God: Venture Capitalist
By Pastor Bob Engelhardt
"For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. 15 "And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. 16 "Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. 17 "And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. 18 "But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord's money. 19 "After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 "So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, 'Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.' 21 "His lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.' 22 "He also who had received two talents came and said, 'Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.' 23 "His lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.' 24 "Then he who had received the one talent came and said, 'Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 'And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.' 26 "But his lord answered and said to him, 'You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. 27 'So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. 28 'Therefore take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. 29 'For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. 30 'And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' Matthew 25:14-30
Jesus: The Nice-Machine?
I have never been able to understand the
preachers who paint Jesus as a one dimensional ‘nice-machine.’ In
fact, there is not even a hint of warmth or forgiveness offered to
the unprofitable servant in this parable. This guy is not going to
be depicted by an artist as a lamb nestled in Jesus’ arms by the
cool water anytime soon. Some might even accuse Jesus of coming
across as harsh here.
God: The Original Venture Capitalist
I think the contemporary job title best describing God’s role as the
lord in this parable is
venture capitalist,
or ‘one who invests funds for
start-up
firms
with exceptional
growth
potential.’
God is the original venture capitalist and He invests in His
servants as part of a business plan designed to grow His Son’s
company, the Church. Jesus Christ set up a proven model to recruit
and compensate workers for the purpose of the profitable expansion
of His trans-dimensional company. His eventual goal is global market
domination, and he makes no bones about it.
The Father has invested 6,000 years, the blood of His Son,
innumerable angels, the lives of the martyrs, the written Word and
the Holy Spirit—and now He expects full participation and profit
from every servant.
In the parable, the unprofitable servant tries to
be so smooth when he patronizes his lord with empty words and false
respect. In modern Christian vernacular, the words might sound more
like this: “Gee whiz, Lord, I know how scary and awesome you are but
every group had a different teaching about what I was supposed to do
for you… How could I really know? In fact, some say I do not have to
work at all, just believe… and besides, I’m not smart enough to
understand what you really want from me… Everyone has their own
interpretation… I’m afraid I might do something wrong… I could never
do anything good enough for you… who can really understand the mind
of God, anyway? You
harvest where you want even where you haven’t scattered seed so I
know you don’t need me… That is why I hid salvation in my heart so I
wouldn’t lose it… besides; faith is such a personal thing.”
On top of that, I’m sure the unprofitable servant
had many other wicked and lazy people agreeing with him so he
planned on hiding in the crowd and maybe the lord would forget to
call on him. This guy loved democracy… the power of the people to
decide for themselves. “Look lord, I didn’t lose my salvation…. I
have believed in you for years and they said all you have to do is
have faith and, see, Jesus is in my heart. I have my ticket to
Heaven. I just kept it safe to myself!”
But the lord is onto him. He says, “Wrong—you are
lying. That is not why you didn’t make a profit for me. You did not
make a profit for me because you are both wicked and lazy and
refused to act on my behalf. You loved the world but you didn’t love
Me and you don’t love your neighbors” People commonly cite all kinds
of rhetorical excuses to use God in order to secure their own
salvation and spend their lives making a profit for themselves but
never do make a profit for the Lord. Many believers just do not
really care that much about Him.
College Degree and Ordination Ceremonies are Not Necessary
When I washed up on God’s shores at 26 years old
in 1982, on one hand, I was walking pretty ugly because I was saved
from a very bad place. On the other hand however, I was like an
on-fire missile for God, and just crazy enough to start working the
crowd for Jesus without a formal education or some impressive
pedigree. I obtained some basic coaching from TV preachers, prayed
hours each day and began telling family, friends and co-workers what
I knew of the Gospel from the day I was born again and filled with
the Holy Spirit. I did not wait for someone to ordain me to begin
ministering. I became a minister the moment I got saved.
Education and ordination are not necessary to
make a profit for God. Both of those things can be helpful but lack
of them should never be offered as an excuse for lack of personal
investment in God’s business. Nobody should stall in a fantasy,
waiting for a ceremony with apostles and prophets to start working
for God. A ceremony may or may not ever happen but I guarantee if a
person is not producing for the Kingdom before ordination, they will
not after. Don’t forget our parable—God is a venture capitalist
coming back soon and expecting a profit from every servant.
Simply Holding Your Own is Not Enough
God didn’t give the life of his Son because any
of us are that much of a prize on our own. I’m sorry, is that harsh?
