Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed. – Proverbs 16.3 (AMPC)
As marketplace leaders, we are gifted to do many things within our sphere of influence. However, sometimes we allow our gifting to take over and not rely on the small, still voice of the Holy Spirit to show us the will of our Father in our earthly assignment.
Dr. William Hinn said that most Christians live from their past experiences and that is how we make decisions. His message was that we have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2.16 says “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ.” We are not trying to get His mind, we HAVE it.
After retiring this year with over 27 years as a manager with The Coca-Cola Company, the very day after I retired, I started my new business, The Focus Life Institute. The Lord told me that I would not be able to sell or market my Institute the way I did with the Coca-Cola Company!
I could not rely on my past 37 years in Fortune 500 companies to fulfill this new assignment the Lord has for me. I have had to be patient and persevere until He opened a door of opportunity that was agreeable to His will not mine.
Many people have spoken into my life about my new assignment. They have said that is it God’s dream and it will bring hope to the hopeless and produce life. If I do not align my company’s vision and strategic plan with God’s will then I cannot expect my plans to be established and succeed.
The Focus Life Institute was created for the purpose of empowering, equipping and preparing individuals to become focused on their personal assignment and purpose in life to impact, transform and positively influence society!
In the past 5 months, I have shared my passion and vision to equip the next generation with high schools, Vo-tech schools, colleges, and universities with minimal results. They either have no funding or already have programs in place. I could get discouraged and begin to doubt what God told me to do, or I can go back to my focused environment in prayer, roll my company over again to Him and ask Him to cause my thoughts to become agreeable to His will! I chose the second option!
Within weeks, God provided a relationship with ISOM (International School of Ministries www.isom.org). My wife, Cindy, and I were invited to speak at their national convention in California in early October and I was honored to be the first speaker at the conference sharing the vision of the Focus Life Institute.
We will be launching through the ISOM network a new Career and Workplace Success Module by the end of the year. ISOM has over 225,000 students and over 17,000 training sites in 145 countries world-wide. In Dr. Mark Kauffman’s book, The Presence Driven Leader, he says, “Success is measured by the degree of anointing you pour out to the next generation. That’s real success.”
Just recently, I had a meeting with my Focus Life Institute team. While spending time in God’s Presence, I was prompted and hear, “I gave you an assignment to be the Focus Coach, so be The Focus Coach to the world!” Our purpose is to empower others, especially this next generation, with all that we have with the goal to empty ourselves into them before we leave this world.
As a business owner, young professional or teen entrepreneur, we can learn from Proverbs 16.3 that tells us we need to understand God’s will in the assignment we are currently involved with or our dream that God has spoken to us to fulfill. In other words, stay in the lane the Lord has given you, stay focused on your assignment, pour out to others and your plans will soon be established and succeed for the glory of God!
Dr. Ed Turose, President of CCCWP
