UNDERSTANDING WORK

Exodus chapter 5








Today we are walking in: Understanding Work








Job 34:16


If now thou hast understanding, hear H8085 this: hearken to the voice of my words.









UNDERSTAND



Today we look to the word-UNDERSTAND- H8085 shama`--to hear with attention or interest, listen to understand (language)








The Torah testifies...............


Genesis 11:7


Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand H8085 one another's speech.








The prophets proclaim..................


Nehemiah 8:2


And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear H8085 with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month.









The writings bear witness...........................


1 Kings 3:9


Give therefore thy servant an understanding H8085 heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?







Understanding Work
Working for fulfillment is better than working for money. The purpose of a job is work, not money.


A study of history reveals that all great empires were built on the sweat and blood of a labor force, whether the energy of the workers was given voluntarily or through force. The civilizations of Egypt, Greece, Rome, and Assyria were built on the backs of subjugated peoples. The United States was built on slavery. No matter how the workers are motivated, there must be work to achieve greatness.


The power of productivity is evident today in the influence of labor unions. Because unions control the workers, who control the productivity, they can cripple a country, destroy an economy and control a government. And once you control productivity, you control wealth.


Do you know how countries measure their strength and wealth? They measure it not by the money they have in their treasury, but by their GNP, which means Gross National Product. Thus, the relative strength or weakness of a country is measured by the level of employment and productivity. The power of productivity is work. You can’t run a country where the people aren’t working because you can’t force people to work. Governments can’t legislate obedience, nor can they force people to cooperate without question. Everybody has rights, a will and a conscience. Sooner or later, workers will rebel if they feel they are working for nothing. Out of sheer desperation they will try to control their own destiny. There’s power in work—much more power than churches, governments, or other social organizations have— because the workers control productivity and, therefore, the destiny of the nation.


The story of Moses and the Pharaoh of Egypt illustrates this truth. Pharaoh wasn’t threatened by the person of Moses, or even by the Yah of the Israelites. He was threatened by the loss of a major work force. Thus, when Moses proposed a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to Yah, the king of Egypt replied:


“Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!. Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working.” That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and foremen in charge of people: “You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks... They are lazy; that is why they are crying out,


‘Let us go and sacrifice to our Yah.’ Make the work harder for the men so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies” (Exodus 5:4-9).


When people decide they aren’t going to work, the back of a nation is broken. We have seen this in the recent past as the former Soviet Union and other countries have changed dramatically through the power of the worker.


Thus, the demise of world-class companies is not the fault of the board or the president. The cause rests with the little guys who push wheels on a plane or weld car parts together. Our countries are falling apart because our people are refusing to work, and work well. We must change our attitudes toward work. Our only hope is to rediscover Yah’s definition of work and the benefits He intends work to bring to our lives.


Yah’S DEFINITION OF WORK


Our definition of work and Yah’s are very different. Work is not the same as a job. Work releases potential; a job provides a paycheck. While you may work at your job, work does not always result in a financial reward. Work arises out of a desire to contribute to the world’s wealth and well-being by giving of yourself. It moves beyond effort under the force of another and avoids the “I’m not going to work because you can’t make me work” mentality.


Work releases potential; a job provides a paycheck.
Frequently we make work overly sophisticated. We need to get labor back into work. We need to labor in the office, not just go to the office. Yah didn’t say, “Six days you shall go to your job,” but “six days you shall work.” Until we change our attitude toward work we will not obey this commandment.


Labor isn’t so much doing things as delivering hidden stuff. It’s delivering the babies you will die with if you don’t work them into sight. It doesn’t matter what kind of job you have, whether you are an executive, a salesman, a factory worker, or a housewife. Work as though your life depended on it, because it does.


Yahusha commanded us to pray for laborers. This term is also used to describe the process of a woman in childbearing. The process of delivering the pride and joy of a new baby—the hidden potential—involves conception, time, development, adjustments, labor, pain, and cooperation. All are necessary for the manifestion of a child. This process is the same for all humanity. Labor delivers!


