Ladder (truths That Deliver Greatness) by Apostle Joshua selman: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Concept of Value

Generically, value is measured by your capacity to solve problems, meet needs, provide solutions, and answer questions. Value is also measured by widespread desirability — when a sufficient number of people desire a person or thing, it becomes valuable in their eyes.

But in the kingdom, nothing has an independent intrinsic value. Value in the kingdom is only derived with respect to the ability of a person or thing to align with the will of God and serve the program of God.

In the world, men can desire, celebrate, and need something — and yet from a kingdom standpoint, it is valueless, because it cannot be used as a tool to serve the program of God. Value in the kingdom is not intrinsic. It is derived.

When a believer says "I am valuable," it goes beyond a degree, skill, or capacity to provide solutions. It means I have found a way of investing my life as a seed in God's program — that I am at the center of God's will and my life has become like a drink offering poured out to bring glory to the Lord.

In the believer's life there is no such thing as waste when it can serve God. Your pain suddenly becomes valuable if it can be used to reveal the glory of God. Your past suddenly becomes valuable. All things can work together because all things in your life can serve the program of God.

Every time you use the presence of external things to determine whether you are valuable, you will live a frustrated, competitive life of pressure. It is a miracle of healing when you learn to derive your sense of value from your investedness in the program of God rather than the things you acquire.

The day I gave up deriving value from things, things began to come in a way that they have never stopped. No matter how expensive or glamorous a thing is, once I cannot find how to serve God with it, it is useless to me.

Science, arts, technology — they are the bodies that reveal the glory of God on earth. Being a doctor means you are in ministry. A chef in ministry. A politician in ministry. As a mother — out of these children can come weapons of war, battle axes for the program of God. That is what makes you valuable.

Don't wait till you enter a plane, get a job, wear designers, get married, have children, or multiply your account to feel valuable. Find comfort that if one person can be healed, know Jesus, be healthy, go to school, or become a better leader because you are alive — heaven considers you valuable.

I am valuable because my life is already invested serving the purposes of God, birthing the will of God on earth, being a blessing to humanity. Therefore I am valuable. Let the coming of a man only enhance it. Let the coming of money only enhance it. Let it not become the reason.

The Concept of Impact

When your presence and your contribution makes people, things, places, and situations better than you met them — you are impactful.

Jesus walked the earth for 33 and a half years. The most active part was the last 3 and a half years. He left the earth eternally better than he met it. That is an impactful life.

Living an impactful life is not something only you will know — there are indices. Whose life changed because you came? Whose life changed because you gave? What is improving because you came?

Impact also measures the extent and quality of your contribution. You should never stop until you get to that 100-fold dimension of impact. The path of the just is as a shining light that shines more and more until the perfect day.

Impact demands that you look beyond yourself. No man becomes impactful for taking care of himself. Impact is measured by how your life and your gift becomes a blessing to people. Impact is not just an activity or an action — it is a mentality.

No believer should leave situations, people, and destinies at the same level or worse than he met them. That is why we were given the anointing, the resources of wisdom and favor.

The opposite of an impactful life is a beggarly life — waiting for people to always do things for you. The world gravitates towards givers, not takers.

Impact is not all about giving money. A greater part of impacting people is selling them value systems that improve their lives. Decisions decide destiny. I can give you money and still leave you with an enslaved mentality. But if I bring truth that is life-transforming, I have impacted you. Knowledge first, then all the benefits.

If you cannot give value, give gratitude and give honor. When you are a giver, God can pour into you because he knows you will not be a reservoir — it will flow. Stagnant water stings. You have to flow.

In the name of Jesus, I receive grace from today to look beyond myself — that at my level, I will begin to give, to bless, to heal, to build in the name of Jesus.

There Is a Price for an Exceptional Life

Many Christians have underestimated the real price of a glorious destiny. If you desire greatness, you must be willing to pay the price.

The grace of God can make achievements appear deceptively effortless, and this makes many believers trivialize the price for greatness. All things are finished in Christ — but the sacrifice of alignment that imports those finished realities into your life still requires a labor dimension. There is a real price.

