The 3 Essentials: All You Need for Success in Life (23 page)

BOOK: The 3 Essentials: All You Need for Success in Life

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2. What is in you, not what is around you, will decide your future.

Where you go in life and what you accomplish here on Earth depends upon what is inside you: your heart for God and your strength, commitment, passion, and vision. The government is not deciding your future, and neither is the economy, the boss, your spouse, not even God. In addition, accidents, failures, and sickness do not control your destiny or change God’s plan for your life. Where you will be next year or in five, ten, or fifty years is completely dependent upon what is inside your heart. We talked about this scripture in the Vision section, but it is worth repeating: Matthew 12:35 says, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.” What’s in your heart?

We often refer to athletes in this way: “He’s not very fast or tall, but he’s got such big heart!” Or “By all statistics, this team should not be winning the championship, but they have such a heart to go all the way.” So many times we see top teams lose in the final rounds because they don’t “show up” to the championship; they seem to play by rote and their edge for competition is dull. When you go to your job each day, do you show up full-hearted? Or do you come half hearted and lukewarm-hearted?

The scripture says the good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, will accomplish good things. A “good” treasure is one of faith, vision, hope, and a desire to do things God’s way. As a result, that good man brings forth good families, good influence, good companies, and good works of integrity and righteousness. He is an example for others to follow and an inspiration for those around him.

An “evil” treasure is a “fleshly” or a “worldly” treasure. This is the heart that is consumed with greed, selfishness, and lust, and this heart brings forth car wrecks, dysfunctional families, addictions, and disasters. This is a life that breeds blame, condemnation, doubt, anger, and bitterness. And in a lesser aspect, a bad heart can bring forth a lazy life or a mediocre life: a lukewarm life that doesn’t attempt to produce anything good.

What is the treasure of your heart?
This
is what will determine your future, and if you spend your time looking to the government, the economy, or the relative to bring change or improvement to your life, you are looking in the wrong direction. Whatever you don’t like about your life, or any area you are dissatisfied with, you must look inward for the answers, not outward. The circumstances around you may never change, but if you will rise up on the inside with faith, strength, direction and power, you will be able to change how you deal with those circumstances. Even if they never change, you
can
, and then you will overcome any problem or situation that tries to hold you back.

3. If you will give your best, you will receive God’s best.

Wendy and I were just two kids in our early twenties when we started this ministry. We truly were one-talent kids: not incredibly smart and not tremendously gifted. She came from a small-town environment and could not even imagine the extent of what we would be doing today, and I was a newly reformed drug addict on welfare. Not the most promising ingredients for success! But we went to work and gave our heart and lives to God. We laid it all out on the line; we trusted in Him and spent those first years giving all of our best, all of our finances, and all of our energy. As we kept giving our best, God began to give us His best and continued doing so beyond what we ever could have dreamed.

Luke 6:38 says, “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” How do you give of your time, your talent, your treasury? Do you give freely and generously, or just enough so you won’t feel guilty? So many Christians are giving with a measure of a teaspoon but they are expecting a return from God with a measure of a shovel. If you are giving with a measure of a spoon, then it will be measured back to you in the measure of a spoon. But if you want to increase in your life, you are going to need to increase in your giving.

Whether it is time, finances, relationship, mentoring, or volunteering, if you will give your best, God will bring you more than you have ever imagined. And your best may not be the same as someone else’s best, but this isn’t a comparison game or a competition. It’s a matter of the heart. Some people give what seems to be a large amount, but it’s nothing compared to their potential, while others give what seems like a little, but it is huge for their potential. It’s not about what you cannot do; it’s about what you
can
do.

Consider this passage from 2 Corinthians 9:6-8: “But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.” There are a lot of
all
s in that passage. Do you believe this? Have you renewed your mind to this truth?

Your ability to give is one of the biggest deal breakers for your success in life. God sees your heart, knows the attitudes you have, and fully understands your motives behind your giving. Let’s be people who live to give and who love to give. We have received freely from Jesus, so let’s give freely to everyone around us. If you will be a generous giver, abundance will begin to flow in your life as God brings you His very best.

4. You must live a balanced life, with godly priorities.

The world bombards us every day with what it believes is the most important priorities. When we buy into its media and propaganda, our lives begin to get out of whack, and we start putting value on things that are not valuable to God. As a result, we struggle, and aspects of our lives become difficult. Have you ever had a car get out of balance? When you drive, you bump around even on the smoothest of roads. It’s the same way with our lives; even though our situations may not have changed in the least bit, if our lives are out of balance, everything is harder and takes more effort.

Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” If Jesus said that was what we should seek first, then there must be something to seek second, third, and so on; there must be priorities. God is first, and everything must fall in line after Him. When we seek God and His ways, He will reveal to you the specific priorities of your life, but in general I think this is a good guideline: (1) faith, (2) family, (3) fitness, (4) finances, (5) fellowship, and (6) fun.

