Win the Day #5 | Cut the Rope
String together a bunch of winning days because you can create a winning life.
It’s hard to win the day when you’re carrying the baggage of the past:
- Flip The Script
- Kiss The Wave
To Win This Day, we have to:
- Eat The Frog
- Fly The Kite
Win The Day with the future in mind:
- Cut The Rope
Everything that exists first started as a thought. Your future begins in the vision you have for it. You and I exist because we were first a thought in the heart of God. It’s what we do with that thought that determines whether something happens.
Every miracle happens twice:
- The concept happens within first
- Then it manifests itself in the natural realm
Elisha Otis was the inventor of the safety elevator brake. Back in the day, people were hesitant to ride elevator… they felt they were unsafe.
He invented the safety elevator break. He experimented with cutting the rope holding the elevator and just in the nick of time, the Safety Brake kicked in.
You have to cut the rope to let the elevator fall to a safe place. After that, elevators were embraced and buildings begin to be built taller and taller. The acceptance of elevators opened up a whole new approach to building taller buildings.
It was the Adjacent Possible
- Elevators make skyscrapers possible
- Microchips makes smartphones possible
The adjacent possible is a future shadow. It’s right there just on the edge of possibility. Your future is really in your next step.
John 5:2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes.
John 5:3 In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, [ waiting for the moving of the waters;
John 5:4 for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.]
John 5:5 A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
John 5:6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, “Do you wish to get well?”
John 5:7 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”
John 5:8 Jesus said to him, “ Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.”
John 5:9 Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk. Now it was the Sabbath on that day.
The man was fixated on one way to be healed. Jesus completely bypasses that method and just tells him to get up, “pick up your pallet and walk”.
There is more than one way to get your answer.
“So Jesus said to them, “Children, you do not have any fish, do you?” They answered Him, “No.” And He said to them, “Cast the net on the right-hand side of the boat and you will find a catch. ” So they cast, and then they were not able to haul it in because of the great number of fish.”
Throw your net on the right side of the boat. There was no real sense or reason in casting the net over the right side of the boat. It was a move to the adjacent possible.
A word from God makes all the difference. A word from God generates its own fulfillment. One word from God releases the miraculous. A word from God contains the creative power to cause something totally new to happen.
Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught,” Jesus said. So Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net to the shore. There were 153 large fish, and yet the net hadn’t torn.”
153 fish is far more than they needed for breakfast! God always supplies in abundance! Who knows whether 153 fish are awaiting your next move. It’s not a big move – it’s just a move.
You can just pick up the pallet you’ve been lying on… Get up and do something!
- Start reading your Bible daily
- Volunteer on a team in church
- Get in a Rock group
- Be in church on a regular basis
- Go for a walk
- Start saving a little bit every paycheck
- Shift your friendship tribe
Getting up and moving on would mean a whole different life for this guy. Thirty-eight years was long enough to develop a few ruts in the way you think and live.
- New friends
- New way to live
- New self identity
- New mind set
Imagining unborn tomorrow’s does not mean figuring out every facet of your future. It’s mustering the courage to take the next step.
I often tell the story of deciding to go to Christ for the Nations Bible school rather than taking the secure job.
That decision launched a new life for me:
- I learned you could live in victory every day
- I learned the power of a lifestyle of worship
- I met Suzette
You are one decision away from a totally different life.
When we were living in Dallas God told us to get our finances and our house in order. A few months later, our opportunity to live and minister in Europe arose. We made the adjacent possible.
Oftentimes God is setting us up even when it feels like he is letting us down. God closing one door is His way to get us to walk through another door.
Closed doors are just as valuable as open doors.
It’s all about taking your next step and moving into your adjacent possible.