UNLEASH

THE WINNER IN YOU

Discover The Biblical Principles Of Success

PAUL QUALIRA

Christian Commonwealth Publishers

**Lilongwe, Malawi**

UNLEASH THE WINNER IN YOU

Copyright © 2018 by Paul Qualira

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are from the Holy Bible, New

International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblical, Inc.™. All rights reserved worldwide.

Cover Design by: Aubrey Kasunda

Editor: Jessy Magawa-Qualira

Published by Christian Commonwealth Publishers

Lilongwe, Malawi

Table of Contents

Dedication

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter One: The Principle of Thinking

Chapter Two: The Principle of Confession

Chapter Three: The Principle of Faith

Chapter Four: The Principle of Imagination

Chapter Five: The Principle of Vision

Chapter Six: The Principle of Purpose

Chapter Seven: The Principle of Planning

Chapter Eight: The Principle of Action

Chapter Nine: The Principle of Focus

Chapter Ten: The Principle of Habit

Chapter Eleven: The Principle of Discipline

Chapter Twelve: The Principle of Persistence

Chapter Thirteen: The Principle of Knowledge

Chapter Fourteen: The Principle of Management

Chapter Fifteen: The Principle of Association

Chapter Sixteen: The Principle of Mentorship

Chapter Seventeen: The Principle Of Excellence

Chapter Eighteen: The Principle of Humility

Chapter Nineteen: The Principle of Attitude

Chapter Twenty: The Principle of Change

Chapter Twenty One: The Principle of Confidence

Chapter Twenty Two: The Principle of Gratitude

Chapter Twenty Three: The Law of Forgiveness

Chapter Twenty Four: The Principle of Growth

Chapter Twenty Five: The Principle of Patience

Chapter Twenty Six: The Principle of Detachment

Chapter Twenty Seven: The Principle of Prayer

Chapter Twenty Eight: The Principle of Petition

Chapter Twenty Nine: The Principle of Balance

Chapter Thirty: The Principle of Reciprocity

Chapter Thirty One: The Principle of Seed-time & Harvest

Chapter Thirty Two: The Principle Of Service

Chapter Thirty Three: The Principle Of Season

Chapter Thirty Four: The Principle of Synergy

Chapter Thirty Five: The Principle Of Love

About The Author

# Dedication

To My Wife Jessy, My Daughter Dorothy, and My Son Evaristo-Ntchindi

# Foreword

It is a foregone truth that everyone wants to succeed in life. For a long time, however, success has, whether knowingly or unknowingly, been conceived as esoteric, a preserve of the 'graced few'. The situation seems to worsen when we are in the Christian circles where the promise of eternal glory makes many misinterpret the Scriptures to justify their unfortunate conditions and condemn riches and prosperity. Consequently, those who do well materially in the believing community are victims of scorn and name-calling instead of being celebrated.

On the other side of the spectrum are those who have for a long time worked hard to change their unfortunate conditions. They have read, consulted, prayed and fasted but no significant changes seem to register. A deluge of questions has tended to haunt them: am I cursed? What is it that I have not done?

Frankly speaking, thinking of success exclusively in terms of money or material things is gross injustice done to the _word_. As a matter of fact, there is more to success than having fat bank accounts or many physical assets. Ostensibly, that is the mentality that has pervaded in all circles of life: believing community and secular world alike.

As if noting this gap, Mr. Paul Qualira shows up not with "secrets of success" (for I believe success is NOT a secret) but with "Biblical Principles of Success". For starters, Mr. Qualira is a dynamic visionary man who exudes excellence in the things he does. It goes without saying therefore, that this work reflects not only what he has stored in his head but that which he lives by. He shares lived experiences and insights from the Bible which are making a significant difference in his life.

In the "Biblical Principles of Success", Mr. Qualira succinctly but clearly exposes the age old principles against which human beings fall. Since they are principles, they can only be obeyed for, unlike human laws which are subject to alteration, compromise and maneuvering, they cannot be bent to accommodate anyone who walks in their disregard. This, clearly, takes real success to the door step of every house, every hotel room, every classroom and every office of the individual who grabs a copy of his or her own of this book.

Crowing it all, the book does great justice to acknowledge the source of all we are and all we have: God. This gives a healthy and an honest picture of what it means when we say someone has succeeded. The book is as comprehensive as it is didactic and as forceful as it is enlightening. This, shall be one of the greatest masterpieces of holistic excellence in Malawi and beyond to as many as shall identify themselves with its contents and wisdom.

**       ** **       ** **       ** **       ** **       ** **       ** **       ** **       ** **        ** **~ Matthew Phiri C. O.**

                                                      Author & Youth Leader

Take time to consider your surroundings, you will observe many things changing and developing. You will see that your environment is surrounded by things that in each passing moment they are changing. It seems to me like the universe is built on principles of change. Change that is twofold; either stirring upward or downward; getting better or worsening; upgrading or downgrading – all are life happenings. When you look at these things you may think that they are merely or mere probabilistic happenings – just random events happening in this our complex universe. A tiny seedling growing into a big tree that you rest on under when tired, the rain falling in its every season, the soil eroding with the rains, the birds singing in your beautiful morning, the dogs barking at the stranger; and all other happenings around you – they all seem so normal yet at the same time random.

Life success is not an event that you should attach probability to. Life success is more consequential than it is coincidental. Let's consider the success of a mango tree, whose ultimate success is its fruits – the mangoes. One would think that the mangoes in his bucket are coincidental to the season of mangoes, and forget that some mango trees have not produced mangoes in the same season. There are many principles and laws that the mango tree is made subject to, so that it produces the mango fruits. The mango tree will not produce unless it is subject to those laws that apply to its species. For instance, it has to respond to tropism, phototropism (response to light), geotropism (response to gravity), chemotropism (response to chemicals), hydrotropism (response to water), thigmotropism (response to mechanical stimulation), traumatotropism (response to wound lesion) and galvanotropism or electrotropism (response to electric current). The mango tree must respond to all these stimuli in order to achieve its goal of fruit production. Interestingly, these things are built within the mango tree even before it becomes a tree. There are inbuilt principles in the mango seed that once sown into the soil it responds to all environmental stimuli and adapts for its success.

Within every creature are built responses to every environment. These are inbuilt abilities to withstand environmental changes for its own change – growth. Growth is change, and success equally is change. There is no success without change. In each one of us (humans) are built laws that if "we are willing and obedient" to them, we will surely eat the fruit of the land. Many are situations but we are built for winning, we just need to discover how. Paul Qualira has in this book expounded with great depth the principles that guarantee success of mankind. What is more profound in this book is that he has taken his principles from the Manufacturer's manual – the Bible. If we want to be assured about the success of operating a project in windows computer, we better ask the manufacturer. It is the manufacturer who has the guarantee for the success of his product. Our Maker, God is the only one qualified enough to lead us to the path of success; and the principles to such an assured success are in His manual – the Bible.

This book is written by a man who himself is a student; he studies and learns. This is to assure you that the laws written in this book are not just fantasies but proven and time-tested principles that are to assure you success when followed. Enjoy the book.

~ Patrick Tsoka

Author & Business Coach

# Acknowledgments

This book would not have been written without the support from God and my family. I greatly value the presence of my wife and children in my life. You are such a great source of joy and encouragement. God has brought heaven into my life through you (Jessy, Dorothy & Ntchindi)

I thank God every day for connecting me to Pastor Fanny Kasomekera (Mchezi Revival Centre). You are such a visionary leader and you always challenge me to be better and to dig for more. I appreciate your support towards the writing of this book. Every time spent with you revives my spirit and my soul.

Pastor Chiyembekezo Jim, your encouragement and advice has played a big role in the writing of this book. Many thanks to you.

Great many thanks should go to Chithira Nkhoma, Patrick Tsoka, Matthew Phiri and Ernest Mhonjo for their valuable input and encouragement. You are a great influence to me through your life and wisdom.

Thank you Alinafe Zimpita, Winnie Nyirongo, Mada Mwandoloma, Makhalo Kasomekera, Ernest Muza, Chifuniro Kandaya, Joshua Benito, Winnie of Blossom. You are a blessing to me in many ways.

My life has been greatly impacted by the big and lovely family (Cosmas Qualira, Raphael Qualira, Dominic Qualira, Mr. & Mrs. Gausi, Mr. & Mrs. Nkhoma, Prof. and Dr. Chirwa, Mr. & Mrs. Mwamtowe, Mr. & Mrs. Malota, Sosten Phiri)

May I particularly acknowledge Pastor & Mrs Jones Phiri (Lirangwe Grace Temple), a man of God, who won my soul for Christ at the time when my life hit rock bottom. You helped me know Jesus. I owe my life and marriage to you, Pastor. You never gave up on me even during the times when I made it humanly impossible for you to do so. You showed me what it really means to show the love of Christ to a lost soul.

I just cannot close without acknowledging Ana Maria Ferraz De Campos. You have awakened in me a spirit of sensitivity to the needs of people around. You are a model of excellence at work. You do not just teach excellence, but you actually live a life of excellence. You have impacted my life in greater ways than you can afford to imagine.

Above all, the Late Dr. Myles Munroe, Dr. Mike Murdock, Bishop T.D. Jakes and Bishop David Oyedepo have had a lot of influence on my Kingdom outlook. This book is a product of their influence. I will never regret knowing these four God's Generals.

May God receive all the Glory and honour!

# Introduction

Why is it that so many Christians are poor and struggling with life while a greater number of non-Christians are topping the lists of the people considered to be very successful? Could it be that God meant the Christians to live a mediocre life? Could it be that mediocrity is core aspect of spirituality? Well, I doubt this just as I doubt the view that wealth is a sole definition of a Christian life. But don't be so quick to judge my skepticism. Walk with me.

I have spent considerably many years thinking mediocrity is probably a model of a Christian life. This thought, I must say, was reinforced by what I saw around me as I grew up. For some reason, I grew up thinking that being prosperous is somehow evil that poverty or lack was seen to be a very spiritual state of life, a life of humility.

With time, this line of thinking about God and Christianity started to crash down as I also started to reflect on the nature of God and why he created humanity in the first place. As I was listening to a teaching by Dr. Myles Munroe on the book of Genesis, I started to think more and more about why God created us and why He put us on earth and not just make us stay where He is, in Heaven.

The more I read the Bible the more I became convinced that God never does anything on random. The more I read the Bible, the more I started realizing that there is more to life than what we settle for. There is certainly something very unique about the human beings that God had to first prepare the environment before He created the man. There must be more to the idea of God creating man in His own image. It really does not take much thinking to realize that God has man at the centre of His heart. Well, He could have made animals in His image, but no, He chose man.

But what does it mean to make man in His own image and likeness? In the simplest terms this means we have the nature of God. We take after the character of God. This is because we are defined by the very substance of God, which is the Spirit. There are many aspects that describe God's nature, but for the sake of the discussion let me just pick one aspect, which is God as Creator. If God is a creator, it also means we are creators because we take after the nature of our father (Like begets like).

Back to our issue. Why is success very uncommon among Christians as compared to non-Christians? Could it be that we define success differently? Well, this could be part of the reason perhaps. But it really is not rocket science to realise that if the Christian is barely surviving and worse still begging from the non-believer then something is amiss. Obviously it is faulty to define success by the amount of wealth one has accumulated. But it is similarly faulty to think that a person living a life of lack, stress and anxiety is living a successful life. While these may be episodes in everyone's life, we are not meant to settle for such kind of life.

God created us for dominion on this earth. This simply means a life of unbeatable success. If we are to break down the concept of success we would be meaning a life of prosperity in all areas of our life (relationships, finances, marriage, family, work, academics, health). In short to be successful is to be able to walk in God's path for our life and giving the best out of what has been deposited in us for His Glory.

But why is it that SUCCESS is hardly a reality in many of us Christians? Of course this has nothing to do with God, because God's will about humanity is very clear. He wants us to prosper spiritually as well as physically. So why are we still so poor despite praying to God every day? Why do we live a life of failure even though we believe in Jesus? We have perhaps fasted many times so that God could deliver us from the life of lack and dependency on other people? If this has been your question, then you are reading just the book you need to be reading and you have picked it at just the right time. While success can be defined in many ways, but the essence of true success is defined by the purpose for our life. If we are walking in the path that was designed for us to walk in, then that is Success. When one walks in God-ordained path, success becomes a natural result. Here success is viewed from a holistic point of view (mentally, emotionally, spiritually, socially and physically). This manifests in one's relationships, work, finances, family.

This book is based on the biblical view that Success results from following a set of principles/laws that God ordained at the birth of time when He created the Universe and humanity. God established certain timeless laws/principles that govern life. These laws or principles work for everyone who obeys them. This means these God-ordained laws work even for the non-believer and believer alike. So if our life is void of success, it simply means we have been violating certain laws that guarantee success. God believes in systems. When He wants something done, He simply sets up a system in place. Take creation of humanity for example. All God had to do after creating Adam was to create a seed system that will take care of everything. He put a seed in Man to set the multiplication of mankind. Eve was made the incubator (create a good environment) of the seed. He created a seed that grows into a tree which bears a fruit which has seeds that bring fourth other trees on and on it goes. So in essence, there is a forest in one seed. God promised Abraham descendants as many as the stars in the sky because he put a seed in him. He said the same to Adam. There is a seed system in the animal kingdom as well as the plant kingdom. This gives us a quick view of How God operates. This book will look at the laws God established which, when obeyed, guarantee success just like an exact science.

Dr. Mike Murdock said something that really revolutionized the way I see God. He said there are two sides to Jesus. The **Person** of Jesus, which creates your peace; and the **Principles** of Jesus, which create your prosperity." What this means is that we could be in a good relationship with Jesus (praying everyday), but if we do not operate His principles (laws) we will still remain the same. The **Person** of Jesus saves our soul from Hell. He takes us to Heaven. The **Principles** of Jesus bring that heaven right here on earth (Jesus came that we may have life in abundance). We need to balance these two aspects of God. It is possible to go to heaven very poor, but that is because we choose to follow that path by ignoring His laws of increase. He never wills that we die poor (when we are poor we become a liability to society but God designed us to be an asset to society by being a blessing). His stand on that is very clear from the scriptures. Actually God wants us to have the best of both worlds (heaven and earth). He wants us to have life in abundance and also go to heaven at the end. But to be able to have the best of both worlds we need to relate to all the two aspects of Jesus (Person and Principles).

What I particularly like about these principles is that they work for everyone who obeys them. What this means is that our origin, family background, economic background is never an excuse. No matter where we are, these principles will work for us (God is no respecter of man). He only respects the one who obeys Him (faith in Him). It simply doesn't matter how poor my family is or how many times I have failed before. I can start my life anew by obeying God's statutes and rebuild my life. This book will look at each law/principle in detail and also show how our mind has been programmed by the enemy to violate these laws of success. With Scriptures, we are going to see what the Bible says we should do to reprogram our mind for success.

God expects us to rule the world as kingdom citizens, but the reality is sadly the opposite. It is time to wake up and start focusing on the clues God put for us to find so that we open the door that leads to unbeatable success. For a long time, the church has been waiting on God while the reality is that God is waiting for us. Moses had the same problem. He was waiting on God to do the parting of the sea while God was waiting on him to activate the power that was already put in him. God at some point had to ask him "...What are you waiting for...."

The Bible makes an emphasis on the necessity to obey the ordained laws. We need to meditate on them (keep thinking about them) and also speak them.

Keep this book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful"

(Joshua 1:8)

We need to **think** about them, **speak** them and **practice** them. This is the simple formula of success. It is only through the observance of these laws of success that we are assured of a life of good success. We need to put everything into its right place and have a proper perspective towards God. By leaving behind the laws of success for us to follow, God has declared that success is therefore for everyone regardless of family background, race, tribe, economic status. In principle, success can never be monopolized because the essentials of it are deposited in every one of us, we simply need to activate the laws (with the help of Jesus).

It is clear from the Bible that when we practice the laws, we get everything we want because the laws are designed to respond to anyone who triggers them:

And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight."

(1 John 3:21)

God will never be the reason for our failure. He put everything in our hands. His Grace takes us to any place as long as we have faith in His word (Principles). Grace responds to our faith, and we know faith is expressed in action. Here I am not referring to actions of the flesh (human effort without reliance on God) but actions of faith.

What I love about God is that He always starts from where we are. He designed life in such a way that no one will ever be in a position where he or she does not have what it takes to move up the ladder of success. We always have the raw materials of success within us. These may be in form of talents, gifts, capacity to learn new skills, service, prayer, and many others. We can make a turn-around at any point in time. Usually, when we come to think of turning around, that's the perfect moment for us to respond. He tells us to forget the past because He begins a new thing in us. We may have disobeyed many laws before but that should not be an issue anymore because He is ready to forgive us and give us a fresh start with Him. His Grace is available and sufficient.

It's time to discover the things that have been hindering our growth spiritually, physically and mentally.

# Chapter One: The Principle of Thinking

"Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts"

******************************

Proverbs 4: 23

"You are a living magnet; you invariably attract into your life the people, ideas and circumstances that harmonize with your dominant thoughts."

******************************

Brian Tracy

The Power of the Mind

The Law of Thinking is a foundational law that determines the direction a person takes. The Mind is God's greatest gift ever given to man. For a long time, the mind has been viewed as the most mysterious thing ever created by God. But perhaps that's not a fair view of the mind.

One great scientist once cautioned that we need to be careful how we label things because the way we label a thing determines how we understand it and how it supposedly behaves. When we see a person to be cruel we tend to see only the things that will confirm our attitude and perspective. And the mind will always make us see the things we want to see.

What if the mind is not mysterious but just wonderfully amazing? What if God left the clues behind? What if there is no such thing as a mystery in the mind? What if the mind is governed by some law(s) intentionally ordained by God Himself (let's not forget that there is no other creator apart from God)?

God never creates and releases anything without a user manual. Everything He creates, He also reveals its workings. The Bible is a blueprint that reveals God's mind and intention on everything He creates. He put principles in the Bible which are the clues we need if we are to better understand anything He creates.

God left all the details of the Mind-Design in the Bible. If we are to use it with maximum productivity, all we need to do is just understand the laws He set into motion for the optimal functioning of the mind, which is the driving force of life.

A deeper understanding of how the mind works allows us to understand why we do the things we do and how we can make a U-turn in our life. Understanding how the mind works gives us an insight into how habits are formed and also why God designed them in the first place.

God is a purposeful being. As such, He does not create anything without a reason. He is not the kind of being that would wake up one morning and wonder why humans have emotions. Everything has a purpose in God's Grand Design of Man. Stay with me as we go through the Bible together and discover what God put in the Bible thousands of years ago for our own benefit. I hope at the end we will see the word DOMINION with a different eye. We will realize It's up to us to live a life of Dominion or not. It's not about God willing. He already willed and He wills as He always will.

The most foundational secret to life is in the understanding of our thoughts and the mind that thinks them. All of life is centred and driven by the mind and its thoughts.

The wisest man ever to have lived on the planet (King Solomon), talked about the mind and thoughts. Jesus cemented the idea and Paul the Apostle emphasized it. There is really something about the mind. It is the centre of all there is about man.

Psychologists have for a long time tried to understand the mind. We must admit they have discovered a lot about this masterpiece of God (All truth is God's truth). Some have theorized about its workings. But what picture of the mind does the Bible paint?

The mind has two parts, the conscious and sub-conscious. These two parts have a particular function which they play. We must note however that the Bible refers to the sub-conscious mind as the heart (we know that in reality the heart pumps blood not think). The Bible uses the concept of "heart" because it is symbolically associated with emotion. Emotion is the driver of all behavior. It is the vehicle of faith. The heart is the powerhouse of man. It controls all the experiences and actions of a person. But before we talk about the heart (Sub-conscious), let us first look at the conscious mind

The Conscious Mind

This is also described by psychoanalysts, theologians and philosophers alike as the rational mind. It is actually the part that we use to reason. It gets information from the five senses (seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, tasting). The mind works on these sensory inputs and attaches meanings to them. The contents of the rational mind depend on what we choose to feed it with (mainly what we hear and see).

The rational mind uses a logical framework and it is the part of mind which has capacity to reject or accept information that comes to it. This capacity to reject information is the very reason God instituted Human Free Will. Through the use of our free will, we choose to feed the mind with negative or positive things. In other words, with free will, we choose to serve God or Devil; we choose to love God or despise Him; we choose life or death; we choose success or failure; we choose faith or fear. Choice (free will) is to be seen as a gift not a burden as it is usually conceived.

The Sub-Conscious Mind

Also known as an emotional mind, the sub-conscious mind is the part of the mind that controls our behavior and our life in general. It gets information from the conscious mind and attaches emotion to it. It sends information to the body which triggers emotions (feelings which may be positive or negative) that govern our actions or behavior. If the information it receives from the conscious mind is positive, it sends positive emotions to the body that enables a person to act positively. Whatever we focus on determines the kind of feelings and actions. If we dwell on the negative aspect of the situation, the subconscious sends negative message to the body which triggers negative emotions (fear, anxiety, stress, hesitation). And whatever we focus on magnifies, which means focusing on problems magnifies the problem. The opposite is also very true.

This part of the mind also uses a logical system but it does not question what it receives. It simply does not have capacity to differentiate truth from fantasy. All (reality and imagination) have the same impact. This is why you experience fear, anxiety or even pain when you are watching a movie that depicts violence. The subconscious mind just doesn't have capacity to know whether something is real or not (we consciously know that a movie is not real, but the sub-conscious mind cannot see the difference hence the emotions we experience). It simply responds depending on the nature of information it receives. If you think about something negative it will give you a negative feeling regardless of the fact that the thought is not based on fact. You may have heard about Placebo Effect, which is the mind's power to heal based on the deception of taking what may be seen as a powerful drug (which is not even a drug). Here the mind responds as if the dummy drug is actually a powerful drug and performs wonders. Remember when you were a child and were alone in the dark room looking at a belt on the floor which looked like a snake. You were so afraid until you discovered it wasn't really a snake but just a belt (you may even be re-experiencing the fear you felt as you think about that event). Just imagine the fear you felt but it was only a belt.

