a headline attracting success. 2 year old companies raise Capital at valuations that defy all laws of economics, making millionaires out of 20 year olds. If you have seen the heartbreaking headlines around Venture funded startups in Kenya over the last year, it leaves one wondering whether this is an Industry or a Circus that would have been better off as a Netflix show.
I shared with my audience 3 Character traits from the life of Christ that we can all aspire to as we build lasting, profitable enterprises that help propel our economy forward.
Jesus Christ was Consistent in Word & Action. Everything Christ did, from fending off Satan’s temptations in the wilderness, to calling his 12 disciples, to how he healed the sick, to the miracles he performed, to cleaning out the temple, to how he faced and argued against the Sanhedrin all the way to the cross when he said ‘it is finished’, was in keeping with his mission to save mankind. He set such a singular, impactful example that his disciples could pick up from where he left, and with the help of the Holy Spirit they spread his message and won over converts in all corners of the earth, at great personal sacrifice for most of them. Today 2.4 Billion people consider themselves followers of Christ.
When Joshua was asked to lead the Israelites into Canaan, God told him, “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go”. Someone once said that in business there are no failures, only pivots. No single story of success has come without setbacks, but like Joshua, like Christ, the success stories we celebrate are of people who didn’t turn to the right or to the left, but stayed the course at all times, and that consistency led them to their goal.
Jesus Christ was Confident. And no surprises there, because when your ‘sponsor’ is the creator of the earth and everything in it (Psalms 24:1), there is no room for timidity. In 1 John 4:4, the apostle John tells his audience, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world”. Christ was up against thousands of years of tradition and laws that had subjugated God’s people, doubled with the tyranny of the Roman empire under whose rule the Israelites were at the time. He exemplified this when he said,“From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent are taking it by force”. John the baptist had suffered a grueling beheading at the whim of King Herod, so Christ was well aware what he was up against.
Yet Christ, being the Prince of peace, knew he had a power behind him that could defy all Kings and Emperors and their vast armies. In the face of hate, he preached Love. In the face of violence, he preached Justice. In the face of fear, he preached Courage. He knew that he who was in him was greater than he who was in the world, and he was right. I reminded my audience that the same Spirit who was in Christ is still very active in us, and through him we can do even greater works than Christ (John 14:12).
Instead of trying to fit the mould, we Christians should confidently build entities that defy norms and stand out for their Purpose and driving Values, knowing that Christ is walking alongside us, assuring us of victory. Do your employees, clients, partners know that you are a follower of Christ? Do they see it in your fruits?
Jesus Christ was Creative. I can just imagine being a disciple of Christ, following him on his ministry, not knowing what tomorrow held because with Christ no day was the same. Christ was a master of story telling. Those of us who went to Sunday school remember how our young minds were molded through the parables of the sower, and the foolish/virgins, the good Samaritan, the prodigal son and the list goes on and on. He used visualization to help his audiences understand what this Kingdom of Heaven that he was always going on about looked like (Matthew 13).
You see Christ had a master plan of saving the World, but his execution was so versatile that even the Pharisees who wanted to kill him struggled to find a common thread that they could use to accuse him, eventually resorting to underhanded tactics and false witnesses to have him executed. Companies and businesses that stand out in the Marketplace don’t follow the script. They stand out because they find novel ways of producing goods and service, and of delivering them to their Customers. Learn from the Master himself.
COMPETENCE
Proverbs 22:29 says, “Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; He shall not stand before mean men.”. I say this with conviction, that followers of Christ have an even higher standard of excellence than non-believers because he who we have chosen to follow set such a high bar of excellence in his work. As St. James articulates well in James 2:14-25, saying you have faith but not having the works to back it up is foolishness. How are you to win over souls for Christ at your office if you are not among the best performing people in your team? How is your company a model of Christ if your products and services are not the Gold standard of excellence in your industry? Believers who under-perform in the Marketplace do a huge disservice to the body of Christ because they leave a void that gets filled by people of the World.
Industry Panels at Conferences should be filled up by born again Christians. Company Boards should be filled up by born again Christians. Forbes rich lists should be filled up by born again Christians. Oh what economies we would have if our high offices had Men and Women of Faith who bring Christ along with them to those offices, standing up for integrity and value creation and legacy building. But instead we have ‘Waheshimiwas’ out to fill their foreign bank accounts with as much loot as they can while their constituents languish under the yoke of bad policies and corruption.
So how do you grow in competence? According to Proverbs 12:15, you need to uphold a spirit of learning. Surround yourself with wise counsel, be it from peers, mentors or experts. Someone once said the sum total of a CEO’s decision making is the four people closest to him. Who are the 4 people closest to your decision making process? Secondly, walk with humility. Having wise people around you but not creating the atmosphere for them to counsel and correct you is moot. Proverbs 16:18 makes it clear where the path of the proud leads to; destruction. The business world is littered with stories of CEOs who experienced wild success and lost the plot when they got too proud to listen to the voices and the trends around them. Apparently Kodak had a photo sharing software developed in-house long before Facebook ever existed. We know how that story went. And finally, which happens to be my professional mantra, is Proverbs 3:5-6 which says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.”. And this was my parting shot. You may be the best at what you do, but Let God order your steps. Ultimately, all glory on earth and in heaven must go back to God, so if what you create and build isn’t doing this, sadly that simply makes it an Idol.
Be blessed.
