For many months now, I have been spending some time looking at what it means to be a Marketplace leader and more importantly, what it means for us as Christian Women to play out our role as Marketplace Influencers.
- Dictionary.com defines the marketplace as:
- An open area or square in a town where a public market or sale is set up.
- The world of business and commerce.
A situation or place in which values, opinions, and ideas are put forward for debate or recognition: a marketplace for new ideas; the literary marketplace.
But before you look at these definitions and think they exclude you, I want you to stay with me on this one because I want to show you that you do indeed have a role in the marketplace and more importantly, it is a God ordained appointment for you to be an influence in it.
Ed Silvoso in his book “Anointed For Business” refers to the marketplace as a “combination of business, education and government.” He goes on to say that these three are “to a metropolis what the heart is to the human body. Through these three arteries flows the life of a city. A city cannot exist without a marketplace in the same fashion that a body cannot live without a heart.”
So, let me ask you … have you been involved in any marketplace activities today? Been to your local store, purchased something online, fed your children, read a good book and hopefully, even taken a shower! I would have included in this list taking your children to School or gone to School or college yourself, but I know it’s Saturday today so for most people, there is no school.
But, whilst you may not have been a provider of any of the services I mentioned above, you are somehow involved and connected through your purchase, indulgence and hopefully enjoyment which means, you have the power to influence what goes on in the marketplace.
If enough people decide to boycott a business, soon, that business will fail. If enough people cast a vote of no confidence in their government or education system, heads are gonna role and the people in those institutions have to take notice and “shape up or ship out.”
And I know there are a few of you questioning why things have been allowed to get so bad economically and, whilst I don’t want to cover it in detail this article, I will say candidly, “because we let it!”
God gave us a dominion mandate … not in Revelation, but as early as Genesis (Genesis 1:28) and whilst we were not given a mandate to have power over other human beings we were given specific instruction to “be fruitful, and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it.”
One of the many definitions of subdue is “to conquer by force or the exertion of superior power, and bring into permanent subjection.”
“Into permanent subjection” to what or who though? The permanent subjection to God’s will for our lives which, I hope you know is good!
Submission, as I always tell people is actually spelt “LOVE,” and was never intended to come with an attachment of fear … only a reverent fear of God.
Man (and by this, I don’t mean the gender man, but mankind) has however abused this authority and so wherever people see the words submission or subjection, they run for the hills. But this isn’t the message God wants us to take to the marketplace … we have to take them the message of the Kingdom and better still, show them the Kingdom.
The message of the Kingdom is “THE” message that Jesus Christ himself preached and hence the reason he had such an influence in the marketplace and synagogues and, why he could so easily draw people to listen to him.
Yes, I know he was the Son of God and so it was to be expected that people would be drawn to him but take note of those who rejected and was repelled by him … those who either felt he threatened their positions or those who felt they didn’t need him or anything he had to offer. Nothing and I mean nothing has changed today! There will be those who think you’re after their position and there will be those who’ll take the view that “I’m alright Jack,” but the truth is, I cannot personally think of another time in my living history where people have been so hungry to hear the truth.
I know the statistics show an increase in crime, the picture the media paints of the economy is bleak and there is even a falling away from the Church. But no one will convince me that the majority of people are repelled by hearing the Good News of the Gospel. The trouble isn’t the Gospel of the Kingdom, but, the gospel we’ve been preaching.
So, why and what is that Good News of the Gospel?
This post is getting a little long so I’ll continue it next time. 
Blessings,
About Trish Jones