Who are you?

John 1:22-23 Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”

The people were asking John one of the most important questions in life; a question that each one of us should depart this planet having answered about ourselves. Fortunately John knew that he was the voice. Not knowing yourself will lead to confusion and wasting much time in trying to figure out life events around you. We tend to underestimate the importance of knowing ourselves. Many of us go through each day reacting to events and just getting by rather than making conscious choices based on who we are and what we want. When we don't know where we are headed it's hard to set goals, get motivated and determine the best course of action. Before we can do any of these things we must establish who we are. Have you ever answered without doubt the question of – ‘who are you?’ It is very important to know precisely who you are. Knowing and understanding yourself better, in turn, leads to better decision making, setting and reaching appropriate goals and ultimately living more a productive life. Knowing yourself means respecting your values in life, your beliefs, your personality, your priorities, your moods, your habits, your magnificent body, and your relationships. Knowing yourself means knowing your purpose in life. Purpose carries your destiny and your destiny carries your success story!

How are you spending your youth?

What you do during your youth days has a direct impact to your future. How are you spending your youth years? Are you spending your days being pleasure driven, sleeping in late because of your constant time spend on social networks? Or do you read books, learn a new skill, and make value adding connections?

Our culture sets low expectations for young people. But God wants the best for you – and that involves raising your expectations so you can live how God created you to live. You don’t have to wait until you get older to live to the fullest for God. You can and should start doing so now, while you’re young.

Re-arrange you’re life and begin to live above expectations. The expectation of the world about you is that you should have fun because being young is fun. The only thing that the world won’t tell you is that you will have to account for all those wasted years in the future.

Do the best for yourself by investing in You. May the You of tomorrow be better than the You of today. Change your thinking. Have a different attitude towards life in general- especially to money. Your relationship with money will affect your relationship with others.

Don’t allow to be programmed to do as others do. Don’t copy but crop. Crop all that is not desired. Do only the things that will cause You to step further ahead. Add value to your life and you will cherish the path you have already passed. Don’t give up in life. Life is not for people who can’t see a way when there is no way. Life believes in itself- so must you believe in You. Above all, have faith in God and do as he says.

ARISE AND SHINE!

Your response

“It is well, it is well” said the Shunamite woman 2 Kings 4:8-37. How could she have said “It is well” when it wasn’t?!? Her only son had just died in her arms, yet she spoke not a word about it. “It is well, it is well” were the only words she said as she ran to the prophet Elisha.

Life is likely to throw the negatives on us. For example: - You can break up with the one your partner. You can lose the loved one. You can lose your job. Your marriage can be in shambles or what if you fail and continue to fail. Life can put you at a losing side without your choice. All this heart breaking moments can happen to anyone; to some people only once yet to others repeatedly.

When I was busy preaching last Sunday, the thieves broke inside my house and began to loot my assets. I laughed. Why did I laugh! I don’t care. Why I don’t care? I couldn’t control the situation that happened to me at that time. Yes I lost my goods, so what? I have learned to never worry if I cannot change what happened.

Your response counts. The Shunamite woman, after losing her son, responded “It is well”.  Was it well? No! But she realised if I can’t change it then why worry! David did the same after he was told his son is now dead. He washed and put new clothes, ate and went to the temple. Why? He realised, if you can’t change it why fast against it! Job lost everything and responded ‘Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him…’.Job realised that he can’t just lose hope in the Lord. He couldn’t because he knew that “Christ is no security against storms, but He is perfect security in the storm”.

Your trouble has a purpose. One of the purposes is to bring you closer to God and your neighbours. It draws people together. Remember when the Tsunami hit. Neighbours who had never even talked with each other became friends. They shared food and ate together. They loaned each other tools. They helped each other cut down trees and repair their roofs. When there was no electricity for several weeks and traffic lights didn’t work, people were courteous and polite when they drove. The whole community rallied together to survive.

That is why sometimes we just have to say ‘it is well’! If you can’t change it don’t worry about it! God is in control.

 ARISE AND SHINE

Never stay defeated

Maya Angelou once said: “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it”. She was right. Oh yes she was!

When I did my first degree I failed my final level Auditing so dismally. I then enrolled to do it again but failed. I did it for the third time but got the supplementary. I wrote the supplementary and I failed again. I then told myself that due to my inability to pass this last Auditing course, I will never graduate my BCOM Accounting degree.  But at the point when I was about to give up, a certain child of God encouraged me not to stay defeated and she said “go do it again” and she even gave me the tuition fees. I tried one more time and I passed the course with 75% and the following year I graduated. At a later stage that person happened to be my wife.

In life there will come a time when you will fail but that does not mean you are stupid. So you should never stay defeated. The only time a person gets defeated is when he or she stops to try.  In his life, Vincent van Gogh sold only one painting out of his 900 paintings but today he is the most recognised artist. Michael Jordan was rejected from his high school’s varsity basketball team but today is literally the most famous basketball player of all time. Nelson Mandela was locked in prison for 27 years but he became the world most respected president that has ever lived.

Today you might be on the verge of throwing the towel but I want to tell you that you can make it. Try it one more time. I assure you: - if you try again, there will come a time when you will look back on the journey that you had to take in order to get to where you are and you will smile and say “I never thought I could do it…but I did it”. That is what the grace of rising up and doing it again can do for you! A knockdown is not a knockout. A living dog is better than a dead lion. Inability is not disability. Your inability to be a lion is not your disability to bite. You can do it. Yes you can make it! That is who you are. You are wired to succeed and you know it. You have greatness within.

