A pastor went out visiting his church members on a Saturday afternoon. At one house, it was obvious that someone was home, but nobody came to the door even though the preacher knocked several times. Finally, the minister took out his church business card and wrote out "Revelation 3:20" on the back of it and stuck it in the door: The verse says, "Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him and he with me."
The next day at church, surprisingly, the pastor’s card turned up in the offering plate. Below the preacher’s message was written the following quote from Genesis 3:10: "I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself."
Genesis chapter 2 tells the story of the perfect place. We know this place as the Garden of Eden. It was a place of contentment and joy. Mankind was created to care for and enjoy this place. When God created man we are told in Genesis 2:25
“Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.” The word for “naked” was an adjective. It meant stripped of clothing. It described the condition in which God had made them.
Then the serpent came into the picture and tempted them to sin against God. He enticed them to doubt God’s word. He convinced them that God’s word did not apply to them. So they sinned. Then things changed. They felt shame for their nakedness and hid from God. When God sought them Adam confessed to his nakedness.
God replied in Genesis 3:11 “Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”
Who are you listening to?
I want to dwell on that first question God asked man. “Who told you were you naked?” From what we have read it would seem that they discovered their nakedness on their own. But God’s statement suggests someone had told them they were naked. The reason is the change in the word “naked.” Before it was an adjective. Now the word is a noun. Before it meant stripped of clothing. Now it meant exposed. Before it was a description. Now it is who they are. They are exposed, broken. And God asked “Who told you that you were broken?”
God created man to have fellowship with him. Satan had designed a plan to destroy that creation. However, God knew man still had the potential to live out the design of his creation. God knew man had the potential to continue in fellowship with him. God realized He would need to make a means for that fellowship to be repaired and He did so through animal sacrifices and finally through Jesus. But man’s potential for fellowship never wavered.
God recognizes your potential. How people have treated you or what they have said about you does not change your potential. Disappointments and set backs does not change your potential. All of us are filled with potential to be more, to do more, and to achieve more.
Satan still whispers in our ears that we are broken. When Satan whispers “All you do goes unnoticed and unappreciated” God asks “Who told you that? I say I reward you for doing right.” When Satan whispers “If you try you will fail.” God asks “Who told you that? I say those who delight in my word will prosper in all they do.” When Satan whispers “You are getting ready to lose all you have.” God asks “Who told you that? I say those who trust in me will lack no good thing.” When Satan whispers “You are nothing but a failure.” God asks “Who told you that? I say those who follow my instructions will never stumble.”
God says “You can do all things through Christ Jesus” We are not broken. We are his people filled with potential that need to stop listening to our enemy. The enemy does not want you to know your potential.
Finding your potential
John 4 tells us this story. “Jesus knew the Pharisees had heard that he was baptizing and making more disciples than John (though Jesus himself didn’t baptize them—his disciples did). So he left Judea and returned to Galilee.
He had to go through Samaria on the way. Eventually he came to the Samaritan village of Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Please give me a drink.’ He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food.
The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans. She said to Jesus, ‘You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?’”
Let’s look at his reply in John 4:10. “Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”
He was saying to her “If you only knew your potential, if only you realized that I can make it possible, and if only you sought it, I would give it to you.”
Here was a woman who had gone through 5 husbands and was now living with a man. The men of the town said “Broken” God asked “Who told you that?” The women of the town had rejected her, forcing her to get water in the middle of the hot day instead of the cool morning when the other women did. The women of the town said “Broken.” God asked, “Who told you that?” The church tried to push her to worship here and there. The church said, “Broken.” God asked, “Who told you that?”
Through time spent talking with Jesus, He showed her what her potential was. She left her town considered broken. She returned to her town an evangelist and prophet. And many people of the town became his followers.
Believing your potential
Let’s talk about David. A young shepherd boy sent on an errand to deliver food to his brothers on the battlefield as they were facing the Philistines. The Philistines mightiest warrior, Goliath, was taunting them. David soon began asking questions.
1 Samuel 17:28 “But when David’s oldest brother, Eliab, heard David talking to the men, he was angry. ‘What are you doing around here anyway?’ he demanded. ‘What about those few sheep you’re supposed to be taking care of? I know about your pride and deceit. You just want to see the battle!’
‘What have I done now?’ David replied. ‘I was only asking a question!’ He walked over to some others and asked them the same thing and received the same answer. Then David’s question was reported to King Saul, and the king sent for him.
‘Don’t worry about this Philistine,’ David told Saul. ‘I’ll go fight him!’
‘Don’t be ridiculous!’ Saul replied. ‘There’s no way you can fight this Philistine and possibly win! You’re only a boy, and he’s been a man of war since his youth.’
