THE PRINCIPAL THING

God means for you to have good success. That is His master-plan for you. He is not happy seeing you a failure. Failure is not in God’s nature. He does not have it and does not want it for you. It is a symptom of spiritual death. God wants you a success!

As each blessing of scripture carries a demand to fulfill specific conditions, success has its mode of operation and wisdom is one of the principal things needed for it.

Ecclesiastes 10:5-10 tells us of an evil under the sun, and the evil is, servants riding on horses and princes walking as servants upon the earth.

"There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, an error which proceedeth from the ruler: folly is set in great dignity and the rich set in low place. I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking like servants upon the earth.... If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put forth more strength, but wisdom is profitable to direct"

The summary of this passage is that the reason why princes have had to start walking on foot while servants ride on horses is folly. He said, "folly is set in great dignity." It is folly. The prince has begun to operate foolishly and folly is a basic prerequisite for removal from the princely office.

God wants you to retain your horseback status. He does not intend that servants take your place. He wills you to be a good success, an eternal excellency, a joy and pride of many generations. But this is only obtainable by forsaking foolishness and walking in wisdom. In verse 10, he said, wisdom is profitable to direct.

Wisdom is the principal tool in maintaining your horseback position. As a king, Saul, Israel’s first monarch, lost his exalted position for lack of wisdom (1 Samuel 13:13).

"And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly; thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which He commanded thee; for now would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel forever. But now thy kingdom shall not continue..."

He lost the prospect of his dignity being established over Israel on an eternal basis simply because he acted foolishly. You cannot operate folly and expect your kingdom to continue. You cannot behave without wisdom and expect to be successful. Success is attained and retained by wisdom. If at any time you fall short of wisdom, there is no other substitute that can work. Wisdom is wisdom. Other things are other things. Wisdom is profitable to direct. It will be an act of folly for me to come to church and begin to single out one deacon after another telling their faults and deficiencies.

There are things that do not require prayers to solve. A mere application of wisdom gets the situation easily under control. Things that have been developed and cultivated vigorously and carefully over the years can be destroyed in a matter of minutes for lack of wisdom.

It becomes very important therefore to be guided and directed by this all important tool for success. You cannot go too far without wisdom. It is so crucial that the Bible says it is the principal thing. Notice that in a school setting, you have a principal course (your major), minors, and electives which are optional. It does not matter how well you perform in the minors and electives, if you fail the major course, you cannot be said to have passed.

So also, in order to have good success, wisdom is of paramount significance. Without it, you cannot make it. It is the foundation upon which the success complex is built. And if this foundation is weak or non-existent, what sort of building would you claim to have? The fact is, you need wisdom more than any other thing. If you must have good success, you must pass the wisdom-test. It is indispensable.

I have seen mighty prayer warriors who have never tasted success. They are not likely to taste it until they acquire this all important ingredient - wisdom. I have heard and seen people who confess the word rigorously but have not got the result they desire. They lack wisdom! The Bible clearly states that wisdom is the principal determinant of success.

In Proverbs 4:5-7, the Bible says,

"Get wisdom, get understanding; forget it not, neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee; love her, and she shall keep thee. WISDOM IS THE PRINCIPAL THING; therefore get wisdom, and with all thy getting, get understanding"

The problem most people have, even ministers of the gospel, is that they have never paid any serious attention to the need to operate in wisdom. They have worked hard in other areas but the principal thing is lacking. That is why they are not possessing. They are not making it.

There are people who have great potential for global business connection, but they are not known beyond their little compounds along their lonely streets. There are men of God with great visions who could have otherwise been moving nations for Jesus confined to little congregations, all for lack of wisdom. They have the ability, but they lack the principal factor of harnessing and managing that ability to produce great results. Wisdom is lacking in their lives, they remain at the base of the ladder.

Consider the Lord Jesus for an example. His whole life and ministry were guarded and guided by the accurate manifestation of wisdom. Even from childhood, wisdom was in manifestation. He grew with, and in wisdom. Luke 2:40 and 52 says,

"And the child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him... And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and man"

Even Jesus needed to be filled with wisdom and had to increase His wisdom level from time to time. If Jesus needed and used it, you then must know that you CANNOT do without it. Each time He taught, they marvelled at His wisdom. He taught with authority because He had what it takes to make it.

