Reaching Your Potential

For, lo, thou salt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines Judges 13:5.

"God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life." Those words have been recited to me, and I have told them to many people. I believe those words are true for you, for me, and for the whole world.

But in spite of the fact that the God who formed us in the womb, knew us before the foundation of the world and loves us without condition; in spite of the fact that He has a plan for all humanity, they are missing it big time. Even in the world of Christianity, we are missing it. I read a study that showed in many areas, from divorce to pornography to materialism to bigotry, there is no difference between the saint and the sinner. Why the sinner conversion rate is declining no longer needs to be a suspense. We are the reason.

For I know the thoughts I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end" Jeremiah 29"11 KJV. The Message translation says, "Plans to take care of you, not to abandon you, plans to give you the future you hoped for." God wants to bring something good out of our lives. Although the present reality may say we have absolutely nothing to look forward to, God has a wonderful purpose for us all.

Still, so many fall short. Paul asked the Galatian believers, "Who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth?" see Galatians 5:7. They had the potential to do great things. All around them stood limitless possibility. But they got hindered. Somehow they allowed someone to slow them down so much that progress became difficult. They lost sight of the truth. And when you lose sight of the truth, you lose sight of your potential.

We have no time to be distracted, delayed, impeded or blocked. The enemy comes with stresses and all kinds of hassles. He intentionally places obstacles in our way. He doesn’t want us to receive the plans God has for us. But we need to have an even greater determination to reach our potential. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword…Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us Romans 8: 36, 38.

Judges 13:5 speaks of Samson before he was born. Even before his arrival he was picked to serve God mightily. He was gifted and anointed, but he would never reach his full potential, which was to deliver Israel from the Philistines. He would only begin to do it.

I did not come into holiness to start and stop. I came to finish. Moses got Israel all the way out of Egypt, not just to the gate. Joshua got them all the way to the Promised Land, not just to the border. Joseph didn’t run out of food halfway through the famine; he got Egypt all the way through it with room to spare.

Jesus went all the way to Calvary; He died all the way and rose all the way. And when He redeemed us, He redeemed us from everything. And we shouldn’t quit halfway through. We should reach our full potential. I want to walk like a child of God, talk like a child of God and live the victorious life that God planned for every one of His children.

Samson had the potential to be someone great for God. You see, if you can lead backslidden people back to God, that’s a great thing. Israel had the potential to defeat their enemy, but they couldn’t do it because of disobedience (see Judges 13:1). Disobedience and rebellion stopped them from reaching their potential.

Samson was God’s choice to change things. He was to be an example; to show the nation that there was a way that seemed right to a man, but the way thereof was the way of death. Samson was to be a Nazarite; totally separated from sinful Israel. He was a chosen vessel.

And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson: and the child grew, and the Lord blessed him Judges 13:24. Samson started out very good. The Spirit of God moved on him. And when the Spirit moves on a person, He is trying to help them reach their potential.

A little while later Samson is marrying a Philistine woman. Even though his parents were against it and God was against it, Samson put his emotions above the right thing. Samson went into the enemy’s camp to get that woman. He had to lower his standard of righteousness to marry her, but he married her anyway.

The calling of God is precious and we can’t just regard it as nothing. Even when I’m not preaching, I’m thinking about it. We cannot reach our potential through compromise and self-indulgence. We cannot lead people out if we are in. Somebody has to stay on higher ground and keep their head above water.

If we study the life of Samson, we can see that he had a lot of weaknesses. He had supernatural strength, so much so that he pulled up the post to the gates of the city (doors and all) and carried it to the top of the hill. I read that the gate weighed thousands of pounds and the distance was twenty miles. But we can’t live by bread alone; we need God everyday.

What’s done in the dark will soon come to the light. Samson and the problem he had with lust were pretty public; even his enemies knew him. Everybody knew but Samson. He only knew what he wanted.

For many years God showed great grace to Samson, but given enough time and sin will destroy anybody. And it came to pass that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah Judges 16:4. It says that Samson loved Delilah, but it wasn’t love in a real sense. It was just lust. That’s all Samson knew. Lust caused him to marry the Philistine woman, lie with a prostitute and who knows what else. There is a big difference between physical attraction and love, and the end result of them are equally as different.

The Philistines offered Delilah 50,000 pieces of silver, and she most likely looked her best and did her best performance. Samson was so deceived that he went to sleep surrounded by the enemy. When he looked at Delilah's beauty, he was unable to discern the deceit in her heart.

The devil cannot just pull us down. He needs our cooperation. Each man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed; and lust when it is conceived brings forth sin, and sin, when it is finished brings forth death see James 1:14. This is exactly what happened with Samson.

Delilah took Samson for a fool. She told him to tell her where his strength lies and how she could bind him. Apparently Samson thought that he could handle it, so he took fire in his bosom and got burned.

When Delilah realized she got the truth out of Samson, she didn’t waste any time. She immediately called the Philistines. They paid her off and she callously finished Samson off. How sad. He did not know the Lord had departed from him Judges 16:20.

Don’t listen to anybody who tells you, "If you love me, you’ll do this or that". If you are in a relationship where you have to compromise your values to prove your love, you’re in the wrong relationship. Get out. We should never feel pressured to prove our love, our faith or how Christian we are. If we are real, those around us will experience it.

Samson ended up so much farther from where he was destined to be. Sin took everything away from him. He was devastated, humiliated and made a spectacle of. But you know what happened? See Judges 16:22.

No matter how insignificant or how irrelevant we may feel, God has a wonderful plan for our lives. Start believing that through the power of God (not your own) you can achieve great things. Then keep your eyes open for opportunities that He sends your way. Strive to be your best for God and see your life change.

By: Edmund Brown