But David persisted. ‘I have been taking care of my father’s sheep and goats,’ he said. ‘When a lion or a bear comes to steal a lamb from the flock, I go after it with a club and rescue the lamb from its mouth. If the animal turns on me, I catch it by the jaw and club it to death. I have done this to both lions and bears, and I’ll do it to this pagan Philistine, too, for he has defied the armies of the living God!’”
Saul agrees and gives David his personal armor and sword. David said “This isn’t working” and settled for five stones and a sling shot. Here is his reason. 1 Samuel 17: 37 “The Lord who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine!”
David believed in his potential to slay Goliath. He knew that the same God which had given him victories over little things would give him victory over the major thing. He would not allow others to discourage him from reaching his potential. He would not allow others to instruct him on how to reach his potential. He believed in his potential and walked in it. When others said “You’re just a little harmless shepherd boy”, God asked, “Who told you that? You are a warrior.” When others said, “You’re not equipped for the task.” God asked “Who told you that? You can do all things through me.” David believed in his potential to slay the giant and he did.
Declaring your potential
Caleb was a man who believed that the children of Israel had the potential to take the promise land from the giants who lived there. But the people balked, not believing that God could deliver the land to them. God got angry and decided to destroy them all but Moses interceded. Numbers 14:20-24 “Then the Lord said, ‘I will pardon them as you have requested. But as surely as I live, and as surely as the earth is filled with the Lord’s glory, not one of these people will ever enter that land. They have all seen my glorious presence and the miraculous signs I performed both in Egypt and in the wilderness, but again and again they have tested me by refusing to listen to my voice. They will never even see the land I swore to give their ancestors. None of those who have treated me with contempt will ever see it. But my servant Caleb has a different attitude than the others have. He has remained loyal to me, so I will bring him into the land he explored. His descendants will possess their full share of that land.’” Caleb’s different attitude came from declaring the people’s potential to take the land.
Now 45 years have passed. You would have thought that Caleb’s attitude had changed with age. Perhaps he felt he had no more potential. Let’s see. Joshua 14:9-12 “So that day Moses solemnly promised me, ‘The land of Canaan on which you were just walking will be your grant of land and that of your descendants forever, because you wholeheartedly followed the Lord my God.’
‘Now, as you can see, the Lord has kept me alive and well as he promised for all these forty-five years since Moses made this promise—even while Israel wandered in the wilderness. Today I am eighty-five years old. I am as strong now as I was when Moses sent me on that journey, and I can still travel and fight as well as I could then. So give me the hill country that the Lord promised me. You will remember that as scouts we found the descendants of Anak living there in great, walled towns. But if the Lord is with me, I will drive them out of the land, just as the Lord said.’”
The people had tried to stop Caleb from declaring his potential. They went as far as to tell him he was just a grasshopper to the giants. But God asked, “Who told you that? You have declared your potential and will be rewarded if you don’t lose it.” Others may have said “Caleb, you are 85. You are much too old to go mountain climbing and fighting.” But God asked, “Who told you that? Remind them how, because of your attitude, you still have as much potential as you had 45 years ago.” And at the time Moses wrote this the land still belonged to Caleb’s descendants.
Embracing your potential
The prophet Jeremiah was a young man when God called him to be a prophet. Rather than embrace his potential to serve in this manner, he began making excuses. He said “O Sovereign Lord, I can’t speak for you! I am too young.” He was telling himself he didn’t have the potential. God asked, “Who told you that? Don’t be afraid of the people. I will put the words in your mouth. I will supply you with what you need to meet your potential. You just need to embrace it.”
Here is what else God told Jeremiah. Jeremiah 1:5 “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.”
God knows our potential even more than we do. He is the one who created our potential. All that is required of us is to find it, believe it, declare it, and embrace it.
Maintaining your potential
Jeremiah tells us the story of the nation of Israel exiled in Babylon. There are false prophets and fortune-tellers declaring they will be free to return soon. Jeremiah is sent to warn the people not to believe what they are hearing. Instead, the children of Israel are to build homes, plant gardens, marry, have children and grand children. They are to pray that Babylon would be prosperous so they would be prosperous. Because they will be there for 70 years.
And the He tells them the verse that we love oh so much. Jeremiah 29:11 “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord. ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.’”
Perhaps you are hearing Satan whisper in your ear “You have no potential” or “You have lost your potential.” God wants you to realize two things. He wants you to remember who is telling you that. The Holy Spirit builds us up. It’s Satan’s job to tear us down. The other is He has plans for you. You may feel like you are in exile right now. Perhaps you are there for a period of rest. Perhaps you are there for a period of discipline. But you have not lost your potential. While you are there, have your bags packed and ready to go. He will not leave you where you are at. Maintain your potential and your relationship with him while you are waiting. He has plans for you and they are good plans.
