GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 11:24
Labelteq
Employees at Labelteq have celebrated the company’s thirty-second anniversary. Thirty-two years earlier, Paul, our second son, had a vision. He wrote out that vision in a business plan, presented it to financiers, purchased a warehouse, cleared it to the walls, and began installing printing machines. It has not been an easy road for the company, but today, after thirty-two years, it is rolling out truckloads of labels for large manufacturers.
Of course, Paul has not done this work alone. He has relied on a corps of dedicated, hardworking team members. Well done, Labelteqers.
Jesus continued his lesson to the disciples about the withered fig tree. He said, “Because of this, I say to you, all things, whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you will receive, and it will be yours.” (Mark 11:24)
For those interested in syntax, the word “believe” (πιστεύετε, pisteuete) is an imperative—believe. More literally, the word means to interact with the Lord by exchanging human ideas for His wishes as He imparts faith. John wrote, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” (1 John 5:14)
Jesus was not presenting a formula for verbal magic, like ask and receive, but a path to move from concept to actuality. Similarly, Labelteq did not come into existence by simply praying and asking; it started there, with “pray and ask.” Much more prayer, sweat, and hard work brought it into existence—“believe that you will receive, and it will be yours.”
Much work for the Kingdom of God remains in the “pray and ask” phase, never reaching the “believe that you will receive, and it will be yours” phase. As the Labelteqers know, a great deal of prayer, sweat, and hard work lies between these two phases.
Previous
Next
Directory