We nearly cry when we watch a sad event in a movie. The subconscious mind does not see this event in the movie as just an act but "real" that's why you find yourself shedding tears. How amazing the mind is! All this was designed by God for a purpose. God never plays a dice.

The simple operational rule for the sub-conscious mind is "Negative produces negative; positive produces positive. This rule works whether something is real or just imagined because the difference is not noticed by the subconscious mind.

You can compare the sub-conscious mind to the soil and the conscious thoughts to the seeds. It just receives and germinates every seed (thought) that falls on its ground and brings forth fruits of the same kind (like begets like).

This mind has power to crystallize what it receives from the conscious mind into habits, reflexes, beliefs that further create paradigms. A paradigm is the mental program that controls our actions (behavior). A negative paradigm is a mental program that compels us to do things that we usually do not want to do (The bible calls it a stronghold that propels a bondage). The devil uses this system to trap people in bondage.

Paul the Apostle talks about this stronghold (paradigm) that originates from the sin nature (worldly thinking pattern - bondage).

...For even though desire to do good is in me, I am not able to do it. I don't do the good I want to do; instead, I do the evil that I do not want to do

(Romans 7: 18-19)

Here Paul is describing the struggle he had before Christ ruled in Him. He later tells us how we overcome the struggle:

"Those who live as their human nature tells them to, have their minds controlled by what human nature wants. Those who live as the spirit tells them to, have their minds controlled by what the spirit wants. To be controlled by human nature results in death; to be controlled by the spirit results in life and peace"

(Romans 8: 5-6)

Here Paul shows us that our mind is controlled by un-godly thoughts. This is what creates the negative or evil paradigm (mental bondage) that controls our actions. The spirit can only control us if we think Godly and positive thoughts. When we think negative and evil thoughts we invite the spirit of the enemy that takes us slowly to failure (As we think so we become).

A paradigm can also be described as a mental program that commands the body to do certain things that are consistent with it. It works like a computer program that determines what the computer does. This means that the body cannot do anything that is not in line with the paradigm (mental program). The paradigm commands the body to act (behavior). These actions are what bring us the results we have in life. So if we are to change our life, we need to change the paradigm, and we change the paradigm by changing what we think. We change what we think by changing what we focus on (what we hear, watch, read and remember).

All the habits we have at the moment reflect our paradigm because a habit is always governed by a paradigm.

How Paradigms Are Formed

A paradigm is formed through the kind of content we feed the conscious mind. If what we feed our mind is content that is always negative, we build a paradigm that is characteristic of negativity. This paradigm creates habits that are consistent with it. Let's say for example that all that you have been feeding your mind is content that makes you see yourself as a failure, then the paradigm will be formed based on that. And what this paradigm will do is that it will command your body to do acts that are consistent with the view that you are a failure. This is what makes us to fear doing risky things, speaking in public, starting a business, making friends. The paradigm will form habits that maintain the mental status quo. Thus you will find yourself having problems making life changing decisions, failing to try anything big. Actually, we can say that habits reflect our paradigm as much as results reflect our paradigm. That's you may want to do well in class, but you have a habit of sleeping too much and not studying. You may want to have a happy marriage, but you have a habit of shouting at your partner (anger problem). We want this but our behavior goes in a different direction. Our desire to be good or to do good stems from the spirit of God in us, but we fail to do good because our subconscious is fed with bad stuff. Thoughts always win over good intentions, that's why we keep on struggling. The issue is not that we don't want to do good but that we do not change our thinking to align with the good we want to do or be. All the devil needs to do to trap us in failure is to keep us focusing on negative things so as to build negative thoughts, He knows our life is shaped by our thoughts.

When we fight with the paradigm (mental bondage), it always seems to win over us. Should we say that a paradigm is a problem that is beyond a man's solution? Of course not. God designed paradigms to work for our benefit. So if they are working against us then it's only because we are not seeing them the way God expects us to see and handle them.

Let's now look at God's perspective on the Mind and thoughts. He revealed the laws of the mind so that we could stop fighting against it and enjoy the freedom that comes with obeying the laws that govern the mind. Let's start with one of the greatest foundational law of life:

For as he thinks in his heart, so is he

(Proverbs 23:7)

Here God is showing us what controls our life. It is our thoughts that determine the direction of our life. God simply responds to the decision we make (the thoughts we choose to dwell on). This therefore means that if we are to manage our life well we need to manage our mind and thoughts.

The beauty of this law of life is that it does not leave us trapped. God always gives us a choice between life and death. The key word here is "choice". Now God would not give us a choice if we didn't have a capacity to choose. This is why He has given us freedom to choose the course of our life. What is so amazing about this choice is that He has put this ability in the conscious mind.

Our thoughts are always activated by the sensory input. These may come in form of images and ideas. These go straight into the conscious (rational) mind where they are processed. The information that has an emotional component or that has been repeatedly thought about is pushed into the sub-conscious mind where it forms beliefs, habits, attitudes and eventually paradigms. Now what this means is that if we are thinking about negative thoughts, it's these negative thoughts that seep into the sub-conscious mind (heart) forming negative beliefs, attitudes, habits and thereby forming a negative paradigm that commands the body to act in a negative way.

Let's just think of one scenario. When parents keep telling the child he or she is a failure and worthless, that child starts to believe those words. The child's attitude towards life becomes a negative one, such that even his or her habits are in line with that – He or she may be very lazy and always avoid trying anything. Look, the mind was designed in such a way that it can't command the body to act positively when the thoughts are negative. It always operates in line with the nature of the dominant thoughts. So in simple words, when we think positive thoughts we build a positive paradigm which makes us do positive acts that bring positive results in life. Similarly, when we think negative thoughts, we build negative paradigm which makes us act negatively bringing about negative results that lead to a negative life. This is what King Solomon meant when He said that our thoughts determine our life.

Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts

(Proverbs 4: 23)

What God is trying to tell us here is that if we want to have the life we desire we must think deeply and carefully what we are thinking about. Negative and evil thoughts can never give us a positive and godly life. This is simply against the laws of life; which God will never change. We really need to understand that God will never at any time bend His rules to accommodate our preferences. We may Love God so much but as long as we keep on harboring negative thoughts in our mind, we will continually be tying God's hand. He will not be able to do much in our life.

Paul the Apostle understood this law of mind, the law of life. God sent Jesus to die for us so we could be saved. But you may wonder why He still tells us to renew our mind. That the direction of our life is determined by our thoughts is something that will never change in as long as we are here on earth, because it's a law (God never changes). God keeps on telling us to watch what we put into our mind. He designed the mind to work on what it receives. We always harvest after the nature of the seed we sow.

So How Should We Manage Our Mind & Thoughts?

The Bible tells us to guard our heart (Proverbs 4:23). We have already pointed out that the heart is the sub-conscious mind. It's the part of the mind that has capacity to have faith and emotion. The part that controls our habits (behavior)

Now when the Bible tells us to guard our heart it means we need to control what goes into our conscious mind. The conscious mind is what receives everything from the senses. It's the only part of mind that can **accept** and **reject** thoughts. The subconscious (heart) mind does not have ability to reject thoughts, it simply accepts everything that the conscious mind sends its way. This is why God tells us to guard it because it is a very vulnerable component of our mind. It's a mental soil that is so fertile that it germinates every seed that falls into it. God wants us to sow only good seeds into this mental soil.

Now we know at least intuitively that God cannot tell us to do something He knows we don't have capacity for. He tells us to Guard the heart because He knows that He has given us the capacity for free will. With this ability we can choose not to think about certain thoughts. We can decide to think about helping that poor child instead of thinking a lustful thought. We can decide to think about our talents instead of thinking about the things we failed to do in the past. We always have an option of a positive thought no matter the situation. But because we have been fixated on negative thinking for so long we may think we don't have energy to change a thought in our mind. All we need to do is to train our mind to shift to something positive each time a negative thought comes to our mind. Joyce Meyer, in one of her books, said "You can't control what thoughts enter your head, but you can decide if they'll stay there". Thoughts are like birds. You may not stop them from coming but you can surely stop them from building a nest. The best way of driving away a bad thought is simply by replacing it with a good one, a godly thought.

Zig Ziglar rightly puts it that _"you can change what you are and where you are by changing what goes into your mind"._ This is simply very true because what goes in the mind determines what comes out of it. Consistency is the foundational rule of the mind.

Paul the Apostle tells us to renew our mind. Here God wants us to fill our conscious mind with Godly and positive thoughts which will then create a positive mental paradigm. This paradigm is what will make us act in a godly way. The only reason why God created habits is so we could naturally be inclined to doing things in His way. The enemy, however, turns the same paradigm system to work for his benefit, and our destruction.

The only way we can destroy this mental paradigm (bondage/stronghold) that control our behavior is through renewing the mind;

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind...."

(Romans 12:2)

The world has a pattern of thinking, which is the direct opposite of the Kingdom pattern. Satan does not create anything. He only uses what God creates, in a negative and evil way. He is able to do this because God created "freewill" so that we could choose life or death, Jesus or devil etc. All this is a battle which is fought in the mind through thoughts. God wants our thoughts to align with His thoughts. That's when our acts will align with His acts. The spirit of God cannot do any miracle in our life if our mind is still controlled by evil and negative thoughts. By telling us to mind what we feed our mind, God is telling us the secret to our success. The reason why we fail to overcome bad habits (addiction) even after being delivered is that we still feed the mind with negative and evil stuff (what we feed grows, what we starve dies). The prayer of deliverance cannot replace the obedience to the law of renewing the mind with positive thoughts and the word of God. They need to work together.

The Thought-Behavior Model

Let's look at the flow of thoughts and their impact on our life to better understand how these thoughts control the life we live:

Thoughts come into the mind in reaction to what we put into it (conscious Mind). This is through the five senses. The mind plays with this sensory input to form thoughts which are either positive or negative depending on the nature of the input. Sometimes this may be triggered by a past event (memory).

These thoughts seep into the sub-conscious mind (heart) where they form beliefs, attitudes, habits and paradigms. These are what really determine our emotions (anger, excitement, disgust etc.). And these emotions, which manifest in the body, trigger behavior which is consistent with the thought line. Thus if the triggering thought is negative, the emotion is negative, the behavior is negative and thus the result is also negative (according to the law of cause and effect). The opposite is true. We cannot run away from the fact that paradigms determine the results we get in life. All we need to do if we want to change our life is to change our paradigm. Tom Venuto, a life coach, eloquently puts it that " _The subconscious accepts commands most easily when they are given in the present tense, personal, positive format and when they are read and visualized repeatedly with faith, emotion, gratitude and an already-having-received attitude (and especially when you're in a physically relaxed state)._

_When a suggestion is accepted by your subconscious, this sets your body into motion and your automatic behaviors (habits) begin to change. When your behavior changes, your results begin to change"._

Another manifestations of the thoughts through the body is the mouth. The mouth will always catch up with our thoughts. What comes in must come out.

While a lot of the results we see in our life are a result of our behavior, much of this is verbal behavior. We must always remember that we are spiritual beings made in the image of God. We have inherited the nature and character of God. And one of the foundational character of God is that He creates through Words.

He created the whole world through WORDS. We also have the same power. What we see in our life now is a product of the words we spoke some time back. We speak things into existence because our words have creative power. But even the words we speak have their root in our thoughts. Every area of life is controlled by thoughts. Bob Proctor, a life coach, says that " _If you can control what you are thinking, you can take control of your life and destiny. Your destiny will never go higher than what you are thinking"._

How Words Find Themselves into Our Mouth

If we were to have a recorder that would record every word that comes out of our mouth on a daily basis, we would be shocked at how many negative words come out of our mouth. We have been programmed by the world system to worry so much so that we almost find it hard to live without worrying. It almost feels natural. We have simply been programmed from childhood to see the negatives in life. But this is against the Kingdom System which tells us the opposite:

"therefore I tell you do not worry about your life".

(Matthew 6:25)

The principle of confession clearly states that what we speak becomes reality. The principle doesn't care what comes out of our mouth. It simply just makes sure it becomes reality. This means we are the ones to control what comes out of our mouth. The Lord Jesus gives us a very deep understanding of the mouth and how we can deal with it:

"...for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things."

(Matthew 12:34-35)

Here Jesus is showing us that what we see come out of the mouth is simply a reflection of what is inside the person. In other words, there is no way a person who is full of evil thoughts can speak godly words. A person full of doubt cannot speak words of faith. This is in line with the law of consistency "Like Begets Like". A negative will always give out a negative and a positive will always give out a positive.

The tricky part about the power of words is that the effect of the words is usually not seen instantly. I was thinking about why I have been having financial problems for a long time. During my prayer time I remember asking God why Money seems to fly away from me. God simply said: Think back over the words you have said about your financial condition. I was convicted. I remembered the many words I said that built my situation of lack. Thank God, He gives us a second chance. He cancels all the limiting words we may have spoken over our life the moment we make a choice to start a life of positive thinking and speaking

When we read between the lines, Jesus is in a way telling us that if we want to control the words that come out of our mouth we know where we should be paying our attention. Our attention should be on the contents of the heart (Sub-conscious Mind). To effectively manage our mouth, we need to manage our mind because the mouth simply releases what the mind (heart) has. This therefore means if we want to control our mouth we should work on feeding our mind with positive and Godly things because these are what a person will speak. If we want to speak positive words (and create a positive life according to the law of confession), we need to start thinking about positive things. Fighting the mouth is the same as taking _"Panado"_ when you have Malaria. You only treat the symptoms and not the cause of the problem. Simply work on renewing the mind. The only way of killing darkness is by bringing light.

The Bible even tells us the kinds of things we need to be thinking about to live a successful and victorious life:

Whatever is fine, whatever is noble, whatever is pure, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things

(Philippians 4: 8)

Here the Bible is telling us to focus our mind only on things that are positive, things that will build us and people around us.

God who created the Mind, and so knows very well how it can function optimally, tells us to fix the mind on things in heaven. Heaven has no lack, disease, defeat, shame, limitation. We should get our mind off the negativity we may be surrounding our mind with. Focus on the positive things that reflect the environment of heaven. With the mind, God gave us power to bring heaven right here on earth. We can choose to live a life of joy and happiness. When we think God-level thoughts, we tune in to the frequency of the Spirit of God. When we think Godly thoughts we spiritually connect to the God-frequency. The result is always a life of miracles.

You have been raised to life with Christ, so set your hearts on the things that are in heaven, where Christ sits on his throne at the right side of God. Keep your minds fixed on things there, not on things here on earth.

(Colossians 3: 1-2)

Thinking about negative things will only bring more of the negative. No one has benefited anything from worry. We break the cycle by changing the paradigm and the paradigm is changed by thoughts. The great American President, Abraham Lincoln, discovered this timeless truth that _"When we change the input into our minds, we change the output into our lives"_

Building Success Paradigms

We change our paradigms from negative to positive through a number of biblical practices. All these practices are aimed at training the mind to develop a Godly mindset. This mindset is what programs us to always see God in a situation and not the problem. Such an outlook on life allows us to be overcomers in every situation. Let's now look at the ways of building a success paradigm, a biblical mental programming.

Positive Affirmations

In positive affirmations, you simply declare by faith the things you want to see, with a grateful heart. You may have wondered why God tells us to sing songs of praise. Affirmations may look like madness to one who does not realize their power. They use the creative power of the mouth to create what we want. David did this, every day. This allows us to build a paradigm that is in alignment with God, a success paradigm that knows no limits. The secret is to focus only on positive things and aspects of life, people and situations. Focus on building the skills, talents and gifts you have. Spend all your energy pursuing your goals not dwelling on the failures in your life. Just keep moving. As long as one is moving towards the direction of destiny, every step is valuable and builds on your success. Speak the reality you want to see and act accordingly. Don't just declare, act on the declaration as if it is already a reality. When we feed the "positive", it grows; when starve the "negative", it dies. It's a law.

Meditation

A paradigm is also changed through meditation. Meditation applies the principle of focus, which states that whatever we focus on magnifies. In meditation, you just focus on the positives, meditating on the promises of God on relationships, finances, health, marriage etc. The key to meditation is focusing our mind on Jesus Christ. As we focus on Jesus, He becomes magnified in our life and He consumes all troubling situations. But, when we focus on the negative areas, we also magnify them. The mind simply magnifies whatever it focuses on.

For meditation to be effective, we need to have a quiet time every day when we just focus our mind on the promises of God.

Renewing The Mind

Another way of changing the paradigm is through the renewing of the mind. It is the godly things, beliefs and ideas that build a godly paradigm. When we renew our mind, we replace the negative worldly thoughts (failure, jealousy, worry, anxiety, shame, sickness) with thoughts of life (joy, peace, laughter, success, love, victory, health). The goal of renewing the mind is to reach a level where we start to think like God in every situation. And to be able to think like God, we need to know His thoughts. We know God's thoughts through reading and studying His Word (Bible). We can also renew our mind by listening to Christian music, watching sermons, and reading Christian books (like this one).

As Zig Ziglar says, _"Every thought that goes into your mind has an effect to some degree"_. This emphasizes the significance of thoughts in our life.

Repetition

We can change the paradigm by repetitive behavior. Truth has it that repetition is the mother of habit. Therefore, if we want to build a positive habit and paradigm, we must keep on thinking and doing that good thing until a habit is formed. This is why the Bible tells us to have a lifestyle of doing things His way.

Emotionally Intense Events or Situations

Paradigms are also changed through a major event which is emotionally intense. This is usually out of our control. For example, the death of a loved one may force one to change the way one looks at life and the way one behaves. In most cases, God allows major events to occur in our life (He does not cause them, but just allows them for a good purpose) so as to change our outlook on life. This clears the path to God. An example would be a terrible accident where you have survived. In my case it was depression and the marriage I nearly lost. This wakes us up to the Love of Christ and makes us start a new life with Him. In short, some of the difficult moments we pass through are God's way of working on our stubborn paradigms. The intense struggles I experienced over a period of one year have completely changed the way I look at God, family, marriage, work, and finances.

# Chapter Two: The Principle of Confession

"A man's belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth; and with the increase of his lips shall he be filled. Death and life are in the power of the tongue; and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof"

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Proverbs 18: 20-21

"Whatever you have right now is what you have spoken about many times before. You will never have anything in this life that you didn't open your mouth to say".

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Dr. Mike Murdock

Words Create, Words Rule

Humans being spirit beings, have been created with creative power. This power is released through words. God created everything with the word.

By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

(Hebrews 11:2)

This same creative power of words is in all human beings since we are created in His image and likeness.

The reason God gave us this creative power is that we should create the environment we desire. In essence, every word is spirit and it creates that which is like it. If we speak negative words, we are emitting a negative power that will stop at nothing until it creates a thing which is consistent with it. A negative word will never create positive reality. God designed the universe to listen to the kind of word it receives. When you utter a positive word, you should expect nothing but a positive reality to show up. This is why Jesus tells us not to worry because in our worries we release negative words (it's impossible to worry and release positive words at the same time). Joel Osteen offers some practical wisdom: _"Don't use your words to describe the situation. Use your words to change the situation"._ Our words indeed have power to change the situation.

Like every system created by God, there is a positive and negative potency. This system is given into our hands to control. What this means is that we get to choose whether to create life or death, success or failure, abundance or lack, health or disease, defeat or victory. Everything is in our hands. The Bible is very clear about the power we have to change what comes to us. We really get to decide the kind of life we can live.

Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof."

(Proverbs 18:21)

There are only two pathways in this life: Life and Death.

The Life Pathway

This is the path that leads to abundance, health, peace, joy, confidence, victory and everything good you can ever think about. This pathway is activated by the kind of words we say. When we speak positive words we create for ourselves a pathway to life. Words are indeed building blocks of our life.

The Death Pathway

The path of death leads to poverty, disease, defeat, oppression, bondage and every negative or evil situation you can think about. This pathway is governed by the enemy.

Supply to our life is governed by the word that comes out of our mouth. If we have financial problems at the moment, just look back and think about the words you have been speaking describing your financial situation. It's those words that created more and more of lack that you are now where your words have taken you. Just check every area of your life and think about the words you have been speaking about yourself. Make no mistake, WORDS create and this always happens whether we believe it or not because it's a universal law that applies to all human beings. There is something about words. The mind is programmed to believe what comes out of our mouth. And we know that when the mind believes it constructs a behavior pattern that is consistent with the belief. Dr. Mike Murdock reveals this truth in one of his books: _"What You Keep Saying You Eventually Believe"._ This is very true

The good thing about the Law/principle of Confession is that we can always reverse our situation. The beauty of God's love is that He gives us a fresh start to start anew. The words we have been speaking in the past have made our marriage, finances, academic life, business, relationships, health and everything else the way they are now.

God does not expect us to describe the situation but change it with our words. He really doesn't need to be told the details about our situation because He sees everything. And Yes, the neighbor really doesn't need to know that situation because it's not Him/her who has your answer but God. And while we know that every answer lies in God, it can't come to us if we don't speak it because we are the ones who give God permission to do anything in our life. We may want God to visit our finances, but if our mouth is always speaking lack we are then tying Gods hands. He can't do anything as much as He may want to. This is because when God creates a law or system He makes sure He also obeys it. So when we really come to think about it, we cannot blame God if our situation is not changing. It could be that we have stopped him from intervening with our negative words, our words of doubt. We can change all that starting today by changing our words.

We must always remember that what we keep on saying we eventually believe and really we speak from what our heart is full of. We all know that Belief (Faith) is what brings the spiritual to manifestation. So when we keep speaking lack we start to believe that everything about us (wisdom, knowledge, understanding, finances, health, opportunities ...) is lack. This is what we get. God designed the universe to respond faithfully to what we believe and say. All the healings are directly connected to believing. Check all the miracles that Jesus performed. They were all connected to faith

The Bible warns us to mind what we say, because what we say really comes to pass. We must never retire from knowing that we are spiritual beings with creative power that is released into motion through the words.

