24 Oct
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Spiritual Checkup
These are 50 great questions to ask yourself every now and then! Give yourself a great spiritual check up.
Growing to reach your maximum potential
(Most of the notes for this session were taken from John Maxwell’s book, The Success Journey)
What is potential?
Dictionary: existing in possibility : capable of development into actuality <potential benefits>
Phil 3:12
12 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection! But I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ Jesus saved me for and wants me to be.
One thing is for sure – I have not reached my maximum potential, I have not become all the Christ Jesus saved me for and wants me to be.
1 Cor 2:9
But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him."
Our potential in God is unlimited, but we have to be prepared to go after it, and the only real thing in life that we can change and cause immediate effect is ourselves.
You are not a cog
You are not a cog.
You are not an assistant or an administrator
You’re not a gofer or a middle manager either.
No, you’re creative. A valuable asset to your family and your community. A person who can make a difference to an organisation.
You are capable of having an impact, leaving a legacy, creating things that are outstanding.
You are not ordinary.
In fact, you are remarkable
Now, hurry, don’t let yourself (and the rest of us) down.
From the Book – The Big Moo.
Because the book donates it’s profits to charity, you should buy one, and lots for your friends too! The book is great reading, and I have included a direct link below to make it easy for you!
Step 3: Read Good Teaching Books & Study With Them
To be honest, I don’t think that most of today’s Christian books are teaching books, but rather books that generally exhort the reader by the author’s experience and opinion. So – as with the teaching tapes, be picky with what you study.
The key to getting revelation from teaching books is not just reading them! You only remember about 5% of what you read (regardless of what you think and will try and tell me!).
Dragons Den meets the X-Factor
If you are a fan of the BBC series Dragon’s Den, then you will love these clips on the recently sold YouTube:
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBk2Z4iUMlY
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZQaVXQ8lMM
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2s3GIzdse
And if the X-Factor is not your style, try Jack Black on Dragon’s Den
Step 2: Listen To Teaching Tapes
You recall that I told you about a guy that I met in the second year of my university who could answer a lot of the questions that I have? He not only showed me a way to read the Bible that I never knew (we will talk more about this later), he lent me some teaching tapes too. It was a 12 tape series on the subject of faith, and he gave them to me after I had spent a couple of days in my room with nothing but pen and ink and my Bible.
There are always key events in your life that change your life forever. Him lending me these tapes was one for me. I change my life so radically, that I shall remember it forever. I must have listened to that tape series 30 times before I gave him those tapes back. I listened to the constantly. It got to the point where I could quote most of what the minister said word for word. In fact, in some of my earlier preaching “events”, that is all I ever preached – what he said on those tapes because that’s all I knew.
I purchased a walkman and listened to those tapes everywhere I went – on the bus, walking to and from my lectures, at lunch, when I cooked, cleaned or had a bath. Wherever I was, I had my walkman with me playing those tapes. You may think that I am nuts for doing this, so did a lot of other people at the time. Matt had gone “word crazy”! (That’s a good reputation to have!) But regardless of what people thought, I quickly became strongly grounded in the Word of God – and my faith shot through the roof, my insecurities vanished, the level of God’s anointing in my life increased, I saw more people healed than I ever did before, I could quote more scripture, I had more revelation, I was much closer to God, my prayer life was much more dynamic, my witness was much much stronger! I had basically started to become the Christian that I always wanted to be!
Faith comes by hearing and by hearing the Word of God – Romans 10:17
I proved this Scripture to be true – I heard the word day and night and faith came! This Scripture never did say, faith comes by having heard the Word. The verb used in this passage is a present and continuous verb – ie. Faith comes by hearing and by hearing and by hearing and by hearing (etc) the Word of God. Hearing is something that your spirit has to do now, and continually.
God told Josuha, meditate in My word day and night. There is something about hearing the word of God that will change your life – forever!
Teaching tapes are an excellent way of being able to constantly feed your spirit the Word of God when it seems impractical to read your Bible. I wore out those tapes listening to them. The funny thing was, it wasn’t until I heard them many times over that the revelation came! You have to persist with the word of God, or you’ll never get any real significant revelations from it.p>
Let me give you a tip though, pick carefully the teaching tapes that you listen to. You need good, solid teaching and preaching of the uncompromised word of God. You don’t need failure to be taught to you!
