How To Conquer, In Love

As I suspected, my article “Priests Pray, Kings Conquer” has lent itself to a number of comments. Some encouraging others, not so encouraging.

The great thing about this blog is the intent is not to receive public approval. Frankly, I could care less. (Bob cares more than I do, for the record.) My goal is get you all to think, by sharing my personal journey of being a believer and running/owning a business.

Over the years, many have asked for principles or step by step to implement running a Christian business. Instead of principles, I find it better to share examples, allowing you to form your own processes. Let me explain what I mean.

In case you didn’t know this, our special forces in the US Military are the tip of the spear. The Navy SEALS, US Rangers, Green Beret, etc are on the front lines of the battle for our countries freedom.

If you’ve ever read any of the books (Chosen Solider, Lone Survivor) you would realize the overwhelming majority of our Special Forces soliders are believers. They are highly trained in numerous different skills. They can fire any gun, create bombs, survive the in the wilderness and are very smart. In many cases these young men are highly intelligent, many attending some of our best Universities.

When we insert special forces into say.. Afghanistan, it’s not how you would think. The members of the special forces grow beards like the locals, dress in the garb of the locals, eat their foods, speak their language, observe their customs.  They do not come in like in the movies and blow the crap out of everything. They assimilate into the society and become one of the locals. Building trust, helping out the locals and being of value to the community.  All with a gun by their side just in case.

They conquer in love.

Occasionally they will get into fire fights. They will be attacked. Guess what they do… they fight back. If shot at, they fire back, they kill their enemy. And if the enemy is wounded and when the fire fight is done, they offer medical services to the wounded enemy.

In WW II in the European theater, this was a common approach. The US Military would engage the enemy and after we won, we would then start helping their wounded survive, by offering medical treatment. One minute the solider was trying to kill the man, then next minute trying to save their life.

You see, we all want a set of principles and list of things to do as business owners. How much debt, if any should I have. What kind of compensation, what to do if a fellow believer does wrong, should we go public or not go public, how to handle unruly customers, blah, blah, blah.

Here’s my advice. If you are doing  business with a company that doesn’t even remotely know God. Maybe they have orgies in the office. Instead of not doing business with them, why not engage them in business. Why not come in and become special forces for the Kingdom of God. It’s what Paul, John, Peter and others did.  Just don’t engage in the orgies.

Don’t invite them to a Bible study. Just love them in the process they are in. Win their trust, do business with the company. Get to know the people you are in contact with at the company. Don’t have an agenda, just engage them in a conversation. Bring the Kingdom in that fashion.

If you are buying out an evil company, just take dominion. Do the deal, then gently over time, expose them to the teachings. Don’t use “Jesus said… or in John 12:3 -10… Just love them well.”

Some of you may say, I’m denying Christ. I’m not. I just have found it’s a whole lot easier to make in roads with people when you have their trust and aren’t playing the Jesus card.

Think of the special forces. Love these people. That’s Jesus called us to do. Love our neighbor as ourselves. Your neighbor can be the guy who is cheating on his wife, surfing porn and cheating the company finances. He may be your contact and direct person. Just love him well.

That’s just one way to conquer.

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Priests Pray, Kings Conquer

A few years back, I kept hearing stories of business men and women who had supernatural encounters with God. In turn, God showing them supernatural things of the business world. New business ideas, the right land to buy in real estate, inventions and more.

My heart longed for that kind of interaction with God. So, I started doing the things they were doing. At this same point in my life, there were a number of instances where ‘words’ were spoken over me and sent to me that confirmed the desires of my heart that I was to move billions for the kingdom.

I was psyched.

I started praying more, fasting more, I put a prayer room in my office, hired intercessors, tithed and gave more, prayed three times a day like Daniel. All in an effort to open the heavenlies and for God to pour out his blessing and abundance on me and my business.

The complete opposite happened. My business got worse, my bank account dried up, my wife and I ‘took a break from each other’, I fell behind on my mortgage, payments to my investors. To the point where I had to close my office, shut down my prayer room and let the intercessors go.

It was about this on a late Friday night, while I was attending a prayer meeting at Mahesh and Bonnie Chavdas church, that a piece of the puzzle was put into place for me. I didn’t realize it at the time, the revelation coming a few days ago, a full two years, after the fact.

