Has your consciousness of Him changed?

How easy it is for me to fall into the trap of sin-consciousness when I made a mistake of my own dealings. I know the danger of it because things around me has not changed. I have great friends who loves me more than I can deserve, ever so gracious colleagues and a family who loves me. But it seems that it has changed but it's actually our own consciousness that has changed. And we react to the way we feel. How subtle it is that we fail to notice that it is all lies in our thought life.
I know how powerful it is to walk fully conscious of His Righteousness because I've been there... still learning to always be in that state. And good things happen to them who knows they are right with God. I want to always be walking in this divine order.
It's been long since I last spend time alone with Jesus. I miss those moments when I have the whole day to myself.
I love what I read in E.W.Kenyon's book in the train today that reminded me of the importance of being Righteous conscious.

Stepping Out by E.W.Kenyon

STEPPING out of sin-consciousness into son-consciousness is stepping out of failure into success.It means stepping out of that inferiority complex that has held us prisoners for years. It means becoming the thing you dreamed.
Do you remember the picture in the magazine of the little scrawny fellow sitting by the side of a great, big, strong, muscular man, seeing the big man take his girl away from him? Then the little scrawny man goes into the gymnasium and develops his muscles until they are strong. Then he goes out and faces other men unafraid.
You go into God's gymnasium and come in contact with the great gymnastic teacher of spiritual things. You let Him put you through a course until you stand in front of the world complete in all His finished work, until your inferiority has been swallowed up in His dominant victorious Spirit, until you whisper, "Greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world, " or "than the doubts and fears that worked in me in the past."
I have a Master now who is building me up instead of the master who kept me in bondage, who kept me down. I walked in failures for years.
I walked with the sense of my lack of ability and Righteousness; but now I walk with Him.
We are linked together. I am breathing in the courage of His tremendous personality. I am filled with His ability.
NO LONGER am I worrying about the lack of money. Lack of money does not lord over me. I AM MASTER. Lack of ability does not lord over me now. Lack of opportunity no longer lords it over me. I am not intimidated by circumstances, or filled with fear that I cannot do the work or put it over. I know that the Mighty One taken me over and is putting me over since I stepped out of sin-consciousness into son-consciousness.

What makes a good salesperson or soul winner?

You are selling from house to house.

You are ringing bells.

That is a good place to start life.

I started it there.

You meet a different person every five minutes.

If you can get them to listen to you, that is the first step.

So many simply say, “I haven’t time,” and hten slam the door in your face. You smile and go to the next. That’s the game.

But the man who can get inside the house to display his goods is the man who put it over.

The first requisite is a smile and a glad “Good morning.”

It is not an ingratiating smile, but a wholesome, big, warm smile.

You know that you have something that they need, something they ought to have.

You come there with the heart of a philanthropist.

You have something to give. They are going to get something worth more than they pay for it.

You are not trying to outdo them, but you are there to give them something worth while.

I didn’t know anything about the sales game when I went into is as a boy of twenty-one.

Salesmanship was not taught then as it is today.

I became one of the pioneers of sales talk, teaching the art of salesmanship.

But I found that I could not sell unless I had confidence in the thing I was selling.

I was selling pianos and organs from house to house.

I tried to sell an instrument in which I had no confidence.

I was an utter failure.

I went back to the office and asked the manager which was the best piano ofr such a price.

He told me. I went to the factory to find out all about pianos.

I wanted to know how the how the things were built.

I went through the factory and studied them until I knew everyting a young fellow could learn about the instruments.

Then I went out on the road.

I knew I had the BEST thing on the market for the money.

I knew that if I could get a piano into a house and get the boys and girls to practice, it would change the future of that home.

I went out to help the community.

I succeeded.

It was so easy to sell when I had the right mental attitude toward the people.

I was trying to help the folks to who bought.

Do you see the point?

That is the real art of salesmanship.

I was so dead in earnest about it.

I was so enthusiastic about the bargain which I had that I carried them off their feet.

I sold to people who had no music in them. I sold to them because of the excessive, burning desire in my heart to make them happy.

That is thing which sells.

Settle it in your mind, is the thing you are selling worth while.

If it is not, then get something that is.