Work is Yah’s way of revealing your talents, abilities, and capabilities. It helps you to discover the satisfaction of accomplishment and the results of perseverance. Without work you’ll never see the results of your potential. Without effort you’ll never feel the satisfaction of accomplishment.


WORK IS ACTIVATED STRENGTH AND ENERGY


Yahusha worked while He was on the earth. He gave sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf. He caused the lame to walk and the leper to be clean. He preached the good news of Yah’s coming Kingdom and welcomed sinners into Yah’s family. Again and again He called on His strength and energy to meet the demands of lonely, harried, fearful, needy people. Had He chosen to withhold the potential He possessed to better the lives of those He met, His power would have remained hidden and His purpose would have been lost. But Yahusha knew that He had been sent to redeem a suffering, dying world. He accepted the task Yah gave Him and worked to change the course of history. Indeed, the results of His work were the clues Yahusha pointed to when He was questioned whether He was the One to be sent from Yah.


Yahusha said to them, “My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I, too, am working” (John 5:17).


You have a similar responsibility to release the strength and energy Yah gave you for the good of the world. You can accomplish this through work. The Greek word ergon, which means “to activate,” is often translated work. From ergon comes our word “energy.” Thus, work is the activation of stored energy. If a car is parked, it is inoperative. But the minute you start the engine, the pistons begin working and the car has the power to move. Work is the Yah-given method that empowers you to operate. Through work you can do and become all that Yah intended for your life.


This concept of becoming is further clarified in another Greek word for work, energia, which means “to become.” No matter what Yah requires of you, if you don’t do it, you can’t become what He sees in you. Potential is the existence of possibilities. Work is the activation of possibilities. Potential without work remains potential—untapped, untouched, untested!


Yah created you to be a genius. He endowed you with enough thoughts, ideas and desires to fulfill every expectation He has for your life. But the presence of potential does not make you a genius. You are not born a genius. You become one by working to release what you have. Geniuses are people who work relentlessly to accomplish what they believe can be done. They try again and again until they receive in the physical what they see in their imaginations. They activate their hidden strength and energy to become what they are and to accomplish what they already possess. Geniuses use Yah’s gift of work to achieve what no one else has done. Yah planned for you to be a genius. Remember, “Genius is 1 percent inspiration, and 99 percent perspiration.”


Potential is what you have. Work is what you do. What you do with what you have makes the difference between a life of strength and energy, and a life of weakness and defeat. Yah gives you work to activate your power. Through work you become what you are.


Through work you become what you are.


WORK IS BRINGING SOMETHING TO PASS


A fantasy is a dream without labor. It is also a vision without a mission. When Yah gives the potential for something, He also demands that it be worked out. The story of Abraham is a good example of this principle.


One day when Yah and Abraham were on top of a mountain, Yah told Abraham that He would give him everything as far as he could see to the north, south, east, and west. Then Yah told him to walk the length and breadth of the land to receive what he had been promised (Genesis 13:14-17). Along with the promise came the command to work. Before Abraham could take possession of his inheritance, he had to fight those who lived in the land. The promise would not be possession without effort.


The same is true for you. Every time Yah gives you a promise, He also gives you the command to work to receive what He has promised.


Yah doesn’t just deliver like Santa Claus. You have to fight to get what is yours. The potential to possess what Yah has given is within you, but you will not obtain the promise until you put forth the effort to claim it.


So if you need money to pay your bills, don’t wait for someone to drop the dollars into your hand. Get up and take the job Yah sends.


Every job, no matter how much you dislike it, is working for you. If you can educate yourself to work no matter what the conditions are, you will learn discipline, because the work is more important than the conditions. Work is also more important than the job. If a child always gets what he wants, he learns to expect his wants to be met without any effort on his part. Our world is full of adults who act like spoiled children. They never learned the value of work.


