The Fruit of the Spirit 02: Bad Habits

When we start talking on the fruit of the Spirit in a church service, nearly always afterwards someone comes to me and says they have a really bad habit that they cannot kick. The problem is not necessarily how bad the habit is, but how hard it is for them to kick it. It’s the sense of never being able to be free, not being able to conquer a habit that paralyses them.

So, let’s talk about that. If you are sitting here and saying hey – I have a habit I cannot break, it’s a bad habit, but worse than that it is stubborn, I keep going back to it over and over, then today I have some good news for you. You might think you cannot conquer this, but you can. You have supernatural resources in the spirit realm you are not yet embracing or using. You need to start believing that you are a new creation, you are reborn, you have a brand new spiritual identity full of love, peace and joy.

You have been focusing on how weak your flesh is, rather than meditating on your strong spirit. You need to stop being in the natural, and start living in the spirit. You are trying to battle a habit in the flesh, but you won’t win that way, you need to start living in the spirit.

People who try and resist their sinful, selfish, stubborn habits in the flesh end up in a cycle of failing and feeling condemned. You will end up like Paul did in Romans 7:

18 And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[d] I want to do what is right, but I can’t. 19 I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. 20 But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

21 I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22 I love God’s law with all my heart. 23 But there is another power[e] within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. 24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

We do not want to live in Romans 7! We need to get out of there and start living in Romans 8.

8 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the power[a] of the life-giving Spirit has freed you[b] from the power of sin that leads to death. 3 The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature.[c] So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. 4 He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.

If you belong to Christ Jesus, you need to remind yourself of that, tell yourself that, remind yourself of that. The law, you struggling, none of it can ever lift you out of a habit, but when you start realizing that you are a new creation, that you are in Christ, that He has already won the victory for you, then you start to automatically walk above that habit.

Jesus has already set you free from any habit you are tied to, and you do not have to yield to it at all. Sin is no longer in your spirit, you are a new creation. You are no longer under the law of sin and death. You are under the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The life-giving Spirit has set us free. Meditate on that, declare that, and watch the chains of that habit set you free!

The Fruit of the Spirit 01: You Already Got Fruit

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law (Galatians 5.222-23 NKJV)

If we are going to discuss the fruit of the Spirit, you need to know two simple truths about the fruit of the Spirit that are foundational truths.

  1. You already have the fruit of the Spirit inside your spirit once you are born again.
  2. They will not just flow out of you by accident, you have to realize they are yours and learn how to live from them.

Really, the fruit of the spirit are just the outworking of God’s nature inside you – you have the nature of God inside you the moment you got born again. The fruit of the spirit are not a list of things you do, it is what you are – it’s the nature of God inside you.

Our job is outlined in Romans 8.4-5.

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

The first named fruit of the spirit is love, and we know God is love, so the fruit are a reflection of God and His spirit. Your spirit has the fruit of love because it is recreated in the image and likeness of God. Read through the whole list – it’s all the attributes of God.

All the fruit of the spirit are found in God – they are His nature, and now we have been re-created in His image and likeness, they are our nature too! We are the fruit!

But, sadly, being of the nature of the fruit, does not mean that they just flow out of your spirit with no effort, you need to think, meditate, consider and develop your understanding of the fruit so you can grow in them and live in them. Your spirit was miraculously transformed into the image and likeness of God the day you were born again, but your flesh was not. It did not change at all when you were saved, it has the same sinful, selfish attitudes.

These attitudes – and habits – do not reflect our new nature, but we are still influenced by them until we renew our mind. Let your mind renewal start with this truth – I have the fruit of the spirit in me – my spirit is love, my spirit is joy, and so on.

We are no longer spiritually dead, we are spiritually alive, and our living spirit in the core of our being – is love and joy and peace. We no longer come short of the glory of God – the whole glory of God is inside us.

When Adam sinned all that glory inside him died, his spirit disconnected from God – he lost all the fruit. He stumbled around in darkness, he could only be moved by his senses, sin dominated him, satan dominated him. The life inside him was now death.

Adam had a pathetic and totally ridiculous life after he sinned. Compared to God’s plan for his life, his life after his sin and disobedience was exceptionally low. And that’s the life all non-Christians are living, and sadly, it’s the life most Christians are living because they do not know how to live from the life inside them.

We have been born again, born of the spirit, and our brand new spirit is perfect, full of all the fruit – we have a whole new life open up to us, a life of love and joy and peace. We are a unique creation, a supernatural, living, righteous, fruitful spirit living in a natural body.

