May God grant that this word be written into the very being of the hearers to lead them into the success of God. The first law of success is found in II Chronicles 31:20-21. “This is what Hezekiah did throughout Judah, doing what was good and right and faithful before the Lord his God. In everything that he undertook in the service of God’s temple and in obedience to the law and the commands, he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly. And so he prospered.”
Success (Prosperity)
Working wholeheartedly
Seeking God
Verse 21 “In everything that he undertook in the service of God’s temple and in obedience to the law and the commands, he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly. And so he prospered.”
Firstly in everything he undertook in the service of his God, in the service of God’s temple;
secondly in obedience to the law, all that he did in obedience to the law; and
thirdly everything that he did with regards to the commands of God.
Obedience to His commands.
Obedience to the law.
Service of God’s temple.
That was the domain of his duty. His duty laid in the service of the temple of his God, all that he did in obedience to the law and all that he did with regards to the commands of God – three domains very clearly settled out. You cannot succeed when you have not defined the domains of success or the domains of work. In all that he did in the service of God’s temple, in all that he did in obedience to the law of his God, and all that with regards to the commands of his God. The first law of success is a clarity of direction, a clarity of purpose, a clarity of mission. If you don’t know where you are going to, no amount of help can help you. This was what he had to do. He had to succeed in these. He did two things:
- – He sought his God. Hallelujah! He sought his God.
- – He worked wholeheartedly.
He had what to do. In each of these things, he sought his God! And then he worked wholeheartedly! He sought his God and he worked wholeheartedly! That is a law of success: Clarity of purpose, clarity of what had to be done. Secondly, he sought his God. He knew what to do. He did not just go ahead and do it. After he knew what he was to do, he went and sought God. As he sought his God, he brought his God into it. After that he didn’t say, “O.K, I have brought God in. Let me just relax.” Oh, he worked wholeheartedly.
Say, “He sought his God.
He worked wholeheartedly.”
That is a law of success. It never fails. You know what God wants you to do, then you go and seek Him to bring Him into the centre of it. After you have brought Him to the centre, you work wholeheartedly. “And so he prospered.”
4 He prospered.
3 He worked wholeheartedly.
2 He sought his God.
1 He knew what God wanted him to do.
He knew what God wanted him to do. Having known what God wanted him to do, he sought his God so that he and God might be one in the project. He sought his God so that he might know the divine methods. He sought his God so that God might show him where the pitfalls would be. He sought his God so that God might reveal the secret of success. After he had sought his God and known what to do, he plunged into it wholeheartedly! He was not looking in this direction and looking that way. His whole heart was in this project. He did not look. He was not a spectator. He did not sleep. They didn’t say that he slept wholeheartedly. He sought his God and he worked wholeheartedly. And he prospered. And it was the prosperity of God. It was the prosperity of God flowing through him. That is the first law of success.
May God stamp this in our lives because God does not want failures! Jesus was a total success. The Bible says, “therefore God has highly exalted Him.” Do you exalt failure? Jesus was a total success. On the Cross He said, “It is finished! I have done it! I have finished it!”
“Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus Christ every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11 – RSV).
Say, “God does not want me to be a failure. God wants me to be a success.
And the first law in success is:
A man must know very clearly what God wants him to do; then he must seek God and bring God in to the very centre of what God wants him to do. He must then apply himself and work wholeheartedly at what God wants him to do, and so prosper.”
Most people fail because they don’t know what God wants them to do, and most people do not know what God wants them to do with their lives. They don’t know! So how can they do it? This seeking of God is not a general seeking of God. This is seeking God with regards to that which He has given you to do. He gives you a task, then you seek Him with regards to that task, to bring Him into the centre of it, and to receive the divine anointing to do it, and to receive the divine enabling, because it must be God’s abilities; because if the task is of divine origin, the power to do it must be from God. If the task is God-originated, the power to do it must come from heaven. God cannot give a work from heaven to be done in the energy of the flesh. If the task is heavenly in origin, the power to do it must be from on high.
You can reduce this law to “Seeking God and working wholeheartedly.” Then prosperity follows. The one who seeks God wholeheartedly and works wholeheartedly has prospered. Please, could I tell you that if you seek God and work wholeheartedly, no one can snatch the success from you.
(From the book Laws of Success Chp one pg 10)