Since several people have been asking me how I quit my job, I thought it necessary to document how I quit my job in faith, trusting in the promises of God.
I hope that the attitude I convey in this message is not an attitude of anything prideful or of the flesh, but rather this was how God dealt with this particular man (who, save the grace of God, is not even worthy to be called a servant of Christ).
One of the most important verses which should govern everything I do is:
What does it mean to seek first the kingdom of God? To me, it means that is what I should be spending most of my time, energy, and resources towards advancing the kingdom of God. That is not to say that I need to quit my job. But I do need to make sure the kingdom of God is more important to me than my job, my family, and everything under the sun.
I struggled for a long time, with the fact that God had seemed to give me the ability to do my research well. If I quit my job, then how could I use the gifts that He gave me for His glory? To me, this question was really answered when Jesus said:
Without Jesus we can do nothing. What does this mean? Jesus also said:
We dare not think we can do anything for God, save we empty ourselves and become channels of His grace. We are like sprinklers, conduits of grace. The sprinkler is powered by the water that flows through it. How well the sprinkler spins and feeds the grass is dependent on nothing obstructing the water from doing its work. Our natural ability, our flesh, cannot produce spiritual fruit. We can actually restrict ourselves from God using us as Paul said:
If we desire to become something, such as advancement or promotion, according to the world's standards, it may limit God's ability to use us. Again, the there is nothing wrong with advancement or promotion within a job. It is hen we set our affections on those things that is a problem. Paul says again:
May we, too, put no confidence in our ability to do anything in the flesh. May we say, as Paul said, "what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ."
It seemed to me, in my desire to work for God more and more, that my steady monthly income has made it difficult for me to trust in Him. In America, other than salvation, is there anything we need trust God for? We typically have good jobs, making lots of money. We tend to have insurance in case we become sick or we have an automobile accident, or a tornado crashes our house. But other than salvation, why do we need to trust God? All these questions have been going through my mind, how can I be more dependent on my God? How can I see His faithfulness more?
When Jesus sent out His disciples, He commanded them:
So He essentially, said "take all the cash and credit cards out of your wallet". Jesus wanted His disciples to trust Him. Jesus showed that nothing is required to accomplish His work except (1) a willing heart to obey and (2) trusting in His provision. If we trust God to meet our physical needs, then we can be faithful to trust God to meet our spiritual needs. Jesus said:
Here, Jesus relates our physical riches to spiritual riches. How much spiritual Truth is manifested to us seems to be somewhat dependent on how well we manage our money. If we can trust in God to provide our very food and bread, than maybe we can depend on Him to provide for the spiritual Truths.
I never quite understood what this verse meant:
We cannot serve both God and mammon (money). I am not saying that having any type of job is serving mammon. However, I was comfortable having a good job making very good money. And I only needed a small portion of that money to live. So I thought "maybe I am called to make alot of money and give that to ministries". Yes, this seems like a very good thing, and we are to give abundantly (2 Corinthians 9:6-9). However, we must realize that money is nothing to God. He even says "The silver is mine and the gold is mine." (Haggai 2:8). It says in Psalms that God owns "the cattle on a thousand hills" (Psalms 50:10). And we saw Jesus have provide money to Peter through a fish (Matthew 17:27).
But Jesus desires even more. What He requires of Me for His service is an empty vessel, that is we must place everything that we hold precious on His alter. We offer Him our entire lives. In Lamentations, Jeremiah writes:
Yes, I believe this is the spiritual act of worship we are called to in Romans 12:1:
Does seeking first the kingdom of God mean I cannot work? Paul did not think so. Paul labored night and day that he might not be a burden to anyone (1 Thessalonians 2:9) and Paul desired to preach the gospel of Christ without charge (1Corinthians 9:18). Paul wrote to the Thessalonians "that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you...". The Greek actually says "prasso" your own business, or do your own business. Whether Paul was saying mind your own business or do your own business I know not. However, the portion of this continually came to my mind.
At the same time Jesus said:
We see that to follow Jesus, the disciples needed to leave both the boat (their occupation) and their father. God could have chosen to had recorded "they immediately followed Him". However, He rather chose to specifically have recorded they "left their nets", "left the boat", "left ... their father". This should be no surprise when read the requirements for being a disciple of Jesus Christ:
So I had to conclude from all these verses that working was not a sin, but when my work becomes my life. When my work hinders me when Jesus says "I need you to do this (or that)", then it must be put away. When the only reason I work is to make money so that I can have nice things and a nice house and a nice car, am I not serving mammon?
The way I was able to reconcile kingdom work and secular work, was to have only one boss, the Lord Jesus Christ. By leaving my job, now I only have one Lord to tell me what I am to do. When I awake in the morning, now I pray "Lord you show me what to do today." If it is secular work, then I will work on secular work, but if the Lord's work, then I will do that. The point is, by leaving my job I am able to still labor and make money, but my boss is only Jesus Christ.
When I put in my resignation, my boss said much better than I could have said: "What I hear you say, is that rather than your work driving where you go and what you do, you would rather have your ministry driving you. Is that correct?" Yes, much better than I could have said. Paul went from city to city preaching the Gospel. He didn't go from city to city on business trips, then preaching the Gospel out of convenience. His duty to minister the Word came first.
I was not sure how God would provide for me when I quit my job. I only saw that that is what God required of me at that time. So when I quit my job, I had to trust that God would provide for me in some way. It is interesting to note that when Israel crossed the Jordan to enter the promised land, the waters did not stop flowing until "the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water" (Joshua 3:15-16). So likewise, we cannot expect to see God's faithfulness until we take a step of faith. In Mark, Jesus says:
Therefore, we will not see God's faithfulness and deliverance, until we first make the action believing that He will be faithful to do what He has said He would do.
So after putting in my notice to quit my job, I waited and prayed to see the Lord's deliverance. Then the last week, in one week, without seeking a contract, I received two emails: one from the Japan Defense Agency wanting me to work between them and the U.S. Navy and another from Northrop Grumman Newport News shipbuilders. Furthermore, Mississippi State decided to give me a one-year contract to continue to work with them. Although it is a small contract (3 hours/week), it is enough to pay the bills. Moreover, I am now free to spend most of my time to do the Lord's work, and to seek Him first. So God always "If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful; He cannot deny Himself" (2 Timothy 2:13). It is His very nature.
So I want to end again with an admonition:
Brothers and sisters, what are we seeking? Are we seeking fame? Are we seeking money? Are we seeking to be comfortable? Let us forsake all those things, counting them as foolishness that we may know Jesus Christ and the power of His resurrection. Let us deny ourselves and take up our cross daily and diligently follow Him, being diligent to obey His every word.
I pray that this letter will only stir you unto love and to good works. I do not consider that I am anything, unworthy to be even called a servant of the living Christ. But to see His faithfulness should encourage us more and more to leave those things that we trust in and to seek Him first.