Transforming Your Workplace
This, then, is how you should pray: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…” (Matthew 6:9-10).
What would your workplace look like if this prayer were answered today where you work?
“Transformation” is a powerful word. Just hearing it, you almost automatically think of radical conversions and incredible change. But is it possible to transform your workplace into something Christ-like? Jesus thinks so.
One example involves a story told in Ed Silvoso’s book, Anointed for Business, about a Filipino business man who owned a hotel chain. God saved this man and began an amazing transformation in his life and his large scale hotel.
The man owned a 1600-room hotel that covered three buildings. Because of its rates and location, the hotel had become a haven for prostitution, with the rooms being used as much as five times a day. There were over 2000 employees, and the primary clientele were more than 3000 prostitutes. One of Silvoso’s associates shared with the owner a formula for winning the lost, so he hired 40 pastors and told them to follow these instructions:
a. Speak peace to the wolves. Bless those who curse you.
b. Eat and drink with the sinners. Become their friends.
c.Pray for them and their needs.
The pastors were not to share the gospel until they’d met these three requirements for two years. What an investment. But ultimately, it paid off. The pastors followed these three rules and saw every single one of the 2,000 employees become saved. The hotel was upgraded to an executive level, raising the rates and forcing the prostitutes out because they could no longer afford it. They even added a prayer chapel with 24/7 prayer available to anyone by dialing ‘7’ on the telephone. Two years later, 10,000 guests had received the Lord on the property.*
That’s transformation! And that’s the kind of transformation we can see in our workplaces. We just have to find the vision and the willingness to ask God, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me do?”
*Adapted from story in Anointed for Business, Ed Silvoso, Regal Books, Ventura, CA 2006.
