Teaching

One of the most powerful principles you could possibly build your life on is to allow God to define success for you, not your environment, carnal mind, friends, family or even foes.

There are many scriptures who show us the Lord wants his people to be successful both in our private lives and as a body of believers in our mission to reach the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.  Josh. 1:8 (NKJV)

Here’s what the concordance tells us about the Aramaic word used for “success” here:

Sakal: to be (causatively, make or act) circumspect and hence, intelligent:—consider, expert, instruct, prosper, (deal) prudent(-ly), (give) skill(-ful), have good success, teach, (have, make to) understand(-ing), wisdom, (be, behave self, consider, make) wise(-ly), guide wittingly.

Here’s Jesus on succcess:

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. John 10:10 (NKJV)

The Greek word for “abundant” is perissos, which means: superabundant (in quantity) or superior (in quality); by implication, excessive; preeminence: — exceeding abundantly above, more abundantly, advantage, exceedingly, very highly, beyond measure, more, superfluous, vehement(-ly).

At the same time it's important for us to define success. Let's look at it this way: if you are in a ship out in the open seas and there is a storm, your goal would probably be to reach safe shores as soon as possible. That would be success. However, if the shores you reach are inhabited by cannibals your definition of success will not be complete, especially if you get cooked for dinner.

Likewise in the Christian Church, especially in materialistic societies (and believe me, even though it might take different shapes and forms, there is materialism in every culture and continent), we need to redefine success and look at the whole context, not just the popular and very shallow concept of what it means to be successful.

For us as Christians success begins with responding to the Holy Spirit from our heart, turning away from sin and pursuing a relationship with Jesus Christ who is the King of Kings and Lord of lords. At first this seems like very strictly a “spiritual” only dynamic. But if we examine the full meaning of the word “salvation” used in the New Testament, we’ll see that the new birth is designed to impact every single area of our lives, not to be just an emotional or abstract “spiritual” experience.

The second phase of our Christian life has to do with us getting cleaned up from all emotional, spiritual, relational and economic bonds of our past. It's important to get cleaned up otherwise we will be difficult sons and daughters, unable to stay in a place of communion with God, receiving his direction and serving him. For instance one of the huge problems among Christians is the inability of hearing his voice. God has no problem speaking, usually the problem is with us hearing Him.

Thirdly, our success as Christians is defined in discovering our place in God's plan, which has to do with our positioning both in life and in the body of Christ. One of the technologies that has changed our lives in the last decade is the GPS technology -- the global positioning systems technology, formerly only available to the United States Army. Today the GPS technology has been commercialized and is widely used by ordinary people and professionals. There is something very similar between the GPS technology at our whole experience as Christians on the earth. We were instructed by Paul the apostle to live by faith not by sight.

For we walk by faith, not by sight.  2Cor. 5:7 (NKJV)

We are told that the sons of God are being led by the Spirit.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.  Rom. 8:14 (NKJV)

Isn't this pretty much the same, except in the spiritual realm? So you're positioning does matter. You must determine your current position and condition in order to move to your next position and achieve your mission. This is where the prophetic ministry comes in. Sadly, without the overall strategy which apostles have the ability to receive from the Lord and communicate with the body of Christ, the prophetic ministry can also become perverted and do more damage than good. Why? Because it's not about you. And it's not about me. We will never understand how to function on the earth in sync with God if we are self centric. We will never understand the Bible and the biblical worldview if we don't understand it's written from a God centric point of view.

Let's go back to our discussion on success. We've establish something very important: in order to be successful in God's plan we as Christians must develop a God centric positioning in life. Jesus taught on this principle:

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Matt. 6:33 (NKJV)

Seeking first the Kingdom means first and foremost that you and I must abandon our carnal ideas of who we are and what we should be doing with our lives. Laying down our ideas opens up the possibility for Lord to reveal to us his will and strategy. We are then assured other circumstances will lineup and provision for our daily needs will manifest accordingly. It sure takes faith to walk and live your life based on this principle but long-term it is indeed the winning strategy.

Having said all this you and I can’t be perfectionists when it comes to God's will. The Lord may be showing you prophetically you will one day be a millionaire but in the meantime you will need to get a decent job to be able to provide for yourself and your family if you have one. If you don't, your family is the body of Christ and you can always empower others through the resources you have available.

Some of the people reading this material might not be in a very good place in life right now. Remember this: the Lord wants you and I to succeed! However, make sure your idea of success is not a carnal one, but rather allow the Holy Spirit to clearly define his plan and purpose for you so that your faith is based on God’s plan for your life and not some fantasy you picked up along the way who knows how.