The 9 To 5 Window

by Os Hillman

  There are many stories like John’s out there. I hear them almost weekly. Satan has deceived many workplace believers about seeing their vocations in a spiritual manner. Here are a few of his lies:

  • Our jobs are not spiritual—they are useful only to make money for the church.

  • Our vocations have no spiritual authority.

  • Our secular employment is not to be mixed with the church’s ministry activities.

  • “Ministry” is what takes place within the four walls of the church building.

  Furthermore, there seems to be an unspoken spiritual hierarchy that ranks vocations based on the level of a person’s spirituality and commitment to serve God. My friend Mark Greene from the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity describes the ranking this way:

  1. Pastor (absolute highest spiritual vocation)

  2. Overseas missionary

  3. Evangelist

  4. Paid church worker

  5. Vocational parachurch ministry worker

  6. Housewife

  7. Plumber

  8. Advertising agency executive (lowest of the low … down there with “lawyer”)

  Mark and I both came out of the advertising business so we can poke fun at our former professions as advertising agency executives. The Scriptures are clear that there is no vocation less spiritual than any other if it is done with honesty, integrity and a heart to serve God. “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (Col. 3:23-24). In regard to spiritual value, whether you are called to be a plumber, a doctor, a secretary or a CEO, your calling is equal to that of the pastor or vocational Christian worker. The key is to be in the place where God has called you and to live for the glory of God in that place.

  God Uses Our Work

  How does God call people into His service? As we read through the Scriptures, we find that many have been called while they were in the midst of performing their everyday vocation. Peter was a fisherman, Matthew was a tax collector, Luke was a physician, Paul was a tentmaker, Jesus was a carpenter, and so on.

  Moses was a shepherd who was going about his normal workday when God called him to His Service. Since killing an Egyptian man 40 years earlier when he saw him beating one of his Hebrew brethren, Moses had been living out his days as a shepherd—a very lowly profession in the eyes of an Egyptian. He was now 80 years old, and the last thing on his mind was a new adventure. He was ready to collect his pension, his past life only a faded memory. Although deep inside he might have felt he was destined for something greater, the event 40 years earlier reminded him of a good impulse that went extremely bad.

  So, Moses was minding his own business, tending sheep on the far side of the desert, when he noticed that a bush was on fire. Even more startling, it was not burning up! Then, alarmingly, a voice came from the bush—which I guess should be no surprise since he was standing on Mount Horeb, the mountain of God. If God were going to speak, this would be a good place.

  The voice belonged to God. God told Moses in great detail about the huge rescue mission He wanted him to lead to free the Israelites from Egypt. Moses was not at all interested in this proposition and he argued with God about the whole idea. Among other things, I am sure that he remembered he was a wanted man in Egypt. In the midst of his protests, God asked Moses a simple question: “What is that in your hand?” (Exod. 4:2).

  Moses was holding his shepherd’s staff. What can that have to do with anything? he must have thought. God went on to explain, “Take this staff in your hand so you can perform miraculous signs with it” (Exod. 4:17, emphasis added).

  A few years ago, while attending a conference, I heard a message about the significance of the staff in the life of the Hebrew. The speaker had met a pastor who had just returned from Israel and who had brought back a replica of the type of staff a Hebrew would have owned in biblical times. He had learned that a staff was more than a shepherd’s tool. When the shepherd made his staff, he added a creosote-type substance to the wood to insure its hardness so that it would last a lifetime. Typically, he marked his staff up and down to represent significant dates and events that had happened in his life. It was like a personal diary, if you will.

  The fact that God wanted to use Moses’ staff to perform miracles is significant because the staff represented not only Moses’ work, but it also, most importantly, represented his life. The staff was a symbol of Moses’ calling in life as a shepherd. It was the identifying tool of his vocation. God was saying, in essence, “I am going to take your vocation and perform miracles through it.” He wanted Moses to look at his work in a new and powerful way.

  When God called Gideon to free the people of Israel from the oppression of the Amalekites, He did so while Gideon was on the job threshing wheat. Like Moses, Gideon argued with God; he also felt he was too insignificant to be used by God to save Israel. Nevertheless, Gideon acknowledged God by preparing an offering to Him. An angel of the Lord did an interesting thing with the offering: “With the tip of the staff that was in his hand, the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared” (Judg. 6:21).

  As with Moses, God had chosen to do a miracle with Gideon’s staff, the instrument that symbolized his work and his life. What is God trying to show us by doing this? He wants us to know that our work and our lives are the tools He wants to use to demonstrate His power. However, in order for that to happen, we must yield them to Him.

