Focus: No Alternative To Success! (Pt.7)

Text: Jh.19:30

"It is finished."

We have a double S in the letter SUCCESS left for us to treat. The first of the two is:

*Sight for success

Vision has a fundamental place in the life of a person who wants to be successful in life. The man who wants to succeed needs to see where he is going. He needs to see opportunities and seize them. The man who longs to succeed needs eyes to see. Whoever desires to succeed cannot afford to be blind. Hence the need for sight.

In the book of Revelation, John describes the four beasts or living beings as being "full of eyes BEFORE and BEHIND… they were full of eyes WITHIN" (Rev.4:6,8). "Eyes before" means foresight. "Eyes behind" means hindsight, and "eyes within" implies insight. 

The person who is destined to succeed in life needs to have and develop these sets of eyes - ability to see ahead, power to see behind, and capacity to see within.

Hindsight involves having a sense of history or being able to understand the flow of history, and knowing how people failed or succeeded in the past. It involves looking back and seeing how life had evolved or turned out. Read history books! Peruse autobiographies of men and women who have survived, succeeded, excelled or even failed. Capture the import or significance of providence. 

Foresight involves looking forward or peeping into the future and catching a glimpse of what tomorrow holds for you. Foresight can also happen through divine revelation or prophetic utterances of others for you. 

Insight deals with seeing more than meets the eye or more than what appears on the surface. It involves reading between the lines and understanding the spiritual significance of physical experiences or occurrences.

God wants you to see far into the future, to see the significance of things around you or current events or situations, and to glance back to yesterday's world. He wants you to see up, see around you, and see beyond the present. 

Vision of the future is what keeps you going and helps you succeed. It's a driving force in one's daily journey and pursuit.

God delights in showing you your future before you get there. Seeing your future ahead helps you to be patient while you are facing difficulties in the present.

One way you can see the future is by dreams. You catch a sight of tomorrow through dreams. What dream do you have about tomorrow? Are you known for your dream or for your lack of it. People need to know you for your dreams, especially your family members, not for your troubles or impossibilities. Joseph's brothers said to themselves concerning him, "Behold, this dreamer cometh" (Gen.37:19). They awarded him the title of dreamer - a title by merit. He earned it. He deserved it, and he lived to see it come to pass in his life. Though they called him the dreamer for mockery. They saw him as a joker, not knowing that the joke was on them.

Genesis 37 tells you of Joseph and his dreams:

"And Joseph DREAMED a DREAM, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more.

"And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this DREAM which I have DREAMED: For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed REIGN over us? or shalt thou indeed have DOMINION over us? And they hated him yet the more for his DREAMS, and for his WORDS.

"And he DREAMED yet another DREAM, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have DREAMED a DREAM MORE; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.

And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this DREAM that thou hast DREAMED? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?" (Gen.37:5-10). 

To dream is to see with a different set of eyes. Joseph dreamed about his future - a dream of future glory. His parents and brothers could not get it. His dream signified a disruption of tradition or known system. They wondered how the second to the last boy in the family would become their leader or governor, and they didn't think it was possible.

For anyone to succeed in anything, they would require a sense of vision. Paul prays, "The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints" (Eph.1:18). Having eyes to see implies being able to know and understand certain things, and in this instance, being able to see your glorious future and look forward to it. Seeing the future makes you hopeful. Paul says again, "Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is" (Eph.5:17). 

It is a part of vision to know what the will of God is for one's life. Knowledge of God's will leads to success. It is sweet to see your success before you succeed. Let your eyes be open to see now! See your future; see your success! What you see, you can seize and realize.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter