The Lord's Work at My Work - UBM [David Eells]

On 9/23/02, I began to work at a large electrical distributor in Syracuse, NY named Graybar Electric Co. Prior to working here, I worked for a local electrical distributor and retail store named Edward Joy Electric. While working there, young in my Christian faith, The Lord was beginning to teach me precepts on how to be patient in all situations and how to be humbled, having worked for the owner who was a very demanding, rude, and unreasonable man that on a regular basis degraded his employees and openly embarrassed them.

Because I had my first child on the way and needed to be humbled in the sight of The Lord, The Lord had me stay there until He wanted me to go. Fortunately I was only there for five long months before The Lord cleared me to move on. I was in the stall one morning and I asked The Lord if I could move on yet, and I opened up to 2 Corinthians 7:11 which states "For behold, this selfsame thing, that ye were made sorry after a godly sort, what earnest care it wrought in you, yea what clearing of yourselves, yea what indignation, yea what fear, yea what longing, yea what zeal, yea what avenging! In everything ye approved yourselves to be pure in the matter".

This was The Lord's way of telling me that I could look for another job and that He had one waiting for me.

I began to do so, and I ended up getting hired at Graybar Electric Co. I started off there as a material handler in the warehouse, but in the space of one year The Lord gave me favor in the eyes of all of my supervisors and co-workers, and they promoted me to warehouse supervisor over the other material handler who had been there for seven years and was double my age. While this was a blessing, it pushed me into several uncomfortable situations that ultimately The Lord will and has Worked our for my benefit, just like the scripture states in Romans 8:28: "And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good, [even] to them that are called according to [his] purpose".

I lacked a lot of respect from my two truck drivers, and from my one material handler. I had spoken the Gospel to a few people who I felt The Lord was leading me to speak with, but I wasn't at that time particularly moved to witness to many people, and certainly not very often. Plus I was being reproved and purged from the old mind of the flesh, and being renewed in the spirit of my mind. What The Lord was doing was working out my passive nature (and still is) and throwing me into controversial and confrontational situations which I have always avoided when at all possible.

But being in this position, it was part of my job responsibility to deal with these things. Even at work The Lord was bringing me to my cross daily. I still at times struggle with this, but at least now, especially as a servant of Christ, I am not foreign to these types of situations which are going to become more prevalent as time goes on and as we draw near to the coming tribulation.

Then, about 3 1/2 years into my employment, The Lord gave me a dream of a long-time brother in Christ, Eliyahu Benysrael ("E"), who had recently moved to Memphis, TN to be with his wife Elizabeth, working at Graybar with me. This setting of this dream our Graybar location in Buffalo, NY but when I walked through the doors into the warehouse, everybody was running around with their hands up, praising The Lord and rejoicing in His salvation with dancing and singing.

I was observing everything and walking around watching the people do this, and then I saw Eliyahu rejoicing as well, and I asked him, "E, what's going on, Brother?" He responded that they were just rejoicing in The Lord, and then I woke up.

I began to think about my current situation, and the employees that I had under me, and I remember thinking that I didn't know how The Lord was going to do this with them and I kind of forgot about the dream. Ironically, at that time, the BenYsraels felt that The Lord was leading them to move to Syracuse, at which time, we opened up another material handler position in the warehouse because of an employee who decided to pursue other opportunities. Eliyahu and Liz were planning their move to come quickly, and our hiring process is kind of long, so the thought crossed my mind that this position was for E, but because of past experiences of people I know working with me, I got in the flesh and hired another guy. By this time E and Liz had literally just moved here, and he was working as a residential/commercial painter with his cousin because of my bad decision. Well, on our new employee's first day I spent all day training him which is very labor intensive, and everything seemed fine. The next morning at about 7:00 AM I felt a conviction about not putting Eliyahu in for that position, and I prayed to The Lord and repented, and asked Him if it was His will for me to hire Eliyahu to cause my new employee, Travis, to put in his resignation before his shift started that day (which was about an hour away).

Amazingly, I got a call within 15 minutes from Travis and he told me that this was not what he expected, and that he was going to pursue other opportunities. Praise The Lord! So we hired Eliyahu for that position and this is when The Lord really began to move. Shortly after we hired Eliyahu, a brother in Christ here in Syracuse prophesied to me that someone at work was working deceitfully against me, and to be wise as a serpent, but harmless as a dove, and just encouraged me to watch and pray. I wouldn't find out until later who that was, but The Lord did show me openly who it was after an incident that took place one day where my material handler whom I got the job over tried to get into a physical altercation with Eliyahu. Eliyahu stood blameless in this situation, trying to diffuse the situation with peace, as the scriptures state in Matthew 5:9-10: "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are ye when [men] shall reproach you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets that were before you".

After I dealt with this situation, many things surfaced on how he was taking notes regularly on decisions I made, the way I supervised, and especially mistakes that I had made, being filled with all deceitfulness and guile, but The Lord delivered me from his hands. I prayed to The Lord that he would remove him from this position, but not by the hand of evil. I prayed that he would be blessed in his departure. It was very shortly after that that he left the company to work for a competitor up north, closer to his retirement home in Clayton, NY. Praise The Lord; it became very clear to me at this point that The Lord was sifting my employees. Those who would reject The Word of God and disrespect me and the authority that I had been given there were being sifted out, and The Lord was bringing in people who would listen to the word of God and who would respect my position and authority.

Very shortly after that, a truck driver who was a continual thorn in my flesh, who used to curse me with cursing and swearing and defy my requests that I made to him, ended up getting badly injured at a job site while making a delivery; a huge job box fell off of a forklift and hit him in the back, pinning him between the job box and the back edge of the delivery truck. He broke a few ribs and dislocated many discs in his back; he is still out on workers' comp and will not be able to return. Shortly after that, my other truck driver, who was the last of the old crew, left his position to return back to the job he previously worked at before coming to Graybar. After his departure, he sent a letter to our Human Resource department to report that he did not like how "religious" the warehouse was becoming, and that he did not feel comfortable with the "religious activity" going on there which was just an accusation from the devil. The only thing Eliyahu and I do there is pray in the morning on the dock, whoever wants to join in can, and speak the Word when The Lord presents an open door to witness. We will never force a witness who is not being led of the spirit. Paul and Timothy were forbidden of the Holy Spirit to preach in Asia in Acts 16:6, so we should only be witnessing when we are led by The Holy Spirit to do so.

The Lord has now given me a brand new staff and we are all very close, and The Lord has been opening up a multitude of open doors to witness the Gospel to these people and it is becoming a very fruitful work. I will be adding on to this testimony as more great works follow here. Just be encouraged that The Lord will always work both the bad and the good together for your good and benefit if you love God and are called according to His purpose.

Just be at peace with the flow of your life, as long as you are seeking God and making him the Singleness of your eye, because He is sovereign and in control of every situation and will make it a blessing to you!

God Bless you saints in the name of Jesus our Saviour!

Note: Please see testimony Saved from Abortion.

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