The true enemy of greatness is not the trial, but the false belief that we are incapable of overcoming them. Words are powerful and when you speak a curse over someone–even yourself–it will produce a harvest. It’s the same with a blessing. Your words of blessing and encouragement produce a harvest. Words penetrate our hearts and if we allow negative words to take root, the Word of God is the only thing that can break the curse.
The question is, what kind of harvest do you want to bring in?
You can take authority over the thoughts that the enemy has tried to plant in your mind. Take authority over the words that others have spoken that are trying to steal your potential!
Why Is It So Important to Reach Our Full Potential?
It’s a part of God’s plan! He expects us to use our giftings to grow. To use our abilities to honor Him!
Joshua 14:10-12 (NLT)
“Now, as you can see, the Lord has kept me alive and well as he promised for all these forty-five years since Moses made this promise—even while Israel wandered in the wilderness. Today I am eighty-five years old. I am as strong now as I was when Moses sent me on that journey, and I can still travel and fight as well as I could then. So give me the hill country that the Lord promised me. You will remember that as scouts we found the descendants of Anak living there in great, walled towns. But if the Lord is with me, I will drive them out of the land, just as the Lord said.”
We will not reach our full potential without God. God can’t do something new with an old thing. Joshua knew he could take the hill country, even though there were giants, because God was with him!
We have to change. We have to be transformed. We often say things like, “God use me, but don’t change me.” God has a bigger purpose for you than what you would have for yourself. And it is outside of yourself.
10 Principles to Maximize Your Potential
1. Choose a life of growth
We all have a choice in how we spend our lives. We first must choose to grow, or we will stay stuck in maintaining the status quo.
2 Peter 3:18 (NLT)
Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All glory to him, both now and forever! Amen.
Philippians 1:6 (NLT)
And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.
2. Start growing today
Ecclesiastes 9:10 (NKJV)
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going.
Never leave what you can do today for tomorrow. It is incredibly arrogant to think that we are entitled to tomorrow. None of us knows when Death will come for us. So if you can do good today, do it! If you can grow in an area, grow today!
“It’s not what you are going to do, but it’s what you are doing now that counts." - Napoleon Hill
"Man’s mind once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions." - Oliver Wendell Holmes
Growth today is an investment in the future.
3. Be Teachable
Proverbs 9:9 (NLT)
Instruct the wise,
and they will be even wiser.
Teach the righteous,
and they will learn even more.When you remain teachable, when you understand you have not finally arrived, then your potential is almost unlimited.
4. Focus on self-development, not self-fulfillment
Contrary to cultural belief, life is not about you. The greatest fulfilment comes from serving others, not from serving your own wants, desires, and whims. Self-fulfilment is not something we were designed to do. It was always about submitting to God so He can develop us.
5. Never stay satisfied with current accomplishments
The road to the next level is ALWAYS uphill. We have to continually be moving forward into all that God has for us!
6. Be a continual learner
"It’s been my observation that most successful people get ahead during the time other people waste." - Henry Ford
We have to carve out time for what is important to us. You make time.
7. Concentrate on a few major themes.
Focus on the few themes at the core of who you are. What does it mean for you to reach your personal potential. What has God put in you?
8. Develop a plan for growth.
All good things remain good ideas but don’t get moved into action unless we desire to make a plan. Without vision the people perish. You have to know where you want to go before you can get there. And then you have to apply it to get there.
9. Pay the Price.
You have to be willing to pay the price. Growth will always cost you something. It requires discipline. You have to die to your own wants and agenda in order to do what God has asked of you. Sometimes it’s a lonely place, because people don’t want to grow with you. But it’s always worth it.
John 24:12
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
It’s worth it because the alternative is a life of unmet potential.
10. Find a way to apply what you learned.
Personal development is an action. We have to take everything that we’ve learned and we have to actually apply it. If you walk this out, and apply it, then your life is changed.
What will you do with the time that God has given you to be on this earth? What will you accomplish for the Kingdom? How will you get to know Jesus better today so you can become more like Him? We all get the same 24 hours in a day. How will you spend them?
It’s never too late to be what you might have become.