Be careful what you say and protect your life. A careless talker destroys himself (Proverbs 13: 3)

God proves that He really wants us to have dominion on earth by the respect He gives to our free will. He always let us decide what our life should be like. He is so loving that He reveals the secrets to success by simply telling us what can work for us. God's speech of what works to man is condensed into the concept of LAW/PRINCIPLE. Whatever He tells us to do, that's what will make us succeed. This simply implies that whatever we disobey is what makes us fail. Bishop Tudor Bismarck always says " _If you don't want to see it, then don't speak it"._ The point he is trying to bring home is that our words should be speaking what we want to see. We should always be releasing positive words if we really want to build a positive life, a life of success.

God will never touch our mouth even when He sees that we are saying words that will invite destruction. This is because He preserves and respects our freedom to choose. But it really saddens him when we disobey because we suffer failure as that's what the system is able to give us.

The sad part about the principle/law of confession is that it still works on us even when we are aware of it or not. This is why God is sad that we are perishing because we do not know.

My People Are Destroyed Because of Lack of Knowledge

(Hosea 4: 6)

He can't stop the law and every other law. As long as we activate it with our words, it responds. The solution is to know how the law operates and start obeying it. Success is simply about practicing the laws. But since we can't practice that which we don't know let alone understand it, we need knowledge of how the kingdom operates. God never does anything on random. All things are created with laws that govern their functioning. The secret lies in discovering those laws and obeying them.

For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist."

(Luke 21:15)

Here we see the mouth being the weapon that defeats our enemies. But also note from the same verse that God will also give wisdom. This is because what determines victory is the content of our words. Wisdom lets us talk what will work. Without wisdom we speak words that trap us into defeat. This is why renewing our mind is very crucial. When we feed on the word of God we feed on the Wisdom of God. This is what makes us speak victory and words that are a solution to our situation.

The more we begin to realize that everything is decided by our mouth, the more we resolve to start watching carefully every word that comes out of our mouth. Joel Osteen once said that _"Your life follows your words"._ We really decide which pathway we take. When we speak positive words (Life) we activate the power of God and that which we speak comes into reality. Similarly, when we speak negative words (Death) we activate the power of the enemy and that which we speak comes to pass.

Every word has a frequency and it connects to only positive reality at that same frequency. Let's take an analogy of a radio. When you are tuning to a station you realise that every station has its own frequency. You don't have two stations at the same frequency. Similarly, positive words have their corresponding reality at the same frequency. You just simply can't tune in to negative reality on a positive frequency. This will never work. The law never changes. The Bible clearly states that what we get in life depends on the words that come out of our mouth and what we do (words and actions). We cannot speak " **lack** " and receive " **abundance** ":

Your reward depends on what you say and what you do; you will get what you deserve

(Proverbs 12: 14)

So our words are like Magnet, they attract everything that is in line with them. Positive attracts positive and negative attracts negative. That's how God designed the divine order of the universe. These laws will not bend to accommodate us. We need to bend to align with them, and then we will be guaranteed to succeed in life. These are the laws of life

Having understood the law of confession. Let's briefly look at how this law is connected to other laws. The law of confession tells us why life happens the way it does. But if we are to address the problem then we also need to look at where these words are coming from. If we can deal with the source of words we can ably manage the words that we speak. The root of words is the Thought.

"... for the mouth speaks what the heart is full of"

(Mathew 12: 34)

Here Jesus gives us a clue as to where we need to pay a lot of our attention. The mouth will speak what is in our hearts. The heart in the Bible, is what is referred to as the sub-conscious mind in psychology. It's where habits are located. It's where paradigms are located. It is here where faith is based because the sub-conscious keeps what we believe. Now if we want to control the words we speak, we need to control the thoughts we put into our heart (sub-conscious mind). When we think positive thoughts, the heart becomes full of positive and thus we speak that which we are full of. This is why God tells us to renew our mind so that we replace the negative and evil thoughts in our mind which limit our life. Our thoughts determine who and what we become because God designed nature to respond to what we think about, because that's all we talk about and of course that's what we do and that's why we get the results we get.

"A man shall be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth; and the recompense of a man's hands shall be rewarded unto him"

(Proverbs 12: 14-15)

The bible is always associating Words with Actions because what we usually speak we believe and what we believe we act upon.

# Chapter Three: The Principle of Faith

"But Without Faith It Is Impossible to Please Him: For He That Cometh to God Must Believe That He Is, And That He Is a Rewarder of Them That Diligently Seek Him".

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Hebrews 11:6

"God Never Responds to Your Need—He Only Responds to Your Faith."

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Mike Murdock

Faith: Greatest Power Given to Man

Faith is the currency of exchange between God and Man. We cannot get anything from the spiritual (where everything comes from) without faith. Faith is like the frequency that connects with God's spiritual frequency. Faith can also be compared to a hand that receives from God. Without the hand you cannot receive anything even when it is readily available and within reach.

The power of faith cannot be overemphasized. Faith connects us to the supernatural. Now what does it mean to have faith? Simply put, to have faith is to " **believe** ". And if we are to further break down the concept of faith, we come to " **action** ". We cannot really claim to have faith and yet not have action. Faith demands us to act in line with what we believe in. If I really believe what Jesus tells me I can do and yet I don't do, that wouldn't be called faith, would it? If I believe what Jesus says when He says that it shall be given back to me when I give, and yet I am afraid to give because of the situation of lack then I really don't have faith at all. Faith will always be followed by an action.

Jesus categorically stated many times in the Bible that with faith there is no limit to what we can do. Faith is that bridge that connects the physical to the spiritual.

We cannot possess anything, even if it is already given to us by God unless we have faith (belief and action). The Grace of God makes available everything we will ever need in life, but it is our faith that brings these into physical manifestations. Faith means stepping out to take what God is offering. You may be jobless or you may be single. The fact is that God has a job for you or a wife/husband for you. But if you don't step out and start applying for jobs, that job will never be yours in the physical. Similarly, if you don't go out and meet people, the wife or husband you need may not come. Action creates a channel through which God works. Most times we deceive each other that If God wants me to get married He will send a wife or Husband. If He wants me to have a job He will give me at the time He wants. Days go by, years go by and we tell ourselves that we are not getting what we want because God's time has not yet come. Well, this is true in some cases. But we should only be saying this after we have done the action or are doing the action, not just sitting on the sofa waiting for Mr. Right or Miss Right. It doesn't happen that way. At least not with God who respects the Kingdom Laws, which He established to govern the whole universe and humanity in it. Dr. Mike Murdock rightly puts it: _"God Never Responds to Your Need—He Only Responds to Your Faith."_ He really does know that we need a job, husband/wife, house, child. But He is waiting for us to take a step of faith.

We see many examples in the Bible of people who believed and took action. Abraham believed what God told him and took action. The woman who was suffering from the blood disease took a step of faith to receive her healing. That is, she took an action of approaching Jesus though it was not the tradition of the Jews. Jesus was moved by her faith (Matt 9:21-22)

The truth that all things are possible is not an overstatement. It means what it says

All things are possible for those who believe

(Mark 9: 23)

And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

(Matthew 21:22)

We are spirit beings and being such we are not bound by any kind of limitation except ones we impose upon ourselves through our thinking.

Oneness of Mind

Faith means having oneness of mind. The moment we start to waver, we have lost our faith and fear or doubt takes lead.

But when you pray, you must believe and not doubt at all. Whoever doubts is like a wave in the sea that is driven and blown about by the wind. If you are like that, unable to make up your mind and undecided in all that you do, you must not think that you will receive anything from the Lord.

(James 1:6-8)

Actions of faith are usually against the natural thinking of man. This is why God demands that we love him and serve him from the heart (sub-conscious). This is because the conscious mind operates from senses (walking by sight). But God expects us to operate from faith, without regard to senses (walking by faith).

# Chapter Four: The Principle of Imagination

_"And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have_ imagined _to do."_

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Genesis 11:6

"The only limitation to what God can give you is how far you can see. He can only do exceedingly abundantly based on what you see. The exceeding abundant of God multiplied by you seeing nothing is nothing".

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Bishop David Oyedepo

Seeing Without Eyes

All things are created twice. First, a thing is created in the mind and then it is created physically (manifested in the physical). Imagination is a creative exercise that creates things spiritually before they can find their presence in the physical. When God created man and the universe, He first imagined them at thought level and then spoke them into existence.

Imagination is the creative force in every human being that allows them to create anything they want. Whatever we are able to imagine is possible. This simply means the limits to what we can do is our imagination. Unfortunately, many do not use this very powerful faculty of the human mind.

What God will allow us to possess is limited by our imagination. We have the liberty of enlarging the limits of our imagination. All the great scientific discoveries have been the products of man's use of the God-given faculty of imagination.

Abraham could only possess as much as he was capable of imagining:

"Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are-northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you."

Genesis 13:14-17

Here God is asking Abraham to see with the eyes of his mind (imagination). He is giving Abraham the liberty to decide the magnitude of the blessing through his imagination.

And He brought him forth abroad, and said, "look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and He said unto him, So shall thy seed be".

(Genesis 15: 5)

God was simply trying to say that what Abraham was able to see, He would give it all to him. If Abraham had imagined little he could have gotten little.

There is so much power in imagination that anything imagined is capable of coming to pass.

And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do."

Genesis 11:6

Imagination taps into the spiritual realms of creation. God gave us this ability for imagination so that we could create the environment that ensures our success. He has left His creative power in our hands. He now works through us (He now resides in us).

God accomplishes what we create in our imagination:

Jeremiah, what do you see? And I said, "I see a branch of an almond tree." Then the Lord said to me, you have seen well, for I am ready to perform My word.

(Jeremiah. 1:11-12)

The spirit of God responds to our spiritual imaginations. God's power in our life is only limited by our imagination. Imaginations create the mental world from which goals and plans are crafted. So if our imagination is very narrow, our goals cannot be any bigger. Actually, goals will never go beyond your imagination. This was left in our hands. We get to decide how much of God's miracles manifest in our life. The Holy Spirit works on projects (formed in our imagination) not an empty mind.

Use your imagination to create the future you want. God is just waiting to make it come to pass. Watch out, the enemy uses the same imaginative power of the mind to destroy your future. Cast down all vain imagination by subjecting them to the rulership of Christ. We need to imagine life with a heavenly mindset (abundance mentality).

"Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth."

(Colossians 3:2)

The world is full of pain, poverty, disease, failure, and all forms of negativity. Focusing on the world around us will only trap us in failure. We need to realise that we are Citizens of Heaven brought to planet earth as ambassadors (Agents of change). We therefore need to bring heaven down, as Jesus teaches us in the "Lord's Prayer"

# Chapter Five: The Principle of Vision

"Where there is no vision, the people perish"

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Proverbs 29:18

"It is the amount of knowledge that you have that defines the size of your vision"

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Patrick Tsoka

All Conceivable Things Are Possible Things

Dr. Myles Munroe once said and I quote: _"You were born to achieve something significant, and you were destined to make a difference in your generation. Your life is not a divine experiment, but a project of Providence to fulfill a purpose that your generation needs. This personal purpose is the source of your vision and gives meaning to your life"._

God being a purposeful being, created everything with a purpose in mind. This purpose He had in mind is what led to the Human Design. And since His Grand Design was based on an interdependence mechanism, He created everyone in a very unique way. He made sure that his design of every human being corresponds to his purpose. It is no wonder therefore that we are all so unique.

The purpose God has for each one of us is what becomes our vision. This however does not mean that God will force us to walk in this plan He has for us. We, however, can be assured that walking in that path is what will give us sense of fulfillment and meaning. When we walk in His path we are guaranteed to succeed because His path for us is already anointed and is full of Grace.

God created man to follow of mental plan to get to his future. This is why He created the faculty of imagination. He wants us to get to our destination first spiritually before the future manifests. When we don't have a mental picture of where we are going, our mind takes us anywhere the wind leads us. This has been the cause of a lot of failure of nations and people alike. When we don't have a vision for our life we should expect the enemy to give us His.

"Where there is no vision, the people perish"

(Proverbs 29:18)

The people perish indeed because God created the mind to work with mental commands. The mind needs to be told where to go and it mobilizes all resources needed to get there.

There is the "God-given" vision, and the "man-given" vision which is, simply put, ambition. Vision brings the future into the present. The only vision that is worth pursuing is the God-given vision which is connected to God's purpose for our life. It should be pointed out that ambitions are not entirely a bad thing. When we pursue God's vision, God makes sure He makes our ambition (dreams) come to pass. You may want to have a big house and nice cars. All these are not bad, but we should focus our energy on serving God (seeking the kingdom) and God will take care of our ambitions. The Bible tells us that when we seek His Kingdom first, He will grant us the desires of our heart (our dreams).

How to Know If the Vision Is God-Inspired

There are three ways of knowing if the vision you have is from God. Firstly, God-inspired visions focus on serving people. A Vision from God focuses on making a contribution to people's lives. So if your vision is all about you then it's probably not from God. If our focus is on getting things to us, that's just selfish ambition not vision. It's really just a matter of priorities. God does not want us to focus on getting things to ourselves, as much as He knows we can have those things like houses, cars, money. But what He wants is that we focus on serving his people and all the things we desire come to us as a reward (they should not be our goal). The more we serve people with our gifts and talents the more God will reward us with material blessings.

Secondly, God-given vision seems impossible to achieve with only our abilities and skills. It always makes you feel incapable of achieving it (that's because He is the one to provide for it). If your vision seems very doable then you have some work to do. Challenge yourself by stretching your imagination. A vision from God is always based on faith not sight. The things may look impossible for you, but that's the whole point. It's not your vision, its God's vision put to work through you. We are just channels through which God uses. God will always provide for the vision He gives. However, this does not mean that you will just be waiting for Him to show up with money, idea etc. He expects you to put your gifts and talents to work. It is through your Gifts and talents that He will manifest His Supernatural provision.

Lastly, a God-given vision gives us a sense of fulfillment in life. We feel fulfilled as we pursue God-inspired vision because God designed us to do just that. A thing works at its best when it is used for a thing it was created for. Try cutting bread with a kitchen spoon. Well, you may cut the bread but with a lot of effort and the results would not be desirable. But when you use a knife to cut bread, you don't even have to use that much effort because it was created just for cutting. And yes, the results are fantastic. Similarly, we are the happiest when we are doing what God created us to do on this planet. We don't need to struggle because we are already equipped (with gifts, talents, skills and Grace) to do the assignment we have been given on earth. That's what real success is: doing that which you were created to do and doing it well.

We need to keep in mind that a vision has to be translated into a plan with clearly defined goals. Once it's done one needs to take action (more on the law of planning)

# Chapter Six: The Principle of Purpose

"For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future"

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Jeremiah 29:11

"I am here for a purpose and that purpose is to grow into a mountain not to shrink to a grain of sand, Henceforth, will I apply all my effort to become the highest mountain of all and I will strain my potential until it cries for mercy"

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Og Mandino

Purpose Precedes Creation

When God created us, He had a purpose in mind. He never does anything without the "WHY" of it. So when He decided to create you, He actually had all the questions answered and started creating you and me. What this also means is that He had to think about all the resources that will be needed for you to function perfectly according to the purpose He has for you and me.

This is one of the most comforting things about God. He has never by any means created anything without having a particular reason in mind. This is what gives us a sense of purpose which is all we need to live a fulfilling life here on earth.

The beauty of God's purpose for us is that it is the only thing that can truly make us happy and live a meaningful life, a life worth living. However, God does not force this plan on our life because He has given us freedom which He carefully and faithfully respects. As much as He wants us to walk in His path, we are the ones who have the final say. However, saying no to His plans has its own consequences. For one thing, God is not obliged to provide for alternative paths. This is why when we are not walking in God's purpose we are never fulfilled with whatever we may be doing. We may have one of the highest paying jobs, own many cars or houses, but if this is not in line with God's plans, these things only bring misery and emptiness in our life. We need to take a journey of self-awareness and get to discover who we really are and why we are here on earth. The great Greek Moral Philosopher, Socrates, once said _"Know thyself"._ Life is meaningless until we know ourselves.

We Are Not a Mistake

The fact that God does not create anyone or anything without a purpose in mind is evidence that we are not a mistake in this world. The moment we start to think about why we are created, we start a journey that leads us to the plan God has for us.

The question of where we were born, from which parents we were born, the colour of our skin, the status of our family, our experiences does not in any way affect this plan that God has. Actually all these factors are part of the plan. God has already created a path for us to walk in which leads to the fulfillment of His purpose for us and also our own happiness.

A better way of illustrating this is through a jigsaw puzzle which has a picture to be fixed. In order to have a complete picture, all the pieces need to be put in their rightful place on the board. What this means therefore is that missing only one piece makes the whole picture incomplete? Each piece is equally important in making up that one big picture. And the shape of the piece is unique in a way that no other piece can fit in that position.

Similarly, God has a grand plan to be achieved, but this cannot be achieved by one person. Each one of us is a piece in God's jigsaw puzzle (the grand plan). He designed us in a way that we will fit only in that one particular spot. Our personality, height, passions, the colour of our skin, our abilities, skills, our experiences are all making us into a shape that will perfectly fit into the puzzle. You have an assignment to accomplish which only you are best fitted for it.

No matter what you may be going through right now, which may be tempting you to think that maybe you are a mistake in this world, God will use all the pain, the failures and the weaknesses and bring out something good which will be your testimony and take you to higher places. Whatever God allows to happen is for our own good. All we need to do is trust in Him for He knows what we are going through and He knows just what to do.

He uses the experiences we go through to train us for the role awaiting us. He always has the best for us and He never leaves us no matter what we go through. The one thing that we need to remember always is that one's purpose is known automatically. One has to take an effort to find out. Bishop T.D. Jakes offers advice for one who may not know his purpose for life: _"If you can't figure out your purpose, figure out your passion. For your passion will lead you right into your Purpose"._ Passions will always lead us into our purpose for life. The things we are very passionate about are connected to the assignment we have here on earth. True passions do not die no matter what we go through. They can be suppressed but they will always come right up.

We Are Wired to Fulfil the Purpose

When God created us, He already knew our assignment. He built us ready for the assignment. You may not believe it, but you have a gift, or gifts that God deposited in you which will enable you to successfully accomplish His plan. However, these gifts are not automatically known by someone. Actually, many people do not know their gift. The enemy makes sure we do not know our gift by shifting our attention away from our abilities to those of others. This makes us feel inadequate and worthless most of the times. We spend half our life admiring other people's success instead of shifting the attention towards the self and start the journey of discovering what God has already put in us. Our success does not lie in our education (education is important), it is our gift that brings us not only success but also a sense of fulfilment and completeness

"Gift opens the way and ushers the giver into the presence of the great."

(Proverbs 18:16)

It is unfortunate that we spend many years studying for courses that have nothing to do with the path for our life. The best form of education is that which directly develops our gifts. This is why it is important to know the path for our life as early as possible so that we focus all our attention and energy on it. This is what leads to a truly successful life.

However, everything happens for a reason. It is never too late nor too early to find the path. It is not an accident that you are holding this book in your hand right now. God is speaking. It is time to start the real life

Everything about us is connected to the purpose for our life. Dr. Myles Munroe in one of his books talks about something very true. He says _"The greatest tragedy in life is not death, but life without purpose"._ He goes on to say that it is better to be dead and not have to know, than be alive without knowing why.

"Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be"

(Psalms 139:16)

Our personality, our voice, our height, our skin colour, our abilities and talents, our interests or passion in certain things are all part and parcel of the package that God put together within us so as to fulfil the purpose He has for us. This may shock you, but even our failures and mistakes are all calculated to get us closer to our assignment.

Accepting this fact, which is true regardless of our opinion and what other people may have been saying about us, does not only liberate us but also allows us to embrace who we are and thank God for making us part of His success plan. The moment we know and accept who we are, we start a journey that leads us into a successful and fulfilling life. This also liberates us from the mental slavery that imprisons us as we keep comparing ourselves to other people who are successful because they are walking in their gift area.

But maybe we need to understand why we compare ourselves to other people. There are perhaps many reasons why we compare ourselves with other people, but some of the most foundational reasons are that deep down we have a deep yearning to be successful in life (this has been put in us by the creator). The only problem however is that since we focus much on what others have achieved or are achieving in life, we forget that God has already put inside us everything we need for success but in order to do that we need to walk in our gift area.

God has already wired us to function in a way that always leads to success (His design never fails, but if only used according to the purpose for its existence). In the same way that when you take the fish out of the water it struggles and dies, but when you put it back in water it becomes its best. The secret is simply in locating the environment for our success, which is traced back to the way we are wired by God. Some are good at certain things while others are good at yet other things. We don't all have to have abilities in the same area because we have been designed to serve each other (Interdependence).

The concept of interdependence implies that no man (or woman) is an island. We all need each other, and the gift that each one has been given is for the purpose of serving people around us whom God has assigned to us. One may have a gift in the area of business but have a weakness in the area of family while the other may have a strength in the area of family but have a weakness in the area of business or finances. This is a setup that God has allowed to occur so that love can be expressed through service to each other. This is a system that God established so as to allow for the flow of love which is the main principle He operates on (God is Love). There is really much that is deposited in us by God as a seed of success. Bishop T.D. Jakes points out that _"God has invested entirely too much in you for you to be comfortable in anything less than you were created to be"._ It helps to realise that God never fails at what He does. So when HE created you, he saw (and sees) a winner in you (seeing a loser in you would simply mean that He has failed, but we all know He never fails).