We are children of God, our nature is His nature, but we are walking around in earthsuits made of a very unspiritual flesh. That’s why the Christian life is a challenge. Your flesh wants to do bad things, sinful things, and your spirit wants to do what God wants. Your flesh is pulling one way, and your spirit is pulling the other. You are caught in a tug of war between your divided parts.

How do we ensure the spirit wins? Let me firstly give you a piece of advice on what not to do – ever! Not by will power – not by sucking it up and pushing and trying and using our own strength. That’s what people under law had to do, and it never worked. It never works today.

You do not have the strength to deal with your flesh in your soul. You cannot do it. You have to yield to your spirit, let your spirit dominate and then you will stop walking in the flesh.

Paul told the Galatians “Walk in the spirit, and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh” (Galatians 5.16). He goes on to say that if we walk in the Spirit, we are not under law. That’s vital knowledge – we are not handling our flesh by law, but by walking in the spirit.

Stop focusing on the laws, all the bad things you know fine well you should not be doing. But start walking in the spirit – worship God, pray in tongues, feed on the Word, yield to that new life inside you – and you will find out you obey the law automatically, but more than that, you live and manifest the fruit of the spirit everywhere you go.

As you walk in the spirit, yield to your spirit, get doing the dos, then your flesh will just yield and come in line. It really is this simple. You start acting like your Father and that’s a good thing.

I’ll tell you some more advice next week!

Secrets of Success 5: Live Above Offence

I’m going to finish our secrets of success series today by giving you one of the most important secrets to win in life and finish strong, and that is you need to get to the place where it is very difficult indeed, if not impossible, to offend you. You need to be swift to forgive.

Now, some people try and live life avoiding offenses, and you can’t, not completely – Jesus Himself said “it is impossible that no offenses should come” (Luke 17.1). So if the Word says it is impossible, it is impossible, The Bible rarely refers to situations as impossible, but apparently living on earth and not having an offense come your way is one of those situations.

Jesus had many opportunities to be offended, but He didn’t take any of them. That is our example and our goal. Jesus was constantly being interrogated, played games with, excluded, lied about – all of it was a temptation to get offended, but Jesus lived above temptation. Jesus was born in a manager because people would not move out of His way and honour Him as a king. Jesus never had any self-pity or offense because of this, He just moved on and went and did what God wanted Him to do! People who should have known better ignored Him and did not help Him, but He just kept going.

That is part and parcel of success in life. You have to be confident in who you are and God’s grace and give little weight to others’ opinions and then still love them and bless them!

People who get offended press pause in their life until they forgive. They do not advance. So, the quicker you can forgive, the more you will accomplish in your lifetime, it really is that simple. Unforgiveness is a waste of time, energy and destiny.

Now, the key to avoiding offense is the same key as many victories in the kingdom – it is this: just because I feel offended does not mean I am. We live by faith not feelings. If you receive it – you are.

So someone does something offensive, they overlook you, they insult you, they take advantage of you, they did something – and you feel offended. That’s step one. Now, the truth is we all have those feelings, they are the temptation to get offended, they do not mean you are offended.

Then you have to make a choice, shall I submit to those feelings and be offended, or shall I live superior to offense and rise above it?

Feeling offended is like someone giving you a glass of poison – choosing to be offended is grabbing that glass and drinking it all. It’s your choice – but understand the poison will only hurt you, not the other person, it will only put your life on hold until you stop drinking the poison!

This is a massive key to your success in life, it cannot be overstated. We are supposed to overlooking offenses, but most Christians are looking over their offenses, even looking for new ones. I had someone recently tell me they re-listened to one of my sermons to find out what I had said wrong and to get angry about it. That’s looking for offenses, not looking over offenses.

The Greek word for offense is skandalon, which is the word for the bait in a trap. It’s not the trap, it’s the cheese. Offense is not a trap, it’s the bait – but if you go for the bait and yield to your feelings of offense, you will be trapped. You will not be able to walk in your destiny. You will be pressing pause on your destiny. The offense will act like poison, it will paralyse you, dull you, change your emotions, lower your inhibitions and you will start to decide that you have a right, an entitlement to that offense, and you will hold onto it.

