The
world around us is becoming complex and competitive such that your level of
relevance and longevity will be a product of your growth, and development and
how much you are armed with relevant information.
The
price you pay for remaining where you are and maintaining the statusquo is too
expensive.
In
order to last in your chosen field and operation, you must develop because if
you don’t, you would merely be existing with no relevance, and overtime, it
goes to affect your system.
Besides,
developing yourself may start with you but it must not end with you. No matter
how much you develop, if you are not making effort to develop the key people
around you, you will be swallowed up and will never walk straight but bent; for
you cannot grow above the level to which the people you are walking/working
with are developed and enlightened.
Jesus,
our role model was relevant all round because He developed all round. There was
no situation that saw Him handicapped or took Him unawares. He was fully
informed and aware.
The
early church was like that also. Their gathering was not just for mere
gathering. Whatever they did had relevance and came to bear in their day to day
life, in their environment and in their community.
Nevertheless,
you must know the order.
3 John 2 says, “Beloved,
I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health even as thy
soul prospereth.” It is an all round development, from the spirit, the soul
and to the body. (See also 1 Thess. 5:23, 1 Tim.4:8)
In
1 Corinthians
6:19-20, Paul speaking, was also showing us the order there by
making us to know that if bodily exercise profits a little, that means
spiritual exercise profits more. Do not just
concentrate on the spiritual ignoring the bodily exercise. Paul was simply
showing us the order and the priority.
HINDRANCES TO DEVELOPMENT
Environment- A lot of times, because of the
environment we find ourselves, we adjust and allow it to influence the way we
operate. You must look beyond your environment. Even God understood this when
He told Abraham in Genesis 13:14, to “lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place thou art…”
Besides, God may have even brought you into the land as an instrument for
change. So you must maintain and upgrade your standard in spite of what happens
there.
Background – Where and how we grew acts as a
hindrance to our development.
Experiences – It could be someone else’s or yours.
Culture – Our beliefs and practices.
Company – Your Company (i.e. those you hang around
with) is like your world, so you have to watch it.
WHAT DO I DO AND WHERE DO
I START?
Be
flexible – That is, be willing to learn and change. Be able to come to the
point whereby you can say, “All I know is not all I need to know.” David never
knew his being with the sheep would one day aid him in killing Goliath and
ruling over God’s people.
Be
open for correction, exposure and adventures.
Where
are you? And what’s relevant to where you are now? And how is it relevant to
where you are going?
YOU
NEED THIS
“GETTING
A PUSH”
Life can be compared to the
game of football. That round leather only responds to ‘taps’ and ‘kicks’. When you
stop tapping and kicking, it stops rolling. And of course, when it stops
rolling, it can never reach the goal – the net.
Everybody needs someone to
tap and kick him now and then. Without this, one may become complacent and
unable to progress.
Experience teaches that those
who provoke you end up promoting you.
To realize your destiny, put
yourself under an environment that is highly provocative. Submit to someone who
can trouble you out of your tranquil state.