While attending the church and minding my own business, I noticed this lady across the room. She kept staring at me. Everytime I looked up, she was staring at me. I’ve been around prophetic people who hear the Lord and know that look. This went on for about 45 minutes.

Then she started walking over to me and it was like the room was parting. I was kind of like ‘oh crap, here comes one of those prophetic people’ She came up to me and shared this with me;

“I’ve been watching you tonight and every time I looked over at you, I see this huge crown on your head. It is that of King. That’s not all, I see a scepter in your hand. The Lord wants you to know you are a King and like a King you can decree things and they will be.”

Then she laid hands on me and I went down. The rest of the night she had nothing else to say, no more eye contact. It was one of the weirdest experiences I’ve ever encountered. I’m used to these ‘words’ taking 15 minutes, this took less than one minute, if 30 seconds.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but God put something in me that night. I certainly didn’t feel like a King. Nothing I seemed to decree came to be law or true. In fact, things kind of drifted along.

This week, this piece of the puzzle came clearly into view for me. And it has to do with this debate or discussion of Kings and Priests.

I have to admit, all this talk of Kings and Priests seemed like psycho babble to me. Some of that complex religious stuff reserved for Theologians who had nothing better to do than come up with more complex stuff to keep us normal folks feeling like we didn’t really get ‘it’.

Then it hit me. A Priest can’t conquer. A Priest can only pray.  Kings normally can’t pray, they have to go to the Priests. Kings can only conquer. Until King David.

He was the first one who knew he could pray and conquer. The veil was lifted, the access was granted to us all. (Only to be returned completely and forever to us, with Christs’ death on the cross.)

In my desire to hear the Lord more, to gain supernatural access, I abandoned my Kingly role. I stopped conquering and started looking to God to do all the conquering. That is called being lazy.

Let me show you how this is the case through David.

David was given a special anointing the same one that all of us in business who call Christ our savior possess. That is, one of Priest and King.

I’ll keep this simple for you. Remember, I’m not a theologian, I’ve never been to seminary, I know no Greek, I failed Latin and never took Hebrew. I’m just a business guy flailing away in the trenches of business just like you.

Remember this, Kings conquer, Priest pray.

David knew how to pray. This was developed in his time in the wilderness. It’s where he forged his deep relationship with the Lord. It didn’t happen in the palace with Saul.

Yet, David knew he was a King. After all, Samuel did anoint him. But he knew how to pray and spend time with Daddy.

David would slip between the two worlds, back and forth between the veil that he removed. He would pray, then he would ACT in a Kingly fashion.

Look Kings don’t walk around all meek. They conquer for gosh sakes. They rule, they aren’t mamby pampby, cause if they are, they get conquered. HELLO!

When David was given the okay to go into battle and conquer, he got his hands bloody. He stuck his sword in guys throats. He cut off heads, limbs and genitalia. He conquered land by vanquishing his enemies. Conquering in blood business.

In  the fields of battle, when guy is cut open all his blood pours out, he loses control of his bowels, he pees himself. This flows onto the battle field. In the end the conquering party is standing in blood, crap and piss. Plus dead bodies.

Conquering is not always pretty. In fact, it’s usually messy.

Then David would rule as a King. He would decree new laws, set up new structures, assimilate the new people into his Kingdom. David decreed things and they were to be. No argument.

In today’s world. Kingdom business men and women don’t know how to rule and act as Kings. They act as priests. No offense, but priest for generations are not business people. They are priest for goodness sakes. It’s why churches aren’t run very well. They’re run by priests.

It’s why priests don’t know a thing about our troubles and tribulations of being in business. They can’t relate. They don’t understand, because they don’t know how to conquer. We do.

They don’t understand that business is messy. To conquer a market, is hard, troublesome, nasty work. But needed.

Hey if David doesn’t get the blood on his hands, then the temple isn’t built. David did the work. Some call it dirty, I call it noble.

I want each one of you who read this to understand you are a King. Your business is your Kingdom that you’ve been entrusted to use to take dominion and conquer new territories. Not to lay down and be all wishy washy, just ‘loving Jesus’, praying and fasting.

Look I LOVE the Lord. Make no mistake, He is my savior. Period. But he has entrusted me to conquer territory for His Kingdom through my business. To take the kingdom through the boardrooms, business halls and balance sheets.

I have supernatural connections. I know how to pray, seek the Lord and then go apply that by no fear of getting my hands dirty.

