I had a fleeting impression run through my mind one Sunday morning recently as I stood to worship the Lord with other Christians. I am not given to visions but from time to time I have visualised things in my mind, or rather, had such visual impressions spring up in my mind, finding that they prompt me to a spiritual observation.
On this occasion I saw the image of someone in a high powered meeting room. It seemed that the board room or negotiating room was in the top floors of a towering city building, probably a corporate headquarters or the like.
I also understood that a high level negotiation was going on, involving high powered entities, such as multi-national players in a corporate deal.
Doing A Deal
At the same time I sensed that the person doing the negotiating was bidding or negotiating for some deal, against others who have huge financial resources, professional attorneys, negotiating teams, etc. The subject of my visual impression had none of those supporting staff or corporate resources. Yet the loan negotiator beat those others who had all their resources to assist them. The deal was won by God’s man (whoever he was) with none of the heavy duty capabilities that would normally be drawn upon in such a situation.
Along with the impression of winning the deal was the sense that the individual who won the deal also dictated terms to the attorneys and commanded authority in the negotiations. It was as if they were pre-eminent in the dealings, despite the simplicity of their solo presence.
Interpreting the Vision
My heart was immediately excited by what I saw. The image suggested that with God on our side, doing what He bids us to do, we can not only compete in arenas beyond our capability, but we can be the head and not the tail in those situations.
The impression carried echoes of Moses confronting Pharaoh in Egypt or Abraham meeting with King Abimelech as an equal. While in natural terms we may have none of the clout that multi-national corporations have built up with experts, professional teams, consultants, technology and so on, we can still find ourselves being the one who calls the shots, wins the day, seals the deal, secures the outcome or whatever.
So Unfair
That’s why I called this post Unfair Advantage. The people of God have an advantage over others, and that advantage is the favour of Almighty God, who we worship.
While others spend and exhaust themselves with their worldly wise processes and power plays, God holds all such things in derision. The purposes of God can and will be outplayed, despite the natural landscape of deals, corporate power plays and so on.
Consider again the declaration that unless God is in control the very best efforts are wasted.
“Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman wakes in vain.” Psalm 127:1 (A Song of degrees for Solomon)
Faith Encouraged
It’s a good thought to know that God is on our side. If God is working for us, then we have a really unfair advantage over all those others who have their schemes and plans. This is really encouraging to our faith. So consider another two verses that speak of your unfair advantage.
“What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” Romans 8:31
“No weapon formed against you will prosper; and every tongue that rises against you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, says the LORD.” Isaiah 54:17