Here is an email I received today from Compassion International. Included you will find ways to help and ways to make sure you don’t give money to some kind of scam. Please read, repost, retweet, or any other way you can help. Pray for these people.

PLEASE DO NOT SKIM. URGENT REQUEST.
ASSIGNMENT: Use your on-line voice to generate prayers and donations to rebuild the lives of Haitian children and their families affected by recent earthquake.
SYNOPSIS: The catastrophic earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12 has resulted in unfathomable chaos and devastation for hundreds of thousands of children and families.
Compassion sponsors and donors serve more than 65,000 children in Haiti. At least a third of them live in the areas that were hardest hit.
I am asking you to please send a generous gift today to help precious children and their families, and to encourage others to give to Compassion International through your blog, Facebook and Myspace pages, Twitter account and e-mail. Please utilize every on-line tool you have access to. The people of Haiti desperately need our help and hope.
Compassion International is working rapidly to assess the situation and determine the full extent of damage:
• Sadly, we anticipate there will be many deaths.
• We anticipate thousands of children and families will have lost everything.
• We anticipate many of our church-based child development centers will have been destroyed.

Without a doubt, the children we serve in Haiti are in shock and face immediate needs for food, water, medical care, shelter and counseling. We have teams prepared to respond, and we are deeply committed to helping each child.
We need your help immediately. Please reach out in the name of Jesus to bring relief, comfort, love and restoration to precious children and families whose lives have been devastated by this crisis.
Below I have compiled information and tools to help you help Haiti. If you need anything else from Compassion please get in touch with me: shaun@compassionbloggers.com or 1-888-435-3336.
Please do not distribute any information about this crisis, especially as it pertains to the safety of our children, unless that information comes from me or an official Compassion International information channel such as Compassion’s blog, Twitter and Facebook accounts.

WHERE TO GIVE: Please ONLY use one of the following URLs when linking to Compassion’s Disaster Relief Donation page. This will allow us to track how much is given by you and your fellow bloggers and report that back to you at a later date.
https://www.compassion.com/contribution/giving/haitiearthquake.htm?referer=105120SocialSponsorshipBlitz
OR
http://bit.ly/HelpHaitiCI

BANNERS: Banners are available in four sizes for your blog’s sidebar at the following URLs:
http://bit.ly/HaitiBanners
OR
http://share-compassion.org/haiti

WIDGETS: Widgets are available from the following URLs:
http://seed.sproutbuilder.com/rACFLcgkH-6l5g6n (Horizontal 400×224 for blog posts and Facebook sharing)

http://seed.sproutbuilder.com/qABcEsguH13A3SDA (Horizontal 500×280 for blog posts)

http://seed.sproutbuilder.com/4gBH0cj3H1hY0SMD (Vertical 200×350 for blog sidebar and Facebook sharing)

More widgets coming soon to: http://www.compassion.com/share/freestuff/compassion-widgets.htm

WHY GIVE TO COMPASSION INTERNATIONAL:
FINANCIAL INTEGRITY: The FBI is warning of several Haiti charity scams that have popped up in the wake of this earthquake. http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/wayoflife/01/13/haiti.charity.scams/
They are suggesting that donations only be made to organizations monitored and rated by CharityNavigator.org and The American Institute of Philanthropy. Both organizations have given Compassion International their highest approval ranking. Compassion International is the only non-profit in it’s category to receive eight consecutive years of four star rating from CharityNavigator.org.
Links regarding Compassion International’s financial integrity:
http://www.compassion.com/about/financial/default.htm
http://www.compassion.com/press/currentnews/charity-navigator-awards-compassion-highest-rating-8th-year-in-row.htm
FIRST RESPONDER: In this disaster it is crucial that first responders receive support quickly. Because Compassion International ministers through local churches to meet the needs of that church’s neighbors, and because these church partners are respected aid workers in their communities, Compassion is uniquely positioned to assess and meet the needs of it’s sponsored children quickly. This is an advantage of our church-based model in practice for more than 50 years.
IN JESUS’ NAME: Compassion International does not accept government funds which could at times restrict our ability to meet the physical and spiritual needs of children in Jesus’ name. Because of this Compassion International’s primary financial support comes from individual donors.

