4. Giver Prayer: Time in Community • by Arthur Burk • Sapphire Leadership Group, LLC • www.TheSLG.com • 1

4. Giver Prayer: Time in CommunityThe Giver receiving in community is a monumental topic, fraught with conflict and pain.

Broadly speaking, the Givers are legendary (in a bad way) for taking not receiving. Also, they are infa-mous for generally refusing to synchronize with others. Simple stonewalling forces people to either walk away from them or synchronize to the Giver on his or her terms.

Against the backdrop of these chronic rubs between the Giver tribe and the rest of the world, there is God’s overt intent to give robustly to the Giver tribe THROUGH community.

One righteous picture that has intrigued me for years is Job. At the end of his season of hardship, there was a restoration party in which he was given a silver coin and a gold ring by each party goer. This was the extent of his start-up capital.

From a businessman’s point of view (mine), this is pathetic. Imagine Donald Trump declaring bank-ruptcy and starting over again with a $25,000 loan from the SBA! Tough.

Job rapidly became wealthy again, sitting at the top of the 1% tribe. He didn’t do it by putting the money in the bank and drawing interest, or speculating on the stock market. He did it through trade — with community.

And the key to rapid multiplication of small capital is rapid turn. For those of you from a non-business background, let me illustrate it simply. Walmart is famous for selling their entire stock of toilet paper every day. Suppose that at the start of the day they have $1,000 of TP on the shelf. By the end of the day they have sold it and need to restock.

They made a profit on that $1,000. Their margins are low. I don’t know how low, but let’s say 5% just to keep the math simple. That means that in one day they made $50 off TP.

However, they “turn” that same thousand bucks 365 times a year, so the $1K in capital earns them $18,250 in profit in a year. THAT is a very decent ROI, and it does not come from profit margin but from the number of times they turn their capital every year.

4. Giver Prayer: Time in Community • by Arthur Burk • Sapphire Leadership Group, LLC • www.TheSLG.com • 2

Now, the Mom and Pop store down the street also has $1,000 of capital sitting on the shelf, but they only move it once a week. Their profit margin is higher — say 10% — so they make $100 every time the stock is sold and replaced, but their $1K of capital only produces $5,200 in profit a year.

In short, the speed of turn is your most critical metric in business when you have limited capital. Mark-up matters, but turn matters more.

Now Scripture is sadly silent about how Job made his money so quickly, but my assumption based on the dynamics we know of the culture is that he did it through turn. And fast turnover of inventory is hugely enhanced by the hand of God bringing you the right customers.

When Job had a bumper crop of olive oil, someone just happened to have a huge need. When his herd of beef was huge, there was massive demand on the market. God must have orchestrated a supernatural matching of customers to inventory for Job to turn his chump change, start-up capital into mega wealth so quickly.

When God aligns the marketplace to favor the Giver, it is an extraordinary thing.

The second area of the Giver receiving from community is through relationships. When the Giver gift is badly damaged, they develop a stronghold of premature death. And the mature Servant gift has the highest authority over premature death, so the juxtaposing of these two gifts can be immensely life giving to the Giver.

The Prophet/Giver pair is generally either the most toxic or most life giving, depending on how they line up. Zooming out from the individual to the national level, we see this consistently in history as the misalignment brought horrific death.

Consider Turkey/Armenia in WWI. Germany/the Jews in WWII. US/Japan in WWII. US/Korea. North/South in the US Civil War. Republicans/Democrats in recent Congressional gridlock.

On the flip side, when those two gifts are aligned properly, there is vast wealth generated. US/Japan post WWII. US/Israel in recent years. Germany/EU. US/South Korea recently.

Individually you see the same with the mega wealthy in the US. Warren Buffet, the Giver, was just an above average trader until he met Charlie Munger, the Prophet. Then their investment strategies exploded. Paul Allen, the Prophet, teamed up with Bill Gates, the Giver, and produced a lot of value in the marketplace.

So whether we are talking alignment of market forces or alignment of individual gifts, the Giver soars when properly aligned. The enemy works hard to create offenses between the Giver and those who God has created to interface with him or her.

4. Giver Prayer: Time in Community • by Arthur Burk • Sapphire Leadership Group, LLC • www.TheSLG.com • 3

Join me in a warfare prayer to bring the Givers in our sphere of influence into right alignment with God’s resources for them.

4. Giver Prayer: Time in Community

Copyright September 2015 by Arthur Burk

From Room 21 in a hotel whose restaurant is superlative and whose beds are ordinary.