Learning from the Past - Prepares us for a Better Tomorrow

We all have a certain stigma concerning the past. Things are usually said like “don’t bring up the past” in a sharp tone, or “forget the past” and so on. Though I understand the negative side of the past and the power it can wield over a future, it still can’t be ignored nor can it not be learned from. The past can be one of our greatest educational experiences in preparing us for a better future. I said this recently and I think this sums up the downside of past failures.

Don’t give past failures the power to neutralize your future successes. Don’t abort possibilities and goals by building monuments to past experiences that brought no reward. Instead, learn, persevere, and try again. Never give up what you know is possible!

However… the upside.

Thomas Jefferson realized the impact on the future that correct teaching of history would be in guiding the future of a nation. He wrote, “History, by apprizing them [students] of the past, will enable them to judge of the future.” We understand that living in the past, or the rehearsing of previous hurts, is a detriment to progress both individually and corporately. However, what we learn from the past will affect our behavior determining whether we increase the timeline of our growth, or remain stuck in a past destroying hope for a better tomorrow. Living in the present is not an isolated position. Ignoring the past and thinking the future doesn’t exist is believing the present is isolated. Our present has one arm connected to our past while the other is connected to our future. The past has shaped our present and our present will shape our future. Interestingly, we are not bound by our past because we can change decisions in our present to reshape our future. If you do not like the past – change the future by sowing seeds (making different decisions) in the present to change the future.

Destiny is your experience created by your decisions. Right now was your future a year ago… 10 years ago… 30 years ago. My decisions created my present which was my future – my destiny. I can talk about my future and my hopes and aspirations, but it will remain a pipe-dream if I don’t make decisions to create it. My future will always remain there and fleeting if I never make a decision to make it a reality. Vision should not remain a vision the whole life – it’s a destination to be reached, a goal to be experienced. My wife Laci once said “You won’t see an ending without first seeing the vision, and without taking action, the experience will be dead.”

Leadership not only creates a personal future, but our decisions create the future of others who live under the consequences of our decisions. Those in spiritual leadership can recall Adam and Eve. Governmental leadership can recall all despots and tyrants both current and past and how their personal decisions subjected all citizens to be submitted to their consequences. Adolf Hitler subjected all of Germany to the suffering consequences of his perilous decisions.

We in leadership have been given something called power which is the faculty or capacity to act, the strength and potency to accomplish something. It is the vital energy to make choices and decisions. We possess the steering wheel to provide direction for a country.

Spiritual leadership of a nation is extremely important to providing the keys to a principle reformation in each nation. Returning to a political principled approach in government establishes trust in the people, promotes development and innovation, and creates a national calm and peace. These are just a few of the benefits of such a revival. Instead of bemoaning the failing systems, the personnel in office, bad policies, spiritual leadership should instead do what they are supposed to do – LEAD!

I would like to call the spiritual leadership to look at the following.

Romans 15:4 – For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

Hebrews 10:32 – But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions;

1 Corinthians 10:6 – Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.

Once we learn objectively from our past, the quality of our decisions in the present improve, and our future becomes brighter.

We Must Disciple

 

Achieving success is not just for me...

Below is an article I wrote for LeadingNations Blog concerning leadership and its necessity of discipling its protégés. From a spiritual perspective, Jesus taught discipleship and the terms mentorship, mentee, and protégé are really borrowed concepts from Jesus. They are applied to a business and government setting in the article, but insert teacher and disciple for ourselves and see the necessity of Kingdom growth.  

Mentorship is a personal development a relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps to guide a less experienced or less knowledgeable person. The mentor has a certain area of expertise. It is a learning and development partnership between someone with vast experience and someone who wants to learn. The person in receipt of mentorship may be referred to as a protégé (male), a protégée (female), an apprentice or, in recent years, a mentee. “Mentoring” is a process that always involves communication and example and is relationship based.

The importance of a mentor

Most of us know about the great artist Michelangelo. But few know about Bertoldo di Giovanni, his teacher. There’s a debate in art circles about who was the greater—Michelangelo, the pupil, or Bertoldo, the teacher who produced him. However, the important thing is that someone mentored him and without the mentor would we have the iconic painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and countless contributions from Michelangelo? Without a mentor in his life he would have contributed to the art world but not nearly the volume due to the shortened span of maximum release of his gift due to having to learn through personal experience. Giovanni shortened the learning curve of Michelangelo and released him to a longer field of contribution. Without the benefit of a mentor it shortens the field of contribution and elongates the preparatory experiences.

The value of a mentorship program is invaluable. It shortens the distance between the present and the goal for the mentee. What took the mentor 10 years to learn something through experience can now be imparted to a mentee and shorten the development by years. This will accelerate their capability in depositing more into the next generation that follows them. Accelerating knowledge gives the opportunity to build higher and greater in the future instead of always having to reinvent the wheel. If every generation has to go back through what the previous generation went through, then no progress will ever be experienced. 

Mentorship is not for the purpose of circumventing the process of development but to carry the baton from the previous spot achieved by the prior generation.

Dr. Reuben Egolf

Keys That Unlock Spiritual Success

If you will... God will...  

 

Deuteronomy 4:29-31 (KJV)
²⁹ But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
³⁰ When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice;
³¹ (For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.

There are 1595 ifs in the bible denoting conditions to be met before blessings are released. Repeatedly throughout scripture you will read phrases similar to “if you… He will…” It was what we call “conditional promises.” In other words, God will give us a key in the form of a condition that will unlock the blessing he has wrapped in a promise.

People oftentimes will subtly feel resentment at God because they feel he is not doing something in an automatic way. We often believe that if God wants to do something for us, that it’s all up to him whether he does it or not, and we have little to nothing to do with it. Nothing could be further from the truth! Our decisions have everything to do with it.

Consider the most famous of all scriptures which is John 3:16 

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Jesus states that if a person believes in the only begotten son, then the blessing of eternal life will be released into their life. 

I have to admit that there is a lot of wasted prayers due to ignorance. Many pray things that will not be answered due to a lack of understanding what our personal responsibility is in the situation. I will give you some examples of what I am saying. Here are some ways we pray that indicates we believe that God will just do it without any personal responsibility of our own. 

1. We will pray  “Lord, I am lonely send me some friends!” The Lord will then remind you of a key and where  it is found.

Here is your key:

Proverbs 18:24 (KJV) A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

He is saying “be friendly to others and you will gain friends.” You can pray till the cows come home, but if you don’t use the key you will not receive the benefit!

2. We pray “Lord, please touch my mind – it is confused and miserable and depressed and I am full of worry”
 
Here’s your key:
 

Isaiah 26:3 (KJV) Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

IF your mind is always on the problem then how do you expect to have peace?

3. We pray “Lord stop this from my enemies and I pray that you make them treat me better…”

Here’s your keys:
 

Matthew 5:44 (KJV) But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

Romans 12:20-21 (KJV) Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. [21] Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

God wrote this book for us to use – it is a doing religion! These keys work and this is how you apply the Word. 

It all comes down to the original point – if you… God will…

Dr. Reuben Egolf