WHERE TO GIVE: Please ONLY use one of the following URLs when linking to Compassion’s Disaster Relief Donation page. This will allow us to track how much is given through you and your fellow bloggers efforts and proudly report that back to you at a later date. This will also allow us to track the effectiveness of these donation pages and make changes if necessary.
https://www.compassion.com/contribution/giving/haitiearthquake.htm?referer=105120SocialSponsorshipBlitz
OR
http://bit.ly/HelpHaitiCI

HOW DONATIONS WILL BE USED: All funds raised in response to the Haiti earthquake will be used immediately to provide for Compassion-assisted children and families affected by this crisis. Any funds raised in excess will be stewarded by Compassion for additional and future disaster relief efforts.
You can provide immediate relief today.
• $35 helps provide a relief pack filled with enough food and water to sustain a family for one week.
• $70 gift helps care for their needs for two weeks.
• $105 helps provide relief packs filled with enough food and water to sustain two families for two weeks.
• $210 gift helps care for two families’ needs.
• $525 helps provide relief packs filled with enough food and water to sustain 10 families for two weeks.
• $1,050 gift helps care for 10 families’ needs.
• $1,500 helps rebuild a home.
• $2,100 helps supply 20 families with the basics for three weeks.
Due to the high number of responses it may take longer than normal to process your transaction.

FOR SPONSORS OF HAITIAN CHILDREN: Children most likely to be affected by the earthquake are in projects in and around Port Au Prince. For continued updates go here: http://www.compassion.com/sponsordonor/crisisupdates/crisis-advisory-earthquake-hits-haiti.htm

To connect with other sponsors of Haitian children for prayer, support, and information join OurCompassion.org (our social networking site for sponsors) and follow this link to the group “Heart For Haiti” that has formed there: http://bit.ly/91pIXk

RELEVANT VIDEOS AVAILABLE FOR POSTING:
Explanation of Haiti’s depth of poverty and Compassion’s sponsorship ministry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct6WcaIak_A
Respond with Compassion: http://www.youtube.com/user/CompassionIntl#p/u/8/MxrDyeX9Dh4

OTHER LINKS AVAILABLE FOR POSTING:
Updates from Twitter: http://twitter.com/compassion
Compassion blog: http://blog.compassion.org
Compassion on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/compassionintl
Crisis Update Page: http://www.compassion.com/sponsordonor/crisisupdates/crisis-advisory-earthquake-hits-haiti.htm

IMPORTANT SPECIAL REQUEST:
In order to help people find Compassion International more easily when searching for “Haiti earthquake”, please link the words “Haiti earthquake” to Compassion’s donation page somewhere in your post if at all possible. This will help Compassion’s donation page climb to the top of search results on Google quickly and generate thousands more donations.

Here’s that donation page link again:

https://www.compassion.com/contribution/giving/haitiearthquake.htm?referer=105120SocialSponsorshipBlitz
OR
http://bit.ly/HelpHaitiCI

Thank you for helping Compassion International help Haiti.

Shaun Groves
Blogger Manager
CompassionBloggers.com
Compassion.com
1-888-435-3336

That’s the question I’ve been hearing a lot lately.

First off, sorry I bailed so abruptly. I didn’t think I’d be gone this long. I’d like in this post to let you know where I’ve been, how it can actually help you, and where we think MLM Fellowship is headed (and how you can help).

Since August (our last post) we have been super busy. I truly love coming up with new ideas, building new systems, and starting new businesses. Bethany and I have been working our network marketing business for 4 years straight and I apparently needed to step away and get my creative juices flowing again.

Well we did just that. In the last 5 months we’ve started two new businesses. There both very similar and will absolutely help MLM Fellowship and your biz.

First off we have been doing web designs and Internet marketing consulting for many Christian business owners. This started out with my church’s CEO ministry. There are many business owners that needed some support with taking their business online.

This is a great passion of mine. I love helping business owners create and implement new ideas. Kinda like networking, huh?

If you need any help with building sites, landing pages, web systems or effectively marketing your business online check us out at BBRo Marketing. Wow I’m back for like 2 minutes after 5 months off and I’m already pluggin’ something.

We also started another blog…please don’t be upset. Lead Traffic Matrix is a blog about do-it-yourself web designs and Internet marketing. This blog is rather technical in nature, but communicated in a very simple manner. If you need help with marketing online it’s a pretty good resource.

So what’s next?

MLM Fellowship is going to take on a new feel. I must admit, we were definitely trying hard to generate affiliate sales, product sales, and new reps for our main opportunity.

With our re-launch of sorts I’m not going to worry so much about the fruit from this blog, I’ll let Jesus deal with that. I just want to serve more through this medium.

We are just going to try to provide Biblically sound business principles to help you in your pursuit of being a successful Christian entrepreneur. We’re going to be posting once a week, unless we can get some guest writers.