The Kingdom Assignment

God has revealed His purpose for the creation of man in many ways in the Bible. His ultimate purpose for creation is to glorify his name. This is best expressed through the dominion that God gave to man in the Garden of Eden

God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

(Genesis 1:28)

When man operates in an environment of dominion, God is fully glorified because it shows His majesty. Failure of man in anything tarnishes the image of God.

But dominion of man is the general purpose. However, this is, in the eyes of the creator, to be done through each one's special assignments. In other words, if we were all to do the same thing on this planet, it would be extremely difficult to imagine how we would ever need each other let alone need any help at all. In this regard, God gave a gift to each one of us that Is very unique that someone will need to be helped by that gift in us. This is why every one of us is equally special to God because we all carry something that no one has and no one can do it better than us. Our gifts complement each one of us, creating an environment of interdependence. I particularly like what Dr. Basil Tryon says that _"We are not here on here to compete with one another but to complete one another"._ We are simply parts of one body.

The beauty about the gift God has given us is that it leads us into a successful life.

A gift opens the way and ushers the giver into the presence of the great.

(Proverbs 18:16)

And this gift is directly connected to our assignment on this planet. You are better at that gift because there is someone out there waiting to be helped by you. You are the solution to their struggles in life. It is actually your gift that will make you successful not necessarily your education (this does not mean we should not get education; we certainly should do so at any opportunity). The point here is that lack of education is not an excuse to God for not being successful. The most important education is what is called "Specialized Knowledge". This knowledge nurtures the gifts and talents you have in your specific area.

But the most important question is "How can I know the assignment God has for me, which is the purpose for my life here on earth?

Designed to Solve a Problem

In simple terms, God's purpose for our life is to do the assignment he ordained for us. This assignment is actually the problem we have been called to solve on earth. When we do this assignment it's when we are the most fulfilled and most successful in life. The reason why doing our assignment which God has given us undoubtedly leads to success is because God's design of us was packaged with abilities empowered by Grace. It's very effective when you cut bread with a knife than a table spoon, that's because a knife is designed to cut things not a spoon.

Robin Sharma, a Life Coach, agrees to the truth about true fulfillment: _"We all have something that we are meant to do. Your genius will shine through, and happiness will fill your life. The instant you discover your higher purpose, you will then direct all your energies towards it."_

The earlier we discover our purpose the better. We then can stop wasting our time on things that are not connected to our destiny.

# Chapter Seven: The Principle of Planning

"Plan carefully what you do, and whatever you do will turn out right"

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Proverbs 4: 26

"Every well-built house started with a definite plan in the form of blueprints"

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Napoleon Hill

The Magic of Planning

Everything that is to succeed needs to be planned. The mind was designed to follow a plan. It mobilizes all needed resources in response to the plan.

God started all creation with a plan in His mind. He knew why He wanted to create the world and man in it. He also knew what He needed and the order in which they were to manifest. God imprinted this pattern in our spiritual DNA. Just imagine if God started creating Man before he created the environment for him. A plan commands the mind and hence the spirit what it needs to bring into manifestation to fulfill the plan.

It is sad, however, that an average believer, when asked about his/her life, does not have a plan to show for it. As believers, we are very good at declaring things we desire but we do not have the time and thought to sit down and make plans about them. When we don't have a plan we fail to make a demand on the spirit because it has nothing to work on. There is one thing we usually forget about the mind. When we don't give it a plan for execution, it seeks for plans around because it does not function in absence of plan. This is why this becomes a problem. The renowned Business Philosopher, Jim Rohn, brings to our attention the dangers of not planning: " _If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much."_

God Authors Purpose, We Make the Plans

As believers, we are generally governed by the misconception that God is in charge of our life therefore He controls everything about us. But you and I know that's not what the Bible says:

You make your plans, but God directs your actions

(Proverbs 16:9)

Here the Bible tells us that it's not Gods responsibility to make plans for us. Planning is in our charge. We get to decide the quality of life we want to live. What God expects us is to make plans that are in line with His will for our life. This is what allows Him to be in charge of our life. When we plan in His direction we are always assured of success.

We make our plans, but God has the last word. Ask the Lord to bless your plans, and you will be successful in carrying them out

(Proverbs 16: 1, 3)

Jesus was very categorical on the law of planning. From His speech he reveals the reason why we fail:

If one of you is planning to build a tower, you sit down first and figure out what it will cost, to see if you have enough money to finish the job. If you don't, you will not be able to finish the tower after laying the foundation and all who see what happened will make fun of you

(Luke 14: 28-29)

Planning not only allows us to know what we need but also how and where to get the resources. Through a plan, the spirit, which works through our mind, creates a provisional door. The spirit responds to the goals that we set in our plan.

Goal-setting

Before we make a plan for our life, we need to establish goals that are in line with the vision, purpose, mission and assignment. In the words of Dr Mike Murdock, _"when you set goals for your life, the mind will give a plan to reach that goal"_. In short, the Spirit needs to be given something to work on. The spirit does not respond to indecision. The mind has been empowered by the Spirit of God to execute the demands made upon it. It makes sure it finds all the resources needed to get to the goal you have set.

We need to be very clear when setting our goals. The mind responds to clarity. Clarity simply means that we need to be very detailed and specific in defining what we want. A clear goal allows the mind to focus with great focal power, and this intensifies one's faith. Clear goals allow the mind to focus all its energy on that one thing making all the solutions come to light (Read the Law of Focus). When the goals are not clear, it's like having a candle light in the room. It gives light but it is not easy to read the words you may want to read in your book. But when you bring in a torch with laser focus, all the words on the page are so clear. In other words, when you have clear goals you allow the mind to direct all its resources to that thing like a laser beam.

Setting goals and having a plan protects us from the winds of the world and it also preserves and respects our uniqueness to this world. This also announces our contribution to this world. If we don't have goals, we will not know if we are making progress or not and we make ourselves vulnerable to other people's control. A great Philosopher, Seneca, once said that _"if a man knows not what harbor he seeks, any wind is the right wind"_. How true and wise! If we don't know what we want anything will go, and we know that's a beautiful recipe for failure in life.

A challenge we most believers face when we are defining our goals in our plan is that we plan "in sight" not "in faith". We tend to set goals that are so easy. We forget that we are spirit beings that are limitless. When we plan, when we are setting goals for our life, we need to listen to the spirit in us which knows who we truly are. There is one sign you can look for if you want to know whether the goals are set "in-sight" or "in-faith". Goals set in sight are doable in our mind (perhaps that's why we are fixated on them – we hate challenging things that increase likelihood of failure). But we forget that it's the Spirit of God in us that makes us do the impossible in life. This spirit is fighting to manifest in our life but we trap it inside by our limited goals.

Get this one thing clear in mind: People do not have to believe your goals for them to be possible. Remember, if your plans, your goals are in the direction of God's will, there is no limit to what you can achieve in life. The only limit will be your imagination. According to the law of Imagination, God grants us what is in line with our imagination. In other words, imagination defines the territory.

Stretch your imagination when setting goals. Don't worry about how you are going to achieve them. God reveals the way as you go and as we need it. All we really need is to know what we want and believe that we are going to get there (If God lives in us, we cannot fail).

We cannot talk about plans and goals without making a reference to vision. And we cannot talk about Vision without talking about purpose. God created everyone to fulfil a certain task here on earth. This purpose is specific and unique to every human being God created. It is this purpose that determined God's design of every one of us (personality, path of experience, physical appearance and every little detail of our life). So this purpose that God has for our life is to us the God-given vision. God designed us to follow this vision (Read more on the Law of Vision). This pathway has already been blessed. Everyone who chooses to walk in this God-ordained path to destiny has a 100% guarantee to succeed and live the most fulfilling life imaginable. All the gifts and talents we have been given are aimed at making us walk in this path without struggling. Any life lived outside God's purpose is doomed to frustration and emptiness. God wants us to plan within the bounds of His purpose for us.

When it comes to planning, the Bible advises us not to rush when doing it. We should do it carefully and prayerfully:

Plan carefully and you will have plenty; if you act too quickly, you will never have enough

(Proverbs 21:5)

Thus we should never act until we have a clear plan, a plan that is within the will of God for our life. God also expects us to consult widely when making our plan. Talk to successful people in the area you are planning in. If you are planning about your business, consult some successful business people. If you are planning to build a house consult some experts in that area. Above all consult the word of God. Let the Word of God be the defining word in every situation. Any counsel that undermines the principles of God is not to be heeded to

Get good advice and you will succeed; don't go charging into battle without a plan

(Proverbs 20: 18)

We should never rush into doing something until we have proper consultation. This is why God established a law of mentorship so that we walk in wise counsel. Wisdom tells us to seek counsel wisely. A lawyer may not give us the best advice on a design of the house. A health practitioner may not give us the best advice on political decisions. God expects us to use wisdom

Now when we set our goals and make a plan to achieve the goals, act on them. Without action power remains in potency. We activate Gods power through action. Put a deadline to every goal you set in your plan. Start acting on them daily, start praying about them daily

Plans allow us to know the skills we need to develop, the knowledge we need to gain and all the help we need.

After all, you must make careful plans before you fight a battle, and the more good advice you get the more likely you are to win

(Proverbs 24: 6)

Failing to plan is simply planning to fail. Plans attract resources and people. God will not connect us to people who can help us get to our destiny if we haven't yet decided what we want.

# Chapter Eight: The Principle of Action

"Do not deceive yourselves by just listening to his word; instead, put it into practice.

But if you look closely at the perfect law that sets people free, and keep on paying attention to it and do not simply listen and then forget it, but put it into practice – you will be blessed by God in what you do"

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James 1: 22, 25

"God created all men equal. Why do some accomplish far greater accomplishments then others? Because they had a vision, a desire, and they took action".

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Thomas J. Vilord

Action: The Human Link to The Covenant

Action is the driving force of all success. One may have a clear and noble vision, a well laid out plan, but if one does not take action, everything remains in the mental realm. It is action that really reveals the nature of our faith, for it is through taking action that we really show our reliance on what God says.

Faith that only ends on the mouth isn't faith at all. It is simply dead faith.

So then, as the body without the spirit is dead, also faith without actions is dead (James 2: 26)

And we all know that we cannot get anything from God without faith, and yet to have true faith is simply to **act** on what God says. True belief is one that translates into action.

Action has been the missing link to the success formula in Christian circles. We have been very good at misappropriating Gods laws. We have a tendency to think Grace (being the unmerited favour) will do everything for us. We forget that even Grace is conditioned on our faith. Salvation comes to us by Grace (God's gift) but through faith. And from scriptures we know that faith is not just simply believing but actually acting on what we believe. Our acts need to be consistent with the belief we have.

God created a success system but He expects us to activate it. And the only way of activating the divine success system is through the obedience (total submission to God) to the success laws which we know in His Word. Everything has a seed system that ensures and propels the multiplication system. The seed for forgiveness is confession, the seed for spirituality is prayer, the seed for wealth is giving. All these entail an action of some sort and the success system lies dormant until we activate it with an action in obedience of Gods laws.

This is why it's very important to know what God's laws of success are because it is knowledge that truly sets us free. When the Lord Jesus was saying this statement He was referring to the knowledge of His laws which he ordained when He was creating the world. What makes us fail in life is not God hating us (He loves us unconditionally and that will never change), but our ignorance of the laws He established time immemorial. What we need to be fighting is Ignorance which is in control of the enemy. Its ignorance that makes us fail in life.

It is also very important to understand that each success aspect has a specific law attached to it. God will not care how innocent we are, if we are not appropriating the law to the area of success we need, we will not see any result. For instance, if you do not give, you should not expect God to increase you no matter how hard you pray or fast. This is because according to God's success system it's Giving that leads to increase. This does not mean that prayer is irrelevant. Men ought always to pray because its prayer that keeps us in touch with God and we speak to him through prayer.

After you study all the principles of success in this book you will realise that each principle requires an action of some sort to activate it. Action connects us to the covenant. Thus if I want a job, I should start sending application letters at the same time working on improving my skills (communication, teamwork, etc.). A job will simply not find me on my sofa watching TV. In as much as God may be keeping a very good job for you right now, it will not come to you while you sit down there. God expects you to get it from His hands. And that's through action of faith, with prayer.

Many times we have been blaming God for our failures, but it's really not God who is to blame. When God created the whole universe he saw that it was good (He never fails at anything), so success has been put in our hands. It's up to us to succeed in life or not. He has been kind and loving enough to reveal all the secrets of success in the BIBLE. He is simply waiting for us to activate these principles and watch how our life will begin to change dramatically. By the way, the principles of success do not care who is working them. They simply work for anyone who activates them. God is no respecter of men but He just respects those who obey His laws.

The Bible clearly says that a reward will only come to the one who not only hears but practices what he is told. We may want everything in this life, but it's only what we act on that God will allow us to possess:

No matter how much a lazy person may want something, he will never get it. A Hard worker will get everything he wants

(Proverbs 13: 4)

God is very clear on what He responds to. It would help a great deal to realise that prayer cannot replace what he requires us to do. We need to make prayer our lifestyle and we also need to always appropriate the specific principles God ordained for every area of our life. In everything we need to pray and do what God expects us to do in that particular situation.

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves."

(James 1:22)

Action is the major missing link to success among Christians. If only we could practice these principles of success and not only pray and speak in tongues. Prayer needs to go together with the activation of a specific principle (doing His Word) because every situation is governed by an operational principle that solves the problem. For example, poverty does not go by praying alone because God established giving as the way out of lack. So one may fast and pray for 40 days but if that fasting and praying is not accompanied with giving, poverty will not go. Sadly, this demon of poverty will not go until we start releasing what's in our hand.

Your reward depends on what you say and what you do; you will get what you deserve

(Proverbs 12:14)

There is a lot of emphasis in the Bible on the practicing of the success principles.

# Chapter Nine: The Principle of Focus

"Brethren I count myself not to have apprehended; but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before"

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Philippians 3: 13

"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals"

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Basil S. Walsh

The Magnifying Power of Focus

God designed the mind to work for our benefit. All its abilities are calculated to work for our success. But like everything else that God designed, there is an opposite of it. The enemy uses the opposite to work against our success. It is entirely up to us to choose how we use the mind for us or against us.

The mind is designed in a way that it magnifies whatever we choose to focus on. This means that if we focus on the negative things, the negative things become magnified. When we focus on the positive, the positive gets magnified. When the mind zeroes in on anything, it makes sure it mobilizes all available resources it has to manifest that which is in our mind. Thus it makes sure it brings to our life that which is consistent with what we are focusing on.

This, therefore, implies that when we focus on the negative, it manifests reality that is none less than negative. When we focus on the positive, the mind mobilizes all resources so as to manifest the positive things we are focusing on.

You may have noticed that each time you think about the negatives or the problems in life, you tend to get more of the same. When we focus on the negative, the negative become so magnified that the mind is no longer capable of finding solutions. Because the mind follows the law of consistency, it brings you negative feelings whenever you focus on the negative and positive feelings and energy whenever we focus on the positive.

Patrick Tsoka, in his book The Law of Focus warns that _"Losing Focus Is Not Being Involved in Bad Things but Good Things That Are Not Necessary at That Moment"._ This is very true. It also helps to realise that what is usually very dangerous is doing the good thing which is not the right thing. Not all good things are right things for us.

Effective Mind Management

The reason why we fail to succeed in what we do is that we focus on so many things that the available resources are just spread out with very minimal or no impact at all. Think of the candle and a torch. Let's just say that there are small writings on the wall. One person may bring a candle into the room. This person will find it very hard to read the small writings because the light is spread out across the whole room. While the one with a torch will read very clearly because the light is focused on one focal point.

The mind works in a similar way. When we have many things in mind, nothing gets done with the excellence it deserves.

Paul the Apostle was very successful in his ministry because he used the Law of Focus ( **Philippians 3: 13)**. He only focused on what God sent him to do. That's all he was doing and thinking about. Jesus always focused on the assignment he was sent to do. He never wasted his time doing things that were not a part of his goal on earth.

God designed the mind to work this way because He had a purpose for each one of us. But the problem is we want to do everything, forgetting that the same God also instituted a system of Interdependence where everyone has his/her part to play. And this role is defined by our service to fellow humanity. For the areas we are not experts in, God will position someone else within our reach who is there to serve us. Just focus on your talents, skills, gifts and assignment. God will make sure you become a success because you are walking in the divine path.

If God wants you to be a teacher, you will be a successful teacher when you start walking in that path. If He wants you to be a singer, success will be guaranteed to you when you start walking in that path.

It does not take much to lose focus. Dr Mike Murdock, in one of his books, says " _The best way to distract a man with a goal is to give him another one."_ Simply stay faithful to your goals (focus on them and them only). Don't let other people control you by imposing their own goals on you. They have no idea why God created you so they have no business telling you what you should or should not be doing. Listen to the voice in your spirit that calls you to your destiny.

The Lord Jesus even said that when we waver from one thing to another, we are not fit for the kingdom:

"And Jesus said unto him, no man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."

(Luke 9:62)

What Jesus is trying to say is that we should be focused on our mission and not be distracted by what others are doing.

# Chapter Ten: The Principle of Habit

"So get rid of filthy habit and all evil conduct. Submit to God and accept the word that he plants in your hearts, which is able to save you"

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James 1: 21

"A habit is something you've done so many times that the body knows to do it better than the mind"

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Dr Joe Dispenza

Habits, Habits, Habits

God created habits to make life simple and help us live a very successful life. Habits help us to deal with millions of task which would make life very complicated. For example, life would be too complicated if we always had to learn how to brush our teeth, wake up, ride a bicycle, drive a car and many other things. Instead the mind simply forms habits that allows us to do such things without thinking about them through the sub-conscious mind.

However, a habit system is a neutral system which can work for our advantage as well as for our disadvantage. If we keep on doing something bad, the mind forms a habit that will make it easier to do that bad thing in a way that becomes subconscious. For example, if you are used to waking up late, the mind forms a habit which makes it very easy for you to wake up late and very difficult for you to work up early. Similarly, when we choose to continue doing something positive, the mind forms a positive habit that becomes something natural that you don't even have to consciously think about it when doing. Thus when you keep on waking up early in the morning, the brain will form a habit that will make sure you wake up early in the morning without you thinking about it. Anything we do repetitively becomes a habit.

The sad thing is that most of the times we form habits that are usually negative. We complain, we doubt, we don't study, we sleep a lot, we gossip. And soon enough these become habits that we no longer have control over them. They start to control us.

We can use this power of the mind in forming habit systems for our success.

This can be done by forming success habits through repetition. We can choose to start praying every day, studying every day, waking up early every day, tithing all our income, give to the needy, exercise every day the list goes on and on. In his words, Tryon Edwards says that _"Any act often repeated soon forms a habit; and habit allowed, steadily gains in strength. At first it may be as a spider's web, easily broken through, but if not resisted, it soon binds us with chains of steel."_ This excellently descries the behavior of the mind when it comes to habit formation.

Habits do not just form. They originate from our thoughts. It is our thoughts that control the behavior of our body. Every negative thought has a corresponding negative behavior that follows from it. The same is true for every positive thought. What we often think about is what we become. So if we often think thoughts of doubt we cannot expect to be energetic and determined to achieve anything. This is because behavior will always be in line with our thoughts. We cannot be very successful when dealing with bad habit if we do not address the root of the habit which is always the mind (thoughts).

The whys of our habits are always better understood when we look at where the habit originates from. For instance, if you are fond of not tolerating other people's views, it could be that deep down in your mind you believe you are the wisest (you know everything) and no one can say anything sensible. Here the root is Self-Concept. Such kind of a person may have a wrong or perverted view of himself/herself. This is what controls his/her pattern of thinking and hence the habit that results from it. In this case fighting the habit may not be effective but dealing with the thinking patterns.

This is why Paul the Apostle tells us to renew our mind. By renewing our mind, we replace our worldly thinking patterns with Godly thinking patterns. And when we think about Godly thinking we realise that God does not think failure, but only success. God wants us to think like Him. That way our actions will be changed and our habits will also change. When our habits change, our results in life also change.

# Chapter Eleven: The Principle of Discipline

"It is better to win control over yourself than over whole cities"

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Proverbs 16: 32b

"Discipline yourself to do the things you need to do when you need to do them, and the day will come when you will be able to do the things you want to do when you want to do them"

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Zig Ziglar

Discipline: The Road Less Travelled

Self-discipline is the greatest sieve that creates the dividing line between successful people and the rest. Jesus said that narrow is the road to heaven. This statement can be taken literally as well as symbolically. Heaven represents every good thing God has promised to us. All these things will not come to us so easily.

Elbert Hubbard defines self-discipline as _"the ability to make yourself do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not"._

The ones who experience heaven are those who practice self-discipline. God is all about building our character. He wants us to be masters over our body (passions, tendencies, appetites).

The race towards success can be started by all but it is those who are self-disciplined that get to the end of the game. Let's just take an example of finances. It is those who are disciplined in their spending that are able to build wealth. All of them may receive the same amount of money, but discipline is what divides the line.

Paul the Apostle understood the law of discipline so well that he was constantly disciplining his life lest he falls:

And every man that strives for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now then do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we are incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air. But I keep under my body, and bring it to subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be cast away

(1 Corinthians 9: 25-27)

It is self – discipline that really take us out of comfort zones and positions us on the winner's platform. The only way of mastering self-discipline is by embracing it. The look of things always changes when we change our outlook. When soberly understood, self-discipline is what gets us to the results we are looking for. Everything else may just help us understand what we want, where we can find it and how to get to it, but its discipline that really gets us there.

When you study all the successful people, you do realise that they embrace self-discipline by focusing on the results and not the experience of getting to the results which is usually not always pleasant. What is painful is the anticipation of not having what they want. This outweighs the displeasure that follows the process of getting what we want.

They simply focus on action that will get them to the results. They pay no attention to the process (painful experience). Let's take for example, The Lord Jesus Christ, He did not focus on the process of getting us saved (dying) but He had His eyes on the results (salvation of lost souls). Paul the Apostle did not mind being arrested. He could persevere the tough conditions in the prison because he had his mind focused on his goals.

