PROSPER SPIRIT SOUL AND BODY
UNDERSTANDING
YOUR POTENTIAL By -
Sven Grahn
Each of us comes into this world with an assignment to fulfil. God commissions us to leave for the following generations something from which they can learn and be inspired. The abilities to complete these assignments lie within us. The tools are our natural talents, gifts and ambitions. Unless you accept the responsibility for activating your abilities, the next generation will read: "Assignment unfinished. Potential unreleased." The Abortion of Ability. "The price of greatness is responsibility." These words were spoken by Sir Winston Churchill. The graveyards are full of great men and women who never became great because they did not give their ability responsibility. This untapped ability is called potential. Each of us comes into the world pregnant with unlimited potential. We are capable of much more than we have already done. The Bible's record of creation states that the seed of everything is in itself to produce after its kind. Genesis 1:12 In every seed there is a forest, In every fish, a school, In every bird, a flock, In every cow, a herd, In every girl, a woman, In every boy, a man and In every man, a nation. It is important for us to remember that every great tree was once a seed, every woman was once a foetus, every man was once a boy and every nation was once in the loins of a man. Therefore, to abort a seed is to kill a forest, to abort a cow is to kill a herd, to abort a boy is to kill a man, to abort a girl is to kill a woman and to abort a baby is to destroy a nation. Death, in its simplest form, is the termination of potential. Abortion is the ultimate tragedy. It robs life of its essence and denies the future its value. The death of a seed is the burial of a forest. Abortion is the ignorance of responsibility and the denial of obligation. All abortions sacrifice responsibility. The abortion of potential condemns the future. The abortion of potential is the death of the future. It affects generation after generation. When Adam broke God's law, he aborted his seed's potential for becoming all they were intended to be. Men and women throughout all ages have fallen far short of the glory of the Creator. The word glory means the "true nature" or "full essence" of a thing. In other words, to fall short of glory means to live below your true potential. This is what God calls sin. Sin is not behaviour, it is a disposition. One of the great biblical writers states it this way: I consider that our present sufferings are not worth The creation waits in eager expectation for (the glory of) the sons of God to be revealed. *Romans 8:18-19 This passage states that the fall of man prevented the full glory or true potential of mankind from being revealed or manifested. All creation was affected by man's sin. God's creation is waiting for man's glory or true potential to be exposed because creation's destiny is tied to man's. If you abort your potential, you will be guilty of robbing the world of the treasure you came to this planet to deliver. The fact that you were born is evidence that God knew earth needed the potential you are pregnant with. I It is, therefore, imperative that you refuse to leave this planet without giving birth to those dreams, ideas, visions and inventions you carry in the womb of your faith right now. Do not abort your baby of potential. Rob the grave of the treasure you carry. Think deeply. What would you like people to say about you and your life? What kind of husband or wife, father or mother would you like their words to reflect? What kind of son or daughter or cousin? What kind of friend or working associate? The greatest tragedy in life is not death, but life.......life that fails to fulfil its purpose and potential. Effectively. Be made aware of the great treasure you possess, which is your potential. It is better to have never been born than to live and not fulfil the purpose for which you were given life. "A man may have a hundred children and live many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he cannot enjoy his prosperity and does not receive proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. It comes without meaning, it departs in darkness and in darkness its name Though it never saw the sun or knew anything, it has more rest than does that man". This passage asserts that it would be better for an individual never to have been born than for him to live on this planet many years and not fulfil the purpose for which God gave him birth. In essence, when you become aware of the tremendous potential that resides within you, you are obligated to release that wealth to the world around you. Ability and Responsibility. What lies behind you is history and what lies before you is future, but these are both tiny matters compared to what lies within you. You may not be able to change your past and your future is yet unlived, but the present provides you with opportunities to maximize your life and the ability that lives within you. You must take responsibility for your ability - no one else can do it for you. Are you aborting your entire purpose for living? I encourage you to take responsibility right now for your ability. Determine to activate, release and maximize your potential for the sake of the next generation. Live fully so you can die effectively. Let your life write the speech of your death and give your potential to the family of man for the glory of God. Remember "well done" is much better than "well said". Dare to believe that what you have already accomplished is but a minute percentage of what you can do. Move beyond the familiar patterns and experiences of your life to the dreams and plans and imaginations that wait within you to be fulfilled. You possess