The Power of Potential

Guest blogger today is my husband, Pastor Craig Sloan. He is currently working on a book about the power of potential and I asked him to share a bit… Enjoy!!!

"It's transition time"!

Many of us are experiencing some of the most intense testing times in our lives. How do we respond in these times? I want to encourage you concerning what you may be going through. I believe that we are in a defining moment. You will have two or maybe three defining moments in your life, it is not every day but when they do come they are a time of intense testing and battles.

Principle: You never know the potential of something till a demand is place on it. God is not concerned with your present as much as He is with your future potential. Many times it is not an enemy that has come against you but God refusing to let you come short of your potential.

If you have ever had it “bad” for a long time when you finally get to “good” you become comfortable with it. “Good” seems “great” to you, but God will not let you think that good is great when good is still only good.

If God has purposed greatness for you and you are stuck on good, He is obligated to discomfort the comfortable because He has greatness in mind. God has put greatness in you in the form of a seed (potential), and He has to make a demand on the seed. A seed is no good till you kick dirt on it. Why?

The job of the soil is to pull out of the seed of unseen potential. You are not everything you can be when things are smooth and easy, a test has to come to release out of what is comfortable and normal to take you to the great that God has placed in you.

A test in it's very nature is the indicator that it is the end of something. For example remember when you were in school at the last semester you had to take a final exam, and dependent on how you responded in the test it was a sign that your promotion to the next level was present.

A test is an announcement of the ending of one time and the beginning of another time. Sounds like the scripture that says though weeping may endure for a night, joy comes in your morning!

James 1:2

Count it all joy when you encounter diverse trials...for the testing of your faith produces patience and when patience has been made complete you will be perfect lacking nothing.

Another versions says:
When trouble and trials are at your door, throw a party because your are about to leave this level and be promoted to your next level called greatness.

The test has come to make sure that you don't die with your potential still inside you, it is there to make an demand on your potential and when it is finished you will lack nothing!

Let me close this part of this lesson with this, when a car is made by a company (Ford), they don't automatically take it and throw it on the lot for sale. No, they first put it through a series of tests to validate it or make sure it can live up to it's full potential.

God has called you royalty, Kings and Priests, a Chosen Generation... so He has to put you through a series of tests too see if you can live up to the name He called you and the greater the testing, the greater the call!

God doesn't call you and then put you in front of everyone to see, he first will hide you in a cave like David. He calls you a King then puts you the cave of Adullum (the place of the squeeze). He does this so that He can squeeze out of you the King He called you to be. If you can be a King in a cave, you can be a King anywhere you go!

I want to encourage you with this last statement, transition is to be short and intense, although it seems to be a time that seems to be void of the presence of God, you struggle to hear God's voice over the voice of your enemies that are saying you should give up, back up, quit, it's not worth it, nobody cares. This test has a time limit and if you will endure till the end you will receive the full benefits and privileges of who He has called you to be!