KINGDOM PRINCIPLES TO DEVELOP YOUR POTENTIAL

2 Corinthians chapter 4




Today we are walking in: Kingdom Principles To Develop Your Potential




KINGDOM PRINCIPLES TO DEVELOP YOUR POTENTIAL




Write this down, Potential. The unexposed, untapped, hidden, dormant revelations that lay beneath the accumulated dust and grime of many years. Potential. Strength and beauty that lay unmarred by the ravages of fire, wind, and water. Potential. The possibilities for rebuilding after years of destruction, decay, and neglect. Our lives are very much like a decaying house. The strength and beauty Yah gave to men and women when He created them in His image and likeness too often are not evident in us. Our minds are cluttered with impure thoughts and mixed motives, our bodies are weakened by the effects of bad habits and poor decisions, and our hearts are warped by misplaced trust and the absence of love. In many ways, we are empty people working our way through the problems and detours of life with little hope that things will ever change. This discouragement and dissatisfaction with life is the result of our separation from Yah, a separation that came when Adam and Eve sinned by choosing to put their own thoughts and desires above Yah’s commandments and promises. (See Genesis 3.) Every person shares this tendency to establish his wants and will over Yah’s. Therein lies the source of our discouragement and dissatisfaction. Yah’s intent for men and women has not changed, nor has He taken from us the strength and beauty He gave us at birth. These gifts are buried within us, covered over by the attitudes and assump- tions that prevent us from living the abundant life Yah planned for us. In effect, many have placed a “No Trespassing” sign over their power, strength, abilities, talents, and capabilities. Because we have obeyed that sign, many of the possibilities with which we were born still exist within us—hidden and dormant, unused and untried. The great writer Paul refers to this hidden wealth within as “treasure in jars of clay” (2 Corinthians 4:7). The jar may not look like much, but the treasure inside it is valuable and priceless. In other words, what people see when they look at you is not who you truly are. You can become much more than you now are. Who would have thought that Saul of Tarsus, a fervent Hebrew who vigorously opposed the followers of Yahusha, would become Paul the apostle, the greatest missionary the Church has ever known? Certainly not the Hebrews he persecuted—they did not expect anything good from him (see Acts 9:20–21)—nor Saul himself. Not in his wildest imaginings would he have seen himself as a servant of the One he despised. Yet, like the old house, Saul contained a dormant wealth that was not evident under the outer trappings of his misguided religious fervor. That same wealth is present in you. You are capable of more than others expect of you—even beyond your own most extravagant dreams. Unexposed, dormant potential rests beneath the surface of your daily existence, waiting to be discovered and released. Although access to this great treasure has been clogged by sin, the strength and beauty of your potential can be reclaimed. The destruction, decay, and neglect of years need not continue to hold captive the reality of who Yah created you to be. This untold wealth within you is uniquely yours because Yah creates no two people for the same purpose. Your personality, abilities, and resources are Yah’s gifts, bestowed on you before He gave you the breath of life, and they contain the possibility for bringing meaning and fulfillment into your life. They are available, however, only to those who put forth the effort to recover them and to use them according to their Yah-given specifications. Learning to tap the hidden wealth of your potential is the greatest task and the most pressing need of your life because if you do not discover how to expose and use this treasure, you will die with it. This wealth, which is the all-surpassing power of Yah within you, is never given to be buried. Yah wants you to release all He gave you for the benefit of others and the blessing of your own life. Let us use the stories of the ruined house and the life of the apostle Paul to establish some keys you can use to tap into your potential. No one knows a product like the manufacturer. If you are going to move from who you now are to whom Yah created you to be, you too must seek to understand the nature of Yah’s original design for you, before sin ravaged your life. That understanding is not available to you unless you become reconnected with Yah, your Creator. Apart from Him, you cannot and will not release your full potential because He gave you this potential and He designed you to fulfill it. You must know Yah, your Source, if you want to experience a satisfying, abundant life. Saul of Tarsus met his Source on the road to Damascus when Yahusha Hamachiach spoke to him from a bright light that left him blind. For three days he remained blind and did not eat or drink. He simply waited before Yah, wondering what would happen next. Then Yah sent a man named Ananias to place his hands on Saul to restore his sight and to bring the Holy Spirit into his life. Immediately, some- thing like scales fell from Saul’s eyes and he could see again. It was during this period that the purpose for Paul’s life was revealed to him by his Creator/Source. After that, Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus, preaching that Yahusha is the Son of Yah and proving that Yahusha is the Messiah. What a change! Few of us will experience a change as dramatic as that which occurred in the man Saul who became Paul, but a change just as radical—from being self-centered to Yah-centered— must occur in all who would discover and use their full potential. This is true because the foundation key for releasing potential is always a relationship with the source or maker of a product. You must have a life-changing encounter with the One who made you if you want to become who you were created to be. You cannot expose the gifts, talents, and natural abilities that Yah put into you if you do not become reconnected with Him. All you do and are apart from Yah will always fall short of the true value and capacity of your potential. Therefore, fulfillment and value are impossible without Him. Only by returning to your Source/Manufacturer/Creator can you hope to unlock His power within you. You