Success Series (II): The Success Journey

"While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease" Genesis 8;22

"Beloved, I wish above all things that thou may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers" 3 John 2.

We established the act that success is the discovery of God's goals for your life and the continuous achievement of same. Jeremiah 29:11 reveals: "For I know the thoughts I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

However, success is NOT a product of luck. Neither is it result of chance. Success results from deliberate acts. Luck and chance cannot be predicted but success in any endeavor of life is predictable. Those who look for success end up locked up in life. Success has to be deliberately prepared for. No one strolls into it by chance. Success is predictable because it responds to certain time tested and proven laws or principles. It's been said that the iron law of life is the law of cause and effect. This law is also called the law of sowing and reaping. it is whatever you sow that you are permitted to reap. Success therefore is an effect it can be caused.

When you sow the required seeds of action that guarantee success, you will surely reap success your environment or color notwithstanding. You don't expect success until you have taken certain calculated and spiritual steps.

The Journey of success begins from the INSIDE. It is never an instant event. It is a series of processes that terminates into a clearly defined and desired end. Success is first of all an inside job before it becomes an outward reality. "As in water face answereth to face, so the heart man to man" Proverbs 27:19. Who you are on the outside is but a reflection of who you are on the inside. it is not your circumstances that make you. It is just a manifestation of your inner reality. Who you can be on the outside is limited by who you really are on the inside. You cannot be a failure on the inside and suddenly manifest success on the outside. Amos 3:3 says that "Can two walk together except they be agreed?" So there must be a harmony between your inner conditioning and your outer realities. James Allen in As a man thinketh wrote: "You can't travel within and stand still on the outside." The journey of success begins from within...

TOOLS FOR TRANSFORMATION

• Change your thinking:"Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life" Proverb 4:23. Your thinking pattern is what sets limits on who you are. You are literally what you think. Until you change your thoughts you can't really change your life. How you think and what you choose to think on is what sets the pace of your life. When you keep thinking scarcity, lack, inferiority, poverty, sickness etc after a while you will attract all these into your life. But on the other side, if you keep thinking of health, abundance, overflow, success, fruitfulness, dynamic walk with the Lord etc. you will be amazed how effortless these will be attracted to your life. It is a law found in Proverbs 23:7- For as a man thinks in his heart so is he..." And as he continues to think, so he remains... If what you say in your prayers contradicts what you habitually thin about, then you cancel out the positive effect of your prayers. This is because: God does not only answer our words, he also answers our thoughts...Ephesians 3:20. There is a world of difference between Thinking of your desires and thinking from your desires. It is from the vantage position of being and not to be. Thinking from desires brings a feeling of accomplishments which in turn effect your behaviors (actions) and ultimately your results.
• Change your image:"And there we saw 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 13:33. When it comes to success Image s everything. It is the image you hols constantly in your mind that you will be transformed to. If you hold a victim's image, you end up as one. But if you hold that of an overcomer, you certainly end up as one. The picture of yourself otherwise called Self Image, is what determines how you manifest and who you become ultimately. The ten spies on their return from spying the land of Canaan, saw themselves as grasshoppers before the giants in the land of promise because grasshoppers don't eat grapes. They were not far from Canaan but their grasshopper's mentality which proceeded from a victim's self image held them down in the wilderness. They and their children were wasted in that wilderness because of their victim's image. What image do you hold of yourself today? A victim or a victor? It's time time to check your image because you cannot rise beyond the limits of yourself image. This is the basis of true and lasting transformation. The scripture is designed to help us form positive pictures on the screen of our minds as we meditate therein day and night. Remember when you look down on yourself nobody can look up to you. How you see yourself determines how others will see you. Visualize a healthy and prosperous image of yourself and sooner than later the outside will correspond to the inner realities of your pictures. You will succeed!

Teachings of Rev Duro Aina of The Conquerors' Assembly