I’m probably not talking about you; I’m talking to the other people
reading this. I know you’re probably truly a prize. Kidding aside,
the truth is, He does want you… and more.
Let me illustrate: Bill Brown is a venture
capitalist and Mary Smith comes to him with an idea for a web design
business needing $100,000 to get started. Bill agrees to back her
after looking at her education, experience, credit-history, business
plan and then negotiating terms of interest and repayment. He then
transfers $100,000 of his personal money to Mary. There is only one
reason Bill is investing this money—profit. He is not going to be
happy if she only gives him his investment money back.
Imagine five years later, Mary thanking Bill as
she gives him $100,000 payment in full saying, “Boy, wasn’t that a
great investment. See, you got all you money back, I didn’t lose a
dime!” I’m sure Bill’s response would be similar to the lord of the
unprofitable servant. He would be outraged lamenting, “I could have
made more profit if my money was in the bank.”
So, the Father says to His Church—I’ve given you the life of
my Son and I’ve invested in you and I’ve given you everything you
need; every spiritual blessing in heavenly places has been given
into your hands. Now go make me a profit. Just giving God back the
salvation He gave you is not profit!
We Have All the Investment Capital We Need
Jesus Himself promised adequate available
investment capital to pray mountains into the sea and He set up an
account of power and grace with a potentially unlimited balance;
with more becoming available as needed to the faithful servant.
That’s how much spiritual capital God has put up for this venture.
But make no mistake: God wants a profit. God is looking for a
profit.
The Unprofitable Servant’s Dilemma
So often Christians mope around like, “Oh well,
nobody is giving me a ministry so I guess I’ll just wait here and
try my best to resist sin until Jesus comes back.” Resisting sin out
of will power alone is like a little boy trying to see if he can
stay awake all night. Sooner or later, no matter how hard he tries,
sleep takes over and he succumbs to the inevitable. There is no
stopping nature for long.
Sin is the same. If a believer is not busy
actively handling grace, then sooner or later he is going to get
into trouble because only contact with fresh grace relieves the sin
urge. Without fresh grace the growing impulse becomes too great and
the sin virus inside will battle with the mind until the sin
manifests. Human willpower is no long-term match for sin and Adam’s
children always get themselves into trouble apart from fresh
blood-bought grace. Profitable servants are actively investing so
when they do sin they are quick to repent. The unprofitable servant
keeps his faith mainly inside his heart so when he sins he does not
repent and, like mushrooms, sin is free to grow in the darkness. God
is looking for a profit.
Kingdom Profit
Under the direction of Apostle John Kelly, in
1991 my wife Nancy and I took a church plant here in rural
Margaretville. The area had been, since frontier days, famous for
being godless. In fact, a popular slogan from the old days still
remembered by locals is:
“There is no law west of Woodstock and no God west of Shandaken”
(Margaretville is the town to the west of Woodstock and Shandaken).
Suffice it to say, there was no Spirit-filled church in the tiny
town.
We arrived fully secure in the Kingdom business
plan and went to work with hearts full of faith. I had long
understood that God provides adequate resources, both seen and
unseen, and expects profit. Over the years our startup investment
package consisting of our faith, 15 people and an abandoned gas
station refitted as a church, has produced a profit for the Lord in
the form of Catskill Mountain Christian Center.
Eighteen years later CMCC has become a veritable
power plant of life and Kingdom productivity, providing hundreds of
people the opportunity to invest their own talents for the benefit
of the Master. Thousands of lives have been positively affected and
Jesus Christ has become a living member of hundreds of homes through
the influence of CMCC. Every life that has been affected, every good
work rendered, every radio show broadcast, every soul converted,
every cup of water given in His name; Every Bible study, Sunday
service, marriage saved, child protected, book sold, conference
held, missions dollar spent, minister supported, and church
encouraged represent profit to the Kingdom through CMCC.
Profit Defined
In Luke chapter four, Jesus reads the scroll in the temple:
“The Spirit of the Lord is
upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor
and he sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the
captive and recovery of sight to the blind and to set in liberty
those who are oppressed.”
So, ostensibly, this is where Christians come from.
We are adopted by God through coming to terms with our
malfunction and weakness, admittedly extracted from the poor, the
brokenhearted, the captive, the blind, and the oppressed.
Now contrast this with 1 Peter 2:9 where Peter
writes by the Holy Spirit:
“You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His
own special people, called forth that you may proclaim the praise of
Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light….”
