Fruitfulness and multiplication rest on the command of mastery. If we fail to subdue our propensity to excuse ourselves (“it’s not my fault, the woman told me to do it”, “It’s not my responsibility, the serpent told me to do it”) we’ll continue as we always were. Worse still, we’ll diminish in our own eyes and hide away in a fig leaf life.
Purposeful productivity is really the mastery of time and energy in positive productive ways that bless mankind.
At base, I think it boils down to simply saying yes to the things you know you need to say yes to, and no to the things you don’t.
It comes down to the mastery of that moment of decision.
TRANSCRIPT
Please note: this transcript is auto-generated so forgive any (or many) errors 😲 – click the timestamps to play that section directly in the audio.
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Well, good morning, folks. Pleased to be with you this morning. Well, morning here. I’m not sure what it is for you. I know that we gather from all over the world. So welcome world. And I’m looking forward to sharing with you something that’s really been just such an interesting journey this past month where we’ve been talking about productivity. I have been working on really looking to kind of just unpack some of the ways in which we can be most fruitful and make the most of the time that we’ve got in this short span on the planet.
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Before we head on to kind of our next leg of the journey. And what I want to talk about today is mastering the moment and how mastering a particular moment will undoubtedly change your life and will continue to change your life at every junction that you find yourself. In this moment, there is a very powerful scripture that reads God created man in his own image, in the image of God created him, male and female. He created them and God bless them and said to them, be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion and say, Really?
00:01:44.300]
Where Dominion begins is right here and right now, I think that self mastery is the starting line of dominion. It’s very difficult for us to rule over something if we fail to rule over ourselves. Elsewhere in the Scriptures. In the Book of Proverbs, it talks about how a man who rules over his own spirit is mightier than a man who rules over us over a city. I mean, seriously conquering your own emotions, conquering yourself, conquering your own soul and your spirit and harnessing them in service of the king and his kingdom and of others.
00:02:33.530]
Yes, in the service of other people. It takes work, man. It’s like that. The Proverbs likens it to conquering a city. This is not a light undertaking that I’m talking about, but it’s a great deal simpler and less complex than sometimes we make it. I think, you know, fruitful fruitfulness and multiplication rest really on this command of mastery. You know, it’s really freeing ourself if we fail to subdue that propensity of the old man or the old woman to excuse themselves in a way where we need like like Adam, it’s not my fault.
00:03:23.450]
The woman told me to do it. The woman like, well, it’s not my fault that the serpent beguiled me. You mean that? I’m sure the serpent turned round to look to see who he could blame. But there was no one behind him. You know, that sucker deserved everything that he got. But, you know, if we if we partake of that kind of mindset, we will and will never see the changes that we want to see.
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You may in fact, it won’t just stunt our growth. It will diminish our growth and will leave us living what I call a fig leaf. Life will be just hidden, will hide behind a false persona, will hide behind a kind of half lived, half embraced life where we have never really stepped out and stepped in to our gift and our calling. And having said all that, man, I’m not saying that this is just easy or simple.
00:04:30.950]
It takes a lot of courage to do it. But really purposeful productivity, which is what we’ve been looking at over this month, is really the mastery that certainly this is how I define it anyways. I mean, someone else has probably got a much better definition than this. But to me, purposeful productivity is really the mastery of time and energy. And I would include money in that in positive, productive ways that bless mankind. Find and base, it boils down to saying yes to the things that we know we need to say yes to and no to the things that we don’t.
00:05:12.030]
It’s not it’s not a great deal more complicated than that. And then in that, you know, this this even we put this in the pan and we’ve turned up the heat and we’re boiling away all the froth and the bubble. And what remains really at the bottom of that pan, once it’s boiled down to its essence, is we need to master the moment of decision. And the moment of decision is that moment where we ask ourselves, shall I do this or shan’t I do this?
00:05:47.550]
Shall I exercise this morning or shall I not exercise this morning? Shall I eat healthy or shall I choose to have this big bowl of burger and chips? You know, it’s that moment of decision where real mastery takes place. Master that one second in time and your future will be transformed. Sometimes we can think that mastery is like, you know, like say, for example, let’s take exercise as an example. And I’m not the best example of this personally.