But the truth is the offense will do nothing but harm you. It is impossible that no offenses should come – it is unavoidable that you can live in this world and someone will not do something to make you feel offended. The tragedy is we live in a culture where people are hunting for reasons to be offended. It takes a lot of effort to get offended by a decade-old tweet, you have to really look for it. But that’s the culture we live in – people get offended by race issues, sexuality issues, political issues, financial issues. People are offended a preacher owns a nice car. People are offended that a criminal goes to jail. People are offended by things that are crazy. People are offended that they cannot use the ladies’ bathroom when they are a man!

People are often offended by authority (look at the “defund the police” movement, it’s entirely built on offense) so be careful around authority to acknowledge they are the authority. It will make it easier not to get offended. Several people offended at me are offended because I am in charge of Tree of Life and they are not – and if they had just realized that, they might have been able to deal with that offense. I had a temptation to be offended at another ministry recently, but I reminded myself it’s none of my business what they do and I am not in charge, and it was easier to resist drinking the poison.

Another attitude that will open you up to being offended is if you are constantly interfering. It amazes me that someone will just go on someone else’s Facebook and just insult them, correct them, try and get them to do or think something different. You need an attitude that says most of most things are none of your business. You should not have a sphere of concern that is larger than your sphere of influence. That truth alone will save you! I have also found that getting offended when you hear someone else’s story is dangerous – you are only hearing one side of the story, and you do not know what the other side is.

Negative people are more likely to get offended. If you are constantly thinking the worst, you will get offended. But if you think the best, and give people the benefit of the doubt, you will find it easier to resist offence. Dave Duell said to me once after a situation came about when someone was exceptionally rude to him, “Ben, they are only acting on what they think they know, don’t hold it against them!”. I have found that has helped me not get offended on more than one occasion.

Finally, offence happens when people don’t meet our unspoken expectations. People were offended at Jesus for not challenging the Romans, John the Baptist was tempted to be offended for being in jail while Jesus kept ministering. People expect you to do something and you don’t do it, they get offended and you have no idea how or why. Just don’t have expectations of people and you will not be offended. Don’t get offended if someone is blessed and you felt it should have been you! You are like a child who expected mum to buy them a bar of chocolate, but mum didn’t know, no one knew, and yet the child still tantrums.

Secrets of Success 4: Obedience

Christian success starts when your will, your desires, what you want clashes with what you know God wants and you choose to do what God wants.

There is no example of this more powerful than in the night before the crucifixion where Jesus prays “Not my will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22.42). That’s the master key to success. You have to deny your flesh, deny your selfish desire for comfort and ego, and do what the Father wants.

There are many instructions in the Word of God, and you will in your life receive many instructions from the Spirit that will contradict what you fancy doing. and unless you learn to do His will not yours, you will never live a life of success, not to the level God wants you to!

Aren’t you glad Jesus successfully redeemed us by doing the Father’s will not His own? What an example for us. There will be many people glad you chose to obey God as well!

It all comes down to one question. Is Jesus your Lord or not? If He is, do what He says. That’s what it means to have a Lord – to have a source of authority that says what to do and you listen and obey. The question underlying that question is this – do you think the Lord is wiser than you, or do you trust yourself more than Jesus?

Right now the news is getting dark in the UK, the economy is in a bad place, there are moral failings everywhere we look, and much more. But here is the question – is Jesus Lord? Is He capable of leading you into victory, success and increase even when the world gets darker? Do you think God has experience leading His people even when their nation abandons Him? God has not run out of His ability to lead you into success, no matter what is going on around you! Some may trust in chariots and some may trust in horses, but we will trust in the name of the Lord (Psalm 20.7).

We have to trust that whenever God gives us an instruction, no matter what it looks like, it will work out better for us if we obey it. Turning the other cheek, tithing, loving your enemies, telling the truth – all of it can look like it will lead to problems but if you do God’s will, it will work better! Life will work better – you will walk into success better!

You have to accept God is right, all the time, even when you do not feel like He is. Trust in the Lord, and do not lean on your own understanding!

Secrets of Success 3B: What to Do When Leadership Fails

Navigating the Leadership Crisis ...

We have all got stories of ministers and Christian leaders who have failed. I have had pastors lie about me, a director of a Bible College physically assault me and lock my son in a room, and I have had a worship leader raise his fists at me and tell me he hates me. What a life! And I know that many other Christians have similar stories.

Today, I want to help you handle the failure of a leader and still walk into success, because none of the leaders I know who have failed have made me fail. Failure can be contagious, but we can immunize ourselves from it.

