Recently I posted a prayer in our Success God’s Way group and that same day I reached out to a mentor of mine to help me work through the challenge. She actually is the conduit through which I accepted Christ almost five years ago. She is a leader in Arbonne and I absolutely love and adore her. She is known as the “Velvet Hammer” because she’s so sweet and such a calming presence but she will tell you like it is. And I realized yesterday that I was getting so caught up falling into old patterns and there were two things that came out of that that relate to today’s topic.
So the first thing is, when you are pursuing success God’s way, when (not if) you start to feel anxious, confused, doubtful, etc., you know the enemy is at work. That’s a good thing because that means that you truly are doing God’s work, and the enemy wants to distract you – he wants to get you spinning. My mentor said “imagine one of those toy tops…as soon as you start to spin it- it spins and spins and spins. That’s what the enemy wants to do, he wants to get us spinning because then he can go work on somebody else.” So I definitely was in the spinning place. But the other thing that she said to me, and this is apropos for today’s topic, is that my business is a tool. So just like God gave Moses his staff (because he was a shepherd), his staff was a tool: once it was used to part the Red Sea. Another time, it was a snake used to scare Pharaoh. Another time, Moses used it at God’s command to hit a rock and get water, but he also used it against God’s instruction to hit the rock a second time to get water, but that was in disobedience to the Lord. (You can read about it in the book of Exodus). My point is, as God-centered entrepreneurs, we talk a lot about our businesses as being a vehicle. And they are. They are Kingdom tools. They are vessels to do the work that He’s called us to do which is to love Him and love His people. Period. And I think sometimes as God-centered entrepreneurs, and this happened to me in the last 48 hours, we get so caught up in where that tool can lead us, and where that vehicle can take us, and where’s the road map, and what’s the destination that we get spinning (see how that works?) and lose sight of the fact that God has given us this vehicle for His purpose, not ours. We get caught up in spinning around what the world would define as our destination. When I was talking to this mentor yesterday about my vision for the next three years and what I had put on paper, what my (operative word) vision would result in, she was very clear in saying that what I had put on paper was actually not a clear result. It was a concept of what that vision would result in. But it wasn’t really truly a tangible definition by God’s standards – and she helped me dig into why I wanted those results, asking if those results were truly aligned to the Lord and how was I using this tool He gave me. And the piece de resistance – reminding me that our use of this tool can change because He defines its use for His purposes.
You know, at some points in our business walk, our tool has a very specific purpose. But then as we continue to walk that path, God uses that tool for something different. In other words, your business is a Kingdom tool. And only when you spend time with the Lord in quiet can you understand what he wants you to use that tool for at this moment, and the next moment, etc. His vision or His purpose for that tool can change and that’s okay. Because as we grow and change, as we grow more into being more Christ-like through our business, it is a tool for our growth. It is a tool for impacting His Kingdom, it is a tool for mentoring others, it is a tool for guiding others. And the use of that tool, the use of the vessel of our business, will change and the question is, are we allowing God to direct that, or are we trying to direct it ourselves? I know that’s a lot for us to think about. Simply remember – your business is a Kingdom tool. He has given it to you for a very specific purpose, that purpose can change and will change based on what He desires for us – how we grow, how He wants us to move in different directions and cross paths with different people. But most importantly it is a gift that He has given us and so we have to turn to Him to understand “What do you want me to do today Lord? Who’s life do you want me to touch today? And where will this vehicle take me today?” It’s not for us to define, it’s for Him to define.