Anyone who is a Christian entrepreneur who would like to write some content for our blog please contact us.

So we’re back and God willing we will be a blessing to you and your business.

-William Robbins

Matthew 7:7-8 (New International Version)

Ask, Seek, Knock

⁷“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

In part 1 of the ASK series we covered that the most important part of asking God for anything that gets answered is asking God for what He would want in our lives.  Ask and it will be given to you is the promise that is fulfilled once we meet the condition of Matthew 6:33, Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will given to you as well.

In part 2 of the ASK series we covered our responsibility to seek out the education, resources, and community necessary for the task at hand.  A Godly mission will require us to be better tomorrow than we are today.  We will have never found what we are in search of rather we will be continuously seeking after what we need to continually serve the Lord.

Part 3 is really where the rubber meets the road.  We can be diligent in prayer and have a keen sense of God’s calling in our life.  We can then seek out Godly counsel, practical insights, and a healthy mental diet but if we do not put what we have learned into practice it is all in vain!

James 1:22-25 (New International Version)

²²Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.

Knock and the door will be opened. One of the greatest tragedies in life must be a life lived with great intentions and little action.  So many of us have dreams for our families, ministries, and business but yet very few of us will actually get out of the boat and take action.

What stops us from acting?

Fear

One of the very first things that stops us from achieving our awesome God given dream is that we are fearful.  This fear can manifest in many forms.  Some of us are fearful of stepping out of our comfort zone, and dealing with the unknowns.  Some are fearful of failure and not finishing what they started.  We can be fearful of many other things and allow our fear to completely halt what God has planned for us or we can apply the only real antidote for fear.  Faith.

What do we know about faith.  Faith is truly the antitheses to fear.  Faith comes with the unknown.  There is no faith required to turn on the TV.  Your pretty confident that when you click the remote, poof, your watching TV.

When your starting a new business, ministry, or some other God honoring dream there is usually a great amount of uncertainty that comes with it.  This uncertainty is the very thing that makes us fearful.  This uncertainty however is the very thing God uses to cultivate the faith we need to do His will.

Faith is not just something that we need so we can be successful, no it has a much greater purpose than that.  Did you know that it is impossible to please God without faith?  Impossible?  Don’t take my word for it.

Hebrews 11:6 (New International Version)

⁶And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

If we now know that we cannot please God without faith, and faith is cultivated by the uncertainty that life brings us, we can be confident that stepping out despite our fear is the very first and most important step in achieving our God given dream.

The Plan…or the lack there of.

When people do start they are most likely to meet frustration head on if they lack a good plan.  Planning is one of those things that we all know we need to do, but rarely do.

“People don’t plan to fail, they just fail to plan.” – Jim Rohn

A good plan of action will include at least these 5 things.

First off are your goals.  What is the end goal you’re looking to achieve at this time.  You can always add goals, but when you do you should follow the following 4 steps to achieve that specific goal.  Your goals need to have some structure.  I personally like SMART goals.

Specific – A specific goal should answer the 6 “W” questions.  (Who, What, Where, When, Which, Why)

Measurable – Your goals need to have a specific amount and date in order to keep you on track.

Attainable – Be careful not to shrink your goal.  God is capable of exceedingly more than we can think or even imagine.  You do however want to break up your goal into attainable chunks.  This gives you stepping stones of achievement to build upon.

Realistic – Make you goal realistic to your output.  A tremendously large goal with you committing a small amount of work to is not realistic.  Match your energy to the size of your goal.

Time based – Make sure you have specific time lines for when your goals are to be achieved.  Deadlines give clarity and cause you to push forward.

Schedule

Now that you have clearly defined goals you must actually set time aside to work.  We all have very busy lives and if you don’t schedule time to do something it’s still just a dream.

When scheduling go big then small.  Start by scheduling specific events or goals on a monthly basis.  Then weekly schedule the days and times you can work on specific projects.  Finally daily schedule specific tasks or projects by the hour.

Big goals are rarely achieved by some big one time event, but achieved bit-by-bit and piece-by-piece on a daily basis.

Action Items

Now that you know what your goals are and you have set aside actual time to sit down and work on them you have to have action steps.  What are you actually going to do.  Brainstorming a list of actions you can perform that will lead towards the success of your God given dreams will ensure that your always active and keeping on track.

Warning:  List PA’s, not UPA’s.  PA – productive activities are those activities that move you toward a specific goal.  UPA is an unproductive activity.  Cleaning your desk or responding to inane emails is activity but not productive toward a specific goal.  Items to list should fit into these three categories.

