TARGET SUCCESS IN KINGDOM LIVING (Episode 17)

1) God encourages us to write (and read) out His desires, goals –

- Ex. 34:7 – Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write out these words, for according to the tenor of these words, I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.

- Pro. 7:1-3 – My son, keep my words, and treasure my commands within you. Keep my commands and live, and my law as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your hearts.

- Pro. 22:17-21 – Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise

 Apply your heart to knowledge of what you’ve heard

 Let them all be fixed upon your lips! For it is pleasant to keep them within you.

 Experience their truth: trust in the Lord and in His instructions

 Have I not written to you of excellent things of counsels and knowledge that I may make you know the certainty of the words of truth that you may answer words of truth to those who send to you.

- Hab. 2:2-3 – write out the vision; it is for an appointed time

- Heb. 10:32-33, 35-39 – We will experience opposition; His words written on our hearts and re-reading what He has had written will help us stay confident in His Word as we apply them.

o You have need of endurance, meaning patience –

o Spirit-filled Bible’s Word Wealth defines ‘endurance’ as “the capacity to continue to bear up under difficult circumstances, not with passive complacency but with a hopeful fortitude that actively resists weariness and defeat.”

2) Write out what God has put in your heart to pray for:

- List the dreams and goals you hold in your heart.

- Ask for God’s priorities as they apply to your list and adjust them accordingly as He speaks counsel.

- Believe these things are His purpose and promise for you.

- Partner with Him in faith as He begins to show you how to walk/implement the steps needed.

3) Faith and Fact – Doers, not just hearers – James 1:22 – Be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

- Not all of God’s promises will automatically self-fulfill themselves.

- Many need us to appropriate them (make them our own) by:

o Praying and applying them to our circumstances.

o Overcoming any resistance, you encounter (trials, tests, temptations) by faith in His Word and in Who God is.

4) Search out promises in Scripture

- That speaks to each dream or goal.

- If there is no scriptural basis to stand on, drop that one from your list.

5) Seek His face in prayer regularly on these matters

- Ask Him to open your eyes to opportunities where needed.

o Jonah saw the opportunity in the Spirit of speaking repentance to the nation of Nineveh

- Ask Him for revelation and/or kingdom perspective.

o Jonah saw God’s heart of mercy yet needed to have his hatred of the people to be soften with God’s compassion before he could carry out this God-given goal.

- Target victory by waging a good warfare with His Word.

o This will keep you stable when times of trial and testing come.

 Jonah waited to see what God would do. He’s not the prime example in Scripture for carrying out God-dreams/goals, but a realistic one because we also will experience times of a battle within ourselves to overcome our ‘attitudes’ towards those the Lord sends us to.

 A friend who ministers to the homeless first had to think of them in a different way than initially avoiding them as they begged on street corners.

 “Into the Fire” - the wife of authors had to have her heart softened to be brave enough to minister among the Arab people they lived among before bringing God’s word of life to them.

 A Missionary prayed and prepared for field for 39 years while awaiting God’s timing.

In Closing: Hab. 2:3 – For the vision is yet for an appointed time…. wait for it, because it will surely come. It will not tarry.

Gal. 4:1-2 – the heir (that’s you), as long as he is a child… (and) under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father…

Heb. 10:16 – For you have need of endurance (patience), so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.