Why God May Not Always Remove You from the Place That Needs What He Has Put in You
By Francis E. Madojemu
There are prayers we pray because life has become difficult.
“Lord, get me out of this office.”
“Lord, change my boss.”
“Lord, give me another job.”
“Lord, take me out of this environment.”
“Lord, these people do not share my values.”
“Lord, this system is broken.”
Sometimes those prayers are entirely appropriate. There are environments we should leave. There are situations that are abusive, destructive or simply no longer ours to remain in. Wisdom is not stubbornness, and faithfulness is not a command to endure everything indefinitely.
But before we conclude that difficulty means wrong placement, there is a man in Scripture whom we need to meet again.
His name is Daniel.
Not Daniel after the lions’ den.
Not Daniel the famous prophet whose book we now read.
Daniel before all of that.
A young man whose nation had been defeated. His familiar world disappeared. He was carried into Babylon, placed under a government he had not chosen, educated within a culture he did not design, given a new name, exposed to beliefs he did not share and expected to function inside an empire that did not worship his God.
Now place that story beside the sentence:
“You don’t understand how difficult the place where I work is.”
The comparison is not meant to minimize anyone’s pain. It is meant to disturb an assumption.
What if difficulty is not always evidence that you are in the wrong place?
That question was freshly provoked for me by a short message from Bill Johnson. Johnson points to Daniel’s extraordinarily hostile environment and observes that Daniel nevertheless thrived and became a meaningful contributor within it. His point is not merely that believers can survive difficult environments, but that they can become useful within them.
You were designed for difficulties Bill Johnson.pdf
That thought connected immediately with something we had already been exploring in our teaching on wisdom.
And perhaps the connection is more important than the original statement.
Before You Ask to Leave, Ask What the Place Requires
We often interpret difficulty too quickly.
Difficulty becomes diagnosis.
Opposition becomes direction.
Resistance becomes prophecy.
“This is hard; therefore God cannot be in it.”
“This place is dark; therefore I should not be here.”
“These people do not think like me; therefore I cannot function among them.”
But Daniel will not allow us to make those conclusions so easily.
Babylon was difficult.
Babylon was spiritually hostile.
Babylon was morally compromised.
Yet Babylon was also where Daniel’s wisdom became visible.
So perhaps there are moments when the first question should not be:
How do I get out of this?
Perhaps the first question is:
Why am I here?
Not every difficult place is an assignment.
But neither is every difficult place a mistake.
That distinction requires wisdom.
Daniel Could Not Control Babylon
Daniel could not control the empire.
He could not redesign the culture before participating in public life.
He could not make the king worship his God.
He could not insist that Babylon become Jerusalem before he would serve there.
But there was something Daniel could govern.
Daniel.
Scripture says:
“But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank…”
Daniel 1:8, KJV
Daniel and Joseph Wisdom Between Revelation and Outcomes.pdf
Babylon changed Daniel’s location.
Babylon changed his name.
Babylon changed his curriculum.
Babylon could not determine his convictions.
This is one of the first truths we need to recover:
You do not have to control an environment in order to govern yourself within it.
This matters because Christians can sometimes confuse holiness with withdrawal.
There are things from which Scripture unquestionably calls us to separate. But Daniel presents a more demanding possibility: remaining distinct while being present.
Dr Olakunle Soriyan, in his Beyond Church Walls message, uses a phrase that captures this sharply:
“Contact without contamination.”
Soriyan_Exact_Words_Cinematic_Master_Prompt_Compliant_v4.pptx
That is very close to something we had already said in our teaching on Daniel:
Wisdom allows you to enter a system without the system entering you.
Daniel and Joseph Wisdom Between Revelation and Outcomes.pdf
Daniel learned Babylon’s language without surrendering heaven’s values.
He understood its literature without accepting its gods.
He served its kings without worshipping its kings.
He became useful without becoming absorbed.
That is considerably harder than hiding.
There Is a Difference Between Participation and Assimilation
Suppose you work in banking.
You can understand finance without worshipping money.
Suppose you work in government.
You can understand power without becoming intoxicated by it.