  The Deceptions of the Enemy

  There is an identity crisis taking place today among Christians in the workplace. Satan desires to render Christians useless in their workplace calling, and his strategy is to make them feel that their work is meaningless or that it is a curse. The following are some of the deceptions Satan uses to accomplish this strategy.

  Deception #1: Work Is Meaningless

  A San Francisco radio station survey revealed that an incredible 80 percent of respondents said that they were dissatisfied with their work. A survey conducted by the Wall Street Journal found that 50 percent of executives were dissatisfied with their work. The study also confirmed that 80 percent of people among the general workplace population were dissatisfied with their work. Additionally, a survey of 500 Christians taken by Doug Sherman and Bill Hendricks, authors of Your Work Matters to God, revealed an alarming 50 percent dissatisfaction rate.1

  What does this tell us? It tells us that most people are finding little meaning and purpose in their work lives, even Christians. Today’s workers lack purpose in their work life as never before. It is of crisis proportions. Believers have not been taught the spiritual value of their work.

  Deception #2: Work Is Cursed

  “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return” (Gen. 3:17-19, emphasis added).

  The importance of work was first established in Genesis when God put Adam in the Garden of Eden “to work it and take care of it” (Gen. 2:15b). God entrusted the garden to Adam and Eve’s care and gave them authority over it. But when they sinned against Him, their relationship changed. No longer would their work be a blessing. From then on, it was going to be hard, because the ground was cursed and more difficult to cultivate.

  Today, many Christians believe their work is a curse. This is not a biblical truth. It was the ground that was cursed, which made work more difficult. My friend Ed Silvoso observes that he doesn’t believe it was by accident that the Romans placed a crown of thorns on Jesus’ head before they nailed Him to the cross. Could it be that those thorns represented more than just an additional source of p
ain? Could it be that they represented the fallen world described in Genesis 3:18 that would “produce thorns and thistles”?

  Biblical Truths Regarding Work

  In the film The Passion of the Christ, produced by Mel Gibson, there is a wonderful scene that shows Jesus working as a carpenter. It is my favorite scene in the movie, and it gives us a rare glimpse of what His everyday life might have been like before His public ministry began.

  Admittedly, God’s strategy for sending the Savior of the world seems a little odd. Jesus was born into a working-class family. He worked with His father Joseph in his carpentry business until age 30, so most of His adult life was given to “secular” labor. To build His Church, He chose 12 men who came straight from the workplace and who had no religious credentials for ministry.

  Jesus’ ministry focused on the marketplace, where people spent most of their time. Of His 132 public appearances in the New Testament, all but 10 of them were in the marketplace, and 45 of His 52 parables had a workplace context. It is also interesting to note that of the 40 divine encounters and miracles listed in the book of Acts, 39 occurred in the workplace.

  Truth #1: Jesus Redeemed Work

  Not only did Christ identify and minister to those in the workplace, He also redeemed work. Jesus’ death on the cross restored those things that were lost in the Fall. “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10, NASB, emphasis added). Notice that the Scripture says He saved that which was lost, not who was lost. What was lost in the Garden of Eden? It was man’s relationship with God—his innocence and his ability to work the ground without sweat and toil. No longer would work be the joy it was intended to be. However, when Jesus died, He became the source of restoration for all that was lost in the Garden. Paul reinforces this in Colossians 1:19-20: “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (emphasis added).

  Yes, He restored all things—including the relationship between mankind and his work. No longer should we labor out of sweat and toil, for God has restored the joy to our labor that He intended in the first place. In fact, one form of the word “work” comes from the Hebrew word avodah, which means worship.

  Jesus’ desire was for God’s kingdom to be manifested on Earth. When He taught the disciples to pray, He petitioned His heavenly Father by asking, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). While we may never see God’s kingdom completely evidenced on Earth as it is heaven, Jesus is telling us that we should ask for it and expect it.

  Once we understand that Jesus died to redeem our work and that it’s possible to see His kingdom here on Earth, we are on our way to understanding another key point—God has need of our work to accomplish His purposes.

  Truth #2: Our Work Has a Purpose

  “Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to me. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, “The Lord has need of them,” and immediately he will send them’” (Matt. 21:1-3, NKJV).

  The donkey was a symbol of commerce in Jesus’ day. Donkeys provided a source of income to people by trampling seed, turning millstones to grind grain and pulling plows. Donkey caravans were the freight trains and transport trucks of ancient times. These animals could carry great weight despite their small size, and since they required only a fraction as much fodder as a horse, they were more economical to own.

