Doing God’s Business
By Ron McGatlin
My heart grieves longing for an explosion of God’s kingdom reality to blow away our divided and subdivided, compartmentalized mindsets. There is one Lord over all, one King, one kingdom, one life in God, and one set of principles as guides for life in the kingdom of God. All life with its many parts is one and moves toward one purpose or goal.
Partaking from the tree of knowledge has driven us into madness and folly. The sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross has opened the way to return to the tree of life and be rejoined within to become one with God and His way of life and purpose. The Holy Spirit of God is here to form the resurrection life of the Spirit of Christ within us to empower us and guide us back to the sanity of one life under one Lord in one kingdom.
Why! Oh why! Should God’s people continue in the insanity of living from the tree of knowledge? It is understandable that the people of the world continue in darkness because even though they are aware of God by His works of creation, they do not honor Him. By their own knowledge they believe themselves to be wise and become fools. But why are the people of God so unwise?
Rom 1:21-22: because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools.
There are two major false mindsets functioning today that originate from the tree of knowledge and the spirit of anti-Christ.
One of these mindsets is the spirit of the world. Or a more intellectual name for it is godless secularism. This spirit or mindset is reigning supreme in the western world. Through the control of education and media, the masses of the world have been firmly implanted with this godless mindset.
The drives, values, and guidelines of godless secularism rule the minds and hearts of the masses in the place where Christ Jesus should reign. It is not hard to see that the powerful spirit of anti-Christ is the power behind this ungodly system. Some of the key ingredients of secularism which the masses are trained to reverence are independence, intellectualism, competition, humanism, materialism, esteem of self, confidence in self, honor of self, pleasure of self, and other such concepts. At best Christianity is tolerated as equal with other religions at least until it can be done away with through education.
The second major false mindset is religious. Christian religion as it exists today is a mixture of God’s truth and concepts from the fallen world. This produces a dichotomy of concepts which causes a practice of hypocrisy mixed with true Holy Spirit led and empowered worship and ministry.
Before the revivals of the past few centuries, the Christian religion was an empty shell of the vibrant first century relational church. The powerful works of Jesus and the first century disciples had either gone underground or faded away. A hierarchy of men and systems ruled the religious church systems instead of Christ Jesus in the Holy Spirit flowing through holy servants. The early revival restored justification by faith, and the revivals of the twentieth century restored the powerful baptism of the Holy Spirit and more recently the preaching and demonstration of the gospel of the kingdom as Jesus preached it.
Power and the word of the kingdom are being restored to the church in our day. However, the dichotomy of concepts of religion verses the kingdom reality continues into the twenty first century. Religion continues to hinder the reception of the restored gospel of the kingdom. Both the secular and the religious mindsets are opposed to the relational reality of the kingdom of God.
Breaking out of the religious mindset is a huge challenge. It is set as stone in the hearts of multitudes of believers. Many have developed hardened hearts and stiff necks through religious teachings and the work of powerful religious spirits. Some would fight to the death against the word of the kingdom to defend the doctrines they believe to be the truth of God not knowing their teachings are mixed with false doctrines brought forth from the traditions of men from the past seasons of spiritual darkness.
In the vernacular of the analogy of the wagon trail in the past two publications ( http://archive.openheaven.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=27867&a mp;PN=1" target=_blank _fcksavedurl="http://archive.openheaven.com/forums/forum_posts.a sp?TID=27867&PN=1 - Leaving On A Journey and http://archive.openheaven.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=27984&a mp;PN=1" target=_blank _fcksavedurl="http://archive.openheaven.com/forums/forum_posts.a sp?TID=27984&PN=1 - Box Canyons and Dead Ends ), heading back down the box canyon trail of religion to get back on the kingdom trail is a more difficult trip than the trip going into the box canyon of religion.
