Dear Brothers and Sisters, Shalom.

Welcome to tune in to the program by GLOBAL REACHOUT. I am Angelie. This program is based on the workplace training course of GLOBAL JIREH entitled "Christ-centered Entrepreneurship”. This course was compiled by Pastor Tony TAY Mingxian to help brothers and sisters live out Christ in the workplace.

In the previous episodes, we mentioned that an excellent heavenly enterprise must comply with thirteen principles. We have talked about eight of them in the previous two episodes. In today’s program, we are going to talk about three other principles, the acronym of which is "GOD": God-Centred—God-centered corporate agenda; Opportunity – grasping business opportunities from God; Diligence— diligent (dedication) attitude.

First of all, the company must have a clear positioning, and its agenda must be God-centered. In other words, the company should operate entirely around the will of God, without any private agenda. Honoring Lord is our attitude, and the glory of the Lord is our common aspiration. In this way, we can effectively work with other bodies and walk the path of faith together.

How can we build a God-centered enterprise? To achieve this, three levels of integration are required. The first level is to understand the will of God and the purpose of the existence of the enterprise. This is rational aspect—at the mind level. We need to search for integrated biblical truths so as to understand God's will. The more we understand God's will, the more we know the purpose of the business. The second level is to respond to God's heartbeat with regards to the company and be willing to respond to God's call. This is the sensibility aspect –at the heart level. The Holy Spirit will guide us to respond to the calling. If we do not eliminate the influence of the Holy Spirit, we will become more and more sensitive to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The third level is to determine the order of the company's agenda and live its destiny with actions. This is the willpower—at the hand level.

We need to pray for the decisions that the company needs to make, to ensure that the board of directors can make good decisions; and plead with the Lord to enable us to implement them. When a person knows his purpose, responds to the call, and lives his life, his whole person is integrated. He will be full of creativity and passion for life.

Next, outstanding companies grasp the business opportunities from God. We need to distinguish the source of business opportunities and only seize opportunities from God. Such an opportunity is rare, so it would be a pity if we did not grasp the opportunity while God was favoring us. How can we ensure that we do not miss the opportunity?

1 Chronicles 12:32 mentioned: “from Issachar, men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do—200 chiefs, with all their relatives under their command.” We pray that Lord can give us such people like the chiefs from Issachar. We ask the Lord to enable us to understand current affairs and know what to do in the time and environment we are in. If we ourselves don't have the ability to be a prophet, we ask the Lord to prepare such co-workers for us--this is the time factor. Secondly, we need to understand the factors that bring the tipping point of business opportunities--geographical factors. Companies need to understand their own situation, know local needs, and know how they can serve local people in accordance with the purpose of the company. Thirdly, to prepare the enterprise to align with God's breakthrough--people factors. All employees of the company adjust themselves together to align with God. We have to wait for opportunities. But waiting is not standing still, it is adjusting the enterprise up and down to align with God. Hosea 10:12 tells us: "Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love." The members of the enterprise must sow righteousness together and wait for business opportunities from God.

Brothers and sisters, when the company has the time, location, and people factors, we can grasp the business opportunities that come from God. We are determined to obtain business opportunities in this way, rather than relying on our own wisdom, because we are striving to enter a good rest. Running a business in this way also allows us to redeem the lost time. As God said in Joel 2:25: " I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten— the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm—my great army that I sent among you."

Today we are going to learn the last principle that the excellent heavenly enterprise adheres to -- diligence, that is, a dedicated attitude. Attentiveness and workaholics are not the same, and the most important difference is motivation. Brothers and sisters, is the motivation for our work today to "do God's work" or "work for God"? If everything we do is "work for God," then we are a follower; on the contrary, if we think we are "work for God," we will become the leader in the ministry. If our motivation is to become a follower of the Lord, we must learn to rest, knowing that "He is God." Besides, the purpose of diligence is not to make a fortune. Proverbs 23:4 reminds us: "Do not wear yourself out to get rich; do not trust your own cleverness." It is not a wise move to work hard to get rich. A wise person will know that this strategy is wrong. Diligence means that we do our best to do what we can, while entrusting the results to God. This means that we are letting the Lord himself build and guard our business. Proverbs 21:5 says: “The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.” This reminds us: Planning and diligence will not lose the business opportunities given by God. May the Lord make us diligent, this is the spiritual virtue of the disciples' perseverance.

To summarize the above: the agenda of the excellent heaven enterprise is God-centered (God Centred); she will grasp the business opportunities from God, (Opportunity) and have a diligent and dedicated attitude (Diligence).

At the end of the program, let us invite Ps. Tony TAY Meng Hiang, the founder of GLOBAL JIREH to pray for us.

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Discussion

1. What performance should a God-centered enterprise have? Does your company have it?

2. Have you ever missed (or grasped) a business opportunity from God? What lessons did you learn from it?

3. What is the difference between Christian dedication and 996 workaholics?