into action to take Dominion and hold It there forever. Then stand by It, unyielding, until the outpicturing of that great Perfection is there forever. It is within your ability, within every one of you, to do it! - I am discourses
This is probably one of the most beautiful and inspiring phrase that I read this morning! A few key words strike my mind and it connects me to several bible verses that I like to share :
Limitation is basically defined as a limiting condition; restrictive weakness; lack of capacity; inability or handicap. So if someone who lacks a degree may think that the paper qualification is his limitation to get a better job. Or someone who wants to make a million dollars may look at his current bank account, reflecting a paltry sum as limitation to do big things. Whatever it is, most of us tend to use this external limitations as the excuse/reasons for our failure in life.
Mark 6.34-44 aptly describe the scene when Jesus asked his disciples to provide food for the 5000 crowd that had come to hear him speak. The disciples, in disbelief answered Jesus that to buy bread for such a big group would costs them half a year wages (6.37) and discovered they had merely 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish left, barely enough for themselves less to feed the 5000 crowd. They see the limitations of what their sight provided them; the remaining 5 loaves and 2 fish while Jesus believe otherwise. There were surplus left for the disciples to take away thereafter. (6.43).
The limitations could be a mistake on the human end, as in lacking ability to make the desired income or provide a better quality of life for the family. The head of the family may want to but lack the knowledge and awareness of accessing the latent power within him, yet constantly searching answers on the outside in vain.
So he become discouraged at work, spending time complaining and criticise anyone who try to contribute or say something positive , afraid that what he say might come to pass. Are we willing to live a life of mediocrity or believe we are the Light and it is up to us to make that decision and conquer the world?
Law of Forgiveness :
Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” Hebrews 10.17.
Who remembers our mistakes? It is we find it difficult to forgive ourselves for the mistakes we made even if it had happened many years ago. We blamed ourselves for making it and had the misconceive it is the cause of our today's dire situations (limitations we are in). Since we are not able to forgive and forget, we cannot cross over this mind block and when good things, opportunities come, we subconsciously remember our mistakes and in shame/guilt and other mixed emotions, we persuade ourselves moving forward to do the right thing is wrong. Yet, ironically, we read so often in the Bible and understand intellectually that God has forgiven us, his blood washed us clean and all but still...................
The person that we find hardest to forgive is not others but our very own self. After all, if the other person is not living in close proximity, over time, you might forget about that person. But if it is ourselves, we see our image daily in the mirror, we live in the same body day in night out. Is there any escape?
Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,Acts 3.19
Unless we change our attitude drastically and amend our ways by forgiving ourselves, we cannot receive the salvation of God (his good wishes -prosperity, abundance, peace, love,etc). Until we have turn the bad into good, evil into positive thoughts, hatred to love and courageous act from fear, we will continue to live in a life of darkness shrouded by doubts, anxiety and without peace.
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?"Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. Matthew 18. 21-22
This forgiveness duration may differ from individual to individual. Some took a much longer time while others could liberate and forgive themselves and others much quicker. For me, it took me more than 2 years to forget and forgive a past relationship I had. It is not easy but a necessary stage of life that we must all go through.
Stand by it, unyielding - This is a very powerful word. Unyielding must not to give in nor give up until your goal is accomplished (out picturing of the great perfection). The there (future) we want is here (in our mind's eye) and it is in our ability to bring forth the imagination to the level where we can picture ourselves living the kind of person we want to be. For example, when you win the lottery of $1m, what would you do? Who would you call first to announce? What's the first word that would come out from your mouth when you see the winning numbers matching your ticket?
Walk by faith, not by sight 2 Corinthians 5.7 - for if we walk by sight (like most people do) we would then be checking our bank account for the $1m, the house or car that is yet to appear in the car park lot, etc. We allow our physical senses of see, hear, touch and smell to dictate our feelings that it is not real. It was nothing but a wishful thought and conveniently we forget about it.
When we walk by faith, we know for certainty that the gift of the $1m has arrived not arriving , will be coming as the latter means a gap, separating now and then, here and there. This gap would tear us apart by proving daily, constantly the lack of evidence and persuade us it is not possible, not real, not happening, whatever.
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.Mark 11.24
God did not say you will be receiving it, as in sometime in the future or depends on your good behaviour ,etc. We must believe that it is already here in our possession and proceed to intensify our "having that gift" emotions to the fullest, making the sensations of owning the gift so wild and crazy as if it is real. It is real until the out picturing of the perfection is there forever. Today, we might pray earnestly but when tomorrow comes , doubt might set in and we fail to give it a 100% enthusiastic approach towards our prayers, half believing it might not come. The prayer turns weak day after day or like a roller coaster, some day high and other day low.
So how does one increase faith? Think about it for a second. If you are good in something, say swimming and have taken part in school competition and all, you would be confident to say you are a good swimmer. Your trophies, friends that know you always think and say you are good in swimming seal the gap that make you aware you are a good swimmer. The more you practise, the more good stuff you hear, the more positive experiences you received and that become a strong anchor towards your belief and increase your faith.
But what if you had no prior experience nor trophies nor people saying you are good, sort of thing? Does that mean your goal cannot be achieved ? I believe strongly reading the words of God , meditate on it is a good start. But reading and understand what it says is just pure head knowledge. We need to act on it for the words to become live.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it--not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it--they will be blessed in what they do.
James 1.23-26
The Law of Repetition or affirmation if you like is crucial here. The same verse if meditate on it and apply in different situations will yield different results. That is the power in his words. The world out there will teach you to "act as if " , to carry the part like you want to be. So if you want to be rich, like having a $1m , then you need to dress up, drive that car, etc. The irony is because you lack the money to buy all these material things and that is why you want the money, so how could you then dress the part, drive the part or eat the part for that matter. Others may have results but I beg to differ and I think God's way is usually simple yet effective. He will not give us more stress than we can handle like borrowing money from others just to rent the car or borrow the suit ,etc. It just come across as phony , fake.
The "acting part" that the Bible is referring to is within the mind and not the "fake it till you make it" on the outer as many think it to be. The mind is the most powerful thing that we humans have that no other creatures on earth can match up to. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. John 1.3.
Stay with me and see if I make sense here. Aren't the things we see in our world were first made in our mind or imagined? Whatever we can conceive, we can achieve, yes? It's all in the mind as people would say to each other. And because it is in the mind, the invisible part of our visual world, it kind of become mysterious, hazy and uncertain, making success attempts seems elusive and some say depend on your stroke of luck. This cannot be further from the truth.
Diligent practice, day after day, night after night, like the swordsman who spend hours honing his skills up in the mountain, we too must not rest on our laurels and take refuge in short cuts and man-made promises to get us to where we want. God has a blueprint already for us, one that guaranteed to work. But we are the operant power and it has to be done only by the individual himself or herself. Nobody can outsource this piece of work to anyone.
We are more than conquerors in our own journey. Hit it with your best shot!!!