7 Kingdom Success Principles BY JIM COLLINS BEYONDPOSTIVETHINKING.

ORG Lets look at seven Kingdom Success Principles that Jesus gave us from the Parable of the Talents. The Parable of the Talents is found in Matthew 25:14-29 Jesus starts by saying that the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a trip. He called together his servants and gave them money to invest for him while he was gone. Matthew 25:14 (NKJV) For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. Kingdom Success Principle #1 We are Stewards of the resources that God has entrusted to us while were on the earth. We have got to embrace the attitude that God owns everything and we are simply Stewards of not only His money and His property, but we are Stewards of the talents and abilities He has chosen to bless us with. God wants us to be good Stewards with the jobs, businesses, and ministries He has entrusted us with. And it all begins by making the best use of the gifts, talents, and abilities He has bestowed on us. Matthew 25:15 NKJV: And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. AMP: To one he gave five talents [probably about $5,000], to another two, to another one-to each in proportion to his own personal ability. Then he departed and left the country.

There are two phrases I want to draw your attention to: to each according to his own ability and to each in proportion to his own personal ability. Did you know that God gave you talents and abilities that nobody else has? Thats right! God thinks you can do something better than anybody else on the planet. Will you go to your grave with your music still in you? How will you answer when youre face to face with God someday and He asks you how you did with the unique talents and abilities He gave to you and you alone? Dont wait until you get to heaven to hear God say, I gave you all that potential and you never took the time to develop it. God has given each person unique talents and abilities. It is not he amount that is important, but the uniqueness. Your ability to grow and develop your talents will be based on your desire to become excellent at them. If God gave you a dream, He also gave you the ability to realize it, but that ability though, in most cases, needs to be developed. So many times we compare our talents and abilities to the talents and abilities of others. Notice that God gave different amounts of talents to each person. To one he gave five, to another two, and to another one. God distributes His gifts according to the ability of His people to use them. And the way you get more is to be faithful with what you have by becoming excellent with the gift, the talent, and the ability that God has already given you. Kingdom Success Principle #2 Success isnt measured by how talented you are compared to how talented someone else is; its measured by how talented you are compared to how talented you become. Success is measured by how determined you are to become excellent at what God has called you to do. Only when you identify your God-given talents and abilities, can you then focus on becoming excellent at

them. You will be rewarded in life to the extent that you become excellent at what God has called you to do. Matthew 25:16 (NASB) Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and gained five more talents. Notice it says immediately. That means to take action. That means no procrastination. That means get on with it. The past is gonewe cannot continue to stay discouraged over missed opportunities. Do you know how many people are not doing what God wants them to do because they are still thinking about past failures? Notice the phrase traded with them; that means making the best possible use of your opportunities. Kingdom Success Principle #3 Take consistent action. Be persistent and consistent. Do what you know you need to do. The Ultimate Success Secret is to make the best use of the opportunities God gives you by taking consistent action. Lets see what happens when we make the best possible use of the opportunities that God gives us. The person with five talents acquired five more, meaning he took the time to become excellent at improving his ability to increase his value. The same happened to the person with two talents, he acquired two more. The person who received five talents now has 10, and the person that was given two talents now has four. That brings us to Kingdom Success Principle number four. Kingdom Success Principle #4 All life asks us to do is make measurable progress in reasonable time. Is it too much for God to ask us to increase our value by doubling our effectiveness? That is what the two people in the Parable of the Talents did; they increased their value by doubling their effectiveness. We are talking about producing results. We are talking about accomplishment,

and we know that we are only really happy in life when we are in the process of accomplishing. What is Gods response to the person who becomes excellent at what He has called them to do? What is Gods response to the person who develops their God-given potential? What is Gods response to the person who makes measurable progress in reasonable time? What is Gods response to increase? What is Gods response to the person who doubles their value and their effectiveness? We find the answer in the following verses: Matthew 25:21, 23 (NLT) The master was full of praise. Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Lets celebrate together! Notice that the person with four talents receives the same commendation as the one with 10. Why? Because success is not measured by how well you do compared to how well someone else does. Success is measured by how well you do by how well God thinks you can do. The issue is not how much we have, but how well we use what we have. God rewards faithfulness. Faithfulness leads to promotion. With promotion comes added responsibility. And those new responsibilities will require the development of new skills. Your ability to grow and develop those new skills will be based on your desire to become excellent at them. Have you made a decision to become excellent at what God has called you to do? We are really talking about personal development here. One motivational speaker said that if you want to become a millionaire, all you have to do is become a million dollar person. Now lets look at what happened to the person who received one talent, but did not increase it. Jesus called the person with one talent wicked and lazy because he did not increase his value at all. In other

