Dare to Believe in Your Potential

Dare to Believe in Your Potential

author:Myles Munroe

Human potential without godly purpose produces self-destruction.

The Bible tells us a story about people who decided to build a city with a tower that reached to the heavens. They wanted to “make a name” for themselves. When God saw how committed the builders were to their task He said, “…nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.” So He came down and confused their languages so they couldn’t work together. That stopped their building (Genesis 11:8). Do you think God was against the tower? No. God was against the goal of the tower. They did not have a relationship with God. They were ungodly men and women who intended to build a tower to heaven so their name could be great. They weren’t interested in making God’s name great; they wanted to make a name for themselves. When God saw how committed they were to their task, He knew He had to stop them. Otherwise, they would be able to do anything they wanted to. God made this declaration to men who had no relationship with Him. Yet He saw in them the potential to do much. He knew the potential, ability and untapped power He had placed within all men. Think then what you can do if you are hooked up with your Source. Jesus came into the world to reestablish your connection with God. He came to show you who you really are underneath the cap of sin and disobedience. He came to teach you how to look beyond the realm of the visible into the unseen sphere of faith.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR POTENTIAL?

Man has accomplished many things without God. Many inventors in the world are ungodly people. Most of the people who do great feats and accomplish great exploits are ungodly people. Imagine what would happen if they were hooked up with God. Jesus came to provide that hookup. When God saw what we could and should do, it disappointed Him that we were not aware of it. So He paid the greatest price necessary— the cost of His own life—to release our full potential. Then He said, “Now go on, son. Do all you can dream. If you can think it, daughter, you can do it.”

God paid the greatest price necessary— the cost of His own life—to release our full potential.

Yet many of us still live below the level of our true ability. We have settled for the standards established by the opinions of others regarding our potential. We are afraid to move beyond our dreams to action. It is more comfortable to think about all we might do instead of working to achieve what we can do. People who change the world are people who stop dreaming and wake up. They don’t just wish, they act. If you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I’m here to encourage you to move on with the real things of God. What have you done since you were saved? What have you accomplished?

LIFE IS MORE THAN SHELTER, FOOD, OR SECURITY

Maslow, one of the greatest influences on the thought patterns of psychology in our world, theorized that man is driven by his base needs. He believed that your most immediate need becomes your controlling factor. Therefore, your first instinct is to find shelter, secondly food, and thirdly security or protection. Then you begin to move up the ladder of becoming self-realized and self-actualized, of getting selfesteem and all the rest of that stuff. According to this theory, human beings are driven by their base needs. In the sixth chapter of Matthew, Jesus challenges that thought pattern. He instructs us to live from the perspective of what exists that we cannot see, instead of being totally caught up in the details and needs of our daily lives. God lives and thinks in the potential. He always sees things that have not yet been manifested. Faith too lives in the potential not in the present. Jesus simply asks us to have faith—to believe in God’s goodness and care. In the Matthew setting, Jesus was talking to His disciples, not to the multitudes. His words were for people who had already left home and car and family and everything to follow Him. But He says, “Here you are. You’ve left children. You’ve given up your job. You say you love Me, but yet you worry. Don’t you know that God is aware of all your needs? Don’t you see how He takes care of the birds of the air and the grass of the field? How much more precious you are to your heavenly Father than these. Stop worrying. Stop babbling on like the pagans. You are supposed to be living in God’s Kingdom. I have come into the world to reestablish and build back God’s Kingdom.”

Stop worrying.

In teaching His followers that food, drink, clothes, and shelter are not the most important things in life, Jesus directly contradicts the psychological theories of our world. He dares you to follow God and think in the opposite. God doesn’t start with your wants, but with who you are. God wants you to first know who you are. Then you will realize you deserve the things. In God’s design, you deserve the things because you are somebody. According to God, Maslow was wrong—and I go with God. There are people who have everything, but they still don’t know who they are. People accumulate things with the hope that the things will make them somebody. But you don’t become somebody by accumulating things. Ask the guy at the top who can’t sleep. Ask the guy who has everything except peace and love and joy in his heart. Maslow was wrong. God desires to give you self-worth and self-esteem first. He wants you to know who you are first.

