THE TRAGEDY OF UNRELEASED POTENTIAL

Genesis chapter 1








Today we are walking in: The Tragedy Of Unreleased Potential










Job 34:16


If now thou hast understanding, hear H8085 this: hearken to the voice of my words.









UNDERSTAND



Today we look to the word-UNDERSTAND- H8085 shama`--to hear with attention or interest, listen to understand (language)








The Torah testifies...............


Genesis 11:7


Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand H8085 one another's speech.








The prophets proclaim..................


Nehemiah 8:2


And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear H8085 with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month.









The writings bear witness...........................


1 Kings 3:9


Give therefore thy servant an understanding H8085 heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?









The Tragedy of Unreleased Potential


The death of a seed is the burial of a forest.


The voice over the intercom announcing that we had finally begun our descent after ten hours of flying startled me from my restless sleep. With a deep sense of anticipation, I gathered my thoughts and prepared for landing. It was my first trip to the great South American country of Brazil. Because I had been invited to address a conference of ten thousand leaders and laymen, I felt an awesome responsibility upon me. My time in this country of beautiful and complex cultures and ethnic heritages would be a lesson in humanity’s oneness. It confirmed once again that despite our minor differences, we are all the same.


Seven days into my stay, my host and translator took me on a tour of their beautiful capital, Brasilia. After visiting the well-organized city and government buildings and touring the stately monuments of the picturesque city, we entered one of my favorite places to visit—the national museum. Being an artist and a lover of history, I enjoy these excursions in every country I visit.


This day in Brasilia was no exception. I felt great appreciation for the beautiful and important works of art around me. As I viewed, studied, and admired the tremendous historical pieces and the priceless testimonies of the glory of this nation’s past and present, I was once again reminded that each painting, sculpture, and specimen was the product of the release of someone’s potential. Although many of the artists are dead, their works are not. Display after display gave evidence to potential that had not been buried with the artists. Because they had dared to expose the talent hidden within them, I and many others were enjoying, appreciating, and being inspired by their imaginative works.


Throughout time, the great and small works of individuals—be they paintings, books, music, poetry, drama, architecture, inventions, or the development of theories—have affected the lives of many. All who have helped to shape our society’s destiny—the giants who teach us and inspire us—used their potential with a passion and refused to let circumstances dictate their future. The museum in Brazil, like all the museums of the world, is a constant reminder that someone lived who refused to let death have the final word on their potential. Their released potential is the world’s inheritance.


I believe earth itself is a museum. Each of us comes into this world with an assignment to fulfill. Yah 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.
Each of us comes into this world with an assignment to fulfill.


Unless you accept the responsibility for activating your abilities, the next generation will enter the museum of life and notice a vacant space in earth’s displays. The sign below the placed reserved to display the fruit of your potential will read: “Assignment unfinished. Potential unreleased.”


THE ABORTION OF ABILITY


“The price of greatness is responsibility.” These words were spoken by Sir Winston Churchill. They contain a truth that should be guarded and heeded. 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. Unless we expose, during the course of our lives, all that Yah placed within us for the good of mankind, our potential will be aborted.


The graveyards are full of great men and women who never became great because they did not give their ability responsibility.


Abortion is one of today’s most controversial issues. It is polarizing many communities. It has also become a hot political issue in many countries where it is used to manipulate the reins of power. Many people think of this concern as a recent one. Although it is causing much stir in our societies, the concern over abortion is not new. The truth is that the abortion issue is as old as time. The fact of abortion is as old as man.


Abortion is not limited to the physical termination of a fetus in a mother’s womb. The first act of abortion was performed in the Garden of Eden when the first man, Adam, was given the responsibility of carrying the entire human race within his loins. In Adam was the seed of all generations and the strength of all mankind. Yah’s instructions to Adam were very simple and clear:
You are free to eat from every tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die (Genesis 2:16-17).


To surely die means to definitely cease from manifesting the fruitfulness that exists within a thing. Death, in its simplest form, is the termination of potential. To abort means to terminate life before its full potential has or can be realized, before the person, animal, plant, etc. is given an opportunity to fulfill its full potential.


Death, in its simplest form, is the termination of potential.
Yah created everything with the hidden ability to fulfill itself. The Bible’s record of creation states that the seed of everything is in itself to produce after its kind (see Genesis 1:12). All creation possesses the hidden ability to be everything it is supposed to be:


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 fetus, every man was once a boy, and every nation was once in the loins of a man. It is also interesting to note that whenever Yah deals with man, He always speaks in terms of the generational seed within his loins. In Yah’s calculation of life, one equals many, little equals much, small equals great, and less equals more. 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 man is to destroy a nation. Yah told Abraham, the great patriarch of history,


I will make you a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great and you will be a blessing....and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you (Genesis 12:2-3).


Abortion is the ultimate tragedy. It robs life of its essence and denies the future its value.


ABORTION THROUGH IGNORANCE


Abortion is the ignorance of responsibility and the denial of obligation. Abortion is self-comfort at the expense of fruitfulness, because all abortions sacrifice responsibility. The abortion of potential condemns the future. This reality has caused the development of an entire discipline of science. Ecology and environmental studies, as these areas of concern are known, build their premises on the word extinction, meaning “the termination of the potential force within creation to fulfill itself.”


Abortion is the ignorance of responsibility and the denial of obligation.


It is amazing that man, with all his attempts to minimize the abortion of various species in the animal and plant kingdom by investing billions of dollars to protect animals, plants, forests, and the ozone layer, has neglected to prioritize the position of human beings in the scheme of things. While man fights to protect whales, owls, trees, and fish, he also battles for the right to terminate human babies. Perhaps the situation would improve if every doctor who performs this tragic operation would be reminded before each abortion that the opportunity to perform this surgery is his only because his mother did not abort him.


The abortion issue is, therefore, not just a problem of the taking of a life, though that is the fatal end result. Even more, abortion is the ignorance and the lack of understanding of the principle of potential that pervades our world. The majority of those who die each year are guilty of abortion because they didn’t understand the basic relevance of the concept of potential to their individual lives.


The abortion of potential is the death of the future. It affects generation after generation. When Adam broke Yah’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 Yah calls sin. Sin is not a behavior; it is a disposition. One of the great biblical writers states it this way:


I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for [the glory of] the sons of Yah 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. Yah’s creation is waiting for man’s glory or true potential to be exposed because creation’s destiny is tied to man’s. Thus, any abortion, whether it’s the abortion of a dream, a vision, art, music, writing, business, leadership, or inventions, affects both nature and the succeeding generations of man. How many children yet unborn were destined to sing the song you have never written?
When Adam aborted the vision Yah had placed in his heart and disobeyed the directives of the Manufacturer, he changed the lives of the entire human race that lay hidden in his loins. The Book of Romans states:


Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned [in Adam].... Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men (Romans 5:12,18).


It is vital that we understand the principle demonstrated in these passages. It is the awesome realization that if your potential is not released, it will affect this generation and all the generations of man yet to live. Even creation will testify against you. 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 Yah knew earth needed the potential you are pregnant with. 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. Leave the picture of your potential on the wall of history in the museum of the earth.


PRINCIPLES


1. Your released potential is the world’s inheritance.


2. You came into the world pregnant with unlimited potential.


3. You are capable of much more than you have already done.


4. Creation’s destiny is tied to the release of your potential.


5. The fact that you were born is evidence that Yah knew earth needed the potential you are pregnant with.