words, he never became excellent at developing his Godgiven talents and abilities. Why didnt the person with one talent increase his value? If we can identify the obstacles to success, then hopefully we can learn from them, or if we need to, eliminate them. In other words, we can learn from our failures. Matthew 25:24 (NKJV) Then he who had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew you to be a hard man The first reason this person never increased his value is because he had the wrong perception of God. He thought God was an ogre and a tyrant who would condemn him if he made a mistake. This man never knew God as his loving, heavenly Father. God made a way whereby we could know Him as our Father, and that way is through His Son, Jesus Christ. The Bible clearly tells us that a person knows God as their Father through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Galatians 3:26 (NLT) So you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Lets talk about prosperity and abundance for a moment. Do you know why so many people, including many wellmeaning Christians, are broke? Because they do not really believe that it is Gods will for them to be rich. All rich means is abundantly supplied. Rich is not necessarily an amount. In its simplest definition, all rich means is to have more than you need. Kingdom Success Principle #5 You must know AND believe that it is Gods will for you to be prosperous, rich, and abundantly supplied. Jesus Christ gave us 38 parables, 16 of them deal with money management. More is said in the New Testament about money than heaven and hell combined. Five times more is said about money than prayer. There are 500

verses on both prayer and faith, yet there are over 2000 verses dealing with money and possessions. God is not only interested in you having money, but He wants you to manage it wisely as a good Steward so He can give you more and more. Deuteronomy 8:18 (NIV) But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today. If God gave you the ability to produce wealth, does it make any sense that His will would be for you to be broke? You say, Jim Im not broke! If you are in debt, you are broke according to Deuteronomy 28:12 and Proverbs 22:7 The ability to produce wealth is a seed that God has planted inside every human being, and many people never take the time to develop that gift from God. We said earlier that your dreams are simply God seeking expression through you, and if God gave you a dream, then He also gave you the ability to realize it, but that ability, in most cases, needs to be developed. Let me ask you a question: When will you be able to give $1 million dollars to missions? You say, Jim, thats too big a number for me to even think about. Heres the point: Gods going to give that ability to someone, why not you? You know why your business needs to be superabundantly prosperous financially? So you can sow obscene amounts of money into the Kingdom of God! That is what Deuteronomy 8:18 is all about. The second reason the person with one talent never increased his value was because of a four letter word that has caused more people to settle for mediocrity than any other thing; F-E-A-R.

At the beginning of verse 25, the man with one talent said, I was afraid Fear will prevent you from becoming all God wants you to be. The eternal battle on the earth is being waged between fear and faith. We said earlier that success is measured by how determined you are to become excellent at what God has called you to do. Another word for that would be selfdiscipline. Matthew 25:26 (NLT) But the master replied, You wicked and lazy and idle servant! Laziness is considered wicked. Refusing to work is called being an idle servant. You know what God is saying here? Why didnt you take advantage of the opportunities I gave you? Why didnt you learn how to develop your potential? Why didnt you increase your talents and abilities? Why didnt you take the time to become excellent at what I called you to do? Kingdom Success Principle #6 Go to work on a regular basis, and start a personal development plan. Dont just work on your job and in your business, work on yourself. I heard one motivational speaker say that you work eight hours for survival, and everything after that is for success. We were talking about personal development earlier when we said that if you want to become a millionaire, all you have to do is become a million dollar person. I have a feeling that most millionaires worked extremely hard to get there. Matthew 25:28 (NKJV) So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.

Doesnt that sound terrible? Did you ever hear the expression use it or lose it? This is where it came from. Jesus called the person with one talent wicked and lazy because he did not increase his value at all. In other words, he never became excellent at developing his Godgiven talents and abilities. Because of this, his talent was given to the person with 10 talents. Matthew 25:29 (NKJV) For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. Did you ever hear the expression: The rich get richer and the poor get poorer? It sounds harsh, but it is a biblical truth. The reason the rich get richer and the poor get poorer is because the rich take advantage of the opportunities God presents to them and the poor never do. Lets define abundance. The definition of abundance will tie all the Kingdom Success Principles together. In Vines Dictionary, abundance is defined as the right use of what God has entrusted to us. That refers to stewardship. In Strongs Concordance, it means to increase: to make more, have more, and be more. Abundance means superabundant in quantity and superior in quality. It means to excel (excellence). It is also defined as enough and to spare. We said earlier that rich means to have more than you need. Abundance is simply much more than you need. Matthew 25:29 (NLT) To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who are unfaithful, even what little they have will be taken away. Kingdom Success Principle #7 God is a God of increase and abundance. Being faithful

with what God has given you will bring increase and abundance into your life. Faithfulness equals excellence. You receive the abundance God has for you by becoming a person of excellence. Excellence starts by adding value to your own life by increasing the talents and abilities that God has given you. The person who becomes excellent at what God has called them to do will have abundance in their life. Your God-given dream will require you to become excellent at something. God gave you talents and abilities to achieve your God-given dream. It is up to you to stir up the gift that God has placed inside you by becoming excellent at what God has called you to do. When you adopt this attitude of excellence, when you adopt the mindset that God wants you to increase, and when you take consistent action on those two beliefs, you will receive the Kingdom result that Jesus spoke of in the Parable of the Talents, and that result is ABUNDANCE! SUCCESS