Achieving Your Potential Part 8 This week we were able to spend time with Ginnys (My wife’s) 2 Sisters, sister-in-law and two brother-in-laws at Terra Del Ray in the Oregon Coast. We stayed in her Brother and Sister in Laws home and were able to really relax and give some time preparing my heart for ministry. I am amazed at how God blesses us as a family and just want to continue to praise the Lord for the opportunities He’s given each of us to become better acquainted. I certainly understand the need for others in my life and enjoy watching what the Lord is doing for those we personally know, as they grow in there potential. I understand every day just a little more Romans 3:10-18 (NKJV) There is none righteous, no, not one; 11 There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. 12 They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one." 13 "Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit";"The poison of asps is under their lips"; 14 "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness." 15 "Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways; 17 And the way of peace they have not known." 18 "There is no fear of God before their eyes." I hear so often we are saved by grace and I say sure, but doesn’t God love everyone? Yes. That is the reason we go into prisons and jails ministering to the people that are lost in societies of the world, to bring them the good news of God’s grace extended to them. He is saying, come unto me all you that are weary and heavy burdened, I will give you rest. I have to accept His grace, His mercy, or I’m not forgiven. Lord help me to understand every day, moment by moment, I need your leading for my life, if I am going to achieve my potential in you. I like what James 5:1-8 (NKJV) says, 1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! 2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. 4 Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. 5 You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you. 7 Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. 8 You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Sin is a source of dissatisfaction, unrest, no peace, emptiness, and vanity, but faith not in self, but in God, secures ones self esteem. Note the following verses from the Bible and see what it does to your faith. John 3:15 (NKJV) that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 3 John 3:36 (NKJV) He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." John 11:25-26 (NKJV) Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" 4 John 12:44-46 (NKJV) Then Jesus cried out and said, "He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me. 45 And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me. 46 I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. Romans 10:8-9 (NKJV) But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Are you aware of who’s you are? Awareness is simply the clarity with which we perceive and understand everything that affects our lives. When awareness is limited; thought patterns are limited. That is the reason we need to be aware of our own natural limitations, in the world of reality and need to know how to expand awareness of opportunities to develop full potential. Let’s don’t lock out reality, we need the Lords help at all times. No two people have the exact same level of awareness; this accounts for the uniqueness of each individual. Even in our DNA. We all perceive the same world, but we interpret what we see differently. Awareness is the combination of all things since birth to death we have experienced. Questions we need to ask ourselves about awareness. 1. How is it that some people are never fully aware of all that is around them? Like Dick Cheney not aware of his hunting buddies, where abouts? 2. Some see new opportunities others don’t? 3. What is the reason some appear luckier than others? 4. What is the reason some are open to new ideas, and innovative projects? List some ways awareness is limited or distorted? A. Natural limits. 1. Sight-sound or hearing-smelling-tasting and touching. B. Helps in making us aware. 1. Eye glasses. 2. Hearing aids. 3. Micro chips for the heart. 4. Hip and knee replacement. We can’t take or tolerate total awareness to all stimuli in our environment. We would be bombarded by thousands of sensory messages constantly and would not be able to handle them all. We have a DATA REDUCTION or filtering of data out in our lives. This is a group of cells in the brain, which monitors sensory messages given to it. It’s a natural filtering device that allows only “Personally Profitable Data or information and threats to get through to us. It allows us to receive only the messages of information that have PAY VALUE. I. Pay Value. 1. knowing what you want before we become aware of “How to get it”. A. Exact house B. Exact job C. Exact Income We need to get a clear picture of exactly what is wanted and open to our filtering system to the valuable information stored their. II. Picture you wants and the pay value to you? 1. Self Denial-- Matt 16:24-25 (NKJV) Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. Luke 14:26-27 (NKJV)26 "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. Romans 15:1-2 (NKJV) We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. 2. Subdue fleshly lust—Matthew 5:27-28 (NKJV)27 "You have heard that it was said to those of old,'You shall not commit adultery.' 28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Romans 6:5-7 (NKJV)5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. Next week we will look into what really is pay value and who is it based upon? |