The first thing we have to understand at a heart level – when a leader fails around you, God is not looking at that leader’s actions to decide if you are going to be promoted, HE IS LOOKING AT YOUR RESPONSE TO THE FAILURE. Jesus told the Pharisees to pay their taxes to Caesar – He was not saying Caesar was perfect. Even though leaders may not be perfect, we still have to pay our dues of honour. We need to learn how to respond without rebellion and without dishonour.

When you are asked by a leader to do something wrong, there is a right response and a right attitude.

When you are abused and insulted by a leader, there is a right response and a right attitude.

When leadership oversteps the mark, there is a right response and a right attitude.

Physically attacking authority is never the right response, hostility is never the right response, gossip, slander and causing strife is never the right response. So, what is the right response?

  • Go to a higher authority. If your boss at work is overstepping the line, go to your boss’s boss. If your pastor asks you to do something wrong, go to your pastor’s pastor. It’s not gossip if you are following the hierarchy! The highest authority is God, so definitely praying about the situation is never wrong!
  • Peaceful retreat. If you were David, and Saul was literally throwing spears at you to kill you, most of you would start a blog, tell all your friends, make a YouTube video, David did none of those things – he did not tell anyone what Saul was doing, he didn’t raise an army to take him down – even though David was 100% in the right, he just left peacefully. Most people cannot leave churches peacefully when the pastor is right and they are wrong, but someone who can leave peacefully when they are right and the pastor is wrong – they are wise, mature Christians. David was later promoted by the Lord because he did not take advantage of Saul’s failure.

Secrets of Success 03: Respect Those Over You!

I have never met anyone who has become a success who did not respect those who God has set over them. In any successful business, family, church or nation, there has to be an org chart – a hierarchy, a chain of command. God has actually designed authority to hold back all sorts of problems – lawlessness, poverty, chaos, confusion.

We need good authority, and we could talk for hours about how to be a good leader, but my theme for these posts is how to get to that place of success. And to get to that place – you need to learn how to respect, honour and submit to authority. It’s that simple.

Jesus was once asked – should we pay taxes to Caesar. He knew if He did that the Jewish leaders would say He was dishonouring His nation and the Jewish faith, but even though the Romans were an invading nation, He honoured and respected them. Jesus has taught us in this what our response to authority should be – even if the authority is corrupt.

This is a strange secret to success, it might be the most secret secret of them all – and this is it summed up – if Caesar asks for a coin, give Caesar a coin. Jesus gave Caesar everything He wanted except worship! That’s how we should be.

If you do not learn how to respect those who have authority, if you focus on their errors but not your attitude, then you will have problems in life and not make it as a success. Often when you want to challenge authority, God wants to challenge you and bring you to a place of greater success.

The hardest time to respect and submit to authority is when we disagree with them. No one has a problem being asked or told to do exactly what they want to do. We must be careful in our attitude when we disagree.

Now I can almost hear someone saying – hold on, what about bad leadership, what about someone asking me to do something wrong, some people in authority – in government, in the church, in business, even a husband and a parent can be corrupt. All of us have stories of encountering bad authority! Well, what you need to do is learn how to respect and submit – even if you disagree.

We need a fresh revelation of authority, especially in the Western world, like Jesus we need to acknowledge Caesar’s authority. We need to locate those who are in authority in our life and accept them as authorities – are you letting them lead or are you trying to be equal with them and reluctantly submitting? Did Jesus honour Caesar because Caesar was a great man – no, He honoured him because of his position. Who is in authority over you in your family? In your workplace? In your church? In your college? In your nation? These are questions you should know the answer to!

The only time a man amazes Jesus with his faith is a man who was a military man and his military training taught him about authority. Understanding authority is actually a key to great faith, not just understanding it from a textbook, but actually being in a place where if someone says go – you go. We need to know what it is to be under authority if we want a place of authority.

As a teenager, I was not submissive to my parents, but once I had my own children, I understood a lot more why my parents did what I did. I know people who have become pastors in Tree of Life and suddenly my decisions made a lot more sense. Until you are a manager at work, you won’t appreciate the job. But unless you learn to submit, promotion is not coming your way.

In a healthy organization, responsibility and authority should go together – if you ask one of your children to babysit another one, then the babysitter should be given authority (measured, not all of it) to go with that responsibility. If a bill is not paid in Tree of Life, the creditors come after me, not my pastors and associate pastors – so that responsibility ties with my authority. The two should tie in – the one with the responsiblity should be the one with the authority. In most churches, there is someone who wants authority but no responsibilty. They may not be like the man who told me – I want you to be the pastor and do all the work you do, but I want to preach every Sunday and run the service. That is an exceptional level of immaturity, but there are people who try and take a pastor’s authority with zero responsibility. It’s not God’s plan or will.

