I do not know how many people I have seen lose their potential in God. It is so many.

I have seen people walk away from God because of obvious sin at one extreme and others drift away because they lost their passion on the other extreme.

Lost potential is probably the saddest thing for me to see as a leader in the church.

As Christians there are so many promises given to us. These promises come through the Bible, God speaking to us, and prophecies. These promises speak of our potential, the potential that God wants to see us walk in. I don’t know how many Christians actually achieve their potential. But my observations are they are few. Where does the potential go?

Potential is lost in the process.

Potential takes 3 steps. In the first step we get a promise for a specific area, then we must go through the process, and then we arrive at our potential. Promise –> process –> potential.

There is a process to inherit the potential for our promise.

People don’t survive the process.

Matthew 22:8-9, 11, 14 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come.  Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ …  “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. …  “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

This passage is talking about salvation. But we can use the same principle taught in these verses to illustrate achieving our potential. When we are given a promise our clothes must be changed into the appropriate clothes that we must wear to walk in the promise. When we are given a promise, we are immediately enrolled in the School of the Holy Spirit to give us a new set of clothes to be worn when we get to our destination – the promise.

The promise only speaks of what can happen! Not what has happened. We must change clothes first. This means we must change habits, behaviors, motivations, so that we are able to walk in the promise. This changing of clothes is what I call the process.

I believe people lose their potential primarily for two reasons: 1. Seduction and 2. Offense. While they are changing clothes and dreaming of the promise, the enemy brings either seduction or offense into our lives to derail us.

Seduction is the enemy’s counterfeit promise. He tries to offer you something appealing to get you to substitute his promise for God’s promise.

There are three main seductions that I have seen Christians fall into. The first two, are getting involved with the wrong person romantically or taking the wrong job. As zealous Christians start to move out for God, the enemy will counterattack by being sure some attractive person or job offer ‘appears’ in their life. It is not God’s will for them. It is a blatant attempt to seduce them with second best. Most Christians don’t have enough discernment to know the difference.

The third seduction I have seen is ‘Instant Ministry’. If the enemy can’t keep us from following God he will bring along a ministry ‘opportunity’. The greater the promise on your life the greater patience it will take to get there fully. In order to stop your full potential the enemy will bring along a ministry opportunity that is better than where you are currently at but will also never take you to your full potential. If he can’t keep you from moving, he will seduce you to move in the wrong direction.

Offense, is the most powerful process derailer I have ever seen. The ways that we get offended are innumerable. But they fall into two general areas. First, we get offended at God. He didn’t do, act, say, or behave the way we thought He should. Secondly, we get offended at a person. Almost always the person we get offended at is key to helping us achieve our potential. They didn’t do, act, say, or behave the way we thought they should. Of course, usually when we get offended we always have a good reason. Usually a religious reason at that.

Let’s pray for more discernment. The world needs the potential inside of us.