A Sermon Delivered on Wednesday evening, October 21
st, 2020, by
Evangelist PAUL ACQUAH, Live on MZ Radio London, UK
God designed you for a success. He made you to be a winner, and this is true for every person regardless of what has happened in the past. God has never destined anybody to live a mediocre life. The Bible tells us pointily that God wants us to prosper in all things and be in health. God wants you to experience success even in the seemingly insignificant things of life. Today, perhaps you see roadblocks in certain areas of your life. Instead of growth or increase, you see lack. Or perhaps you’ve lost something, it could be your job, an important relationship, or your health. My friend, remember that the Lord cares about every matter that troubles you and He wants you to experience wholeness and success in those areas. The purpose of this message is to Biblically redefine what success really means and to show you the simple but powerful Bible secrets of having good success.
There are attitudes you need for success. First, you must believe that success is possible. God not only heal, deliver, or prosper, He created us to be successful in life. God wants us to succeed my friend. He created us for success. God has never made a failure; nothing is wasted in God’s kingdom and so God has never destined anybody to a mediocre life ever. He made you to be a winner, trust His word. There are a lot of voices out there telling you that the structures of society are aligned against you. There are voices telling you that the government hasn’t done enough to provide the opportunities you need to succeed. There are voices telling you that someone has hurt you so badly you can never make it in life. These are all lies. You may even think that your past is holding you back, but I can assure you that every person that God created is created for success. It doesn’t matter what has happened in the past, or how you may evaluate yourself or even how people have evaluated you, God made you for success.
Friend, you will never be successful if you believe the world around you or the structures of society or your family or your past is preventing your success. This doesn’t mean that there are no systems and structures working against us, but rather, to have the mindset that in all these situations you are more than a winner and that success is possible. So, you’ve got to have success mindset, or success attitude. You have to believe that success is possible. God made you for great things. He made you and me for great things. God created every one of us to be something special and we need to be motivated to press towards that goal and seek direction from God. We need to press forward. Nothing can prevent you from achieving success.
We live in a culture today that has totally misrepresented what success is. How do we know that you have to succeed in life? How do you know that you were created to succeed? The Bible tells us so. After creating Adam and Eve, God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing
that moves on the earth” (Gen. 1:28). How can such people be failures? The same way God has given us
power to do so. We are to dominate the earth and subdue it. You cannot be a failure. You will need to go
for the word of God. Take Him at His word: His word is so powerful. Don’t doubt because of the situation
that you are in, or circumstances that you find yourself in. God’s word says exactly what He means.
God always says exactly what He means, He never lies, and He never says, “I’ve changed My mind.” He
said “I give you authority and dominion.” He gave absolute dominion to Adam and Eve. He has given us
power to rule, control and subdue the earth. See how victorious and successful we are supposed to live. We are to take dominion. Whatever He says is like a contract that cannot be broken.
“God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent
Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
20Behold, I have received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.
(Numbers 23:19-20)
So, when God says anything, He means what He is saying. Hebrews 1:3 says, “Upholding all things by the word of his power,” and Psalm 89:34 says, “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.” You have to learn to believe what God is saying and not let your circumstances dictate to you. This entire universe is being held together by the power of God’s word. His word is powerful and will accomplish whatever He sends it do. So, if God says you are successful, believe that you are successful.
Believe and have that attitude. You see, it’s all about the mindset that we have.
Let’s turn to Jer. 29:11, this is a familiar text of scripture most people know. “For I know the thoughts
that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
An expected end! That’s very powerful. Most translations will say, a hope and a future. But if we go for
the old KJV, He says, ‘He will give you an expected end.’ God has already set the end that you expect up.
How can you fail? You are to succeed in life.
An expected end means that instead of going through life and hoping that you finish your course well, or
hoping that you can look back and be encouraged like the apostle Paul who said ‘I have run the race, I have finished the course and there are rewards in heaven waiting for me,’ you can also finish well. We just have to believe what God has said. Most people will like those kinds of things, but they have no confidence that they can obtain it. Jeremiah 29:11 however says God knows His thoughts towards you, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. The end that He has promised in the word of God is what is going to come to pass.