That is what it means to be a King.

Now where’s my scepter.

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God opens doors in funny ways.

That shouldn’t be a revelation to me, but after all these years, it still is, no matter how many times I go down this path.

A very good friend of mine, recently moved his family to Kansas City to be closer to IHOP and left a very safe and comfortable cocoon on the east coast. They had every reason to stay where they were, other than the fact, they had a longing in their heart to move to Kansas City.

About three, maybe four years ago, they tried to make the move. Young, kidless at the time, they put their house on the market, found the perfect house to buy in KC and waited for the house to sell.

It didn’t sell. Month after month after month.

While crushed, they were not undaunted. They felt that the Lord wanted them to move to KC, maybe it just wasn’t the time. Or at least God’s time.

Two adopted kids later, they told me in the spring they were going to try and move to KC. Personally, I felt it was a mistake. They had adopted children from overseas, in my humble opinion (which I’m thankful they didn’t seek) it was the wrong move. The kids needed some stability in their life.

Well, I felt vindicated when the house didn’t sell, let alone anyone look at the house. Until one day, he called me saying “We sold our house and have to move in 45 days.”

Two weeks later they returned from KC and bought the cheapest house in the neighborhood for about 35% off the normal retail value. It was a bing, bong, bing God moment.

To make matters even funnier, they were asked to move the closing up, had to scramble to get the move done and get out to KC.

We just spoke today and they are loving it in KC.

I share this with you, because many of you have dreams that you feel God has spoken into your heart. You’ve been told you’ll move millions or billions for the kingdom or touch lives in boardrooms, corporate headquarters or something else grand.

The tendency is to think “Okay God, let’s bust a move, I’m ready.” We move in our own power, only to be pushed off the road and stuck in a holding pattern, while others seem to race by to what we consider our destiny.

I’m here to tell you, don’t worry about it. God will work his plan for you in his time.

Yeah, you’ve heard it from the pulpit or on CD’s or on TV. God has a plan he’ll work it in his time… blah, blah, blah.

But really he will. If you doubt it, just read this story again. My buddy, has had to wait, time and time again for his move, his adopted kids and more. I only wish I could handle it with such grace, and love as he and his wife.

Enjoy the ride,

Matt Gillogly

PS> I wrote this to a small segment of our list, for a promotion, but we’ve received so many comments, we figured it’d be good to post. Here are some comments we’ve received via email.

Frank Gartland wrote:

Matt,

Great note, great message. Needed it. Thanks.

Thanks,

Frank

Matt,

I am thinking this reply may go back to a general mailbox.

Nevertheless, I want to thank you for the messages and the content; they are truly an encouragement and a blessing to me. And I’ll add, they are quite refreshing; we get wrapped in our days trying to drive business and your e-mails come in; it’s kind of like getting a cool drink of water in the middle of a dry and thirsty land. J

Keep ‘em coming!

*/Bob Marino/*

Good morning Matt,

Interesting that you mentioned IHOP as my Ex and our 3-kids moved back to Lee’s Summit about 18-months ago. My sister-in-law is on staff at IHOP and Danya my 18-year old will be on staff starting in September. Great ministry, but not as great of weather that we have here in Southern Calif. ! lol

Chuck

Linda Earley wrote:

Matt, your story is filled with such encouragement…would it be possible for me to share this with my friends on FB, giving due credit?  I know they would be so blessed as am I by this writing.

Have a much-blest day!

Matt,

This is great stuff!  I love your emails, and your product looks really great.

The email today was particularly encouraging.  I quit my government job in May (yes, I know… “crazy”), to start my own career coaching business.  Now I’m helping people get jobs.  www.getnoticedcareers.comhttp://www.getnoticedcareers.com/>

It’s working, I AM helping people get jobs, but… the trickle of new customers is barely enough to keep me going.  Referrals are _only_ coming from happy customers; but NO referrals are coming from netoworking meetings, my (pathetic) web site, advertisements or emails.  And I don’t have any cash or time to do more marketing work, because I’m busy working with clients.
I may not have built a sustainable business plan, but it’s been cool giving it a try.

I just wanted to thank you for your marketing emails and for the obviously useful information you’ve put together.  If I could figure out any way to get some time to do more marketing or admin support on my biz, I would purchase it.

Thanks for “listening”.  Blessings, and I hope you make a milion!

/Adrienne Edwards, MA/ <

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