Minister: Pastor Sunday Adebamiro
Text: Genesis 13: 14 – 18 (NKJV)
Topic: Covenant Secrets For Supernatural Exploits In The Marketplace And Workplace.
”And the LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.” Then Abram moved his tent, and went and dwelt by the terebinth trees of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to the LORD.”
Our exploits on earth are not meant to be limited to the church world; it was also meant to be effective in the marketplace and workplace – wherever you find yourself or are planted. As believers, we are the light of the world, not the church and not in the church. Just as salt is not meant to remain unapplied in its containers, as the salt of the earth, we are not meant to remain in our salt containers. Like salt shows it impact when applied to a dish or soup, so do we as salt become relevant once we are applied. The soup being prepared cannot be affected or improved by salt if salt remains in its container. As salt, we cannot change the taste of the soup until we become connected to the soup.
It is time for us to leave the comfort of our containers and affect our world. If we remain in our salt containers, the world will continuously lack taste. The marketplace or workplace would remain tasteless and hopeless without salt because in addition to amplifying the taste, the salt also preserves it. We cannot preserve a world we are not in contact with.
We are meant to be light to the world; not light to one another. Wherever there is darkness, light will be appreciated there. Where we will be appreciated the most is not within the church, but in the world because that is where darkness is. There is no appreciation for shining light where there is no darkness.
The church can be likened to a fuel station. When you refill your car with fuel, you do not remain in that fuel station, you drive your car to your determined destination. As Christians, what we do most time is remain filled with fuel (sermons, teachings etc.) from the church constantly and remain there. We do not use the fuel to fulfil any purpose in the world but return to the church for more again. We need to explore the world and use our fuel out there.
Matthew 28: 19 – 20 (KJV)
“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
Based on Matthew 28: 19 – 20, we learn that we are meant to disciple and impact nations. The subjects of our discipleship as Christians should be the world, not other believers. The justifiable instance where we can focus on other believers as disciples is when they are being further trained to impact the world. We should not limit our understanding of what nations to be as the usual meaning-countries. It goes beyond that. The question we should ask ourselves is, “How do we impact nations and our world? How do we do exploits in the marketplace and workplace?”
Secrets to Making an Impact in the Marketplace and Workplace
The main secret of how to make an impact wherever you find yourself in the world and do exploits is the Vision. Visionaries are transformers and impact makers.
What is Vision?
- Vision is the revelation and discovery of God’s purpose for your life: We are not the ones to determine our life’s purpose; God does that. However, it is our task to discover it. We must understand that we were created for a purpose. We were made for a reason and an assignment.
To discover the reason that we were created by God, we need Vision. Vision is the revelation of our assignment. Also, Vision should not be confused with Ambition. Ambition is what you want to become and achieve; Vision is what God wants you to achieve. Ambition is essential to us as humans, but it must not conflict with the purpose of God for our lives. If there is a conflict between our ambition and vision, then that becomes a problem for us.
Genesis 26: 2 – 3 (NKJV)
“Then the LORD appeared to him and said: “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I shall tell you. Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.”From the passage of Genesis 26: 2 – 3, we must understand that vision involves dwelling and staying in the land that God orders us to stay. The best place to be, the best job to have, the best land to live in; amongst them all, the best of all these is that which God has revealed to us. This begs us to ask ourselves about the jobs we do and the place we settle in that, “Is it God who directed us there?” This is because we cannot make a significant impact in any location contrary to where God wants us to be.
The land where you will be blessed is the land that God sent you to. It is possible that the reason we struggle wherever we dwell, or work is because it is contrary to where God wants us to be. We must locate the land that God wants us to be and dwell there.
It is impossible to do great exploits in a land within a short period of time. Exploits across the world cannot be achieved by moving from one place to another seeking opportunities and not dwelling anywhere. Conducive habitat and environment matter when it comes to doing exploits. A fish outside of water will not be able to do anything great but die eventually; a plant will not become a tree when it is not in the right environment to grow. - Vision is a revelation of a better or preferred future: From the passage of Genesis 13: 14, God said to Abraham, “Lift your eyes now.” The moment to look ahead is right now from wherever you are. It is possible to get the vision that can catapult yourself, your family and future generations to perform great exploits from where you are currently. Do not let where you are currently in life regulate the opportunities that you seek.
From wherever you are, you can see the world and grasp it. After all, what is the cost of having visions and dreams? It is totally free. Do not wait for everything to be perfect before discovering your life’s vision; do not relent with all the woes of your life currently, discovering your life’s vision will make a difference. From whatever position you are in life, vision can be developed. Visions are developed from the vacuums of life.
Sometimes, it is possible for your vision to originate due to your condition in life. With the sight of vision in your life, it is possible to weather the storms of life and survive them. You can never have a significant effect on any aspect of life that you do not possess in your vision. Do not despise the place of ‘little beginnings’ because it is a fertile place for the birth of visions. It does not matter where you start from, it does not matter where you were born. With vision, you can determine where and how you will die. - Vision is a revelation of your greatest possibility and potential: You are bigger than where you are at the moment and you can have more than what you do currently. People are transformed by visions. One of the major differences between mediocre or average people and visionaries is that mediocre people tend to see things the way they are (they only see what is); while visionaries focus on things that can be (they see possibilities). The transformation of industries, nations and anything significant involves the ability to analyse concepts and brainstorm about what these concepts can become.
We, as Christians, must engage our minds continuously. We must believe that our best days are not behind us; they are ahead of us. We are capable of a lot more than where we are currently. Do not focus on lost positions and opportunities.
Regardless of our current positions and circumstances in life, we all possess within us the capabilities needed to transform our lives to become the greatest versions that they can be. All it takes is to discover God’s purpose for our lives and focus on our vision of it. In the realm of gains and losses, the sign of a good ministry reveals to us all that we have left (and maximizing it), and not what we have lost. Do you know what the scraps of your life are capable of when vision is applied to them?
One of the greatest advantages we have as humans is the ability to think. In the realm of living things, we are unique. The ability to analyse things with our minds and transform things to become something better is a unique characteristic of humans. For instance, God did not give us tables, chairs and books. What we were given were trees. However, He created within us the computer (brain and vision) necessary to transform those trees into tables, chairs and books.
From this revelation, we can mirror Christianity and understand our shortcomings – we consistently ask God to provide for us the tables, chairs and books we need in life even after He has given us the capabilities to create them ourselves.
God will not provide to us that which He has given us the mind to create. We are meant to be co-creators with God. We need to constantly think about what we can create from everything around us and all aspects of our lives. Our thought process should always be, “How can we birth significant creations that will last a lifetime?” We should always think about significant things that we can produce from the little we have. Anything is possible because we are all in a constant state of development.
Animals still function the same way that they did in the past. They eat the same way; they eat the same things. Cattle still eat grass the same way and lions still prey on raw meat. However, God blessed us with a mechanism called the brain – which is capable of analysing the little that we have and creating something better for ourselves. So, ask yourself today, how well are you using your brains to think? In your sectors, what are you using your brains to create? How are we utilizing the gifts we have nurtured and the gifts given to us by God?
We must practise writing our visions down and not just continuously think about them. We must be wise not to foolishly move from place to place seeking opportunities when such decisions are not backed up by God and our visions. This can possibly lead one to suffer even more misfortune at the destination you are headed compared to where you left behind. This is one of the causes of a lack of vision.
Every day, we must be watchful in discovering opportunities we can tap into. It would be unfortunate to have the ability of sight but not have sight to see visions and opportunities to better our circumstances. We must put our heads to work from where we are. FROM WHERE YOU ARE, WHAT CAN YOU SEE?!