Why God Doesn’t Want to Get Involved in Your Business

By Dennis Peacocke

When I teach on the subject of marketplace ministry, I often ask, “Who wants God to get involved in your business?” The vast majority of people raise their hands, expecting me to help them find effective ways to achieve a “divine connection.” To their surprise, I don’t help them with this. Instead, I shock them by telling them what I am about to tell you, my reading friend. God doesn’t want to get involved in your business.

Let’s talk about why! Firstly, it may be your “ministry,” but if you’re really serious about God’s involvement, we must begin on the proper foundation. This means recognizing that it really isn’t “your business.” It is, in fact, His gift-opportunity for you which He has allowed you to steward in order to serve others and release provision for you while He helps grow you up in the process. As we all know, we actually own nothing; rather, we steward things on God’s behalf. Unless we are clear and remain clear on this reality, especially if we prosper, our foundation will be insufficient to sustain a working partnership with God’s Spirit. Indeed, this issue of who controls and gets credit for our success was addressed by God in His forewarning to Israel:

Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today; otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Otherwise, you may say in your heart, my power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth. —Deuteronomy 8:11-14, 17

The second foundational issue is closely related to the first one. If God were to join “your business,” who do you think would most likely assume the senior role—you or Him? Our fallen nature is not to be trusted, as we should all know by now. If God “joins us,” we are in the position of extending an invitation to Him while we sit in the resident’s chair. When we do this, God says, “Thank you, but no thank you.” Obviously, it is absurdly presumptuous of us to extend such an invitation. It would be like the pot inviting the potter to the art exhibit where it will be on display! God rejects the proud and exalts the humble. Therefore, a “take your shoes off on this holy ground” attitude is the kind of spiritual posture God will honor. The correct question is not, “Will you join me?”, but rather, “Lord, could you possibly consider letting me join You in Your business, unworthy as I am?” Joshua experienced a similar situation when he foolishly approached the angel of the Lord and asked him whose side he was on. The angel answered, “No.” Wrong question, junior. Joshua quickly came to his senses and responded with a recalculated attitude adjustment, essentially saying, “Since you’re on the Lord’s side, I’m with you!” Fortunately for us, Jesus already extended the invitation for us to join Him in business some 2,000 years ago. Here is His statement:

Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. —Matthew 11:28-30

We take note of this essential truth contained in His kind invitation. It is in Christ’s “yoke” (business) that we learn of Him. Our common labor and partnerships with one another (like marriage) are where the deepest transfers of life take place. In the common yoke, we “apprentice” with God in His vision, His passion, His perspectives, and in the labors, challenges, and fulfillment of His heart. Fellowship is deepest with God when we enter His passion and it begins to become ours.

We now arrive at the second correct question. “Exactly what business is God in?” From our human vantage point, He is in the people-empowering business. Whatever business we think we’re in is now about to shift. Guess what? If we go into the people-empowerment business with Him, it must become the foundation of “our business,” no matter what product or service we offer. Christ died to empower people because truly serving others requires a genuine degree of death to self. As we become true servants within our marketplace ministry, the principle of “your good at my expense” begins to transform both us and the lives of those within our sphere of spiritual influence.

At last, we come to the really personal questions. Do you believe my statement, “God pays for what He orders”—or does it strike you as merely another religious cliché? If we follow Christ’s example as the master-servant and surrender our “rights,” setting aside our expectations for returns on our investments first, what might be our fate? For starters, by choosing to live out this practical law of God’s Kingdom—“Whoever serves leads”—means that we have entered God’s business. And if we join our Father’s work, we can expect that He will first “empty us” in order to exalt Himself through us.

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. —Philippians 2:5-11

Simply put, God pays handsomely for what He orders.

For a Christian in business—God’s people business that is—profit is a fruit of obedience, not a goal or a manner of keeping score. In Father’s business, the real profit is knowing Him, growing in Him, and working with Him in the people-loving business. Is this naïve or religious? Let me pose another question: “Do you know anyone building their business ministry with God in this way that is complaining?” Everyone I know on this journey, who has paid the dues of aligning their business with God’s principles of stewardship and strategic and relational building, is prospering in every way. So, let’s rescind our offer for God to get involved in our business and instead join His. What a deal! He makes us an offer only the foolish would refuse.

For more business content related to this article, consider the School of Business Leadership