The kingdom of God is much bigger than religion or human mentality. It includes the total of all aspects of life on earth. God is not only concerned about religious or church matters. He is concerned for the whole of man and the earth with all its created natural systems. It is human thinking from the tree of knowledge that separates and compartmentalizes life. It is the spirit of anti-Christ that seeks to confine God to religious or church matters and prevent God from ruling in His entire kingdom on earth. In the kingdom, worship and the rule of God permeate the whole of life and establish the rule of God in every part as one seamless life. The rule of God is the same in church, business, family, education, governance, recreation, and all areas of life. There is one standard and one set of principles and concepts for guidance in the whole of life on earth.
Doing God’s Business
The religious mindset makes a false distinction between church things and work things. Subsequently there is one set of principles and concepts used for doing business and another for doing ministry. In the kingdom there is one life and the same principles and concepts apply for ministry or for business and occupation.
Religious-minded people tend to see ministry as primary and business or work as secondary and mostly useful for getting money to support ministry and family. The focus is primarily on the income derived from the job or business. However, if in ministry, the primary focus is on the income derived from it, most people would readily see that to be an improper focus.
Kingdom-minded people will see that the primary focus of job or business is on the service or product rendered to people by the work that is done, the same as it is in ministry. In the kingdom the only difference in business and ministry is the types of needs met by the endeavor. Both are tools that God uses to serve mankind and the world around us. Ministry generally seeks to meet spiritual needs of people. Business is focused mostly on meeting physical needs. However, there is much overlap, and both may meet mental and emotional needs. All areas of kingdom enterprise are important to God. We serve God, in part, by serving people. We are to do good to all people but especially to the people of God.
Gal 6:10: Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.
The kingdom focus is on seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness in all areas of our lives. The focus is not on working in business or ministry to meet our needs as it is in the world system. We focus on doing the best job of meeting needs in the kingdom and all the things we need are added to us. The kingdom involves all life and one part is as necessary as another.
For a moment, imagine life in a small, godly, frontier village that has no access to outside provisions. The people of the village would all know one another and care about the well-being and the needs of each other. The different people would develop their God-given gifts into various skills to help supply the needs of the people of the village. Someone might be adept at growing certain needed food or animal feed items. Someone else might become good at raising and providing poultry products and others beef or pork products. Someone else might be a dairyman and provide milk products to their neighbors. Someone else may be good at cabin building and woodworking, and another at blacksmithing and so on. When a need in the village arises, someone will seek to meet that need for the people. Working together, they will provide for one another and will be happy to trade the produce of their skills and labor for the produce of others to meet their needs and the needs of the others in the village.
In this small village no one tries to get rich at the expense of others and no one seeks to hinder or harm another. Loving concern for one another leads to industrious activity (business) producing goods and services to meet needs. The love of God brings order and cooperation. Now, expand the view in your mind from the small village to nations and then the world, and God's plan for business in the kingdom begins to come into view.
Kingdom business or ministry is caring for God's people and managing the resources of His earth.
God's love is the primary motivational force of all kingdom business and ministry. Through love, people serve one another.
The kingdom of God includes all of life, and all is to be holy (set apart to God). Seeking the kingdom means seeking God's rule for all of life. And seeking His righteousness means seeking His purposes and order in all things. Righteousness is His right way of being and doing. It is being in perfect alignment with His instruction and desire. If we seek first the kingdom and righteousness, then all the things we have need of will be added to us because we will have become productive and useful servants in meeting the needs of mankind and the world around us. This is not a magic or supernatural thing. It is a basic reality of natural kingdom life. Our treasure really is where our heart is.
Mat 6:33: "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
There is contentment and excitement in serving God with our whole lives and doing things His way.
For much more on business in the kingdom see http://archive.openheaven.com/networking/webrings/" target=_blank _fcksavedurl="http://archive.openheaven.com/networking/webrings/ - Kingdom Growth Guide #026
Keep on pursuing love. It never fails and His kingdom never ends.
Ron McGatlin
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