Published by Positive Word Ministries Inc.,

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Copyright © 2019 Peter Wade. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by international copyright laws.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV). Copyright © 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. [Words in square brackets] are explanatory words by the author or preferred substitutions. Other versions quoted are acknowledged at the back of the book in Acknowledgements, which forms part of this notice.

Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of

Positive Word Ministries Incorporated

Other books by Peter Wade:

Impact: Pentecost and the Early Church

Enjoy Your Bible

I’m Excited About Ephesians

I’m Excited About Colossians

Completely Satisfied in Christ

In Christ, Christ In

Dead & Alive

Exploring The Mission Statement of Jesus

In the Flow of God’s Supply

Exploring God’s Amazing Word

Four Keys to Prosperity

God’s Principles and Your Potential

In Christ: A New Creation

Seeds & Secrets

En Español:

Me Entusiasma Colosenses

Principios de Dios y tu Potencial

Semillas y Secretos

La Dinámica del Vivir Positivo

En Cristo una Nueva Creación

For a current list of books,

visit http://www.PeterWade.com,

and many Kindle books at

www.amazon.com/author/peterwade/

1

How to Have God as Your Partner

Some time ago I read an article that told the story of how an accountant started a business as a garbage collector, and after two years had a gross income of $2 million, and within ten years his business was in all the large cities of America.

How did he manage to become so successful? Well, apparently in his area the garbage collection was handled by a community committee. He went to a committee meeting one night and was told that the company who had the contract for the garbage collection would be quitting on Friday night and there was nobody to replace them. Being an accountant, and a young man who felt that almost anything could be done, the next morning he called the chairman and said, “I’ll take care of the garbage collection.”

So, he got knee deep in garbage from around 3 o’clock to 8 o’clock every morning, and then went to his accounting practice for the rest of the day. Of course, he put in many long hours and long months, but eventually he made it profitable. Then he took on his financial adviser as a partner, and they set up companies in every major U.S. city.

There are many people in business who get to the stage where they need to take on a partner. Either they need somebody’s expertise or information in a particular area to help their company fulfill its goals, or they need some extra capital. Of course, when a business takes on a partner, the partner wants some share of the profits. It might be an equal partnership where profits are split evenly, it might be a capital venture situation where the partner puts in the money but has little day-to-day involvement in how the business is run, or it may be a controlling partner who tells the management how to run the business.

Now let’s apply this to your life, the company known as You and God Incorporated, and to your business. We all need partners to help us through life. However, when you have a partner, both parties have responsibilities, and the first order of business should be to sign a legal agreement. Nothing will ruin a partnership quicker than just shaking hands on it. You need an agreement stating the responsibilities of each partner. Having done that, you need to talk to your partner on a regular basis, especially over the decision-making process. As the Bible says, “Where there is no counsel, the people fall, but in the multitude of counselors there is safety” (Proverbs 11:14 NKJV).

I believe that God wants to be a partner in your life. I’m not just talking about becoming a member of God’s forever family, that is, a Christian. I’m talking about inviting God into every area of your life and saying, “Okay, God, it’s you and me. We’ll work on this together and make a success of it.” As Dallas Holm wrote in his song You and me, Jesus, “But after all these years, O Lord, | It’s still You and me.”

I want to share with you three Bible examples of people who took God as their partner, and as a result they were successful in life.

Jacob’s partnership with God

Let’s look at a small part of the life of Jacob, that wonderful man whose name became part of the description of God—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He had a high standing in the nation of Israel. One night, Jacob “…dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. 13And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, ‘I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. 14Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.’

“16Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.’ 17And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.’ 18So early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. 19He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first. 20Then Jacob made a vow, saying, ‘If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, 21so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, 22and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you’” (Genesis 28:12–22).

This was the partnership agreement: God agreed to be with Jacob, to feed and clothe him, and provide him with a large family. Jacob agreed to the deal, and then to seal it he agreed to recompense God for the expertise and capital that he was putting in by giving to God 10% of the receipts, the turnover, and of the company. Not 10% of the profits, but 10% of the receipts. That’s quite an agreement, isn’t it?

God wants a similar agreement with you and me. God wants us to take Him as a partner, and in the partnership agreement God says He will take care of the food, the clothing, the shelter, the peace, the happiness, and the joy that we need. He will take care of the decision-making in the partnership, the guidance that we need, the path to take in various situations, and for all that He wants recompense. Not the 10% off the top as in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament era He asks us to name the percentage. “Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you” (Luke 6:38). God, as your partner, requires a return on His investment and the commitment you and I must make is to follow His guidance and see that He receives His portion. As Oral Roberts well said, “You cannot outgive God.” You name the percentage and see how much God blesses you.

So, Jacob had a beautiful partnership agreement with God. Note that in verse 20 it says, “Jacob made a vow.” That was his agreement. That was the legal document upon which he was going to operate the rest of his life. You only have to read on through Genesis to find out how well he did. He had twelve sons, and in order to feed and keep twelve sons you need a very good income. Today they would cost you a fortune before you got them married off!

