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Maximise Your Life with Paul Benger - Part Two

The second extract from Paul Benger's book 'Twelve' which was written to highlight key principles which will help you on your journey as a Christian. You will be challenged to rethink why you think what you think! Confused?!

"QUE SERA, SERA" - Doris Day, written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans for Alfred Hitchcock's1956 re-make of his 1934 film "The Man Who Knew Too Much" starring Doris Day and James Stewart.

"Que sera, sera, Whatever will be, will be; The future's not ours to see. Que sera, sera, What will be, will be."

I wonder how much of our thinking is influenced by the popular music of the day. Look at some of today's most popular offerings: "Don't let me get me I'm my own worst enemy, It's bad when you annoy yourself so irritating, Don't wanna be my friend no more I wanna be somebody else I wanna be somebody else, yeah" "I'm just a teenage dirtbag baby" "I'm disgusting and obscene." These lyrics from three of the most popular songs in recent times just go to show that popular culture does not have an angle on truth and neither did Doris Day in 1956.

Doris' song says, "The future's not ours to see." The truth is we must see the future that God wants for us if we are going to experience it. 'Que sera' advocates living without a clear vision of what you want and allows you to react to what you experience. God, on the other hand, seems to want to give us a vision of what He wants for our lives so that we can pursue it regardless of what we experience. We are people who are pregnant with destiny. Unfortunately, we have disconnected God so far from the everyday happenings of life that we cannot see how our lives could be living out a Divine plan. The truth is however, we are a part of God's plan for the planet and whatever our vocation, our lives will count for the Kingdom of God.

Get a clear vision of what you want - "And the Lord said to Joshua: "See! I have given Jericho into your hand, its king and the mighty men of valour."" Joshua 6:2. God wants us to see what He sees. For Joshua this was not going to be easy. The thought that walking around Jericho a few times over several days and then shouting as loudly as you possibly could would literally bring the walls down is quite absurd. However, that is what God saw and that is what He wanted Joshua to see. God is never without a plan, He is not caught short by unforeseen circumstances because He sees them in advance. The things that God has for our lives are the things that HE sees. Vision is the ability to see as God sees. The truth is that God does not see our lives in the same way as we do.

Many of us can have a clear vision of what we don't want. "I don't like my job, my house, my husband, my wife," etc. and we can live in a constant state of dullness or depression. Being dissatisfied with our current reality is not enough to change it. If you are frustrated with your current circumstances you are normal! Our current reality is just a step along the way as we are progressing to where God intends us to be. We can, with the help of God and the circumstances around us, adjusting our character, our friends, our finances and whatever else in order to move towards our destiny.

Living life through a lens - One day I was reading Psalm 13 which was written by King David. In the first four verses David is looking at his life from the perspective of how it feels to him. "How long will you forget me Lord? Forever? How long will you look the other way? How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow in my heart every day? How long will my enemy have the upper hand?" Get the picture?! David is looking at his life through a narrow lens. This lens only allows him to see what is immediately obvious. His view is heavily influenced by the way he feels and at this moment he doesn't feel too good. The promises that God has given him regarding being King are not in view as he runs away from Saul, the present King, who is trying to take his life. His stomach feels constantly knotted and he is living with the tension of faith in God alongside a present fear. However, in verse five he changes the lens through which he is looking. He finds a lens which he can not only see the immediate situation but also sees God, and the moment he has a view of God in his circumstances he can only see one outcome, victory. The house of God should always be a place that brings God into view. As we look at our lives our lens must be big enough and wide enough to see God and therefore to see as God sees. Here are three things that David saw when he switched lenses.

1. Unfailing Love: The house of God is the place where we will continually be made aware of the unfailing love of God. Unfailing love is continual and constant, God's house is always full of this kind of love.

2. Salvation: David says, "I will rejoice because you have rescued me." David now has a view that includes God and he can only see one outcome, salvation. In the words of Delirious, "God will save the day, and all will say, 'My Glorious.'"

