Go To Your Roots

“I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13, not “I can do all things through my own individual strength and power.”

Paul is talking about a man and I think he misses the point. He’s talking about a man rather than what the man represents (demonstrates) – what I would call, “God in our soul.” (Soul=sub-conscious mind where divine ideas are present and out-picture into our physical life according to our thinking/belief)

What Jesus demonstrates is, as I said, God in our soul. When God extended Itself (created us), It placed in our soul Its likeness and image – not that we then take It unto ourselves as our individual power. I would say it’s more like the link to that power.  We open the door to that link and connect to what’s on the power that’s “on other side” and together, in partnership, not on our own but in partnership, we have power and can do all things.

How we unlock that door – open that link - I’ll get to in a few minutes.

The road to success, spiritual and otherwise, hasn’t been a straight, easy drive. There is a curve called "failure," a loop called "confusion," speed bumps called "well-intentioned friends," red lights called "enemies," caution lights called “family."  You will have flats called "jobs."

But, if you have a spare called "determination," an engine called "perseverance," insurance called "faith," and a navigator called God, you will make it to a place called SUCCESS.

The day before Mary Kay Ash (Mary Kay Cosmetics) was to launch her cosmetic business, her husband, who was to be the CFO of the business, died suddenly.  Everyone told her to fold her tent
and get a job.  She listened politely to her lawyer, accountant, and friends and then, went right ahead with the business plan she and her husband had envisioned.

Mary Kay cosmetics has given thousands of women around the world the leg up they needed to provide financial and psychological security for themselves and their families.

In 1976, Steve Chandler worked as a sportswriter, a very different field from his current career as a successful motivational speaker.  About 37 years ago, he had an interview with the famous bodybuilder named Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Schwarzenegger had recently retired from his sport, and Chandler asked him about his future plans.  Arnold replied, "I'm going to be the number one
box office star in all of Hollywood.  Chandler wanted to laugh, but he restrained himself.  Here was a guy with the body of Goliath, an accent as thick as paste, and almost no acting experience.  Box-office stardom
seemed an unlikely goal.  But Schwarzenegger had thought it through very carefully.  He said, "It's the same process used in bodybuilding.  What you do is create a vision of who you want to be, and then live into that picture, as if it were already true.”

 This is precisely what Jesus meant in Mark 11:24 when he said, when you pray – believe that you have ALREADY received!

Sometimes success happens even in spite of ourselves.  Take the case of Elliot Daniel who died recently at the age of 89.  At his passing he was a
very rich man.  He composed the upbeat theme song for "I Love Lucy."

Absolutely convinced that this wacky sitcom would sink, he initially asked that his name not appear in the credits.

I read this week that from the moment Shania Twain’s parents’ car slammed into a logging truck in 1967, Shania Twain never had the chance to fully mourn their deaths.  Just 21, Twain took on a great
deal of responsibility for her entire family.  Her singing paid the mortgage on the house she and her three younger siblings lived in.

Shania Twain has been one of country music's hottest stars.  But back then, she sang for her family's survival.  She said, "Taking care of my family
was a blessing in disguise. It was a total distraction from my grief. If you focus instead on people who need you, you may do yourself the biggest favor." Shania did eventually face her grief, as we all need to do, but in that moment of personal confusion and pain she experienced the healing power of extending love to others.

Many things happen in life that can stop us on our road forward towards success. Sometimes it’s misfortunate events, and sometimes it's self-sabotage that stops the forward movement.

God can help.  God can show the way.  God can re-motivate you.  God can help you get employment.  God can influence others to help.

Trying to travel the road towards success of whatever kind you seek, without God's help is a form of self-sabotage.

Ask for God's help today, believing you have received it, so that you can enjoy a more successful life, whatever that means to you.

There is a lot of truth in a tree. A tree is lush at the top. It has leaves. A healthy tree goes far out and gives you shade. But any gardener will tell you that if you water or fertilize the tree, you have to circle, on the ground, the outermost branch line. This is where the ends of the roots are. You cannot see the roots, but they are there.

Here’s the point: a tree is identical on top to what the root system is underneath.

It is the same with us. There is a root system and a foundation in your life.

What are you rooted in, and what’s the depth and breadth of those roots?

It can be a very real, powerful foundation, if you have a solid root system that is grounded in an awareness of the presence of God;

You will bloom on the top of your life.
You will stand up to the winds of your life;
You will stand up to the winters of your life;
You will stand up to anything that comes into your life;

You will sway merrily with the Sun and the gentle breeze, because you have a strong foundation in God.

          We need deep roots in God. We need to unlock that link I spoke about earlier… to the awareness of the Power and Presence of God.

How do we do this?

1.                              We have to consent to the magnificent power of God coming though us.

2.                              We must also get positive friends who believe in us and believe in what we can, and God can, achieve together… not in what we cannot do.

3.                              Pray believing that you have already received.

4.                              And in the words of Molly Friedenfeld, “Focus on faith and grow your roots strong so no one can make you believe in something that is not good for your soul.”

God’s Continuous Upliftment

This service was delivered on August 11, 2013

Does anyone know who invented radar?  It was, with the help of others, a Scotsman, Sir Robert Watson-Watt. In 1952, Watson-Watt was awarded $140,000, the highest award ever made for a wartime invention. Later in life while driving in Canada, he was arrested for speeding, caught in a radar trap.