YOU DON’T NEED THINGS TO ENJOY LIFE— YOU NEED LIFE TO ENJOY THINGS

I have met so many people who have everything except the knowledge of who they are. Jesus said, “Why worry about these things? Life is so much more than these things about which you worry. Life is peace and love and joy and patience and gentleness…” Seek first the things of God and everything else you need will just fall into place. The mind controlled by the Spirit of God is full of life and peace. Peace is so important to a fulfilled life. It goes hand in hand with the life Jesus came to bring. You don’t have to worry when you know what is coming. When you live by the Spirit in the realm of the unseen and the invisible, there is no reason to worry. God is holding what is in store for you, because all things that are, were and are in God.

Seek first the things of God and everything else you need will just fall into place.

If you’ll let Him, God will work it all out for you. Through your spirit talking with His Spirit, He’ll assure you everything is going to be okay. You don’t have to worry if God’s already told you how a particular situation is going to turn out. Relax and commit yourself to maximize your potential. Preoccupy yourself with this assignment and purpose for your life, knowing that whatever God asks for He provides for.

WHAT’S REALLY IMPORTANT?

When we are distracted by our drive for personal security and our search for identity, we rarely achieve our true potential. Our search for things, what we can relate to through our senses and our minds, harasses us and keeps us so busy trying to make a living that we don’t have time to live. We are so caught up trying to make it through life that we don’t have time to be in life. Have you ever seen people who work all day, every day, and then suddenly they realize they’ve grown old and can no longer enjoy life? They have missed living because they were so busy trying to make one. Jesus tells you to seek first a relationship with the Spirit of God; these things that are distracting you will then become a normal part of His provisions for your life. The Kingdom of God comes when you are hooked up again to God. Then God can flow through you all He has desired for you since before you were born. The Kingdom of God is coming back under God’s leadership— His government—so your true potential is unbound and released. God wants all He stored in you to blossom and flourish. He longs for the relationship between your spirit and His Holy Spirit to prosper so you can reveal the limitless depths of the wealth of your hidden potential. God never put anything into you that was not supposed to come out of you. His joy is fulfilled when you show off His glory— the real nature of who God is. You came out of God. He created you to look and think and act like Him so you would display His greatness, majesty and sovereignty. The summit of God’s desires for your life is that you will show through your being who He is. Your potential is not determined by what you look like or how far you went in school. Nor is it determined by what others think and expect from you. God, your Creator, determines the extent of your ability. Through the Holy Spirit, He enables you to develop and experience your entire potential. God makes it possible for you to do and be much more than anyone (including you) expects. You may not look smart, but if the One who made you demands smartness from you, it’s in there somewhere.

POTENTIAL PRODUCES FAITH— FAITH IS KNOWING POTENTIAL IS THERE

In the beginning, everything that is, was in God. Before anything was, it already existed in God. Everything we see existed in the invisible state before God made it visible. So faith is not geared to what does not exist—it relates to everything that is not seen. Faith is “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). It deals with potential—what you yet can see, do, be and experience. Faith says, “I can’t see it, but I believe it is there.” Faith never deals with what you have done, but with what you yet could do. God is stuffed with many things and He’s waiting for you to ask Him for everything you need. But you have to ask with faith, because faith is the stuff that deals with unseen things. Faith is not some spooky experience. It’s simply knowing that what you can’t see is there. Can you imagine waking up every day, with all your problems, knowing that whatever you see is not the real story? Can you even imagine living that way—looking not at things that can be seen, but at the things that are not seen? What we see is temporary. It’s those things we can’t see that are eternal. Living by faith requires looking at the unseen, because everything that is, was in God; and everything you could be is in you now, waiting for you to make demands on it by faith in God.

WISHING IS NOT ENOUGH—DARE TO DESIRE

Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them (Mark 11:24 KJV).

Very often the Church has misread this word desire. We have expected, perhaps, that the word desire means “what we are dreaming about.” No. Desire is “craving enough to sacrifice for.” Only if we are willing to die for what we desire will we receive it.

Desire is “craving enough to sacrifice for.”

