RESPONDING TO RESPONSIBILITY

Genesis chapter 1






Today we are walking in: Responding To Responsibility










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?




Responding to Responsibility
The greatest need of ability is responsibility.


One of the most beautiful sounds to ever enter the human ear is the first cry of a newborn baby—the sound of life! Millions of people over the years have experienced much joy, elation, celebration, and relief at this sound. Yet, a newborn’s cry also signals the arrival of responsibility. Not only do the parents have the responsibility for the new infant but the child himself becomes accountable for the awesome potential he possesses at birth.


Responsibility is defined as a state of being reliable, dependable, accountable, answerable, and trustworthy. Responsibility also involves entering into a contract or an obligation. All of these indicate the transfer of something valuable, with the implication that the receiver of the trust is to achieve some positive result. Responsibility also embraces self-reliance, effectiveness, faithfulness, and capability. In essence, responsibility is simply the ability to respond.


All human beings come to this world pregnant with potential. Each person, like a computer, has a tremendous capacity to compute, analyze, assimilate, compare, and produce. But this ability is useless until it is programmed and demands are made on it. Your potential, ability, and natural talent were given by Divine Providence for the purpose of preparing the next generation to fulfill its potential. No one comes to this earth empty. Everyone comes with something. Just like a seed has a forest within it, so you have much more than was evident at your birth.


Unlike the seed, however, you are not dependent on a farmer to plant and cultivate your potential. You are accountable for the time you spend on this planet. The responsibility for activating, releasing, and maximizing this hidden, dormant ability is yours alone. The fact that you were born is evidence that you possess something that can benefit the world. No matter what you have done or accomplished, there is still much more inside you that needs to be released. Only you can release it.


You are accountable for the time you spend on this planet.


I am convinced that life was designed to create environments that make demands on our potential. Without these demands our potential would lie dormant. This thought is reflected in the saying, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” How true! Most of us respond to life creatively and innovatively only when circumstances demand that response. The many technological, medical, and social breakthroughs that have been achieved because problems or circumstances demanded a response vividly illustrate this truth. The Book of Genesis also clearly reveals this principle in the account of man’s first encounter with creation in the Garden of Eden.


Man, as Yah first created him, was one hundred percent unreleased potential. He was an adult with full capabilities, talents, and gifts. His physical, mental, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual powers were fully developed. But man’s powers and abilities were totally unused, untapped, unmanifested, unchallenged, and unemployed. The Creator’s plan for releasing this hidden ability is recorded in Genesis 2:15,19-20:


The Lord Yah took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.... Now the Lord Yah had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field.


Yah’s first action after creating this totally new man—a man with muscles that had never been exercised, a brain that had never been stimulated, emotions that had never been aroused, an imagination that had never been ignited, and creativity that had never been explored— was to give him assignments that placed demands on his hidden abilities. By giving Adam’s ability responsibility, Yah placed demands on Adam’s potential. In a similar manner, your potential is released when demands to fulfill an assignment in Yah’s greater purpose for your life are placed on you. This is why work is called employment—it employs your abilities for the purpose of manifesting your potential.


Yah’s command to work required Adam to use his physical potential. Likewise, Yah’s commands to cultivate the garden and to name the animals activated his intellectual, mental, and creative potential. The demands Yah makes on you accomplish the same thing in your life. The release of your potential demands that you accept the responsibility to work, because the greatest need of ability is responsibility. You will never know the extent of your potential until you give it something to do. The greatest tragedy in your life will not be your death, but what dies with you at death. What a shame to waste what Yah gave you to use.


You will never know the extent of your potential until you give it something to do.


DYING EMPTY


Have you ever noticed the deep peace and contentment that come over you when you fulfill a responsibility? Nothing is more rewarding and personally satisfying than the successful completion of an assigned task. The joy and elation that fill you at such times are the fruit of achievement. The experience of fulfillment is directly related to this principle of finishing.


An old Chinese proverb says: “The end of a thing is greater than its beginning.” In other words, finishing is more important than starting. The beginning of a task may bring a degree of anxiety and apprehension, but the completing of a task usually yields a sense of relief, joy, and fulfillment.


Finishing is more important than starting.


History is filled with great starters who died unfinished. In fact, the majority of the five billion human beings who inhabit the earth will die unfinished. What a tragedy! What counts is not how much a person starts, but how much he or she finishes. The race is not to the swift, but to him that endures to the end.


Yahusha finished His task on earth. The words He spoke on the crucifixion stake clearly indicate that He fulfilled an assignment, completed a task and satisfied a requirement. They resonate with a deep sense of peace. In fact, they confirm that He was not killed but simply died.


When He had received the drink, Yahusha said, “It is finished.” With that He bowed His head and gave up the His spirit (John 19:30).


Because He had released and maximized His potential to successfully fulfill the purpose for which Yah had sent Him into the world, Yahusha saw death not as something to be feared, but as the natural next step. In other words, Yahusha went to the grave empty.


This principle of finishing is also expressed very clearly by the apostle Paul in his second letter to Timothy:
For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my race, I have kept the faith (2 Timothy 4:6-7).


