Transcription
Today's message is titled "Great Achievements Don't Happen by Chance." Great achievements don't happen by chance. Daniel 11:32b. Daniel 11:32b. Living Bible says, "But the people who know their God shall be strong and do great things." For the people who know their God shall be strong and do great things.
Great things and achievement is something very good and difficult that you have succeeded in doing. There must be at least some measure, some line of measure, to determine what can be qualified by a reasonable standard as an achievement. Because, uh, there are also many things that people could consider an achievement in their own personal assessment that cannot be accepted in serious quarters. So, an achievement is something very good and difficult that you have succeeded in doing. An extraordinary achievement is something beyond what is ordinary or usual. Something beyond what is ordinary or usual. Extraordinary achievements are rare, and they are something that is not done, something not done by everyone. Something not done by everyone. And one of the reasons why it is not done by everyone is that there is usually a process. Sometimes there's some difficult aspect of the process, and that is why not everyone ever attains it.
And that brings us to the Divine Destiny and potentials of a person. The Divine Destiny and potentials of a person. The Divine Destinies and potentials of a person consist of what the person is capable of doing, what the person is capable of achieving, and what the person is capable of becoming. So, your own Divine Destiny and your personal potentials, your potentials in life, consist of what you are capable of doing in your lifetime, consist of what you are capable of achieving in your lifetime. Some of them exclusively as a person, but most of them too collectively with other people. But it will also be credited to you as one of your major achievements in life. And then, of course, it also includes what you are capable of becoming. What you are capable of becoming.
One notable life lesson is that most people do not attain their optimum potential in life. Most people do not. And that is the essence of messages like this, to enable us reflect on the mistakes that others have made and then learn from it and take proactive steps to ensure we are doing the right thing and we are also prepared for opportunities that are coming. So, at the end of the day, we would have made the best within the space of our lifetime. So, a lot of people eventually do not attain their peak potentials in life at the end of their journey in life. So many will discover that so many men and women end up not achieving great things in their lifetime. And this is because they do not, some of them do not even believe, did not believe they could have achieved such things. And that is part of the assignment of the church to work on your mindset, to renew your mind, to understand the enormous potential you carry as a son, as a daughter of the Most High. Your greatness in life has nothing to do with the limits of your family background. In fact, sometimes Providence could intentionally bring you into this world from a most modest background, and God has done it for many in that fashion. So many could not attain their great potentials because they did not even believe that they could achieve great things. And some could not achieve great things because they did not aspire. They did not aspire to achieve such great things. We have even seen people stop their education at the secondary school level, some of the best students in high school, and there was no plan to take it further to the university level. So, some did not attain their potentials because they did not aspire to achieve some great things which they actually had the potential to achieve. They had the potential to achieve.
So, you see that at the end of the journey of life, many did not achieve as much as they had the potential to achieve. Many did not become all that they actually had the potential to become. And many did not also achieve as much as God had destined and endowed them to achieve. I say to you once again this morning that great achievements don't happen by accident. You have to be intentional. You have to be prepared. And there are some great achievements in life that take a process. It takes a process. And that process is going to take some time. And even with the favor of God, God will still take you through that process.
One of the mistakes that believers make, and we see it with millions of believers, Christians all over the globe, over time, they never see their dreams and destinies become a reality because a lot of times they are just expecting such dreams, such destinies to just happen. They're just expecting it to happen and become a reality without taking the necessary, the necessary steps required to bring those things to pass. Required to bring those things to pass. A lot of Christians don't realize that most revelations from God, either by dreams or by prophecies, reveal what is supposed, supposed to happen, what is supposed to happen, and not necessarily what is bound to happen. The things that are bound to happen are those covered and confirmed under the irreversible will of God. And from our study over recent years, we could say confidently that those things statistically should just be less than 5%. There are things that have 99% probability of fulfillment, but it's still not absolutely bound to happen. So, God would usually give you a revelation or prophecy of something you are supposed to have, something you are supposed to achieve, or something you are supposed to become. God will also give you a revelation or prophecy of something that is supposed to happen. However, it is your responsibility to take every necessary step that is required to bring them to pass. It is your responsibility.
Great achievements don't happen by accident. In Daniel 11:32b, Living Bible said, "But the people who know their God," and I'm speaking to many of them right now, "the people who know their God shall be strong and do great things." In your lifetime, you will do great things. You will do great things in your spiritual life and in other realms of your life, in the name of Jesus. Great exploits don't happen by accident. It's not by chance. And I would always make reference to three key lessons you draw from that very, very, very resourceful book, "The Bible Code." And those three major lessons, very essential in our journey of life.
The first lesson is that many things that can be achieved in life will initially appear to be impossible. Many things that can be achieved in life will initially appear to be impossible. Initially, initially, your dream will come to pass. That dream will come to pass. That prophecy will come to pass. Things like electricity, the airplane. And when these things were being conceived, it was ridiculed, even by experts of that time. It was ridiculed by experts of that time.
The second lesson from that book, "The Bible Code," is that to achieve some great things in life, you would certainly have to take the personal initiative. You, you will have to take the personal initiative towards making them happen. You have to take the personal initiative towards making them happen. Making them happen.
Number three, it tells, and the third major lesson from "The Bible Code" is that certain major achievements that people have the potential to achieve would only come to pass if they will be determined and persistent. Determined and persistent in the attempt to achieve it. And if I want to personalize this for you, it implies that certain major achievements that you have the potential to achieve would only come to pass if you will be determined, if you will be persistent in your attempt to achieve it.