It is not an abuse of authority to make a demand on someone they cannot make of you.

That’s what authority is – the person who makes the decision. Trust me, there’s been a few Miriams and a few Aarons in the Tree – who are you to do all the preaching, I am also called to ministry, and God wants my voice to be heard too. These people think I am selfishly hoarding the pulpit, but that’s not true – I have the responsibility to feed the church, and so I must ensure they are fed well. God gave me the responsibility and the authority.

Authority depends on location. You might be allowed to pray for people in your Bible College, that gives you zero authority in your church. When I get on a plane, I have to listen to what the flight attendant says no matter what my job title is. When I get off the plane, and the flight attendant comes to a church service, they have to listen to me. The teacher only has authority in their classroom, the police officer cannot function in another nation. This is true because all true authority is under a higher authority. They submit and they have authority. They say I am a man under authority therefore I have authority. The manager’s authority comes from His authority, the elder’s authority comes from the pastor, the babysitter’s comes from mum and dad.

If you are in the position of delegated authority, to quote Greg Mohr from our recent leadership conference, your job is to represent your authority and work for their best interest. People who slack off when the boss is not in the office are not seeking the best interest of their company!

If you have authority, remember that delegating that authority does not mean you no longer have it. If your elders are not living for Christ, well – I made them elders is not an excuse, you have to submit to your authority, Jesus, and make something happen. I’ve seen new pastors – and managers in business – say “I asked such and such to sort this, and they didn’t do it” – it’s still on you though – your job is to ensure they do their job!

Yes, promotion is not less responsibility – it is more. That tracks with Jesus – if you want to be great, serve!

Next week – I will explain what to do when your authority utterly messes up.

Secrets of Success 02: Patience and Efficiency

We all live in time. But we must learn how to become friends with time, and not enemies of time. The ability to befriend time is called patience. The ability to use your time well is called efficiency. We need both.

Jesus was efficient. He made the most of every day. He taught, he healed, he cast out demons, he raised the dead, he loved people. Sometimes he travelled, sometimes he stayed in the same place. Sometimes he preached to crowds, sometimes he sent the crowds away and ministered to a handful of people. Before Jesus spent three years of intense ministry, He spent decades as a carpenter, but that was also time well spent.

Time is not measured in years, Methusaleh lived to be 969 years old and only got 4 verses, Jesus lived to 33, and got four books! Time is measured in accomplishments. So a big secret of success is to learn how to use time well. You cannot change the past, but you can change what you do right now and change your tomorrow.

I have a reputation of being able to get things done, so I am fairly regularly asked to speak at pastor’s conferences and Bible Colleges on time management. I always find that phrase strange – time management – because you cannot manage time. No one has ever prayed so hard they got 25 hours in a day, or even 62 second in a minute. I would love to be able to manage time – just give myself an extra 2-3 days a week, and that would be a game changer! No, you do not manage time, you are given time as a gift, you manage what you do in that time.

You know what wastes time in our house – choosing what film to watch! Ever spent more than thirty-forty minutes trying to decide what film to watch – you could be half-way through a film, but you are still watching advert after advert of what is in each film, trying to decide from that which one is best! That’s fine, but many Christians live their life like that – they are telling themselves when I finish uni I will serve God, when I get married I will be happy, when I own my own home I will give to the kingdom. Rather than starting watching the film of their destiny and doing what God told them, they are watching preview after preview and never doing God’s will.

That attitude will not lead to success – you are not doing because you don’t think your time has come. Jesus told his disciples that there is no time to come, it’s time right now (John 7.6). You do not have to wait for an event before you start living for God. You can live for God right now. It’s your time – it’s your go – so do something.

We used to have a plum tree in our back garden when I was growing up – sometimes I would pick a plum from the tree before it was ripe. If I did that, it will never ripen. I broke the power of ripening through impatience. If I had waited, that plum would have been good, but it wasn’t, it was sour. We sour things God has for us by pulling them off the tree too early. Abraham had a promise of a child, but Ishmael was obviously not the way, and became a very sour event in Abraham’s life. Many of us, including myself, have started ministry or businesses or plans too early, and it became sour because we were not ready. We did not wait for the Lord to promote us, we promoted ourselves and it all went wrong.