The question is which group do we belong to now?
Which one are you?
Are you the poor, brokenhearted, captive, blind and oppressed
or are you chosen, royal,
holy and special?
Which one? Are you
sometimes both or maybe just confused?
Should I Stay or Should I Go
Some believers seem to want to stay poor,
brokenhearted, captive, blind and oppressed. They learn to be
comfortable in that identity. “I’m so poor, brokenhearted,
oppressed, and blind,” they say, and ten years later they are still
in the same church and they are still poor, brokenhearted, captive
and blind. “I need
mercy, God, I need your mercy,” and yet there is no growth and no
profit. These people have gained no profit.
If you are a believer and God has said His people
are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own
special people called forth to proclaim His praises, that is who you
are now. You’ve
received your adoption papers. You are a new thing even though you
sometimes feel like the old thing. That is the way of it. You still
contain a lot of the old but you are supposed to be becoming new.
You were the poor, the brokenhearted the captive, the blind and the
oppressed and you are actually becoming
chosen, royal, holy and
special. This positive movement is profit on its own and
increases the servant’s ability to gain more profit.
Profit begets profit; so as you become
chosen, royal, holy and
special you are becoming like Jesus because he is the perfect
model of these qualities. You see, you have to believe you are
chosen, royal, holy and
special, and become used to living in that mindset; convinced
that God has made you to be His favored child and nothing can take
that away from you.
Why… because He said so and He is God, and He expects profit from
you.
The Other You – The Unprofitable Voice
Right about now, you’re unprofitable, deceitful
and self-righteous voice is going to say, “But I don’t feel
chosen, royal, holy or
special and I do not want to be a hypocrite.”
And on a deeper and even more devious level, the inner voice
whispers, “If you blab all over the place about being God’s favored
child, you know deep down
inside that you are going to have to act like a full blown
holy Christian all the time.” This is significant because like the
wicked, lazy servant, we all know that there are some benefits in
being less committed, especially if you do not want to get stuck
with too much work or have to keep company with ‘uncomfortable’
people. There are advantages to having people keep their distance,
such as lower expectations and fewer demands to perform. It takes a
lot of faith-effort to produce a profit for the Kingdom.
But if you are sure about being
chosen, royal, holy and
special and you position yourself as God’s favored child there
is a lot expected of you.
So sometimes we’re a little unsure of exactly what we want.
We like to sing songs in the sold-out camp but when the
expectations of overcoming, victory, sacrifice and profit come on
us, we’re like “whoa, slow down, I’m just a leper—a sinner saved by
grace.”
The Joseph Connection – Profit Personified
The story of Joseph starting in Genesis 37 is a great example of
someone who had a chosen,
royal, holy and special mindset and created profit for each of
his masters. He was raised as a favored child of his father, Jacob,
and is considered, in many ways, a prophetic foreshadowing of Jesus.
Joseph, therefore, makes a perfect case study of a person who
possessed the mindset of a profitable servant.
When someone is raised by parents who focus love,
admiration, time and attention on him/her it creates a good self
image. You feel valuable because you are valued by your parents. You
know you can do things because you have been treated as a valuable
treasure. When, like Joseph, you are raised by parents who love and
train you in a biblical way, and your parents carry the blessing of
God, you end up being an optimistic, well balanced person—a
candidate for a dream and one who has a sense of destiny. Profitable
people are creative people.
“Now Jacob dwelt in
the land where his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan.
2 This is the history of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old,
was feeding the flock with his brothers. And the lad was with the
sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives; and
Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father. 3 Now Israel
loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of
his old age. Also he made him a tunic of many colors. (Gen 37:1-3)
Two things to note in this passage. Number one:
Righteous Joseph was a snitch—an unpardonable sin in many
respectable human institutions like prison and the mafia. He ran
straight to his father when his brothers did wrong. A profitable
servant is loyal to his leader even above his own brothers. Lazy and
wicked servants always travel in packs and use group influence to
corrupt others and restrain excellence. In order to bring profit to
the Master, we must have His good in mind above all things.
Number two: Joseph’s daddy made him a special
coat—he just loved that boy and it is very safe to say that Joseph
grew confident underneath that love. In the same way, a recently
adopted child of God transitions from a person who was in captivity
and is now expected to wear a new cover identifying him/her as
favored child of God. A child of God’s coat separates him/her from
the pack. Jesus Christ is the beautiful coat of the Christian.
