When the Holy Spirit Meets your Entrepreneurial Spirit

What happens when the entrepreneurial spirit and the Holy Spirit collide? Perhaps you’ve always been an “idea guy”. Maybe you’ve had a knack for problem solving. Possibly you’ve been the object of criticism that you “just don’t know when to give up”. If any of these are true, see this morning how those things are not mere coincidence.

Just one woman followed the Holy Spirit to a new country. She had nothing but the Holy Spirit and an entrepreneurial spirit. We were blessed as a team to get to connect with her and hear her story. It all began when she started a B4T organization in her new home. She provided a service greatly needed by the community and used her business know-how to be able to operate not just a viable operation but one that surpassed what was currently available. But she didn’t stop there.

The old saying goes, “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.” Entrepreneurship is contagious. A large percentage of the global population, if asked, could tell you about God-given dreams or desires he or she has for helping his or her community or for using the talents and skills he or she has in a greater way. The hardest step in the journey from dream to reality is the first one. This woman- we’ll call her Star- took a community and got to know its people. These people are a least-reached people, but she didn’t see them as a “project” but as individuals with potential.

As she began to teach them how to fish- each according to his or her own skills- new businesses began to pop up all over the area. If your goal is to see the gospel reach the ends of the earth, you may say, “So what? More businesses. Why does that matter?”. When the Holy Spirit meets the entrepreneurial spirit, we see how the process of training an individual is very similar to the process of discipling an individual. There is intentional time spent. There are life experience and lessons passed on. There is a life-giving and sustaining style of living that is established. In this time of intentional training in business, there is intermingled a time of intentional discipling and sharing testimony. As business owners are created, hearts are captured for Jesus. Most importantly, this process is set up to multiply. Imagine as Star, through her discipleship, creates B4T business owners who have a heart to see their people reached. Imagine if each of them become a “Star” with his or her own network of people being trained. The Great Commission suddenly seems much more possible.

My challenge this week is this: Examine the talents you’ve been given. Do you have business skills? What area is your professional experience in? Is that entrepreneurial spirit something you possess? If so, have these things been being used to their full potential? What could you do in your community? What could you do in the world? Begin to pray about what your role is in this movement. Are you meant to go short term and train people for a few weeks? Are you meant to take your business overseas? Are you meant to start a movement for Jesus in your own community through your professional skills? I don’t know your answer, but I do know there is something more for you. Time to ask God what that is.