He wrote a piece of poetry about it titled “Rough Justice.” Here is a portion of it:

 

Pity Sir Robert Watson-Watt
          Strange target of his radar plot.
          And thus with others I could mention,
          A victim of his own invention.

 

Now there’s a great idea to contemplate for ourselves; are we a victim of our own invention? A victim of our life, or the beneficiary of good in our life?

When you got up, this morning, you were an inventor. You invented who you would be in this new day. No outer circumstance, nothing outside of you, determined what it was going to be. It was you, inside of yourself. You opened your eyes, put your feet on the floor, and you started inventing.

And then you started to think about this week, and the master inventor inside of you thought about how this week was going to be. Was it going to be hellish or was it going to be heaven? Every moment inside of ourselves, we invent.

The point here is: we make our own lives.

The question is: will you be a victim of our own invention, or will you bask in the glory of it?

We are not just a Sunday morning religion. It is my joyous job to be here, every Sunday, and to share my insights based upon my thinking, the choices I’ve made and the outcome of those choices much of which is based upon the teachings that Jesus offers on how to live life on Sunday, and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.

You have the rest of the day and a whole new week ahead of you – in fact, a whole new life to be designed as you choose. Time is a gift when we use it properly.  

What are you going to invent in your life with this power you possess? Is your life going to continue in a downward spiral, if that’s the way it’s going? Or is this morning, right now, going to be the turning point where you climb up and out and stay up with God's lifting help, forever and ever?

Let me tell you a story about a man that was in a downward spiral. He was a baking powder salesman, many years ago. No matter how hard he tried, the sales of baking powder were going down and down and down. Well, he had the same daily challenges that we have. He had a couple of kids, a wife, and bills that needed to be paid. But how could they be paid if baking powder wasn’t selling?

He prayed for ideas. He said, “What will make this baking powder sell?” So he got the idea that what he needed to do was to give a premium with the
baking powder. You buy baking powder and you get chewing gum. Well, everyone loved the chewing gum. They loved the chewing gum and nobody wanted the baking powder.

The man got more and more depressed. He wondered, “What am I to do?” He hit bottom. He got on his knees and prayed to God for new ideas. (When you hit bottom do you pray… ask for guidance… or keep on fighting and scrapping in order to try and make your way out?) This message came to him: “The new ideas are staring you right in the face.” He got the idea to drop the baking powder and start selling the gum. His name was William Wrigley.

Notice that Mr. Wrigley asked again… and again he was given help. God never gives up on us!

Everybody has been in a downtime sometime in their life. The problem is, as a child of God, deciding to stay in that downtime instead of getting yourself up and out, once and for all. God never experiences a downtime, and when you are with God, you are always in store for greater things.

Many years ago, a man was in a severe down period in his life. He was a success at a career that he didn’t like, that he had thought before… was everything that he ever wanted in his life, and then he found out that it wasn’t. He wondered, “What in the world am I going to do with my life?” And that is often something that is very distressing to a man or a woman when they get in that situation. He was burned out.  He was depressed.

He began to realize that when he turned to God, he would begin to feel good for a while, and then he would slip back into worrying. He would slip back into distress almost without realizing it. It is almost as if a spring was on his back. He would walk towards God, and then without realizing it, the minute he let his awareness down, he would spring back into his worries about a seeming mountain of problems in front of him.

He thought to himself: “How crazy. It is almost as if the negativity had a magnetic pull on me.” He wondered, “Why do I keep doing this?” He would pray, and he said, “When I was praying I felt great, but then I would slip back. Then, after worrying and having great anxiety for a while in my mind, I would wake up again and say, “What in the world am I doing?”

Maybe you are like this, right now, in your life. This man started to realize that he was king over his own mind; his mind could not rule over him unless he let it run wild. He could make the choices of what he would experience, of what he was going to invent in his day.

He decided that if I am going to have a magnetic pull sucking me back to something, why not reverse it and have the magnetic pull me back to God
awareness. Instead of doing it consciously, he prayed would be able to automatically go into prayer and automatically feel good again, without even realizing what he had done.

The magnetic pull to negativity can be reversed inside of you. If you are in a downward spiral right now, I want to read you something that greatly helped this man when he read it. It is from a book entitled, “What Are You?” by Imelda Shanklin.

“You will have the right kind of confidence in yourself when you have developed a consciousness of your identity with God and God’s identity with you. Encompass yourself with the certainty of God.” (my emphasis)

Something happened to this man. He said, “I cannot even do it justice, now, trying to explain it to you.” He read, “Encompass yourself with the certainty of God,” He thought, “What a beautiful statement.”

Imagine if you, this minute, would encompass yourself with the certainty of God, knowing that your problems are not your problems alone, that you are encompassed in the certainty of God; encompassed, not separated.

You are encompassed in God - completely sealed in God’s protection and God’s good and God’s love. Maintain that awareness and your life will change.

I cannot help but think that a wise and loving Creator must extend continuous permanent good to It’s offspring.” I believe that God does this; and this same power lies in you to possess and mold your thoughts so that it (the goodness, the love, the peace, the prosperity) can come through.

So, today, as you sit here, and in the constant stream of moments to come, inventing this week that is going to be ahead of you, decide right now, that this is going to be the best week that you have ever experienced in your life. This week. It does not matter what is outside of you or had been going on inside of you, because you have the power to remember and stay aware of being encompassed by God. This is the time, right now. And you are going to invent the best week for yourself.

Next week we’ll talk about what keeps us in negativity and how to allow “positive invention” to flow.