Mustard Seed Faith in Business
by Os Hillman

“He replied, ‘Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, “Move from here to there” and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.’” - Matthew 17:20
 
Does God do miracles in business? Is He concerned about the mountains we face in our work life? Does He want us to bring the everyday problems we face in the workplace to His attention? The answer to every one of these questions is yes. God wants to be involved in every aspect of our lives. 
 

Gunnar Olson, the Swedish founder of the International Christian Chamber of Commerce, tells a story about God performing a miracle in his own business a few years ago. He owns a plastics company in Sweden. They make huge plastic bags that are used to cover bales of hay in the farmlands across Europe. It was the harvest season and they were getting ready to ship thousands of pallets of these bags to their customers. More than 1,000 pallets were ready to ship when an alarming discovery was made. Every bag on the warehouse floor had sealed shut from top to bottom. Scientists declared the entire stock as worthless trash. Nothing could be done. The company would go out of business. 

Gunnar, his wife, and children sought the Lord in prayer about this catastrophe. The Holy Spirit spoke through various family members. The wife said, “If God can turn water into wine, what are plastics?” The daughter said, “I don’t believe this is from the Lord. We should stand against it.” Gunnar sensed they were to trust God for a miracle in this situation. They began to pray. They took authority over this mountain of a problem based on Matthew 17, which gave them the authority to cast a mountain into the sea if faith only the size of a mustard seed could be exercised. The following Monday they went to the warehouse and laid hands on every pallet asking the Lord to restore the bags to their original condition. It took several hours. Later, the employees began to inspect the bags. As they inspected the bags, they discovered that every single bag had been restored to its original condition! An incredible miracle had taken place. 

What obstacles have been placed in your life that need a miracle today? Could God be setting the stage in your life for you to trust Him at new levels you’ve never trusted before? God sets the stage to allow His power to be revealed for those willing to exercise the faith of a mustard seed. All things are possible with God.

Like many others, I was quite struck by the viral youtube making its round in the internet, of a frumpy, middle aged lady looking 10 years older than her 48 years would suggest; coming onstage for Britain’s Got Talent show among jeers and snickers and completely sweeping away the audience and judges with her rendition of Les Miserables “I dreamed a dream”. No, this is not another post for Susan Boyle, but just a reminder that we all have certain prejudices towards people, without even knowing them. We put people in jars, in containers whether we’re conscious of it or not. I admit, I have a few: BMW drivers being reckless; mechanics are out to cheat us all the time etc. Our worldview is so small, it has a devastating effect on the way we deal with others.

Why not widen our views, and give extra grace because of what grace has been given to us? Ask God to increase our tolerance for others, to break us out of prejudices, to allow us to view each other as brothers and sisters, and to pursue peace with all men. I always think that conflict, like love, is a decision. We can choose to hold on to the bitterness of unforgiveness or relent and forgive each other…as Christ has forgiven us.

And back to Susan Boyle…I think her rendition of I dreamed a dream is probably one of the best I’ve heard, and mind you, I’ve heard a lot. I have several recordings of the original barbican, the broadway, the new casts, the australian cast etc. Patti LuPone is still the original Fantine and she has a great haunting voice, perfect for Fantine, but in terms of strength and power, Susan Boyle’s delivery is fantastic…especially when she hits that “And they turn your dreams to shame”, the toughest stretch of the song where she transposes. Most singers break at the last transposition, but hers didn’t. Of course, the song dynamics is a little different, i.e performance vs play but still it was close to call.

I’m a certified Les Miserables geek, so anyone who wants to discuss Les Mis with me, I am more than game! =)

Here’s a good excerpt on Belonging to the Body of Christ, by R. Kent Hughes: 

Church attendance is infected by a malaise of conditional loyalty which has produced an army of ecclesiastical hitchhikers. The hitchhiker’s thumb says, “You buy the car, pay for repairs and upkeep and insurance, fill the car with gas – and I’ll ride with you. But if you have an accident, you are on your own! And I’ll probably sue.” So it is with the credo of so many of today’s church attendees. “You go to meeting and serve on boards and committees, you grapple with the issues and do the work of the church and pay the bills – and I’ll come along for the ride. But if things do not suit me, I’ll criticise and complain and probably bail out – my thumb is always out for a better ride.” 