3. The Goodness of God: To David the thought that God would be mean to him never entered his head. He is committed to the view that God is good and has good things for him. You and I should be committed to that view as well. God does good because he is good.

If your lens has left you afraid, anxious and stressed then allow yourself to begin seeing your situation with God involved and you will only see one outcome: "My Glorious."

We need 20:20 Vision. Naturally 20:20 vision is the ability to see things perfectly well at a distance of twenty feet. Spiritual 20:20 vision is the ability to have hyperopia (long-sightedness) and myopia (short-sightedness) at the same time. That is to see the future but also be able to deal with the present situation. Isaiah 46:10 says, "I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come." God has perfect vision, He sees the end from the beginning but He is also a very present help in times of trouble (Psalm 46:1). God has a pre-planned and pre-designed future for us and today He works in us to enable us to find the path that will lead us into our destiny. With God's help you can see the future even though the present is tough and with His help you can deal with the present even though you are pressing forward into all you see. The best is yet to come! Never lose sight of your God-given vision or neglect the present.

Put on your Night Vision goggles. I recently discovered that I suffer from a condition called "night blindness." Whilst my vision is perfectly good during daylight hours, at night, especially in total darkness, I begin to struggle. For years I wondered why my wife could find her way around our home in complete darkness and I would be bumping into things that I knew were there but just couldn't see. When I am trying to navigate around our home in the darkness I have to use my inner compass. That is, the inner vision I have of the layout within our house. The vision that God has given you and me for our lives is like that inner compass. It is that vision that will direct us and keep us on course through the "night seasons" of life. "I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel; My heart also instructs me in the night seasons." Psalm 16:7 (NKJV). From time to time we will all experience these seasons when our lives face confusion, adversity and maybe apparent contradiction. It is at these times that we will be guided by the vision within our hearts.

Sing? I don't feel like singing! Isaiah 54:1-3 "Sing, O childless woman! Break forth into loud and joyful song, O Jerusalem, even though you never gave birth to a child. For the woman who could bear no children now has more than all the other women, says the Lord." Here is another classic example of God not seeing our lives the way that we see them and of His wanting us to react, not to the things we see, but to what He sees. This woman, Jerusalem, is barren. She knows that she should be fruitful but she isn't. She's tried everything to conceive but nothing has worked. Her whole life is spent trying to unhinge herself from the reproach of barrenness but so far she has failed. Her plight understandably leaves her thoroughly miserable and desperate. The last thing on her mind is a good old sing song and her emotional strength is so low that a song of victory is completely out of the question. God, however, believes she should be singing and the reason for this is that He does not see her the way she sees herself. She can only see barren, miserable and desperate, but God sees fruitful and bursting at the seams. God's view of your life and ministry could well be completely different to the way you see it today and here is the stinger: God wants you to live according to what He sees and not what you see! God has the audacity to expect you and I to respond in faith to what He can see. The barren woman was to get ready. She had to enlarge the place of her tent and prepare to be bursting at the seams. You too need to live like this. We recently relocated our church to Town Centre premises. We did this not out of need but out of faith. We're getting ready to be bursting at the seams.

I believe that more than any other place on earth God wants his house to be filled with faith, hope, love and life - a reflection of what He sees, not an expression of the dullness and dryness created by the world. In God's house barren lives will become fruitful again. Broken hearts will be mended, ruined dreams will be resurrected, given life and mistakes will be recovered from.

Sing when you're winning, you only sing when you're winning. Perhaps like me you've sang this refrain to the opposing team's fans as your team comfortably take control of the game and the supporters of the opposition become quiet. It's time, right now, for the church to sing! Not because everywhere she's doing great but because wherever she is, she has a great future. The time to sing is not just when we're winning but when it looks like we're losing as well because we know that come full-time the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. This is not only true of the church but also our lives. God wants to plug us into the destiny He has prepared for us. So come on church, see what He sees and sing at the top of your voice!

REMEMBER