prayer for work or business opportunities

Why do you think it is wise to speak against the body of Moses? Saying he was unfit to lead the Israelites? Where is your biblical doctrine that supports your statement?

What was your source for your previous post?

Thank you brother. The Lord has been putting the word "diligent" in my heart lately.

That's great! "Whatever your hands find to do, do it with all your might".

Just a little story; my business existed as a part-time venture for some time while I had other work to pay the bills.

Then I felt God leading me to drop the other pursuits and put my efforts into the business full-time. It took some faith to do so as the business wasn't generating a lot of income at the time. But I did have money saved up to cover living expenses and no kids to support, so I quit the other work and started building the business.

A few moths later I lost my biggest client, they closed shop suddenly and without warning. That really threw me off for a bit and made me question if I had heard God correctly. But I still felt peaceful about building the business and hadn't run out of savings, so I pressed on.

The client who closed shop ended up going to work for a startup in the same field of interest, and recommended our products to their new employer. They placed their first order about 5 months after I was questioning if I had heard God right. We got in at the ground level, were able to grow with them, and now they have 3 warehouses across the US, plus an international location. When I look back I realize that the timing of all that really couldn't have been any more perfect, even though it freaked me out a little when it was happening.

Anyway..... none of that is to say if things will go the same for your business. I really don't know. But I do know that God cares about your family, and if you earnestly seek Him and throw yourself into whatever He gives you to do it will all work out. 👍

It does take effort and diligence on our part though, for real.

Also, if haven't already you might want to commit your business to the Lord, and ask Him to use it however He sees fit. Your customers and workers are automatically part of your ministry, so prayer that you handle the responsibility well and diligently is always a good idea 🙏.

Best!
Will pray-

Thank you for sharing, but I always go back to this question. How did you know? The bible says the heart of man is deceitful and we are not to trust our thoughts and I get feedback from others saying they were being led by the spirit... Being led by what? A feeling which may or not be trusted? How did you hear from the Lord, specifically to be confident this is the right path forward.

I will tell you the truth. I'm feeling very conflicted at the moment. I was led to believe to take a step out in radical faith. Acknowledging I didn't have all the knowledge to do what it takes to succeed in my new business venture as an insurance agency owner after a 25 year career in commercial real estate.
I had several dreams over (15) which I "interpreted" to be from the Lord. In fact 3 times I asked the Lord if these dreams were from him and 3 times I believe he told me they were. However, our interpretations of dreams may or may not be correct, the bible and the word is final say on these type of matters. The bible says I need to work and to make money and to provide. I tell you the truth, sometimes it's just not easy to go "all in" when you have responsibilities, this path (maybe self inflicted), is 100x easier as single person, no worries about kids, families, obligations. You felt led to be a missionary in Africa... just go. Do it. Let go and let God, you hear this all the time. Horrible advice.

I finally got some good advice, and it came from an Orthodox priest online who quoted St. Agustine of Hippo.
"pray like everything depends on God, but WORK.. like everything depends on you."
I have to admit I have been passive, expecting some divine help from the Lord in opening doors I can't open, giving me wisdom I didn't have.
Take a bold step out, big step out in faith.. when I didn't know all the pieces.

Here is the thing, a little bit of knowledge of the word can be dangerous, very dangerous. We've all heard the story of Mary and Martha. Martha was busy working hard prepping for the party and Mary is chilling at Jesus feet the better portion, or so I thought. But actually, it's not the work that Jesus is correcting her but it's the complaining... I always thought the teaching was to seek God first and the rest would take care of itself.
God isnt a genie...my mistake is that I relied too much on God, leaned in too hard on faith, I did too little on diligence and planning.
Now I'm course correcting, and looking back and apply for work in my old career and also trying to build my insurance agency until I can find work.

I prayed fervently to the Lord asking why I'm going on this goose chase and I had a dream of an episode of fight to survive where the guy or preacher got his foot stuck in a rock on a hike and died. A faithful servant who make a mistake an honest mistake and paid for his life (he really needed a sat phone) when hiking alone. I don't know if this was God telling me, I know what I'm doing even when it means death, but I took it to mean a couple of things. 1) free will and consequences 2) God will bail you out or he may not ; up to his will which we never know.

In summary, unbridled all out faith can be dangerous, it needs to be balanced or you will burn out quick and lose faith.