How often have you had a good idea and done nothing about it because you didn’t desire it bad enough? When we want something so bad we can taste it, an urgency energizes our efforts. This is extremely important for your faith, because faith is what you are asking for but can’t yet see. A strong desire enables you to stand your ground until you see what you have believed. There are only a few who are gutsy enough to live in this manner. How much do you really desire the goals you have set for your life? God is pregnant with everything that isn’t yet visible—including what you ask for in prayer. When you ask for something in faith, it is already on the way. You can’t see it, but if you believe, it is already in process. God wants you to ask many things of Him, because He is stuffed with many blessings and abilities that He wants to come out. Thus, whatever you desire when you pray, you shall have—but only what you desire. Not what you pray for—only what you desire when you pray. There are many things we ask God for in prayer that we don’t really desire. We don’t crave them at the expense of life. We don’t want them bad enough to sacrifice for them. We just hope God does it. If it happens, praise the Lord—if it doesn’t happen, praise the Lord. When you pray with this attitude, you don’t really want what you prayed for. If you truly want something when you pray, Jesus says you’ll get up and knock and seek and run out until you get it (Matthew 7:7-8). If you are serious about desiring what you pray for, you will get up off your knees and go do it.

YOUR DESIRE CONTROLS YOUR DIRECTION IN LIFE

Many people get distracted in life because they do not desire anything enough to keep on course. If you do not set a goal for your potential and say, “Look, I don’t care what anybody says. That’s what I want to become,” you might as well forget it. You must have a goal that you desire so strongly you will go after it no matter what the expense. If you are not willing to do that, you have lost already, because it is your desire for the thing that will keep you on the road of consistency. Potential needs desire to place demands upon it.

You must have a goal you desire so strongly you will go after it no matter what the expense.

This life is full of advertisements for your attention. Life is crowded and jammed with distractions. They come from all sides, trying to shake you from your goal. If you don’t have a goal, they will provide one for you. You must know where you want to go and what you want to become. Potential needs purpose to give it direction. When you pray, desire what you ask for. Refuse to be distracted or interrupted. The power of your potential will be revealed as you sacrifice everything to attain what you desired in prayer.

POTENTIAL ONLY FOR THE FEW

Unfortunately, most of us will never fulfill the deepest desires of God’s heart. Though He has done His best to free us from the false attitudes and perceptions that keep us from achieving our real potential, God is often disappointed by the lives of His creatures. Perhaps you are a parent who has tried and tried and tried and still your kids haven’t worked out. You’ve tried your best and given your best, but they still have disappointed you. Sometimes pastors also feel that way. They give and give and give, and the people still disappoint them. And often some of the ones who are messing up the most are the ones to whom they have given the most. Each of us feels the hurt when the people we love and have tried to help, struggle in the gutter, their lives in ruins. In the seventh chapter of Matthew, Jesus predicts that many will hear His message, but few will follow Him and obey. Many will reject—or simply fail to accept—the abundant life He came to offer.

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it (Matthew 7:13-14).

Those words have saved my sanity. I want all who read this book to fulfill their potential; but I know only a few will. Only a minute percentage of those who hear the message about who they are will ever become all they could be. Many people will never fulfill their purpose in life. They will not be who they were supposed to be or achieve what they were designed to do. It’s terrible to say, but that’s why I’m sharing this with you. If only I could take my desire and put it into you, I’d do it. But I can’t. Some of you will end up in the gutter because you won’t receive and practice what God is telling you. I’m sorry, but it will happen. Whether you fail or succeed, win or lose, does not depend on God, but on you. He is ready to do His part if you are willing to cooperate with His purpose for your life.