1. Big things – These are very time consuming but powerful activities toward your end goal.  Building a website, bringing together a team or volunteers.
2. Little things – These take less time but are very needed as well.  If you only have an hour to work one day fill it with the little things such as making need phone calls, sending important emails, etc.
3. Right now things – Since this post is about “knocking” and taking action then what is the one or two things you are going to do right now.  Right now!  The first step is the hardest step.  Take action and do something right now.  This would be a great time to create your goal list, schedule your time, or make a well over due phone call.

Commitment

The final step is not a step but a promise.  A promise that you will not quit in the face of adversity.  And you will face adversity.  No God given dream, a dream that requires faith, will come without a storm of challenges from time to time.

Since you already expect the challenges then you will be prepared when they come and you will not let them get in the way of what God wants to do in your life.

May God bless your endeavor, give you faith that you’ve never experienced, and the courage to persevere.

About the Author: William Robbins is the founder of MLMFellowship, and the owner of iWantMoreWealth.com with his wife Bethany. Learn more about William and Bethany.

Thank you to everyone who downloaded our free report, “Why Network Marketing is the Most Biblical Business Model Ever!”.  If you didn’t get your copy yet here is the link: http://mlmfellowship.com/a/free_report/

We recently package together the content of the report into an audio file.  We have put together a great deal for the unlimited use audio license and a few bonus items.

Thanks for letting me shamelessly plug my new product.  I hope it is a great blessing to your business!

Get your “Why Network Marketing…” Audio Bundle here: http://mlmfellowship.com/a/whynetworkmarketing/

Sincerely,

William Robbins

Matthew 7:7-8 (New International Version)

Ask, Seek, Knock

⁷“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

In part 1 of the ASK series we covered that the most important part of asking God for anything that gets answered is asking God for what He would want in our lives.  Ask and it will be given to you is the promise that is fulfilled once we meet the condition of Matthew 6:33, Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will given to you as well.

Seek and you will find

You may know that God has called you to be an entrepreneur and pray diligently for His favor and blessings but prayer alone will not make you a success.  The idea of seek in this passage is that you deeply desire something and search it out.  We must be willing and determined to seek out the knowledge necessary to become successful.

If Ask is about your heart and connection to God and His will then Seek is about preparing your mind and emotions.

You must seek out…

What you consume (thoughts, books, audio’s, etc.)

The adage “You are what you eat” is true physically, physiologically, and spiritually.  We must be very careful what we allow in our body.  Just as what we eat forms our physical body, what we read, watch, and listen to forms our thoughts and perceptions of life.

Our thought life is one of the most important parts of us.  Constantly watching the news on how bad our economy is, murder, and war is probably not the best breakfast for you.  I would suggest dieting on the Word of God.  CNN will tell you how uncertain things are right now.  You can carry that through your whole day and allow your thoughts to be shaped by their food, or you can wake up and read a verse like…

Jeremiah 29:11 (New International Version)

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Somethings we consume that are detrimental for us don’t actually taste bad.  Watching excessive sports, sitcoms, or movies may be fun and very enjoyable but they are not adding anything of value into your life.  Shut off your TV and get a good book on leadership and watch your emotional love-handles turn into a six-pack.

Who you  associate with (fellowship, peer group)

1 Corinthians 15:33 (New International Version)

³³Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”

One of the first things that fitness gurus will tell you when you want to get in the gym and back in shape after a long hiatus is to get a “gym buddy”.  The reason is so that you have someone to hold you accountable, give you encouragement, and go through the process with.  God has placed community and fellowship in our hearts.  We want to do life with others.

The company we keep is so vitally important to how we prepare our mind and emotions.  Allowing others in our lives to hold us accountable to our actions and emotions is a wise and difficult thing to do.

Be careful who you allow to speak into your life.  Find Godly entrepreneurs who understand the difficulty and challenges you face will provide you with a good balance fellowship and support.

If you’re smart you’ll find someone to hold you accountable in all the important areas of your life (your walk, your marriage, your business, etc.).

How you deal with challenges (character development)

You may be frustrated that as soon as you pray for God to promote you and bless your business that life starts to get harder.  My pastor once said “be careful what you pray for, especially for patience.”  Why is that?  Because God does not waive a magic wand and poof, you have patience.  No, God develops character in His children through life’s circumstances.  The sooner you realize that life’s difficulties are the very things that make you grow you’ll complain less about them and focus more on what you can learn.