Brian Tracy rightly puts it that _"Successful people are more concerned with pleasing results. Failures are more concerned with pleasing methods. Successful people take actions that are goal achieving. Unsuccessful people take actions that are tension relieving"_

One other thing we may not be fully aware of or we may not have thought much about is that 90% of the effort lies in STARTING. The struggle for everyone is usually in starting. Its starting that requires a lot of energy and mental toughness (courage). Once we start what we might think is difficult, we realise the going gets more and more exciting after we stick to it. For example, it is not easy to take a cold shower when you are not used to bathing cold water. But when you come to think of it, it's the starting that scares many but once you have the first cold water running over your body you start to wonder why you were afraid. The shower becomes so exciting that you struggle to come out of it. That's how it is with life. The things we should always look out to discipline are our fear and our failure-habits (indecision, impatience, hesitation, impulsive behavior).

As believers, we have a great advantage. Jesus, through His Grace, has given us strength to do the things that on our own would be extremely difficult or even impossible. However, Grace has for the most part being misinterpreted that most just sit down and expect God to do everything for them in the name of Grace. Grace does not replace our action. It gives our action power and strength and enablement. Grace makes everything available, but it sure doesn't bring the things into our hands, we get them from God's hands through Faith which is expressed through action.

God expects us to rule over our body and not be controlled by its fleshly passions.

He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls."

(Proverbs 25:28)

Discipline is that narrow path we walk in to heaven (a place of joy and happiness). God put a distance between man and success so that man should always walk to success. The most pronounced and strict rule is the rule of discipline.

The most wonderful thing about God is that He designed success to be for everyone because everyone can start a life of discipline at any time they want, even as we speak, you may be thinking about how undisciplined you may be in your sleeping, eating, talking, thinking. It can be anything (it doesn't matter what it is), as long as we swallow the fact that Jesus is waiting right now to help us start a new life of discipline and order. His Grace is sufficient to break all the "success-aborting" habits. But we need to step out before God can come in. A baby is born with ability to walk, but if it doesn't take the step of trying to walk, it will never walk. The same is true for talking. If it doesn't release words, any words, it won't speak. This tells us that God has already put in us everything we need for our success but we need to activate it. That's when He comes in

# Chapter Twelve: The Principle of Persistence

"For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again"

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(Proverbs 24:16)

"We can do anything we want to if we stick to it long enough".

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Helen Keller

Persistence: The Minority's Secret

We would be amazed and astonished if we realized that the things we thought were not for us; that God didn't want us to have were actually for us. In as much as God will always have a side or a stand on whatever we ask Him, and He usually stand on one of the three sides (No, Yes and Wait). Sometimes we do not reflect much on these that most often than not we usually put words in His mouth. Sometimes we interpret His silence for a No.

We need to realize that sometimes it's not what we are looking for that matters most but rather what we become in the process of looking for that thing. God put some things relatively at a distance not that we should not get them but that we should exert some effort to get them. This effort we exert builds our mental toughness as well as a spirit of a winner inside. One reality that is never to be forgotten is that wherever there is a good thing, there also lies an obstacle. We can all intuitively agree that the enemy cannot let you get the good things from God without a fight.

This is why God expects us to persist in bringing what we want to manifestation. The more we fight the better we become in faith and character.

When you go through the Bible you will see this spirit of persistence in the great men of God. David had this spirit. Paul had this Spirit. Job had this Spirit. They never gave up until they broke through the wall.

It helps to understand that God expects His children to be persistent. Actually what defines a winner is not how many times he wins but how many times he stands up when he falls.

Falling is actually part of the success process because it is through falling that we get to know what works and we get to know our weaknesses. This is why a failure is the one who stops rising up after falling and not the one who falls.

The reason why a just man rises up after falling is because he is carrying God in his spirit and greater is He that is inside us that he that is outside us. What this means is that the outside situations cannot stop us. We can move any mountain; we can change any situation because the power in us subdues any other power outside us.

You may be using light in your room as you are reading this book. But do you know that someone actually failed thousands of times to make that bulb give light? He never stopped trying until he saw the light. Now the whole world is lighted because Thomas Edison refused to give up. He was such a persistent man; no wonder he became so successful. Just observe his perspective on failing: _"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work"._ We need this kind of spirit as Christians.

Jesus talked about the power of persistence when he talked about the person who persistently knocks until the owner of the house opens the door **(Luke 11:5-8)**. There are certain things that we will only get when we persist enough. They will only come with a fight.

At the core of persistence is a spirit of faith. If God said you can have it then you can have it. So if it's not coming then you are not persistent enough. Remember it's not the "having" that's more important but rather the process of having. The things we get with persistence build our faith and gives us a "winner Spirit" that let us break through the walls the enemy puts in our way. There is always a prize at the end of the race, but the race itself is not an easy path, but it makes us better. It builds our character and develops our spirituality.

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."

(Galatians 6:9)

Someone once said that if we always knew how close we are to a breakthrough we would not give up most of the fights we give up. If we understood that we fall because there is a learning point to reflect on we would see winning with a very different eye. According to Zig Ziglar, a motivational speaker, failing is simply some kind of learning: _"If you learn from a defeat, you haven't really lost"_

In persisting, we get to know the things that work and ones that don't work. We also get to recognize our weaknesses as well as the areas in our life that we need to work on. God does not release anything to us until we are prepared for it.

# Chapter Thirteen: The Principle of Knowledge

"My People Are Destroyed Because of Lack of Knowledge"

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Hosea 4: 6

"Your Ignorance Is the Only Weapon Your Enemy Can Use Against You".

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Mike Murdock

Knowledge Precedes Success

Knowledge is a requirement for success essentially because success is not accidental and automatic. Success is intentional in the sense that there are principles that need to be followed. And these laws are to be studied/learnt, understood and applied. One can't just bump into success.

One has to take the effort to study all the necessary information in the specific area of interest. A Business man has to study Business and Money. A Pastor has to study the Bible and the relevant books. A Doctor has to study the human body and the diseases. No one is an exception to this law. Anointing does not replace knowledge. It is complemented by knowledge. Jesus studied the prophets and the other Old Testament books before He started His ministry. He needed knowledge. Paul had to be trained by Jesus in Arabia for about 15 years. Moses studied in University of Egypt, just to prepare him to write the books we find in the Bible. He also stayed in the desert for years (God was also teaching him through experience). The disciples were under the teaching of Jesus Christ before they could start their ministries.

God has left a blueprint for success. Success always leaves a trail. We do well when we learn from people who have done exploits before us. They have discovered the success principles.

Get all the advice you can, and you will succeed, without it you will fail

(Proverbs 15:22)

The principles of success never change and they work for everyone who activates them. If we want to be successful, and I know we all do, then we should make a conscious effort to start enlarging our knowledge base in the area of our field. God does not expect us to know everything. But He surely expects us to know a lot in the area of our assignment. If your area is in counselling, then you need to study widely in the field of counselling. If you are to be a business leader, then you need to study a lot in the area of business and finances. The Holy Spirit works with what we have. It needs stuff with which to work miracles with. When He finds our mind empty He has no idea what to do with us.

The Lord Jesus said that when the Holy Spirit comes, He will remind us. For sure, we cannot be reminded of something we don't know. We need to feed our mind with the word of God and anything that is positive and worthy.

God expects us to be experts in our field of assignment. But we cannot reach level of masterly in anything if we don't focus on what is related to our purpose, vision and goals. If only we could decide what we want in life and stick to it, learn all there is to learn about that thing, we would be very effective and efficient in what we do and we would manifest the glory of God with a spirit of excellence.

We also need to understand why knowledge is very important and why God values knowledge. Knowledge determines the level of our liberty. Knowledge determines the scope of our vision. The little the knowledge we have the narrow the scope of vision and the less we achieve in life. Bishop David Oyedepo understands this principle so well that he resolved to always increase his knowledge. It is no wonder that this man of God is so large in his influence and affluence. The late Dr. Myles Munroe understood this principle of learning (knowledge) that he read 4 books every month. Warren Buffett understands this so well that he reads a book every day. Bill Gates knows the value of knowledge so much that he wishes he could read books ten times faster than he does. And we all know how successful these people are.

Do yourself a favour and learn all you can; then remember what you learn and you will prosper

(Proverbs 19: 8)

Be not deceived, all the people you consider successful today had a period of learning, and during that period you didn't even know they existed until their knowledge started to give them relevance to the world. Everyone is to go through this process of acquiring knowledge before they can become successful. God does not give us opportunities until we are ready.

We however need to realise that knowledge on its own cannot bring us any change until we apply it. When knowledge is not applied it converts to pride. You may have seen people who know a lot but their life is not manifesting the changes (of course some may not manifest what they know because they are in the process of change (metamorphosis)) but instead they just boast of what they know. This is probably why Paul the Apostle warned that "knowledge puffs up". This is what really happens when we think it is knowledge that matters. Actually knowledge is important because of what it does and not what it is. So if what you know does not translate into solving problems around you, then that knowledge will soon turn into pride. You will start to just be proud of what you know and not become a person of value as you serve others.

# Chapter Fourteen: The Principle of Management

"Moreover it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful."

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1 Corinthians 4:2

"Whatever is not managed, God stops its growth"

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Dr Myles Munroe

Management Governs Growth and Retardation

The principle of management, which is also known as stewardship, is at the core of Man's responsibility over everything he is given. When God put Adam in the Garden of Eden, He gave him the command to manage everything around him. Now when you look at the word "Manager", it means someone who takes care of someone's property. The whole world, with everything in it was given to Adam to manage.

But to better understand the concept of management, we need to put the concept in its proper perspective. Everything that is created belongs to God (silver, gold, money, people... everything). They were all created to create an environment of "heaven" on earth for man. We know this because when God was creating the world He said "Let **Them** have dominion..." God did not include Himself in the dominion agenda. He gave everything to man to manage.

God built into all life forms a system of life and death. We, of course, know that this death system was activated by Adam's sin. The Bible is all about instruction that can help us activate the life system in everything. The disobedience of the instruction is what makes us activate the death system whose Lord is Satan. In simple terms, the laws of God are there to make us live a fulfilling, meaningful and successful life. God is the Lord of Life, which represents health, financial increase, wisdom, success and everything good. The devil on the other hand is the Lord of Death, which represents failure, fear, doubt, sin and everything bad.

So God put this system in Man's hands giving him a choice to activate the death system or the life system. God being caring and loving throughout the Bible warns us of the acts that would activate the death system in our life. The principles He puts in the Bible are simply to give us a secret to activating the life system. We would really do fine to just obey these principles of success.

Back to our concept of Management. God entrusted everything on planet earth to man. And God being a believer of management, built into all His created things a system of growth and decay. This is to mean that whatever we fail to manage, He retards its growth. And that which we manage well, He multiplies its growth. This is why He is not multiplying certain things in our life at this very moment. If we have money problem, it's simply because we are not managing it well. Just reflect on how you spent the money God gave you last month. How about the house? You say you want God to give you a big house, but are you really taking good care of the one you are renting or owning right now. You want a promotion at work but are you really working hard, are you giving the best of your abilities?

It is from this understanding that God expects us to manage everything He puts in our hands. When we don't manage our body, disease comes in and a person heads in a direction of decay. When we don't feed a child, we are guaranteed to see the child dying.

This principle of management applies to even non-life forms. When we don't manage our money, it slips away and we head towards lack and poverty. In short, everything that is not managed decays and stops growing. This is how God designed it. This also means that whatever we manage well grows. If we manage our body well, we grow healthy. When we manage our money well, we get wealthy.

Time Management

Much of the failures in life are due to failure to manage our time efficiently and effectively. Time is the only resource given to everyone on earth equally. And yet some make the best use of it and succeed while others wonder if God could add some extra hours to the 24 hours we have. It's really never about adding the time. It's simply about managing the one we have because it's enough if we really are focusing on worthy goals.

I discovered I had been wasting my time the time I realized the things I was keeping myself busy with were things that had nothing to do with my purpose in life, things not connected to my vision.

One of the major reasons for failure to properly manage time is that we may not have determined why we are here on earth. Some of the things are not supposed to keep us busy. If only we could focus on the things that really matter to our life and schedule time for each one of them on a daily basis, doing one thing at a time. We would be amazed how much we can accomplish by the end of the week.

Take out of your circle of influence anything that has no part in your destiny. It helps to realise that we were not created to do everything and to know everything. Everyone is here on earth with a specific task. It is this task that we will serve other people with. And what is not in your task, someone is around who will serve you. I may not know about health but business. What this means is that I will serve someone with my business knowledge and skills while that other person will serve me with health knowledge. We are put in an interdependence system where everyone depends on each other. This is why we have different gifts and talents and there is a uniqueness attached to every one of us. If only we could focus all our energy and attention on developing that talent, that gift.

Another challenge in handling time is the problem of clattering our mind with many tasks at one time. When we are at work we are thinking about family and when we are home we are thinking about work. This is how poorly we use our time. In the end we haven't done anything with the excellence it demands and deserves. The great Business Philosopher, John Rohn advises: _"When you work, work; when you play, play. Don't mix the two"._ The essential message in these very wise words is that we must determine to do one thing at a time and allocate not only time to that one thing but also our total undivided attention to it. This is the best way of using the time we have. It really makes us get the best out of it. But when we mix up everything we end getting substandard results in everything we do.

When we think about how much little time we have on earth, we really rethink the way we manage our time. We don't have forever here on earth and yet every one of us will be asked what he or she has done with His/her life. We need to give every minute of our time a worthy moment.

Redeeming the time, because the days are evil."

(Ephesians 5:16)

Here the Bible is advising us to make good use of our time because we don't have forever on this earth. It is this very same 24 hours which is making other people get successful.

We can avoid mixing things in our life by setting goals that are in line with our purpose on earth and assigning each goal its time allocation and having the discipline to follow it through to the end on a daily basis. Remember repetition is the mother of habit.

Body Management

Whatever God designs, He gave instructions for its functional operation. He has even allowed science to give more light on how this body functions. At first people didn't understand how diseases came about. Then came discoveries through the germ theory which opened people's eyes to habits of hygiene. Exercises have been shown to improve health and dramatically decrease stress. Drinking a lot of water is proven to be a good health habits that drives away many diseases.

The message here is that we should take good care of the body, because this body too is not ours. We have been given the body to manage it. It is God's temple.

Surely you know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you!

(1 Corinthians 3:16)

Most of the diseases come because of not taking good care of our body. Let's plan to read health books and practice the health tips we get and see our health improve. Of course, when we get sick, healing is available in the name of Jesus. But this does not mean we should be careless with our body. We should always practice "stewardship". Our body is God's temple.

Financial Management

There is a way to manage our finances. Money is the topic that Jesus talked about more than any other topic in the Bible. This is because money plays a very big role in a person's life.

There are two pathways for money and these pathways are determined by our attitude towards money:

  * Money Flowing Away from You

This happens when we fail to manage the money properly. God designed money (spiritually) to fly away from people who fail to manage it. Have you ever wondered why sometimes even after tithing you seem not to get a hold on money? It just seems to slip away. I spent a long time questioning God why my money would still be slipping away even though I was tithing faithfully. The word that came to me was: Do you manage what comes into your hands? Check your spending habits. I was convicted.

Tithing does not replace management. You cannot mismanage money and expect to have increase just because you tithed. The two need to go together. When we tithe we should also practice discipline in our spending asking God to give us wisdom. If we keep wasting food, we may still have problems with food at home even when we tithe. This does not invalidate God's tithing promise. God simply wants us to grow in maturity.

  * Money Flowing To & Through You

Money starts to flow to us and through us when we prove that we can manage it well. God sees how we spend our money.

The simple questions we can ask ourselves are:

  * _Have you tithed?_
  * _Have you given to the Needy?_
  * _Have you saved?_
  * _Have you Invested?_
  * _How have you spent the remaining?_

God wants us to be a blessing to other people. He wants us to view money as a tool we can use to help others around us. When we develop this attitude towards money, God will make sure more of it flows to us because He will be assured that it will be used to uplift someone's life. God doesn't need to rain down money. It's already here on earth. All that is needed is for it to be transferred to the proper people who will use it to advance the Kingdom of God. Our attitude towards money is what attracts it to us or repels it from us.

Mind Management

The Bible is very clear on the significance of managing our mind. All the issues of life originate from the mind. The Bible refers to the sub-conscious mind as the heart. The sub-conscious mind (heart) is the seat of all human behavior. The sub-conscious mind receives information from the conscious mind (rational mind) which is planted into the sub-conscious mind forming habits and paradigms that acts like a program that controls all behavior. What this means is that if our thoughts are negative, the sub-conscious mind creates a program that forms negative habits that lead to a life of negativity.

This is why the Bible tells us to constantly renew our mind with Godly thoughts and ideas which change the paradigms in the heart (sub-conscious mind). The more we renew our mind (conscious Mind) with positive thoughts the more we form positive habits which lead to a positive life of victory.

For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.

Proverbs 23:7

We are the product of what we think about. If we think negative and evil thoughts, we attract into our life a negative life of evil. It is simply just impossible to think negative and live positive. God designed the mind to operate based on what we put into it. What this means is that we decide our destiny. We can choose to live a life of victory or success or failure depending on how we manage our mind. Like every system God created, there is life and death attached to it. The devil tricks us into activating the death switch while God advises us throughout the Bible to activate the life switch that is guaranteed to lead us to a successful life.

God actually tells us what we should be focusing our mind on:

Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is admirable- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things

(Philippians 4:8)

Here the Bible is telling us to focus on positive things only. Things that will upgrade our life. If any area of our life is giving us trouble, all we have to do is just focus on the contents of our thoughts. What are we feeding our mind? This is where we should be spending our time cleaning by renewing our mind with positive and Godly thoughts.

Material Resource Management

While God does not want us to be materialistic, He desires to give us materials we need for a happy life like houses, cars etc. But God does not release anything until we prove faithful in managing that which we have been assigned to take care of.

"And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?"

(Luke 16:12)

If you want God to give you a big house take good care of the small one you are renting. If you want God to give you a car take good care of the bicycle you have now. If you want God to give you more finances, manage well the ones you have at the moment. The law of management will work for you when you simply obey the simple instruction it gives: Take good care of what you have now, manage them faithfully.

God is all about character development. He holds all the things we need until the time we prove to have character to keep them. This is why He also expects us to be patient because in patience we develop character as we purge out all the undesirable habits and tendencies.

# Chapter Fifteen: The Principle of Association

"Keep company with the wise and you will become wise. If you make friends with stupid people, you will be ruined"

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Proverbs 13:20

"You are the average of five people you walk with"

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Bob Proctor

The Mathematics of Influence

Whoever we associate with, we take after their character. This is how God designed it. People will always have an influence on us whether we like it or not, whether we are aware of it or not. We are creatures of inspiration. This means we have an inbuilt capacity to be inspired by people around us. This can be both positive and negative depending on us. We get to decide which side we fall on. If we want to progress in the direction of our dream, then we need to make sure we surround ourselves with people who compliment or add value to our being. We do not really have that much control on whether we get influenced or not. We, however, have full control on who we decide to associate with. These are the people we actually allow to influence us positively.

Many times God warns us to be careful who we associate with because these people have some power to determine the direction of our life. In short, when you associate with wise people you become wise. The opposite is true. This happens all the times. It's a law. When we decide to disobey what God advises us to do, we give ourselves a license for failure in life, and it would be foolish in this case to blame God.

The expression _"Birds of the same furthers fly together"_ is a true reflection of the principle of association. We simply become who we associate with often. We may have a great vision, wonderful goals for our life, but if the people we associate with are in opposite of the things or values we strive to achieve, we should not expect to succeed in life. They will always drag us down to their level. This is usually very subtle that we almost always never realise it until we are down on the floor. God's advice is simple: find people around you who are wise, who have done what you want to achieve and make friends with them. You will get to where you want. It saves us a great number of failures and struggles when we simply listen to what God says. When He says don't associate with people who do not have godly thoughts, He is simply trying to save us from an impending destruction of our life and all our visions, dreams and goals.

Be not deceived, evil companions corrupt good morals

(1 Corinthians 15:33)

Sometimes we rationalize that we are so strong that people cannot influence us. What this means is that we are wiser than God. We are to reach out to everyone in our reach, but we only should be attached to wise people.

Many people have died because of associations, many people are now in prison because of associations. And Yes, many people are very successful now because of associations. Everything is in our hands. We get to choose life or death because God respects our free will. When we choose what He tells us we choose life because whatever he tells us to do is for our own benefit and He knows how he designed us. He knows what can work for us and what can't work.

It helps to realise that God commanded us to love everyone, but not to make friendships with everyone. Similarly, we are to love everyone but not trust everyone. We get to choose who our friend becomes because friends have a greater impact upon our life than we may chooses to realise.

Dr Mike Murdock wisely says that _"The people who unlock our passion are the people we have been assigned to"_. This means we have to be mindful the people we associate with. Some may kill our dream while some may add value and colour to our dream. Cut yourself from the dream killers and learn with passion from those God sends your path to get you to your destiny.

# Chapter Sixteen: The Principle of Mentorship

"Pay attention to your teacher and learn all you can"

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Proverbs 23: 12

"Mentors are those who know something you do not know, have been where you want to go and have done something significant that you would like to accomplish".

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Myles Munroe

You Need Someone to Help You

In line with the principle of association, God made sure that we are always surrounded by people who know much more than us, people who can help us become the best He created us to be. This, of course, does not mean that we do not have people who are used by the enemy to destroy our future. They are always there.