00:06:23.730]
My wife would be a better person to be here speaking about mastery. In that respect, I have improved. But it’s like that the decision isn’t should I decide to exercise for an hour every day or twenty minutes every day, should I, you know, should I decide to do a marathon six months from now? I know that that is not the decision that we’re talking about here. We’re talking about one moment of decision, not six months, not every day, but right now where we have the thought bubbles up.
00:07:04.950]
Shall I exercise now and then? That is where mastery takes place. Shall I? Shan’t I choosing to say yes to the things that we know that we need to say yes to and choosing to say no to the things that we know to say no to and that yes, no decision happens in an instant. It’s not something that we have to plan for. It’s not something that we have to kind of fast for three weeks to to figure out.
00:07:41.160]
It’s an instant moment of yes no. And our days are full of these kind of decisions. It’s not it’s really not rocket science. And the key to mastery is really what we choose to do with them. And it’s often the second guess or the alternative to acting on instinct that swipes the legs out from under us. And I think that for me, for me, I believe and I believe for others as well. A big key to this is learning to trust our inner.
00:08:21.930]
And there’s such a great word in the King James Bible here, our inner unction. Yeah, one John, two verse twenty says you have an unction from the holy one. And you know all things you have an unction from the holy one and you know all things and said you really do. You know more than you realise. You know more than you give yourself credit for. In fact, the Bible tells us here that you have an unction from the holy one.
00:08:58.230]
God is living in you and you know all things at any given moment. He is there to help, to inform, to guide, to transform. And it’s those moments that I’m talking about, you know, and moving into a place where we trust that unction and we build that trust by continually and consistently acting on that unction, that inside knowing in the moment and doing it without allowing all of that, like the ravages of self-doubt and self-loathing to talk us out of it, just trusting in ourselves and trusting in the one who lives within us.
00:09:49.950]
The unction from the holy one who himself is all knowing, all seeing, you know, and he is the one prompting many of the best decisions. That we can make and it’s learning to not allow the those second guesses and those self doubts to back us off from simply just stepping out and taking action. I read a book a few months ago by a lady called Mel Robbins. I don’t know much about her. It was called the Five Second Rule, and she applied something similar.
00:10:27.140]
She didn’t really kind of call it an function from the holy one, but her her like the whole book. The premise of the entire book is very simple. You know, when you get an idea and something comes to you in that moment, you don’t give yourself the option. You just count from five to one and then move and do it. Five, four, three, two, one, go. And I think she’s she’s on to something.
00:10:54.320]
She is on to something there. But I want to encourage you, you know, you do have a relationship with God. If you know Jesus, if you’re walking with Jesus, if you believe that he is real, not just some distant icon out there in the universe somewhere, but an ever present help in time, not just of trouble, but in time of growth and joy and decision and concern and celebration. He is there all the time dwelling within you, and he knows all things.
00:11:31.160]
And through him, you will know how to act. And you know, when I was writing about this this morning, I was tempted to elaborate and, you know, and try and like give some examples, etc. But I really felt that, like in doing so, it would be really counterproductive to try and justify or explain what I mean by mastering these moments of decision, these yes. No instances that happen multiple times every day often because you know already what I’m excuse me, you know, already what I’m talking about and you experience them every single day.
00:12:12.770]
The question is really not what are they? Because you do know what they are those moments of yes, no. Do I do what I know I need to do? Yes. Or do I not do what I know I don’t need to do? No. Yeah. The question is, are you learning to master those moments of decision and are you fast acting on the unction as it prompts you to move in a certain direction? And really only you can answer that question, but I can promise you, if you will learn to be a prompt responder to the function that you feel and as you’re moved inwardly to do, say, be in a certain direction, I encourage you to go for it.
00:13:07.070]
You’ve got nothing to lose and you’ve got a great deal to gain because your God is faithful and he will prosper everything that you put your hand to. Well, thanks for listening. Hopefully it’s been an encouragement to you today, if you want to connect any further, you can do so through my website at Davidleemartin.com. Have a great day.