Meanwhile, others are letting the plums over-ripen and fall off the tree to the ground, never to be eaten either. So we need God’s wisdom when it comes to timing. If what God is calling you to do is clearly beyond your reach, don’t sit on your hands waiting for a miracle – prepare. Spend hours with the Lord praying in tongues, studying His Word, stand against satan, support others who are doing what you are dreaming of doing. Then when your time comes you will not fall apart. Time like this is always preparation time – can you go get education, can you serve God in a certain way, can you use some of that time honouring your father and mother, can you serve another ministry, can you start tithing, giving, saving, can you train others, can you just say thank you to some people.

The biggest key to becoming a friend of time is developing good priorities – put family above work, put church above your rest time, entertainment and hobbies – and conferences and fixing your house and your car and boat and whatever else it is It is easy to forget what is important, so leave time for prayer and meditation to help you remind yourself over and over again.

Another key is know the destination. I was in a town once, and I found out a friend of mine happened to be in the same town. We agreed to meet for lunch, and discussed restaurants, and decided on one called Bobby’s. I got there early and waited and waited and waited, finally my friend called and said where are you – I said in Bobby’s, he said no you are not. After some back and forth, we found out there were two restaurants in different parts of the town with the same name, and very similar logos! What we thought was the right destination was not. We must have a clear dream of the future, a clear scheme to get to that dream, so that time is not wasted on things that do not somehow bring us into that dream.

Now don’t feel condemned if you have wasted time, but ask the Lord how to help you be more patient and more efficient. If you are reading this, you are alive, so there is still more time for you. Jesus did not enter ministry until he was 30, Moses when he was 80. Zechariah and Elizabeth thought their ministry was over, until she got pregnant – and they were very old! Make a step today to befriend time, and get something done.

Secrets of Success 01: Credibility

Creative Commons credibility Image ...

I have often taught that to be a good leader you need four Cs. Most people will guess character fairly quickly, some will guess capable, rarely someone will guess compatible. These are all essential for leadership – you have to be a godly man, you have to be able to do the job, and you have to be able to work well with others. But no one ever guesses the fourth C, it’s like the forgotten ingredient of success, and it is credibility.

Everyone reading this blog post will know that at certain points in their life they had a lot of credibility, at others points they had less. You can gain it and lose it. Maybe you did something foolish, and you lost credibility with the people around you, maybe you did something awesome and you gained credibility. There is a reason credibility matters for you to have success – credibility opens the door to promotion.

Recently, a large UK ministry was advertising for a new CEO. A friend of mine asked if he thought he should apply. I said I wouldn’t if I was you, and the reason I said that was because he lacked credibility, and the people there would find it hard to follow him. He has the character, the capability and I reckon the compatibility, but that’s not enough. Credibility is the key to a new job, it’s the key to every promotion. Think about it – every time you have grown to a new level, there has been attached to that some increase in your credibility.

In our selfie culture, it’s funny to watch in public people trying to take a picture. They will move around to all sorts of strange angles to get the best possible image. But that is for their Facebook, and real life is not social media! We sometimes cannot step to the next level because we have not taken the right picture yet. And only time can get that right. Have you ever wondered why Jesus did not start preaching at age 9? Lack of credibility. He grew in favour with men (Luke 2.52) – as Jesus grew up, what He did and said gave him more and more credibility with people.

Recently I was at a large conference and they put me on the front row. I wouldn’t have been the first choice in my mind, but that’s what they did. It then happened twice again in two more conferences. I asked the Lord about this, and the Lord told me – they feel safe with you, they feel that they are in safe hands with you at the front. That’s credibility, you build it up over time, you cannot microwave it.

Anyone can open up a restaurant, but to survive you need repeat customers – and that takes one thing – you guessed it – credibility. The only proof that a restaurant is good is people going there. The only thing that verifies you are a success is people seeing you as successful.

I get equal parts frustration and equal parts humour with the current obsession in our society with life coaches. People who I would never call for advice are setting themselves up as life coaches, they have been on this course and that course, they have a website, they have a presence on social media, but what they do not have, and the reason they are making less a month than I could make in a day’s manual labour is a lack of credibility.

You need to work on credibility. The first level of credibility is credible ability. You know if I am going to take a week out of my busy life and go to a conference on how to plant churches for example, then my very first question will be – how many churches has each speaker planted? If the answer is 0 or 1 or 2, then I might as well stay at home and read a book. I have met more than one person who wants to be a pastor of pastors without ever having pastored. Work on this first – want to be an expert in your field, then get in the field and get your hands dirty. People who want to develop in any field can smell someone who has not lived where they live. Make sure you are a lifelong learner. Before we talk about love, honesty, patience and all the character stuff – this is the first level – can you actually do the job?