God created everyone to be a mentor of someone in a similar way that everyone is a student of someone. We see this pattern throughout the Bible. All the great men of God are/were successful because they have a mentor who guides them through the challenges of life so as to achieve their God-ordained potential. Lot looked up to Abraham. Joshua looked up to Moses. Patrick Tsoka looks up to Myles Munroe. Myles Munroe looked up to Oral Roberts. Joseph Chikwenga looks up to David Oyedepo. Everyone need to have a mentor.

Everyone needs to have someone who is a role model. Someone who has achieved the things we want to achieve in life. Someone who has a solid relationship with God and hence wise. God does not only want us to have someone to teach us through life, He also expects us to help someone too. What we learn we teach others who look up to us.

God will always bring up people around us whom we can be inspired by in order to find our way to success:

Keep on imitating me, my friends. Pay attention to those who follow the right example that we have set for you (Philippians 3: 17)

We learn better through modelling other people. This always works effectively. This also means we need to be careful the people we bring into our circle of influence because they have power to make us succeed or fail equally. You may have noted that children learn better through observation than being told. Modelling is a learning style that God designed but it is in our hands to make sure we do not model after people who negate God. People whose life is an antithesis of the Lord Jesus.

An important aspect of mentorship is realizing the need to be mentored. Most of the times we struggle in life because we do not utilize the resources God put in our reach that can help us move to another level. God may be hiding the answer to the problem you have in someone around you. But since most of the times we are too proud to admit we need help, solutions pass our nose each day and God allows the problems to keep on coming our way until we realise that we are interdependent beings. The moment we realise we need help God makes sure He sends help our way. Dr Myles Munroe once said that _"God sends a teacher the day we realise we need to learn"._ So in essence all the solutions to all our problems are always within our reach. Make an effort to find someone who is wise and Godly. Learn as much as you can from that person. Ask as many questions as you can.

# Chapter Seventeen: The Principle Of Excellence

"Whatever you do, do well, for in death where you are going, there is no working or planning, knowing or understanding."

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Ecclesiastes 9:10

"The quality of your life will be determined by the depth of your commitment to excellence, no matter what your chosen field".

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Vince Lombardi

Excellence: Our Spiritual Inheritance

Excellence is the nature of God, and being made in His image we inherit a spirit of excellence. Excellence is in our spiritual DNA.

Many scientists have done their research on the potential of the Human and all of them have reached one conclusion: Man has so great potential that he uses only about 10% of it. This should make us realise how much of the abilities God deposited into our spirit is laying unused and mostly we die not tapping even 5% of this great potential. What would happen if we could use just 50% of this potential?

God would surely not give man so much potential knowing full well that none of them is going to be used by them. So if we are not using this potential it must be our problem. God has done us a great favour by revealing his blueprint for success built to all his creation.

We are put here on earth to realise our potential, to become the best of what God had in mind when he was creating us. This is what God referred to as DOMINION. Jim Rohn, in his book, The Day That Turned My Life Around, says _"Your life only gets better when you get better. And since there is no limit to how much better you can become, there is no limit to how much better you can make your life"_

The problem with us believers is that we think God will do everything for us. We sometimes carelessly think that God will give us a job and go to work for us. Excellence is something that is already in us, but we need to cultivate it the way we activate our gifts. We can activate the spirit of excellence through knowledge and practice. We need to learn all we need to learn about the field we are in. The more we know the better we become.

If God was in the business of doing everything for us He would surely not trouble us with reading the Bible. He would just put all the books in our mind just like we copy files into a computer. But He wants us to obey the laws he set into motion (this book is about such laws).

Excellence: An Attitude

Excellence starts with a change of attitude. We need to have an outlook of excellence in everything we do. Whatever we touch, we need to make sure we have done it to the best of our ability. And we must constantly be learning and sharpening our skills and gifts so as to be even better. Becoming the best ever in our field should always be our goal.

Whatever we are assigned to do, we should do it with all the knowledge we have, all the skills and talents we have and all the attention we can give it. God expects us to always give the best because He knows what He put in us. We have the God-DNA in us.

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might."

(Ecclesiastes 9:10)

How committed are you to Excellence? Vince Lombard reveals a timeless truth in his words: _"The quality of your life will be determined by the depth of your commitment to excellence, no matter what your chosen field."_ We need to develop a spirit of excellence in everything we do no matter how small or irrelevant we may think it is. Excellence in Marriage, business, work, relationships.

# Chapter Eighteen: The Principle of Humility

"But He giveth more grace. Wherefore He saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up."

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James 4:6, 10

"Recognition of Your Worth Creates Confidence. Recognition of Your Lack Creates Humility".

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Mike Murdock

Humility: God's Favorite Virtue

We may do all things well. We may be knowledgeable, skillful and hard-working but if we are not humble, God will always frustrate the work of our hands. God despises pride with deep emotion. He promises to destroy any one who has pride.

Pride is so dangerous that it not only leads to a spirit of rebellion against God, but it also stops us from receiving help from others. It boxes us into our own mental prison.

Actually pride is the tool the enemy uses to trap us in ignorance. With pride we close all opportunities for learning things that can take us to higher levels. With pride we become bride to the weaknesses that fight against progress. And since we do not want to face our limitations, we keep on stagnating until we slide into destruction. King Nebuchadnezzar became insane because of pride. He lost everything.

_"Recognition of Your Worth Creates Confidence. Recognition of Your Lack Creates Humility",_ Dr Mike Murdock says. Realization of lack really makes us humble and submit to receiving help from others. By submitting to receive help from others we also acknowledge that they are important.

A truly humble person is at heart one who recognizes the value in other people that he or she puts other people first. A humble person simply has no time to focus on the self. He or she spends all the energy adding value to other people, preserving their dignity and worth.

It is through humility that we create opportunities for learning things that can take us to greater levels. It is when we are humble enough to admit that we are inadequate that we become truly open to learning. It is at that point that God will release a teacher our way. But in as much as we keep on thinking we know everything and that we cannot be told what to do, God will make sure we keep on falling until we learn the lesson. God leaves us alone so that we should realize we can't do anything on our own. He actually keeps on letting us fall until we get the point and admit we need help.

# Chapter Nineteen: The Principle of Attitude

"Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens"

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John Homer Miller

"When we change the way we look at things; the things we look at change"

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Dr Wayne Dyer

Attitude Determines Altitude

Everything God creates has success built into it. When he created the Human person, he designed him for victory and success. Everything needed for man's success is already deposited into the human spirit.

In essence God brought heaven into man. What this means is that whatever is outside man cannot stop his success. Situations are not seen by God as obstacles to man's success. The internal controls the external (Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world). Whatever situation in the world which represents the enemy waging war against us is not meant to win over man. We may have wondered that God does not most of the times focus on the situations around us but the power that lies in us. This power starts from the level of our will. We have power to change situation simply by changing our outlook on the situation. When we focus on the positive in every situation, God makes the mind look for solutions which we would not be able to find when we are in a worry or fear mode. This is why God keeps telling us to never worry or be afraid.

We must always maintain a positive attitude to be able to see the solutions hidden in the problems we face on a daily basis.

It helps to realise that everything is created with an opposite. Existence of light presupposes existence of darkness. Fear presupposes courage. Love presupposes hate. Inside presupposes outside. Nothing exists in isolation. Our job is to focus on the positive aspects of a situation. The positive is always there. ALWAYS.

When we understand that God works everything for Good, we stop wasting time worrying and complaining and channel that energy to praising God, which is His will. It is our attitude towards life and everything that it brings our way that determines how high we go in life. We will never rise above our attitude. The divine order of the universe does not allow this to happen. This is why we sometimes die without achieving our potential. It's because Grace makes everything available, but we get to decide what we possess through the attitude of our hearts. If we think lowly of ourselves, God will not feel sorry for us and enlarge us. It will sadden Him but He unfortunately can't do anything about it. He has made everything available but He will never put things into our hands. We have to step out and get them from His hands. This is very difficult to do if our attitude on life is always negative. Always looking at the negatives in life only makes things worse. In simple terms, negative thinking is an antithesis of faith. It's not possible to have faith and be negative at the same time.

The fact that God cannot allow us to go through a situation or a problem that has no way out is enough for us to know that He is always in control no matter how the situation may seem like. However, whether we get out of the situation or not depends on our attitude.

Whatever happens in our life happens for us not to us. There is always Gold to be harvested in every situation. That's the whole reason why God allows it to happen in the first place. Our job is to open our eyes hence sharpening our attitude so as to see the Gold in every negative situation God allows to happen in our life. Life is really about how we see it not necessarily the way it is. Our outlook is all that matters, as Zig Ziglar would say _"You cannot tailor-make the situations in life, but you can tailor-make the attitudes to fit those situations"._

Dr Wayne Dyer once said _"When we change the way we look at things; the things we look at change"_. Our success does not depend on the external environment. We get to control what happens to us by controlling our internal states of affairs. We attract what we are. Nature simply responds to who we are and sends us everything in like terms with what we are. When we have a negative orientation of our mindset, we attract negative events into our life. Like attracts like. Positive attracts positive, and negative attracts negative. This is always true and will remain true until the end of time. God will never bend the rules for us. We simply have to bend ourselves to align with the rule and success shall be our lifestyle.

Zig Ziglar makes a striking observation that is so true: _It's your attitude not your aptitude that determines your altitude. How high we go is an issue of attitude not ability._

# Chapter Twenty: The Principle of Change

"Sometimes It Takes a Painful Experience to Make Us Change Our Ways"

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Proverbs 20:30

"Crisis Always Occurs At The Curve of Change."

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Mike Murdock

The Paradox Of Change

A Greek Philosopher, Heraclitus, once said and it still remains true, that _"nothing endures but change"_. Change is happening everyday whether we are aware of it or not. Change will always be there because it is part of the divine order of the universe. The only challenge we have is aligning ourselves to the continuous change going on around us and in us.

The reason why God designed change is because we are by nature Spirit Beings and the spirit in us is always striving to seek expression outside so as we can be the best we have been designed to be. For the spirit to express itself, change is imperative. While God designs all systems in a neutral mode, His purpose is to make them work for our success. He put all systems in a neutral mode because He always wants to respect our free will. We need to choose how we work out the system (be it for us or against us). Every system God designed has Life and Death attached to it. Life follows obedience and death follows disobedience. What the devil simply does is to convince us to do the opposite of what God desires us to do. Both God and the devil use the system. God wants us to use it for our success while the devil wants us to use it for our destruction.

For example, the system of sowing and reaping can work for us or against us. If we sow hatred, we reap hatred and when we sow love we reap love. The system works on what it receives and it does it efficiently. All the devil does is deceive us into sowing seeds whose fruits we do not desire at all. God tells us to sow only the good, because He wants us to reap the Good. The mistake we usually do is that we sow the bad and pray that God will bring out the good from it. This mentality is not in line with Gods systems of success.

"Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows, whoever sows to please the flesh from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the spirit, from the spirit will reap eternal life"

(Galatians 6:7-8)

We would do so fine if we could only obey His principles (God help us).

Knowledge Gives Meaning to Change

Much of the change is painful because of lack of knowledge. True and effective change is a product of knowledge. When light comes darkness has no choice but to leave. The reason why we struggle with many things is because we simply lack the light of God. Soon as we know and understand the truth (knowledge) liberty comes in. This is what leads to positive change.

Because God loves us, He sometimes goes to extremes in our life just so we could get his attention. He always wants to bring a new thing in our life. But most of the times the new thing fails to take root in our life because of the past or the comfort zone. Because we are not aware of the future, we tend to fear change. We prefer to stay in the comfort zone even when we fully know that where we are is not really where we need to be.

Sometimes God allows difficult moments to happen in our life just so He could get us to change our outlook on life and head in the direction He wants us. He allows us to go through the pain because He knows that the change will bring us joy. It is also helpful to understand that not all change leads to a positive thing. This is why all our changes must be grounded in God's will and purpose for our life

# Chapter Twenty One: The Principle of Confidence

"Do not throw away your confidence. He who began a good work in you will finish it".

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Philippians 1:6

"The way you look on the outside has a definite bearing on how you feel and see yourself on the inside"

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Zig Ziglar

Of Confidence and Performance

Our confidence is built on the knowledge of how God sees us. Any outlook on ourselves that is devoid of the creator is bound to be inadequate in all ways. Before we can have a healthy look at ourselves we need to first discover how God looks at us. This becomes the foundation for our true identity as well as our confidence.

The most liberating knowledge ever known to mankind is the knowledge that God created every one of us in His image.

Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground"

(Genesis 1:26)

This essentially means we take after his nature in every way. One of the timeless natural laws that God authored states that "like beget like". This law can be evident in nature. A Monkey does not give birth to a lion but a monkey.

So if we be made in God's image, it means we are capable of doing what God does because we have inherited the GOD-DNA which is imprinted in our spirit. The more we realise and understand this truth the more our confidence grows. And it is confidence that determines the extent to which we go in life.

A person who feels is not capable of speaking in public will limit his or her own territory of influence. When we believe that we cannot do, that's what we get.

When we see ourselves the way God does, we become limitless beings. Anything becomes possible because the spirit of God in us is limitless.

I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me."

(Philippians 4:13)

Man is endowed with traits of exploits but he limits his own abilities by the way he sees himself. This is because we can never rise above the way we see the self in us. What we think about ourselves is what we get. God will only allow things to come our way in proportionate with the way we see things. When we enlarge the horizon of what we can do, the spirit also enlarges the power in us to tally our outlook.

Much of what we do can be changed once we revisit the way we see ourselves. While we may not be fully aware, our self-concept determines the level of our achievement in life not God. God has left the bar open. It's up to us to decide how far we are willing to go. There is enough Grace made available for every need

Confidence gives us energy to press on even in times when the situations seem to be saying the opposite of what we want:

Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward."

(Hebrews 10:35)

Confidence is what preserves and truly defines our faith. It gives colour to the picture of faith. When we know and believe that God lives in us, there is nothing in the world that can stop us. This knowledge gives us confidence in the power, gifts and talents deposited in us. Our faith in God is directly proportionate to the confidence we have (knowing who we really are in Christ). Zig Ziglar brings out this truth eloquently in very few but powerful words: _"When your image improves, your performance improves"._ It is impossible for confidence to be high and faith low. The opposite is always true.

# Chapter Twenty Two: The Principle of Gratitude

"In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."

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1 Thessalonians 5:18

"The more you express gratitude for what you have the more you will have to express gratitude for"

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Zig Ziglar

God Is Moved by a Spirit of Gratitude, So Is Man

Gratitude is the attitude that brings out praise and thanks giving. When we have an attitude of gratitude, it becomes natural to give thanks and praises. It is not a coincidence that humans are happy when someone is thankful for what they do for them. We inherit this from our father God. God is always happy when we thank Him for whatever he does for and in us.

God built us to praise Him because there is perfection in everything He does. Whenever we thank God for everything, we invite more of Him into our life. The spirit of gratitude magnetizes the spirit of favour. Whenever we praise we get a raise. This law applies vertically, with God, and horizontally with man.

Just try praising a child for any good thing he/she may do and watch how you will liberate and motivate him/her to do more of that. That's just how God designed it.

Now God asks us to give thanks in everything, good or bad. When we look at the grand scheme of things we learn that the difficult times we may be going through are tied to a bigger good thing that God is aiming to do in us. This is why He tells us to thank Him in every situation, because with Him everything is a raw material for a blessing.

"In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."

1 Thessalonians 5:18

He is very good at bringing out joy from the sorrow, laughter from tears.

All God's creation functions optimally when under the environment under which it was designed as a condition. The energies of a man are fueled by gratitude. It is with gratitude that we are able to soberly look at the blessings we have around us and in us. Gratitude puts us in a perspective where we are able to see things that we would not clearly see under a normal circumstance. Gratitude trains us to see the best in people and situations. Gratitude focuses our attention on the source of help.

When we start living a life of gratitude, we will start to see people responding positively to us. Gratitude is the cosmic magnet that brings heaven into our hands. It cleans our spirit of the negativity and sharpens our perspective on life as we start living a life of acknowledging the good that is coming into our life.

# Chapter Twenty Three: The Law of Forgiveness

"But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."

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Matthew 6:15

"If forgiveness were a drug, it would be considered a miracle cure because of all the amazing things it does for us"

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Joyce Meyer

The Drug That Heals Emotional Wounds

Forgiveness is Gods way of cleaning our soul. The spirit of God cannot coexist in the same room with the spirit of un-forgiveness.

It is forgiveness that repairs our brokenness. The spirit of un-forgiveness can be understood as a poison that destroys the very vessel it is occupying. God wants us to always rid our heart of any kind of un-forgiveness. This is because un-forgiveness stops the move of God in our life. Friedrich Schiller points out that _"Forgiveness is the finding again of a lost possession; hatred an extended suicide."_ It is the greatest favour we can do to ourselves.

God authored the idea of forgiveness as a way of creating **fit** in relationships. Since no human being is perfect in the human sense, there is bound to be disappointments among people. But God solves this problem through Love which manifest in forgiveness.

God will always withhold justice until forgiveness is done. This is why we always suffer when we do not forgive the person who has wronged us. We share in the pain which is not supposed to be ours. The reason why we suffer pain when we are walking in un-forgiveness is that God essentially designed us to function on LOVE. In essence, the first person to benefit from forgiveness is the one who does forgive because that sets one free from all emotional pain which further stops all workings of the Holy Spirit. Un-forgiveness stops all kinds of blessings in our life. The ultimate act of freedom and true liberty is one based on a life of forgiveness. Bishop T.D.Jakes, in his book, says that _"When you begin to realize that your past does not necessarily dictate the outcome of your future, then you can release the hurt. It is impossible to inhale new air until you exhale the old"._ We need to keep our soul clean to allow God to find his habitation in us

We would all be lying if we said that forgiving someone is always easy. It's not. And God never said that it will be easy. But we also need to realise that whatever God tells us to do, He also gives us ability to do it when we surrender to His Grace. Forgiveness is a spiritual act. This means that we cannot manage to forgive someone in flesh. But when we submit our body and feelings to the spirit, we overcome the pain and let Jesus carry the emotional pain. He and He alone is the rightful person who is supposed to carry our burden.

While Jesus is so loving and caring, He does not take the burden from us; we actually give it to Him. The moment we decide to give Him the burden of un-forgiveness and let go of all the emotions and pains connected to the person who wronged us, we allow Jesus to step in and carry the burden for us. Not only does He carry the burden, He also gives us peace on top of it, and Yes, He releases all the blessings that were locked spiritually.

When we forgive others, we allow them to start a new, the same way we do when God forgives us.

And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in Heaven may forgive you your trespasses."

(Mark 11:25)

This verse explains why God stops all blessings when we are harbouring un-forgiveness in our heart. Before God can bless us we firstly need to be in good relationship with Him. And we cannot get anything from God when God has not forgiven us. Now how and when does God forgive us? He forgives us the moment we repent, but even this repentance will only lead to forgiveness if we have actually forgiven the one who has wronged us. In other words, if we don't forgive the person who has wronged us, we need not expect God to forgive our own sins. This therefore means that un-forgiveness creates a gap between us and God. The moment we forgive, God forgives our sin and that restores our relationship with Him as well as the one who wronged us. This restoration of relationship is what releases the blessings that may have been locked up by God. The moment we forgive people miracles start to happen in our life.

So, when we don't forgive others we not only stop God from forgiving our own sins (and we sin against him every day) but we also stop our own spiritual growth. God sees and feels the hurt we feel when others do us wrong. He promises to deal with the issue. Some may accuse us wrongly, but God always has a schedule for vindicating His innocent people. Our task is to love our enemy, forgive them and stay busy looking for ways of meeting people's needs. He wants our focus to be on doing good to people around us. It's His job to bring justice in ways He sees fit. When we develop a habit of forgiving people we actually sow seeds of forgiveness which we harvest in life. Our relationship with God dramatically improves

As Christians we also need to develop a No-Offense mentality. We can avoid trapping ourselves in a lot of offense when we discover that an event, word or action does not have intrinsic power to disappoint us. What makes us angry or disappointed is not what people do or say to us but our interpretation of them. God gave us free will so that we could choose to give an event the meaning we want. It is really this interpretation that we make of a thing or person that makes us angry or disappointed.

It also helps to realise that people do not really (in a deeper sense) just want to disappoint us. It's usually because there is something they are also struggling with personally. It could be insecurity, jealousy, stress, frustration. When you really think about it, it is things like these that make people do the bad things they do to others (in essence they have issues they are probably failing to handle). When we forgive them we allow them to heal. The truth about it is that when we refuse to forgive someone we make them masters of our life. They emotionally determine our moods and feelings in ways that could be very destructive. Just imagine how you would suddenly change from being very happy to angry when someone you haven't forgiven comes into the room. Has that person not controlled your life that way? On a deeper level it's not even that person controlling you, it's the devil (all things associated with hate are from the devil). Never allow the devil to control your life. Let go and be free. We are meant to love and care for people.

God built forgiveness to the principle of reciprocity so that the world should be a place of safety and love. We are the ones to benefit when we forgive people who wrong us. We also get to enjoy the joys of living a let-go-life which is so liberating and empowering.

# Chapter Twenty Four: The Principle of Growth

"Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel's hand."

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Zechariah 4:10

"Whatever we feed grows, and whatever we starve dies. We either feed the flesh or the spirit. What we choose to feed is what will grow in our life"

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Paul Qualira

What We Feed Grows

When God gives life to anything, He makes sure it has a growth mechanism. He makes it have a death and life mode. All things are created in binaries. The inside presupposes the outside, tall presupposes short, good presupposes bad, holy presupposes evil, life presupposes death the list goes on and on. But God put all the two binary realities in our hands. He expects us to manage them according to His guidelines (the laws or principles). He gives us a choice between life and death, He of course wants us to choose life though He can't force us. He assures us of success when we follow His guidelines.

Back to the concept of Growth and development. A thing is at any point either moving in the direction of life (growing) or in the direction of death (decaying). What God expects us is to feed whatever He brings into our hands so as to make it grow. This is essentially what makes us His stewards.

