WHAT IS SUCCESS?

Success means many things to many people. The oxford dictionary defines it as the accomplishment of an aim or purpose. Success guru, Earl Nightingale defined success as, - The successive realization of a worthy ideal. For many years, my personal definition of success was, - Achieving your goals without compromising your values. As good as these definitions may be,

• Where do your goals come from?

• Whose ideals are you trying to accomplish?

And most importantly,

• How do you determine your purpose?

If you struggle to answer these questions with confidence, then you are in danger of spending years trying to achieve goals that, when accomplished, leaves you:

Disappointed,
Dissatisfied,
Discontented,
and Unhappy!

Many have spent their whole career living by someone else’s definition of success whom themselves, follow someone else’s definition for success. Not wanting to be caught up in this endless cycle of ‘following the follower,’ I turned to the Word of God to find a biblical definition for success. Interestingly, the word ‘Success’ only occurs once in the Bible, in Joshua 1:8.

“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” (Joshua 1:8)

Not only does the Bible say you can have success, but good success - success that is in alignment with God’s interpretation of the word. The Hebrew word for success is ‘Sakal,’ and although success only occurs once in the Bible, Sakal is used in various places throughout the scriptures under different translations. So I decided to study all the uses of ‘Sakal’ in the Bible, and in so doing, discovered a more conclusive definition for success. This definition is one that you probably have not heard before and is framed by three words:

• Guided.
• Knowledge.
• Identity.

Good success is the result of being guided by the knowledge of who you are. Not the misguided identities we tend to label ourselves with, but your divine identity - the very image of God. When you look at the lives of some of God’s leading servants, you will see that they owe their success to being guided by the knowledge of who they were. They all received a revelation of their true identity that defined the course of their lives. Gideon, who first saw himself as the least in his father’s house, received the revelation of being a ‘Mighty Man of Valor.’ Abraham held onto the promise of being the father of many nations, even when he was advanced in age. Once these men embraced their God-given identity, they were guided along their own pathway of victory, prosperity, and success. So, success is really about manifesting your identity, and you only have good success when you manifest your true identity, your God-given identity, or what I call, THE ULTIMATE YOU.

Why do I say the Ultimate You?

Because anyone who embraces their God-given identity can expect two things:

1. To live beyond ordinary human limitations

2. To achieve what others, deem impossible

God desires for you to embrace and express your Ultimate Self. To live an extraordinary life of wealth, power and abundance. This is the Christ life! The life you are promised, when you allow God’s Spirit to be Himself in you.