Consecration and concentration: The consecrated must concentrate. If not, they will not succeed.
The apostle Paul says:
“But one thing I do” (Philippians 3:13 ).
The next Law of Success is to do one thing. This Law of Success is to keep to one thing, only one thing. In fact, God gives you one thing; the devil gives you a second thing. Because the devil is an angel of light, what he brings looks so useful, but it will kill the possibility of accomplishing the one goal. You now have one leg in one boat and one leg in the other boat. You say, “This is a bigger boat. I am 80% in this boat and 20% there.” You will sink! What you could have accomplished with your two legs in one boat will never be accomplished. You have failed!
Thinking about the pressure at which carbon or graphite becomes diamond if you take some of the pressure off graphite – even if just a small amount – it will get there (shorter arrow) but it will never strike here (longer arrow), so you will never have diamonds.
You would have made a lot of effort. You have made a lot of effort. You could even have gotten very close. But that little portion is removed by the other thing that the devil gives you in the name of God. You will stop at the shorter arrow. You will have graphite. You will have charcoal; a lot of it. But you will not attain that pressure where you will have diamond. And all that you would have done would be a waste because a little diamond is worth all the charcoal. And that is what the devil will not have! The devil will not have diamonds because a little diamond is of infinite worth. The devil says, “I will not let this man become diamond. I will not let this man’s work become diamond. I will bring this holy distraction and that holy distraction.” It looks so good but, in the final analysis, it destroys the whole project. “This one thing I do.” All the demons in hell have decided that they will not let a man do one thing, for fear that he succeeds! All the demons in hell say, “O.K, you can put in 90% but put 10% elsewhere.” But that 10% is what was needed to break through and have diamonds. So you have a big heap of charcoal – very impressive, but of what worth?
It is worse in the spiritual. It is the devil’s trick. There are many consecrated people but they do not concentrate, therefore, they don’t bring in the impact they ought to have brought – one leg here, one leg there, one leg here, one leg there. “I want to be a quadruple champion.” It is a quadruple failure! “This one thing I do. This one thing I do.” God gives a man one thing to do; the devil gives him a second thing, and a third thing, and a fourth thing and then they stand in hell and watch this fool. Instead of producing one mountain so that from wherever anyone stands, there is the imposing presence, he now has two smaller peaks – double champion.
The devil cannot stand this one peak! All that God puts in a man is to be put into one thing for explosive consequences! He has those two peaks. They say he is successful but look at this one peak compared to the two peaks. All other things are done at the expense of the mountain, at the expense of the central issue, at the expense of the determinant issue, at the expense of wood becoming diamond – because of a good heart. “This one thing I do.”
Look at those businessmen who are in this, in that, in this, in that. They fail! They have mountains of things started but not accomplished. They have a number of mediocre types of businesses but no outstanding business which they think about every day and renovate, recreate, dream about and execute.
God calls somebody to pray. The devil says, “Don’t just pray; fast also.” While he is fasting, he cannot strike as he could have stricken! We know that because prayer requires enormous energy, there are times when, if you don’t lie down, but continue standing up, you will collapse because of the energy that is involved! That kind of thing cannot be done by a fasting person. God calls you to evangelise. You say, “No, I must also be a Pastor;” – Pastor-Evangelist -Teacher-Counsellor; everything on earth.
“This one thing I do. I close my eyes to all the other things. I bring a mammoth contribution in this one domain. I burn all the other boats.” If a man is very gifted and he does not bury some of his gifts, he will fail. The man with one talent has more chances of succeeding if he concentrates on his one talent than the one with many talents. The man with many talents says, “I can also do this, I can also do that.” Finally, you have a fool! A failure! He has attempted so many things and brought them to “pass” level but there is no excellence anywhere. “This one thing I do. I commit myself to this one cause. I commit myself to this one person. I put my all into this one basket.” God says, “Win souls.” You say, “But I also want to be a leader in giving to God. I also want to be a leader in the exercise of many spiritual gifts.” You see what somebody is doing and you say, “I also want to do what he is doing.”
One Brother said he backslid when he began to compare himself with those to whom God had given a lot of money and they were giving heavily to God. He was called to pray. He was praying but jealous of those who were giving big monies. And he lost the prayer and lost everything.
“This one thing I do. This one thing I do. I commit myself to this one cause. I close my eyes to all the other causes. I commit myself to this one direction. I close my eyes to all the other directions.” You see, the devil is always adding a new project until the man becomes Mr. Projects. “I have mastered English. No, I must also master French. I must also master Spanish. I must also master Portuguese. I want to be a king of languages.” Finally, he will be the king of no language. “This one thing I do.” In God’s eternal purpose, we shall answer for one thing. I shall not answer for what God has called my brother to answer for or for what He has called my sister to answer for. It is covetousness, jealousy, pride, comparison with others.