This new coat feels strange at first but soon
becomes comfortable giving a sense of confidence, and the child of
God grows more and more secure as the love and admiration shines
from the Father. Your Father loves seeing the new coat He made for
you on your shoulders. The coat declares, “I am
chosen, royal, holy and
special. My coat was made by my Father’s own hand… I believe it
because He said it.” I become very confident in my self-image to the
degree that I believe it true. I become comfortable in this new coat
because my Father made it for me.
One Thousand Years of God’s Love Today
When I think about how great the Father’s love is
toward me, I’m reminded of the Scripture, “But,
beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day
is as a thousand
years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8). Because
God is not constrained by time and space He has one thousand years
(or more) of His God-time to invest in my day today. One thousand
years of His love, one thousand years of His concentration and one
thousand years of His concern for me all concentrated in each single
day I live. He really loves me… He has every hair numbered… He knows
every detail.
Like Jacob loved Joseph, my Father loves me and
dotes on me watching my every move with admiration as I grow up in
his love. When he looks at me he sees two things that make Him
smile: 1. He sees the coat which He, himself made for me. 2. He sees
me joyfully and publicly wearing my new coat and He sees the great
desire I have to please Him.
“Now Joseph had a dream…”
Genesis 37:5
When I openly wear Jesus, I feel very special and
important, growing confident under the adoring eye of my Father.
Soon, this faith and love creates the perfect spiritual environment
for receiving a dream from God. When a person is secure in the
knowledge that God absolutely adores them, they are given the gift
of a dream.
Today many Christians are doing circles. These
are people without God-dreams because they are not sure if they are
poor, brokenhearted, captive, blind and oppressed or
chosen, royal, holy and
special. As long as there is ambivalence in terms of identity,
people will be devoid of God-inspired vision. Many confuse
God-dreams with natural goals and end up with a product of their
self-life. But when someone is content in the Father’s love, like
Joseph, they’ll get a dream from God—a dream connected with destiny.
The accomplishment of this dream is purest Kingdom profit!
So, first, one must believe in the Father’s love
above all things. Jesus said this in Mark 16,
“in that day you will ask my
name and I do not say that I shall pray to the Father for you for
the Father himself loves you.”
This is truth we can embrace with complete confidence because
the Word of God says it—feelings aside—if the Word of God says it,
you have to believe it. God has the power to make a person into what
He says… but believing in His love and present day power is
mandatory—that’s faith.
God Creates Profit through Faith Words
Genesis chapter one, the beginning, sets forth
some of the most important precedents in the Bible. In this chapter
of Scripture the words ‘God said’ occurs ten times and everything He
says happens within the respective day. The heavens and earth are
created by God speaking things into existence in time and space.
When God’s Word says something it indicates His will to do it. He
now partners with faith-filled human servants to vocalize His words
in time and space, thus releasing His power on earth to create and
arrange Kingdom profit.
Visible and Invisible Profit
The Father himself loves you. Relax; you are a
child of God. Remember the paralyzed man in Luke 5 who was lowered
down before Jesus? His friends carry him to the house where Jesus is
healing people and it is too crowded to get in the door. They
finally hoist him up onto the roof of the house, remove the tiles
and lower him down into the room where Jesus looks up and says to
him, “Man, you’re sins are forgiven.”
This begs the question, why would Jesus accuse a
poor paralyzed man of being a sinner without even meeting the guy?
What has he done wrong? His friends did not bring him to Jesus for
absolution of sins but healing. Why would Jesus hurt his feelings by
calling him a sinner? Didn’t He have compassion on the poor guy?
“Your sins are forgiven,” – one, two, three… I
think Jesus was counting in His head as the Pharisees were starting
to fume in anger… “How dare he say your sins are forgiven.”
Jesus finally confronts their dilemma with a question, “Which
is easier to do, say your sins are forgiven or to say rise up and
walk?” This is the question for all of us. Which is easier to do,
say your sins are forgiven or rise up and walk?
They are both equally impossible. Natural men cannot do
either one of them, however, Jesus says, “Just so you know that I
have power to forgive sins, rise up and walk.” Jesus performed
visible miracles to validate His power to forgive man’s invisible
sin debt to God.
