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by Richard Gazowsky

Since ancient times, the prophets have declared that there is a day when the metaphoric river of God will flow throughout the Earth. I personally believe this is that day, that throughout the Earth there are businessmen and women who are jumping into the river of God’s spirit and are conducting business totally based upon God’s “river” principles. Let’s look at what some of these principles are:

A river is a force that you don’t control. It is bigger than you and the only way that it can benefit you is by you finding the main stream and staying in the middle of it. This is an incredible revelation because most leaders and business people are obsessed with trying to control the business environment that they work in. Probably the clearest example of this has been seen in the last ten years of Microsoft. They have faithfully spied on their competition, calculated every single market, and purchased any company that could benefit their concepts of what the future of business could be. It is amazing how wrong they were. If you would read the book that Bill Gates wrote ten years ago, it is almost humorous how “off” the guesses of what the future would be were, though at the time, I thought that they were incredibly intelligent and accurate. But of course, I was wrong! The future of something as benign as technology is so completely unpredictable that those who think they can predict it, and worse yet, even control the outcome of it, are only fooling themselves. For example, who would have ever thought that a company that was going bankrupt (Apple computers) would in one year grab 37% of the cell phone market? Or that the Microsoft Windows platform would be replaced by a software (Linux) that was being given away for free? It’s amazing how dramatically things will take a turn in a world that is completely unpredictable, except for the guidance from the Spirit and direction of God.

God not only predicts it but He controls it and He is inviting every one of His children to enter into His river. In Psalm 46, David calls it the “river of life” and in Ezekiel, in the 47th chapter, it’s called the “river with water enough to swim in” (in other words, the river that can consume you). Over the past few years, I have not only become increasingly aware of the river of God, but I have been able to take advantage of flowing into its center stream. I wish I could say it was a consistent, daily access but, to be honest, it was random at best. I was talking about this phenomenon with my son, Sunny, last Saturday when he shared with me a most profound example that opened my eyes to a potential future we could have. Sunny said, “Dad, if you look at the 1700’s when scientists looked at lightning as a random act of God, then people like Benjamin Franklin went to study lightning to the point of discovering electricity. After years and years of research, electricity has become a workforce within society and no longer even thought of as a random, uncontrolled, supernatural event. I realize that I have to look at the river of God differently for me to tap into the fullness of its power.”

The metaphor of the river of God appears to refer to God’s will in business and daily activity. I know when I pray in other tongues that my Spirit prays and is aligning itself with God’s Spirit. But what is the entry point for daily activity? How do I access this on a daily basis? I realize that some of the teachings of Jesus that appeared to be so simple that we would just glaze over them were actually deeply impregnated with profound truth. In Matthew 6, when Jesus taught to give no thought to what you should eat or drink or even what you should wear, for your Father in Heaven knows that you have need of it, wow! Does this mean asking Jesus what you should wear or eat today is the beginning of finding the doorway to the river? On Saturday night, I went to sleep with this thought on my mind.

At 3 AM, God woke me up and told me to pray. So I was sitting in the front room of the house and praying and at 3:20 AM, there were three distinct knocks on our front door. It was so loud that I felt everyone in the house must have heard it. I went to the door to see who it was. When I first glanced through the glass on the door, I saw the shadow of someone. But when I pressed through a slight veil of fear and looked fully through the glass, there was no one at our front door. I opened the door and there was still no one there. I went back to pray in the living room and soon my mother walked in. I told her what had happened and she responded, “Richard, didn’t Jesus say to the Laodicean Church, ‘Behold! I stand at the door and knock.’?” Her words stuck with me as I went back to bed. Right before I lay down, I remembered the rest of that verse, “…and if you open, I will come in and sup with you.” Wow, wow, wow, said I! This is crazy! Just on the other side of the door is Jesus, wanting to eat with you! Now suddenly all of these Scriptures began to come together in a biblical metaphor that was so refreshing and so simple.

Jesus said, “I am the door.” He also said that He does not want us to worry about what we should wear or what we should eat. In Matthew 5, He said, “I can do nothing unless I see my Father do it.” So the explanation of these truths is simply this: Every morning, let Jesus choose your clothes and where you are going to eat. At that point, you are starting to flow in His river. If you keep obeying God all day long, you will have some of the most fascinating business experiences you ever could imagine. I know because I have begun to experience this. Wow! Is it incredible! Just daily following God in everything- asking the Lord about even the simplest things. Instead of this becoming a bother, it has become an adventure. A question that I get a lot is, “What about pre-planning?” But when you are in God’s river, pre-planning is actually out of your line of business. God does all the pre-planning and you do all of the flowing. “But wait a minute!”, another person asks. “What if you get busy and skip things that are really important?” Didn’t Jesus say that He, the comforter, would bring all things into remembrance? It’s amazing, since I’ve been doing this, God has remembered stuff that I have forgotten about long ago. I am so enjoying walking with God closer every day. And every day, I admire His clever and insightful way of doing things. I hope you also can join into this adventure that’s fascinating and I can guarantee you, it leads to great success.

Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”