Section 1 - How to Stay On Top

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Spiritual Stagnation

2 Peter 1:5 That is why you should make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness; and goodness with knowledge;
6 And knowledge with self control; and self control with endurance; and endurance with godliness;
7 And godliness with brotherly kindness; and brotherly kindness with [agape] love.
8 For if these things are continually in you, and exist in abundance, they put you in a position where you will not be lazy or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. [GBMV]

Zechariah 4:10 For who has considered insignificant the time of small things? [GBMV]

Has your spiritual life grown stale? The fire that once burned in you just seems to have died down. Somehow you don't seem to have the faith that you used to once have. You find yourself struggling with weaknesses that you thought you had overcome a long time ago, but they seem to start showing again. It seems like suddenly, the enemy is winning with every attack that he brings against you.

Do you ever feel that way? Have you found lately that some of these things have been manifesting in your spiritual life? Well, I want to tell you first that this did not happen overnight. It happened slowly, bit by bit, over time, and probably you didn't even notice it at first.

Scripture speaks about Samson, who was so sure of his strength that he could always jump up and use it until they cut his hair. When they had cut his hair, and he heard the cry, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson," he jumped up as before, and he did not realize that the power had left him.

This happens to us subtly, slowly over time. We don't realize that we are losing what we have, but then suddenly, everything seems to overwhelm us. Suddenly it all just seems to be gone. It's not there anymore. You can't understand.

What happened? I was doing great, serving the Lord, and staying on top of things. My faith really worked. My prayers were answered. I seemed to have everything in hand and under control but now suddenly it's all gone.

The Small Things Count

It is often the little things in life that count more than the big things. Do not ever consider the time of small things insignificant. The scripture says that small things are very important.

Zechariah 4:10 For who has considered insignificant the time of small things?[GBMV]

Small things like reading the word. Perhaps when you first got saved, or when you first got anointed with the spirit of God and were excited for the Lord, you consumed the scriptures. You couldn't wait to get into the Word and read.

But now it just doesn't seem to have that same appeal to you anymore. And you find getting into the Word is something you have to make an effort to do now. It doesn't seem to come naturally anymore. It's not that you never get into the word. It's just that you don't read it as much as you used to.

What about spending time in the presence of the Lord? Setting aside time for prayer. Perhaps there was a time when you could spend hours in prayer. But now life has caught up with you. There are just so many things in your life, and you know you should spend time with him in prayer.

But somehow, you just never seem to get to it. The words that you speak. How positive are the things that you say? Do you find yourself speaking words of faith? Do you find yourself speaking God's word? Or do you find yourself speaking the words of the world around you? And the words that you hear from the world around you?

The Language Of The World

Do you find yourself continually using the expressions of the world? It's just my luck. I'm scared to death. It's filled with negativity. There are no more positive words coming from your mouth.

You face circumstances. You interact with people, and the first thing that comes out of your mouth is some negative gem. You don't realize the power of those little things in your life.

You don't realize that over time they begin to affect you. How much time do you put in? How much effort do you put into expressing the love of the Lord to others around you? You know I'm busy; I don't have to tell everybody I love them.

I don't have to go out of my way to do loving things. I'm not harming anybody. I'm not doing anything. I'm not tearing people down. I'm not doing anything negative. Yes, but how much are you showing the love of the Lord? How much of your day do you spend walking in the spirit, and how much of it do you spend walking in the flesh?

Well, walking in the flesh comes naturally. We don't have to think about that. Walking in the spirit takes effort and a choice. And if we don't make that choice, guess what? We're going to walk in the flesh.

Dealing With The Enemy

How much time do you spend taking your stand against the enemy of the spiritual life? Or Satan began to attack you, and you are not rising up and standing against him as the Scripture says, resist the devil, and he will flee. What are you doing?

You just hang in there. Pressing on. Just keep going. I'll just brush it off and carry on. I can handle this. I know how to handle the enemy. He won't overwhelm me. I can handle this.

After a while, you find you can't handle it anymore. What went wrong? Well, what's your big excuse? I don't have time. You know I don't have time to sit and spend hours reading the Word.

It takes quite a while to read a chapter from the Bible. Well, how about reading 10 chapters a day? Better still, why don't you read 20 chapters a day? What? I will never have time to read 10 chapters of the Bible in a day.

Somehow, I do find time to watch my favorite movie or to watch the sports that I enjoy. Somehow, I seem to find time for those, but getting into the Word, I don't have time.

Perhaps you don't have time, perhaps life is busy, or perhaps you are indeed spending a lot of your time doing the things that are necessary in life, like earning a living and coping with problems.

And you say, "I really don't have extra time to set aside. I can't put aside an extra hour a day to get into the Word. I can't put aside an extra half an hour a day to set aside a time of coming into the presence of the lord to pray."

Life Happens

Life catches up with us. It's a fact of life. Do you know what happens? Although within ourselves, we know, and we even say to ourselves, I really should make time to get into the Word. I really should make time for prayer. I really should make an effort to walk in the Spirit.

