6/11/25 - 2098: Upgrade to the New Creation Version

Jim: You've tuned into iWork4Him, the Voice of Collaboration for the Faith and Work Movement.

Martha: And we are your hostss, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. Our mission is to inspire every workplace believer to recognize their workplace as their ministry place, where they work with God every day. What can that look like in your workplace? Let's find out right now.

Jim: It's amazing to me how God connects us within the body of Christ. Sometimes we meet people at church or a Bible study, or maybe even a business meeting. Our guest today found iWork4Him on the internet and reached out via the contact us page.

Pastor Usman Raza is a marketing and social media expert who leads a church in Pakistan and an online business as well. Usman has become a friend and just last year I spoke to his local congregation about iWork4Him and applying that attitude to business. Usman Raza is here today to share his Jesus story and talk about his ministry to business people in Pakistan and around the world. Brother Usman Raza, welcome to iWork4Him.

Usman Raza: Praise the Lord. Thank you so much, Brother Jim and Sister Martha, for giving me opportunity to share my heart and share my story with everyone on working with you and the audience. And yeah, it's a pleasure. It's a blessing to share my heart with iWork4Him.

The name has really touched me. I was searching some assignment, marketing assignment, on Google and your website popup in my search. So this is how I find you, and it's really attractive name, iWork4Him. And that has been my mission for all of my life and especially in nine years of ministry. It been being a blessing to work for Jesus. And it's more, I would say, living in the kingdom already.

Jim: So Usman, start off, we always start off every show with a new guest talking about your Jesus story. When did you first learn about Jesus?

Usman Raza: Yeah, there's a lot of glimpses. I would say the parts of the full story. But initially it started when my mother was sick and I saw my dad signing a document. And because doctor said please sign the document, we cannot guarantee that your wife will be saved tomorrow after the operation. So I was standing there watching my dad and I was sad, very sad.

Everyone loves their mom, and coming back alone on my bicycle, I was coming back home alone. I was crying, but I know Jesus is there. Every Sunday we go to church, we pray, we read Bible. I know he's there, but I do not have a connection at that time with him.

But when I was in a pain because of the love of mother, I called him. I said, Jesus, I know you are there and only you can save my mom. Would you save my mom? He said to me, I literally hear a voice while cycling. He said, if I save your mom, would you serve me? And I said, I will not only serve you Jesus, but I will do everything you want me to do. And that's how, our relationship started.

Jim: And how old were you then?

Usman Raza: I was almost like 19 years old. And the very next day, my mom was successfully operated by doctors and she saved, she healed. And we were so happy.

And after a month or two, I got busy into my life and forgotten about my commitment with Jesus. And again, now my dad is in ICU. And I am saying, Jesus, one last time. One last time, I'll do, I know I have made commitment with you when my mother was sick, so I know you can forgive me. You are always there. Now, please save my dad as well.

We remember, his kidneys were not functioning correctly. Heart was not functioning. His blood pressure was not stable. He was in the ICU and the doctor saying he's very serious. And I was sitting there, I pray for continually for about like 30 minutes and more. And after that, everything started getting normal.

Blood pressure was normal. Heart was functioning normal. After an hour or two, doctor said to me, it's like miracle. When you reach here, your dad was in a serious condition, but now his stats are normal. So I said if stats are normal, then you should discharge him. And he said, okay, we can discharge him, but it's your responsibility. And I said, yes, we are fine with that. And we take our dad back to home.

And that was second time I made a commitment with Jesus, but again, it happened with me, I got busy back in my life and I never understand Jesus wants to do something with me, with my faith that I already have. Like I have been on like a rollercoaster of belief and unbelief. Sometime I'm in a pain, I'm believing, I'm calling Jesus, but when I'm normal, I'm not seeking him. So that was my start with Jesus.

But when I was separated for 18 months, because my wife and I had a relationship issue and that time I had two girls, now I have five girls, including twins, but I was in a real pain. And I was working in a prayer center and couple came in a prayer center and said - lot of testimonies people are being healed from cancer, paralyzes, and other diseases and from demons - and that day couple came and they shared their testimony that after six years, Jesus has restored us and the kids were happy, husband and wife were so much happy that Jesus has restored them after six years.

And I was watching and I was questioning in my spirit, really? Jesus can restore couple after six years? And I was questioning the Holy Spirit, what is wrong with me and my wife? Why she's not listening to anybody? Not my dad, not her dad, not me. And crying back, from a prayer center, tears in my eyes, I question again, Jesus, what is wrong here? And he said to me, you are not praying with your full heart. You are lying to me. You don't want her back.