The Prices That Make for Greatness

• Mastery and competence.
• Walking and living by faith.
• Courage — daring the undarable. Maybe you are the first in your family. Walking on water. If I perish, I perish.
• Patience — allowing your training to have its full course.
• Discipline — both staying power and the power of restraint.
• Failing and not quitting. Not just failing once — failing as many times as it takes until you win, and yet not quitting.
• Sacrificing your personal desires to align with the will of God. Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done.
• Warfare — contending against limiting beliefs and demonic spirits.
• Emotional strength to remain on course when misunderstood. Until the glory is revealed, you and God will be the only ones who understand what you are doing. It takes courage to be misunderstood and then continue.
• Intentionally remaining humble in the midst of great results. Your humility is not genuine until you really have results. Emptiness with arrogance — like an empty container that is locked. That is the worst sight to behold.
• The discipline of consistency.

More than 80 to 90% of people who desire and trivialize success cannot maintain it when it comes. They do not have the stature and maturity to maintain greatness, to love, to be humble, to still be a steward, to serve.

The assignment of mentorship is not to take responsibility over your life. It is to subsidize the price of greatness for you. If the price for becoming all God ordained for you is 1 billion — mentorship can cover 600 million. But that remaining part, you must pay it.

Even salvation does not take over your responsibility. Jesus died, but you must confess his lordship with your own mouth. He is making intercession — but you do the believing, the receiving, the declaration. Then eternal life becomes yours.

The prodigal son — the father did not cover all the distance. The son had to decide: "I will arise and go to my father." The Bible says arise and shine. Light will come to you, but you will have to arise.

The man at the Gate Beautiful in Acts 3 — Peter said rise up and walk, and reached out to help him. But the man had to rise. Waiting for God to do everything is a recipe for disaster.

I pray for you in the name of Jesus — the grace and stamina to take responsibility over your life and drive it until you see the glory of God revealed, may that grace be released upon you.

The way out is for the person who keeps asking, seeking, knocking. Ask and keep asking. Pray and keep praying. Read and keep reading. Give and keep giving. Love and keep loving. Stay and keep staying. That is a price.

What is chasing you determines how you run. Arrive and the results will do the explanation.

Nobody will pay your price for you. It is called your destiny, not our destiny. There is a price to be called Esther, Abraham, Moses, Elijah. Don't just call the name and claim it without the price.

Seven Anchor tenets

The values of a man define who that man becomes. You can reproduce yourself in others by reproducing your values in them.

1. Practice Love and Reverence Towards God

   Proverbs 9:10, Job 28:28. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. To depart from evil is understanding. This must be the anchor tenet you run your life by.

2. Practice Gratitude as a Lifestyle

   1 Thessalonians 5:18, Colossians 3:15. In everything give thanks — good, bad, insulting, promoting. Let it be how you live, not just what you do. If you learn to be thankful, you keep scheduling seasons of favor. Every time you are lavish in gratitude, you schedule the next demonstration of benevolence. Never take benevolence for granted.

3. Practice Humility as a Lifestyle

   James 4:6, James 4:10, 1 Peter 5:5, Proverbs 22:4, Proverbs 16:18. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, that he may lift you. Be clothed with humility — wear it like a garment. Everyone can know. Many people are simple but they are not humble. By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life. Pride goes before destruction.

   Pain is a revealer of the authenticity of honor. If pain makes you change your disposition towards people who blessed you, you never truly honored them. Never fight a man you once honored publicly.

4. Never Stop Learning and Growing

   1 Corinthians 8:2. There is no such thing as an arrival mentality. Arrival is a relative statement. You have arrived at this level, but there are still heights to climb. "If any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know."

5. Never Outgrow the Need to Be Guided

   Psalm 25:9, Proverbs 3:5-6, Acts 8:30-31. The meek will he guide in judgment. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your path. The Ethiopian eunuch — a high official with chariots — said: "How can I, except some man should guide me?" Seeking for guidance does not reduce your status. In the presence of counsel, hard things are dissolved in a moment. Mountains look like stones.

6. Practice Honor as a Lifestyle

   1 Samuel 2:30, Romans 13:7. Them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me I will lightly esteem. Give everyone what you owe — if honor, then honor. Never fight a man you once honored publicly. Nobody will trust you again. Pain is a revealer of the authenticity of honor.

My assignment over you in righteousness is to stay with God and, as much as it can be subsidized for your destiny, to make it happen. But no matter what I do, it is up to you. I cannot eat it for you. You are going to have to get it into your system.

I release upon you the grace for your finances, for ministry, for leadership — to read the books, to go for the conference, to learn, to stay up at night, to burn the candles, to not criticize others. That grace I release upon you in the name of Jesus.