It was toward the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019, and I was reflecting on the past year as I typically do every year. I was reflecting on my successes with my business and looking forward to the new year, wondering what might happen in the new year. And while I do not remember the exact day it occurred, I distinctly remember God telling me to “shut it down.” Now just to properly set the scene, it was not the audible voice of God. At first, I responded to what I first believed to be the Holy Spirit with, “do what?!?” In complete and utter disbelief of what I thought I heard, I wanted more detail.
Not being content with what I had heard and wanting to be sure of what I thought I heard, I sought further clarification from God. So here was my thought process… Alright, God, so what I think I heard you say is you want me to shut something down. I am trying to be obedient, but I want to clarify so I do not misinterpret what I think it is you told me. You want me to shut my business down? My hardware consulting business…which is responsible for most of my income? For real, God?
Now what I wanted was a big neon sign, something with more clarity, which I could point to and remember. What I received looked much different. I felt this overwhelming sense of reassurance. Over the next few weeks to months, I continued asking God if I was going in the correct direction. The good thing was that this was typically a slow time for my hardware business. This made it easier in what could have been a really tough time.
‘For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.’
Isaiah 43:19
I think most would ask, why did God tell you to shut down your core business? The answer I received was that God was doing something new. He began working in an area I had long dreamed of but thought was merely a dream. I had been longing to work in software development again, but my skills were not quite there professionally. But God was doing something new. When I felt the itch to go back to hardware(what I knew), He reassured me He was doing something new.
So here I was, no business, no income, no nothing. So I began to work towards that something new. I continued pushing ahead, learning new skills I thought would be helpful. Many times I thought I was stabbing in the dark. Many times I lost my way. But God kept bringing me back to, He is doing something new.
It wasn’t too long before some of my customers started coming to me asking for help as they usually would. I was faced with a dilemma. Do I tell them or just help them? To some extent I did a little of both. I told them I was no longer doing this as a business, but I would still do what I could to help them. I shut down my business website and left it dark for a while. I turned off my social media accounts and closed my bank account.
I shut it down.
