For years I have learned, believed, and taught a very specific Game Plan for the way God blesses our businesses.

The old plan looked something like this:

• Trust in the Lord with all your heart and He will direct your path.
  
  

  • Prov. 3:5-6: Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
    In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

• He gives direction, then we walk in it.
  
  

  • Note: In reality, as humans, though, as soon as we get an idea of what the path looks like . . . we go to trying to do it on our own.

  • Joseph got the dream about his family bowing down.

  • I believe Moses knew he was going to lead the people out.

  • But it wasn’t God’s time (or way) yet.

  • So in the old game plan, He gives the path, then we walk in it.

  • BUT we often get ahead of God so this doesn’t work as cleanly as “advertised.”

And then we apply “blessing” principles to this path:

• Give
  
  

  • Luke 6:38: Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

• Keep your eyes on Him.

• Get His direction

• Work hard
  
  

  • Prov 6:6-11: Go to the ant, you sluggard!
    Consider her ways and be wise,

    Which, having no captain,

    Overseer or ruler,

    Provides her supplies in the summer,

    And gathers her food in the harvest.

    How long will you slumber, O sluggard?

    When will you rise from your sleep?

    A little sleep, a little slumber,

    A little folding of the hands to sleep—

    So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler,

    And your need like an armed man.

• He blesses the work of your hands.
  
  

  • Deut. 28:12: The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. 

• You reap a reward.

• You give Him 10%++
  
  

  • Mal. 3:10: Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

• He continues to bless you.

It’s been well-received, I believed in it fully, and I believed I lived by it.

Except . . . there were a few tiny holes that I ignored.

Because everything else lined up.

God’s Word.

My understanding.

Other faith teachers.

But still, a couple gnawing  . . . not exactly doubts, but hesitations.

The Lord has been taking me through a season . . 

I’m not sure yet if this is a purification season, a fiery season, a humbling season, or a preparation season.

Or a special season of . . . all of the above!

I’m still IN the season.

Normally when we talk about our growth or seasons, we talk about them historically.

Joseph WENT through a season.

Moses WENT through the wilderness.

And I WENT through challenges and learning seasons in the past.

But right now I’m in a season.

And during this season, I am not only realizing that the “God’s Game Plan” model I’ve understood, believed in, taught, and others have believed, is just not exactly adding up.

In order to continue to believe it, I have to keep making these tiny minor exceptions, and I’m rationalizing it by saying, I don’t understand, only God understands.

But I’m now coming to the place where I believe the model is slightly flawed.

That with 2 essential shifts to the model, it now looks MUCH more like what I truly believe is God’s Game Plan for success.

But of course, God being God, as He reveals more in the future, I’ll continue to make adjustments to my understanding.

(Of course God’s game plan doesn’t change, just my understanding of it).

Let’s review the outline overview of my old view of God’s game plan, why I believed it, what I see the flaws are, and then I’ll give you my new belief about God’s Success Game Plan.

The old plan looked something like this:

• Trust in the Lord with all your heart and He will direct your path.

• He gives direction, then we walk in it.
  
  

And then we apply “blessing” principles to this path:

• Give

• Keep your eyes on Him.

• Get His direction

• Work hard

• He blesses the work of your hands.

• You reap a reward.

• You give Him 10%++ 

• He continues to bless you.

It all looks so neat and clean and easy and Godly.

And I suppose it is.

I learned it, I thought I lived it, people I taught believed it, even applauded and appreciated me for making His way so clear.

BUT 

There were a couple of tiny annoyances that never felt like they were gaping holes at the time, just tiny annoyances I could “work through” or put them in a filing cabinet called “I’ll find out when I get to heaven,” or “God’s ways are bigger than our ways.”

One of them is Prov. 3:9-10: 

Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:

So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.

So I would fit that into the Game Plan . . . but it has, for a long time, gnawed at me that that verse comes with no addendum or desiderata  . . . .

Meaning that if we simply “Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase” then our success comes next, without fail, and with no other criteria.

It’s as if the Bible wants that verse to stand on it’s own.

And if - just if - it DOES stand on it’s own.

Then me doing all the steps of “God’s Game Plan” aren’t really the drivers.

I could simply, “give” and He will fill the Barns.

But that doesn’t seem to occur in real life.

Yes, we experience greater success when we give.

But we don’t just give, do nothing, and manna falls from heaven, so to speak.

Which means that that verse, if wholly and completely true, stands on it’s own, and yet must encompass some other success factors.

So then if I’m teaching “God’s Game Plan,” the steps listed above . . .

Are they the driving/moving factor?

Or is the giving the main factor?

And if giving is the main factor, then could I simply give Honor Him with the increase . . . and then He will bless me?

That could work theoretically . . .but in real life, I’m sure there are people and times when we’ve given and we didn’t get the “blessing of our hands.”

So we have the list of steps . . . and a singular verse that indicates the Honoring Him with the firstfruits is the only step.

The steps and that verse, they just don’t cleanly fit together.

I can wrangle them together, and perhaps you can too.

But they don’t fit cleanly.

Everything else in the Word of God that’s meant to be clear, is clear.

Why not this?

So now let’s talk a little about the effect of my current season on my understanding of God’s Game Plan for Success.

Through my season, He is showing me that some of the components of the Game Plan aren’t working, just based on their own merit.

I’m doing the same things, the right things that “used” to get a result.

But that same result isn’t occurring.