James 1:2-4 (New International Version)

²Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. ⁴Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

I have a few guys in my Bible study who are very strong.  These guys are huge, but they weren’t born that way.  They developed their muscle by pushing against resistance.  The more resistance they push against the stronger they get.

God uses the resistance we face in our businesses and our lives to form our spiritual muscles.  The more resistance we push against the stronger we become.  If you’re facing a lot of resistance in your life right now then praise God.  God will use these problems as the very thing to prepare you for what He has in store for your life.

Seek and you will find.  Be intentional and diligent about seeking out the things that will promote growth in your life.  Your business will not out grow you.  So as Jim Rohn says, “Work harder on yourself than you do on your business.”

About the Author: William Robbins is the founder of MLMFellowship, and the owner of iWantMoreWealth.com with his wife Bethany. Learn more about William and Bethany.

In episode 4 we take a look at what Phillipians 2:3-4 tells us about being servant leaders.  In our network marketing business putting the needs and wants of our distributors first is truly the essence of servant leadership.

About the Author: William Robbins is the founder of MLMFellowship, and the owner of iWantMoreWealth.com with his wife Bethany. Learn more about William and Bethany.

Matthew 7:7-8 (New International Version)

Ask, Seek, Knock

⁷“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

This may be one of the most powerful passages for our business in all of Scripture.  With great power and authority also comes great abuse.  This might be one of the most misused Scriptures by teachers who present the Word of God as the entitlement to gain wealth and possessions.

Gut check time!  You may not be called to be an entrepreneur!  Maybe you are, but how do you know for sure?

If doors around you are always closing and people around you are speaking into your life about some area of ministry that God is calling you too and every time you read your Word your mind, thoughts and heart are gravitating toward something else than it may be time to reevaluate your calling from God.

With that said this passage presents the foundational blue print for us to evaluate God’s will for our lives.  I’ll be braking this passage up into a 3 part series.  The first part on “Ask” will address this very issue on our purpose for our business and our lives.  The second part on “Seek” will address our willingness to learn and prepare for this calling.  The third installment will cover “Knock” the physical manifestation of our lives once we know God’s calling for our lives and have dedicated ourselves as students to the area which we have been called.

Side note:  This blog series is just the foundation of a training series entitled A.S.K. which will be available in the next few months.  More information will be available as we draw closer to the launch.

Part 1: Ask

“Ask and it will be given to you”, sounds nice, huh.  When I first read this I shuttered because it sounded like an open invitation to ask for whatever I wanted.  Well it is…kinda.  As my pastor says if you see a promise, back up to see what the condition is.

Matthew 6:33 (New International Version)

³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

The condition for this promise of “Ask and it will be given to you” is that what we are asking for is aligned with what God wants for our lives.  If we do not seek His kingdom and His righteousness than this whole passage does not even apply to us.  We are disqualified.  We should not expect to receive whatever we ask from God.

So in order to qualify ourselves for this powerful promise from God we must start by putting Him first in our lives.  I feel this is exactly what the “Ask” is all about.

Spending time in prayer and in meditation on God’s Word is a vital key to knowing what our purpose is.  We must literally ask God to show us His will for our lives.  We must be intentional about reading God’s Word with purpose and writing down the thoughts that come to our hearts.  This is what I believe the psalmist was trying to get across when he wrote:

Psalm 37:4 (New International Version)

Delight yourself in the LORD
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Once you have taken the time to truly ask God for your purpose this verse applies as well to provide our needs for His calling.  Where God gives vision He will also give provision.

Asking God for His guidance, strength, and wisdom should be a daily occurrence especially for a Christian entreprenuer.  Stay prayed up before meetings with associates and prospects.  Ask specifically for God’s favor during a presentation.  God comes through!  Not always as we expect or understand, but He comes through!

Recently my wife and I were having a home presentation and spent a good amount of time preparing and promoting this event.  We spent weeks inviting and following up to make sure we had a large gathering.  We prayed the night before for God’s will to be done and His favor during our event.

The very next day one by one we received calls and emails everyone who was NOT coming.  I became very frustrated and got even more so when I received a call from friend that was coming.  I had been attempting to sponsor this individuals for 3 years and now he was going to show up when I had no other people coming.  How embarrassing is this?!

He showed up with one of his friends and the three of us kinda hung out and watched the baseball game.  We chatted a little bit about biz and I showed them some things about how Bethany and I grew our business.  While in the middle of a sentence he just blurted out, “I’m ready to go.”