Suppose you work in technology.
You can master technology without allowing technology to master you.
Suppose you work in media or entertainment.
You can understand culture without surrendering your convictions to it.
Suppose you work in business.
You can understand negotiation, competition and commercial reality without becoming dishonest.
The Christian is not given only two choices:
withdraw or compromise.
Daniel reveals a third possibility:
Engage without becoming what you engage.
That takes us directly back to wisdom.
In our Wisdom Operating Systems work, we observed that wisdom separates. In the creation story, God distinguishes light from darkness; wisdom understands that some things must not be mixed.
Wisdom_Operating_Systems_Week_1_Dramatic_Screen_Deck.pdf
Daniel’s separation was not merely geographical.
It was covenantal.
He knew who he belonged to.
That identity allowed him to stand inside Babylon without allowing Babylon to take possession of his inner life.
But Daniel Did Not Stop at Being Uncontaminated
This is where the story becomes uncomfortable.
Many Christians are happy to celebrate Daniel 1:8:
Daniel would not defile himself.
Important.
But keep reading.
Eventually Daniel and his friends stand before the king.
And now the question is not only whether they remained pure.
The question is:
Can they do the work?
Scripture says:
“And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king enquired of them, he found them ten times better…”
Daniel 1:20, KJV
Daniel and Joseph Wisdom Between Revelation and Outcomes.pdf
Ten times better.
Now forget Daniel for a moment.
Think about yourself.
What would ten times better mean in your profession?
What would it mean in your classroom?
Your architectural drawings?
Your accounts?
Your software?
Your customer service?
Your research?
Your leadership?
Your punctuality?
Your preparation?
Your ability to understand and solve problems?
What would make someone who does not share your faith encounter the quality of your work and conclude:
There is something unusual about the wisdom operating here?
Our earlier study of Daniel produced a sequence I still find compelling:
Conviction protected Daniel from corruption. Wisdom made Daniel useful. Excellence gave Daniel access. Faithfulness sustained Daniel’s influence.
Daniel and Joseph Wisdom Between Revelation and Outcomes.pdf
That means holiness and usefulness are not competitors.
They belong together.
Perhaps we could say it this way:
**Conviction keeps you from becoming part of the problem.
Wisdom enables you to become part of the answer.**
“But Pastor, My Environment Is Dark”
Very well.
Let us take that seriously.
“The industry is dark.”
“The morals are terrible.”
“The people around me do not know God.”
“The system is corrupt.”
Then Jesus says:
“Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.”
Matthew 5:14, KJV
Here is the question.
What kind of place needs light?
Not a place already filled with light.
A dark place.
That does not mean every dark environment is your personal assignment.
But darkness itself cannot be proof that you should not be there.
Otherwise light would have no assignment.
Perhaps one of the truths we need to fall into is this:
**The darkness may not merely describe the problem.
It may help explain why light is needed there.**
That changes the way we see Monday morning.
Where Does the Answer Come From?
But now we encounter another question.
Where does Daniel get what Babylon needs but Babylon does not possess?
Where does Joseph obtain an answer Egypt does not have?
Where does wisdom come from when human intelligence reaches its limits?
This is where another stream of thought we have been developing becomes relevant.
Not as a new subject.
As the Source beneath the same story.
In The River Is Life, I have tried to make one idea increasingly clear:
The Source is God.
The life we receive is not meant to terminate in us.
It moves into character.
Into relationships.
Into work.
Into institutions.
Into cities.
Toward thirst.
Toward groaning.
Toward places where life is needed.
THE_RIVER_IS_LIFE_MANUSCRIPT_MASTER_v10_COMPLETE(1).docx
Later in that work I ask:
If the Spirit gives wisdom, what problem does that wisdom address?
If He gives creativity, what should be made?
If He gives compassion, who becomes visible?
And the movement is summarized simply:
**THE CHURCH GATHERS.
THE SPIRIT SENDS.
THE RIVER FLOWS.**
THE_RIVER_IS_LIFE_Redesigned_Full_Book.pdf
Now Daniel’s story can be seen from another angle.
Babylon is not the Source.