Some people want to bypass that level of credible ability by replacing it with friendship. Hire me, I am your friend. Make me an elder, I am a nice guy. Friends help friends. No – all credibility starts with ability. It does not end there, but it starts there. I love my sons with all my heart, they are all heroes, but if they have not gone out there and passed a driving test, and I am convinced of their capability, they are not taking my car out for a spin! That’s nothing to do with whether I love them or not. I have been accused of not loving people because I won’t let them take my pulpit out for a spin, but they have never done one thing to learn how to drive a sermon!

The second level of credibility is credible amicability. Can you get on with this person? I know a few Christian travelling preachers that can preach well, but I will not invite to preach because you cannot get on with them. Their theology is wrong – they think they are God! It doesn’t matter how well you play the guitar if the sound team are literally drawing straws because no one wants to talk to you! Some people are promoted not just because of ability, but because of amicability. They are just likeable. Work on that! It’s not enough on its own, but it is the icing on the cake of ability. If you ignore this as unimportant, you are hindering your success and potential. Be polite to people, all people, smile, have energy that radiates from you rather than being a drain. You can have a great heart to serve, but if you are doing it like you are under a personal grey cloud, it makes people uncomfortable. Every worth doing will inevitably be a team activity. Be a positive person, stop whining and moaning – that is the biggest step in this area. Smile, be the first to say hello, and value the people around you – and when you speak, speak words of life and blessing.

The third and highest level of credibility is credible dependability. Are you trustworthy? Do you keep your word? Will you run off with the choir director? Do whatever it takes to keep your character, even if it means you quit your job.

You know if you go to the west End to watch a musical, or if you go to the local village hall to watch some amateur drama – anything can happen. Someone could trip, someone could get the wrong line, or whatever. The one thing all these actors are taught is this – whatever happens, stay in character. No matter what comes at you, stay in character.

That’s advice for you today as well – no matter what happens, stay in character. Do not compromise because it is tough, taking longer than you think, unfair, or anything else. Don’t break character in difficult situations.

Work on these three and you will have credibility.

Can You See It 20: Can You See a Harvest in a Harvest?

If you are a sower, there are harvests coming your way. If you fail to perceive them, you will fail to honour them, and just like Jesus walking on the water, your harvest will go right past you unless you do some harvesting.

Sometimes a harvest comes from another person and you reject the person because you don’t appreciate that person much. Sometimes your harvest comes as an idea or plan, and you are too tired, too plugged into the world, too noisy to perceive it as your harvest from God.

Sometimes your harvest, like the natural world, needs you to work hard to bring it in, and you don’t want that, you want it to fall out of the sky and smack you on the head.

I would say failing to perceive a harvest is a problem that nearly all Christians have. Sometimes a harvest comes as a readjustment, as a correction, even a rebuke is a harvest, as it brings you into freedom and life. Many Christians would miss a harvest that came like that.

Also many miss harvests due to ingratitude for small things. Just waking up in the morning is a harvest, many people did not wake up this morning. Just having breakfast to eat, just being where you are with who you are with. I have been places where there is no food to eat, where children are dying of hunger. Your dinner is a harvest, thank God for it.

You are complaining about traffic, rather praise God you have a car. You are not impressed by your church, but praise God you can freely meet together and worship without persecution. When was the last time you thanked God for a roof over your head.

There are millions of unsaved people in the world, without any faith, any comforter, any hope – but you have Jesus. That is a harvest.

The more you perceive harvests, the more they will just gravitate towards you. If you have sown the seed, the harvest is already real – pray for the ability to perceive. One of the greatest harvests in my life is that I have always had access to people who believe in me and believe in my dream – that is a true harvest, once I spotted it, that harvest just grew more and more the more I thanked God for it.

Some of you – listen carefully, miracles are walking past you – learn to perceive a harvest, ask God for help here – stop doing what you are doing long enough to say thank you to God for what you have now. Glorious things are moving towards you – slow down and find out what!

You know harvests have changed my life and the lives of many that I know, to the point it just stuns me when I hear those Christians who preach against sowing and reaping. You know the kind of Christians who think offering time is painful not glorious. You know the kind of people who can watch a 3 hour sci-fi film, but you take a 25 minute offering they get annoyed and agitated. What is wrong with that – they have no idea of the power of a harvest.

