How to Excel in your Field

So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands. Ps.78:72

 

What does it take to excel in God’s way in your chosen area of business or career?

When we consider business or career success, it’s tempting to worry about things like:

·      Being charismatic

·      Being attractive

·      Being insanely intelligent

 

Those qualities are great, but they are not the real determinants of success.

I will focus on three major areas that could help you succeed:

1.    Integrity of heart

2.    Skilfulness of hands

3.    Prayer

Get these three things right, and you’ll succeed in any area of endeavour.

 

Integrity of Heart

Integrity of heart is an emotional, spiritual, and practical consistency with your purpose.

In essence, integrity of heart is internalising your purpose. That purpose becomes not just what you do, but a part of who you are. 

It’s what people sometimes commonly refer to as character.

 

Skilfulness of hands

Skilfulness of hands is about execution. It’s about being great at what you do.

It’s not enough to simply care about your purpose and remain true to it. You also must become great at executing that purpose.

The best way to become great at a craft is through practice and study.

This means that you must be a lifetime learner.

 

Prayer 

Ps. 127:1 Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain.

Prov.21:31 The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the LORD.

 

Prayer is a key ingredient of success and this is certainly obvious. There are success factors that are way beyond the control of any human. Only God can turn the elements of “time and chance” in your favour to make you succeed.

 

Some people see prayer as a burdensome requirement of religion; hence, they have no motivation to pray. While many can testify to the efficacy of prayer, there are also others who cannot boldly tell you in clear terms that God answers prayer. This is simply because of their personal experiences of failure in the place of prayer; for nothing can be more convincing to an individual than to have a personal experience of it. 

 

If most of your experiences show that your prayers were not answered, you are in danger of being in the place of doubt as to whether God really answers prayer, or if prayer is ever needed at all. Indeed, many have come to this point of doubt in their heart, even if they never have to say it out to others. They clearly object to prayer with the thought that God is unchangeable, hence there is absolutely no need to pray. Their motto has become “whatever will be, will be”.

Finney in his classic on prayer noted that God may not answer every prayer according to its letter, but He surely will according to its spirit. The real spirit of prayer is evermore this, “thy kingdom come – thy will be done”, and this God will assuredly answer, because He has so abundantly promised to do this very thing in answer to prayer. We know that God truly hears prayers and He answers, but the way He responds may be different from the way you thought He did respond.

 

So then, we understand that the thought that “whatever will be, will be” does not hold true with God, because you have power with God, and you can come into prayer to determine what should be in your business or career. The more you pray, the more you will learn to pray, and the better will be your results in prayer. This is not the time to faint in prayer, rather it is time to raise the altar of prayer and begin to change things in your life and all around you.