Daniel is not the Source.
Daniel receives.
He discerns.
He obeys.
He develops.
He serves.
And something God gives him becomes useful to other human beings.
The River flows through the life, but the life never becomes the River’s Source.
The River Moves Toward What Needs Life
Ezekiel’s vision is particularly important here.
The river leaves the sanctuary.
It moves outward.
Toward the Arabah.
Toward water associated with death.
And where the river goes, life begins to appear.
As I have been careful to say in The River Is Life, this is not a simplistic promise that every place touched by a Christian automatically prospers, nor that believers can manufacture Eden by controlling society.
But the direction of the biblical image is unmistakable:
God’s life moves toward what is dying.
THE_RIVER_IS_LIFE_Redesigned_Full_Book 3.pdf
The River does not remain inside the sanctuary admiring its own holiness.
It moves.
And perhaps that is where our thinking about calling and work must mature.
The church gathers.
But the Spirit sends.
The sanctuary matters.
But the River leaves the sanctuary.
What Leke Alder Calls the Mind of Christ
Leke Alder approaches this question from the language of intelligence and capacity.
In his Beyond Church Walls presentation, Alder speaks about praying concerning the mind of Christ and describes receiving a remarkable flow of ideas while lying in hospital. His larger argument is that Christians have often restricted divine wisdom to what we regard as “spiritual” information, while failing to develop the intellectual and practical capacity required in commerce, government, science and society.
Leke Alder || BEYOND CHURCH WALLS || INTERNATIONAL MINISTERS CONFERENCE 2026_720p (Converted).pdf
I would not use the word “download” carelessly.
God is not a computer server.
The Holy Spirit is not data.
But the metaphor can still help us see something.
We have used it in prayer before:
connection and download.
You cannot receive from a source to which you are not connected.
In one of our prayer conversations, participants reflected on worship, meditation, attentiveness to God and the possibility of receiving wisdom that illuminates problems and produces solutions that were not previously obvious.
Monday night prayer July 6th 2026.pdf
That does not make study unnecessary.
Daniel studied.
Joseph administered.
Bezalel developed craftsmanship.
Luke investigated.
Paul reasoned.
The Holy Spirit does not rescue us from the responsibility to learn.
But He can give light.
And sometimes light means suddenly seeing what has been present all along.
Our Wisdom Operating Systems material described light as visibility, clarity, distinction and the ability to see what is really there.
Wisdom_Operating_Systems_Week_1_Dramatic_Screen_Deck.pdf
Sometimes the beginning of an answer is not God removing the problem.
It is God helping you see the problem differently.
Meet Joseph
Now another story.
Pharaoh dreams.
Nobody can interpret the dream.
Joseph is brought from prison.
God gives him understanding.
Seven years of abundance.
Seven years of famine.
Revelation.
Wonderful.
But suppose Joseph had stopped there.
Suppose he had said:
“Thus says the Lord: famine is coming.”
And then returned to prison.
What would have happened?
The revelation identified the future.
But the revelation did not yet feed anyone.
Joseph continued.
He recommended leadership.
Collection.
Storage.
Administration.
Preparation.
Distribution.
He did not merely interpret the dream.
He designed the response.
Daniel and Joseph Wisdom Between Revelation and Outcomes.pdf
So here is an important question:
At what point did the dream begin to feed people?
When Pharaoh dreamed it?
No.
When Joseph interpreted it?
Not yet.
The revelation became socially consequential when wisdom became strategy and system.
That is why the earlier Daniel–Joseph study distinguished the two:
Daniel demonstrates wisdom for navigating an existing system.
Joseph demonstrates wisdom for building a system in response to a coming crisis.
Daniel and Joseph Wisdom Between Revelation and Outcomes.pdf
Both are necessary.
Sometimes wisdom teaches you how to function faithfully inside what exists.
Sometimes wisdom tells you what does not yet exist and must be built.
Some Prayer Points Are Also Systems Questions
This is where Leke Alder’s argument becomes especially provocative.
Suppose one family cannot pay school fees.
We should care.
We should pray.
We may help.
