Hello friend,

I wanted to draw your attention to something I received from my good friend, Os Hillman, regarding the 2008 Church in the Workplace Conference that he’ll be hosting in Atlanta later this week. The theme is “Reclaiming the 7 Mountains of Cultural Influence.” If you can’t make it in person, they’ve just announced the availability of live webcasts.

Read on for the details from his message:

Less than 40 spots remain of the capacity of 500 registrations for the Church in the Workplace Conference January 24-26, 2008. This year’s theme is Reclaiming the 7 Key Mountains that Influence Culture: Arts/Entertainment, Business, Education, Family, Government, Media, and Religion. Participants from 21 nations and 30 states are already registered. We still have room for a few more people to attend. To learn more and register, visit the event website here.

We are extremely pleased to announce that we have just finalized details for the general sessions of the 2008 Church in The Workplace Conference to be broadcast LIVE over the Internet! (Jan 24-26, 2008)

If you want to attend this conference but are not able to be with us in person, you now have the opportunity to watch it LIVE from your computer with a high-speed Internet connection from anywhere in the world.

And even if your schedule doesn’t allow you to watch the live webcast sessions, registering for the webcast will give you access to watch re-broadcasts of each of the general sessions up to two times online.

The theme of this year’s conference is “Reclaiming the 7 Key Mountains of Cultural Influence” and will feature presentations from Os Hillman, Dr. Lance Wallnau, and other “hands-on”leaders in each of the 7 key mountains of arts/entertainment, business, education, family, government, media, and religion.

To learn more about the live webcast and each of the general sessions of the conference, click here.

“Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the armor of kings, to open before him the two-leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; I will go before you, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of bronze, and cut asunder the bars of iron: And I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the LORD, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel.” (Isa 45:1-3)

Did you know that God has riches hidden in secret places? And these are riches He is eager for you to possess. Am I saying that God wants you rich? I don’t know what God wants for you with respect to tangible riches. I don’t know your character, your calling or your capabilities. What I do know is that there are great riches hidden in secret places and the kind of riches I am speaking of cannot be seen with the eye.

Take for example the rainforest. People with limited vision see only with their natural eye and cut it down to obtain temporal, tangible riches. They sell the timber and create pasture land for cows. But people with great vision who have spent time in the secret place of God know that God made the systems that make the rainforest the most productive and fruitful system on the planet producing tremendous abundance out of relative scarcity.

In spending time with the Father, they learn the systems. They discover the ways of God. They obtain great wealth of wisdom as they inherit His heart for the created order and in the process they can be trusted with the power that wisdom gives them. It is the unseen riches that produce the visible riches. Most folks chase the visible, corruptible, temporal riches. Wise ones chase the unseen eternal riches and in apprehending them, have everything else they need.

DISCOVER What the 7 Days of Creation Teach About Business

Have you ever felt overwhelmed with responsibility? That things are getting out of control? Are you struggling to keep all the plates spinning so you are running from one pressing demand to the next?

One day, I asked God how He ran His business, the one we call, “Planet Earth.” I figured there must be great wisdom to be learned from the Genesis account of creation, and I needed all the help I could get! After all, there had to be a reason why He created certain things on certain days. There had to be a message there. It seemed more than coincidental that the first thing He did to bring order to chaos was turn the light on. (”Let there be light.”)

What I thought would be a 30-minute Bible study turned into months of research, study and revelation that turned my business around and delivered me from the throws of chaos and disorder. My business took on purpose like never before and God prospered the path before us.

Start 2008 With Clear Vision & Fresh Purpose
If you would like to get control of your business life, then check out this Biblical model for business based on the wisdom of God as revealed by the creation account of the longest running, continuously replicating business model in the known universe, planet Earth.

And I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the LORD, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel.” (Isa 45:3)

Things are changing fast. Our paper dollar is sinking and gold is floating high. Real estate values turned out to not be not so real and their values are plummeting. They are predicting another 20% drop in home prices in SW Florida this year! But yet, if you have eyes to see and with a little planning, there are fortunes to be made. They are to be found hidden in the secret places. They are wrapped in darkness, even gloom.