We have Christians happy to pay hundreds of pounds to hear a billionaire singer whose philosophy of life is in line with the antichrist, and yet if a preacher drives a nice car or has a new suit, they are in pain! They can pay hundreds of pounds for a piece of steak, but putting £20 in the offering in the name of the one who saved them, the only name that can save anyone – that brings them discomfort! It’s a lack of perception of seedtime and harvest.

Listen to me – God Himself has hardwired seedtime and harvest into the entire universe to get you out of your mess, to get you into a new season – and you are whining about it, and laughing about it.

I’ve heard people tell me “I love my new church, my new pastor never talks about money”. I would never go to a church that did not talk about money. I use money every day of my life. I need supernatural supply every day of my life. The last person I would ever want as a pastor is someone who is ignorant of and does not talk about one of the greatest needs in my life. No, I want a pastor who talks about money. I want a pastor who knows how to help me sow and help me reap. I do not want a pastor who has no idea what a harvest looks like. I want a pastor who is a tither, who gives above his tithe, who is generous, and who knows how to prosper.

You miss your harvest, you miss everything. Learn to be quiet enough to recognize your harvest, and give thanks for every one you spot. Thank God for your health, your eyes, your legs, your mind, your favour – your house, your car, your sofa, your shower, your bed. Gratitude causes our eyes to open to future harvests, ingratitude causes blindness.

Can You See It 19: Can You See a Harvest in a Seed?

My precious friend Dave Duell used to tell me frequently that anyone can see how many seeds are in an apple, but very few people can see how many apples are in a seed. Seeds are interesting when we talk about perception, because perceiving a seed means you will then sow a seed. It looks like the seed is moving away from you, but it is actually like a boomerang, it is coming back as a harvest, far greater than what it was when you sowed it.

Because the underlying truth of the New Covenant is that you will reap what you sow. Go and get a Bible and read Galatians 6.7, you need to know it is a real verse and it is in the Bible. In King James language, you will reap whatsoever you sow. There’s a lot of things included in whatsoever – your thoughts are seeds that produce harvests, your time is a seed that produces a harvest, your prayers are all seeds, your money is a seed, your mercy and kindness are seeds, your love is a seed, and your attitude is a seed. Sow it and reap it.

You have to recognize a seed or you will never be able to turn it into a harvest. Today someone gave me $150. I am currently in the US travelling and someone just put it into my hand. I asked my wife – what shall we do with this money. She said put it into the offering Sunday. Amanda has perceived that this money is seed-money. When you perceive that a certain amount of money, or an item or an attitude or whatever is a seed, you then must never ever eat it, you must sow it. Or you will miss out on power, multiplication, harvest – not to mention the rewards of being obedient to what God has showed you.

Of course, you should not even need to say that 10% of all your increase is a seed, it’s called the tithe, and you must never ever eat that, but give it to the Lord, to the storehouse that feeds you. Do not ever be so arrogant that you think you do not need to give a minimum of 10% of all your increase.

God Himself has given you the seeds so you can have the harvests so you can have a great, prosperous and glorious future. You already have what you are believing for, but in seed form, so ask God to show you the seed, then die to it, sow it, give it away (in faith, cheerfully, with a great big smile on your face) and expect a return. You need a multitude fed, that’s ok – you have loaves and fishes. Need £10000? That’s ok, you have £100. You about to die of starvation – that’s ok, you have one meal left – give it away. You do not have nothing, what you lack is the ability to perceive a seed.

In 2 Cor. 9.10, we are told God gives seed to the sower. The reason you cannot see your seed is you do not have the attitude of the sower. If you have the attitude of a sower, you will see seed. When it says God gives you seed, sometimes a person hands it to you, like with the $150 I was given today, other times, it is that you already have the money or the item, and God gives you seed by saying – hey there, sow that. If your heart is to sow, you will find something to sow. I have sowed pens, time, all sorts of things, when I had nothing. Now I mainly sow money, because it’s easier to use when the harvest comes.

I doubt that you have no seeds, I reckon you have loads of seeds, if you developed the attitude of a giver, God would show you loads of what you have and how and where to sow it. But a failure to perceive your seeds means your harvest will always be elusive, your prosperity will wander off, and you will not walk into your dreams. Take this seriously – something you already own is the key to your future. If you fail to perceive it as seed, you will keep it, and you have now set your maximum increase level, and it’s this – you will be at the level you are at now forever.

A seed of nothing is multiplied into a harvest of nothing. You need to dominate your greed and lusts, and learn how to sow. This is the only way to develop the character, faith, and increase you need for your future.