Salvation is more than a position. Positionally in Him, by His stripes we have been healed. I am in perfect health.

Positionally in Him, He was made poor so that I could be made rich.

Positionally in Him, we have fellowship with one another and lots of relationships. That is our position, but what is our experience?

Your experience is determined by your habits. And a lot of the time it is determined by the bad habits that you have developed in your life.

So what are you going to do? Are you going to wait for a crisis, or for something urgent to happen? Or are you going to decide,

"I am tired of going the way I am. I'm going to embrace the promises of the Lord. With His help I'm going to change some of my habits. I'm going to become a different person, and I'm going to apply the power of His salvation practically in my life."

How to Make Changes

You can have the day that turns your life around without having a crisis. It's called repentance. You need to say,

"I repent of being complacent; of accepting mediocrity, when He has called me to stand up and stand out."

That's not going to be free. It's going to cost you. It's going to take a stirring up of your passions and your desires, and moving out of your comfort zone.

You will stay there until you die. But once you make that choice a new process will begin.

You cannot go on the way you are. You realize that this will cost you, and you make up your mind that you are prepared to make the sacrifices.

Perhaps you decide to change some of your habits, so you start praying more. You don't do it by saying,

"Please Lord; please Lord."

That is not praying. You are also not praying when you cry out to Him,

"Oh Lord, you know how much I want this. Please Lord."

When you pray like that He gets busy somewhere else. You won't even get His attention. God is moved by faith; by you praying,

"Thank you Lord that this is what you have for me. I reach out and embrace it and I take it with my hand of faith. It is mine! I put my foot on it and I claim it."

That is the kind of prayer you need to start praying. You might have to do that every day, two or three times a day. How desperate are you? Perhaps you say,

"I will wait until the Lord decides to give it to me."

He gave it to you already 2000 years ago. We have taught on this and shown that He has put it in you. You have to reach out and take it.

You need to start getting into the Word more. Why? Because that is what builds your faith. That's where the promises are and where the principles are. It is where you will learn what to put off and put on.

Then you need to start applying good principles of change and success.

Principles Taught in the World

Have you experienced the day that turns your life around? If you haven't, here's your chance. Let today be the day that turns your life around.

This is a universal principle that is taught in the world. But we have so much more.

There are a couple of other principles that are taught in the world. I am going to share some of them with you quickly, and I am going to show you how they are totally Scriptural as well.

The Law of Use

There is a principle called The Law of Use. This law says that what you use will increase and grow. What you do not use will atrophy and shrink away.

The Bible gives us a parable of Jesus, where a man gave talents to his servants and went off on a journey. Some of them took the talent and they used it to make more.

I know that people love to say that a talent is your ability. But the talent here was actually money. The question is effectively what do you have in your hands right now that was given to you?

The one guy was given quite a lot. He was given five talents. Another guy only got a little bit. He only got one talent. You might think,

"Shame, poor guy. He only got one."

But you know what? Everybody was given something.

You may look around you and see people that are very talented. They have been given a lot. They have been put in good places, wealthy families or in places where there are opportunities, but you are not there.

But I don't care if you are a little guy with one talent. You have still been given something to use. Are you going to have the attitude of the guy with the one who said,

"What is the point of me even trying?"

Actually his attitude was arrogant and selfish. He said,

"What is the point of me multiplying this? The master will take it away in the end anyway. Why should I bother?"

But what happened? He lost it. But those who took their talents, traded and made more were given more. Eventually the talent was taken away from the one who had the least and was given to the one who had the most.

It is called The Law of Use. What has God given you and what are you doing with it? What abilities do you have? What finances do you have? What mental skills do you have and what artistic abilities do you have?

You Can Have More

Every one of us has been given something different. But you don't have to stay with that. You can develop it and get more.

You might say, "All I have is this one little talent."

What are you doing with it?

You might say, "What's the point? I can't compete against these people."

Here I am with my little ability and here is this person who has the world at their feet. Everything just falls into place.

Don't you hate them? No don't hate them. Try and compete with them. Take what you have got and multiply it. How? By using it.

When you are finished reading this section, I want you to sit down and make a list of all of your talents and what has been given to you. List every single thing that you own, whether it be temporal, spiritual, emotional or intellectual.

Make a list, then say to the Lord,

"Lord, what do you want me to do. Give me the wisdom to take this and use it; to multiply it so that I get more."