Tears, you know, increases. I was shocked. Like what Jesus is saying to me, could it be real? And at that day, I was bent on my knees, first time. And I asked for the final forgiveness, and that was like born again transformation experience for me. And I said, Lord, I'm sorry. Yes, I have been lying to you, but please forgive me. I want her back, and I will do as I had committed with you many years ago, that I will serve you, save my mom. And then I said, save my dad. I'll serve you.

So that was, how I was transformed. And he said to me, you are not praying with your full heart. And I said, yes, I am praying right now with my full heart. I want her back. And for 18 months she was not listening to anybody. The miracle happened. The very next day, she herself called me and said, Usman, I want to meet you. And I was shocked. How did that happen?

Jim: And what's cool is we're gonna hear the rest of the story and what God's been doing with Usman and Asma in their neighborhood and their local congregation. And really, there's such a great example. All of us, when we can allow our faith to activate and impact those people within our sphere of influence, and sometimes it takes extra courage and support to be strong and courageous.

As business leaders and workers, the US Christian Chamber of Commerce serves as a backbone of support for us. The US Christian Chamber connects faith driven leaders through powerful events, relationships, and resources. We encourage everyone listening to join the US Christian Chamber of Commerce, where business and faith thrive together, uschristianchamber.com.

Martha: I have to say, Jim, about what you just said. It may seem funny that we're doing an interview with someone from another part of the world and we're talking about the US Christian Chamber, but there's actually an international Christian Chamber of Commerce as well that the US Christian Chamber is connected to. I just wanna point that out because it's an international aspect.

Jim: But Usman, you also have a business in the United States online. You too, could join the US Christian Chamber online at uschristianchamber.com.

Martha: That would be so good. So Usman, God did some amazing things in your life to get your attention, and much like many of us , it can take multiple things to get our attention. But through your testimony, you and your beautiful wife Asma are now at a place now where you're leading a local congregation in your city. So tell our audience about your church and how you're touching the people in your neighborhood there.

Usman Raza: A lot of things are happening here, every single day. It being like, as I already said, it's being my experience of living in a kingdom of God already. The kingdom of God will come, but we are already, wherever two or three together, he is in the midst of them. And yes, everywhere I go, I experience that Holy Spirit is not leaving me. We are like Temple of God, as scriptures told us, that we are the temple of God. Me and Asma being like, not just, working as a husband and wife.

One day I was full of anger, frustrated, and I was about to speak with her. It was the beginning of the ministry, and, I just approach her and Holy Spirit intervene and said to me, Usman, wait a minute. You claim that you are dead on cross as a believer. Where that anger is coming from? This is not you. And be careful how you treat her now, because she is not just your wife, she is my daughter. And be very careful how you handle her because this will put you in trouble.

I was shocked. All my anger, my temperament, was go back to zero and normal. And I said, I'm sorry, Lord. And that is how He has been speaking with me, with Asma and with everyday talk, with everyday examples. People came into our church, they don't even, especially the strangers, they don't know us. We don't know them. And the moment they enter into our house church, because we run house church, this is not just the church building, but our home as well. So Jesus said, my home is a house of prayer. So my house is a house of prayer. So when they enter into the territory of our house, they are reporting that they are being healed.

And we were shocked. This is something that Holy Spirit can do and yes, he can do even before you pass the prayer request. Even before you met to pastor. Even before you claim I need healing. He knows before you ask, he's your father. And that is something I experience in Second Adam Church personally, with our own eyes, and a lot of other things.

If I start sharing the conversation, the testimonials, the teaching, and everything that is being done by God in our church, it will take me like a whole night. But I can say like in a few words, we are really experiencing a second Adam, the new Adam in our life. Everything is changed. You are watching a new Usman. The version that I call myself, I get updated, my version of the human being version or a new creation version every single day. I'm not, you know, who I was yesterday, so it's being transformed every single day and this is how it's related to iWork4Him, 24 hours, seven days of a week. So it's being an honor and privilege to have Jesus, second Adam, in our church, and in our life.

Jim: You talking about working 24/7 and how iWork4Him is really a testimony of faith. It really is a statement of faith. You run an online business. Not only do you lead a local body of Christ, but you run an online business called Christianmarketingexperts.com. Tell us about how you see that business as a ministry.