must know your Source to become your potential. This is the foundation key. The mode of operation for maximum performance of any product is determined and established by the manufacturer/creator, and must be obeyed for maximum benefit. Thus, the second key to releasing your potential is knowing how Yah created you to func- tion and applying that knowledge to your life. No builder can successfully restore a house unless he first knows the specifications determined by the builder and the features provided by the original blueprints. A shower, for example, may fulfill part of the designer’s intent for the bathroom, but it cannot match all the functions of a tub. Thus, installing a shower in place of a tub would change not only the room’s appearance but also its ability to provide the intend- ed functions that were built into the original design. Man was designed to live by faith. Yah’s original design for men and women calls for them to live from the perspective of faith with eternity in their hearts. The Book of Hebrews defines faith as “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). This is Yah’s mode of operation. He is not influenced by out- ward appearances; neither is His power diminished by seemingly impossible obstacles. The apostle Paul learned the importance of looking beyond what is immediately visible and evident. Although he encountered many situations that seemed to stand in the way of his mission to share the good news of Yahusha with those outside the Jewish world, he persevered by focusing on His Yah-given task and by relying on the Holy Spirit to guarantee the completion of Yah’s plans. Thus, Paul testified, “[I] live by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). Your ability to unleash your potential is tied to your willingness to consistently live from Yah’s perspective, which saw Paul the apostle in Saul the murderer. He created you to share His viewpoint. If you allow the obstacles that clutter your path and the expectations of others to discourage you and to send you on time and energy- consuming detours, your Yah-given talents and abilities will be wasted. Learning to function by looking beyond what you now see to what is yet possible is an important key to releasing your potential. You must resolve to live by faith. To fully release your potential, you must discover your corporate and specific reason for existence and the accompanying assignment. One of the first tasks of a builder who wants to restore an old house is to determine the purpose for each room. Although this purpose may not be immediately evident, the rebuilding cannot accurately and effectively duplicate the original building if the purpose for each room is not established. In a similar manner, you cannot effectively release your potential if you do not discover Yah’s purpose for giving you life. Your potential and your purpose are perfectly related because Yah never requires you to do or be something that is not part of His purpose. Likewise, He never requires something of you that He did not provide for when He created you. Your potential enables you to fulfill your purpose, and your purpose reveals the potential hidden with- in you. From his encounter with Hamachiach on the road to Damascus to the end of his life, the apostle Paul knew that he had been called and saved by Yah for a specific purpose: “...Yah, who set me apart from birth and called me by His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles...” (Galatians 1:15-16). Similarly, the apostle Peter discovered his purpose when Yahusha told him three times, “Take care of My sheep” (John 21:16; see also John 21:15-18). Both remained faithful to Yah’s purpose, dedicating their lives to its accomplishment and conforming their actions to its fulfillment. You are like these apostles. You too have a purpose set forth by Yah and the skills, talents, abilities, and characteristics that enable you to fulfill His plan. Your responsibility is to discover what Yah designed you to do and how He planned that you would accomplish it. Until you discover Yah’s blueprint, you will not have the moti- vation to uncover the potential that will empower you to accomplish it, nor will you be happy and fulfilled. Discovery of purpose is discovery of potential. Success without an understanding of purpose is meaningless. Knowing and cooperating with your Yah-given purpose is the third key to releasing your potential. He alone knows why He created you with the specific combination of personality, abilities, and dreams that make you the unique individual you are. You share the purpose of humanity to glorify Yah by fulfilling your individual purpose and by releasing the power, beauty, and possibilities hidden within you. Provisions are given for the fulfillment of vision. Every builder, before he starts a project, both estimates what materials he will need to complete the job and determines what resources are available to him. Yah functions in a similar manner. As He forms and fashions each person for a specific purpose, He also provides the necessary resources to accomplish His plans. The apostle Paul knew that Yah had given him certain resources to help him fulfill his purpose and release his potential. Varied in nature and use, these resources included his tent-making skills, his Roman citizenship, his Jewish education and upbringing, and, most importantly, his faith in Yahusha Hamachiach and his confidence that Yah, through the Spirit, had given him a message for the world. (See Romans 15:15-19.) Paul was careful, however, to view these resources only as tools given by Yah to accomplish His plans. Therefore, he always treated his resources as being less important than the One who gave them. His education and upbringing as a Jew, for example, had to be refined and redirected before Paul could use, not abuse, them. Thus, he came to see the law, which had been all-important to him as a Pharisee, as Yah’s gift for showing men their sin and their need of a Savior. (See Romans 3:20.) Resources cannot and should not be substituted for the Source. You too possess Yah-given resources. The proper use of these resources will release your potential, but their misuse will destroy you. Hence, you cannot fulfill your limitless potential unless you learn what resources you have, how Yah intended them to function, and why He gave them to you. The effective use of your resources is the fourth key to releasing your potential.