ARISE AND SHINE

Have a growth mindset

People with a fixed mind-set are often the people who excelled at school; have regularly been praised on the outcomes of work and exams; have high expectations put upon them by others and themselves. The fixed mind-set can often lead people to be afraid of making mistakes, avoid taking risks for fear of failure and not always fulfilling their capabilities.

On the contrary People who have a growth mind-set are those who are not concerned about making mistakes; they regularly challenge themselves and can easily persevere even during setbacks. These tend to be people who don’t have an image to uphold, they follow their passions to grow and develop their abilities. They might not have been the smartest kids at school but are often the ones who go on to surprise old school friends by having very progressive successful careers.

When you have a growth mindset you will enjoy having more fun in life. You will enjoy learning. You work on your relationships to make them better. A growth mindset is associated with all of these benefits plus more. This simple attitude impacts your success, health, happiness, careers, and relationships.

You should have a growth-mindset because it is the mindset that sees the success of others as an inspiration and a source for learning, whereas a fixed mindset sees the success of others as a threat.

ARISE AND SHINE!

Don't study failure

Don't study failure but study success. The problem for most people who want to be successful is not that they can't achieve success. The main obstacle for them is a "journey mismatch". They have been in a classroom of failure by default through mismatch of what they do and what they should be doing, and mastered what they are not supposed to do over years.

Failure is part of our journey to success. But failure can become a permanent classroom if we fail to... do things that are exactly aligned to our purpose. Success is knowing your purpose in life and growing to reach your maximum potential. The fruits of success is seeing things that benefits others being visible.

When you miss your purpose, then in whatever you do, you are studying failure because failure is simply to be misaligned or to do things which does not match who you really are. Get your purpose, work on it, improve on it each day, then you are studying success and there is no way that you can't be successful.

Why call yourself an apostle, if there is no single church you have started; why call yourself a prophet if you can't prophesy; why call yourself a leader if you can't lead; why call yourself pastor if you can't shepherd God's flock. Why call yourself Bishop, Evangelist and all this good names if you are not doing it. Don't you know that all this are functions and not titles?

You need to find your purpose and function in it.

To do that is to study success.

www.praisetabernaclechurchmoretele.co.zaARISE AND SHINE!

Are you really teachable

Teachability will take you very far. In life there are two types of persons. Those who listen and those who hear. I remember Jesus always said " he who have an ear let him hear". Jesus never used the word " listen" because not all people who listen hears.

Ask yourself, Am I really teachable? Am I a listener or a hearer? How many things I heard in my lifetime that has advanced my life ? Did I apply them?  If you can answer this questions honestly and get good answers, then it means you have a teachable spirit.

All good advice in the world won't help you if you don't have a teachable spirit. Teachability is a tool for success. If you are teachable you are reachable. Some people are not successful not because the devil hates them but simply because there is nothing they learn from themselves, others and their environment.

The people who often learn the most aren't necessarily those who spend their time with the smartest people.  But those who have a teachable spirit.

Be willing to listen but most importantly to hear. If you don't hear you will be in the rear.

ARISE AND SHINE!

Do you celebrate average or persist to grow?

All of us can easily find a comfort zone. We can settle and think we have achieved. We can convince ourselves that we are satisfied with the status core. Once a person reaches that point, growth stops. During those early years when I was working in the South African Navy as a Naval officer I met a person who grew and lived in Durban but did not have an idea where the sea was. The person goes shopping in town on a regular basis, the North Coast is less than a kilometre away but he simply did not care to know what was happening in his backyard.

To live your life this was is to celebrate average. It is to settle in mediocrity. If you want to get a fulfilled destiny you must grow. I know learning goes against the gains of many people. For example, if I can ask 100 people how many books they have read on their own since leaving school, I bet only a few out of a 100 would say have read more than 10 books in a year.

Our culture is to celebrate and make a big party when one finishes his diploma or degree. We do that and I did that also. But you need to come to realization that all this qualifications are foundational. You are not done yet! You can’t celebrate and say “I am finished with studying”. Such thinking will never take you any higher than average. Therefore dedicate your life to learning and personal growth. The happiest people are only those who are growing every day. The only way to improve the quality of your life and your surroundings is to improve yourself. 

Having said all this you must add the fear of the Lord as the bible says “the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil” Ecclesiastes 12:13-14.

 ARISE AND SHINE!

Value time and manage it

Value time and manage it

One of the things that can crack your integrity as a person is your failure to value time. We only value time when we manage it properly. It is a known fact that time management issues are tough but to be successful and remain successful you must learn the techniques of time management.

Spending your time is not a metaphor.  This is true because life is all about time. Spending your time is spending your life. Spend your time well- it affects your legacy. If you think of your legacy, you are actually thinking about your life.  You can’t separate the three: Time- Life- Legacy. If you value your life it will be simple to value your time.

Value your time and manage it. Don’t live life going round in circles. Have priorities and get things done on time. Don’t wake up each morning not knowing how you are going to exchange your time. Your time is like an exchange rate of progress, the only difference is that time does not appreciate or depreciate in nature. All man has equal time and it holds equal weight! The smartest people value it and manage it well. That is how people ARISE AND SHINE!