Answer God’s Calling at Your Workplace

Christ is marshaling an army of professional women to advance His kingdom in the corporate world.

Someone once said, “People of vision see the invisible, hear the inaudible, think the unthinkable, believe the incredible and do the impossible.” No one better exemplifies this adage than Christian women in the marketplace.

These visionary women are discovering their call from God to affect every arena of life. They are setting high standards of integrity and morality in their places of work. They are using their spiritual gifts and anointing, which have traditionally found expression only within the walls of a church, to bring success and favor in the secular world.

For women to succeed in this arena they must be willing to give up their old mind-sets. Hanging on to the old will keep them from the success and purposes God has for their lives.

What does this mean? If we aspire to be fruitful for God’s kingdom in the marketplace, we must begin by exchanging our congregational mind-set for a biblical worldview.

For too long, Greek thinking has influenced Christians. Historically, the Greeks possessed a worldview that divided the spiritual realm from the created realm. This view of reality saw church—that is, one’s faith—as separated from life and work.

Writings from Plato, the famous Greek philosopher, teach that the created world around us is not the “real” world. The real (ideal) world is in the eternal and is detached from the temporal. This real world can be known only through concepts and perhaps only after death.

Contrasted to this Greek thinking is a Hebrew, or biblical, worldview. Hebrew tradition based upon the Word of God holds to the truth that God is everywhere. He is omnipresent and desires for us to come into relationship with Him through His creation.

According to this view, the spiritual or unseen realm is one with the created realm. The spiritual realm does not exist in a separate or removed dimension. Therefore, God is in union with all of life in creation.

The Bible tells us that “[Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” (Col. 1:15-17, NIV).

God did not intend for us to inhabit the earth with a distinction between the heavens and the earth, between divine things and natural things. All things are to express and manifest the attributes, nature and power of the Son of God.

The High Calling of Work Marketplace women are to manifest the image of the Lord in their places of business. Their work is a high and holy calling.

In fact, the word “work” in Hebrew means “worship.” Your work is to be an expression of worship to the Lord.

God’s people have been assigned the task of being His stewards on the earth. They are to represent Him by being His image bearers and tending the earth as His representatives. Their job is to bring transformation wherever God sends them.

When marketplace women do this, God’s glory is released through them at their places of work. “‘As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him who sent Me,'” Jesus said (John 9:4).

I remember growing up with a Greek mind-set, one which held that the only “holy ground” was inside the church building. I had the idea that when I left church, I was going into the devil’s territory.

And the devil was big and bad! I needed to brace myself for an onslaught from the enemy. The only safe place for me spiritually was inside the church walls.

In our church we read a Scripture that said, “Come out from them and be separate” (2 Cor. 6:17). Attempting to be obedient, we misapplied this verse to our lives, abandoning our responsibility as Christians to impact the government, the educational system, the financial institutions, the arts and media. We did not understand that Christians are to bear the image of God in our places of work. We did not understand that we are to steward the earth and help bring transformation on the earth.

Thankfully, God has opened our eyes, and today He is raising up powerful women in the marketplace who have a biblical worldview. These women are using their God-given gifts and abilities to demonstrate, not only for Christians but also for the world, how good God is.

Diane DeJoy is one of them. She, like so many women today, is making a difference in the workplace.