The men who have had the greatest positive influence on the world have been men of immense wisdom. Billy Graham is easily one of the greatest men of God in the world today. In fact, he has been described as the John the Baptist of the 20th century and evangelist to the world. If you look closely into his life, his greatest desire is not power or any other thing, but wisdom. He has the greatest individual christian influence on the world today. His driving force has been wisdom.

Through wisdom a house is built. If you know the process of building you will know that it is not a thing you do haphazardly. It requires diligent planning and patience. It needs careful, progressive structuring. It takes wisdom to do that!

Wisdom, simply put, is the ability to compute knowledge to lay hold on your desire. Wisdom helps you to know how to walk with God to bring your desire to pass. If you must rise to the top, you must know this and hold onto it.

If you are in business and you don’t apply wisdom, you will not only run at a loss, you will fold up. If your capital is N500.00 and because you are of faith and power, you decide to deal in building materials, you will notice that you are not walking in wisdom. N500:00 cannot keep you in building materials business. In fact, nobody will know you are selling anything. They will not notice your materials. It will just look like you have gone to the market to buy them and waiting for a taxi to transport them home. You can pray all night and all day on that, but unless you bring in some wisdom, you cannot make it.

You need to be able to apply yourself at every given time, based on what you have, to believing God and managing yourself wisely for increase. You may have a vision for building materials but you cannot start out on that now. Start where you are, small as it may be. Then you can go on to greater heights as you improve on your capital.

Much the same way, if you are in business and your total output is N1,000.00, it will be unwise of you to rent a shop of N1,500.00. If you do this, you will go bankrupt. Your prayer and fasting will not change it. It only requires a simple application of wisdom. Wisdom is profitable to direct.

Wisdom is the principal thing. God is going to use this weapon to show His glory to the devil these last days. God is going to use the Church, full grown in wisdom to manifest Himself to the devil (Ephesians 3:10).

Ecclesiastes 10:10, says,

"If the iron be blunt and he do not whet the edge, then must he put forth more strength, but wisdom is profitable to direct"

Take this illustration. James and Peter are two wonderful friends. They were employed by Federal Forestry Department to fell trees. Upon agreement, it was decided that each person would be paid N3.00 per tree felled. They were given same brand of blunt cutlasses and left to go into action.

James said, "Beloved Peter, I am off to the town to sharpen my cutlass." But Peter, being "full of faith," said, "I will finish all the work before you arrive, because to him that believeth all things are possible" (even felling trees with a blunt cutlass!)

James went to town to sharpen his cutlass out of the money he would be paid. On his arrival, brother Peter was still on the first tree. Now James finds it easy to fell trees because he has "whet" the edge of the cutlass. At the end of the day, brother Peter with all his strength and faith, felled 3 trees, while James succeeded with 10 trees. Peter would have N9:00 while James would have N30:00. Assuming that he spent N1.00 on taxi and another for sharpening his cutlass, he is still left with N28.00 while brother Peter has N9.00 only.

Look at it: they both had the same assignment, perhaps the same skill, interest, and cutlass. The difference is that James was wise about it and his wisdom paid off. It made the difference. When James went sharpening his cutlass, Peter was busy working hard. He was not lazy about it. He worked very hard but got very little out of it.

If you do not apply wisdom in all you do, you will work yourself out with only very little to show for it. "Whet the edge" of the iron so that you will not need to put more strength. That is wisdom.

A lot of people are hasty. They cannot wait. They want immediate success. They want it to be automatic. But you see, you have to begin somewhere. At the beginning, when a farmer sows his corn, it first comes up as an ordinary weed. But that is not the end. It is corn, irrespective of its look. Eventually, it grows into the full corn with the fruits beautifully displayed.

Then you ask me, "Pastor David, how can I get this wisdom?" You can get it through three major ways. You get wisdom at salvation because Jesus has been made unto us wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:30). You can get it by asking for it (James 1:5). And you can get it through the laying on of hands.

If you sense a lack of wisdom in your life, lay hold on it. Ask God. He gives wisdom freely and generously too. He gave Solomon when he asked for it. Jesus had an abundance of it.