It moved him more to have the personal one on one approach than having a room full of prospects and distributors.  What I thought was going to be an embarrassment was the exact thing that this person needed.

I prayed for God’s favor and got two new distributors while watching the Red Sox…God comes through!

About the Author: William Robbins is the founder of MLMFellowship, and the owner of iWantMoreWealth.com with his wife Bethany. Learn more about William and Bethany.

Welcome everyone to the 3rd installment of the MLM Fellowship Podcast.

This week we will be taking a look at Matthew 7:24-27 to see what Biblical truth’s we can apply to our network marketing business.

This parable Jesus told His disciples is about building our house on the rock so that we can withstand life’s storms.  Likewise our business can resist the storms by trusting in God’s Words!

Thank you being a part of the MLM Fellowship community, God Bless!

About the Author: William Robbins is the founder of MLMFellowship, and the owner of iWantMoreWealth.com with his wife Bethany. Learn more about William and Bethany.

Matthew 25:14-18 (New International Version)

The Parable of the Talents

¹⁴“Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. ¹⁵To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. ¹⁶The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. ¹⁷So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. ¹⁸But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

This is a very popular passage to be used in the context of business or financial stewardship.  I hope to shed some new insights and show that resources aside it is our actions that determine our life’s fortune.

Verse 14 is very clear and we need to completely understand that it is not about us.  The property (time, talents, treasure) that has been entrusted to us is not ours, it’s His.  All of our abilities and talents we were born with or developed through our lives are put there by God to do His will here on earth.  You’re not that talented, just that blessed.  Likewise any resources that you have now or acquired through business ventures are a gift.  This property has been given to us to multiply and bless others.

I believe that all of us want to be used mightily by God, but not all of us are.  This may be because we get in the way.  Instead of staying low and realizing that it’s really not you that is so special, but that God is using you in a special way. We tend to puff up and get very proud of our accomplishments.  We get a little E.G.O. Edging God Out.  Staying low and glorifying God for what He does through us is a prerequisite for being used.

If you’re not sure why you are not being blessed ask God if this could be one of the reasons.

2 Choices

#1 – Went at once

The two servants who had doubled their resources had one thing in common.  In verse 16 it states that the man went at once and put his money to work. Money could be replaced with natural talents or time.  The concept here is that he went to work immediately.  Without delay.  Like now, not later.

Side Note: When the author is aggressive about a certain topic he is likely preaching to himself!

The reason most things don’t get done is because things don’t get started.  Many people wait for the “ducks to get in a row” before we start anything significant.  There is amazing power in doing something now even if it is a small something.

A great small-something-to-do that creates action and sets up continued action is journaling.  Grab a pen and paper.  Write down where your business is today.  Write down where you want it to be 30 days from now.  Then write down the specific actions you’re going to do to achieve your goal.

Here is the secret step to this process.   Do what you wrote down!

#2 – Dug a hole in the ground

It is interesting that in both examples the Scripture tells us what they did once they received the money.  The servant with the 5 talents went at once while the servant with 1 talent just went off. When we are given the option do we go to work at once or just go off to do some work.

The difference in these two terms is in the intentionality.  As we discussed earlier about creating a plan of action and then implementing that plan is very intentional.  However, the phrase went off , dug a hole is very careless.

This servant ended up doing work but it was futile work and ultimately harder.  To be in the business of digging holes and getting no return sounds foolish but how many of us do this daily in our business.

There are two kinds of activities we engage in with our business on a daily basis.  They are IGA’s or non-IGA’s.  IGA is an acronym for income generating activities.  Some non-IGA’s we cannot avoid.  We have to do administrative work, organize, etc., but unless these activities are leading us to do things that create income they are all meaningless.

IGA’s are setting up meetings, doing presentations, and training distributors.  They almost always are directly related to communicating with other people, which is why so many of us don’t do them.  Dealing with people is difficult and stressful at times so instead we file papers, clean off the desk, or tinker with a website.  So that way we feel like we’re working, but in reality we are just digging holes.

3 things we can do right now to grow our business

1. Pray for a humble heart and ask God what He wants from you and your business.  How can you directly bless someone with the business He has entrusted to you?
2. Journal what He reveals to you.  Also journal a specific course of action for the next 30 days that will dramatically impact your business.
3. As the Nike slogan says, “Just Do It!”  Start now on IGA’s and avoid the pitfalls of useless activities.

About the Author: William Robbins is the founder of MLMFellowship, and the owner of iWantMoreWealth.com with his wife Bethany. Learn more about William and Bethany.