During this season, I’d been seeking the Lord about my business and ministry more often than usual. I’d been asking God what He wanted me to do. Does He want me to continue or do something else? I believe God’s response to me was to keep going.
Intercession for A Generation was started on a word from the Lord. God told me to put up the website in 2013. I discussed it with my friend, who is also one of my prayer partners. She encouraged me to obey the Lord and provided me with some practical steps to get started. Not long afterward, the site was up.
7 years later, I’ve had some progress, but doing this type of work doesn’t always allow us to see the fruit produced in the lives of others because of my obedience. I know God can move in seasons with things including ministry, so I wanted to make sure I was still in line with his will. Perhaps, it was a season for me to do something else instead, but God is saying otherwise, so I will keep going.
I think it is only normal at some point to question if we should continue in an endeavor after having done it for so long and still, everything seems almost the same. Where is the progress? Is God still with me? Maybe I missed it? This can be normal when we’re building as entrepreneurs who use our businesses as ministries to others.
During my devotion time with the Lord last week; I just so happened to be in the book of Haggai, which gave me the answer I needed. Haggai was a prophet in the old testament, who’s name means festive. That is just how the Israelites were living at the time. The Israelites had recently gotten from under the Babylonian bondage and lived under King Darius. Every Israelite minded their own business in their own homes. They became selfish dealing with only their individual needs while leaving the temple of God in ruins.
God had previously dealt with them about rebuilding the temple, but because the Israelites faced opposition from those around them; they stopped the work. They became lackadaisical only seeking what made them comfortable.
God sent the prophet Haggai to his people to get them out of that slump and to put fire to flame causing them to go back into completing the work of building the temple. The below scripture was clear in its message that the Israelites in this scenario needed to simply work:
But now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ declares the Lord. ‘Be strong, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the Lord, ‘and work. For I am with you,’ declares the Lord Almighty. – Haggai 2:4
Not only did God command the Israelites to work, but He planted a seed within them of what to expect upon completion. He shared that once complete the glory that was previously experienced in the former temple would be nothing in comparison to what will be experienced in the new temple. I think we can have a tendency to get complacent and think to ourselves, “well God used me back then or I’ve had some good times with the Lord.” However, God is setting an expectation that our good times we’ve had with the Lord aren’t all there is. God is saying this isn’t all there is. There is more that He has for us and that is why we have to keep building. DON’T BE DISCOURAGED! CONTINUE THE WORK GOD HAS CALLED YOU TO NO MATTER WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE NOW. GOD IS WITH YOU. KEEP GOING!
Watch video snippet below re-interating the encouraging word:
Leave a Reply