No Profit in Pirates
If you have received your Jesus coat, your sins
are forgiven. Many Christians walk around with a negative self
image, feeling like a stowaway pirate hiding out in a church; always
grappling with a haunting feeling of being an outsider. Some dear
folks actually think they are the only real Christians and everyone
else is a pirate so they begin to secretly organize a mutiny. A
child of God is not a rebel pirate. The old pirate nature has been
amputated in Christ and all that remains are phantom pains.
God’s Investment – Your Security
A child of God is a child of God:
chosen, royal, holy and
special. Faith in that premise must be the first and foremost
building block of the new life. Even in your paralysis “Your sins
are forgiven.” But, your inner voice argues, “I have not done
anything good to earn God’s love and favor.” BINGO. He did it all
for you and you get it like the gift of a new coat from a loving
father. This coat of God’s favor is His investment in you, akin to
the talents left with the three servants in our original Scripture.
Likewise the Bible does not indicate that Joseph
did anything to earn the favor of his father or merit Jacob’s
special love. He was chosen,
royal, holy and special… just like the Word of God says you are.
In fact, you today have more love being lavished on you right at
this very moment from God than Joseph ever had in his life from
Jacob. Joseph would go on in his life to be reduced to nothing,
several times, but his dream and the favor of God kept him earning
profit for every master he served.
The Price of Profit: Rejection
But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all
his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him.
Genesis 37:4
When you’re confident in the love of God that you
are chosen, royal, holy and
special, some people will hate you for it. The people closest to
you are often first to resent God’s favor on you and be offended by
your confidence. They will try to pull you back down into the small
and competitive place where people are measured by their physical
characteristics and accomplishments. The day you decide you’re going
to believe God with all your heart, as in Joseph’s story, some
people are going to react badly.
Not infrequently the most troublesome are the
closest. Parents, siblings, spouse, children, long time friends,
church members and co-workers… certain people will hate you when you
hide your old self underneath the coat your Father made for you and
start boldly wearing Jesus Christ.
Very often the closest have their feathers
ruffled most because your holiness and commitment reveals the spirit
of compromise in them. They do not want to go where you are going.
Remember Job’s wife couldn’t stand his righteous commitment when
things got hard. She said to him,
“Do you still hold fast to
your integrity? Curse God and die!" Job 2:9
There is a quality about someone who is holy that
makes someone who isn’t holy really upset.
Sometimes it is people in your church or family members.
Honestly, Joseph’s father wasn’t too crazy about his son’s big
dreams of family domination.
Sometimes maybe even your pastor or home group leader will
not think much of your dream; but it’s not for them to think much
of—it’s for you to believe your dream.
Human Nature at its Worst
Next, the brothers are out in the field and Joseph comes looking for
them with his beautiful new coat on his shoulders. By this time,
these guys are just ripping mad:
Then they said to one
another, "Look, this dreamer is coming!” Come therefore, let us now
kill him and cast him into some pit; and we shall say, 'Some wild
beast has devoured him.' We shall see what will become of his
dreams!" (Genesis 37:19-20)
When you walk with God’s favor covering you and
start boldly talking about your big dream, a desire to strike you
down rises up in people. This is a strange and mixed-up fallen world
that we live in where someone else’s dream threatens us. How dare
you have a dream? How dare you become more successful than me? How
dare you elevate yourself above our collective wisdom?
When you are walking in your God-dream, certain
people around you will purposely try to block your way in order to
break your spirit. They
want to snuff it out because your success makes them feel bad. Like
the unprofitable servant, your profit coming from God reveals their
laziness and wickedness. They want there to be no higher level of
righteousness than what they are living. They want to believe that
goodness and holiness do not matter in the real world.
This phenomenon happens very commonly in
Christian circles. Somebody will turn over a new leaf and say,
“today is the day that I’m going to renew my spiritual disciplines.”
And, the people around them literally work against them. A
husband wants to reclaim his prayer life and his wife works against
him or vice versa. Be prepared for resistance in implementing your
God-dream.
The hard heart in some people demands that others
only achieve success within approved and accepted humanly controlled
systems. If you work, fight, save, study, or invest your way to
success the world will love you because the world loves its own. If
you are chosen by God for his own reasons however, and He dotes on
you and gives you a dream and coat, people hate you for it because
you have special advantage they are not willing to pursue. It is why
Cain killed Abel. People hate you when you have been accepted by God
and are not a puppet of the prevailing political sway, leaving their
corruption with no influence over you.
Joseph the Profiteer
In every situation where Joseph found himself, he
brought a profit to his master.