While our current economy is tanking and the personal wealth of millions is evaporating before our eyes, there are some who saw this coming and are beginning to step into the gloom, the darkness, and see what others do not. They see opportunity and are poised to take advantage of the times.

You don’t have to have cash to take advantage of the changing times. You must have vision however. And courage. Cash helps, but vision — when it is clear — attracts an abundance of cash from those who don’t see as clearly as you. Get really clear on your vision. Begin to see what God sees and learn to communicate that. It will attract everything that is needed to get it done.

“Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the armor of kings, to open before him the two-leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; I will go before you, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of bronze, and cut asunder the bars of iron: And I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the LORD, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel.” (Isa 45:1-3)

As we begin this year, I want us all to be on the lookout for those things, those opportunities, those ideas, those riches God has hidden in secret places and which He is quite willing to reveal to those who carry His heart. It seems to me that it is paramount that we discover and carry God’s heart before we begin looking for His riches. In fact, finding His heart and carrying it is perhaps the greatest treasure of all and it prepares us with the wisdom to carry greater responsibility. If we were to find His riches without finding Him we have gained nothing and risked everything.

Jesus said “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” Think of it is this way, when you find His kingdom, discover His ways and lay hold of His righteousness, you will have the keys to everything that pertains to life and godliness. When we grasp the laws of the kingdom and operate within them, “all these things shall be added to us.” So the first treasure to be sought is the knowledge of Jesus Christ. He will lead us into everything else we need that is directly tied to our calling. If you are called to business, get ready to learn witty inventions. Get ready to innovate. Get ready to see that which you have previously missed. Get ready to hear the whisper of God.

Some years ago my wife and I were having lunch and the Holy Spirit directed me to immediately go and make a particular investment. Without knowing the current price, the past history or the projected future, we followed the Lord’s leading. The person we dealt with asked if we were “in the know” because the price had just begun to move off its low where it had been for awhile. I just smiled. Smiled more later when it increased by over 350% in an environment where other investments were failing all around. Get ready folks… Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him.

“Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the armor of kings, to open before him the two-leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; I will go before you, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of bronze, and cut asunder the bars of iron: And I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the LORD, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel.” (Isa 45:1-3)

Okay. Here it is early in the New Year and I’ve been expecting to find some treasures in darkness and hidden riches in secret places. I found one that we expect will dramatically impact the endowment we are raising for the Christian Business School some of you know I am heavily involved with. Although the endowment grew by tens of millions of dollars in the last two quarters of 2007, we expect that to pale in comparison to 2008. If I told you the goal for 2008 you would not believe it, but that’s not important. We do.

We need the endowment to launch the school and we intend to eventually take it internationally to help lesser privileged people groups have access to first world, kingdom class business training. Naturally, to raise hundreds of millions of dollars takes a combination of God’s favor (without which we would be nowhere), diligent work, tremendous vision and insightful strategies. One of those strategies opened up to us as the New Year began and I really want to share it with you so you can apply it. Here goes…

Remember the Parable of the Sower? Besides the intended message, it also teaches us something about High Probability Selling. When it was all said and done, less than 20% of the seed in that story produced over 80% of the return. As 2007 came to a close, we evaluated what the profile of our high returning opportunities were and in 2008 we are able to filter out the hard ground, the stony ground and the thorny ground opportunities, despite the fact that they contain millions of dollars of potential revenue for us. By knowing what the good ground looks like and directing our efforts exclusively in that field we can now increase our result by a factor of 5 in the coming year. (God willing)

You have to be willing to let some opportunities go to others while you focus on High Probability Targets. Remember, time is of the essence. We are told to redeem the time and make the most of every opportunity. Moses told us in Psalm 90 to number our days that we might apply a heart of wisdom. One way to do that is to recognize that time is ticking and ask the Lord to show us the High Probability Targets for developing the vision He has given us to bring to fruition.