This putative loyalty is furled by a consumer ethos – a “McChristian” mentality – which picks and chooses here and there to fill one’s ecclesiastical shopping list. There are hitchhikers who attend one church for preaching, send their children to a second church for its dynamic youth programme, and go to a third church’s small group. Church hitchhikers have a telling vocabulary: “I go to” or “I attend”, but never “I belong to” or “I am a member”. Pollster George Barna supports this saying: “The average adult thinks that belling to a church is good for other people, but represents unnecessary bondage and baggage for himself.” 

One of the reasons for de-churching of many Christians is the historic individualism of evangelistically Christianity and the grass-roots American impulse against authority. The natural inclination is to think that one needs only an individual relationship with Christ and needs no other authority. Such thinking produces Christian Lone Rangers who demonstrates their authenticity by riding not to church, but out to the badlands, reference Bible in hand, to do battle single-handedly with the outlaw world. 

Such a cavalier disregard for the doctrine of the Church is eccentric, to say the least. It disregards not only Scriptures, but the consensus of the doctors of the Church. St. Augustine in his Enchiridion holds up the visible Church saying: “For outside the church they [one’s sins] have no remission. For it is the Church in particular which has received the earnest, the Holy Spirit, apart from whom no sins receive remission.” Augustine could not conceive of one being regenerated yet consciously separate from the visible Church. “The deserter of the Church,” he said, “cannot be in Christ, since he is not among Christ’s members.” 

So we conclude that church hitchhikers, ecclesiastical wanderers, spiritual Lone Rangers, Christians who disdain membership, are aberrations in the history of the Christian Church and are in grievous error.

“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.” 1 Samuel 15:22

Saul was given very specific instructions by God to attach the Amalekites and destroy everything that belongs to them putting death to men, women, children, and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys (v3). However, Saul spared King Aga’s life and kept the best plunder (v9). He justified how he can honour God with the plunder (v15 & v21). As a result, God’s favour departed from him.

At times, we “justify” our actions under the simulation of bringing glory to God. Pursuing a relationship with a non-believer under the simulation of adding another soul into God’s kingdom. Making money, at the expenses of one’s integrity (as mild as putting in 100-hour work week to as manifest as fraud), under the simulation of giving it away for God’s purposes. If I could imagine God’s face, it would be a wily grin, one eyebrow raised with a cynical “Oh really?” More often than not, we fall away – the pilgrimage is watered down and we keep the money. It is an intention; it is the concern of the mind. God doesn’t need anything from us – He is no one’s debtor. He wants our love and devotion, and at the heart of our love for Him is obedience (1 John 2:4)

A fascinating perception I obtained from Os Hillman’s Today God Is First 

When they came to the threshing floor of Kidon, Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the ark, because the oxen stumbled. The Lord’s anger burnt against Uzzah, and He struck him down because he had put his hand on the ark….” 1 Chronicles 13:9-10

There are good things we can do, but only God-things we should do. Those activities not born out of the Spirit will result in wood, hay, and stubble. What seems good in our eyes may be an abomination in God’s eyes. For instance, if you decide to build an orphanage but God has never directed you to do so, then God will not see that work as good; it was born out of your own strength, even though it was a “good work”. 

The most difficult challenge a Christian workplace believer will ever have is to know what things to be involved in and what things not be involved in. Many workplace believers have a great ability to see opportunity. What appears to be a “slam dunk” may come back to haunt us if God never ordains us to enter that arena. 

There are many good things we can be involved with. However there are God-things we are supposed to be involved with. Uzzah was a good man in David’s sight. It was a time of celebration, and David and the people were transporting the ark of God. However, the ark hit a bump, and Uzzah reached for the ark to hold it steady. He touched the ark, and he immediately died. David became very upset with God about this situation; he questioned whether he could serve God.   

