Frank posted this extraordinary story–a demonstration of how God wants to be involved in every aspect of our lives, including the workplace–on an earlier post. It is all the more unusual because it happened in the UK.
"In the early 80s, whilst out working, God clearly gave me a revelation for a business. The idea was totally novel; we found that there was no one else doing such a business model in the UK.
The idea was to offer a particular household product and its installation at a fixed advertised price. The product was widely available as a DIY article, and indeed I had installed several recently, which is when God spoke to me about the business model.
I approached several manufacturers of the product, but none were willing to supply direct to an installer. They always directed me back to the builders merchants or diy chains for their correct supply route. The manufacturers could not see my idea as interesting to them. Later experience proved them very wrong indeed.
It took 2 years of searching and prayer for a way to advance the vision. Suddenly the door opened. We had supplies. We equipped and painted a van with our new logo and started advertising for installations on the local radio and in local papers.
Three days later we had to postpone all advertising, as we had an avalanche of over three months work, at several installations a day, working till 10 or 11pm!, We were inundated with phone calls day and night.
Thankfully God brought another believer to help with the installations, another installer followed later.
Within the first year, we were buying more of these items direct from the manufacturer than all the purchases of the largest diy chain in Britain.
I cannot speak highly enough for the idea of working for God, but for me, it was never about making money so I could be a heroic contributor for the church missions. It was all about Jesus being Lord of ALL of me and ALL of mine.
Ever since I had come to know the Lord in the 70s, I was distressed that the value of scriptural truth was being lost because believers seemed to only understand it, and interpret it within the context of church meetings or evangelism. When they were away from church, their direction in life was really no different to non Christians. I personally held that any scripture should prove itself in the market place, and everywhere else, if it was a truth. Limiting it to church was to my mind, robbery.
I had asked God to lead me out of my full time employment so I could work for Him as my boss. He did just that. He proved the veracity of scriptural truth, well away from any church context. It gave me an amazing testimony which was illustrated by facts on the ground, not empty theology.
They say that imitation is the highest form of flattery. Gradually other businesses started to copy our model. We then diverted into other products and the original plan became a small part of a bigger business. However what we had learned was crucial to how we ran all of our future business.
Ever since I set out to "demonstrate" what I thought was God's view of the working life, He has revealed himself in countless crazy circumstances, through dreams visions and prophetic words. That is how my business grew. He even led me to invent a simple product and patent it.
My boast is in God, and in his desire to bless those who will listen. I am really a most useless businessman with very little comprehension of proper business practices. God just brought the right people along when they were needed."
2 replies on “A remarkable story of God in the workplace”
I am enjoying reading your posts on starting businesses under God’s guidance to provide a living that allows one to spend time on God’s work. But I think it needs to be recognised that there is a gift in starting a business just as in other things. And some of us (including me, I think) do not have that gift.
But there are other ways. I worked all my life (apart from a 2 year compulsory stint in the army) doing environmental work for the state government. I always felt that it was more than a money-earning job, but an opportunity to care for God’s creation and look for innovative ways to protect the environment while having positive economic and social benefits, or at least minimal adverse effects. I think sometimes I was able to find such strategies.
The point is the same as the one you have been making – God calls us and equips us for many different situations, and in all of them we can live lives where we do the work of the kingdom and earn a living at the same time.
unkleE
I believe you are right.
The point of the above article is not aimed exclusively at those starting a business.
The reality is that we should all take biblical faith and use it away from church. If our faith doesn’t affect the real world, then it is fake!
The post is also a statement that work is not just about earning loads of money to give to the church, work is about bringing kingdom rule (NOT CHURCH!) to the locality of where you spend your days.
It is about standing in the gap!