“Enter in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be who go in there: Because narrow is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads unto life, and few there be that find it.” Mt 7:13-14

Last week I shared with you that I believed the Lord spoke to my heart back in November the phrase, Through the Gate in 2008. I kept it hidden in my heart until I heard my pastor share that God had spoken that same phrase to him in December. It has since been confirmed through a host of other witnesses. But what does it mean?

I discovered over the weekend that in Hebrew, the number eight is rendered by the letter CHET, which is depicted in the form of a GATE. The number eight has long been considered to represent new beginnings and going through a gate can certainly represent that. Here is what I want you to prayerfully consider with me… I believe we are all going to pass through a gate in 2008. The question is: which gate? Will it be the narrow gate leading to life or the wide gate leading to destruction?

The wide gate is the popular gate, where the masses walk through giving little thought to the fact they are passing through a gate and onto destruction. The narrow gate requires striving just to get through (Luke 13:24) and many will not be able to. Those who press through the narrow gate will be spared destruction and experience life. Do not take this year for granted my brothers and sisters. Choose your gate wisely.

“Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the armor of kings, to open before him the two-leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; I will go before you, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of bronze, and cut asunder the bars of iron: And I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the LORD, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel.” (Isa 45:1-3)

Did you know God has secrets? He does. In fact, “the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him and He will show them His covenant.” (Ps 25:14) He also has secret places which He invites us into. When you find Him in the secret place, you have also found the hidden riches He stores in secret places. The beauty of it is this… the secret place is not accessible to all. “Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that has clean hands, and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.” The only people who find their way into the secret place with God and have access to the hidden riches, have purified their motives and been cleansed from all unrighteousness.

The treasures of God including the tangible riches He owns without end, are guarded by virtue and purity and wisdom. When we approach the living God and become transformed by the renewing of our mind. When we have discovered the heart of God towards all of His creation, we are on the path to becoming excellent stewards of every resource He has. I believe God is interested in putting men and women who carry His heart for others in control of the hidden riches of secret places. These riches will lay dormant until we as His children have been trained by the things we suffer. Then we will not be enamored with riches nor deceived by them. They will be a tool for accomplishing a higher purpose.

I am on that journey of pursuing Him, to have a heart that pulses with His love, to have a mind that thinks the thoughts of God, to have a soul through which courage courses every day. I want to apprehend the thing for which I have been apprehended and for me that lays in the marketplace. It is my honor to walk with you my dear brothers and sisters and to share with you such as I find that you too may enter into all that He has for you through the gate of ‘08 and beyond!

“Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the armor of kings, to open before him the two-leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; I will go before you, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of bronze, and cut asunder the bars of iron: And I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the LORD, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel.” (Isa 45:1-3)

We stand at the gate looking at 2008 and wondering what it will hold. I believe there are many treasures hidden in darkness waiting for you and me to discover. They are not lying on the path but rather in the hidden places, requiring light and diligence to find. The treasures are not dark in and of themselves, but are hidden in darkness until someone brings them to light. Furthermore, we are not speaking of a single treasure, though that would be blessing enough, but treasures, expressing an incalculable amount, more than can be expended.

Two things I will solemnly tell you this year. The first is that there is great treasure lying undiscovered all around us, hidden in darkness, waiting for the light to come and reveal it. Will you be the light? It could be something like the great diamond find in Canada that rivals Africa. It could be an invention, a cure for cancer, alternative fuels, a software product, a book, a song or a new way of doing an old thing. I promise you this year, they will be found. That is beyond contestation. The question is… Will you be one who finds it?

That brings me to my second solemn point… I believe God wants to entrust those treasures to His children. But we have to be seekers, searching early for wisdom, watching daily at His gates. As we grow in Him and in His wisdom, we can be trusted with the treasures and they will be used to bless the world, not merely fill our bank account. Are you ready this year to receive the treasures of darkness? Then seek Him first and foremost. Pursue Him diligently. You will find along the way the treasures hidden in darkness reserved for such a time as this.