Usman Raza: Yeah again, I was about to pass a prayer request to my pastor, and the moment I said, can you pray for me because I want a way of living where I not only serve Jesus, but also earn a living for my kids? I remember the moment I passed him the prayer request after I left the prayer center, got back to home, open my laptop.

I was working as a freelancer. I landed my very first client from the state of Arizona, Phoenix. And he has hired me on freelancer, and he has trained me literally for everything I am today in the world of business. He was 10 years younger than me and that client was amazing.

But during that journey we came across a company, a marketing company. I would not want to mention the name of that company, but that company was literally lying to clients just to make them client. And me and my business partner were working together. She was a English writer. I was a SEO guy, digital marketing expert. And we spoken together and said, they are lying to dentists.

They were working for dentists, and they were lying. The same town, same city, they are claiming two dentists, even three sometime, that we can rank you on the first page of Google, on the first position of Google. How it's possible? They don't own Google. They cannot present everyone on the first page of Google, or even on the top three results. They cannot guarantee that. And they were giving a guarantee, and they were promising, and dentists were paying them, and that was the whole lie.

We feel like we should not work for that type of working environment where we have to compromise our faith or lie to anybody to earn a living. So we decided like we should leave this company and start a faith-based or Christian company, where we don't have to lie or which presents the God first, Jesus first. And then we ultimately get the things that we need from that company. So this is how the vision build up in our mind. And then we started back in 2016, the Christian Marketing Expert.

Martha: That's awesome. I think a lot of people that are listening, Usman, have had a similar experience where they have seen business done wrong and they know that it's wrong, but they don't always know what to do. And so that's one of the reasons we have iWork4Him, is to just help expose people to different stories that might give them the courage to say, you know what? I need to do something differently because I'm doing it the world's way and not Jesus's way.

So tell us a little bit more about how faith in Jesus has really interacted with running your business. Like how does your faith impact the work that you're doing on a day-to-day basis?

Usman Raza: Yeah it's not only impacting me, but impacting everywhere. The coworkers, my business partner, the clients because now we are getting a faith-based clients, Christian clients. Most of my clients are very mature, full of wisdom, over the age of 60. And one of my daughters were laughing with me, dad, why your every client is too old? I said because God wants me to learn the godly wisdom and the experiences, and everything they had in their life with Jesus, they can share with me because when they hire me as a marketer, they definitely want to share their story and their background, why they started the business, why they wrote the book, or whatever they're doing, actually, they are doing it for Jesus.

And now I come into contact with them, and they hired me and they will definitely share that wisdom with me. So I am growing. As I mentioned, every single day I'm learning a new thing from my client and from my business partner. And I have also jumped up from the deception of denomination and from a religious spirit. And people, where they want to follow their specific set of faith or religion or a pastor or a bishop or a father or whoever they call those leaders, actually, I have found that we do need more - I would not say that we don't need more churches.

Because that was the wish of Moses written in the Old Testament, that he wanted to see every man of God as a prophet. So there is nothing wrong building more churches, but actually there is something wrong in the root. The problem with the root is like the real leaders are not there. And the system that Jesus has in his mind, the father has in mind actually, then when he sent Jesus, people, the believers and the leaders, went into the wrong path and they are not understanding the intention of God before they execute the scriptures or they take action on the word of God.

So what does it mean by that is that the wrong philosophy of this world or the wrong doctrines, the wrong teaching of leaders has done so much damage to the average believer and everyone, and even to the non-believer, whoever want to come and listen to Jesus. So it's very complex for believer, for new believer or for the non-believer to know Jesus, to understand who real Jesus is. And I think the workplace, the workplace is the best place where we can start conversation with the normal day activity.

If somebody is asking you for anything in their in their communication with you, you can share about your value, about the attribute that Jesus want you to reflect through your action. So I have observed even working with non-Christian people, because we live in Pakistan, Muslim country, we come across non-Christian people every single day. And they, many people said to me like, we haven't ever seen employer or a manager, you have been so kind.

And I said, this is not my kindness. This is who Jesus is actually. And this is who Christianity is actually. This is not something I am doing. Because I remember even my dad said to me, you got some sort of superpowers in your body. And I said, no, this is not superpower, of my superpower. This is the power of Jesus.

Martha: Yeah.