So barring any other outside interference . . . the Game Plan steps aren’t working the way they used to.

So if they don’t work, they don’t work.

Or there’s a missing ingredient.

Or of course, God in His wisdom, mercy, judgment, or otherwise is confounding success.

Certainly possible, but I don’t believe that’s the case.

I believe it’s because I’m expecting a specific result from the old Game Plan steps when the Game Plan steps aren’t the exact formula.

Picture this:

Imagine that for our business to be blessed, it has to operate from the heart of God.

So in some way, the God’s Game Steps are like the result, the markers, or operating from the heart of God.

But just doing those steps doesn’t mean we have success.

Instead, the steps are roughly representative of the success steps.

But the success steps themselves are more about operating from the heart of God, not operating according to a set of rules.

(KInd of like the concept of “the Law was given to instruct us and show us we cannot ‘not sin” but Christ came to redeem us from the law and the law is now written on our hearts” (world’s shortest theological explanation of Christianity, lol!))

So if the success steps are more about operating according to the heart of God, and not a set of rules, is it possible that the steps we might follow - from the heart of God - will change slightly (or more than slightly) according to, and as we grow in our relationship with Him?

For awhile I’ve wondered, and now am actively embracing as highly likely, that God’s method and standard for each of our lives is different based on our level or place in our walk with Him.

This doesn’t mean He doesn’t have a standard.

Or that black is black and white is white.

But that God is a loving God and is realistic about each of our specific abilities and maturity.

Initially, this doesn’t seem fair.

BUT it is actually logical.

We know our walk with Him is a walk . . and a growth process.

In our normal life, we don’t have the same expectation for a 2 year old or a 12 year old or a 25 year old for how fast/far they can walk on a hike.

So what if God’s expectation for us in handling . . say our anger, is different if we are just getting into relationship with Him, versus we’ve walked with him for 5 years and should know better but we still struggle . . .versus someone with 30 years of deep experience with God and they’ve been through every rough season and they are honed sharp.

And that helps explain how someone with limited understanding could get a certain result with that level of understanding . . but once God elevates you to a new “level” with Him (or you act in such a way that you step into a new level with Him), then the standard at which God judges or rewards you changes.

Again, it doesn’t change His holy standard . . . but it does account for His mercy in dealing with each of us according to our spiritual “age,” 2 year old, 12 year old, or seasoned 30 year old.

So if this is all true, then why not the same thing in our business?

That as we grow with Him and we learn to listen to Him, His expectation of us in our business changes?

And as it changes, our responsibility grows.

And if we step into greater responsibility, then our reward (profit) is greater.

And if all of this is true, then leaning into God’s heart, and specifically living out our relationship with Him, becomes a central components of “God’s Success Plan.”

This includes things like humility, the crucifixion of pride, love, a loving spirit, prayer, listening to God, hearing His voice and guidance, and more.

So without incorporating those components - which in theory might have differing levels of impact depending on our unique and singular experience with God - then the Success Plan isn’t accurate.

It’s as if a) it’s not accurate and b) the Success Plan is not one-size-fits-all but somewhat individualized (but without violating the verses that say, God is not partial, and that no Scripture is of a private interpretation).

So with this level of understanding, perhaps God’s game plan looks more like this, in general:

• He guides us and gives us ideas and/or specific direction for our personal and unique path.

• He daily or hourly guides us what to do and how to do it.

• We Honor Him and give Him the first fruits.

• We also walk in complete humility and no pride.

• We are completely surrendered and humbled, not to the place of groveling nothingness, but instead of complete realization, acceptance, even embracing that He knows best in every circumstance and decision.

And that when all of this lines up:

• We work hard.

• We deliver good results to clients.

• We follow good business principles.

• We give Him honor, not just financially, but in every way in our business.

• He then blesses the work of our hands.

• We give.

• He blesses.

But at all points, we are completely humbled and submitted to Him will . . not just His 5 year will, but monthly will, daily will, maybe even a conscious awareness of an hourly will.

And we walk humbly in that.

And although that doesn’t fit into a 7 step plan (yet! lol), imagine that’s God Game Plan for success.

A little less linear than the old one I used to believe and teach.

So it’s a little less easy.

It’s more complicated.

It works differently for different people, based on their relationship,involvement, maturity with Him.

But I believe it’s closer to the reality of how God guides us to success in our businesses.

To review:

The old God’s Success Game Plan looked something like this:

• Trust in the Lord with all your heart and He will direct your path.

• He gives direction, then we walk in it.
  
  

And then we apply “blessing” principles to this path:

• Give

• Keep your eyes on Him.

• Get His direction

• Work hard

• He blesses the work of your hands.

• You reap a reward.

• You give Him 10%++ 

• He continues to bless you.

The new God’s Success Game Plan looks like this:

• He guides us and gives us ideas and/or specific direction for our path.

• He daily or hourly guides us what to do and how to do it.

• We Honor Him and give Him the first fruits.

• We also walk in complete humility and no pride.

• We are completely surrendered and humbled, not to the place of groveling nothingness, but instead of complete realization, acceptance, even embracing that He knows best in every circumstance and decision.

And that when all of this lines up:

• We work hard.

• We deliver good results to clients.

• We follow good business principles.

• We give Him honor, not just financially, but in every way in our business.
  
  

• We stay humble and completely submitted to His will, heart, and direction

• He then blesses the work of our hands.

• We give.

• He blesses