Do you have a purpose in life? What would your answer be? Most people have no idea. Do you have a goal for being alive? You can be everything God wants you to be if you release your potential. It is a great waste if we do not fulfil our potential in life. There are five keys to unleashing your success potential.

1 – Be clear in your direction (vs. 1-2)

God wants them to go over the Jordan. The people had a goal. They were to go in a particular direction. We need direction in our lives. We need specific goals for our lives. We can’t move in a direction unless we know where we are going. Are you wandering around aimlessly? You have potential to do more in your life if you have clear direction in your life. There are three mandates that are given:-

• Discover your potential – You need to look for it.
• Dedicate your potential to God – God will send you in the right direction.
• Develop your potential – It is no good discovering your potential if you are not going to develop it. This is what God is most interested in. He wants to make you better. You need to get up and do something! We all need initiative in our lives.

2 – Be confident in your desires (vs. 6)

Joshua is told four times in the passage to be strong. It was a seemingly impossible task. You are not going to go anywhere without confidence. Satan will try and destroy the confidence/courage in your life. Do you pray yourself out of doing something? There are so many things that can destroy your confidence. Here are three things:-

• Experience – You may have had a bad experience. You tried it before and it didn’t work. You are scared to try again.
• Emotions – You may not feel good about it. It is not about what you feel. You may not feel like getting up early in the morning for work but you may have a mortgage and bills that need to be paid. You can get over your feelings in a moment! Let you feelings take a back seat.
• Excuses – “I can’t do it” or “I don’t have the money”, etc. You can look for very excuse in the world to not do it

Joshua is confident and tells the people to prepare themselves for God to do great things. See Joshua 3:5.

3 – Be committed to your decision (vs. 7)

See Luke 9:62. You can’t put your hand to the plough and look back. Joshua needs to keep straight. He needs to be committed to go through what he sets out to do. Here are three things that will test your commitment:-

• Problems – You will get problem out of problem if you are committed to your decision. If you run into a problem and say it mustn’t be God’s will then you are not committed. You will always get problems. There are different seasons in our life. If we try to be successful then we will run into problems. We should not be surprised. It does not mean that we are out of God’s will.
• Pressures – We need to manage our time.
• People – There are certain people are negative and pour cold water on your dreams. Negative thinking is easily transmitted to others. Sometimes we have to wait on God. Things don’t always happen when you want them to happen. People may criticize you. Don’t let this stop you from following what God wants you to do.

4 – Be corrected by your defeats

See Joshua 7. After the defeat of Jericho they were defeated by a small city called Ai. They asked about it and discovered there was sin in the camp. When this was sorted out they went out and defeated Ai. They were corrected by their defeats. You will have some defeats as will. That doesn’t mean you are a failure. You need to get up and try again. You should be corrected by your defeats and then you will have victory. It doesn’t matter how big your defeats may have been. Failure is not final.

You are in good company if you have failed. If you have never failed then you have never lived. It was Michael Jordan who was cut from the school basket ball team and told he could not play. It was Walt Disney who was told in school that he had never had any original ideas. The reason we don’t reach our potential because we get down and we stay down. Be corrected by your defeats and you can soar into greatness. Like Joshua – sanctify yourself, get up and take Ai.

5 – Be conscious of God’s dependability (vs. 9)

You can depend on God. Joshua knew it. Here are some examples:-

• You can depend on God’s power (vs. 5). This is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead and told the sun to stand still. It is the power that fed thousands of people from a few fish and loaves.
• You have God’s protection (vs. 5). No man will be able to stand against Joshua. He would have enemies but they won’t be able to stand against him. Who can stand against God’s will and blessing? The Devil can only stand to attention. We should keep our hand in God’s hand.
• You have God’s prosperity (vs. 8). If you do what God wants you to do then you will be prosperous. You will always have more than you need. This does not mean you have five fancy cars. You have more food and clothes than you need. This happened when Jesus turned water into wine. There was more than they needed. This was what happened when the fish and loaves were given to the thousands of people. God gives us more than we can possibly need.
• You have God’s presence (vs. 5). As God was with Moses, He will be with you. There is no reason to fail if you want to do it to the glory of God. You don’t have to be a failure. God wants to get glory out of your life. God will unleash your success potential if you give your life to Him.

Categories: Joshua