Usman Raza: And my daughters are working with me, and I always say this to them like you are the temple of God. And remember, if you are building like Salt of Heaven or Respond Digital Media or Christian Marketing Expert, whatever websites you are working, they are not the representation of Jesus Christ. You are the representation. You are the one who are leading in those websites or in those organizations.

So remember always, follow the truth and always follow the scriptures and the teaching and those teachings must be a reflection in your everyday walk. And if you are not, if you are not able to show Jesus through your actions, then you are deceiving yourself.

Martha: Yeah.

Usman Raza: There is nothing meaningful.

Martha: It's funny because that really is a great segue into what I was just going to say next because the opposite is true. We're supposed to reflect Jesus Christ in our lives, but sometimes we have adversity in our work that is not a good reflection of Jesus.

And one example of how our faith really can impact our work is when things go wrong with our computers, what is that first thing that comes out of your mouth? How do you act? What is your response? Are they Christlike responses?

And that's when I think about SaferNet.com. They protect our computers, so we're able to have peace of mind that everything is being watched and filtered for our protection, and we don't run into that adversity that can be so frustrating. Their antivirus programs, their VPN, and their web filters are working behind the scenes to keep the bad guys out. This is a proactive way to keep everything in check and allow your faith to impact your work. Go to SaferNet.com.

Jim: Usman, before we go today, I want one last question. How is prayer a regular part of your business?

Usman Raza: Very good question, brother Jim, thank you for asking. It's the foundation of our faith, and as I had already shared, like prayer has been a key and we normally, a majority of believers and Christians pray only when they are in trouble or in a need of talk with God. But I have understanding in the nine years of the ministry and the business, almost both have been running like twins. God given me the vision of ministry, God given me the vision of business. So at the same time, it's like my twin babies, I was sharing like, and God has given me twin blessing. The spirit is same, but gifts are different. We all have different gifts. So the prayer is a key thing to us, every single day.

And I remember on the day of resurrection Celebration last year, I was loaded with lot of topics and I was facing hard time like, which topic I should preach on the day of resurrection? It's important day, and every year it's important and every day we have to share the power of resurrection of Jesus through our life.

So I was questioning. I wake up, normally I start my prayer on my bed. I am not in a like active mode. I am still sleeping. My body is in a normal, relaxed mode, but my eyes are open and I'm praying. I start praying the moment my eyes are open, again, I start praying to Jesus.

So I was praying and he spoke to me. He said to me, I am your king and you are my kingdom. Prayer is not just a one side communication, it's a both, two way communication, right? We just normally, we pray and ask and praise God and do you know, a lot of things in prayer. But what I do now, I listen more instead of speaking to Jesus more.

I listen more what he has for me every single day, is more important for me. So I was looking for that topic. And he said to me, I am your king and you are my kingdom. Wherever the king is, the kingdom is there. And he said to me, preach on that on the resurrection day. I am their king and they're my kingdom.

And this is not just every single day when we've met to our client in the business meeting. Whether, whatever, even though my business partner told me that it's not legal in the United States to ask people about their faith, especially when you had a attorney, student attorney or interview, and you call somebody, you, you can ask their name and other details, but never ask them what faith they believe in and especially when client are - we know whatever denomination or background they have, we start with prayer. Whether he's a bishop, he's a pastor, or he is a whatever faith or denomination he has.

So we start with the prayer. And from the prayer we feel like we are handing over to Holy Spirit whatever he has, as with that connection. And that's being my experience, lead to a fruitfulness of our communication and our efforts working together. And that makes us like we are really not just doing a business or earning a profit, but actually helping people to know God better, and also serving their divine given purpose.

Jim: Yeah. We call that here in the United States, a biznistry.

Martha: Business and ministry together. BIznistry.

Jim: That's right. Usman Raza, there's so much we could talk about. We're so grateful for you taking some time, really in the middle of the night, from Pakistan to talk with us. We're so grateful. We're so grateful for you and Asma and how you wanted to take iWork4Him to your local community, and we're grateful to partner with you as you also work on our social media for iWork4Him. Thank you so much for being with us today on iWork4Him.

Usman Raza: Same here. Brother Jim and Sister Martha. Pleasure to have share my heart and it's felt so light and I'm thankful that you had shared that opportunity with me so I can share my heart with more people in the United States and worldwide. And thank you so much.

Jim: Yeah, you bet. You've been listening to iWork4Him with your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. We're Christ followers. Our workplace, it's our mission field, but ultimately iWork4Him!