Of course, teaching is much more available to us now through the internet. So use technology to help you. Download free MP3’s from websites and subscribe to Podcasts. It is all there to help you grow strong in God’s Word.
Great products to sell online
I heard a comment today that "it is great to get paid money to do what you love". And I have to agree. I get paid money to do something that I love to do…
…and the thing about it is – most people that make money online start off doing something that they love to do.
So – if you want to sell products online – find something that you love. Why? Because people will want to call you and ask you all sorts of questions about your products. They want to speak to an expert and get the right product. They want reassurance. So, the chances are if you love what you do – you will know a lot about it. Therefore you can give great advice to your clients.
Of course, there are other things that help to make a product a great product to sell online – here are a few of them:
- Repeat Orders. A product that can be repeat ordered on a regular basis is a great product. It is easier to sell to an existing customer than a new one so repeat orders are good, as are…
- "Upsell products"…what do I mean by these? Well, you know the "Customers who purchased also purchased" idea? It is simply that – if you have a customer that is willing to buy – have a product that you can upsell to them to maximise your returns.
- Niche products. Trying to sell everything to everyone can be exhausting and a fast road to bankruptcy. Selling to niche markets is a great way to keep you stock costs low and your profits high!
If I use a recent customer – www.jerseybeautycompany.co.uk that sell dermalogica products to the UK – it meets all of these requirements, and is part of the reason they do so well:
- They have a phone number on the site, and people call it. They call just to see if the company is there, but mainly to get advice – so at the end of the phone, they have helpful people who know how to advise you! Try it and see.
- The product is definitely a "repeat order" product.
- The "customers who bought also bought…" section accounts for a large percentage of turnover. Customers love to know what others have purchased and will often buy the same. The makes it an "upselling product".
- It is definitely a niche market – people who use Dermalogica products. The marketing is not towards the beauty market – just the Dermalogica market…and it works well!
Of course, there is always the exception to prove the rule, but if you are thinking about setting up an ecommerce site to sell products but you are not sure what to sell…hopefully this will give you a few pointers.
Step One: Read the Bible
"Read the Bible". This is an obvious statement to make, especially if you want revelation from the Word of God – it makes total and utter sense. Well, you’d think so wouldn’t you? There is, however, something about reading your Bible that actually hinders Christians. It is quite an odd phenomenon. A believer who has been a Christian for any more than 12 months has something in them which will stop them reading their Bible, even though they still want revelation knowledge. The Scriptural name for this phenomenon is distraction. Let me tell you something, you cannot put your Bible under your pillow at night and it transmit knowledge to you! It won’t work!
3 people, 2 miracles, 1 truth – Introduction
3 People, 2 Miracles, 1 Truth is the name that I have given to study that I have been doing. The study is about how to get revelation from the Word of God. I go through some principles, and then show you these principles in action using the passage from Mark about Jairus, the woman who had an issue of blood and Jesus (the three people) who both got miracles (the two miracles) and that Jesus was the source of this amazing story (the Truth).
I will add this study to the blog in sections (it is very long)…so I hope that you enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed doing it! Please add your comments to the different sections – I don’t have the monopoly on revelation and anything you can add would be greatly welcomed!
Write down what God tells you!
Tonight, I caught me wife writting notes in a scrap book. When I asked what that was – she told me it was a book of thoughts and notes for the kids as they grow up. Tonight, Sharon was writting down what God has spoken to Josh this week in his book.
It is great to know that my son can hear the voice of God, and God tells him a lot. All great stuff it has to be said.
But the point here is – whatever God tells you – write it down. Josh can’t at the moment, so Sharon does for him. But you and I can. The reason we need to write it down is simply because we have a habit of forgetting what He tells us.
When we write it down – there can be no ambiguity and it helps keep us focused in times of crisis.
One of the best things you can do is to get a diary (or a blog) and write your journey down. Write down what God tells you, what you have prayed for, what the preacher spoke about and revelations you got from reading God’s word.
Who knows – one day, it might make a great book!
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