The Bible says Jesus is the wisdom and power of God. He is wisdom personified; and He is in you, if you are born again. The very wisdom of God dwells in you! The much of that wisdom you manifest depends on what attention you pay to the word of faith you exercise to manifest it. You have wisdom in you. Harness it and use it to make a success in life.

It does not matter how much time, money and energy you have invested doing the wrong thing. Wisdom demands that when you notice your fault or mistake, do not hesitate to switch over for good. That is wisdom and every other thing is folly. Learn to be absolutely right in whatever cause you are involved in. Do not manage it. Be sure you are on the right key. Then you will notice that you are ready for it and nothing can stop you.

Get this wisdom the accurate computation of spiritual facts to arrive at your success. Everything has a way of doing it. The all purpose way is WISDOM. It is the principal thing.

Discipline: The Control Valve

Another important ingredient for success in all life endeavours is discipline. It is as important as wisdom. You may be a Solomon in wisdom but if you are a Samson in discipline, you will not make it. Your wisdom will become foolishness because unused wisdom is in fact worse than folly. Wisdom is the ability to know what to do under a specific situation, but discipline is the ability to bring or train yourself to doing it. You see how related these two ingredients are. They are very important.

Many christians are not balanced. They do something to the extreme and leave others out completely. That is not discipline. It is doing the right thing at the right time and at the rate it should be done. One who is not living or walking in discipline is like a child. You cannot commit any serious thing into his hand. He cannot handle it. It is like handing an automatic revolver over to a child of four years. In the first place, he may use it against himself. He is not disciplined in mind to understand the functions of the gun he is handling. He may then end up using it against himself.

Paul said that a child (an undisciplined man) will always talk and do things as such. There is a direct correlation between the child and one without discipline. The general comment is that he is childish or behaves like a child. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:11,

"When I was a child, I spoke as a child; I understood as a child, thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things"

In summary, he is saying I was not disciplined to know what to do when I was a child. It was beyond me as it is with every child; but when I grew, I disciplined myself to be full grown.

Many Christians are yet to graduate from babyhood. They are not childish in physique but in mind. They cannot harness the power of will to do the right. They allow their lives to go haywire. That is why things happen to them anyhow. Such people cannot think of being successful. They lack discipline. They are childish at heart. Paul says in Galatians 4:1,

"Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all"

Note that he says an HEIR! He is lord of all. His father has given him the right to all he left behind. He has the title-deed. He has all things credited to him but as long as he is a child, he is just like the servant. His childish state does not permit or enable him to enjoy the pleasure of things that rightly belong to him. This is one reason why you cannot enter into God’s success plan for you. You are an heir to success but if you don’t graduate from babyhood, you cannot enjoy it. You will continue to live in failure like servants. But if you will dare to discipline yourself you will enter into the privileges and pleasure of your heirdom.

Ecclesiastes 10:16 says,

"Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child and thy princes eat in the morning"

A country whose leaders are undisciplined will see woes. They will suffer natural disgrace and international humiliation. The leaders will behave anyhow. They can spend all the money on things that are not profitable. And you can be sure that such a nation can never succeed, at least, not under indisciplined leaders.

Discipline is crucial to success. You have to know what to do, do it at the right time and at the rate required. David fell a victim of indiscipline. And he had to pay for it dearly.

In 2 Samuel 11:1-2, the Bible says,

"And it came to pass, after the year was ended at the time when kings go to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel and they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried at Jerusalem"

If you read this story further, you will notice that David was not expected to tarry at Jerusalem at this time. He was to be at the battle front. "At the time when kings go to battle ..." But David tarried in Jerusalem. He was not doing the right thing at the right time.

He was king of Israel. He succeeded Saul who lost that same throne on the ground of folly. David here is walking in indiscipline. He was not doing the right thing. Reading through Chapter 11 and 12 of 2 Samuel, you see what indiscipline brought upon him. Verses 2 and 4 of chapter 11 says,

"And it came to pass at eventide that David arose from his bed, and walked upon the roof of the King’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman washing herself and the woman was very beautiful to look upon... And David sent messengers and took her. And she came in unto him and he laid with her ..."