awesome potential within, waiting to be activated and released. The release of your potential, demands that you refuse to be satisfied with your latest accomplishment. If you attempt new things and make choices that stretch your horizons, you will embark on an exciting journey. You will begin to see the marvellous being God created you to be a being filled with more capabilities than you ever dreamed possible. The journey begins when you gain an understanding of what potential is and how you can release it. For once you understand the magnitude of the wealth God gave you, to turn from consciously and conscientiously unwrapping God's gift is to abort your potential and refuse to fulfil the purpose for which He gave you life. The knowledge of what you have failed to use to benefit yourself, your contemporaries and the generations to follow will judge you on the great day of accountability. Potential is given to be released, not wasted. Some people have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to, when all they need is one reason why they can. 3. WHAT IS POTENTIAL? Potential is unexposed ability, reserved power, untapped strength, uncapped capabilities, unused success dormant gifts, hidden talents, latent power, what you can do that you have not yet done, where you can go that you have not yet gone, who you can be that you have not yet been, what you can imagine that you have not yet imagined, how far you can reach that you have not yet reached, what you can see that you have not yet seen, what you can accomplish that you have not yet accomplished. Thus, potential is the sum of who you are that you have yet to reveal. It's a deposit that waits to be released and maximised. You are capable of much more than you are presently thinking, imagining, doing or being. Sven's-Book-Store.html That is your potential. Unless you continually try to reach higher, go farther, see over and grasp something greater than you now know, you will never discover your full potential. The Potential Principle. If, for example, I hold an apple seed in my hand, I hold much more than one seed. In every seed there is a tree, and in every tree there are apples with seeds in them. And the seeds contain more apple trees that contain fruit that contain seeds and so on. In fact I hold one apple seed. In truth I hold an entire orchard. That is potential - what yet can be. Understanding Potential. God created everything with potential. Genesis 1:12 describes how God created the plants and the trees, each "bearing seed according to their kinds". The first chapter of Genesis also gives an account of the creation of the birds, the creatures of the sea, the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground and the wild animals. They too were given the ability to reproduce according to their kinds. Thus, every living thing that God created was blessed with potential. Each possessed the capability to be much more than they appeared to be at any one time. Each contained the seed from which future generations of plants, birds, fish and animals would come. God also planted within you the ability to be much more than you are at any one moment. Like the apple seed, you possess hidden resources and capabilities. Most of the potential God gave you at birth still remains within you, unseen and unused. What I see when I meet you on any given day is not all you are. The Source of All Potential. Everything that was and is was in God. Before God created anything, there was only God. Thus, God had within Him the potential for everything He made. Nothing exists that was not first in God. God is the source of all life, because before anything was, God IS. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" Genesis 1:1. He pulled everything that He made out of Himself. Indeed, the beginning was in God before it began. God started start. If the book of Genesis had started with *Genesis 1:10, it might have read, "Before there was a beginning, there was God. Before there was a creation, there was a Creator. Before anything was, there was God." God did not begin when the beginning began. He was in the beginning before the beginning had a beginning. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" John 1:1. Everything in the world we know was in God before it came to be seen. "Through (God) all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made" John 1:3. Thus, God is the source of all potential. He is everything we have not seen yet. When we describe this characteristic of God, we say that He is omnipotent. Omni means "always" and potent means "full of power". God is always full of power. He can always do more than He has already done. God's Creation Process. God's process in creating the world follows an interesting pattern. First, God planned what He wanted to create. Second, He decided what kind of material substance He wanted His creation to be made from. Third, God spoke to the substance from which the thing was to be created and fourth, exactly what He spoke came forth from that to which He spoke. Genesis 1:11. When He wanted to create animals, God again spoke to the ground because He had planned for animals to be made of dirt *Genesis 1:24. Fish came forth from the sea when God spoke to it *Genesis 1:20. The sun, the moon and the stars appeared in the expanse of the sky when God called them into being *Genesis 1:14-17. Everything came forth when God spoke to a material substance, in accordance with the plan He had developed before He spoke the world into being. God Gave You Potential. When God created human beings, He spoke to Himself. You and I came forth from God because God planned that human beings should be spirit even as He is Spirit. Too many people never discover God's purpose for creating them. They look everywhere