People think that as one gets older, they are to get sick and become weaker. There are a lot of people who don’t have any confidence because they see so many people failing and they make that a point of reference to buttress their belief. So, because of that they are comparing themselves with others. But God’s plan is to give you an expected end. We see in scripture several promises by God on strength and renewal in old age (Psalm 92:14, Isaiah 40:31, Deut. 34:7, Isaiah 40:29). God has prophesied things over you that no sickness or plague will come near your dwelling. You will not fail. Even in the Old Testament, we read that Moses, at the age of 120 years, eyesight wasn’t dim or his natural force evade. At 120 years, he was still climbing mountains. This is in the Word of God, and God is no respecter of persons. What we have today is even superior to what people had in the Old Testament time. My friend, you are destined to live a successful life, so just believe what God is saying.
What we have is superior to what Moses had. I can boldly say that this is God’s plan for my life, and if I
will cooperate, and that’s the right attitude for us to have, if we will cooperate with Him and believe in
Him, then obviously we can have an expected end that God has set for us even before we were born. He set before us an expected end. I don’t have to be fearful about things going on around the world. People are, however, comparing themselves with others. If we compare ourselves with others, we will not go for God’s best.
12For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they,
measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. 13 We, however, will not boast beyond measure, but within the limits of the sphere which God appointed us – a sphere which especially includes you. (2Cor 10:12-13)
This is what the apostle Paul said to the Corinthian church. He said, we don’t compare ourselves to others.
I see even ministers who started out good and then got caught up in embezzling money. They abuse their power, get into sexual sin, and misappropriate money. We see so many people fail, so that makes you think how can I make it. But you can make it because God has a plan with an expected end. And if you will cooperate with Him, if you will have an attitude of cooperation with Him, then you can get there.
This was Jerimiah writing to people who were taken captive and put into exile in Babylon. He said, God
has good plans towards you, peace not evil, to really lead you to an expected end. The letter wasn’t for
people who were really prospering at that time. Maybe your situation isn’t good. And looking at yourself whilst listening or reading this message, you are saying, how can it be, I can’t see where I’m going. But
Jerimiah wrote this to people who were taken captive. Jer. 29:1 says, “Now these are the words of the
letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the remainder of the elders who were carried
away captive – to the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away
captive from Jerusalem to Babylon”.
So, Jerimiah 29:11 was not for people who were really in a situation that everything was going on well. It
was for people who were held captive. From verse 1 of Jeremiah 29, we read the introduction to this letter written to the Israelites who were in captivity. We then turn to verse 11 and he is saying to them, don’t lose hope. These people were in a bad situation. Nebuchadnezzar had conquered Jerusalem and he took all the Israelites to Babylon as captives. He devastated Jerusalem and it was terrible. These were the people that Jeremiah was writing to.
It’s important to get this in context because when we turn over and read Jer. 29:11, it’s important to note
that he wasn’t writing to people who were ministers or people who were prosperous and had everything
going on well for them. He was writing this to people who were carried into captivity.
They were being treated as second class citizens, they were in a captive land, and everything in their lives was bad. Nonetheless, the Bible says, God said, I know the thoughts that I think towards you, thoughts of hope and not evil, thoughts that will lead you to an expected end. If you are listening or reading this, I will like to encourage you; all is not lost, in God’s kingdom there is nothing wasted. You can rise again and move forward and go for God’s best. You can rise again and do what God has asked you to do. And the success that he created you for can be accomplished. You may think we have few problems now, but all these things going on, with corona virus, and with people losing their jobs, it’s like things are just really bad, but the Bible says that God knows the thoughts that He has towards you. Be encouraged and go for God’s best.
It’s not God’s will for us to suffer and go through these things, it’s not God’s will for you to be sick, it’s
not God’s will for you to be poor, it’s not God’s will for you to be oppressed. And yet people find
themselves in such situations. Make sure that you are going for what God has really destined for you,
because a life of success has been written down in heaven and you have to work for it. Just cooperate with God and everything is going to be well with you. And if you have not received Christ as your personal saviour, then what I’m saying is not applicable to you. You need to receive the one who gives a successful life first, before you can get that gift. And if you will, you may pray this prayer after me, saying every word from your heart,
Dear Lord, I recognise that I am a sinner and need to be saved.
I understand that Jesus died in my place and suffered the judgment of all of my sins.
I believe that Jesus rose from the dead and He is at the right hand of the father.
Lord Jesus, I surrender my Life to you.
Come and Live in my heart and be my Lord and saviour.
Thank You for saving me. AMEN!