What’s everybody else doing?


You were running well. You started off in the spirit; how is it that you have ended up in the flesh? (Galatians 5 AMP)

Business owner, how many times have you asked yourself this question and then went on a research tangent for the answer? Well, let’s play out what happens next.

You find out what everybody else is doing. It “looks like” it’s working for them. I mean . . . they have clients, they have business, they are successful. so if I do the same thing, I will be successful. Not so! Who said you would . . .them, God, or you?

I’m writing to challenge you today to stop looking to others (who may not even be a Christian) for the answers to build the business God gave you.

Well, you can continue to implement the business practices, policies, and terms you’ve acquired, but you are not building a Godly business. God wants us to not “assume” the way everybody else is “doing business” is the way we should be business.

In the opening example we played out together, did you notice what was missing? Prayer! Yes, prayer was missing from the example. This should not be, Christian business owner. The first place you should turn when “setting up shop” (and maintaining “shop” might I add) is to God. When He spoke the business into existence, the answers were wrapped up into what He spoke. Who better knows how to organize it, structure it, and grow it?

I remember the first couple of years after we birthed the coaching practice I started inwardly asking the question, “What’s everybody else doing?” I subscribed to the “top marketing gurus” and “top coaches” e-mail list to glean tips and strategies from “the experts.” What message was I sending God? I don’t know what to do with this uniquely different business/ministry you’ve given me. So I’ll do what everybody else is doing. At the time, I didn’t realize this was the message I was sending God until everything I tried that “the experts” said worked was not working for me. So I repented, humbled myself, and pressed into Him for His wisdom, guidance, and instruction.

When we constantly or even one time at a specified season of our life ask the question that’s the subject of this post, there is something deeper going on. I believe it’s the following:

1) Lack of Godly confidence (i.e., unsure of you, your potential, and self)
2) Lack of confidence in what God has given you (i.e., vacillating about what He’s given because it’s different than what you and others have ever seen before)
3) Spiritual laziness (i.e., praying a business through to success based on God’s standards is hard work. It’s easier to just do what everybody else is doing. I’m too lazy to do all that God requires to build what I keep saying is “God’s business.” This could also be referred to as low God esteem)
4) Spirit of comparison – low self esteem (i.e., failing to believe it’s you He wants to do something uniquely different through me so I think what everybody else has/and is doing is more valuable than what I have and what I’m doing)
5) Flesh (i.e., I’m not getting the results I expected so I’ll try in my flesh to garner the results.)

You were running well. You started off in the spirit; how is it that you have ended up in the flesh? (Galatians 5)

Let God define success for you not what everybody else is doing and saying is success. I remember God sat me down one day and told me to draw a Venn diagram (e.g., the Olympic circles). He said, Now write what success means inside the circles. Fill them up with everything success means to you.” I wrote and wrote and wrote. When all was said and done, He said . . . “Hmm, I don’t see God. I see a lot of stuff centered around Me (meaning a lot of God like stuff), but I don’t see the “word” God. You see having God, (I mean really having Him) following Him, communing with God, being intimate with God, following God’s instructions equals success!

1 “BLESSED (HAPPY, fortunate, prosperous, and enviable) is the man who walks and lives not in the counsel of the ungodly [following their advice, their plans and purposes], nor stands [submissive and inactive] in the path where sinners walk, nor sits down [to relax and rest] where the scornful [and the mockers] gather.

2 But his delight and desire are in the law of the Lord, and on His law (the precepts, the instructions, the teachings of God) he habitually meditates (ponders and studies) by day and by night.

3 And he shall be like a tree firmly planted [and tended] by the streams of water, ready to bring forth its fruit in its season; its leaf also shall not fade or wither; and everything he does shall prosper [and come to maturity].” – Psalm 1:1-3 AMP

When you are planted by the water flowing from Holy Spirit, whatsoever you do shall prosper! How can a Christian prosper if s/he won’t keep in step with Holy Spirit? (Galatians 5:25 AMP)

So the next time you ask or think, “What’s everybody else doing?” Remember, it doesn’t matter; all that matters is if you are doing what matters to God and what He wants you to do. Truly, the reward or lack thereof that you receive is hinged on doing what He told you to do not what everybody else is doing or should I say what He may have told them to do.

Many will say, Lord didn’t we _______________________ (fill in the blank with what you’re doing in “your business” in His name). - Matthew 7:22 KJV

“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?” – Matthew 7:22 KJV

Is He Lord or not? The answer is found in what you are doing and thinking not what you are saying with your lips. If He is Lord, there should be no policy, process, strategy, tip, etc. implemented without conferring with Him and asking, “Do you approve?” and “Is this what you want me doing?” This is crucial at the beginning of laying a business foundation, as well as all phases of business. Remember, these are God’s businesses and what we think should be happening in them may not happen at all.

I amazed by how many Christian business owners are deceiving themselves by saying, “This is God’s business,” “He is the creative director,” “My gifts are submitted to Him,” “I put my gifts on the altar . . . they are not mine; they belong to Him.”

This next saying is so powerful it needs to stand alone. Many Christian business owners say, “He sends me clients.” Does He or does the marketing strategy/business policy you picked up send you clients? Now, I’m not saying we aren’t to market. I’m saying did He tell you to employ that marketing strategy/business policy? If yes, then He sends clients as a result of your obedience. If not, “Who is sending the clients (provided they’re coming) . . . the devil, flesh, or the fleshy inspired strategies?

It’s either spirit driven (God’s or demonic) or flesh driven! These are the only two options Christian businesses will be measured and judged by. Yes, judged. God is judging Christian businesses. He has His agents in the marketplace who put the King’s stamp of approval on a business or the King’s disapproval on it. Choose wisely that the business you steward is stamped with the King’s approval. Oh Karen, this is extreme some say. He says, “So is my judgment . . . Xtreme. How will your business fair? The rewards are Xtreme too! How will your business fair. MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. - (Daniel 5:25)

I close with these equations:

GOD is Success
GOD = Success (Colossians 2:15 AMP)
GOD is the Prosperous One
GOD = Prosperity (Psalm 1 KJV)

My prayer is for your sight to be restored even as He restored my sight that the free favors of our God may flow in our businesses as this is the acceptable time (Luke 4:18b)