  When Jesus told the disciples to go untie the donkey, He was taking over someone’s work and source of income. The disciples no doubt felt a bit uneasy about fulfilling His request, but Jesus had need of that donkey to make His triumphal entry into Jerusalem during His last week of ministry.

  Legend has it that God etched a cross onto the back of a donkey’s neck to symbolize the role it would play in the life of Jesus. As it turns out, this legend is true. An owner of a donkey ranch in Texas explains, “All donkeys have a cross mark on their back, with the vertical part extending from the neckline down the backbone and the horizontal extending left and right across the front shoulders. The mark is very prominent on grey donkeys but isn’t visible in the hair on white or black donkeys. However, if you shave them to the skin, the mark can be seen.”

  Jesus had need of the donkey in His day. He has need of our “donkeys” today. Let me explain.

  The night before I was to speak at a workplace conference in Singapore, the Lord prompted me to read the passage in Matthew 21:13 regarding the donkey. I sensed He wanted me to relay the message that just as He needed the donkey in His day, He needed the people of Singapore to give Him their “donkeys” because He has need of them to accomplish His purposes today. Even though I felt uncomfortable about including such an unusual concept in my message, I added it to my PowerPoint presentation.

  The next morning, I went down for breakfast and was joined by Maggie, an intercessor from Malaysia. I knew Maggie well. She had prepared for this conference by fasting and praying for 40 days, and I asked her if the Lord had spoken to her about this conference during her prayer time. “Oh, yes,” she said. “He told me on September 21 that the Singapore business people were to give their ‘donkeys’ to Him.” I smiled.

  That afternoon, I asked the attendees to come forward and give their “donkeys” to the Lord for His use to build His Kingdom here on Earth through the workplace. More than 200 people came forward.

  A New Beginning

  God has called each of us into our vocations. He wants to bring His presence into our vocations so that He can demonstrate His power in them. However, many of us have held on to our donkeys. They are still tied to the tree of sin and sweat and toil. Our work has become the beast of burden in our lives.

  Satan wants to deceive you into thinking that the only reason you work is to earn a living. He wants you to think your work life is not a calling. He wants you to live only for the material things in life. But Jesus came to redeem our lives and our livelihoods for His purposes. He can give us rest in the midst of our work lives so that our work is not burdensome. Our workplaces can become centers of freedom, joy and worship.

  God is calling forth believers today to see their vocations as instruments of transformation. Until now, most of us have seen our work as a mere instrument for earning income. God is changing this paradigm. Our work represents much more. It is an instrument designed to transform our lives and workplace (and, by extension, our cities and nations) into places of freedom and love. Why does God want to demonstrate His power through us in this way? “So that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you” (Exod. 4:5).

  God desires to reveal His glory through every person on Earth. We spend most of our waking hours at work. Whether you’re a housewife, an educator, a businessman, a student, or in the military, God desires to live His life and make His presence known in the 9 to 5 window. He wants to perform miracles through your “staff.”

  Are you willing to let Him use yours?

  How About You?

  1. Have you fallen for Satan’s deception that God has no interest in your work?

  2. Are you willing to turn your vocation over to the Lord? Why not pray a prayer of commitment to the Lord and ask Him to use your work life for His glory?

  CHAPTER 2

  UNDERSTANDING YOUR PURPOSE

  For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

  EPHESIANS 2 : 1 0

  If you are going to discover how God wants to use your life and work, you must know why you were created. If you start trying to determine your purpose in life before understanding why you were created, yo
u will inevitably get hung up on the things you do as the basis for fulfillment in your life, which will only lead to frustration and disappointment.

  First and foremost, God created you to know Him and to have an intimate relationship with Him. In fact, God says that if a man is going to boast about anything in life, “boast about this: that he understands and knows me” (Jer. 9:24). Mankind’s relationship with God was lost in the Garden when Adam and Eve sinned. Jesus’ death on the cross, however, allows us to restore this relationship with God and to have an intimate fellowship with Him. The apostle Paul came to understand this when he said, “I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself” (Phil. 3:10, THE MESSAGE).

  Establishing this relationship with God is vital to understanding your purpose. If you don’t have this relationship with God, you will seek to fulfill your purpose out of wrong motives, such as fear, insecurity, pride, money, relationships, guilt or unresolved anger. God’s desire is for you to be motivated out of love for Him and to desire to worship Him in all that you do. As you develop your relationship with God, He will begin to reveal His purpose for your life. “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord” (Jer. 29:11).