Don't you sometimes feel like a little ant? As you look at the world out there, you see the number of businesses and ministries and all the big names, and sometimes you wonder how you could ever compete.

How could little old you from nowhere somehow come into the limelight and be noticed?

How can you get people to notice you? What does it take for you to become famous or to develop a name in the marketplace?

The world has what it says you should have, but I don't agree with that and I will show you why.

Not About the Physical

You see it is not about your looks, although the world seems to think that it counts a lot don't they? People spend a lot of money and effort on their physical appearance and on trying to look good so that the world will accept them.

Yes it is very important to look successful. I have dealt with this in some detail in my series on the Seven Pillars of Business. But there is a limit to what you can change about the way you look.

Unfortunately for most of us, what you see is what you get. That is the way we were born and how we have developed. It is the kind of bodies we have and our appearance.

You can do a lot to fix it up, but that is as far as you can go. So looks have a limited importance, but they are not the major thing.

The successful people in this world are not necessarily the best looking people. I know you have the beautiful people out there that everybody thinks are great, but sooner or later people find out that they are only skin deep.

Not About Your Background

It is not about your background either. Again the world seems to think that this is important.

They say, “It's where you come from and who you know that counts. Which college did you graduate from? This is very important.

“Which country did you come from? What is your nationality and your family heritage?”

People seem to think that all of these things are what make you a success in life. And yes it is true. People who have these things find it a lot easier to succeed. But that doesn't mean that you must have them to succeed.

You see people try to make the right contacts so they can get recognition and acceptance. But if you think about it, it violates the whole concept of love that I spoke about yesterday.

Your whole orientation is to try to perform for people and to win them so that they will accept you. You should be accepting and recognizing others instead.

So when you have this outflow of other orientation in love, you are always meeting other people's needs. And that is the person who rises up and is recognized, not the person who is looking to get it for themselves.

Abilities Don't Count

It is not about your abilities. Yes your abilities might get people to notice you. You might have great talents, but the world is full of talented failures.

There is talent out there that has never been touched. There are musicians and singers out there that are highly skilled, but you will never know about them. They will never rise up or make a famous recording.

There are actors and actresses out there that are superb in what they can do, but you will never ever hear about them.

Tapping into Wisdom

So it is not about your abilities. What makes the difference? What makes one person stand out from the others?

What makes a person stand out is how capable they are of receiving from their spirits within. We have looked at this plenty already about tapping into the wisdom of your spirit.

I want to share a little example from Scripture which shows exactly how this works.

In the book of Daniel the king had captured all of the Israelites and made them into slaves. He took three boys and he was going to train them up so that he could use them as his advisors.

So we have the three Hebrew children - the ones who were thrown in the fire afterwards. The king gave them special food to eat. And they had to be trained and given the best, so that they could rise up and look good and be intelligent. In other words he tried to get them to develop all of these qualities that we seem to think are so important.

Daniel and his three friends went to the guy who was in charge and said,

“We are not going to eat this stuff. Just give us ordinary water and vegetables. Just give us ordinary food and we will be fine.”

The person who was in charge said,

“Okay I will give it a try, but you are going to get me into trouble if you don't shape up.”

It says in Daniel 1:17:

As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.

Who gave it to them? God gave it to them.

How does God give you anything? He gives it to you through your spirit, because your spirit is the only part that can communicate with God.

And it says in verse 19:

And the king visited with them; and among them all there was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: therefore they stood before the king.

What was it that made these four men rise up to one of the highest places in the kingdom, to where the king himself was looking to them for direction and advice?

Was it their good looks? Well considering they were a foreign nation and they were Jewish, probably their looks weren't too good compared to the people of that nation.

You know somehow foreigners don't look the same and beauty is often in the eye of the beholder. You tend to see somebody as attractive or handsome, only if they are part of your own culture and race.

What about their background? They were slaves. There was no background to brag about there. What about their abilities? They didn't have any abilities yet.

What was it that made these men stand out? God gave them knowledge and skills in all learning and wisdom.

Now I have good news for you if you don't have the good looks, the right background, or so many wonderful natural abilities.

I also have good news for you if you don't have all the right contacts. You have in your spirit a tool; an ability that will cause you to rise up and be noticed in this world.

The Still Small Voice

You can be noticed. To do that all you need to do is refuse what this world has to offer, and tap instead into what is in your spirit. You need to listen to that deep, inner small voice of God within you.

If you learn to listen to that voice; if you learn to quiet your mind and tap into the wisdom that is within you, ideas will pop up out of your spirit of things you never ever thought of.

Abilities will rise up within you that you didn't know you had, and sooner or later people will start to notice. They will say,

“There is something different about you. You seem to have it together. You just seem to be more in control.

“Somehow when you face a problem you don't go to pieces. You work your way through it. You always seem to know what to do.”

How can you come to that place? You can do it by spending time communing with your spirit; by spending time listening to the Lord's voice within and developing that inner wisdom.

Time to Rise Up

If you do that you can rise up just as the four Hebrew children did. You can be noticed by kings. You can be noticed by presidents and people in high places, because you will stand out above the rest.

You will be different. You will have more than other people have.

If you are a child of God you already have more than most of the world has. Why don't you take that heritage that you have, instead of being ashamed of it all the time?

Don't be ashamed to stand up in the sight of the world and say,

“I'm a Christian,” as though that is a disadvantage.

Instead you should realize that you have something that they don't have.

That very thing that you are neglecting will cause you to rise up and be noticed; to become famous and to cause your business to flourish.

It will cause you to become noticed in this world, and many people will be affected and influenced by it. All you need to learn to do is to tap into your spirit.

Take what God has given you and pour it forth. It will just be a matter of time and people will begin to notice you. You won't be hidden away anymore. Then you will have more work and more opportunities than you can handle.

I don't know about you, but I would like to have that kind of problem, where there are more things for me to do than I can handle.

I can handle that. That is the way I want to be in business and also the way I want to be in ministry. I hope you want to be the same.

We are going to speak about it more as we continue for the rest of this week.