You can see the chain of events. Indiscipline, idleness, adultery, and if you read further, you will see murder. He arranged all manners of evil and, eventually, arranged and killed Urriah, Bathsheba’s husband, to conceal his sin.

God was highly displeased with David. Verse 27 says,

"... But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord"

It was a product of indiscipline.

Most people who are in some form of pitiable condition today would have been spared the trouble had they some basic discipline in life. It is important for you to get this straight. Your success will always elude you until you begin to mature in discipline. Train your body and mind to be subject to the discipline of the Spirit by the word of God. Mortify the deeds of your flesh through the Spirit.

You have great potentials that can be harnessed. But you cannot do that in careless circumstances. You need to discipline yourself to pave your way to success. Have control over your time. This is very important. A lot of people say time is against them. If you ask them what they have done with the time available to them, they cannot point to anything. They are thieves of their time.

Plan out your time and use it wisely. It is not wise to allow things to happen just as they come. Make a plan of action. Plan very carefully and stick to your plan as much as possible. Set time and achievement goals. These will help you manage your time. Make positive realistic plans. Do not follow after trivialities. Make concrete plans and follow them. God is interested in discipline. You won’t enter your success complex without discipline.

Hard Work

If you really desire success, you must work hard for it. Success does not fall on people’s laps. It is not obtained on a platter of gold. You have to work your way through to it.

If you look at people who are lazy and idle, you easily see on them that they are not ever going to make any success. They are such failures. The requirement for failure is laziness and idleness.

Ecclesiastes 10:18 says: "By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through"

You cannot be successful in any area of life if you are not hard working. It is one other factor of great significance. You need to be diligent in business, at school, in ministry, if you must be a success. The Bible says in Proverbs 22:29,

"Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men"

That is God’s formula for success - diligence. He said if you do not want to fail (stand before mean men, men of no repute, men of no substance), be diligent in your work. Work hard and you will not keep company with those strugglers at the base of the ladder. You will be up there with kings.

You must know that the more you apply yourself to hard work, the better you become. Consider the example of sportsmen. The more they train, the better they perform. Why do you think they are called into camping before major outings? It is to perfect their diligence, to prepare them for the task. And you see more likely than not, they always come out stronger, better and more experienced.

Your hard work will expose you. It brings out certain potentials that have been latent. It will bring such into dynamic manifestation and you will begin to discover that you are worth more than what meets the eyes. You can make it! You can be better than you are. You can be more successful. You can be more prosperous. You have no limit in God.

All you need now is all that is outlined to you WISDOM, DISCIPLINE and HARD WORK. These three will cause an explosion in your life for good. You will easily see the bright and wider horizon. As you move in one direction the horizon will get broader. You can exercise yourself more. You can get more than what you have now. You can be much better.

Note that it is not your efforts primarily that guarantee your success. Remember that it is not by power nor by might but by the Spirit of the Lord. The Bible says the horse is prepared for war but the victory is the Lord’s. Except the Lord builds the house, they labour in vain that build it. So you only fulfill your own part and God produces the results. But He will not produce it until He sees you actively involved.

You must meet His requirements for promotion. Promotion (success) does not come from any human source, it is from above.

"For promotion cometh neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south; but God is the Judge. He putteth up one and setteth down another"
Psalm 75:6-7

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning"
James 1:17

Success is a good thing. It is from above. It comes from God, not primarily from your efforts. But when you put in your efforts, He will bless it and make it successful. He said anything you do will be successful (Psalms 1:3). Even in the great book of blessings of Abraham, Deuteronomy 28:1-15, He still said, it is what you do that He will bless. In the field, in the storehouse because you are busy there! He said if anybody will not work he should not eat. That is to say, no success without diligence.

Don’t be lazy, if you really want to succeed in life. Go out there and do something. Be guided by wisdom, apply yourself through discipline and get out there to do it diligently. With this, your success is guaranteed.

God wants your success. He desires it. It is yours to decide. He has made all the provisions. You just need the conscious exercise of your will to get into it and stay in it.

Start today. Do it now. Decide against failure. Choose success and follow it through. It may not look an easy thing to do, but start. Somebody said, "it is better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly."

DO IT NOW. Take a bold step towards success and your life will begin to be meaningful to you. DO IT NOW and SUCCEED!