10 Steps to Accomplishing Your God-Given Mission (Part 1)

The bible gives us many examples of God's projects being accomplished by obedient and faithful people.
I'm going to focus on Nehemiah in this post, but there are many instances, including Noah, Moses, David, Solomon, and a few more that I'm not going to mention for lack of space and readability. All of them have differences but they all have two recurring similarities: they listened to God's call on their lives, and they obeyed. Yes, I have to admit sometimes argumentatively, or bewildered, but in the end they obeyed God's will. I'm going to talk about Nehemiah today because I believe that through this passage God has given us a blueprint on how to complete a successful project, be it a start-up, new product launch, etc. Out of Nehemiah we get 10 steps for successfully lauching and continuing your God-given mission.

1. Pray for your ministry- Nehemiah 1:4 says the following: When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Nehemiah heard the state that the Jewish people, and Jerusalem were in. It touched him profoundly. Nehemiah 1:5-11 is his prayer to God for the Jewish people. God has put a cause in your heart. It's up to you to uncover it through prayer and communion with Him. You will know when the time is right to go forward with it. Keep praying and open your mind and heart to what God wants to show you. Notice your reactions to things. What has really touched you profoundly? Do you get riled up over injustice? Does your heart break for abused people or animals? Maybe your ministry is there. Pray about it and don't give up. Be determined. He'll tell you. Remember what it says in Luke 11:9-10: So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
2. Seek confirmation and listen- Make sure you know the mission is from Him. It says in Nehemiah 1:4 that for some days he mourned, fasted, and prayed. Nehemiah says that he recieved the news about Jerusalem's dire straits in the month of Kislev (the 9th month in the Hebrew calendar), and that he finally approached King Artaxerxes in the month of Nisan (the 1st month). That means that at least 4 months went by from the time he heard the news until he approached the King. He spent that time fasting and praying; listening for God's will. Don't get discouraged if you don't hear from him right away. Remember it's all in his time, not yours. Sometimes he will use other people and situations to confirm or discredit. Ask for discernment.
3. Move forward- Once God has placed a mission or a command in your heart. Go after it with everything you have. Nehemiah although scared stepped forward and asked the King for permission to go to Jerusalem. "so the king asked me, "Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart." I was very much afraid, but I said to the king, "May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?" The king said to me, "What is it you want?" Then I prayed to the God of heaven, and I answered the king, "If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my fathers are buried so that I can rebuild it." Notice that before he answers the King's question, he prays to God.
4. Seek a champion- Nehemiah had King Artaxerxes. Who will be your king, your protector, your source of capital, your encourager? You need someone who can grease the wheels. Nehemiah asks the King for his protection, backing and resources. " I also said to him, "If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah? And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king's forest, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?" And because the gracious hand of my God was upon me, the king granted my requests". As a result of God's favor on him, not only does Nehemiah receive what he asks for, but also the King sends with him officers and calvary.
5. Scout out the lay of the land, quietly- Keep the vision and mission to yourself, until you have evaluated the risks and can formulate a plan to get started and then complete your mission. In Nehemiah 2:11-16, Nehemiah goes out in the middle of the night with just a few men to inspect the wall. He says "I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem". "The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, because as yet I had said nothing to the Jews or the priests or nobles or officials or any others who would be doing the work".

I'll end this post on that note and continue with the last 5 steps in the next post. The next steps will deal with what to do once you start the work on "your wall".

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Your Business As Ministry- Building the wall

Over a year ago "The Big Guy" told me to "start building the wall". By "Big Guy", I mean "the man upstairs", you know...God. I had been praying for years that he would show me my ministry. Every morning when I got up, I would pray and read His word, and in my prayers I would pray for the ministry that He had for me, and pray for His anointing. I had been praying this for so long that I did so almost automatically. So it came as a great surprise to me, one Sunday morning when I was in the shower getting ready for church, that he answered my prayer, just like that. In a blink of an eye he gave me a full view of my future ministry, and it wasn't what I thought it would be. I wouldn't have to sell everything, move to some remote corner of the world, and live in a primitive native hut! Hooray! What a relief. That just wasn't for me. He showed me that a business would be the vehicle for my ministry. Although now that I have been pursuing the mission he planted in my heart, I think that living in a hut might have been easier, and less stressful.

Its a wonder I did not see it beforehand, having been the owner of a business or self-employed for most of my adult life. I had just never viewed a business as being a ministry. My life plan was to run a successful business and save enough money to retire early with enough money to support a ministry for the remainder of my days. I realized that I had been allowing the world to program me into believing that Church and Business were to remain separate. Business was what you did during the week, and Church was what you did on your free time and Sundays. I never thought that I could contribute to the Kingdom as a businessperson other than through tithing. As I examined the mission God planted in my heart and prayed for confirmation, I thought, "if I felt this way how many others were out there that felt the same"? I imagined the impact on the business world, of thousands of business owners sold out for Jesus. As business owners, our "congregations" may be there 5 days/week, 8 hours/day. That's 40 or more hours a week that we can be living models of Christ to our employees. An opportunity any Pastor would be enviable of. How many lives could be touched? Changed? But, preaching the Word at work is not just a walk in the park. It brings its own set of challenges and difficulties.

God had told me "start building the wall". I didn't know what that meant at first. So I asked Him for further guidance, and confirmation. I wanted to make sure this vision was from Him. While praying I clearly heard "Nehemiah". I immediately turned to it in my Bible. I had read Nehemiah a few times but all I remembered was that he had rebuilt the wall around Jerusalem, and he and Ezra were contemporaries. Over the next few days I read Nehemiah and prayed for discernment about the meaning of the passage. Why had I been led to read this? I felt that Nehemiah was to be a blueprint for the start-up of the business. Through prayer, God gave me further confirmation. I received a 3 page insightful explanation, linking Nehemiah's project to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, with my God given mission to start up a Kingdom-minded business for the Lord. Reading over it today, I am amazed by how on-point it has been, and I receive new insight on problems I am just now encountering. God is amazing! The more I nurture the seedling of the idea he planted that morning, the more I realize how much grander his dreams are than mine. I see how he has tailored this mission perfectly to suit me. How perfectly he weaves people, places, and moments in time to fit together like rotating cogs. Perfectly designed machinery, comprised of many pieces working in unison, and in many dimensions, to accomplish his perfect will.

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