The 3 Steps toward success

Three Steps Toward Success

And after him was Shamgar the son of Anath, which slew of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox goad: and he also delivered Israel.
Judges 3:31

This verse and the few verses in chapter 5 comprise the sum total of Shamgar’s biblical biography. Before the life of Shamgar there is Ehud, a valiant left-handed judge who led the people to victory against the Moabites. Israel’s peace with the Moabites then lasted for 80 years. But Israelites had many enemies that would frequently invade and plunder them. Judges 5:6 describes the lack of public safety caused by these raids. "In the days of Shamgar son of Anath...the roads were abandoned; travelers took to winding paths." Verse 7 says, "...village life in Israel ceased..." And verse 8 continues, "...not a shield or spear was seen among forty thousand in Israel." These desperate circumstances motivated one man, Shamgar, to remedy the situation. The Bible simply describes his valor - he "struck down six hundred Philistines with an ox goad."

An ox goad was a farm implement. Oxen were used to plow the fields, and to assure their cooperation the plowman used a long wooden rod, anywhere from five to ten feet in length and up to two inches in diameter, to prod these sturdy animals into working. This farmer’s tool became a lethal weapon in the hands of a courageous man of conviction. He defended his family, his countrymen and his property against the invading marauders with a farm implement.

Let’s apply Shamgar’s success to our lives now.

1. SUCCESS STARTS FROM WHERE YOU ARE

Where was Shamgar? What was the starting point for him? He was living in a time and place when his life and property, and the lives and property of his family and countrymen, were at the mercy of Philistine thieves and thugs. He could have seen himself as helpless and hopeless but he didn’t. Professor of Psychology Salvatore R. Maddi of University of California says there are 3 C’s in dealing with stress: Commitment, Control & Challenge.

• Commitment: “When stress hits you, stay involve and don’t pull-out.”
• Control: “Take charge of Stress situation. You should control the situation, not the stress.”
• Challenge: “Think the stress as normal. It’s an opportunity to learn. Don’t let yourself fall into self-pity.

Shamgar didn’t wait for perfect circumstances or perfect materials to start. He started where he was.

In the Book of Judges God placed His Spirit upon leaders in spite of their weaknesses. Beginning from a place of weakness is not necessarily a bad thing. It can actually be a good thing because it can lead to a God-thing! God can do things in the lives of people who admit that they need Him that He cannot do in the lives of people who will not admit that they need Him. Three times the Bible says, "God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble." (Proverbs 3:24; James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5) Shamgar did not wait until he had an army of thousands to lead in battle. You and I don’t have to wait until things get better before we advance. What you can do for God, do it now.
2. SUCCESS FOLLOWS FROM WHAT YOU HAVE

An ox goad. Shamgar didn’t have a sword or spear. But he didn’t need one. We don’t need a lot of things we think we need in order to succeed. You may not have the monetary resources or the education you think it takes to succeed - but you can start where you are and use what you have - especially if you have the blessing of God on your life. God approached Moses in the wilderness through the burning fiery bush and told him to return to Egypt, confront Pharaoh, and lead the Hebrews up from slavery. Moses immediately slinked into an excuse mode. "Who, me? I don’t have what it takes to do that!" So God says to Moses, "What is that in your hand?" (Exodus 4:2) Moses replied, "Well, Lord, all I have is this shepherd’s staff", and God says, "That will do. Throw it on the ground." When Moses obeyed, his staff turned into a snake. Then God told him to pick it up by the tail. He did and it became a staff again. This staff was the instrument of God to turn the Nile River into blood and bring other great plagues on Egypt. It was the tool God used to part the Red Sea and bring about other miracles in the wilderness.

That shepherd’s staff wasn’t much but dedicated to God it became a mighty tool! The Lord has given everyone of us sufficient ability to attain success in life. David used what he had - a sling. For the little boy at the feeding of the 5,000 it was five loaves and two fish. For Samson it was the jawbone of a donkey. God can use anything. What is it for you? Don’t wait for ideal circumstances and supplies to come your way. Don’t wait on God to send you something you already have. “My Job is to do the best I can. The rest is in God’s hands.” –Martin Luther Jr

3. SUCCESS ACHIEVES FROM WHAT YOU CAN

Defending himself against 600 Philistines with an ox goad definitely elevates Shamgar to the status of a champion. “The only man who never failed is the man who never tried” “If you want to double your success ration, double your failure rate” You may not be able to do something better like others. You may not get your name in the headlines but if you will do what you can God will bless what you do.


Faith Confession: Lord Jesus, Thank you for my success!

Assignment for the week: Write these things. What is it that you already have that you can use to succeed? What has God already given you to help you realize your dreams?

Possess the Land


The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan. And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.
Numbers 13:29-33

Our text today is the story of the 12 men sent to spy out the land of Canaan. These men were given a specific assignment by Moses to spy out the land and specific items on which to report back. Before I get to the text, let me give you some history. The children of Israel, as you know, were in captivity in Egypt. When God freed them from their bondage it was so they could possess a land that He had given them. What’s interesting is that it was an 11 days journey from Egypt to the promised land of Canaan, but it took them 40 years to get there. The natural question that comes to mind is, “what took so long”? Exodus 13:17-18 says, “And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea: and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt.”
See they were armed for battle, but they were scared to fight. The bible says that they left Egypt harnessed.

Hebrew word – Chamush which means armed.

