ARTICLES ON DESTINY

DATE:  12 January 2003

SPEAKER:  Pastor Tayo Adeyemi

TITLE:  Pressing toward the mark - Part II

TEXT: Philippians 3:13-14

Last week, we considered three power principles for pursuing your vision.

1. Start from the end
   
2. Speak your vision
   
3. Release your passion
   

Today we will pick up from there and examine the next four power principles.

1. Be focused
   The devil will attempt to kill your vision by breaking your focus. In order to do this, he uses a weapon called distractions.
   
   Distraction is the enemy of Focus. Now distractions do not usually announce or introduce themselves. This is why you must learn to DISCERN them. To distract means to pull away from. A distraction is anything designed to get your attention off your focus.
   
   Any unscheduled intrusion is a distraction. Not everything around you is designed to help you Not everyone who comes your way was sent to help you.
   
   1 Corinthians 6:12, 10:23. When things come your way, you should not only ask "is it a sin?", you should also ask "will it help me to fulfil my vision?" not everything requires equal time, attention or energy from you.
   
   The devil uses distractions to break your focus because he recognises the power of focus. You can move any mountain if you are focused, You can burn any obstacle if you are focused.
   
   In physics, we learnt how to use a magnifying glass to focus the rays of the sun on a piece of paper until the paper catches fire - that is the force of focus. Focus is harnessing a lot of energy and concentrating it on one little spot. This is how the screwdriver works, this is how your kitchen knife works.
   
   In 1920, Stanford University did a study of 1440 genius level youngsters and followed them for the rest of their lives. When the man who started the study retired, they simply passed the work on to someone else. The study revealed two things Not all of them were outstanding successes in life. Those who succeeded did so, not because of their genius abilities or super intelligence, but because of their ability to focus on what was important and persist until the task at hand was finished.
   
   Niagara falls pumps 180million gallons of water per minute, at such an enormous force that the splashes reach as high as 30,000 feet. That is 6 miles in the air - visible from the window of an airplane. For thousands of years, all of that force just fell to the rocks below and dissipated. It totally went to waste until someone harnessed it into a tunnel and made it generate electricity. Today, towns have been built, businesses founded, thousands of children educated because the force of Niagara was focused.
   
   When you board an aircraft from any of the London airports - at take-off, your plane will be pointing in the direction of your destination. After 20 minute in the air, it will no longer be pointing in that direction Why? There will be several forces working on it to pull it off course - the wind, the gravitational pull of the earth, the moon and other planets. But notice that the pilot does not abort the flight, turn back and return to London. No. He keeps going - he just steers the plane in the direction he wants it to go. That's focus.
   
   Jesus was a man who was intensely focused He knew exactly why He was on this planet - John 4:34 Isaiah 50:7 Jesus was always clear in His mind where He was going.
   
   Whenever you are in motion, you must learn to look where you are going. If you're going north and you look west, you will end up northwest. Look where you are going Learn to filter through issues Not every money making venture is profitable for you Not every woman who likes you is supposed to be you wife.
   
   
2. Take action and be a finisher
   Your ability to take action is what empowers you to be a finisher Anybody can start anything. I can start a course in nuclear physics. I can start swimming across the Atlantic. I can start a boxing round with Mike Tyson. It is not that difficult to start.
   
   But people are not rewarded for starting - they are rewarded for finishing. That's why they don't pay you a salary until you have put in an entire month's work. Look at all the things you have started in life.
   
   Make up your mind this year that you will finish something……………………every day, every week, every month, every year Take action. Action produces results. Action is what separates a vision from a mere day dream James 2:26. Faith without corresponding action is dead.
   
   In order to ensure that you don't just start blindly, you must count the cost Luke 14:28-30. Do you have what it takes to finish? Count the cost, but don't count for long. Avoid the paralysis of analysis. Life is a risk. Ecclesiastes 11:4 - "if you wait for perfect conditons, you will never get anything done" - Living Bible
   
   
3. Check your progress
   Periodically ask yourself - "How well am I doing?" Be ruthlessly honest with yourself. Don't mistake activity for progress. Success is measurable progress in a reasonable amount of time. The question is not "How well have I done?" but "How well am I doing?" Know what you're getting by the action you're taking.
   
   Find out what's working and what's not. If your horse is dead, for goodness sake, dismount. Give yourself a monthly review - make records, gather statistics. Whatever cannot be measured cannot be changed. Luke 13:6 - If there are no figs on the tree, the tree has been lying to you If what you're doing is not working, it's time to make significant changes.
   
   
4. Be willing to change
   We don't make progress until we make changes. You can only accelerate your car if you change the gear Progress and change are inextricably linked. Not all change is progress, but there can be no progress until there is change. Today you are the result of the things you have thought, spoken and done yesterday. Tomorrow, you will be the result of what you did today.
   
   If you keep doing the same things today, you will remain the same tomorrow. If you wake up and go to bed at the same time, read the same kind of books, hang out with the same kind of people, watch the same TV programmes, chances are you will be the same next year. Why must you change? Because nothing ever remains the same.
   
   The kind of food we eat, the clothes we wear etc have changed over the years. Only God does not change. In 1 kings 17:1-10, God who had sent Elijah to the brook introduced a change of plan. God's principles do not change but his patterns do. If your current plan is not working, get a new plan.
   
   One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over: and expecting a different result each time. When change is necessary, a refusal to change becomes destructive. Your methods must serve your vision and not the other way round. Don't allow your methods to limit your vision. The biggest change occurs in your mind.

 
TO ORDER THIS MESSAGE ON AUDIO OR VIDEO TAPE, CALL 020 88 555 888 NOW