If you are selling insurance, bonds, autos, or groceries, know this : If your entire ambition is simply to get the money out of it, you will fail. But if you are giving them something that is going to be a blessing, and you are enthusiastic over it, you will be a success.

The Bell Ringer by E.W.Kenyon

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When I read this article, it just came across to me that Christians are really not much different from a Sales man who goes around selling His product. We try to 'sell' this gift to them plus it comes in FREE for them! And yet people of the world who in natural are drawn to free gifts but when it comes to their salvation they want to 'buy' or do something about it. How contradicting could that be.

I love what I read above of a successful salesman. A business man will not succeed if he is just out to get money from his product without believing the good of his product for the people.

Bringing people to church is a good intention, but a right heart for the person is far more price by Him. Many a times I hear of Salesman being able to sell his product because people saw the good the product has been to them.

Are we proclaiming good in our lives that people will be drawn to the gospel. A church that wants the best for His people will see good. Shepherd are there to lead and feed the flock.

E.W.Kenyon sold to people who had no music in them. You may be preaching the gospel for the first time to your friend. But hey, the Salesman may succeed on His first meeting just because the buyer saw what he wanted and he happened to be there.

How much more a child of God divinely place by Abba. What you shared with your friend for the first time, may just be the answer she's been seeking for.

Your confidence in bringing this good news comes from the Lord!

The day you find what you love doing, is the last day you'll work

 All have ability

Signposts on the Road to Success by E.W.Kenyon

I did believe this once.
I thought that there were but a few who had real ability, and that the rest of us belonged to the mob.I venture to say that it will be almost impossible to pick out a single person in any large establishment who does not have the ability along some line that could make him outstanding if it were developed.
I am dictating this little article for the ambitious man or woman-not for the man who is too lazy to develop what is in him, but for the man who is unsatisfies with anything but the best.
As I study men and women, I am convicted of this : There are very few who have developed to the limit the possibilitioes within them.
There is no overdevelopment.
Many people are in the wrong place in life.
They have no gift for the thing they are trying to do.
They are doing it simply to get by.
There is room and a salary waiting for the man who has the ability and is willing to put hard work into it. Choose your work, rather than have the work in which you have no interest thrust upon you.
FIND OUT WHAT YOU CAN DO, what you like BEST to do.
I don't care who you are. I don't care what your handicaps are. They have never made a handicap that could hold any man down who had in him the yeast to rise. Most of the people who are at the bottom because they will to stay there. That is where they belong.
It is hard thing to say, but it is true. I am now what I willed to be throught all these years.
The first thing to do is to find out what you want. Set your eyes on the goal. Then fight for it.
When you find that objective, set your compass and sail for that star.

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I was once the young gal or lady now :) asking the same question. I thought only an elite few had the abilities. I look around me and admire the people around me at how much they achieve in life and wonder to myself maybe they are just gifted.
I went for all types of job, doing things which I do not enjoy trusting God's grace to help me and I'll learn to enjoy and see good in everything. And I failed time and time again. When this happens, I questions myself whether was there anything wrong with me? Was it my mistake? Why could everyone do it but not me even the simplest task like admin.
Keith shared to us in cg that when he was at his lowest point in life being jobless for a few months, even when he look at a receptionist, he felt himself inadequate of doing even that task. I felt that once too.
I believe E.W. Kenyon went thru this journey of life to be able to tell you this. When I read it now, I got the revelation of it. It takes only a page to fill it up but it probably took the author years of struggle to come out with it.
It's really so important to do what you love and are gifted in. That's when you really experience the grace of God. Doors will open for you. You'll experience favor after favor. Works becomes light and easy. Once, I was fearful of failure because I tried doing what I'm not gifted for. But when you put to use what the Lord had given you, you do not fear failures but see success in your life. And prosperity is not something unachievable or only for the few, but it is within reach.
After all our gift to Him is an expression of what we've been given by Him.
I love another thing Keith told me, "The day you find what you love doing, it's the last day you'll work"
Isn't that simply beautiful? =)

Lovely how Abba creates divine juxtaposition :)

Receive this in my inbox just a few minutes ago. Isn't it amazing how the Lord speaks to people around the world the Word for the season. The NOW Word :) Pastor was just preaching to us the last two days on observing REST one out of seven days...how lovely to be reminded of it again :) GRACE@WORK MAIL 37/07
[September 14 2007 Edition]

"Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God."(Exodus 20: 9-10a TNIV)


Commentary: Work-Life Imbalance and the Bible

He was 29. He worked for one of the Big Four accounting firms. He was successful. And he was leaving work past midnight most nights.