And that brings us to the people that make things happen. If you are also going to achieve great things in life, you have to be among the people who make things happen. The people who make things happen. Achieving great things in life involves ambition, ambition, ambition. Achieving great things in life also involves effective efforts, effective efforts. And then achieving great things in life involves persistence, persistence, persistence. In order to achieve great things, you first have to strongly desire it. Have to desire not just anything. You have to desire that high quality desire, that world-class standard. You have to desire that global record and seek to break the record. Then you have to find out how best to achieve it. May the Most High God give you winning wisdom. And then with a strategy, plan on how to achieve it. You have to diligently implement. You have to diligently implement the plan and not give up because there will often be challenges. There will often be challenges. Great achievements don't happen by accident. It doesn't happen by chance.
So, in achieving them, I leave you with these steps. Step one: Dream big and aspire for great things. Dream big and aspire for great things. The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. It started as a dream. Started as a dream. Dream big. Aspire for great things. The height of your achievement is determined by the extent of your dreams. The height of your achievement is determined by the extent of your dreams. Ambition is at the very core of uncommon success. An extraordinary achievement. Getting what you really want out of life involves ambition. In Proverbs 22:29, Proverbs 22:29, New King James Version, said, "Do you see a man who excels in his work? A man who excels in his work? He will stand before Kings." You'll be patronized by great people. He will not stand before unknown men. That may be your starting point, but as you continue to distinguish yourself, your products, your services, your performance, at a point you have a major break, and from that time you are discovered. You are discovered. Notable people, the great, the mighty will begin to reach out to you. The word "excel" means to do something far above average. Far above average. Aspire for excellence. Aspire for excellence. Excellence is something that surpasses ordinary standards. Aspire for excellence.
Step number two: You must be intentional in turning your dream to reality. You must be intentional in turning your dream to reality. Always remember that most great achievers were not particularly exceptional when they were born. In fact, some of them up to high school, up to university. But somewhere along the line, the break came. They became, so they became great achievers by dreaming big, working hard, taking risks, taking risk, and believing in themselves. And then they achieved great things. You have to be intentional in that. Daniel 11:32b, New King James Version, he said, "But the people that do know their God shall be strong and they shall carry out, carry out, carry out." We are not talking of inheritance now. You have to carry out certain things by yourself in your own time. They have to, they carry out great exploits. So, exploits don't happen by accident. They happen as a result of the deliberate actions of men. Deliberate actions. You must take the initiative. You must take the initiative to make them happen in your lifetime. Praise ye the Lord.
So, let's always have this in mind. And that brings us to the law of action. We are still under step two, the law of action. The law of action dictates that you have to take action towards your desires if you want them to happen physically. We have heard all kinds of things, the law of attraction, law of visualization, all of those things. If you don't take it to the point of action, you are still in the, in the, in the cycle of, of fantasy. So, the law of action dictates that you have to take action towards your desires if you want them to happen physically. And I know you want them to happen. This law further states that you must take certain effective, effective, and necessary actions in order to achieve whatever you want to achieve. You may visualize them, but if you are not taking decisive action towards your goal, nothing will happen. And still under this point, don't leave anything to chance. Don't leave anything to chance. That's the whole essence of the message. Don't sit and just wait that someday it will happen. No. Don't leave anything to chance. Nothing great or outstanding happens by accident. Every result is as a result of some actions, intentional actions. And most times, you may not see these actions, but show me any great achiever, and he has a story to tell. So, what should you do? Stop waiting for things to just happen.
And the step three. Step three: You need to be determined and persistent to achieve great things. You need to be determined and persistent to achieve great things. We've always reminded us that God, even the promises of God assuring us of success in a particular thing, is not always accomplished at the first or even second attempt. Proverbs 21:8, Proverbs 21:18, Living Bible says, "The wicked will finally lose, the righteous will finally win." Our Lord Jesus Christ came, and he also confirmed this principle of life in Luke 18:1-7. For many things, you will need to achieve, and you are going to achieve it. However, it will take persistence. It will take repeated attempts. And what was he saying from Luke 18? Don't give up. Don't give up. Don't be discouraged. Don't give up. So, there's often the need for persistence. There's often the need for repeated attempts. Repeated attempts. You must have a dogged spirit. You must have a determined spirit.
Leave you with four action points. Action point number one: To achieve great things, you must aspire for great things. In fact, if you don't aspire for something that is substantial, certain levels of people will not even bother to team up with you because what you are pursuing is too small. It's too small for them to want to buy into it. So, to achieve great things, you must aspire for great things.
Number two: Action point number two. To achieve great things, you must find a realistic strategy to achieve it. You must find a realistic strategy to achieve it within a specific timeline. Within a specific timeline. And when you are strategizing, please, one area that is very critical is how to generate the resources that will be required. How to generate the resources that will be required. The resources that are required to achieve the goal within a given timeline, within a given timeline, is very, very important.
Action point number three. Action point number three. To achieve great things, you must diligently, diligently implement. You must diligently implement every detail, every detail of the strategy and project plan. Every detail of the strategy and project plan. Sometimes God is the one that will give you direction, and you must pay the price. Pay the price. Pay the price. If you are serious, you will spend money. If you are really serious, you will spend money for certain things to eventually come to pass. You will spend money. You must invest the required resources, the required time, the required attention to get it. You must invest it if that thing is going to be achieved. That thing is going to be achieved.
And the last one. Action point number four. To achieve great things, you must consistently evaluate the effectiveness of the approach you are using. And that must happen every December. December is a time to review, review everything. Evaluate the effectiveness of the approach you are using and be ready to change whatever is not effective when necessary.