Not only were they armed, but they were also scared so they bible says God took them a different way. God knew that if He took them directly from their:

• Bondage to their bounty
• Trash to their treasure
• Lack to their lavish
• Confusion to their comfort
• Despair to their destiny

That they would be scared to possess it. To get to where God has promised you will not be easy. You are going to have to go through some things to make it to your promised land and you are going to have to fight to possess it. When we get to our text, we find the children of Israel 3 years after they left Egypt. Now they were in visual sight of the promise of God. I know God has made some promises to you! I want you to know that getting to your promise is not about God’s desire for you to have it. It’s about your desire to possess it.

They were in a place where they did not have to dream about what God promised. They didn’t have to find God’s promises. They just had to possess God’s promises.

Faith Confession: I see my Canaan and I am possessing it. No report is too bad, no enemy is too big, no obstacle is too large for me to inherit my destiny.

Assignment for the week: Map out a straight path to conquer your land. Identify your enemies and plot their defeat.

Momentum

Momentum

And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and there is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall. And our adversaries said, They shall not know, neither see, till we come in the midst among them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease.
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Nehemiah 4:10-11

Momentum is very hard to create. The larger the object, the harder it is to move. Depending on how much energy is needed to move it and the amount of time that energy can be applied decides how much momentum can be generated. Once momentum is established, it is of utmost necessity to maintain that momentum.

If that momentum is lost or diminished, it is not easily regained. In fact it often takes more energy and time to create the momentum a second time. This is due to human nature and the fact that people are not easily convinced of something after it has proven unsuccessful the first time.

No horse gets anyone anywhere until he's harnessed, no steam or gas drives anything until it is confined, no Niagara ever turns anything into light or power until it is tunneled, no life ever does great things it is until focused, dedicated, and disciplined.

Newton’s first law of motion states “Unless acted upon by a force an object at rest will stay at rest and an object in motion will stay in motion.” In other words, unless someone or something does something to change things something that is stationary will stay that way and something that is moving will keep going.

What’s the point? Spiritually we’re just like a book or the bullet. While we may get off to a great start we encounter resistance. Hardships and difficulty get in our way and we lose our momentum. Some folks even come to a stop spiritually, and then it’s hard to get them started again—they would prefer to stay put.

I believe all of us have a call for greatness which comes from God, and I am also aware very few people will ever attain that greatness. How do we keep the “mo” going?

You know the story. Nehemiah is working as a servant in exile from his Jewish roots. He is overcome by the reports he has heard of the condition of Jerusalem so he asks his boss, King Artaxerxes if he can go to Jerusalem and get the city back intact. The Jewish race is an example of lost momentum throughout their history. At times they are doing great, and other times they are in the pits of life. Victory and defeat were both common experiences for them. Nehemiah, securing permission to go discovers the lost momentum of the Jews in Jerusalem.

In verses 10 and 11 we glean lessons for motivation. In Judah it was said, “The strength of the burden bearers is failing, yet there is much rubbish; and we ourselves are unable to rebuild the wall.” And our enemies said, “They will not know or see until we come along them, kill them, and put a stop to the work.”

There are four things which will cause us to lose the momentum of life we can see from these two verses:
1. You lose your “mo” when you lose your strength. It was said in Judah their strength was failing.

2. You lose your “mo” when you lose your vision. There was much rubbish because they had lost the focus on where they were headed, the vision for rebuilding the wall.

3. You lose your “mo” when you lose your confidence. They came to the place where they no longer believed they could rebuild the wall.

4. You lose your “mo” when you have lost your security. They were now listening to what their enemy was saying, not to what God had been telling them.

Faith Confession: God I declare that I will not stop. I will not loose my momentum. I will keep moving, growing, and developing. My life will be a life of motion. I will conquer all that God has assigned to my hands.

Assignment for the week: Examine the weakest places in your life and design a strategy to do more than you have done. Picture your life as a ball, envision what you have to get that ball moving or to move faster. Then move it!

Sometimes God is Silent

Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.

Hebrews 5:11-12

There are many things God wants to tell you but you are in the slow class. Maybe you are not hearing from God because you are behind schedule on your assignment. You are no longer supposed to be a student in your walk. Stop talking and start listening. It is only then that God will be able to teach you and show you where you are suppose to be.

God is an awesome communicator because He loves talking. He will talk even when nobody is there. In Genesis 1:1, God could have done the whole creation narrative in His mind without ever speaking a word. It is not until God came to the creation of Adam that He made the language inclusive: “Let us make man in our image and our likeness.” You are so important. God talked about you before He could ever talk to you.

God does not communicate in just one way. The Bible is God’s unique way of communicating with us. It illustrates how God communicates through covenants, dreams, kings, miracles, parables, prophets, rituals, signs, trances, wonders, and through Jesus.

Our problem is we do not know how to interpret and deal with silence. When was the last time you drove in your car past three minutes without listening to the radio or talking on the phone? In order to communicate obedience, God will sometimes be silent.

Many churches are dying because they are caught up on what God said, not on what He is saying. Abraham was a man of faith. If he were a traditional churchman, Isaac would have been killed. Instead, Isaac listened to what God was saying. Sometimes God will change what he said in the middle of the task to see how keen your listening skills are.

Sometimes the reason why God is silent is because you are being tested, and He wants to see if, in the middle of your test, you will remember what He taught you.

Faith Confession: God I declare that I am making a habit of being silent so I can hear you speak. I need to hear from you, so I will hear from you. My ears are open. Teach me so I can teach others.

Assignment for the week: Everyday this week, spend the time on your way to work without the radio and without being on the phone. Listen intently on what God has to say about your day. Write down what God has said.