May I ask you a very direct question? How much do you want to succeed in life?
Don't answer that too quickly. Obviously, no one aims to fail at anything they do. But I've been amazed over the years at the people who have come across the formula for success, only to leave it lying on the table while they stay broke, sick and defeated.
Such people initially think success is easy for those who are gifted with great abilities. When they run into the truth, however, it stops them cold. Because the reality of it is: real supernatural success is no picnic for anyone. It takes courage. It takes faith. And it doesn't have anything at all to do with natural ability.
If you're wishing God would give you a formula, wish no more. He has. It's the same one He gave to Joshua and it will work just as well for you as it did for him.
Who's With You?
"But Gloria, you don't know me! I've tried and failed with every formula in the book. I just don't have what it takes to succeed." If that's what you're thinking, you haven't tried the formula in God's Book. With His formula, you don't have to "have what it takes." Look at what God said in Joshua 1:5 and you'll see why: "There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee."
You may remember that God told Moses something very similar in the book of Exodus when Moses claimed he wasn't qualified to go before Pharaoh and demand Israel's freedom. He felt he was personally inadequate for the task. "Lord, who am I to go and do these things?" he asked.
But God answered, "Certainly I will be with thee" (Ex. 3:12). In other words, "It doesn't matter who you are, Moses. It matters Who I am, for I am with you!"
That's the great thing about God's success formula. It's not based on our abilities, it's based on His abilities. We may be inadequate in a dozen different ways, but the One Who is with us is more than enough.
An Act of Courage
Although it's great to know God is hooked up with you, that He never leaves you nor forsakes you, before He can release His power on your behalf, you have to be hooked up with Him in return. The way you do that is by obeying His Word. Joshua 1:7 says: "Only you be strong, and very courageous, that you may do according to all the law, which Moses My servant commanded you. Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go."
Do you know obeying the Word is an act of courage? It really is, because when you obey the Word and believe God in a situation, you're swimming upstream. You're going against the current of the world.
Success Step 1
"This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth." That's the first element of supernatural success God gives us in this verse. I like to say it this way: Talk the Word. When I say talk the Word, I don't mean just every now and then when you're feeling spiritual. I mean continually. In Deuteronomy 6:7, God said you should talk His Word "when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."
That's pretty much all the time, isn't it? Some people find it hard to talk the Word that much. They just can't seem to do it! If you're one of them, let me tell you why that is. Jesus said that "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" (Luke 6:45). If you're focusing most of your attention on natural things - watching secular television, going to the movies, thinking about worldly matters, worrying about your job, and family - then that's what is going to be in your heart in abundance. And that's what you're going to talk about.
To change what's coming out your mouth, you must refocus your attention. Turn it toward God's Word and keep it there. Fill your heart with an abundance of the Word, and your mouth will get in line.
Success Step 2
That brings us to the second step of God's success formula. "You shall meditate on it [the Word] day and night." When you meditate God's Word, you're going to do more than just read it. You're going to take it into your heart in a very personal way and apply it to your own situation.
If you've been reading the Bible like a history book, make a change and begin to see it as God talking directly to you. Take time to meditate on it. Think about it. Digest it. Take it so personally that it moves from your head to your heart, and it will become powerful and active in your life.
Success Step 3
The final step of God's success formula involves action. We must act as though the Word we've been talking and meditating is true - even when circumstances seem to say otherwise. You may have been studying the Word for twenty years. You may know how to live by faith better than anyone around. But, remember, it's not what you know that will bring you through in victory - it's what you do.
You can walk in faith consistently through ten trials that come your way and experience great success. Yet on the eleventh one, if you neglect to act on the Word, you'll fail. Although the string of victories in your past is a wonderful thing, it's what you do today that will get you through today's test or trial.
More Than Mental Assent
One of the greatest enemies of real faith is a thing I call mental assent. People who operate in mental assent read the Word and think they believe it, but when pressure comes, they don't act on it. Mental assenters say, "I believe the Bible from cover to cover. I believe I'm healed by the stripes of Jesus because the Bible says so."
But when sickness actually comes and attacks their bodies, they stop saying, "By His stripes I'm healed," and start saying, "I'm sick."
Real faith believes what the Word says even though your eyes and your feelings tell you something different. Faith doesn't care what the symptoms are. It doesn't care what the circumstances look like. It's not moved by what the banker or the doctor or the lawyer or the bill collector says.
Faith in God's Word will change the symptoms. It will change the bank. It will bring the money to get the bills paid. Faith will turn every defeat into victory. It is God's success formula!
But you have to give that faith an opportunity to work. You have to keep God's Word in your mouth and meditate on it in your heart "that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it; for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success."
No Sorrow Included
Now, think again about that question I asked you earlier. How much do you want to succeed in life? Enough to change what you're saying? Enough to change where your attention is focused? Enough to act on the Word of God even when the rest of the world is telling you it will never work?
If you want it that much, the Word of God guarantees you'll get your fill of success in life. Good success. Not the kind the world gives, but God's own brand of success.
Success the world's way has a price tag of misery attached to it. But Proverbs 10:22 says, "The blessing of the Lord, it makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it."
I will warn you of this, though. Satan won't like it if you choose the way of success. He'll do whatever he can to stop you, and since he knows God's success formula, he knows exactly what tactics to use.
He'll pressure you to say negative things. He'll try to distract you from the Word and get your attention on anything - it doesn't matter what it is, as long as it isn't the Word. His goal is to stop your faith. He knows it's the only force that can cause impossible situations to change.
He also knows that it comes from the Word of God. So when he sees that Word going in your heart and hears it coming out your mouth, he doesn't just sit there. He starts talking. Doubtful thoughts will come into your mind, thoughts that are just the opposite of what God's Word says.
But those thoughts don't become yours unless you believe them and speak them. That's what he wants you to do, of course. If the Word says you're healed, he'll tell you you're sick. If the Word says you're forgiven, he'll say you're still guilty. If the Word says your needs are met, he'll tell you they're not.
But if you won't let go, if you keep the Word in your mouth and in your heart, you can't lose. There's no force the devil can bring against you that will overcome the Word of God. It will make you a winner every time.
So if you've been wanting good success and it's been eluding you, quit wondering whether you have what it takes to make it - and remember instead Who is with you. Then turn to the Word of God and put God's success formula to work in your life. Start talking it. Start thinking it. Start doing it.
Before long, you won't be chasing success...it will be chasing you!
Eagle Mountain International Church, Inc.
aka: Kenneth Copeland Ministries
For the last 50 years Kenneth and Gloria Copeland have been passionately teaching Christians all over the world how to apply the principles of faith found in God's WORD to their lives.
