Being with God and His being with us is the fundamental blessing from which all others flow.

At every stage of the entrepreneurial journey from the first penny to growing great, God’s presence is the one essential.

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Continuing our entrepreneurial journey looking at Genesis chapter 26. We’re going to just keep digging into that beautiful chapter and see what unfolds. I honestly don’t know exactly where the Holy Ghost is going to lead us. I’m kind of just following as you are, and I’m picking up again today on Isaac’s journey, as I say in Genesis 26, and how it might provide insights for our own entrepreneurial pathway as we walk as faithfulpreneurs, looking to build businesses, looking to offer creative contribution to the world. However that may look. And we’re told right at the outset, as we looked at it last time, that Isaac found himself in a land of famine, and looked at how sometimes those lean times are times of learning and times of testing and proving of our character. But we’re told that he first heard God speak. In fact, we’re actually told that God appeared to Isaac. And I suspect that God kind of interrupted in this way because the temptation to go down to Egypt was very real at the time. And so God comes in to intervene before the patriarch derailed heaven’s plan for his future and his prosperity. We read in Genesis 26:2 and 3, the Lord appeared to him and said, don’t go down to Egypt, dwell in the land that I shall tell you of this land, and I will be with you, and I will bless you.

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Just those two verses. Those few lines have so much that we can draw from. I believe several points really strike me regarding my own walk of faith in the realm of business and creative contribution. And so what I want to do today is just share some of the thoughts that have come from this with me as we dig in. And I would love to hear what God speaks to you as you look at these verses. How is God leading you? What is God highlighting to you? And do feel free to jump onto the blog, comment on these things. Let me know what you think and the insights that God is giving you. I’m just going to go through this verse and really pull out a few words. Number one, God said, God is ready and waiting to speak to the problems that we face right here in the midst of extreme challenge. Isaac. God appears to Isaac and speaks to him. Isaac was up against a famine in the land. Prospects looked pretty bleak and hopelessness had taken hold of many, I’m sure, and the world was, in a sense calling him to divert and go down.

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God said to him, Isaac, go not down to Egypt. Now, sometimes the temptation to bring our standards down, to compromise on our convictions, can be very real, especially when we’re, in a sense, between a rock and a hard place. When things look bleak, the temptation sometimes to kind of bend ourselves in the direction of the world and the way that the world wants to do things, and the way that everyone else is doing things can sometimes be very real. But hearing God’s voice kept Isaac on track, and we too, I believe, need to keep our ear tuned to the voice of our King whatever season we’re in. And as I say God said to him, Go not down to Egypt. The seeming rewards of Egypt can be really enticing when we come into the online marketplace. When we come into business, when we begin to hear the different voices and the things that they’re teaching, it can be very seductive. And some of the faithful pathways that God calls us to traverse can appear challenging in comparison. Compromise and marriage to the ways of the world can creep into our thinking and blur our convictions.

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If we’re not careful, as the Scriptures say, a little leaven, leavens the whole lump. And we want to be very careful that we don’t take the yeast of the world’s teaching and the world’s ways of looking at things and basically sow them into the flower of our heart because we might not actually enjoy what comes out of the oven at the end of the day, if we do so. Business in God’s Kingdom as his representatives is very different from that of the world. I believe the call to Kingdom entrepreneurship is a Holy call, and we should come at it with that kind of sensitive, fearful heart, if you like fear of God infused approach to the way that we turn up and to the way that we operate. And I have to admit, by God’s Grace, I’ve had to be forgiven of many times where I feel as though maybe I stepped outside the lines of what I would consider complete honour for his name. And I’ve not done anything illegal, obviously. But what I’m saying is I believe that this road that we’re walking is a Holy one. It is a narrow road that leads to life.

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And we just need to be very careful not to get caught up in some of the pursuits that the world is engaged in and that the world is proposing and understand that although our journey may take sometimes more time, although our journey may sometimes be more stringent and the demands upon us may be greater than if we could rush ahead or take a shortcut, the rewards actually far outweigh whatever price we will pay to do it right and to do it respectfully and honestly and honourably before God and indeed, before people. You know, the end may be the same in some respects. Profit and growth may be the goal of both the worldly wise man and the faithful entrepreneur alike, but the Avenue to that end will often look very different. So many sincere Saints have overcome the test of adversity with flying colours, only to fall at the test of prosperity, utterly tripped up by its glamour. We don’t want to be that dude. We don’t want to be the guy who goes through the straightened years, who walks through the famine, comes into the blessing, and then the blessing consumes us, and we end up falling and failing in that test of prosperity.

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I believe that the development of our character during the times of growth are so important, and we should not fall into the idea that things should happen quicker, that things should happen differently. Why is it not happening for me the way I wanted it to happen? Well, maybe God’s developing a strong foundation upon which he can build a much greater house, rather than just a shallow foundation on which you can just kind of build a shack. And just because others do it this way or that way, and just because they sometimes get seemingly enviable results, doesn’t indicate that the means of getting there are acceptable or advisable for God’s Pilgrim partners, for faithful prayers like you and I, for creative contributors like you and I. Psalm 73, I think, is so telling. It’s such a beautiful Psalm. Isaac is speaking, and he’s confused and conflicted by the apparent streamlined success of the ungodly and the ease with which they are prospering in the world. And then he’s comparing it to his own experience of the resistance and contention that he’s facing and as he makes his way through what appears to be a hostile world.