God’s way are not our ways. The most important quality God desires to develop in us is our dependence on Him and Him alone. When we begin to make decisions based on reason and analysis instead of leading and prompting of the Holy Spirit, we get into trouble with God. David later learned the importance of this principle in his own life. This encounter was one of the stepping-stones in his pilgrimage. David was an extraordinary entrepreneur. He ran the nation very successfully, but he, like each of us, had to learn the difference between “good things” and “God-things”. 

Are you involved in anything in which God has not directed you to be involved? Do you seek God about every decision, every action before you take it? This is where God wants you and me to be. Ask Him to show how to walk with Him in this way.

Blessed week ahead!

“Whether by day or by night, whenever the cloud lifted, they set out.” Numbers 9:21b  

Just visualize living with the uncertainty of these circumstances. At some point, you work at getting your “house” in order, simply to have to pick up the stakes and move. Your capability to plan is totally gone. But yet greater is the persuasion to move when the cloud did not move as you felt it was time to move. For the Israelites, maybe the grass was no longer green. Maybe the water was not easily reachable. Maybe the bugs were a predicament. No matter what the case, they were strictly prohibited from moving if the cloud did not move.

It is still the same in our day now. We are not to move unless the Holy Spirit instructs us to do so. We are not to make that contract on the basis whether or not it makes sense, but on the principal of the Holy Spirit’s “cloud” in our life. It is a complicated course of action to move only when we are directed, and to stay put if we are not. The pressure is constantly upon us to move, to plan, to take action. But if we take action, we might move into a place where the presence of God may not be. Hence, the rub. The Christian workplace believer must learn to move when God says move; it is a sign of complete surrender and faith on God’s spirit to direct our steps. 

So, ask God today if you are sitting under His cloud. Or, have you moved when He said stand still? He will show you. 

In his heart a man plans his course, but The Lord determines his steps. Proverbs 16:9 ~ 

Speaking about love, here’s an excerpt I find kinda profound in George Verwer’s The Revolution of Love:

This is how we know God loves us. This is how we know the love of God, the way we perceive it, the way we understand it. He laid down his life for us. He died for us; he did something. He did not sit up in glory and sing, “My earthlings, I love you, I know you are mine.” and yet often we are not in speaking terms with the man in the seat beside us. Anyone who can sing that without going out from that meeting to show love in his life has passed through a religious pantomime that is an insult to Almighty God.

Below is an interesting parable that talks about not giving a toehold to the evil spirit, a.k.a. devil.

A certain man wanted to sell his house for two thousand dollars. Another man wanted to buy it very badly, but he was a poor man and did not have the full price. After much bargaining, the owner agreed to sell the house to the man for one thousand dollars. But the reduced price came with a stipulation. The owner would sell the house, but he would keep ownership of a large nail protruding from over the front door.

Several years later, the original owner decided he wanted to buy the house back. Understandably, the new owner was unwilling to sell. As a result, the original owner went out, found the carcass of a dead dog in the street, and hung it from the nail he still owned. Soon, the house became unlivable, and the family was forced to sell the owner of the nail, i.e. the original owner.

Ok, so what have we learned from the above parable, one may wonder. Well, if we leave the devil with even one small peg in our life, he will return to hang his rotten garbage on it. Ah hmm, here, we may own the entire home, but if we were to give the devil access to just one nail in our life, it would without doubt puts us in the high-risk bracket. Agree?

Well, no doubt we all live in today’s society that glorifies individuality. We stipulate our rights ahead of our responsibilities; service rather than serving; indulgence above sacrifice. Yeap, a society that glorifies the wholly trinity: Me, myself, and I. Christ is a reminder for us to start gaining perspective by diverting the focus from ourselves to God and His perfect love for us.

The birth of Christ is the epitome of love so perfect – so humble that He arrived at a manger; so expressive that He chose to walk amongst us sinners; so graceful that He is able to touch our hearts; so sacrificial that He died a criminal’s death to redeem all of us into the Kingdom of God; so merciful that He will write-off our sins if only we choose to believe. Well, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour is indeed God’s best gift to mankind. After all, we are all saved for good works, and not by good works. There is nothing more than we could do to make God love us more. Yeap, there is nothing so lacking in us all that is out of God’s gracious reach (and Amen to that!)

Hebrew 7:25, “Therefore He is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”

Ephesians 2: 8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”