When we don't feed (work out) our talent or gift, it dies. When we don't feed our relationship, it dies. When we don't feed our spirit we let the flesh dominate and we die. Everything we have needs to be fed, for that's the demand of the Law of Growth.

Take an example of a child. God put into a child the ability to speak, think, walk and many other abilities. But you will agree with me that these abilities come in form of potential. If the child is not let to utter some words no matter how non-sensible they are, the child will not speak. Similarly, if the child does not care to start crawling (trying to walk), that child will not walk. Our potential is immense but God put all the abilities in potency so that it is up to us to activate them. Many people have gone to the grave with gifts and talents unlocked. This cannot be blamed to God, because we are managers of all that He has given us.

The Concept of Seed System

The only fully grown and developed being God ever created was Adam and Eve. And He did that because He needed a being that could incubate His seed system. From this seed system, everything is to be developed into a fully developed entity. Thus we can say that He has hidden the Glory of his creation in a seed system. When you hold a seed in your hands, that's all you may be able to see, but God sees a forest in that seed. There is a generation trapped in your child. There are books and businesses trapped in your mind.

God put things in a seed because He has assigned us the task of bringing out His glory from these seeds. And God sees everything as a seed. Even our thoughts are seeds. Our actions are seeds. Everything is a seed that is to be grown and nurtured.

Every area of life that does not grow cannot be blamed on God because He has already tasked us to manage it. There is a specific way of growing every area of life. Our spiritual life grows through prayer and studying the word of God. Our thought-life grows through feeding it with the right kind of information. Our personality grows through cultivation of our skills, talents and gifts. And the level to which we grow depends on how much we know. If we want to do well in Business, then we must start studying people who are successful businesswise. Knowledge determines the scope and quality of our growth. Whatever we don't know is in control.

The goal of growth is to attain a state of prosperity. Prosperity in every area of life (finances, relationships, work, health, spirituality). When we understand that everything is given to us as a seed that is to be sown and nurtured, we adopt a different perspective on what God has put into our hands. You begin to look at yourself as a seed that needs to be planted in the Kingdom soil. And you start to realize that if you are really to grow then you should stop the habit of uprooting yourself where God positions you. When God plants us the soil we are planted on has no choice but to make the seed grows. The only problem we have is that we want God to put us in an environment that looks attractive. We tend to forget that the miracle is located inside the seed not the soil. It doesn't matter where God plants us, as long as we remain faithful, we will blossom.

We should not despise the humble beginnings because God operates from the small so that His glory can be proven.

Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel's hand."

(Zechariah 4:10)

He works with what we have. With our cooperation, He makes us a success. All He wants us to do is make the best out of the small we have. He then grows it and grows it. The secret is really simple. Whatever we sow, gets multiplied. We may not have money but we surely have something. We always have something that we can sow. God gave every person a seed that is to act as a raw material for revolutionizing his or her life. He works on that seed. It could be time, money, gift rendered in service, words of advice. It can be anything. When we give it, we should expect God to multiply it. This is where the secret of Growth lies

Personal Development and Growth

Like everything, our talents, gifts and capacity for skills development are given to us in potency. It's up to us to activate them to make them develop **.**

The Bible tells us to stir our gifts to make them start operating **(2 Timothy 1:6)**. This simply means that we could have a gift and die with it if we do not care to work it. Similarly, all human beings are created with a capacity to learn any skill. But if we do not intentionally train our mind that skill lies dormant. This is why we need to study in the area of our gifts, talents and desired skills we want to develop. Most of the great public speakers have a history of fear of speaking in public, but through study and practice they overcame the fear and became that which God already knew was in them. When we start studying in the area of development we make our mind receptive and open to the Holy Spirit's workings. Jim Rohn, the Business Philosopher and Life Coach, gives us very practical words of wisdom: _"If You Want to Be Successful, Be a Person of value. The Person Who Needs to Change Is You"_

God will not leave His throne until we make the first step. That first step, that action, is what defines our faith in God.

Come near to God and he will come near to you

(James 4: 8)

Study is at the pinnacle of personal growth and development. That's because God works on us through the mind. If God didn't put value on studying (knowledge acquirement), He would probably have just copied His word in the Bible into our mind just like we copy music files from a computer. We wouldn't have to study the Bible. But NO, He expects us to put something in our mind, and what we put in our mind will determine the direction of our growth. When we feed our mind with evil and negative things, we activate the evil spirit of the devil who leads us into the direction of death. When we feed it with positive and godly things we activate the spirit of God and we head in the direction of Life. The mind is the battle ground where either God wins or the devil wins over us depending on what we put into it.

This is why God tells us to keep renewing our mind so that we clean it of all the evil and negative thoughts that create the negative life. In short, God cannot, even though He is very powerful, give us a good life if what we feed the mind is negative stuff. That's because He established a law that says that what we become depends on what we think about. This law will never change as long as we are still here on planet earth.

# Chapter Twenty Five: The Principle of Patience

"The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him."

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Lamentations 3:25

"Patience is not the ability to wait but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting".

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Joyce Meyer

The Whys of Waiting

God does not withhold a good thing from his child. If He has not yet given you the thing you have been looking for, there can only be three reasons.

  1. **You Haven't Asked**

God does not give us unless we ask of Him. It is not clear in the Bible why God has to wait for us to ask before He can give us. Perhaps we can only acknowledge something coming from God when it comes after our prayer.

  1. **It's Not A Good Thing For You**

Not everything we want is a good thing for us. God is the only one who is in a good position to know what's good for us and He makes sure we do not get something that will eventually kill or destroy us. He is a loving God. This is where He gives us a resounding NO! In short, if what we are asking for is not in alignment with God's will then we can be assured God doesn't want us to have it, and this is for our own good.

  1. **You Are Not Ready For It**

Sometimes we ask for something when we are not ready for it. God withholds such a thing up to a time when we are ready to have it. This is where God expects us to be patient. It is through this waiting that we allow Him to work on us, building character that will make us handle the blessing we are in need of. God is not a sadist that would derive pleasure in watching us cry for help and then withhold his provision. If we are not ready for it, He makes sure we wait. If what we are asking for is clearly God's will then press on until the answer appears. And the best way of getting the answer faster is by working on ourselves. The reason why God has not yet released it to us even though it's His will to do so, is mostly because we are not yet ready for it. So the solution is to make yourself ready by submitting completely to God's voice. For example, the reason we may still be struggling with poverty despite the fact that God's will for us is prosperity is probably because we are not givers, or we are givers but we do not manage well what we receive (stewardship) through careless spending, lack of self-discipline (self-control). Until we deal with such things, God withholds His blessing.

How long we wait for God's response mostly depends on us. If we are resistant to promptings, we only lengthen the waiting time. The more obedient we are to Him, the faster we get to God's answer.

Usually when we ask for something, we do it with a wrong motive. In that case, God works on our character first so that He purifies our motive and align them to His will. This is what makes God withhold his answer.

You may be asking for finances but maybe you still have a spending problem. You may not even have your goals set, you may not even have a financial plan. He knows so well that if He drops a million in our hands it will go as fast as it comes. God knows it takes character to manage what He gives us. This is why His focus is always on building our character first before He entrusts us with anything.

God always rewards a patient person. Patience allows the Holy Spirit to do His sanctification work on us (He aims at perfecting us). It always benefits us to have a learning heart. When God seems to be silent, we should not waste time questioning Him or getting angry. Instead we should be praying that God open our eyes to the things we need to work on. There is always something He wants us to work on, if only we could let go of a self-righteous mentality and allow the Holy Spirit to convict us and mold us into Christ's image. We may be asking God to change our husband or wife, but God may need to change you first. There is always joy after patience:

"We call them happy because they endured. You have heard of Job's patience and you know how the Lord provided for him in the end. For the Lord is full of mercy and compassion"

(James 5: 11)

There are things that you may not see because you may be so consumed in the thought that your partner is a problem while perhaps you also have a problem in communicating with your partner, perhaps you do not value them. Perhaps you always nag them. When we become open to God's convicting He lets us see where we are going wrong and that's we deal with the root of the problem.

# Chapter Twenty Six: The Principle of Detachment

"For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it"

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Matthew 16:25

"In order to acquire anything in the physical universe, you have to relinquish your attachment to it. This doesn't mean you give up the intention to create your desire. You don't give up the intention, and you don't give up the desire. You give up your attachment to the result".

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Unknown

The Secret in The Paradox

The Law of detachment is emphasized by Jesus Christ. The Lord kept on emphasizing the point that we should not be attached to anything. The things we get attached to we eventually lose.

"For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it"

(Matthew 16:25).

God being a jealous God could not allow anything He created to take His place of worship.

God understands an object of worship as being anything we love more than Him. We slide into idol worship the moment we get attached to something more than we do to God. That thing actually takes the place of God. He did not create us to love anything more than we love Him. This is why God hates the love of money. He wants us to use money to serve Him.

God has no problem letting His children have many things. What He doesn't want is our attachment to them. This perspective has unfortunately been heavily misunderstood to mean that God wants us to be poor. This is not true; it's not even a biblical viewpoint. What God hates is materialism not materials. Materialism is more of an attitude to the things we have or want to have. God just wants us to have these things as tools to serve people around us. Similarly, God views money as a tool to be used to uplift someone's life. The love of it is what God strongly abhors, not money itself.

When someone is detached to things, He starts creating because He puts God in His rightful position and the spirit of creation is unleashed. Someone once said, _"Attachment comes from poverty consciousness, because attachment is always to symbols._

Detachment is synonymous with wealth consciousness, because with detachment there is freedom to create. Only from detached involvement can one have joy and laughter".

Jesus famously said that those who love life will lose it and those who lose it will have it. This statement perfectly describes the Law of Detachment. Jesus expects us to surrender our desires to Him and let Him take root in us that the thing we desire grow out of Him, the vine, as a branch that is the fountain of all that our soul and spirit yearns for.

This truth resonates with truth that God takes care of our needs as we focus on the needs of the kingdom **(Matthew 6:33).**

Here Jesus is trying to make us see that He already knows the things we need and want, and he has no problem with that, but He just wants us to see things the way God sees them. There is a kingdom way of getting things. We get them as a product of our focus on serving. The things we want are never to be the goal but rather the result. I like the way Jesus put it _"...and all these things shall be added unto you"_ , meaning they will simply follow you.

When we detach ourselves from the things we need or desire and focus on serving the Kingdom, we become spiritual magnets that attract everything we need. It just becomes difficult to stop them. They respond to the magnet activated in your spirit. As hard as it is to remove an iron from a powerful magnet, that's how difficult it is to stop blessings coming your way when you just focus on God and His assignment. That's essentially what the Law of detachment is all about.

When we detach ourselves from the things we want we free our spirit to express itself in a limitless way. When we truly know who we really are in Christ, we cannot be attached to things: _"Anything you want can be acquired through detachment, because detachment is based on the unquestioning belief in the power of your true Self. Attachment, on the other hand, is based on fear and insecurity and the need for security is based on not knowing the true Self."_

# Chapter Twenty Seven: The Principle of Prayer

"Pray without ceasing."

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1 Thessalonians 5:17

"If you will make time with God your first priority, everything else in your life will fall into place"

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Joyce Meyer

He Wants a One-On-One Talk

Any relationship is built and nurtured by communication. Prayer is a communication system that God ordained to allow man to be in touch with God. It is prayer that gets us plugged to the power of God.

God's ultimate goal of prayer is to build a healthy relationship with his children, anything else follows from the relationship. God does not release anything from heaven to earth unless there is a prayer of faith.

It is unfortunate that we sometimes employ manipulative schemes to try to get God to do something for us. What He desires is that we have a talk with him and be a friend with Him. Most often than not we make Him an ATM machine who is there just to give us what we want from Him and when we get what we want we leave His presence.

When God created us during the foundation of time, He put everything in us that we need for a life of dominion.

The Power of Prayer

Prayer is essentially communication between God and man. Prayer activates the environment in which we commune with the Lord.

As much as it is a given fact that prayer changes situations, it moves us closer to God. God never leaves us; it is actually us who leave His presence **(Hebrews 13:5).**

God invented prayer as a way of making sure His children have some quality time with the Father. It's a tool that helps us build a relationship with God. Prayer creates an environment that connects us spiritually to God. It also helps us to build a relationship with our God as in prayer we talk with God about our fears, hopes, requests and praises.

Let's go back a little to our definition of prayer: the key word is "communication". Now experts on communication tell us that communication is a two-way transaction. But when we closely look at our prayers, we will realise that in most cases it is just a one-way kind of situation. Usually, we tell God our requests, our complaints then off we go. Many times, we leave God talking on his own because by the time God wants to respond to the conversation, we are long gone. Now that's not prayer, that's not communication.

We need to wait for God to speak when praying. He always does, we simply are too occupied to listen. His voice is small. And when He speaks, we usually put off His voice (He usually speaks through our conscience)

# Chapter Twenty Eight: The Principle of Petition

"...You do not have what you want because you do not ask God for it."

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James 4: 2

"You Have Nothing to Lose and Everything to Gain by Asking"

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Jack Carnfield

All You Need to Do Is Ask

God knows everything we need and want. But He wants us to ask Him for the things we need. It does no good to assume that God will provide us with what we need and want just because He is All-knowing. This is why God wants us to pray always. It is in prayer that we have a conversation with God, a time when we not only thank God for what He is doing for and in us, but also to ask Him for what we need.

God established a law that works for the one who activates it; when you ask, you receive. When you seek for something, you find it and when you knock the door opens for you.

Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks will receive, and everyone who seeks will find, and the door will be opened to those who knock

(Matthew 7: 7-8)

What these words of the Lord mean is that the one who doesn't ask, should not expect to receive; the one who does not seek must not think he or she will find anything, and if we do not knock we should not expect the door to open for us. The spirit of God responds to our petitions.

"...You do not have what you want because you do not ask God for it."

**(James 4: 2)**

Of course we should also remember that God will respond to petitions that are from a pure heart. If our motive for asking God for something is so we could make our neighbor jealous, then we probably have missed God's frequency. Such petitions are not responded to because God does not promote a spirit of competition or envy and jealousy.

The Three Ways of Possessing Our Inheritance

There are three ways that God established for making us possess the things that are for us but trapped in the spirit realm

  1. **Ask**

God expects us to tell Him what we want. He wants us to be specific in our requests. Prayer time is the time we communicate our needs to God.

  1. **Seek**

Some things will not come to us, but rather we will take ourselves to them. God hides some things not **from** us but **for** us to find. And we can only find these hidden things as we seek God. To seek something is to do all that is necessary with all the energy and knowledge we have to find it. We need to study God more and more in order to understand His ways and His hand. Study is one of the method of finding what we seek. The more we study the more knowledge we gain and the more wisdom we have. It is wisdom that gives us light to see the things many people are not seeing, seeing the value that many are not noticing. But without knowledge, there is no wisdom because wisdom is the application of knowledge. We need to make friendship with the Bible. We need to renew our mind.

God actually promises that when you seek Him He avails Himself. It is in our search for God that we really prove our commitment and love for God. And God cannot resist the heart that really yearns for Him. Seeking God requires us to be patient. As we study the Bible and read some Christian books, God reveals some secrets which He only gives to those who diligently seek Him.

  1. **Knock**

Some things are spiritually ours but it requires as to step out and grab them (sometimes forcefully). You may be jobless. Perhaps you have been writing application letters but the job is still not found. Some things we get by pressing forth with faith. Perhaps for you to get the job you need, you need to visit offices and sell yourself to the employers.

Remember the Samaritan woman who got healed by Jesus:

A woman, whose daughter had an evil spirit in her, heard about Jesus and came to him at once and fell at his feet. The woman was a Gentile, born in the region of Phoenicia in Syria. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her. But Jesus answered, "let us first feed the children. It isn't right to take the children's food and throw to the dogs".

"Sir", she answered, "even the dogs under the table eat the children's food leftovers!"

So Jesus said to her, "Because of that answer, go back home, where you will find that the demon has gone out of your daughter!"

(Mark 7: 25-29)

The time had not yet come for Jesus to heal gentiles but because the woman was so persistent with faith, Jesus was moved by this. Her persistence (which revealed her faith) made Jesus respond even though it was not yet time for him to do so.

When we knock we compel circumstances or people to respond to our need. The concept of "knock" implies action of faith. Knock until the door opens. The kingdom of God is taken by force.

# Chapter Twenty Nine: The Principle of Balance

"Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth"

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3 John 2

"Extremes of a good thing are equally as bad as those of a bad one"

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Paul Qualira

Balancing the Spiritual Pendulum

Also called Praxis, the principle of balance is a principle that regulates spiritual, mental and behavioral extremes. If not controlled, the mind has a tendency to go on one extreme. A person may be very dedicated at work but never care about his family. One may believe so much in Grace that He/she becomes so lazy thinking God will take control of His life. Another may believe so much in faith that He/she ends up sliding into "works of the flesh", and thus falling from Grace. A person may give a lot to other people but let his family starve to death. A student may spend all his/her time praying that He/she does not study or attend classes. All these are extremes. God does not expect us to do anything in extremes

We need to appropriate our time, energy, attention and effort to all the things that are important in our life. We need to develop all the areas of our life (spiritual, physical, social and intellectual). God desires that we prosper in all areas of our life.

Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth"

(3 John 2)

We are essentially a spirit that has a soul and we live in a body. God wants all these three areas to prosper. That's we need to have spiritual prosperity, Mental prosperity and physical prosperity. God wants every area of our life working. He wants us to excel at work as well as in our marriage and family.

Jesus did not die for us just to take us to heaven but also to bring heaven right here on earth. If His goal was just to get us to heaven, we would all be leaving planet earth the moment we receive Christ into our heart. We are here to reclaim our dominion which was lost to the devil.

Back to the concept of Balance. Balance simply means allocating our time, focus, energy to all the important aspects of our life. We need time every day for prayer so as to grow spiritually. We need time to develop our mental and intellectual aspects by studying to increase our knowledge base and develop skills. We need time with our family and friends. We also need to have time dedicated to making our body be in good health. We need to do some exercises every day. The Business Philosopher, Jim Rohn, advises that we should not be doing something else when it's time to do something. If it's time for family, we need to direct all our attention and energy to family. And when we go to the lake to relax with family, we shouldn't also be doing work things. That time is for relaxing and it must be spent for that. This makes sure we live a truly quality life and every area of our life progresses well.

What gets us out of balance are usually not bad things bad good things done in extremes. God knows we can easily slide into extremes. He tries to get us back on line. A good example is that of giving. It is possible to give a lot to other people and yet ignore your immediate family. This is a good example where God comes out openly on His need for balanced action;

God goes to the extent of describing a believer as being worse than a non-believer not because He is not giving but because he is operating in the extremes.

If anyone fails to provide for his own, and especially for those of his own family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever

(1 Timothy 5:8)

He is ignoring His/her family. We need wisdom for balance. Many people are dying with talents and gifts in them because they spend all their productive lifetime waiting for God to work miracles in their life. They forget that they need to take action to invite God's intervention. Everything provided lies in potency until activated by our Faith-Filled-Action. Similarly, some are so occupied with the self that they think they really don't need God. We all play a part in our destiny. God's role is to provide Grace; our role is to have faith (which is expressed in action)

# Chapter Thirty: The Principle of Reciprocity

"Help others and you will be helped"

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Proverbs 11: 25b

"Life is an echo. What you send out you get back. What you give you get"

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Zig Ziglar

Reciprocity: The Relationship Builder

To better understand the principle of reciprocity, we need to understand the fact that God created a system that is meant to serve his children. Everything needed is already created. It is simply a matter of possessing and sharing. God intended the spirit of love to govern the whole system. We, however, have power and freedom to make hate or love be the governor of the system. Everything is entirely up to us.

This principle essentially states that whatever we give out will come back to us. The way we treat people is the way people will treat us. In other words, life mirrors us. It echoes our voice. God designed this system so that it serves us. It is a system that ensures that we are supplied with essentials of life. Being interdependent humans, God uses people around us to supply us with the needs. However, what is supplied to us depends on what we supply to other people. When we treat people with dignity, God makes sure that others treat us with dignity. When we help others get what they want, God makes sure others help us get what we want.

This principle stems from the principle of Sowing and reaping. Everything we say or do to people is regarded by the divine system as a seed and the divine order makes sure that which is sown is given back to us in a similar nature.

We cannot change this law. We can only make it work for our success when we bow down to it and start doing good things for people. The Lord Jesus talked about the Golden Rule. We should always do unto others as we would have them do unto us. When we allow this rule to control our attitude and actions, we live a very happy life. We should always make sure that we intentionally make other people's lives better. We cannot blame God when people are not helping us with food when we didn't care about that old man/woman we left dying with hunger when we actually had something to give:

If you refuse to listen to the cry of the poor, your own cry for help will not be heard

(Proverbs 21: 13)

What is perhaps deceptive about this law is that it may sometimes not work out instantly, but it surely works all the time. We will always be treated the way we treat others. The law may seem to take some time to respond but we can be assured it works. This is why when we keep on doing good things to other people we should not feel discouraged when we don't see other responding to our needs. God will always make sure the law serves you.

Understanding how this principle operates should help us to have a changed outlook on how we see and treat each other. We need to develop an attitude of Love. All our actions and thoughts need to be purified and motivated by love. This is not only the Good thing to do but it's also how we would like others to treat us.

So, to change the nature of supply coming our way we first need to change the nature of things we supply to other people. Everything begins with us. If we want God to get near to us, we must get near to Him:

Come near to God and he will come near to you

(James 4: 8)

This is why success lies in our hands because we get to control what comes our way. We get to decide the quality of life we want to live. God responds to His word. When we follow what His law says, He has no choice but to make it work for us.

All we need to focus our eyes and our mind is on how best we can make other people's life wonderful. God will reward us with a wonderful life. Our actions should simply be motivated by love.