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But then we read in Psalm 73:17, Until I went into the sanctuary of God, and then I understood their end in the sanctuary. Our perspective changes, sometimes radically. Those things that once maybe appeared precious and worthy of our attention somehow fade. And the measures that we rule and measure our lives by change when we stand in the sanctuary. Because when eternity comes into view, the rewards that we seek are no longer just temporal trinkets and accolades and all of that kind of passing reward, but we seek rewards that are eternal, and all that we do and all that we create are now working towards a more fitting and fulfilling end. We have not just this life, but the life to come in view in how we operate, and then how we utilise the gifts and the talents and the rewards that we received during this life. The verse continues, Dwell God said, dwell in the land that I shall tell you of the land had really been given only in word and promise. Isaac was a Nomad, driven into territory occupied by others who didn’t share his conviction in the one true God.

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And essentially, God told Isaac to find his rest in faith, faith in the Word and the promise of God, faith in the words that God had spoken to him, faith in the faithfulness of the one who spoke them, and really in the face of circumstances that look decidedly contrary. Isaac was called to see with the eyes of his Spirit and dwell in God’s goodness and expressed and internalised through his promises and for me, just this idea of God’s faithfulness, not just the idea of it, but the reality of it, that he has words for you to walk in to, just as he had specific words that he called Isaac to dwell in promises, to dwell in promises to station his heart and his hopes upon. He has the same for you. And his words can become the place of your dwelling. And they’re going to carry and protect you through life and carry you to eternal abodes way beyond the days of our pilgrimage here on Earth. And they work now and forever because that’s their nature, the words of God, the promises of God, this world will pass away, but God’s word will abide forever.

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And we’re called to abide in that word. And the specific personal words that God speaks to us in the sanctuary that we spoke of. They are safe haven. They are a secure anchor that goes way beyond inside the veil and fixes us in the presence of God. He’s told to sojourn that’s the word that’s used and this word sojourn means to live among the people who are not blood relatives. We may be in the world, but we’re not of it. With regard to your entrepreneurial journey, you’re a sojourner. Whereas many place their confidence and stake their future on temporal success, the faithfulpreneur always knows that in this world they’re essentially a spiritual tend to dweller merely passing through. Men may build their cities and empires, but we look for a city whose builder and maker is God. Our foundations and our confidence is not in the markets or even measured by our income. It’s founded in God, whether we’re facing famine or we’re enjoying plenty. I love Hebrews 11:10 speaking of Abraham, it says he looked for a city which had foundations whose builder and maker is God. He had no abiding city on this Earth because he was seeing something far greater and far more enduring.

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The world and its ways are no longer a native language or tongue. As we say. We don’t live among people who are blood relatives anymore. A different blood has purchased us. The blood of God has purchased and brought us fully into God’s family. The old has gone, the new has come, and that old, selfish, Empire building spirit was nailed to the tree together with the Saviour. And certainly our pilgrimage into the world of entrepreneurship can be a blessed and prosperous one. We should be anticipating, expecting, believing, and praying for that. But our foundation remains in another realm, and that’s something that we must never forget. Deuteronomy Eight is a chapter that I often refer to with regard to our financial framework. And the Bible speaks in that chapter of the manner years and the lessons that they teach those lean years. And the most important of these is that it trains us not to conclude in our heart when prosperity does arrive. That and I quote my power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth because it’s not my power or my might or my wisdom or my gift or my talent or my awesomeness that is really in the frame here.

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It is the God who gives our hand the power to get and I believe to distribute wealth, that our security is in Him. We are stewards, not owners. Sojourners, not settlers and business. And blessing are a means to establish God’s Covenant, not just our comfort. Many people come and they’re looking at God’s blessing as a way to bless themselves. But really, we are blessed in order to be a blessing again. Deuteronomy 18 Remember the Lord your God for it is he that gives you power to get wealth, that he may establish His Covenant. That is the end that is spoken of and is put into effect and made possible by the means to establish God’s Covenant in the Earth. And then finally, I will bless thee and I will be with thee and I will bless Thee blessing, I believe, comes from his presence. Prosperity of soul comes from proximity to the King being with God and his being with us is the fundamental blessing from which all others flow. And at every stage of the journey from the very first Penny to growing great, God’s presence is the one essential. And if we’re ever faced with the stark choice between the world and his word Going down to Egypt Or hearing his voice and following his leading, Even if it’s into adverse or seemingly adverse circumstances in order to sow in a Larna of famine, Then whatever situation we’re faced with during times of abasement and during times of abundance, that choice will often and pretty much always be there.

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Will we go the way of the world or will we go the way of his word? Will we dwell in his promise? His word must always be the treasure that we choose thanks for listening to today’s episode.

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Hopefully it was a blessing to you. If it was do please consider leaving a rating in a review on whatever platform you are listening on. I also would love to encourage you to cheque out my new book, Faithful Creative. We’ve got a package of resources Designed specifically to encourage you in your Christian creative call. You can cheque that out at faithfulcreativebook.com and if you choose to pick it up, use the Promo Code Podcast for 50% off so you’ll get it for half price.

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Have a great rest of your day and God bless Jesus first. Everything else follows.