Doing Business God's Way: Dr. John Kim on Hearing from God in Investments
Summary of Heaven Meets Earth Podcast Episode - July 7, 2025
Guest: Dr. John Kim (MIT PhD, Investor)
The MIT Transformation: From Intellectual Flatline to Divine Breakthrough
The Crisis:
"I may not have biologically flatlined, but I did feel like I had intellectually flatlined... I was the valedictorian of my high school class and candidly never had to study that hard to do so... I did my undergraduate at Harvard and I probably would say in retrospect that I didn't have have to work that hard at Harvard either. And so when I got to MIT I thought I was pretty smart and I found out pretty quickly that actually the kinds of people that come to MIT for their PhD are kind of on another level."
The Desperate Prayer:
"I was in the MIT Student Center and I said, 'God, if you're real, you got to do something. You got to rewire my brain.' I don't know if it was the next day or maybe even a couple weeks later, but all I do know is that after that prayer was uttered and mind you, there was nothing elegant about that prayer, I've been a Christian for all of a couple months and but I was desperate."
The Miraculous Result:
"By the end of my first semester, I went from somebody who could barely understand their lecture notes, couldn't really do any of the problem sets, was struggling at the exams to the person that everything started to make sense. I was helping out my classmates, some of my very bright and accomplished classmates on a lot of the problem sets and it was like a John 8:32 moment. I was blind but now I could see."
The Tesla Investment: Divine Prompting in Business
The Initial Prompting:
"In 2012, Tesla was not a terribly well-known company. There was a long graveyard of companies that were attempting to make electric cars... We happened to take a test drive in a Tesla on a random weekday afternoon... I just felt a prompting from the Lord to actually look into this company... And it's not like God said go invest in this company. He just said look into it."
The Research Revelation:
"What we learned is that we came to certain conclusions about this company, namely that the real genius of Tesla at the time was that they were able to get 200 some odd miles of range out of the batteries that are no different than the batteries that go into your iPhone. Nobody else on Wall Street was talking about this."
The Investment Decision:
"We felt like we knew something or we had a belief that nobody else had. And as a result, we decided to back up the truck because when we feel like we know something or believe something that is very much at odds with everyone else, that's when we decide to get very very aggressive."
AI vs. Divine Imagination: The Future Competitive Advantage
The Evolution of Competitive Advantage:
"I used to say at some level the only way you are going to be able to compete successfully in the marketplace is to have access to the divine imagination. Because guess what? The knowledge that comes from places like Harvard, Stanford, MIT, all the greatest strategies, they're out there in the public domain. There's really not there's no advantage in having those things anymore."
AI's Limitations:
"Today I would take that up even another notch and say AI is going to be better than all of your best knowledge workers. AI I think is going to be better than your best doctor. It's going to be better than your best lawyer, better than your best financial consultant. And so at what point how will you distinguish yourself? And my answer is it's only humans are uniquely situated to actually hear from God. AI can't hear from God. I don't care what anyone says. That's where I draw the line."
The Competitive Edge:
"Only humans can actually access the divine imagination. And so I think it's going to be one of the key things... an active ongoing relationship with the Holy Spirit is I think going to be essential for anybody who wants to build something in the kind of world that we foresee over the next couple years."
How People Hear from God: Different Modes of Divine Communication
Pictures and Visions:
"There are some people who get pictures right literally as soon as they come before the Lord with something they'll get a picture and then somebody needs to interpret that picture... Pictures is how some people sort of hear from God."
Dreams:
"Others it's through dreams... I think it must be something about the fact that when we're asleep our defenses are down and maybe we're just able to maybe we're less distracted. I mean, who knows? I mean, we can speculate all day, but I know tons of people who just receive through dreams."
Scripture:
"Others, a lot of folks, and this is probably more how things work for me, there's a scripture that will come to mind. So, as soon as I submit something before the Lord and actually want God to speak to me about it, a scripture will arise."
Audible Voice (Rare):
"There might be like one or two people I've met who feel like they've heard the audible voice of God but the lion share of folks... it's much more vivid... and it's also more consistent with, I think, how it speaks about in the New Testament that we see through a veil."
The Stomach Growling Real Estate Story: Gideon's Fleece in Manhattan
The Initial Test:
"My wife and I were thinking about buying a place in New York City... we both got this sense that the Lord was telling us to bid a number that was much lower than the actual than what was offered at... And I said, 'God, if you don't want me to raise my offer for this place, make an audible sound from my stomach.' In that moment at that exact moment I mean it was literally like Gideon's fleece right and I literally heard like an audible voice from inside me."