Please pray for me and my families provision.
Thank you

Great questions, I had to take a trip down memory lane to answer them! Hearing from God can be different for each of us so I can't say how it would/should look for you personally, but I will tell you my experience:

I had been getting frustrated with my "pay the bills" job for quite a while, but did not feel spiritually "released" to quit. It's hard to explain how I "knew" when that changed, but almost overnight I felt a spiritual shift away from what I had been doing and towards my part-time venture. My job started leaving me with the feeling like my shoes were on the wrong feet, if that makes any sense. Also, I was experiencing some workplace-induced asthma that was steadily getting worse. Nevertheless, I kinda dragged my feet about quitting because customers were pressuring me to stay.

Then one day I felt God say "You never gave in to peer pressure to smoke or do other things that would harm your health, so why are you falling for it now?" That kinda rattled me and I realized God really did want me to stop. So I closed out that job and moved my focus towards the other venture.

Like you, I had some dreams along the way that addressed concerns or challenges. Being a female and not the most assertive knife in the drawer, I didn't feel certain about my ability to give orders and such. But I had a dream where I was watching a war game, there was an assertive military guy in charge but the "soldiers" were everyday people... laborers, artists, women, children, etc. The assertive military guy was barking orders but the people weren't doing what they were supposed to do. The operation failed and the military guy left to sulk. So when the next exercise began I started giving the orders, but I was nice about it and didn't bark or demand. The people did what they were supposed to do and the operation succeeded. Perhaps it seems a stretch to some, but the dream gave me a lot of peace that I had what was needed to run the kind of business it was supposed to be (which had proved to be the case so far, though I have gotten more assertive in the process).

Another thing I had been worried about was if we should focus on direct-to-consumer sales, or seek out wholesale accounts. I had a dream where I was trying to fill a bunch of tiny orders, and it was ridiculously stressful, borderline impossible given the facility I had to work with. So that was a clue to focus on the wholesale market, which seems to have been the right call.

Those are the only specific things I can think of, other than letting peace guide my decisions 🤔. I'm sure that's much harder to do when you have a family to support though. 😕 Philippians 4:6 &7 is a good passage.

I hope some of that is helpful! I wish I could tell you for sure what God wants you to do, other than seek Him and be humble and diligent. But if you focus on those 3 things I think He will guide you to the right answer.

I encourage you to study "the ripple effect" by Frank Turek. Also, study molonism by William lane Craig

God isn't a genie and God has to run a whole universe ... After understanding the ripple effect and molonism, you'll see that perhaps even this goose chase may possibly be the best thing that could've happened in the grand scheme of things... It's hard to imagine bad things being good. Remember the story of Joseph, he was enslaved.... And then became 2nd to Pharaoh and saved many lives, because he started off as a slave. Joseph said, paraphrasing, you meant it for evil but God meant it for good to save many lives

That's great! "Whatever your hands find to do, do it with all your might".

Just a little story; my business existed as a part-time venture for some time while I had other work to pay the bills.

Then I felt God leading me to drop the other pursuits and put my efforts into the business full-time. It took some faith to do so as the business wasn't generating a lot of income at the time. But I did have money saved up to cover living expenses and no kids to support, so I quit the other work and started building the business.

A few moths later I lost my biggest client, they closed shop suddenly and without warning. That really threw me off for a bit and made me question if I had heard God correctly. But I still felt peaceful about building the business and hadn't run out of savings, so I pressed on.

The client who closed shop ended up going to work for a startup in the same field of interest, and recommended our products to their new employer. They placed their first order about 5 months after I was questioning if I had heard God right. We got in at the ground level, were able to grow with them, and now they have 3 warehouses across the US, plus an international location. When I look back I realize that the timing of all that really couldn't have been any more perfect, even though it freaked me out a little when it was happening.

Anyway..... none of that is to say if things will go the same for your business. I really don't know. But I do know that God cares about your family, and if you earnestly seek Him and throw yourself into whatever He gives you to do it will all work out. 👍

It does take effort and diligence on our part though ts game, for real.

Also, if haven't already you might want to commit your business to the Lord, and ask Him to use it however He sees fit. Your customers and workers are automatically part of your ministry, so prayer that you handle the responsibility well and diligently is always a good idea 🙏.

Best!
Will pray-