With limited time for his wife and his church community he knew that something was wrong. But he was too tired to reflect as to what he should do. Increasingly his story is the story of many of my friends working in the professions. Welcome to the brave new world of the global economy.

Gordon T. Smith had already warned us that "People have a remarkable capacity to live overworked and confusing lives, caught up in hectic activity that in itself seems to have little meaning of purpose, but that is made up of so many things 'that have to be done.' This is one of the sins of modernity and of life and work in urban, industrialized societies." (Courage & Calling, Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1999, p.19)

More enlightened management literature calls for a respect for the work-life balance but these voices are being challenged by the paranoia of global competition. In a recent article in Fortune, Geoff Colvin quotes Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric:

"General Electric chief Jeff Immelt put it bluntly while recalling a trip to Beijing last year, when he got a big order from the Transport Ministry: 'The whole ministry was working all day on a Sunday. I believe in quality of life, work-life balance, all that stuff. But that's the competition. So unless we're willing to compete…'"
("Couch-Potato Nation" Fortune Asia, September 3, 2007, p.24)

What should be our response to this growing time crunch? I believe our response should first and foremost be a theological one. The church is a community that lives under the authority of God's Word and God's Word has clear commands for our lives. They include (all from the TNIV):

"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
(Exodus 20:8-11)

"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself."
(Ephesians 5:25 - 28)

"Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord."
(Ephesians 6:4)

However you interpret the Sabbath Commandment for New Testament saints, there is clearly a divine pattern of work and rest. And a reminder that our lives revolve around God and not around our work.
And surely if we are to be good spouses and parents, we need to give adequate time to nurture those relationships.

Therefore when Christians approach the issue of work-life balance, they must first begin with biblical revelation, not business pragmatics. Our first question is not "if we respect and encourage work-life balance does it help or hinder our competitiveness?" Our first question must be "what wisdom does the Word of God give on the issue?"

On one level is the issue of authority. If Jesus is Lord he must be Lord over the whole of our lives and that must include our lives at work since that takes up such a large portion of our lives. At another level is the issue of trust. Do we really believe that God loves us and that the things that He commands of us are for our good?In his book The Status Syndrome, Michael Marmot quotes a study by Sheldon Cohen on "the factors that influences host resistance to viruses responsible for the common cold." (New York: Owl Books, 2004, p 159). After extensive studies, Cohen found that "people with few social ties… had three times the incidence of a cold compared to those with a diverse set of social relationships…" (p.160)

Cohen's study is but one of many that shows a direct linkage between creativity, health and mortality --- and healthy relationships and adequate rest. God's Word is true. But it is also true to life.
Attempting to follow God's Word in a fallen world however is never simple. Therefore the last thing that the church should do is to give guilt trips to those struggling to survive in today's work world. Instead we should walk along side our people and help them to both grow in their faith and in their ability to apply the Word of God to the realities of their lives.
And we will have to accept that different people will respond differently.
One friend accepts that the work that God has called him to do will necessitate his coming home late most nights. He religiously protects his weekends for his family and his faith community. And he takes long family vacations every year.

Another friend said no to a promotion that would have meant more money and status because it would have meant more travel and unacceptable loss of time with family and for his ministries outside of the office. (He sees his work as ministry too.)

And my friend that worked for one of the Big Four left his firm and went to work for a bank. His present employer actively tries to get their people out of the office by 6.30pm. My friend is happier, his wife is happier, their faith is stronger, all timely developments because they now have a baby on the way.

Your brother,
Soo-Inn Tan
I've personally seen this principle being applied by many successful man and woman of God.They not only survive but thrive among the rest at work & home. If it was not important, our Father would not have given it to us. He is not filling up space in the Bible :)