The Confirmation:
"That night, I grabbed my wife. I'm like, 'Lovey, you'll never believe what just happened.'... I said, 'Lord, I know you gave us a number, but I think that if you really want us to be in this place, we're going to have to raise that offer by at least, I don't know, like 20, 30%. But if you want us to stay put, just make my stomach growl.' And I kid you not, the it was so loud, like the growl that came out of me, my wife like freaked out. She was like, 'Ah.' She was like, 'What was that?'"
The Prophetic Word:
"She said, 'Look, I don't know.' Like, and she's just trying to experiment with this stuff... And she's like, I just feel like God said that on the third day, it was a Sunday. It was a Sunday evening, we were praying. She said, 'On the third day, he will deliver the place to you.'... Wednesday comes around... I get a call from the broker... And we lived in that place for about 10 years."
Guidelines for Hearing from God
Three Essential Anchors:
"Whatever God is saying today has to be consistent with what he's already said in the scriptures. And so that's the first grounding point. The second thing is I often encourage people to when God calls you to when God reveals something to you, he often reveals it also to others that are sort of stakeholders in the decision... I would say stay tethered to the scriptures, stay tethered to your community, and then stay tethered to reality. Those are the three ways I think you're going to... and it's going to take time."
God's Character in Communication:
"God is not a God of doubt. I tell people that all the time. He is a God of clarity. He does not give us a spirit of fear, but of wisdom, of power, and of a sound mind. And if I have this sense of spiritual peace, even if something doesn't make sense in the natural goes against what I feel like I should be doing, I just get this beautiful sense of peace."
Radical Generosity: Beyond the 10% Training Wheels
On Tithing:
"I listened to a lot of Tim Keller when I first got to New York... the way I teach it these days to young believers is like the 10% is like training wheels... How many things are you willing to do that with if you don't have a framework of sort of the biblical narrative?"
True Surrender:
"I actually believe that and that doesn't just mean giving to 501c3s or other charitable endeavors... I think the posture that we're called to as sincere followers of Jesus is just total surrender of everything... I always tell people the two most rare things or two most precious things are your time and your wallet. and where you're spending those two things will tell me all I need to know about who you really follow."
The Charismatic Movement: Critique and Course Correction
The Pressure Problem:
"There's something about the way we've done a lot of these things that has set up what I think is an imbalance in how we do things. There's like these people that are designated as the ones who are supposed to hear from God on behalf of all of us. I don't think that's healthy... I think this is meant for everyone to to cultivate and to develop these gifts."
Prophecy on Demand:
"People start lining up to be around my wife to try to get a word like that... My wife now starts to feel some pressure... she felt like this was like prophecy on demand and she's like I this doesn't feel right to me."
The Celebrity Problem:
"You're not going to get invited back for our encounter conference next year unless there's this critical mass of people who say, 'Oh my gosh, my mind was blown by the prophetic word or by the healing that I experienced.'"
Investment Failures: When God Says No
The Developing World Investment:
"We were approached once by an entrepreneur who wanted to build businesses in the developing world... we backed him to the tune of several million dollars... I wouldn't say he was a total fraud but I will say that the investment essentially went to zero... I have these moments where I was like gosh I know that the motives were good here. I feel like I prayed not just I sought your face, not just individually. I know others sought your face."
The Humility Factor:
"Just because it doesn't always work out the way we want doesn't mean we shouldn't seek out after it. I actually happen to think that if anyone did have what they thought was a program or the way to do this I think that that would corrupt pretty quickly. So at a minimum I think this keeps us humble and it keeps us seeking and it keeps us in proper orientation to the king."
Final Wisdom: Direct Relationship Over Mediation
Against Spiritual Outsourcing:
"We all want I mean, it was like, you know, you read about the Israelites, they wanted someone to go into battle with them. These days, we want someone to mediate our relationship with God. And I think that breaks God's heart."
Personal Intimacy with God:
"Part of you becoming like who you are meant to be as a business builder is you got to develop this intimacy with God. And read everything and read widely, but do not outsource do not outsource your intimacy with God to someone else. Like become filled with the scriptures. Create plenty of quiet spaces to be like I mean Jesus often withdrew to lonely places to pray... God rewards a sincere heart for these things."
This interview powerfully demonstrates how sophisticated analytical thinking and spiritual sensitivity can work together in business decisions, challenging the false dichotomy between faith and professional excellence.