Some people coast on their one talent. But did you know that you can get more talents? You might say to me,

"She was just born with that beautiful singing voice."

No actually she cried about the same as every other baby. You couldn't tell the difference. But over time she developed that talent.

Yes there are hereditary characteristics you can have. If your father was a singer, you have a good chance of having a good singing voice. But does that stop you from developing what you have?

You may not have become a famous singer, but you could sound better than a frog.

I know this one from experience. I know people who are just born with it. My ex wife had a beautiful singing voice, so they kept asking her to sing in church all the time. I was just the idiot who had to play for her because I couldn't sing.

Well I am not afraid to stand up and lead the worship right now. I may not have the kind of voice that is recordable and that people will buy. But it is good enough. I have given it to the Lord and He is using it.

What talents don't you have that you would like? How are you going to get them? Take the ones you do have, sow them and they will grow. We will get to the growing part next.

Look at What You Have

What do you have to start with? You have a body. What can you do with it?

You can start with feeding it the right kind of food. You can also give it some simple exercise to make it more efficient. That will make your body an asset instead of a liability.

For some of us our bodies are a liability and people might say,

"I'm doing it in spite of my body."

You have a soul. What can you do with that? You can educate it and fill it with knowledge. You can spend a bit of time visualizing and meditating, planning and setting goals.

You have a spirit and you can get into the Word. You can feed it, and you can start developing the fruits and the gifts of the Spirit.

Take The Law of Use. Take what you have and start using it. And like a muscle, the more you use it the stronger it gets.

Years ago I read a Reader's Digest article about this. I don't know if it is still true, but they said that if you flex a muscle for six seconds a day it will start to grow.

You might say to me,

"I don't have time to exercise."

Do you have six seconds? Just flex your muscle and say,

"1 little second, 2 little seconds, 3 little seconds, 4 little seconds, 5 little seconds, 6 little seconds. Wow, that just took all my time!"

No, you are just too lazy. Use it and it will grow. Don't complain because you have nothing. Take what you have, use it and it will increase.

The Law of Sowing and Reaping

The second law which I just touched on now is The Law of Sowing and Reaping. The Scripture says in Galatians 6:7,

Whatever a man sows, that will he reap.

There can be no reaping in this life without sowing. But how do you sow? The first thing is you need to take your eyes off yourself and become other oriented.

Start looking around you at other peoples' needs instead of your own. Become giving oriented instead of taking oriented.

When you have thrown your seed in the ground you have given it away to the soil. Until you are prepared to stick it under the ground and walk away, it's going to stay in your hand as just one little seed.

Take your eyes off yourself and start looking around you for who you can give to.

You might say, "What do I have to give?"

Well did you make that list of your skills and assets and what you have been given? Every one of those is something that you can give, not just money.

Yes if you have money that is easy to give. It is also easy if you have things. Start sowing and you will reap. You can sow to the body, to the soul and to the spirit, and you will begin to reap in all of those areas of your being.

You might say to me,

"I need to hold onto what I have you know. If there is no money at the end of the month we are in trouble."

Use Your Big Guns

I have a little thing that I do in these circumstances. I have shared it before but I will share it again. I have a little expression that I call taking out your big guns.

Jesus stood and watched everybody put all their money into the collection box in the temple. Then along came a poor little widow and put in like a couple of cents. People sneered at her and said,

"Hmm, I just put in a 100 dollar bill. All she could put in was two cents. Cheapskate!"

What did Jesus say? He said,

"She gave more than all of them, because they gave out of their abundance, but she gave all that she had."

You see she took out her big guns.

I proved this principle years ago, and I have proved it over and over again.

The first time I really applied it was when we were in a desperate situation. I had lost my job. We had a bit of money; like just a third of what we needed to pay the rent. We didn't know where the money was going to come from.

Somebody invited us to a birthday party and I know they were poor people as well. I thought,

"I have nothing to take as a gift. I can't afford it."

So I made out a cheque for about half the money that I had and I gave it to her as a birthday gift. My wife at that time wanted to divorce me. She fought with me all the way. She said,

"You are mad!"

I said, "I'm doing what God said. I'm taking out my big guns."

It wasn't long before things started to happen. Somebody invited me to preach to a little group of people and they took up an offering. It came to quite a huge amount. Then one guy pulled me over and said,

"We have just sold our business and we are waiting for the money to come through. God has told us we need to give you some of it. We are not wealthy, but we would like to give you part of what we got from selling the business."

