THE SPIRIT OF EXCELLENCE & PRINCIPLES OF GREAT SUCCESS!

This Year 2014 is hailed as our year of "GREAT SUCCESS". These are the statements that are challenging us in this season!

"Where there is no challenge there is no change"

"If it doesn't challenge you it doesn't change you"

"A ministry of EXCELLENCE requires a mentality of EXCELLENCE!"

We are following the success strategies outline in Joshua chapter 1.

1. Be strong and very courageous
* Opt not to buy into the fear process
* Take the risk and trust God in every situation
* Write a hope list..give your faith something to aim for
* Your courage will absolutely show up when your crisis shows up
* God releases situations in our lives to connect us to the power that is already in us
* When God transforms your mind..you will transform your situation. The situation will not change until your mind changes. Mind first then circumstance!
* There are gifts within us that God must wake up by our situations..the storm will throw you around into your gifting
* You do not need everyone on board to get to the level of God. Of the 12 spies only Joshua and Caleb had a favorable response and inferred their faith into the hearts of the remaining 10 by declaring 'We are well able to possess it!"
* Speak your greatness, strength and courage
* If you declare it (Job 22)..God will establish it

WAIT ON GOD!

Matthew 20:15-16

"The first shall be the last, and the last shall be first"

* It seems like the believer is always in a posture of waiting

* Time plays a particular part in everything we do.

* Time is one element that causes us the most difficulty

* We are a people who want everything instantly

* But when you are in a relationship with God you have to learn how to wait.

* No time is wasted because God is doing other things as you wait on Him

* Many of us have a list of things we want God to do but what we don't see is what God is developing in you. 

* You're in the process and in position

* Believers are not just waiting in a  frustrated posture but a content posture.

* Psalms 27:14 says " Wait on the lord and be of good courage and He shall strengthen thy heart"

* The devil tried to scratch your name out but you're included in the will of God.

* You are being developed and produced as you wait.

* Turn waiting into something productive.  Set goals. Accomplish something.  Dont blame life...don't be bitter but better.

* God is producing the ideal you. The mature you. ..the strong you.

* God is not doing something for you but to you!  

* The first will be last and the last will be first.

* You are being developed so wait in your place. Stop moving. Stand still. Because only the developed you can handle the blessings of God.

* You have not met certain requirements yet! Only experience can help you in this season!

* It's been hard in this life but God is about to turn and reposition you!

* Patience gives us the ability to have a correct mind..stay committed. 

* After the wait you will be developed

* God brought you through to give you experience.

* Since the first shall be the last and the last first..our obligation is to increase our patience and wait on God!

GOD CAN BUT THE DEVIL CAN'T HAVE MY MIND!

Romans 12:1-2

King James Version (KJV)

12 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

·         Paul shows us through the scriptures that the Romans struggled with an identity crisis. This is a revolving realization in the life of God’s people. We are always battling between the old man and the new man.
·         Many of God’s people are struggling with the WHO, WHAT, WHEN AND WHY of a situation, instead of focusing on the fact that God brought you through.
·         In time God will reveal and make clear to you why you had to endure different trials in your life James 1:3-4 knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience, but let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
·         You must acknowledge that had you not been through all your hardships, you would not be equipped to deal with or handle where you are now.
·         We must renew our minds on a daily basis through the word of God. We must get to a point or stage in life where we disassociate with who we once were and fully embrace who we are in the process of becoming in Jesus!
·         Many people still view you as the old person and are not willing to accept who you are because you have not so long ago departed from the past. But the lord has spoken that He will do a new thing in you and 2 Corinthians 5:17 proclaims that if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
·         You must constantly affirm and then reaffirm who you are in this new season.
·         In this new place you must surround yourself with new people because the old people are too concerned about who you were and are not delivered in their mind regarding your new identity.
·         In this new place God will even provide you with official documentation of your deliverance for the purpose of allowing people (from the past) to see who you have transformed into now!
·         We are always moving, shifting and revolving through God’s transforming word!
·         God uses our circumstances and situations to reveal who He is in our life!
·         There can be no revelation with a situation. The word of God will navigate who you are. When God is not answering you, he’s strengthening you! When God is not felt, just know that he is with you. John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
·         The believer will always go through something because God is always working His will out through your life. You have to go through in order to get to the promises of God! Salvation is a gift, but everything else will take hard work and a pressing in your spirit. Philippians 3:14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.Romans 8:38- 39 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
·         The enemy can’t kill you because you must be alive in order to see the promises of God!
·         When it’s time for you to come out the fire, God will present you as pure gold.
·         You are created for greatness, but still on the way to greatness!
·         If God pushed start in your life, he will bring your life to an expected end!
·         The living word is the tool that is going to help you through!
·         During the early stages of development gold is not attractive, but gold has to be processed in order to produce it’s real worth and beauty!
·         Most people see you while you’re developing, but God see’s the beginning and the end of a thing! God see’s the whole picture!
·         Praise in your process and allow praise to renew your mind, because the process is part of your journey! No process, no progress!
·         What God said will not turn until him void, if he said it, he will surely bring it to past!
·         Before you were born, the lord knew who you were and who you are going to be!
·         God retains all the rights to your future. Your birthday was not the day you were born, but the day God conceived you in his mind!
·         Walk through the fire with confidence and a renewed mind, professing Job 13:15 though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.
·         Remember that God’s purpose is keeping you alive!
·         Everyone in your life has a purpose, hang on until their purpose is revealed. Don’t abort people, prematurely. God desires for you to hold on to them until he allows them to release their purpose in your life! They may be the very one to push you to that next level!!!!!!!
·         In this season, trials and test will get you to that next level! So learn how to conquer where you are in your life.
·         The steps of a good man are ordered by the lord! Every mistake you made was ordained by God, you survived because  you were ordained!

My mind is the place where I interact with God so God renews and transforms my mind to receive Him and His promises! This is why the adversary cannot have the thing that brings everything to pass in me!

SALVATION IS FREE..BUT MINISTRY WILL COST YOU SOMETHING!

Mark 10: 35 And James and John, the sons of Zeb'edee, came forward to him, and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." 36 And he said to them, "What do you want me to do for you?" 37 And they said to him, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory." 38 But Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?" 39 And they said to him, "We are able." And Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; 40 but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared." 41 And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. 42 And Jesus called them to him and said to them, "You know that those who are supposed to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. 43 But it shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. 45 For the Son of man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

·         In this passage of scripture we see that many of Jesus followers desired the spotlight and fame, but did not really count the cost of discipleship!

·         Our ability to worship God was paid by the shedding of blood on Calvary and our salvation is secure. If we are going to follow Jesus Christ, we must acknowledge that ministry is going to cost something! James 1:3-4 knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience, but let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

·         The anointing of God cost something. It may cost you friends and family and a certain lifestyle. Mark 8:34 (KJ21) and when He had called the people unto Him with His disciples also, He said unto them, “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

·         Many of us immediately say we can carry the cross, but are not prepared to handle the pain! Jesus asks can you drink of this cup because he wanted us to understand that it is possible to hurt and succeed at the same time. Jesus was given a cup of bitterness to illustrate to the believer that ministry and the anointing will cost you friends and worldly desires! Jesus called 12 disciples, but they all were not for him! Jesus served and ministered to Judas, who would later betray him, as well as the faithful!

·         Minister literally means to serve!  Make Your Calling and Election Sure 2 Peter 1:3-5 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to[a] his own glory and excellence,[b] 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue,[c] and virtue with knowledge!

The desire to sit on the right and left hand of God though an incredible desire still comes at a price.