You see, no employer wants to pay you $10 an hour and get $10
revenue in return. If I
pay you $10 an hour and don’t get $20 an hour return, I’m not a very
good businessman.
That’s the point of doing business—making a profit.
Every time Joseph worked for someone, he took his little
measure of influence and he made a veritable garden out of a desert.
Joseph profited his father by bringing him happiness. He
profited his father’s business by sharing a bad report about his
brothers’ care of the flocks. He was completely rejected, thrown
into a pit by his brothers and sold into slavery, bringing financial
profit to his brothers… even when he was being rejected he was
bringing a profit! Joseph was profit waiting to happen.
In today’s modern church world a person who is
that badly rejected by his own brothers in his youth would many
times end up in counseling and deliverance sessions for forty years
and still feel powerless. But not Joseph; every circumstance he
found himself in resulted in profit for each respective human leader
and finally for God. Potiphar bought Joseph as a slave and over
time, gave his whole household into Joseph’s hands and Joseph served
him and God blessed his household for Joseph’s sake (see Genesis 39
1-6). Joseph brought profit to his master.
As a leader, it’s one thing when you see someone
really working hard under you and is committed to doing his job with
excellence, but it is another thing when you see ambition in his
heart because he’s just waiting for you to stumble so he can jump
you and take your position. Why is it that every time Joseph had any
position the people who were over him loved him and trusted him?
Universally, his superiors, both human and God, wanted to
give him more authority and power, because he was bringing a profit
in every place he served. He was making a profit; a garden in the
desert.
What kind of self-image does one possess to get
falsely accused, thrown in jail and over time become the number one
inmate, responsible for the whole prison? (Genesis 39; 20-23) Joseph
had a dream from God… he was
chosen, royal, holy and special… he made a profit everywhere he
served. He was never a rebel. He served every master profitably,
fulfilled his destiny, saved his family and found a home for God’s
people for the next four hundred years.
Joseph was betrayed by his brothers and sold for
a profit. He served and made a profit for Potiphar and was betrayed
by Potiphar’s wife. He was thrown in prison and served and profited
the jailer. He used his spiritual gifts to profit some inmates and
was forgotten by them. He was discovered by Pharaoh and served and
profited him and all of Egypt. Finally, he served God and fulfilled
his original God-dream by rescuing and delivering his father and
brothers and finding a home for God’s people.
God the Venture Capitalist Seeks Profitable Servants
The same destiny is offered to the child of God
today. The one with the spirit of Joseph says, “I’m going through
some hard times, but I’ve got a dream.
“I am determined to turn this desert into a garden—give me
any desert and I’m going to make a garden.” At which point most
people come back to the leader (after whining and complaining behind
his back) and say, “well, you didn’t give me any seeds… how can I be
expected to make a garden?” Remember, even the wicked and lazy
servant knew his lord is the one who,
“reaps where you have not
sown.”
The great sign of a child of God walking in faith
is his ability to create profit: more results than natural resources
invested. We serve the God who reaps where He has not sown; who
feeds the multitudes with five loaves and two fish.
“For the LORD will
comfort Zion, He will comfort all her wasted places; He will make
her wilderness like Eden,
And her desert like the garden of the
LORD; Joy and
gladness will be found in it, Thanksgiving and the voice of melody.”
(Isaiah 51:3)
We’re not talking about a dollar invested and a
dollar returned. We’re
talking about working for God.
We’re talking about coming to a community of 600 people and
having an expansive ministry far beyond anyone’s expectations
(except mine). It is about having a dream of becoming something
that’s righteous, holy and pure and raising up people to be world
changers and conquerors representing Jesus in this generation.
It is about taking a desert and making a garden
by the power of God.
Listen, child of God – every boss, every employer – ought to love
you. Everywhere you go
you should bring a Joseph spirit with you, into every area of your
life. Don’t tell me you
work for a heathen so you can’t be profitable. All Joseph ever
worked for were heathens – except for his dad – and he made every
heathen he ever worked for wealthier, more effective and more
successful.
Children of God ought to be in government. We
ought to be in business. We ought to be in every place bringing
excellence – a Joseph spirit to everything. Why? Because God is
looking for a profit. And here’s the whammy… Joseph starts out as
just one of the brothers but by the time he’s transformed by all of
the trials, work and ever increasing success they don’t even
recognize him anymore! Like Jesus, Joseph was thrown into a pit and
was transformed. The pathway to fulfilling your God-dream will have
the same effect.