Somehow we just never get around to it. That's always our excuse, isn't it? One of these days, I'll do it when I get around to it. I saw a funny little thing once in a magazine. They printed this round graphic, and on it was the word T-U-I-T.

They said you should cut this out and you should carry it with you wherever you go. So the next time you say I need to get around to it, you can't say that anymore because you now have a round TUIT sitting in your pocket. We just never get around to it.

Law Of Compound Effect

Now, there are some laws in this world, in this life, and in the creation that God created. Laws always work, and God has set it up that way that if we follow these laws, they work. Laws like the law of gravity. They are consistent. They are continuous. They never change.

And one of the most powerful laws of all is the law of compound effect. What is the compound effect? Perhaps the best place to start looking at that is when it comes to money. If you invest money regularly, it will begin to grow in size.

Even at a very low interest rate, it will gradually increase in size. The thing is, it doesn't increase fast. It increases very slowly. So when you start out with a small amount, after a while, the increase is almost insignificant. You've put an amount of money in the bank, and after a year, the interest is hardly worth mentioning.

But if you leave it for another year, what you put in plus the interest begins to accumulate more interest. The next year, you get a little bit more. And so it goes on and increases. And if you leave it in for long enough, eventually, it will grow to the point where each little bit of increase and compound interest gets bigger and bigger. And suddenly you have this large amount of money.

But we can't wait that long can we? You think, 'If I had a lot of money to invest in the bank right now, if I could put a million in the bank right now at a reasonable interest rate, at least I know I'm going to get a good return.' I could probably even live just on the interest.

Applying The Law Spiritually

That's like saying, 'If I could just spend an hour a day in prayer; if I could just spend an hour a day in the Word, I know I'm going to get results."

And you know what? You may make a valiant effort and set aside that hour today. You may even manage it tomorrow. If you are really a strong-willed person, you may even manage it for a week. But I can tell you what's going to happen. You're not going to keep it up because those extra two hours a day are just too much for the average normal person to handle.

There's a law of compound effect. The law of compound effect says that if you continue to invest small amounts consistently, it's just a matter of time before things begin to grow and expand, and the growth will begin to get faster and faster. Sowing produces a harvest and eventually produces a crop.

Law of Sowing And Reaping

There's a law of sowing and reaping: What you sow will reap. If you continue to sow seeds, you will eventually reap a harvest. Again, we want it to happen overnight.

We want to plant our seed, water it, and go out the next day and pick our fruit. But it doesn't work that way. We've got to sow continuously and wait for the growth to take place.

You see, it always starts out slow. We want to get rich quickly. We want to find some way, and we're looking out there for people who have discovered the secrets to wealth.

This guy became wealthy. He was a millionaire before he turned 30. What was the key to his success? If I can somehow find it and do the same thing as him, I will get wealthy very quickly.

Those of you who want to get physically fit want to get fit very quickly. I want to do a few exercises, and by next week, I want to be at the peak of fitness. So what am I going to do? I'm going to kill myself doing hours and hours of weight training, aerobics, running, and all sorts of other things to try and get fit quickly.

It Does Not Happen Overnight

Well, you may even achieve some success. However, you are not able to keep it up, are you? You'll lose it very quickly. I want to lose weight quickly, so I'm going on a crash diet.

With fasting, which is the ultimate diet, I found the maximum that you could possibly lose in a day is a kilogram by fasting, but it doesn't continue. It goes for a short while, and then your body levels out, and then you're not losing weight anymore. So, no diet is going to make it any better.

But we want to find the latest fad diet that will cause us to lose weight quickly. People out there promise to lose so many pounds in so many days. It doesn't work, and even if it does, you cannot maintain it. I want to do great things for the Lord tomorrow. I want faith to move mountains.

I want to perform miracles, heal the sick, and raise the dead. What do I need to do, Lord, to get these things? Some people think they have to go on long periods of fasting and prayer. Some people think they have to get rid of sin in their lives, try to live holy lives, and make this great big super effort to be good Christians. Then God will use me.

Got To Do It God's Way

Have you tried it? It doesn't work because, you see, we've got to do it God's way, and we've got to learn to be consistent. We can't be impatient and say I want it done, and I want it done now.

You have to use the law of compound effect. Your spirit needs exercise just like your body needs exercise. And you're not going to have one little simple exercise system that, done once or twice, suddenly makes you fit, whether physically or spiritually. Your relationship with the Lord needs exercise, just like every relationship.

I believe the most important relationship in life is marriage. If you do not exercise your marriage relationship, it will grow stale. If you do not pour out love daily, your marriage will grow stale.

Words that are spoken have great power and communicating with your spouse has an amazing power to maintain a marriage. But we get busy. We spend all day at work. We come home. We're tired. We're weary.

You don't have time to sit and say, So how was your day? How are you doing? Are you okay? Can I help you? Can I be there for you? We're too busy, and eventually, the relationship turns stale. How much more is your relationship with your heavenly bridegroom? How much time do you spend communicating with him? How much time do you spend telling him that you love him? Again, the excuse is that my life is full. I don't have time, but you see, you can make time. 

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