People started to appear at the door and say,

"God told me to give this you."

Then they would hand me an envelope with cash notes in it. I tell you what, I didn't only pay the rent. We eventually had more than enough money to buy an airfare to come back to Johannesburg. At that time we were in Port Elizabeth on the coast.

God provided for us in abundance, because I took out my big guns. But we usually take out our little pea shooter and we say,

"I'll just give 5 rand here and 10 rand there."

You are just using your pea shooter. I know that the big preachers out there are telling you,

"Take out your credit card and make a donation for $1,000."

I don't go for that. You will never hear me telling you to give me money. We offer partnership and products for sale. Open your eyes to the needs round about you and see somebody who is in need.

Ask God where you must sow your seed and then sow it. And don't give with a mean attitude. The Scripture says that God loves a cheerful giver, so take out your big guns.

Well if you don't want a big return, that's fine. If you are happy with your finances the way they are, that's fine. You don't actually even need to give anything. You can just carry on struggling the way you are, pleading with the Lord and saying,

"Please Lord, please."

The Lord says, "I offered you an opportunity and you didn't take it."

"But Lord I would have lost everything."

No you wouldn't have. What did Jesus say to the rich young ruler?

"Go and sell everything you have and come and give it to me for my ministry."

Did He say that? No, He didn't. He said in Matthew 19:21,

Go and give it to the poor and you will have treasures in heaven.

I want to tell you that if he had obeyed, he probably would have taken Judas's place. He would have probably been the one Jesus could trust to handle the finances.

Without sowing there will be no reaping. What do you have to sow? Look around to see where you can sow it, because you are guaranteed to get a whole lot more back.

We don't preach tithing here. I preach against it, because tithing is an obligation. Your giving must never be an obligation. It must be given in faith, hope and love.

You must give to God in faith. Give in hope that He will provide, and in love and care for the person that you are sowing into.

If you don't sow it like that, you are just throwing it by the wayside, like the seeds that the birds came and took away. You are sowing it in bad soil.

The Law of Compound Effect

The final law I would like to look at is known as The Law of Compound Effect. This one links with all the others.

Remember how I spoke about doing the muscle training for six seconds? But you don't need to start out with an hour long workout every day. I know some people love this.

Some people are even addicted to exercise. They thrive on it.

I am not one of them. I must admit I have to kick my backside a few times and force myself to get into it. I guess I need to come to the place where I can say,

"I love it."

Maybe if I say it for long enough I might believe it. Sometimes if you tell someone you love them you might not feel a thing at first. But if you say it for long enough you start to feel it. So perhaps that is one of the things you could do.

The important thing is that small actions repeated over and over again begin to build on one another and accumulate.

If you put a small amount of money in the bank consistently every month, over time as interest is added and as more money is added, that money will begin to grow.

There are lots of illustrations that have been used for this. Some people have used it for soul winning. One guy says,

"I'm going to preach and win 1,000 souls to the Lord every day, because I'm a great evangelist and I can draw the crowds."

I think, "Good luck to you. It's going to be hard work."

Another guy says,

"I can lead one soul to the Lord every day if I really make the effort. Then I'll teach that person to do the same thing and we'll both win a soul to the Lord."

So it starts out with 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16 people. Then after a certain period of time the other guy has been winning 1,000 people to the Lord. He is growing weary, but he is consistent. He's winning his 1,000 souls.

But the guy who started out winning one person and teaching them to do the same has already reached the whole world.

You might say, "I don't have time to get into major exercises. I can't just change my diet. I can't live on salads. I hate it. And I hate pushing weights. You won't catch me in a gym. I don't have time for that."

What can you do? What can you start with? You might say to me,

"I don't have a lot of money, so I can't really invest or sow."

How much have you got? I have heard people give testimonies of where the appeal was made for finance and they had 50 in their pocket. They felt the Lord say to them,

"Give the 50."

They said, "But Lord that is all I have."

The Lord said, "That is all I want."

It doesn't matter how much you give. The point is if you will start and you will be consistent and make it a habit, the law of growth will kick in. The Law of Sowing and Reaping will kick in, and especially The Law of Compound Effect will kick in.

Gradually over time it will begin to turn its wheels. And what started out as a small effort, as a small sowing, a small giving or activity of using what you have, suddenly will begin to grow.

You look back on yourself and see how far you have come and you say,

"Wow, how did that happen?"

It seems almost miraculous, but it is a principle that works every time.