Israel’s partnership with God

Now I want to show you that God went way beyond simply dealing with an individual like Jacob. He made a partnership agreement with the whole nation of Israel, and in Deuteronomy chapter 26 this agreement is summarized. “16This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and rules. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. 17You have declared today that the Lord is your God, and that you will walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and his commandments and his rules, and will obey his voice. 18And the Lord has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments, 19and that he will set you in praise and in fame and in honor high above all nations that he has made, and that you shall be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised” (Deuteronomy 26:16-19).

The nation of Israel agreed to follow God, and God agreed to make them the best nation upon the earth. What was God’s recompense for all this? They too were to give 10% off the top to various causes close to the heart of God. “When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year, which is the year of tithing, giving it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your towns and be filled” (Deuteronomy 26:12).

When you read the Old Testament you will see that whenever the people of Israel kept their part of the agreement, they prospered. In fact, they prospered even more than the nation of Egypt, which was probably the richest country on earth prior to this time. Israel was one of the greatest trading nations of the world. While it was partly because of their geographical location, the real reason was because of God’s blessing. Whenever they followed the way that God laid down, they were blessed. When they didn’t follow it, they got into trouble.

In fact, you might remember that Israel later turned their backs on God and were carried off into Babylon, spending decades in slavery there. Yes, the agreement works, but it’s a partnership and each partner must pull his own weight in the partnership. As long as Israel pulled its weight, then God’s blessing was there.

Peter and his partners

Now let’s look at a New Testament example of a partnership, found in Luke chapter 5. Jesus had a need for a boat from which he could preach and teach the Word of God to the multitudes of people. There was an enormous crowd and he wanted to get situated so that everybody could hear him. There happened to be two ships standing by the lake, and Jesus went to Simon Peter and asked him if he could use his fishing boat. When Jesus was invited on board, he sat down and taught the people. So, the need of Jesus was met because Simon allowed him the use of his boat. Now Jesus is ready to do his part in the partnership.

“And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.’ 5And Simon answered, ‘Master, we toiled all night and took nothing!’” (Luke 5:4-5a). Peter and his two companions are called partners in verses 7 and 10. James, John and Peter had a three-way partnership in a fishing business. They were expert fisherman. This was their livelihood; they had done this day in and day out for years. They knew the Sea of Galilee, they knew all of its many moods, they knew how to tell when to go fishing and when not to go, and where to go and so on. But on this particular night all their expertise had failed.

“’...But at your word I will let down the nets.’ 6And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink” (Luke 5:5b-7). That was quite a fishing trip when you think about it. Simon Peter already had partners, but what he needed was some extra expertise. Peter had obviously heard that Jesus was teaching people that God was a good God, that God wanted to meet their needs, and that every individual had a right to approach God and receive His blessing. Peter must have recognized Jesus as a teacher, for he used the word “Master.”

“But at your word I will let down the nets,” and when he did, he got the result that God had planned for him. When you take an action based on the Word of God, you get good results: a net-breaking, ship-sinking, abundant result! I suggest to you that in your life you have or will have opportunities where you need extra expertise; you need extra information that is not available from any other source, and God has it for you. There are times in life when you need extra capital, extra power to enable you to accomplish what you want to do. Often you find that it is not available from human sources, and then you can thank God you and He are partners, that you are on His team, a winning team.

Watch your partnerships

One of the great dangers of partnerships on a human level is that you can get involved with the wrong person. There is nothing that can drag you down more quickly than setting up a partnership with the wrong person. “14Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? 16What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, ‘I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people’” (II Corinthians 6:14-16).

With the rich, divine, prospering ideas that come out of a partnership with God, who would want to have a partnership with the wrong people? However, the warning is clear, and God’s Word is saying to Christians to be careful with whom you get involved.

Our best partnership

“For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end” (Hebrews 3:14). The words “to share” come from the same Greek word-family used in Luke where we read about Peter’s partners. One translation does use the word “partner” here, “For partners of the Christ have we become” (Rotherham).

That’s a beautiful concept: Christ and I are in business together. I have Christ within, so I’m tapped into all his wisdom, all his guidance, all his power, all his peace, all his ability to relate to people, all his ability to cut through the chaff and get to the basic issues that need to be handled. I have a partner who has all the expertise and capital I will ever need. It’s a thrilling partnership to be “partners of the Christ.” This goes way beyond just being in the family of God. It is making a total commitment, a quality commitment to make the partnership work.

God and I are partners and He will take care of certain aspects of our business. As a part of His recompense for doing so, I’m going to share a percentage of the receipts of the business with him. Together we will make a success out of my life. Do you believe that? I certainly do, and I know you can too when you have God as your partner. He’s an expert at the impossible and the unbelievable. Make a quality commitment today to work your partnership with God and then enjoy the benefits that will flow from it.

Last Words

Our time together has come to a close. I have enjoyed sharing these truths with you, and I will enjoy it even more when you write and tell me how this book has helped you. Read this book again, and you’ll be surprised at how much more you retain after a second reading.

Look up the Bible verses in other translations and soak your mind in these practical truths from the positive Word of God. Give out copies of this book to your family, friends, and fellowship—start a stream of blessings!

If you have been helped by this book, please contact me through our web site. Tell me of the excitement you have found in God’s Word. I want to hear from you. Write today. admin@peterwade.com.

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