We do well when we learn the lesson early in life that Yah requires us to work for what we want. One of the greatest things parents can do for their children is to demand that they learn the responsibility of work at an early age. If your child has to work for his spending money, he will soon learn that he can’t get something for nothing. Work brings potential to pass. Without work, all you have is potential.


WORK IS USING YOUR ABILITIES AND FACULTIES TO DO OR PERFORM SOMETHING


When Yah wanted a place to live, He could have created a magnificent dwelling by speaking it into place. But He chose to have man build the house for Him. Thus, Yah instructed Moses to gather offerings for the Tabernacle and to employ skilled craftsmen to create its various parts. After Moses had collected the materials and the workers, the work began. Silversmiths, goldsmiths, carpenters, glass cutters, weavers, embroiderers, and gem cutters all contributed their skills until the dwelling place of Yah was completed. Then the Lord, through His presence in the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, entered and filled the Tabernacle they had prepared.


Yah has given you a wealth of skills, talents, and abilities. Work is the means to discovering those resources. Persistent, consistent effort polishes the gems within you, making your life a suitable dwelling place for our holy Yah. It activates your potential and enables you to share your expertise and proficiency. The release of your gifts will benefit the world for generations to come.


WORK IS THE MEANS TO PRODUCE A DESIRED RESULT


When the Israelites returned from exile in Babylon, Nehemiah, the governor of Jerusalem, led the people in repairing the walls of the city. Because he had a burden to repair the gates destroyed by fire and to rebuild the
buildings that lay in rubble, he toured the ruins and asked the officials of Jerusalem to work with him. When scoffers ridiculed them, Nehemiah replied, “The Yah of heaven will give us success” (Nehemiah 2:20). He believed that the dream was from Yah and, therefore, trusted Him for the attainment of his goal. His efforts were aided by those who “worked with all their heart” (Nehemiah 4:6). Time and again Yah frustrated the plots of those who would have threatened Nehemiah’s dream, thus proving that He will fight for those who undertake to fulfill His purposes.


Work coupled with a mind to do what Yah desired brought victory for the Israelites who were committed to the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem. Committed work toward a desired result is also a key to your success.


POTENTIAL AND THE BENEFITS OF WORK


Work provides the means through which the knowledge you gained through the study of the other keys can be activated. It takes you from knowing that you must live by faith to acting on what you know. The same is true for your, purpose, resources, and environment.
Knowledge is not profitable until it is translated into action. Work is the translator Yah has provided.


WORK GIVES FLESH TO FAITH


Yah has given you many dreams. He’s planted seeds in your imagination and supplied you with goals you’d like to meet. Indeed, you may be pregnant with answers to some of the world’s great problems. If you are going to realize those dreams, you’d better be ready to work. Until you start working, your power to benefit mankind will remain untapped.


Until you start working, your power to benefit mankind will remain untapped.


A fantasy is a dream without work. It is also a vision without a mission. You can have all the vision you want, but until you get a mission, your vision will be no more than a wishful thought. I love missionaries because they are willing to take the vision and make it a reality. Visionaries, on the other hand, disturb me because they are not willing to put forth the effort to accomplish their dreams. If you don’t work, you are fantasizing. You are wasting your time on worthless ideas. Work is the means to make what you see into what you receive. Visionaries must become missionaries to be effective and successful.


WORK PROVIDES THE OPPORTUNITIES TO FULFILL PURPOSE


Work is part of your design. If you’re not working, you’re not fulfilling your purpose. Most of the people who are burdens on society— those who are on welfare or receive some other social services—are not part of the work force. The food stamps, medical assistance, and rent assistance they receive come from the pockets of those who work and pay taxes. Thus, everyone who asks the government to pay their bills is living out of your pocket if you are working. Those who live on welfare are deficits to the country.