Throughout my many years in ministry, I have seen Christians become terribly unbalanced even in their walk with God. They assume God is first (which He is), but then they forget about the other five aspects of life listed above. We have had people stick their entire salary into the offering containers; some gave everything they had in savings to the church. Do you know what we did? We called them up, talked with them, and sent their money back. Most of the time, they were people who were new to the Lord; they had tremendous hearts to serve Him but did not have a mature understanding of giving. If they gave every penny to the church, how were they going to feed their children throughout the month? We were able to help them understand that God wanted a good life for them, not for them to just give all that they had to the church.

Once a married couple with several kids came up to me and said, “We believe God wants us to be at church every single night.” I said, “Well, you sure can do that, but Wendy and I won’t be here. We’ll be here for all our services, and then some, but we also want to make sure we are having time for our children and for each other.” If I spent every moment in church, how could I have a successful marriage or raise healthy children or cultivate good friendships? We need to stay balanced and keep godly priorities if we are going to experience all God has for our lives.

Sometimes people put “Fun” at the top of their list. They spend their time at sporting events, playing with their video games, or reading their suspenseful novels, but they have no time for God or for their families. I’ve seen entire families who are always about having fun in their many activities but do not have the time to sit down and share a meal together or to have godly conversation about their lives. Some put “Finances” at the top of the list. I heard a famous businessman say in an interview, “If you want success in your business, you will not have time for your family.” I yelled at the TV, “That’s a lie!” You can have success in every area of your life if you will maintain godly priorities. Unfortunately, this man is a self-fulfilling prophecy as he has had three divorces and has to petition the courts to visit his kids.

Proverb 11:1 tells us that God loves a just balance, and when we renew our minds to Matthew 6:33, we will be able to structure our lives with proper priorities. When you seek God first, and make the time to be faithful to your family, your health, and your church, at the end of the day you will see the tremendous blessings of the Lord in every area of your life.

5. Excellence is the way of the Lord in all you do.

“O Lord, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth, Who has set Your glory above the heavens!” (Psalm 8:1). God is an excellent God. The psalm says His name is “excellent” throughout all the earth. When it refers to God’s “name,” it means His character, His nature, everything about Him. Throughout the Bible, the names of God describe who He is and gives us insight into another facet of His being. Everything He is and everything He does is excellent, and His desire is for every one of us to reflect this quality through the examples of our lives.

Daniel was the epitome of excellence. He was a Jew in the midst of Babylon: a minority, a refugee, and an orphan. The ungodly men around him were responsible for killing his parents and destroying his nation, but he never gave in to excuses or to a victim’s mentality. In Daniel 5:12, we see the men of high rank describing him as a man with “an excellent spirit.” He had an excellent prayer life, excellent habits, and was an excellent example for his friends to follow. All the circumstances around him were negative, but because of his excellent spirit, he rose up in the ranks and the kings around him took notice. Whenever the nation was in serious trouble, it was Daniel who was called in to help. He never bowed down, never gave up, and the Bible refers to him as one of God’s greatest men.

Do you approach your life like Excellent Daniel, or are you a Sloppy Joe, sloppy in your habits, sloppy in your household, sloppy in your eating, sloppy on your job, and sloppy in your walk with Jesus? God’s Spirit lives inside every born-again believer, so to live our lives anything less than excellently violates the very being of who resides in our hearts. Whenever we decide to live in a sloppy way, a mediocre way, or an undirected, haphazard way, we grieve the Holy Spirit as He is trying to lead and guide us through our destiny.

We all desire for God to be excellent in our lives, but we will not receive this until we choose to live excellently for Him. Maybe you cannot be excellent in every area, but you can possess an attitude of diligence and determination. Perhaps you are not excellent at math or sales or in organization, but you are excellent at some things—focus on those. You may be like Daniel and have come from extreme difficulties and negative circumstances, but if you choose to possess an excellent spirit, you will rise up, just like Daniel, above the poverty, the tragedy, and the defeat. Let’s live excellently in our character, in our integrity and in our daily walk with God. Let’s be great at the gifts and talents God has given us and, to the best of our ability, go for excellence in all realms of life!

Renewal is the last of “the 3” but most certainly never the least! The Renewal Manual, which follows, is one of the most powerful tools I can offer you. It delves deeper into all three essentials—Faith, Vision, and Renewal—and demonstrates how to turn these spiritual concepts into supernatural realities in your life. If you will give yourself to the thirty-day program, you will discover the power of faith like never before and begin to dream dreams you never thought possible. You will learn to think like God thinks and to experience the exhilaration of being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ.