Infinite Fellowship Ministries

The Mystery Of The Marketplace (Part 2): Sermon By Deaconess Mary Kamau

Recap From Part 1:

The marketplace is not a place that is devoid of the presence of God.

You can trace the marketplace back to the creation story. The marketplace finds it genesis in God and for us as believers to know what to do in the marketplace, we need to go back to God.

There is a need to not collapse your identity (who you are) with what you do.

It is important to know what it is that you are called to do in the marketplace, why, how, when and with who.

There are 7 professional nations as defined by Niyi Morakinyo:

1. Life givers – 5-Fold Ministers, Healers, Help Ministry
2. Industry, Commerce and Finance
3. Family
4. Government and Military
5. Sports
6. Arts, Media, and Entertainment
7. Science, Technology, and Education

It is also important to identify where it is that you are called to so that you can prepare, and as you prepare, you know what it is that you are preparing for and why.

Part 2 – The How & The Why

Spiritual Construction

Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” 

Ephesians 2:19-22 (NKJV)

Construction largely involves tearing down and building up.

A cornerstone is an important quality or feature that something depends on or is based on.

There is no foundation that you are building on that is outside of Jesus Christ even in the marketplace.

When it comes to the things of God, it is important to admit that there are somethings that we do not know. This is especially important to have the heart posture that there are some things that we do not know, even as we have degrees, certifications, giftings, talents and qualifications.

The reason why it is so important for us as believers to understand why we are in the marketplace, is because the biggest majority of our lives is spent in the marketplace.

We need to consult the Word of God both the Logos and the Rhema for the blueprint that God has for each one of us. We cannot run away from the Word of God, because we cannot build aright without it.

Grace is supposed to help us be better Christians, and not lazy Christians.

Covenants 

Covenants are powerful things. A covenant is not a contract. Covenants are the overarching things that we use in the marketplace before we start building. Is there a covenant between you and God about where you are in the marketplace?

A good place to start is: what has God said about you concerning the marketplace?

If you tarry with God, God will show you how a covenant is relevant in the marketplace.

On what basis can you approach God concerning the marketplace?

A lot of times we pray amiss concerning the marketplace because we do not have a covenant with God, or we do not understand what the covenant that we have with God is about.

What is the agreement that you have with God about the marketplace? Do not be vague.

A covenant equips and protects you.

God’s love for us is unconditional, but His blessing is conditional. For example:

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Matthew 6:33 (NKJV)

We cannot run from the requirements of God for us as pertains the marketplace if we want to experience His blessing.

God desires for every believer to prosper in the marketplace, but it will not happen by assumption. It will only happen by intentionality.

Covenants are not like contracts that tend to be for a set period of time. Covenants tend to be transgenerational.

Do not think of a covenant with God in light of a quick fix e.g. getting a promotion.

Altars

They are portals of divine exchange.

We should not only have altars but altars that are alive. These altars are kept alive by prayer. 

There are things that only you can transact on your altar. These transactions cannot be done by the leaders in the Church.

We are not to rely on others to carry us in God’s presence and in the place of covenant.

You’d rather pray too big than pray too small.

Your altar needs to be in place before you can establish a covenant with God. This is because you transact with God at the place of the altar.

God requires us to be accountable for our altars. He requires us to be accountable/responsible for the transactions that we make at our altars.

God wants to transact with you but He will not do it outside of an altar or outside of a covenant.

How serious are we at the marketplace? We need to be serious. The rest of our lives, and the welfare of our posterity is at stake.

Altars are not limited by time and space. You can make prayers at your altar, in your house, that can impact people in other areas of the world. You can also make prayers that can impact generations.

The only thing that limits altars is purpose i.e. jurisdiction. This helps you to narrow down your prayers and be more impactful.

Have we realised that we are in positions where we can even impact entire industries?

How Do Altars Coexist?

Families can have altars and colleagues/organizations can have altars. Churches, too, have altars.

1. Our Personal Altars

The thing we really need to check on here is our discipline.

Altars are not inanimate objects. The are living, active and breathing because they carry life transactions. Godly altars have the capacity to carry the word of God. 

It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. 

John 6:63 (NKJV)

A personal altar is no good if it is dead.

Hearing God is a discipline that you practice/work on over time. We need to know how to hear God outside of corporate/church altar. We each need to be able to recognise the voice of God and how God speaks to us individually.

We cannot solely rely on the corporate/church altar.

The corporate/church altar builds on what we already have. 

If your faith is run by your emotions, you are in trouble.

What is the state of our personal altars?

2. Family Altars

These are largely in the context of marriage and are constituted by married couples.

The thing to check on here is the expectations that husband and wife have towards each other. Learn to communicate your expectations so that assumptions are dealt with.

Family altars matter because family is the technology that God uses to transmit wealth.

Your family altar is fed by your personal altar.

There is a weight of transacting for some things that one does not have as a individual, that is then achieved in marriage.

For us to be in alignment with God in the marketplace, our family altars need to be in place.

Prayer is what changes things in the spirit.

3. Friendship Altars 

For example: Jonathan and David.

This is for people who are destiny partners.

The key thing here is discernment.