BE ONE OF THE FEW

Your Creator and Manufacturer built a store of miracles in you. He said you have treasures in your earthen vessel. He came to bring you abundant life. He knows there is explosive power in you waiting to be released. Through the strength of Jesus Christ you can do anything you think or imagine—and even more. But not everyone will hook up with God. Not everyone will look for the things God planted within them to be used for His glory. Not everyone will choose to fulfill their potential. Indeed, the number will be few. I wonder which category you are in. I wonder where you are. Are you in the broad gate where everybody is going nowhere? Are you one of the many who aren’t going to be anything? Come, join the narrow gate. Be one of the few. Decide you’re not going with the crowd. Separate yourself, square your shoulders and do something. Choose to be somebody, instead of nobody. Leave your footprints in the sands of history and carry none of your potential to the cemetery. Jesus passed judgment when He said, “The message my Father gave Me is for the world, but only a few will dare to take the challenge to handle abundant life.” That’s terrible. I wish that none should perish, but it is only a wish. Are you just going to join the other guys? Are you going to be any different from the other young girls? Are you going to give into your base nature and mess up your life getting lost so no one can ever find you? Are we going to be compelled to remember you because you made your mark on history? Can you decide that you are going to build so many monuments in people’s lives that they won’t have to put a stone on your grave to remind us you lived? Or are you going to be one of those people whose grave has to be marked to make sure everyone knows you used to live on this planet? Don’t join the crowd—you’ll get lost. Be different. Stick out like a sore thumb. Join the few. The United States Marines established a recruiting standard that may express this attitude of the few. They say, “We just want a few good men. We don’t want everybody or anybody. We want the few, the proud, the Marines.” Crowds don’t excite me. It’s those few who I still see working on it twenty years later that excite me. They are still there plugging away. It’s the few who don’t allow disappointment to disarm them. The are motivated by their failure and refuse to quit until they’re finished. Are you a can-do person? Are you brave enough to face the challenge and take the risk to be effective? Will you dare to believe the impossible no matter what others say? I hope so. The world desperately needs some people who will go for the miracles no matter what it takes. The world needs some people who will believe God for the potential buried within them—desiring their dreams enough to move out and act. Only a few will find the kind of potential that allows them to live from the depths of their hidden ability. But for those who do, deep wells of possibilities will come to light as God reveals to them more and more of what He planned before the foundations of the world. Join the few. Release the miracles hidden in your thoughts. Dare to try even after you’ve failed. Become reconnected to God and find out who you are and what you can do. Give your potential a chance, because God is waiting to do much more than you can think or imagine. He loves you. He wants you to be the beautiful person He created you to be.

THE WORLD WITHIN THE THIRD WORLD

A Definition of the Term “Third World”

Today there are over five billion people on planet Earth. Over half of these people live in countries and conditions that have been labeled Third World. This term was invented by a French economist who was attempting to describe the various groupings of peoples throughout the world based on their socio-economic status. Whether or not this term is valid, it is generally accepted as a description or element of identification for millions of people. I was born and live in a part of the world that is said to fall within this category. The term is defined as any people who did not benefit from or participate in the industrial revolution. A large majority of these people were not allowed to benefit from or participate in the industrial revolution because they were subjugated at that time, being used to fuel the economic base for that revolution. Many of them were reduced to slaves and indentured servants, thus robbing them of their identity, dignity, self-worth, and self-respect.

A Word to the Victims of History

Today, despite changes in conditions and a greater measure of freedom and independence, many are still grappling with their identity and their sense of self-worth. Many of the nations that progressed and developed through the industial revolution have reinforced (by attitudes, policies, and legislations) the notion that these Third World peoples do not possess the potential to develop the skills, intelligence, and sophistication necessary to equal that of industrialized states. With this prejudice in mind, I wish to say to all Third World peoples everywhere—black, yellow, brown, red, and white; African, American, Indian, Spanish, Latin, Arabian, Oriental, and other nationalities—your potential is limitless. You possess the ability to achieve, develop, accomplish, produce, create, and perform anything your mind can conceive. God created you the way you are, with all the potential you need deposited within you so you can fulfill your potential in this life. The opinions of others should never determine your self-worth. Your identity is not found in the prejudgments of others, but in the Source from which you came: God, Your Father and Creator. Jesus came to restore you to your rightful position and to reveal to you the awesome potential that is trapped inside you. The wealth within the Third World must be realized, harnessed, and maximized by its people. We must be willing to work and commit ourselves to tapping the potential within the land, our youth, the arts, sports, and music. Our governments must believe that they have the ability to improve on systems and forms institutionalized by the industrialized states. The Church in the Third World must begin to take responsibility for its own people and appreciate that they have the potential to write their own songs and books and to develop an indigenous curriculum for Christian education, leadership training, resource management, and financial autonomy and accountability. It is crucial that we do not inhibit our potential to chart a new course for the future by being destroyed by our preoccupation with the past. We have the responsibility to deposit the wealth of our potential in this generation so the next generation can build their future on our faithfulness to becoming everything we can possibly be. Just as there is a forest in every seed, so I am certain there is a new world within your world. Whatever God calls for, He provides for.