The devil, we must know, also uses this principle of reciprocity for his own agenda. Because He knows that this principle is exact in its execution, all He needs to do to make us fall in the trap is to make us have a spirit of self-interest where we do not care what we do to other people as long as we get things our way. We step on other people to get things. The principle may not respond instantly, which is what makes people think they can get away. But in due time the law takes its course and everything falls apart. This is the destruction Satan intends because destruction is one of his agenda on planet earth. But thanks to God, He can forgive us for all the bad things we may have done to others, through Jesus Christ.

If we focus on making other people happy, we are on the right track. If we have been caring only about us and no one else, today is that day God has graced us to change our outlook on life and start living a life of fulfilment and meaning.

# Chapter Thirty One: The Principle of Seed-time & Harvest

"While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease"

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Genesis 8: 22

"If, through the act of giving, you feel you have lost something, then the gift is not truly given and will not cause increase. If you give grudgingly, there is no energy behind that giving".

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Unknown

The Concept Of Seed

God put everything in a seed, and he designed the seed in a way that it multiplies after its own kind. All that God creates follows after the logical principle of consistency. You cannot sow a maize seed and harvest an apple. Whatever we sow, we harvest from its kind, multiplied.

The seed system will prevail for as long as the earth stands. The law presupposes logical steps to the system. For one thing God designed the universe in a way that we should first sow the seed before we could harvest anything. He has also ordained a time between sowing of the seed and the harvesting of the same.

The seed system is the greatest gift God has given man. It makes man in control of his life. We get to determine how much we have in life by the way we make use of the seed system. Man has power to determine how wealthy he can be by how he uses the seed law. It really doesn't matter where we are born. We could be born in the poorest country of the world but if we know how to operate the seed law we can be as equally wealthy as someone in the most developed country. The seed law equalizes our opportunities.

Bob Proctor once said, "O _pportunities cannot be monopolized"._ This is because we all have a seed that we can use as our capital for increase. It can be money, time, talent, skill, service, or idea. We always have a seed of some kind at all times.

One very important aspect of the seed is that it goes through a period of time before a harvest can be obtained. There is "seed-time" which means a time for sowing and then a time for harvesting. In biological language, whenever a seed is sown it germinates and grows until it reaches the harvest time. Sometimes we tend to forget this period between sowing the seed and harvesting. When we keep worrying about when we will harvest, it's like we are digging the seed again to see if it's germinating. We all know this only slows or even stops the process. All we need is just believe the law, because it never fails. Just keep watering the seed with words of expectation and faith. You may even want to keep yourself busy serving the kingdom as the seed germinates for when the harvest is ripe, it will surely knock on your door. It will announce its arrival.

Understanding Harvest

The beauty of the seed law lies in the fact that God designed it to multiply. This is the greatest secret of wealth creation and increase of ANY kind. The law doesn't care what we are sowing, it makes sure we harvest more of what we have sown. Well, this is both a good thing as well as something dangerous. The divine ground gets whatever falls on it. When an evil seed falls on this ground, that evil is multiplied and given back to the sower as a harvest. Thus if we sow hatred, we are sure to harvest hatred. If we sow love we are sure to harvest love, multiplied. The law simply multiplies after its own kind and gives us the Harvest.

It helps to realize that with the law, everything we do is taken as a seed sown. When we give money to the needy, that is taken as a seed sown. We should expect to have that seed multiplied and given to us as harvest, multiplied. A thought we entertain in our mind is a seed that multiplies and gives us a harvest. So if the thought is evil, we cannot expect something good to show up as a harvest. This is why the Bible tells us to renew our mind. We need to feed our mind with positive and Godly thoughts because those thoughts become seeds in our mind. They manifest in our life as fruits.

While the principle of seedtime and harvest can be used to our disadvantage, it was created to serve us. It was created to multiply our life, creating a life of abundance. All we need is to obey the Word of God and we will watch this law work to our advantage just like God intended.

The seedtime and harvest principle is the foundation on which giving is laid. When God promises to give us back when we give, He means that when we give we activate the law of seed-time and harvest which always reacts to every seed that falls on the ground (our giving).

God Himself was the first to activate the law by sowing His son Jesus. He harvested millions of souls, which we are now a part of.

The Whys of Seed and Harvest Principle

God established this principle to be used to bring increase in our life. He, however, put this in our hands. What this means is that since God always puts seeds into our hands, we can choose to live a life of abundance or lack. Economy cannot be an excuse for lack because the law does not care what economy is there. It simply works on what it receives. This is why the solution to poverty in this world is not having a good economy per se, but living a life of giving. Take an example of the widow in the Bible who was asked to give her food to the Prophet. We hear from the story that God increased her supernaturally. Such is the nature of the law; it simply acts with the power God built into it.

The reason why, as Christians, we are still struggling with finances, for example, is that we are not using this law which is responsible for multiplication or increase. We tend to pray, pray and pray. We fast, fast and fast, but we do not see any change in our finances. Well there is nothing wrong with praying and fasting (the Bible tells us to pray always), but this problem of lack cannot go with prayer and fasting alone because the law that directly deals with it is not yet activated. Such problems go with the law of seeding which in this case is giving. God hears our prayer when we pray but He only acts when we activate the law. Our faith in God is expressed as we operate (obey) his laws.

We need to develop a lifestyle of giving to live in perpetual abundance. One famous Biblical Economist once said that _"The best way to put the Law of Giving into operation is to start the whole process of circulation and to make a decision that any time you come into contact with anyone, you will give them something. It doesn't have to be in the form of material things; it could be a flower, a compliment, or a prayer"._

God needs a seed on which to perform his miracles of increase. He does not work on a "nothing". He just can't do. Think about all the case in the Bible where God increased anything. He worked the miracle on something that was already there (seed). The multiplication of fish and bread was possible because there was some bread and fish. The miracle of the Widow was possible because she had some food on which the miracle was born. God wants us to give what we have if we want Him to increase it. This is why we all have the same opportunity for increase because God gave us all seeds that we can sow and reap harvest. The only problem we have is that we either eat the seed or we keep the seed.

Jesus made it clear when He talked about how the seed system works; every seed needs to fall to the ground and die. God then makes it germinate and bring forth fruits (harvest). The first seed we can ever sow is ourselves. We, firstly, need to sow ourselves in the ground (kingdom of God). We need to give our lives to God, then and only then will he multiply every area of our life

I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

(John 12:24)

Sometimes as Christians we give up giving because we don't see any harvest. There are two reasons why we should not give up. For one thing, when we give up giving because we do not see a harvest we reveal that our giving is rooted in wrong or misplaced motive. God does not want us to give so that we should be given. He wants us to give so we could help other people (express our love) – the harvest is simply a reward that is given to us, not the goal or aim. Secondly, we need not stop giving when we notice there is no harvest because the law talks about "seed-time". This means there is a time or period between sowing and reaping the harvest. This simply means that we need to wait on God to bring out harvest from our seed. All we need to do is keep on giving (helping the needy, supporting the church) and in due time God will take care of our needs because He knows our needs and desires.

God reveals the secret to a bountiful increase;

But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.

(2 Corinthians 9:6)

Here the Bible shows us that while the law will multiply any seed that falls on the ground, the measure of increase is determined by us. If we want greater increase, then we need to sow more seeds (give more). The riches will not come because we pray hard, but because we give more and we pray hard. Prayer does not take the place of giving. It goes together with it

God's system of increase operates the opposite way to the world system. The world believes increase is the product of adding or accumulating while the kingdom system is about giving out. The more we give out, the more we have:

Some people spend their money freely and still grow richer. Others are cautious and yet grow poorer. Be generous and you will be prosperous. Help others and you will be helped

(Proverbs 11: 24-25)

Giving

God established a system of giving as a way of making sure his kingdom is run on an interdependence foundation. He wanted to give us an opportunity to express love to our neighbor. God is love and we being His children take after this character. Love is the blood that runs the body that is humanity. We are actually defined as Christians by the love we show to others not the verses we preach to the unsaved. It is no wonder that Love is the greatest of all the laws. It governs our motives and intention as well as our actions. God is only happy with what we do in as far as we do it in love.

God also built into Giving, a reward system that increases the giver. Ideally God rewards our giving so we could give more. He not only uses us to be a blessing to others but He also grants the desires of our heart as we get busy blessing others with what God is blessing us with, be it money, talent, skill, service, time, idea, prayer or anything that we can give.

Understanding the Concept of Soil

In our understanding of the law of seed-time and harvest, we also need to understand the concept of soil. While the seed may be good, it may not give good harvest if it falls on bad soil. In the Kingdom of God, there is soil that is so fertile that it will increase any seed that falls on it.

  1. **Giving Offerings**

One of the greatest soils for any seed is the church. When we give to the church we allow for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. God does not leave such a person the same.

God also expects us to help the pastors who are shepherding our soul with what we have.

  1. **Giving Tithes**

While the other forms of giving are voluntary, tithing is a command. We can give any percentage we want as offering or alms (of course we also need to keep in mind that the size of the seed determines the size of the harvest), but God expects us to give 10% as tithe.

Bring the full amount of your tithes to the temple, so that there will be plenty of food there. Put me to test and see that I will open the windows of heaven and pour out on you in abundance all kinds of good things

(Malachi 3: 9-10)

It is clear from the verse above that the reason we should tithe is not to be blessed but to make sure the house of God is maintained. The opening of windows of heaven, protection are simply rewards God gives as we obey His word.

John Avanzini rightly put it that _"Tithing proves our trust in God while giving proves our love for God and His children"._

Now there is controversy among Christians regarding whether tithing is still valid in the New Testament. Well this book has no intention of debating over doctrinal issues but let me just shed some light:

... woe upon you, Pharisees, and you other religious leaders—hypocrites! For you tithe down to the last mint leaf in your garden, but ignore the important things—justice and mercy and faith. Yes, you should tithe, but you shouldn't leave the more important things undone.

(Matthew 23:23)

Here Jesus was not doing away with tithe, for he told them "...Yes, you should tithe..." but He was telling them to also do the other equally important things to God like Justice.

  1. **Giving to The Needy (Alms/Charity)**

Another good soil for our seed is the needy. While we should not give to the needy (and of course to anyone) simply because we want to be increased, God makes sure He increases the one who helps the needy in society. The harvest is the reward for a good and loving act. It should never be a goal, otherwise it cannot be called giving at all. We also need to remember that God responds to the "cheerful" giver. And when you look at the word cheerful, you will realise that you cannot give cheerfully unless your giving is truly out of love for that person, and not because you want a harvest.

We usually give grudgingly when we give solely for the purpose of harvest. We tend to be very impatient and we usually expect a harvest from the people we give to. But God never said the harvest will come from them. He simply said men shall give to us. It can be them, it can be someone else and it can even be our enemy. Our intention for giving must always be based in LOVE. When we reach this point we really give liberally and we even go looking for opportunities to give to people who need help. That's the kind of giving God expects from us.

We do not always have to give money. We can give our time, service, ideas, prayers or anything that can help.

Give to the poor and you will never be in need. If you close your eyes to the poor, many people will curse you

(Proverbs 28: 27)

# Chapter Thirty Two: The Principle Of Service

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as though you were working for the Lord and not for people. Remember that the Lord will give you as a reward what he has kept for his people"

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Colossians 3: 23-24

"You can get everything you want in life if you just help enough other people get what they want".

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Zig Ziglar

The Theology of Service

Being a part of a system of Interdependence, God designed us to serve each other. This service is necessitated by the differences we have from each other. God never gave one person everything they need. He always put other things we need in our life in other people around us.

Our service is the need we supply to people that God sends our way. In a similar way, we need other people to serve us with the needs we have. All the gifts and talents we have are really not for us but for people God has sent our way. When you think about it you will realise that the gifts and talents you have only give you joy and happiness when you use them to solve other people's problems. We simply were built to serve others, and this is what really gives us joy and sense of purpose in life.

God built the divine order of the universe with a reward system. It is only when you serve other people that God intervenes in your life by making other people also serve your needs. All the things we need are already put in the people around us. The business opportunity you want is already here on earth with someone. Once you start operating the law of service, God will talk to the right people who will connect you to the blessing. All we need to do is focus our eyes on serving other people with the gifts, money and talents we have and let the system work for us.

The Lord Jesus made us realise that all we need to focus on is not success at all. All we need to focus our eyes and mind on is serving God and His people. We simply need to actualize the laws and success becomes an inevitable result

Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you

(Matthew 6:33)

Success is what happens to us when we focus on seeking the kingdom of God which essentially means obeying the kingdom laws. An integral aspect of obeying kingdom laws is through service to God's people. When we make God our priority, God will make our life His priority.

Success is simply a product of obeying kingdom principles. We are never meant to seek success. It is meant to follow us as we focus on serving God.

If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.

(Job 36:11)

For this reason therefore it can be concluded that success is for everyone and not just a select few as has been thought.

# Chapter Thirty Three: The Principle Of Season

"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the Heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace."

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Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

"Nobody likes hard times, but it's the unpleasant experiences that are often the catalysts to build the character required for our destiny"

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TD Jakes

Seasons that Season Our Soul

Everything God created is subjected to a cycle or season. This law is particularly pronounced and mostly felt by us humans. This law is hardly known by many believers that a greater number of them have ended up looking at God as being a distant and unloving God.

To have a deeper understanding of this principle, we firstly need to understand some fundamental truths about God;

  * God is love. His love is unconditional and eternal
  * God never changes
  * God never violates His Word

These three fundamental truths about God can help us have a balanced and sober outlook on the law of season. Since God's love is unconditional, it means He will always love and be with us no matter what, and since He never changes it means this love will remain like this, whether it appears like it or not. The fact that God does not violate His own Word tells us that everything He says can be trusted.

God set up seasons for everything in life. These seasons are most felt by us. What the principle essentially means is that we all will have a share of pains and joys in life. And because it's a system of season, it means when we are going through pain we can be assured that season will pass in due time because it has to be replaced with joy. Night time (darkness) does not stay forever. It is eventually replaced by day time (light).

Because God is loving, He would not make us go through pain just for Him to make fun of us (as if He were a Sadist).

When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee."

(Isaiah 43:2)

God is simply all about building character in us. He would stop the fire from getting near us, but yet he allows us to go through fire sometimes even though he has power to stop us from going through it. He only does it to train us, to build our character. He makes sure the fire does not burn us. He preserves us while purifying the Gold in us. God does not waste our tears and pain. He uses it to minister to others. The pains we go through sharpen our passion and commitment to serve others. Because of the financial struggles I have gone through I am so passionate about helping others get out of it. Bishop T.D Jakes makes a striking observation that is so true, _"God lets you go through challenges to give you credibility in a certain area and the ability to help someone else out of a situation that you once were in"._ It is not by coincidence that you are now so inclined to helping people who are going through what you have gone through.

Seasons, as the word suggests, are there to season our character. God allows us to go through difficult moments in life because they bring out the **Gold** hidden in us. They sharpen our character. It is in these moments that we learn the best lessons. It is in these moments that we reaffirm our dependence on God, making God our God. If there wasn't this law of season, we would lose track the moment we get wealthy.

The principle of season is a principle that seasons us for another level in life. God will not allow us to move to another level without going through a test. These tests usually check our faith in God

# Chapter Thirty Four: The Principle of Synergy

"Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour"

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Ecclesiastes 4:9

There is no such thing as self-made man. You will reach your goals only with the help of others

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George Shinn

The Power of Synergy

God did not create us for independence but for interdependence. He has hidden the keys to progress in people around us. There is power where two or more minds merge. There is strength where two or more hands come together. There is impact where two of more voices come together. The sad thing is that we tend to look at everything from a singular perspective. If only we could look at things from a multidimensional approach, we would see many things we never thought existed. This is what happens when we engage many minds on a thing. Every one brings to the table a unique experience and knowledge which when merged with someone's brings out something great.

The reason God created an interdependence system is that He expects each one of us to complement each other rather than compete with each other. The reason He calls the church the body of Christ is because every part has a part to play and on its own it does not have any meaning. God desires us to work together to achieve something greater.

We need to utilize the law of association and the law of mentorship to help us align with Gods purpose for our life. Success is only possible with the help of someone around us. We don't fly to the top. The divine order is that we are taken to the Top by people, which means our success is never independent of other people. We, therefore, need to harness our abilities and talents with those of others so as to achieve something we wouldn't be able to achieve on our own.

There is great power when two or more people come together in one vision. There is nothing they can fail to do:

And the LORD said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

(Genesis 11:6)

This secret power of synergy is also echoed in the words of Jesus:

For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.

(Matthew 18:20)

When we synergize our energy with others, God Himself comes in, and makes us do far greater things that would naturally be impossible.

# Chapter Thirty Five: The Principle Of Love

"Do Everything in Love"

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1 Corinthians 16:14

"You Cannot Love If You Do Not Have Love. First Connect to The Supply of Love, God".

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Paul Qualira

The Supreme Law, the Purifier of Motives

Love is the foundation of all the kingdom laws. It is this principle of love that distinguishes us from the world. Actually love is the motivation for everything a Christian does. Anything done without love is simply not originating from the spirit of God but the evil one.

We can do great and mighty things but if the motive for those acts is not love then we are really just trying to decorate our self-image and not bring glory to God. True love cares about the welfare of others. It puts the other person first.

If I speak in tongues of men or angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing

(1 Corinthians 13: 1-3)

Our deepest motivations for our actions are mostly revealed through our giving behavior. If we have a tendency to announce our giving, we can be sure that our giving is not really based on love but self-interest (promoting our self-image).

If we talk a lot about what we have done for someone, then we probably have not given in love. If our giving is because we want a harvest, then we really have started giving. God promises a return on every seed we sow, but He does not want us to take this reward as the goal for our giving. He wants us to be focused on helping others. A true giver does not call attention to his/her giving. He/she simply doesn't even care if his/her giving is not noticed by anyone. This is the kind of giving God responds to because it's really done from a purely loving heart. In the process of helping others, God rewards us by providing for our needs. Our job is to serve the kingdom of God. His Job is to take care of our needs and desires.

You Can't Give What You Don't Have

Love has for the most part been greatly misunderstood or understood but wrongly applied. The Church has heavily criticized the self-esteem movement to the point that we have even ignored the aspects that are biblical. It's like counselling an alcohol addict to the point he doesn't want to take even water (now that's an extreme though the intention is noble). There is a principle which states that "You can't give what you don't have". This is both biblical and logical to the point that even non-believers appreciate the truth in it. However, we Christians seem to have decided to understand it in converse. We struggle in loving people simply because we do not have a supply from which we can share with others. Ever wondered why it is so difficult for a drug addict to show love and attention to the family? It's not like he doesn't want to show love to his family, he is just not capable to do so because his reserves (supply) are empty.

Let's look at what the bible has to say about Love:

...love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. The second is this: love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than this

(Mark 12: 30-31)

Firstly, God wants us to connect with Him. It is in this relationship that He supplies us with Love (He is Love). When we are in a good relationship with God, He cleanses us and fills our heart with love. He fills us so we can be able to love others. The reason we struggle in relationships is because we do not have a relationship with God where we surrender our soul to Him so He can energize us with love and passion for others.

Jesus says we need to love others the way we love ourselves. What this also implies is that we need to be in a good relationship with the self in us so we can be free and able to reach out to others. If you have not forgiven yourself, it's impossible to forgive others. You simply do not have the substance with which to give to others. This is why self-esteem is very important. We all need to have proper view of who we are. We need to see ourselves the way God sees us. This is not only empowering but also liberating because when we make peace with who we really are we become so complete that we don't want anything else but to make others feel complete too.

Biblical self-esteem is really simply seeing ourselves the way God sees us. When we reach this point, we become confident and courageous to do anything God wants us to do. Success becomes a natural phenomenon.

The Enlightened Self-Interest

The word "Self-Interest" raises eyebrows in all Christian talk and it is on the top list of things a Christian should not engage in. But I would like us to look at the word in a different way. Jim Rohn, who coined the concept of the "Enlightened Self-Interest" says that we are unable to be of value to people around us because we do not take the time to work on the self. For example, because I do not work on self-improvement like discipline, I slide into poverty and consequently fail to feed my family; because I do not want to work on my spiritual life, I end up failing to pray for the sick who consequently end up dying when I could have prayed for their healing. In short anything we do not do for ourselves, we are indirectly making others pay. My careless spending makes my children suffer. When we start the journey of improving ourselves we make ourselves valuable to the society because we then make ourselves relevant to people's needs. When we connect with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, He cleans us and gives us a new life full of enablement so we can bless others around us.

Jim Rohn, puts across a life changing statement, _"The Greatest Gift You Can Give People is working on yourself."_ By working on yourself, you allow yourself to be very valuable to people around you. The skills, talents, and gifts you develop will make you capable of solving problems and thereby serving people God sends your way. This idea of self-development stems from the life-fact that "you cannot give what you don't have". No one can give happiness to others when he/she himself/herself is not happy. By connecting to God will allow Him to fill our empty vessel with Love and Capacity.

# About The Author

Paul Qualira is a Speaker, Trainer and Life Coach who has been called by God to empower the women and the youth in the church through trainings in Biblical Principles of Financial Increase and Entrepreneurship, and helping them discover the gifts and talents God has given them, to advance the Kingdom Agenda, making them "agents of change" in society.

He has great passion for "commonwealth". He believes that the commonwealth society expressed in Acts 4 can only be achieved if everyone starts to think of himself/herself as a vessel to be ued by God to reach out to the needy in society. The vision of the organization is to have a Christian community (within the Church setup) where there is no one with financial lack by training them in Kingdom Financial Principles of Increase and Business Start-up.

The author does seminars in Churches, Colleges, and Schools on Biblical Financial Management, Entrepreneurship, Kingdom Principles of Increase, and Discovering Ones Purpose in Life.

For feedback and more information, you can contact him on the following contacts:

qualirapaul@gmail.com

+265998293820
