I remember speaking to one of my bosses (for anonymity, let’s call him Steve) during a cordial meeting at work. The conversation took place at the early stages of me starting a new job. During this conversation, Steve turned to me and said, “Dane, I want to partner with you”. In essence, he was telling me, that he didn’t hire me to the organization for the traditional leader and follower type relationship. His expectations, and desires were for us to have a more cemented and cohesive arrangement, albeit business oriented. Steve needed a partnership, and from the onset, he wanted me to know that we are in this together.

Steve was an individual who was positioned at the upper echelons of the organization. So, hearing him say this to me, was refreshing and welcoming to say the least. He was saying, let’s put our hand to the plow and build this institution together. However, I was also hearing something more.

It wasn’t just a boss hiring me to do a mere job, a tangible thing. From the get-go, he also intended to focus on the intangibles (our personal relationship) as well. He was telling me, that while we are building the tangibles we must also focus heavily on the intangibles. Intangibles such as:

  1. How are you feeling today?
  2. How is the family and kids?
  3. What are you doing for professional and personal development?
  4. How is retirement planning going?
  5. How often do you work out, and if not, why?

Hearing him say these words and express his expectations about partnering with me, set a fire within my soul to work for him and the organization. Never underestimate the power of the right words spoken at the right time! Steve’s words have never left me and they are a constant reminder of how I should treat the people who God brings into my life. I should view it like how it really is, God bringing them to partner with me, for my purpose and theirs.

God, the grand designer, inserts people into our lives at seasons and for various purposes. These people can stay for a moment, short periods or maybe even years. These individuals have been given the breath and life and placed in our space for a specific purpose. These people have been placed to love us, hate us, build us, and even deplete us. While the negative effects I would not relate to partnering, but they are there for a purpose.

Imagine a computer engineer building a new type of computer. He puts all the parts together and in a particular manner. All the computer chips and circuitry touching and talking to each other, and nothing is assembled by coincidence. All the parts must work together for the common good to power the unit. It is the same way with our grand designer (God), everything is done for a specific purpose.

Let’s now move our conversation over to the beginning of creation in Genesis and explore how God started out partnering with us. God’s mastery created the land, water, vegetation, and animals. This was God first creating a home for man. Then he later said the following in Genesis 1:28.

“God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

What person establishes something so great and magnificent, then in the same moment of creating it, hands over everything to someone else with no experience to rule? Yet still, this is what God did when he placed Adam and Eve to rule the Earth. This is a prime example of what partnering should resemble, placing your trust and confidence in someone and giving them the autonomy to execute. I am so glad that God decided to partner with us and work through us because He could have easily chosen angels in this earthly partnership and placed humans on the fringes.

The partnership was further strengthened when God sent His son to die for us as the ultimate sacrifice and forgiveness of our sins. God was like, I am going to draw you into a deeper arrangement, and for this to happen, sin needs to be out of your life. So, my son Jesus Christ will suffer and shed His blood for you, in order for you can have unrestricted access to me.

With this act we became more than partners, we became heirs and joint heirs with God and Christ (Romans 8:17). We received an advanced inheritance in the form of the Holy Spirit who has the role to guide and lead us into more truth. The truth of God, and of who we are, and what we are to Him; His royal priesthood and a chosen generation. Coupled with this, through the death of Jesus and our faith in God, we have received power to do greater works than His son (John 14:12).

All of this was God clearly showing us that He has a vested interest in us, and He is determined to pave the way for our success in this relationship. Part of a partnership is having access to each other and authority to execute when the other is not directly in front of us. We are the conduit through whom God as placed to execute His work and make His name visible on the Earth. God’s work has already been done because Jesus said, “It is finished…”, now it is for our work to begin.

Our work starts once we have been born again. Here is where we put our hands to the plow. But God does not want our labouring to be burdensome and with heartache. He wants us to enjoy the day-to-day experience, He wants us to understand that He is fully with us and committed to us. He wants to remind us today, that this relationship is not about having a boss in heaven who simply dishes out instructions for his subordinates on earth. But instead, we are partners working along with Him in every sense of the word and He is concerned about the tangibles and intangibles of our life.

So, if we are frustrated and feel like giving up, then maybe the problem is with us. It is we who are resisting the partnership and not willingly following the guidance of the chief partner (God). It is this attitude and behaviour that cause the friction, tension, and unhappiness in the relationship for us. Sometimes this affects us to the extent that we want to leave the partnership.

Let me ask you something, if you were a cofounder (major partner) in Facebook, Apple, or Amazon, would you just opt and walk out on that lucrative partnership? If people heard you did this, then they will say you are mad. God’s partnership is greater and better than these earthly partnerships in all aspects because it will never suffer decay. It is a blessed an everlasting partnership etched in eternity.

I say to someone today, don’t be MAD! Don’t walk away from your partnership with God but instead do everything possible to build upon it and represent yourself as a good steward, because great will be your reward.

PS: Dane Miller was last seen thinking about his partnership contract with God and smiling, while writing down the names of persons he should be partnering more with.

Your Brother in the Lord,

Dane Miller | Authored Book – “God is the Author, I am the Pen”

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