In Yah’s system, everyone needs to work. You need to work. Your ability to dominate and subdue the earth is related to the effort you put forth to accomplish the tasks Yah gives you. If you refuse to work, your potential to express Yah’s image and to bear fruit are sealed inside you, dormant and useless. Without labor there is no fruit, and the blessings Yah wants to give you are forfeited. Your refusal to work destroys the possibilities you possess to cooperate with Yah’s work of creation.


WORK EXPANDS YOUR RESOURCES


It’s not how many resources you have but how much work you generate with those resources that will control your poverty or wealth. Potential without work is poverty because your willingness to work is the key to the realization of your potential. The real question isn’t how much potential you have but how much potential you will work to show. Everybody has potential—which is dormant ability, hidden strength, untapped strength and unused resources—but not everybody works to release what they have.


Work is crucial to the care and multiplication of your resources. If you are faithful over little, Yah will make you ruler over much. But He can only give as much as you are willing to accept. Faithfulness over little things brings larger responsibilities and more work, which brings more resources and larger responsibilities and so on. Well done is always better than well said. Work is the means to multiply what Yah has already entrusted into your care, be it great or small.


WORK RELEASES AND MAINTAINS YOUR ENVIRONMENT


People tend to gravitate to those who think and act like they do. This is certainly true of those who avoid work. Lazy people don’t like to be in the company of diligent people because their nonproductivity is readily visible.


Thus, work is the key to establishing a positive environment. Your devotion and persistence in accomplishing the tasks of job, ministry, family, etc. will attract the company of others who like to work. Likewise, idleness will draw to your side people who are not interested in working. If you choose to be lazy, the penalties of laziness will overcome you as you become ensnared by a crowd that scorns effort and diligence. The very environment that snuffed out your desire to work in the first place will continue to stunt your development. Devote yourself to work and avoid all who do not share your devotion. The company you share will soon reflect and encourage your desire to work.


HOW TO WORK OUT YOUR POTENTIAL


Are you hungry to accomplish something? Are you so committed to a vision that you will do anything to see that vision come to life? Then make plans and follow them.
The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty (Proverbs 21:5).


There’s a difference between plans and haste. Haste is trying to get something for nothing. Haste leads to poverty. But the hard worker make plans and expends the effort to see those plans pay off.


Do you want to be a lawyer, a doctor, a teacher, a carpenter, a policeman, a minister, a secretary, an accountant, or a politician? Put some work behind that dream. Burn the midnight oil and study. Make the acquaintance of a person who is working in your chosen field and work with him to learn the trade, business, or profession. The completion of your plans is related to your willingness to work, as is your prosperity. Likewise, the release of your potential is dependent upon your expenditure of the necessary effort to change your thoughts into visible realities. Work of your own intiative. Don’t wait for life to force you to work.


Work is the key to your personal progress, productivity, and fulfillment. Without work you can accomplish nothing.
Yah assigns you work so you can release your possibilities and abilities by putting forth the effort to accomplish each task. A pessimistic attitude toward work breeds dissatisfaction and unhappiness. A healthy perspective builds self-esteem and nurtures a positive, confident outlook on life. The responsibilities Yah gives you are presented to provoke your potential and to challenge you to try new things. Until you stop being a relucant worker, you will miss the vitality and meaning that Yah intended work to bring to your life.


Work is the key to your personal progress, productivity, and fulfillment.


Accept today Yah’s gracious gift of work. Refuse to allow a pessimistic attitude toward work to rob you of your potential. Then look forward to the joy of accomplishment and the delight of discovering all Yah put in you for the world. You will truly find that work is a blessing.


PRINCIPLES


1. The achievement of greatness requires work.


2. Labor delivers your potential.


3. Work is... activated strength and energy, the effort required to bring something to pass, the use of your abilities and faculties to do or perform something, and the means to produce a desired result.


4. Faith without work is unproductive.


5. Yah designed you to fulfill your purpose by working.


6. Work multiplies your resources, be they large or small.


7. Idleness invites the company of lazy people.


8. The release of your potential is dependent upon your expenditure of the necessary effort to change your thoughts into visible realities.