You need to discern the role that each person in the covenant has to play.

If you are not sure whether you should be in covenant, DON’T! You are better off waiting on the Lord.

This is not a covenant to go into blindly or just in the name of feelings. There must be crystal clear understanding.

Covenants are largely about giving your life for the sake of another.

In the area of business, it is important to discern clearly who it is that God has called you to go into business with.

Even if you do not go into covenant with each other, it is important to discern each other properly as friends, and as members of the same congregation, because our breakthroughs are tied to each other.

Understand what it is that you have been called to give and not just to receive.

Friendship covenants are not just between peers, they can also be with people in authority over us.

For covenants with people in authority, there must be honour. You cannot fake your way through, for there is no ambiguity in the spirit. You either have honour for that individual or you do not.

Honour is not based on the perfection or popularity of the authority figure in question, but on their identity.

4. The Church Altar

Every serious and genuine church community has an altar.

A lot of the transactions that are made as INFEMI are through this altar. The advancements that we have made and prophetic words that we have received, have come through this altar.

What sacrifice have you brought to this altar? And this is not just about money.

One of the sacrifices is service. Have you served this community as well as it has served you?

How you relate with each of the altars that you have or that are in your life, determines the strength of the connection between the altars. How strong is your link? The strength of your link to each of the altars in your life is determined by the health of your personal altar.

The bond a married couple has determines how well they are able to benefit from each others’ individual graces, and how well they are able to link up with the Lord.

Things do not happen magically in the spirit. There is a lot of order.

Spiritual things go through altars. 

Altars grow in strength and capacity. 

Our heart position determines how we access things on our altar and the other altars. 

When we have the wrong heart position, though our prayers have been answered we cannot receive from our altar the answers to these prayers.

What is the strength of each of your altars?

The strength of each altar is determined by the strength or state of health of the relationship/bond that you have with the persons/people who have a stake in the altar i.e. you and the Lord, you and your spouse (if your are married), you and your destiny partner(s) (if you have them), you and the visionary of the vision of INFEMI, you and the leadership of INFEMI, you and the members of INFEMI.

Foundations In The Marketplace

The reason for tearing down and building up is so that we can have the right foundations in place, and to build aright on those foundations.

1. Foundations As An Individual

The strength of your personal foundation determines the strength of your foundation in the marketplace.

Your Position As A Son 

Just because you began strong, it does not mean that you will finish strong.

We can be prodigal sons at any point in our faith. There are people who start well and then they have a crisis of faith. They lose so much in the long run. If we are not careful we can leave the Father’s house. Are there elements of the prodigal son in you that could rear their head in you later in life? There can be seeds of the prodigal son in us, and though dormant, they can manifest in many years to come. We need God to reveal this to us. 

Are there any traits of Jonah in you? Where when the person whom you thought foulest has a change of heart, repents and gets saved and you want no part of it?

Rahab – God can use anyone who has a willing heart. Are there ‘Rahabs’ in our workplace that we have dismissed?

Abraham – Are we in the business of raising people up in our workplaces? Are you willing to make covenants that include them? Are we moved with compassion?

Joseph – Are you willing to serve they that are in power? Are you willing that the credit of what you do, goes to they that are in power?

Cyrus – Are there people in power in our industries who we have dismissed because they are not saved like us? This does not negate that God wants to use them. Are we willing to pray them into the purpose of God?

Your Condition As A Son 

Lazy spiritual – We are not technical in the things of our field. What are the things that you are doing to improve yourself? Prayer is the beginning, not the end. Are we hanging solely on the word of God to take us to the purpose of God? We don’t get a free pass to knowledge in our area of work/craft because we are believers. If we are shoddy with our work how can non-believers trust us with their destiny? If we cannot keep our word or we do not deliver work on time, for example?

Spiritual lazy – We have a semblance of knowing our craft/technical lives but we do not grow spiritually, and/or we are improving ourselves technically, but not spiritually. We need to marry both.

2. Foundation Of Your Profession

Do you know what foundation your profession is based on? What is the foundation of your profession? What went wrong? How does God want to reconcile it back to Himself?

3. Foundation Of Your Professional Gate/Nation

What are the foundations of your industry? What are the covenants that have been established there? By the time there are cartels, strategic partnerships, for example, then there are foundations being set.

If you as a son are not interested in the foundations of your industry, you will be at the mercy of the wrong foundations that are in place and wrong covenants that are in play.

There is something that God wants you to make right at the gate and nation that He has called you to.

The marketplace is very much in God’s heart and mind. We need to stop being, or not be desk-warmers in our places of work and/or business.

If we are going to be impactful in the marketplace, there is a lot of work we need to do inside-out.

Let us be diligent in doing the things that we need to do. Prophetic word is of no use if we put it on a shelf.

Addendum By Bishop Gobanga:

An altar is not a terrestrial structure that God has created so that there can be the moderation of priests generation in and generation out.

Your heart is the altar. Your heart is a portal.

An authentic altar in the context of a church service, is the coming together of hearts of the members of the congregation, which are already altars.

There are principles that operate in every gate. We will not prosper if we don’t know what those principles are.