But suppose millions of families continually face the same difficulty because of the same structural conditions.
Has the question changed?
Suppose one family needs help buying fuel for a generator.
Help them.
But what happens when millions of families experience the same electricity problem?
At some point we have to ask:
Is this only an individual prayer point, or are we also looking at a systems problem?
Alder argues sharply that some recurring societal burdens require policy, institutional competence and systemic responses rather than only repeated individual interventions. He challenges churches that take highly capable professionals and assume that the highest expression of their usefulness must be a pastoral role inside church structures, when some may be desperately needed in government, commerce and public systems.
Leke Alder || BEYOND CHURCH WALLS || INTERNATIONAL MINISTERS CONFERENCE 2026_720p (Converted).pdf
I would state the principle carefully:
If a problem is repeatedly produced by a system, wisdom may require a systemic response.
Prayer is not being displaced.
Prayer is becoming attentive to architecture.
What If You Are Part of Someone Else’s Answer?
This is where the idea becomes deeply personal.
What if somebody’s prayer for employment is partly answered by an entrepreneur who builds a healthy company?
What if somebody’s prayer for healing is partly answered by a medical researcher?
What if somebody’s prayer for safe mobility is partly answered by an engineer, planner or competent public administrator?
What if somebody’s prayer for their child is partly answered by an excellent teacher?
What if somebody’s prayer for justice is partly answered by an honest lawyer or judge?
What if somebody’s prayer for access is partly answered by someone writing good software?
What if somebody’s prayer for dignity is partly answered by a business that treats people well?
Then work begins to look different.
It is no longer merely what happens while we wait for “ministry.”
It may itself become a vessel through which life reaches people.
In The River Is Life, I describe churches, schools, businesses, hospitals, laboratories, law practices, technology companies, universities and government offices as possible boats.
The boat is not the River.
The institution is not the Source.
But it can carry something.
And so the question is not merely whether the vessel has a church sign on its door.
The deeper question is:
What is flowing through it?
THE_RIVER_IS_LIFE_Editorial_Pass_v02_TRACKED.docx
Soriyan and the Recovery of Public Assignment
This is also where Soriyan’s challenge belongs.
He argues that the Church is not meant merely to produce people who become impressive inside church culture. He speaks of believers who must engage wider society and even uses the phrase “Daniel ministries.”
Soriyan_Exact_Words_Cinematic_Master_Prompt_Compliant_v4.pptx
That language is worth sitting with.
Because we have unconsciously created categories such as:
Sunday = spiritual
Monday = secular
Pulpit = ministry
Boardroom = career
Prayer meeting = spiritual
Laboratory = secular
But Daniel does not fit those categories comfortably.
Neither does Joseph.
Or Bezalel.
Or Nehemiah.
If God gives Joseph wisdom that preserves nations from famine, at what exact point should we declare that the activity has ceased to be spiritually meaningful?
If Daniel administers public responsibility with God-given wisdom, when exactly did his relationship with God stop mattering because he entered government?
Perhaps the better vocational question is not:
“Is my job ministry?”
Perhaps it is:
“What has God entrusted to me, and who is supposed to experience life because I steward it well?”
Monday, 8:00 A.M.
Imagine arriving at work.
You open your laptop.
You enter the classroom.
You walk onto the site.
You open the clinic.
You enter the government office.
You unlock the shop.
You walk into the studio.
Perhaps until now your prayer has simply been:
“God, help me survive another week.”
Maybe that prayer is appropriate.
But perhaps another prayer can be added:
Lord, what do You see here that I cannot yet see?
Where is the disorder?
Who is being badly served?
What problem have we normalized?
What is repeatedly breaking?
What am I participating in that I should refuse?
What do I need to learn?
What skill am I missing?
What conversation am I avoiding?
What system needs to be built?
What process needs to change?
What would excellence look like here?
What wisdom does this environment require?
What can become more alive because I was here?
Now you are no longer merely asking God to rescue you from Monday.
You are seeking wisdom inside Monday.
From Difficulty to Life
Only after walking through these stories does the architecture become useful.
We can now name what we have been discovering:
DIFFICULTY creates a question.
