J-O-B - Many people refer to job as an acronym for "just over broke." It's true that working for a salary will add to your income but it will seldom multiply your financial status to wealthy. Too often, God's people happily work to retire with a pension and limited savings. The company and their broker assure them that their pension and savings are diversified and returns on their mutual fund will multiply so they will have lots of money. The returns often match inflation and our worker lives from paycheck to paycheck and then from pension check to pension check. Markets around the world have fallen over the last six months such that most funds managed by others are down about 40%.
The Mediocre Mindset - Our imaginary couple with a job isn't exactly in poverty. They can have many nice things and can be generous to a degree. However, they never cross over into wealth and Kingdom building. They seldom have the flexibility to truly pursue their own heart's desires or have the kind of ministry impact they would like to have. A life of mediocrity has roots in the social mindset of their expectations. If our social heritage is tribal, caste, class, or corporate (hierarchical in some way), we will naturally see ourselves as faithful servants, with a ceiling on our potential, who are emotionally dependent on the system. We picture others doing the big things and view ourselves as small.
Institutional Christianity can have the same influence. For example, the prophetic movement is a steady stream of predictions about what God will do, or wants to do. When we hear them we naturally watch for God to fulfill those expectations and we become passive. Revival, for example, is commonly thought of as God sovereignly sweeping over a nation... our only role is to go to some meetings and have some fun. to date, the concept of having a plan and working a plan to disciple the nations starting with our own city has largely escaped us.
A Job vs Work - I want to suggest that a job is where we learn to work. When we work for someone else we learn to be faithful in our employer's vision. To the extent that we are productive we'll see promotion to new levels of opportunity for influence and financial gain. Similar to the parable of the minas (Lu 19:12) and the talents (Mt 15:14), we multiply for ourselves after we learn to multiply for someone else, our employer.
And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own? Luke 16:12 NKJV
A job is where we learn to work; we learn to be productive and creative under the guidance of another... until we are naturally entrepreneurial: creative, industrious, and diligent. We "serve" God and others until we learn to be "friends" and have that which is our own. That's when initiative and spiritual authority begins.
I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit — fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. John 15:15-16 NIV
Learning to Multiply - A job isn't a career; it's a training ground where we learn to work, take creative initiative, and become productive. There are always some employees who wait to be told what to do, expect others to take care of them, don't enjoy their work, and don't try to be productive; it's a poverty mindset. Given a choice, they would rather not work at all! They are missing the opportunity to show themselves faithful in that which is another man's and lay the foundation for multiplication in their own lives!!!
From the fruit of his lips a man is filled with good things as surely as the work of his hands rewards him. Prov 12:14 NIVAll hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. 24 The wealth of the wise is their crown, Prov 14:23-24 NIV
A job is also an opportunity to set aside some seed and begin to sow toward that which is our own. Work at a job is multiplication for your employer; addition for you. Work in your own vision starts multiplication for yourself. Servants are often under a delusion that if they could have their own vision or business they wouldn't have to work any more. Wealth flows toward people that know how to work; it flows away from people that are passive, regardless of their heart's desires.
The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied. Prov 13:4 NIV
The way of the sluggard is blocked with thorns, but the path of the upright is a highway. Prov 15:19 NIV
The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who answer discreetly. Prov 26:16 NIV
Work and ministry - The truth is that when we have our own vision, we enjoy it so much that we work harder than if we just had a job. Why? Here's the clincher... work is really ministry for a King. We are working for ourselves on our heart's desire. At the same time, we are working for God and serving others by providing ideas, products, and services that bless them. The seed of Kings (wealth for investing) continually increases and so does our ministry: our generosity in making others successful. We become rich both financially and spiritually... now, in this life.
Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. 2 Cor 9:10-11 NIVThe fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise. 31 If the righteous receive their due on earth, how much more the ungodly and the sinner! Prov 11:30-31 NIV
The problem I had was that I worked at home (as wife and mother) for many years before joining the workforce and then found that I had got into the habit of working harder there than many do in their job. So many people in a job expand their activities to fit the time rather than trying rather than needing to manage time well to fit everything in. One job I had was like going out to have a rest after working hard doing things at home.
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