God is not progressive; He is a God of Potential. Potential is the ability to do something that is already deposited in you, but you haven’t gotten the ability to tap into it. When we look at ourselves as His Children, we are His Potential. So, when God says,
8 “I am the LORD, that is My Name; My glory I will not give to another, Nor My praise to carved idols.
Isaiah 42 : 8
God is not intimidated by how rich, powerful, or great He can make you. It is when the manifestation that He is allowing to happen in your life is changing the attention towards Him, because you only want the gifts, but not The Giver; you want the blessings, but not The Blesser. And we all fall into that category where we focus so much on the manifestation of the gifts. And unfortunately, we then start measuring anointing. Don’t call a great man of God; call me a man who serves A Great God. Your greatness can never surpass the Greatness of God, because for you to be great, the Name of God has to be attached to it. You can be gifted, you can be good at what you do, but being good at what you do doesn’t mean being great at who you are. You can detach yourself from God and say, “It is I doing this.” But your greatness that is not attached to The Lord is what King Solomon called vanity.
2 “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher. “Vanity of vanities! All [that is done without God’s guidance] is vanity [futile, meaningless—a wisp of smoke, a vapor that vanishes, merely chasing the wind].”
Ecclesiastes 1 : 2
The greatest illusion is to think that God created Himself through your image. God made you in His Image; you are not the one that God formed His Image from. We have gotten too familiar with God because we think that the way we are is the way God is. God is not like you; He makes you look like Him. So everytime you put yourself at the center of your entire existence, you are putting away the position that only God can occupy in your life: that is when Christ is the center of your entire existence.
16 For by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, [things] visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities; all things were created and exist through Him [that is, by His activity] and for Him. 17 And He Himself existed and is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. [His is the controlling, cohesive force of the universe.]
Colossians 1 : 16 – 17
26 Then God said, “Let Us (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) make man in Our image, according to Our likeness [not physical, but a spiritual personality and moral likeness]; and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the cattle, and over the entire earth, and over everything that creeps and crawls on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image, in the image and likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Genesis 1 : 26 – 27
Self-centeredness is a by-product of your ignorance with the fact that you are the one created in God’s Image, not God being created in your own image. Every time you create an image of Who God is based on your self-centeredness, not because He is The Center of the entirety of your existence, then you will think that what He has not given to you is because His Timing is not correct, yet all the time belongs to God. The issue here is that God will never give you anything that doesn’t fit in His Image and Likeness. If you want to see God moving on your behalf, remember that He won’t give you what looks more like your own image and likeness as a man, rather than what reflects His Image and Likeness as Your God. Christ centeredness should be the only reason of our stability in greatness. There is no bigger satisfaction than people seeing God being reflected in and through your life. It doesn’t matter how many you know, or how much money you have; if nobody has ever seen God in you, through you, with you, and for you, then there is an issue.
3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit [through factional motives, or strife], but with [an attitude of] humility [being neither arrogant nor self-righteous], regard others as more important than yourselves. 4 Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
Philippians 2 : 3 – 4
If you don’t live everything into whom God created you to be and in what God created you to do, then you are insured with two things: you will just sweat to earn yourself a right to just exist; and know that at the end, you will die, so what would you want to die with? Regrets that you refused God and allow to live by His Grace in His purpose He had for you, and you felt that God had to be the one to align Himself to your own earthly version of purpose? Now, you wish you never minded about what others thought about you because what mattered was what God thought about you. So now, as long as God blesses us with life in this world, we should fully devote our entire lives to His purpose upon our lives, then we will be His Heaven on earth where His will and agenda of His Kingdom will be manifested through us who choose to die to self, so that He may live fully in us and through us. Live every day and remember that one day you won’t be anymore and you will be forgotten so fast if what you did was to live for yourself, not through your Godly purpose on earth. A self-centered heart pushes you quicker to death than a heart, mind, and body which have completely surrendered to the will of The Most High God as long as He gives you space to be alive in this world.
