Constant Consistency

i was thinking of something that really became apparent to me today.

one thing i am committed to becoming more in my life is more consistent.

i am starting to realize that the people whose mood/character/personality changes like the passing weather are prone to living a life of frustration and at the same time, frustrating others.

in IRD, i teach and coach a lot about being unpredictable in a good way, and most would think that means being hot one minute and cold the next.

NO. when i talk about being unpredictable, i am conveying an element of mystery (or flowing with the mystery of life; not needing to control every little thing, being accepting, and so on) – NOT being UNPREDICTABLE because you (your moods/feelings/character/etc) change a lot depending on too many different external things.

a person who is not consistent or a person who is unpredictable in ways most people are, you cannot predict or TRUST/DEPEND how they will behave in a particular situation. that is not how i mean.

so we have two things here:
-being unpredictable in a good way
-being a person who is consistent

unpredictable, as I have said, means living from your deep heart and accepting the punches as they come – not being moody.

if you noticed in your life, as i have mine, the people whose mood changes based on circumstances or external factors are really hard to be around with. it is like walking on eggs or broken glass. you have to watch what you say or do. some even feel a sense of fear – not feeling safe with the person (not violent, but uncomfortable). again, most people live this way – they change based on externals and circumstances.

now notice about the few of the people in your life who are consistent, they bring a sense of safety, a sense of sameness in a good way. they bring comfort and a solid foundation. they are a tower of strength. you can depend on them. you trust them.

i am not saying to not feel what you feel or to ignore stuff. what i am saying is, there comes a point in one’s life when they make a quality of decision to discipline their mind and feelings to follow something deeper within them, something intrinsic in nature.

it is not about covering up what you feel at the moment, but it is bringing out who you really are or who you really want to be as a person – in terms of character and moods.

because being consistent brings more to your life than you can imagine.

my pop Creflo likes to say: “Consistency is the key to breakthrough.”

CONSISTENCY is the key to breakthrough in any aspect of life.

now, begin thinking or in fact, ask the people whom you trust or consider close to tell you how they really feel about you. or what it is about you that make them not want to be around you in certain situations. you will learn a lot from those conversations. i have had my share of those. but i learned from them and grew.

i am up 98% of the time. i have not always been this way. but i am naturally a happy-positive-up person. and i would like to think that i am consistent. i grew to be. it was and still is something i work on. i need not worry that people will tell me something and i will blow up the next minute.

but surely, there are times of frustrations or anger or sadness but for the most part, you will NOT see me projecting those things out to other people and expect them to understand.

i personally believe being true to yourself is not expressing those unnecessary thoughts or feelings onto others. that is not what being true to your self means(i do not think so anyways). being true to yourself touches on your desires/purposes/passions/beliefs – not opinions, feelings, etc.

we all need to come to a place in our lives where we are consistent to a point that even we ourselves know how we would BE and DO in any given situation (which reflects to others knowing how we would be and do).

i think of all my mentors and coaches and others i have a great respect for, including JC. this is one huge part of what is called Self-Mastery. they all have it. most of them were not born that way. they learned and grew and grew some more. they are still mastering themselves. it is a lifelong surrendering. but it can begin today.

this thing of being a person who is consistent adds more to you and others and life itself. i cannot encourage everyone enough to make a quality of decision to be more consistent in how you are BEING and commit to being a person who people will say is consistent.

Sounds Like An Opportunity

let me ask you something.

“if someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience OR does He give them the opportunity to be patient?

if they pray for courage, do you think God gives them courage or does He give them opportunity to become courageous?

if someone prays for their family to be closer, do you think God gives them warm fuzzy feelings OR does He give them opportunity to love each other?”

–G (played by Morgan Freeman); Evan Almighty

something to ponder on.

ps: just watched Evan Almighty. and that film is more biblical than other thngs i hear form the religious sect. that movie will preach! ;p

Faith: God’s Word OR Faith: High Expectation Based On Wrong Information?

faith works in the heart. we need to understand that faith is a spiritual force. it works in the heart (unconscious) of man. it does not work in the head (conscious). mental assent works in the head. some mistake it for faith. but mental assent is not faith.

mental assent working in the head says: “Yes, that’s in the Bible.” but they do not really believe it. if it is only in the head, you do not really believe it. mental assent says: “Yes, it’s truth, because it’s the Bible.”

but is it truth in your life?

“Well, no, it really isn’t true in me.”

then it is not yet in your spirit.

if you have that faith of God in you, it will produce the reality of that thing. but it has to be in the spirit (heart/sc).

here is something that many have never understood. just because you believe the scripture is in the Bible does not mean the promise is going to be true in your life. you must develop yourself in faith regarding that promise. again, just finding something in the Bible does not mean you have faith to believe for it. just saying: “I believe the Scriptures” does not make it come true in your life.

faith is not blind. faith always sees and faith always knows. what some people call “blind faith” is presumption – and presumption is blind. what some Christians call “faith” is not faith at all. it is foolishness. they just assume that something will happen, not because they have faith in God’s Word, but because of what happened to some other person.

some have done things acting in what they thought was faith, because someone else did it. “Well, Brother So-and-So gave his car away and he got a new one. I’m going to give mine away.”

yes, and you may walk for ten months.

do not ever base your faith and journey on what someone else did. do not base what you are doing on someone else’s faith.

you have to hear from God. you see, God may have told Brother So-and-So to do what he did. but did He tell you to do that? when you check up on some of these things, you will find that is why so many have what they call “faith failures”. it was not faith at all. they just did it because someone else did it, or because somebody else got blessed. it makes a difference when you do things because of the Word of God and understanding your own personal journey.