If a prophet settles as a pastor, he will destroy the people. The prophet is caught up with God’s glory, what God has said! The pastor is caught up with the flock. The prophet says, “Thus says the Lord.” He is jealous for God’s glory and his whole person from the foundation of the world was built to be that way. The pastor is jealous for the flock. And the two people can never be one. The two cannot be one, because the prophet says, “Thus says the Lord.” He hears what God has said and proclaims it. If he becomes a pastor, he will negotiate it and modify it, because he will bother about what will happen to the people. And so he will become a hypocrite. He will sacrifice God in order to see where the people fit in and how the people fit in. It is the pastor, or, to use a better word, the shepherd who will say, “What will happen to the flock?” The prophet asks, “What will happen to God? What will happen to God’s glory?” And from the very foundations of the world, because the gifts were given from before the foundations of the world – even as the Lamb was slain from before the foundation of the world, the whole personality, the whole make-up, everything builds the person to be that one thing. He should be often alone, seeking God, hearing God in order to bring God’s Word. The pastor cannot afford to do that. He is to be around the flock, caring for the wounded, caring for the bruised, strengthening them, strengthening the sick, strengthening the strong. When he says, “O.K, I am also going to the mountain,” the wolves will sweep in. The mountain is not his place. His place is in the midst of the flock. I take two extremes just to make it clear. An apostle is caught up with the churches, in journeying often, here and there. If he settles down to take charge of some flock, he will confuse the people, because he will be trying to interpret a locality in terms of a nation or a planet or trying to manipulate a locality like a global affair. The shepherd is always there. He never leaves.
Let me say, if you walk close to God, you could start as a pastor, but God could move you to another gift. If, for example, He makes you a prophet, very often He will withdraw the pastoral gifts that you had before, because it will not be a good mix with the gift of a prophet. If you come back then to be a pastor, you will function without the gifts. It will now be the flesh or the past. When God changes a man’s Ministry, he must immediately lay the gifts that he had in the past on the altar and receive new gifts, so that there is no confusion. A pastor is not called to be a healer. So to ask him, “Where is your power to heal the sick?” is a stupid question. To say, “We want to see your healing gifts to know that God has really called you to be a pastor,” can only come from people who do not know the Word. And greatness does not depend on spiritual gifts. Real greatness is character. You cannot buy that. You cannot fake it. So stay faithful to the one call of God on your life. Ruthlessly pull down the other things that the Enemy is bringing to cause you to be distracted and to fail. But you must ask yourself, “For what one thing will I answer before God on that Day?”
May God help you to come to grips with this in total honesty. Don’t say, “Because there is need here, I will jump here; there is need there, I will jump there.” Is that what God has called you to? He has called you to put all your eggs into one basket. He has called you to put your all into one thing. You can jump into the shoes of another but you cannot put on that person’s personality, because it was wrought from before the foundations of the world.
Those who have lost what they once had as the one thing will be restored by the Lord in His great love; that the people be restored to Him, and then be restored to what He had for them. When you lose God you also lose the call of God on your life. When you find God, you need to be restored to the call of God on your life.
The first questions people must ask are:
Who am I?
What is my relationship with the Lord?
If we find our place in God’s heart, that is prerequisite number one. It is consecration to the Lamb that was slain. It is a place in the heart of the Lamb that was slain. It is a place there as a dwelling-place. And from that intimacy, He then assigns each one to his own task, because the functioning is the overflow of this relationship. Let us put it this way:
Where must I be today in my relationship with the Lord?
We must take our eyes from the past; if not, we will not see.
Where must I be today in my relationship with the Lord?
If we can lay hold on that and get to where we should be today, then He can also commission us today. The question to ask is:
Am I totally available to Him now?
Will I let Him have my all now?
Am I prepared to shatter all my projects now to create a platform for His projects?
Have I falsely held something and said, “This is of God,” whereas it is not of God?
Let us add a second witness:
Who has told you that what you say God has called you to, is what God has called you to?
Let him confirm it in writing because the possibility of believing a lie is very high. Get back to God now. Smash your own project. There will not be two projects – God’s project and your project. God will not participate in your project, but He can let you go on.
Will God have me?
Will He have all of me here and now?
Because if God will have us here and now, the problem will be solved.
What is standing in the way?
Let the issue be settled now, because there are people who are always shifting things to the future – someday, someday, someday. May the Holy Spirit bring hearts to where they must be now. May the Lord, by the power of the Holy Spirit, make unwilling hearts willing. Bind the demons that resist and liberate the captives. Bind the demons that have held believers in unconsecrated lives for years, deceived them and wasted their lives. Set the saints free, so that they may respond to their God. Take captive every thought that says, “I can continue in my unconsecrated life. After all, I am a child of God.”
Say,
“Lord, speak to me now on the condition of my heart and what I must do here and now.”
Just wait and hear the Lord.
“Lord, show each one what is standing in the way.”
Lord, show each one what is sharing the heart with You.
And give each one, Lord, the power to pull out that idol and to destroy it now.”
In the Name of Jesus Christ, command the barrier, command the idol out of your heart. Smash it. Do something about it. Command it with authority!