but to God for the meaning of their existence. If you only knew why He gave you life." Remember, few things are impossible when they are tackled with diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance. God created you with potential. He waits to see what you will do with the remarkable gift He gave you. God has designed you to release and maximize your potential. But this is possible only when you are related to your Source. God, your Source/Creator, established before your birth who you are, how you should act, why He gave you life and what you need to live fully and productively. Apart from Him, you will never understand or release your potential, because your potential is wrapped up in Him "...You may participate in the divine nature..." When God created human beings, He intended that we should share His divine nature. That is still His intent, even though sin has covered over that nature. God designed us to be holy and good and forgiven, because they are characteristics of His nature and we share that nature. When we reconnect with God, we naturally have the power to be all that He is. You are supposed to be naturally like your Source. The product always has the nature of its source. That's why God is not impressed when you keep your body free from drugs and your mind free from impure thoughts, or when you give generously, or when you fast and pray. God expects you to act and think like He does because He is your Source/Creator and you are His child. God is serious when He says, "Without Me you can do nothing." He created and made you. You came from Him. Therefore, the quality of your abilities is defined by God's ability. If you want to know what you can do, find out what God can do. God, Who is omnipotent, created you to share His potential. When He took you out of Himself, He automatically gave you the ability to be creative and imaginative. You share God's potential plan, design and to bring dreams into reality. God is full of more projects, ambitions and proposals than you can imagine. He's the God of the impossible. But He has tied the revelation of His potential to your dreams, aspirations and prayers. That's why God is constantly challenging you to ask Him for the impossible. The possible is no fun for God. He's already done that. It's the ideas, plans and objectives the world has not seen yet that God wants to do. You are the key to God's creative expression. You can do anything God demands of you because your Creator will never demand more of you than He's already built into you. I need your imagination to demand it. Your potential is related to My potential and I am omnipotent." God loves faith. That's His mode of operation. It's also mine. God designed you to operate like He does. Faith is going into the realm where you demand out of God what's in Him that no one has seen yet. God gets the glory when you make demands on Him. If you want to glorify God, believe Him to do things He has not done yet. Only God knows your purpose, because He determined it when He gave you life. You are not an accident. Psalm 139 describes how God saw your unformed body and ordained your days before you drew your first breath. He planned before you were born what He wanted you to accomplish. The direction you need to live a satisfying and rewarding life cannot be found in your family, your teachers, your employer, your pastor or your co-workers. They cannot tell you the reason you were born because they were not present when God put your spirit into your body. They are not privileged to God's thoughts and intentions. The only way you can discover your purpose is through a relationship with the One who made you. The release of your total potential requires that you continually seek God as you try to understand what He had in mind when He laid out His plans for your life. because He is the only One who knows what you need to meet the demands He will place upon you. If you are constantly comparing your resources with those of other people, you will be blinded both to the richness of what God has entrusted to you and the tasks He wants you to accomplish using what you have. The release of your full potential demands that you examine your life carefully so you can identify both the many assets God has given you and the purpose for which He gave them. God will not entrust you with more resources until you use wisely what He's already given you. God not only wants to share with you His plans for your life, He also wants you to understand the variety of experiences that He deems necessary for you to effectively fulfil those plans. Many people try one thing after another as they search the meaning of their lives. They move from one job to the next, from one church to the next, from one town to the next and from one spouse to the next. When the going gets a little rough, they move on to something else. They never hang in there long enough to make any progress. The release of your potential requires that you stick with something until you see it through. It's not enough just to think about what God wants from your life, you have to get up and do it. Work is the method God established to release His potential. The creation story tells us that God worked creating the world. Because you came out of God, work is also required of you to bring forth all the invisible jewels that lie hidden inside you. God established work as a priority that brings fulfilment and contentment. He designed you to work out your potential. If you have enjoyed this study and would like to receive a copy and more on this topic and others on a monthly basis, please click here: Subscribe. and fill in form, Thank you, Sven W Grahn Please feel free to post comment on forum, thanks
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