Are you living up to your potential?
Author
Dr. Roberto Miranda
Summary: The Bible teaches that the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, increasing until the day is perfect. God has created us to be perpetually improving, learning from our failures, and using every experience as a stepping stone to personal greatness. Each human being carries within themselves the seed of greatness, the ability to do great things and scale unimaginable heights. When Christ enters our life through his Spirit, all the power of the Kingdom of God is activated and mobilized on our behalf. However, many believers live stagnant, mediocre lives, barely skimming the surface of their potential. We should banish the "I can't" attitude and substitute it with the inspiring statement of the Apostle Paul, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." With the power of God on our behalf, we can go far beyond our immediate limitations and transcend the drag of our past. We can stretch out onto a horizon full of possibilities, where the only limitation lies in our ability to believe God and persistently pursue our dreams until they come true.
One of my favorite texts in the entire Bible is found in Proverbs 4:18. He declares: "But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, increasing until the day is perfect." I like it because it perfectly captures that sense of deep positivity that permeates all of Scripture. For the children of God, life must be a path of continual descent, a perpetual going toward ever higher levels of maturity and personal development. God has created us to be perpetually surmountable, to be better, stronger, wiser, more intelligent and educated, more cunning to live life every day. God's purpose is that we learn even from our failures, that we profit from the perpetual struggle with our shortcomings, that we use every experience, good or bad, as a stepping stone to personal greatness.
God, says the Bible, has made us "a little less than the angels." This mysterious expression alludes to the innate potential that each human being carries within himself. In every human spirit is the seed of greatness, the ability to do great things, to scale unimaginable heights. God's seal, divine genetics, is written within us.
The account of the Fall and the expulsion from the Garden of Eden suggests to us that that almost infinite potentiality was cut off by the separation from God that resulted from the essential disobedience committed by our parents Adam and Eve. But when Christ invades our life through his Spirit, all the power of the Kingdom of God is activated and mobilized on our behalf. We acquire energies and resources that we did not have before. The clogged paths clear before us. God's wind blows behind our ship. We can confidently embark on the adventure of life. In the spiritual dimension God issues an order for all the resources necessary for our personal success to be released. All the power of Heaven awaits our command to support us when we undertake new projects and visions!
In Ephesians 1: 17-20, the apostle Paul prays that the Ephesian believers receive “the spirit of wisdom and revelation” in order to fully understand the magnitude of power they have received as believers in Jesus Christ. Paul suggests that the greatness of the power we have received is so great that it takes a direct revelation from God to understand the vast capacity that every Christian inherits to live a powerful and successful life. At one point, Paul clarifies that it is the same power that was mobilized to raise Christ from the dead. Paul prays that his readers will be empowered to understand “what is the hope to which he has called you, and what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the supereminent greatness of his power towards us who believe , according to the operation of the power of his force ”. Obviously, the power we have inherited through the Holy Spirit is truly amazing!
Why, then, do so many believers live stagnant, mediocre lives, barely skimming the surface of their potential? Why do most of us never get to the depths of that vast potential that God has established within us? What prevents us from making the most of this generous divine machinery, ready to mobilize at the slightest movement of our creativity?
The recognition about the tremendous adaptability of the human brain, the great expansive potential that we carry within us, should lead us to a posture of great optimism and hope. It should lead us to banish from our conceptual vocabulary the "I can't" that so often stops us when the impulse towards personal improvement is born in us. Rather, it should lead us to substitute the inspiring statement of the Apostle Paul— "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" —as a program of life, as the governing motto of our existence.
Paul knew that with the power of God on our behalf, through the unlimited grace that He has installed in us through His Son Jesus Christ, we can go far beyond our immediate limitations. With the power of the Spirit that dwells within us, we can transcend the drag of our past, the wounds and deformations of poverty and lack of education, the defects and deficiencies of our personality. We can stretch out onto a horizon full of possibilities, where the only limitation lies in our ability to believe God, and our willingness to pay the price of persistently pursuing our dreams until they come true. So, take flight! And begin to take advantage of the limitless power that God has already installed within you.