In the following messages, we will look at success from God's perspective. We will look at success according to what God calls success and not what the world calls success. We will consider success as God approves of it in time and as He will approve of it at the Judgment Court of Christ. We refuse to call success anything that will have no value beyond the passage of time. We refuse to call success that which strikes the eye of man, but does not strike the eye of God. We refuse to call success that which meets man's standards but fails God's test. By success we mean that which is approved by God, beginning in time and continuing into eternity.
As believers in the Lord Jesus, we are creatures of eternity, passing time in time in order to prepare ourselves for evaluation and reward after the passage of time, that is, in the eternity. Therefore, what the Lord Jesus thinks and says now is absolutely important, and above all, what He says that Day will have importance beyond words.
The Bible says: “According to the grace of God which was given to me, I laid the foundation like a wise architect, and another builds on it. But let everyone be careful how he builds on it. For no other foundation can any man lay than that which is laid, even Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, each person's work will be made manifest; for the day will make it known, because it will be revealed in the fire, and the fire will test what each person's work is. If the work built by anyone on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is consumed, he will lose his reward; for him he will be saved, but as through fire. » (1 Corinthians 3:10-15)
In the world, people look at success primarily on the basis of what a person has done. What it is is of secondary importance. In the Kingdom of God, what a person is is of crucial importance, and what they do is only the overflow of what they are. God views success first in terms of what we are, and only secondly does He view it in terms of what we do. What one person who is rightly connected with God does and what another person who is out of fellowship with God does are two things miles apart. So, for success before God, the person must be correct, his actions must be correct, and his motives must be correct. So, who did something, what they did and why they did it are decisive.
ISBN: 9782357740624