Paul faced death with complete confidence and peace because he knew that he had fulfilled Yah’s purpose for his life. When he spoke of being “poured out,” which suggests emptying some contents from oneself, he pointed to an accurate and important concept that must be understood by all who would release their potential.


You, like Paul and our Lord Yahusha Hamachiach, were born for a purpose. The ability to fulfill that purpose resides deep inside you screaming to be released. Perhaps you yearn to write books, compose songs, scribe poetry, obtain an academic degree, paint on canvas, play music, open a business, serve in a political, civic or spiritual organization, visit other countries, or develop an invention. Think how long you’ve carried your dream. Recall how many times you have postponed satisfying your desire. Count the many times you began to realize your goal only to quit.


Yah did not intend that the cemetery would be the resting place of your potential. The grave irresponsibility of taking your precious dreams, visions, ideas, and plans to the grave is not part of His design. You have a responsibility to release your potential. Join Yahusha, Paul, and many others who robbed death of the pleasure of aborting their potential. Remember, the wealth of the cemetery is the potential of the unfinished.


The wealth of the cemetery is the potential of the unfinished.


POTENTIAL AND THE NEXT GENERATION


Yah designed everything not only to reproduce itself but also to transfer and transmit its life and treasure to the next generation. Consider a seed. Every seed comes into this world to deliver a tree, which in turn delivers more seeds, which produce more trees, and on and on it goes. All aspects of creation possess this generational principle.


In the biblical record, Yah continually stresses the generational principle in all His dealings with man. He instructed Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. He told Abraham that his “seed” would be great and bless the earth. He advised Moses to teach the people to pass on every law and experience to their children and their children’s children. He also expressed it through Solomon in the words: “A good man leaves an inheritance for his children’s children...” (Proverbs 13:22).


If all the seeds in the world withheld the potential of the trees within them, a natural tragedy would be the result. The bees would suffer, the birds would die, and the animals would starve to death. The genocide of man would also occur as oxygen disappeared from the atmosphere. All this would occur because one element in nature refused to fulfill the purpose for which it was created.


No man is born to live or die unto himself. Yah gave you the wealth of your potential—your abilities, gifts, talents, energies, creativity, ideas, aspirations, and desires—for the blessing of future generations. You bear the responsibility to activate, release, and deposit them. This generational principle of Yah, the Father of creation, is crucial to your full appreciation of the principle of potential. Tragedy strikes whenever a person fails to die empty.


No man is born to live or die unto himself.
I wonder how many hundreds of people—perhaps thousands or millions— were born or are yet to be born who need to benefit from the books you have neglected to write, the songs you have failed to compose, or the invention you have continued to postpone. Perhaps there are millions who need the ministry you have yet to begin or the business venture you have not yet started.


The next generation needs the treasure of your potential. Think of the many inventions, books, songs, works of art, and great accomplishments others in past generations have left for you. Even as their treasures have become your blessings, so your treasures must become your children’s unborn children’s blessings. You must not die unfinished and let the grave steal the gems of the future. Deliver your potential to inspire the children of our world to release theirs.


The next generation needs the treasure of your potential.


A WORD TO THE THIRD WORLD MIND


History reveals the truth that any people who are robbed by oppression, suppression, depression, and subjugation of the opportunity to activate, release, and maximize their potential suffer from the loss of generational thinking. Their oppression forces them to think in terms of self-preservation and personal security with little thought for posterity and the future. This mentality pervades many Third World nations today, manifesting itself in an attitude and a lifestyle that encourages immediate gratification at the expense of the future. This mindset ultimately leads to fear, distrust, suspicion, and resentment among members of the same ethnic community.


This lack of generational consciousness traps individuals in a cycle of self- maintenance and retards creativity, inspiration, and innovation. Consequently, the release of the tremendous abilities that lie within every individual is forfeited. Third World people everywhere must be delivered from this mentality. It is essential that they understand the responsibility they have to their children and their children’s children. Until a man can see beyond his own loins, the future is in danger.


The essence of potential is not preservation but liberation. Although we cannot change the past, we have the potential to chart our destiny and arrange a better future for our children. The opportunity to blame others for the past is often before us; but we can never transfer responsibility for the future to others. You and I have been given by Yah all that we need to fulfill His purpose for our lives. We possess the ability to impact our homes, our communities, our cities, our nations, and perhaps the world if we dare to challenge ourselves and place demands on the vast wealth of potential buried deep within us.


Decide today to do something with your dreams. Disappoint procrastination and commit yourself to releasing your potential. Stop wishing and start willing. Stop proposing and start purposing. Stop procrastinating and start planning. Determine to die empty and leave the earth an inheritance that gives life to others. Remember, few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed by perseverance.


PRINCIPLES


1. The fact that you were born is evidence that you possess something that can benefit the world.


2. Yah gave you potential for the blessing of future generations.


3. The greatest need of ability is responsibility.


4. Yah places demands on your potential by giving your ability responsibility.


5. Fulfillment is directly related to the successful completion of a task.


6. Yah has given you everything you need to fulfill His purpose for your life.