LIGHT enables us to see clearly.
WISDOM discerns the response.
UNDERSTANDING connects what we see.
KNOWLEDGE AND SKILL give us capacity to act.
CHARACTER keeps the solver from becoming part of the problem.
EXCELLENCE makes wisdom visible.
SYSTEMS make good responses repeatable.
SERVICE carries the answer toward people.
And LIFE becomes visible downstream.
This extends a framework we had already developed around Daniel and Joseph:
God reveals → wisdom interprets → understanding connects → skill executes → systems preserve → people experience the result.
Daniel and Joseph Wisdom Between Revelation and Outcomes.pdf
But now we can see what often sits before that sequence:
a difficulty, a need, a disorder, a groaning, a problem asking for an answer.
Wisdom Is Not Cleverness
None of this means Christians should become arrogant.
The opposite.
If the River has a Source, then the fruit cannot boast over the River.
If a school awakens minds — downstream.
If a business serves people well — downstream.
If a family breaks a destructive cycle — downstream.
If a scientist discovers something useful — downstream.
If a public official creates a better system — downstream.
If a church forms people well — downstream.
In The River Is Life, I eventually return to Revelation 22 and the image of the river of the water of life flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
The Source is not the pastor.
Not the institution.
Not the entrepreneur.
Not the activist.
Not the technology.
Not the system.
Every gift is downstream.
Every institution is downstream.
Every one of us is downstream.
THE_RIVER_IS_LIFE_Editorial_Pass_v02_TRACKED.docx
Therefore our posture is not:
“Look what Christians can do.”
It is:
Receive. Discern. Learn. Obey. Build. Serve.
Don’t Waste the Difficulty
So now return to the beginning.
“My boss is difficult.”
“My industry is corrupt.”
“My environment is dark.”
“My country is complicated.”
“My business is under pressure.”
“My profession is changing.”
Perhaps you should leave.
Perhaps you should stay.
Wisdom must answer that.
But do not allow difficulty alone to answer it.
Daniel faced Babylon.
Joseph faced famine.
Nehemiah faced rubble.
Esther faced danger.
Acts 6 faced administrative breakdown.
Again and again in Scripture, difficulty becomes the place where wisdom is demanded and where something of God’s answer can become visible.
So perhaps the prayer is not only:
“Lord, remove the difficulty.”
Sometimes another prayer must follow:
“Lord, show me what this difficulty requires of me.”
And perhaps another:
“Lord, what do You want to give to someone else through what You are teaching and entrusting to me here?”
Because the River does not flow merely to make us feel full.
It flows toward thirst.
Toward groaning.
Toward need.
Toward what requires life.
And perhaps that is why you are there.
Not merely to survive.
Not merely to complain.
Not merely to remain uncontaminated.
But to receive from God.
To grow in wisdom.
To become excellent.
To solve what you can solve.
To build what you can build.
To serve whom you can serve.
And to allow something of the life of God to become visible through an ordinary human life faithfully offered to Him.
Maybe God did not place you there merely to endure what is wrong.
Maybe He intends to make you part of what becomes right.
So here is the question I would leave with you:
What difficulty are you currently calling only a problem that wisdom may be asking you to examine as an assignment?
Francis E. Madojemu
Attribution note
This article develops ideas from my ongoing Wisdom Operating Systems and The River Is Life work. The immediate provocation came from Bill Johnson’s observation about Daniel thriving in an exceptionally difficult environment. I have also engaged ideas expressed by Dr Olakunle Soriyan in Beyond Church Walls, particularly his language of “contact without contamination” and “Daniel ministries,” and by Leke Alder in his Beyond Church Walls presentation concerning the mind of Christ, intellectual capacity, public systems and policy. The communication approach of allowing readers to “trip over the truth” rather than merely announcing conclusions is influenced by Chip Heath and Dan Heath’s The Power of Moments, especially their chapter on creating moments of insight. Their formulation emphasizes a clear insight, compressed in time, discovered by the audience itself.
The Power of Moments (Chip Heath Dan Heath) (z-lib.org).pdf
