The "Secret" of Goal Achievement
When I was a young child I would marvel at airplanes and wonder just how they could fly on thin air like that. Have you ever wondered the same thing? All around us we see goals achieved, just like the goal of manned flight, then manned space flight. The construction of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, and destruction of the same by terrorists were both goals achieved, one as a positive testimony to the power of possibility, the other the horrific demonstration of the worst possible ends that man could sink to. Donald Trump’s winning the presidency of the United States, against all odds, is perhaps the best example of a goal achieved.
If I asked you the question, who created or designed the airplane you would probably say, man did. But you would be wrong... You see, the mathematical formulas for flight, and the unfailing natural laws that govern it, were designed by God and given to man. You don’t have to read very far in the Bible to validate this. It happened on the fifth day. Let’s look together…
“Genesis Chapter 1:20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.”
To ensure that man would not fail to achieve manned flight God provided man with multiple patterns for flight. These patterns, once “reverse engineered” offered the exact mathematical calculations for body dimension, wing span, tail design, nose design, landing gear placement, etc. necessary for man to “forward engineer” both the Cessna and the Boeing 747.
God’s patterns included design requirements for intricate details such as the “aileron” (French for 'little wing') the hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Used in pairs the ailerons control the aircraft in roll (or movement around the aircraft's longitudinal axis), which normally results in a change in flight path due to the tilting of the lift vector. Movement around this axis is called 'rolling' or 'banking'.” – Wikipedia.
As part of His setting man up for goal achievement success God also provided patterns for that would not work – for example, the chicken, ostrich, duck, and so forth. Let that sink in for a minute…
I like to think of the “patterns” that God provides as the Seeds. But it doesn’t stop there. God also provided the formula for how seeds produce a harvest, or how the pattern for flight would result in the airplane – Genesis 8:22 “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” If we pull this verse apart we find the formula hidden in plain sight… 1. Seed, 2. Time, 3. Harvest. Wow! 1+2=3...
Now let’s go back to the full chapter 1 of Genesis and see what more we can learn about Goal Achievement. The full text of the chapter is shown following. When you read it you will find the following key points.
God created everything and every pattern that man would need to “replenish and subdue” the earth in the first 5 days. replenish - to make full or complete again, as by supplying what is lacking, used up, etc.: subdue - to bring (land) under cultivation: to subdue the wilderness.
On the sixth day God created man.
God invested time daily in achieving incremental steps to achievement of His big goal, and once His big goal was completed, on the seventh day - God rested.
And now for Genesis, Chapter 1 (King James Version)...
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning (Original) God created the heaven and the earth (Substance).
2 And the earth was without form (Formless), and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. My note: Original Substance Formless (OSF)
-------- Day 1 Action Plan Completed -------- Check!
6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
-------- Day 2 Action Plan Completed -------- Check!
9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.
-------- Day 3 Action Plan Completed -------- Check!
14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
-------- Day 4 Action Plan Completed -------- Check!
20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
-------- Day 5 Action Plan Completed -------- Check!
24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
-------- Day 6 Action Plan Completed -------- Check!
Genesis 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,
In this account, we find the exact pattern for goal achievement (1+2=3):
Clearly Defined Goals,
A G.A.I.N. Plan (God’s Amazing Insight Now),
Consistent, persistent Daily Action until the Goal is achieved.
God being God, you might be thinking why didn't He just create all of this re-formation of Original Substance Formless in one day? He had the power and ability to do it right? Well, here's one reason why (perhaps not the only reason) He didn't. He wanted to leave us with a pattern for how to re-form OSF (through our words and thoughts) into the things needed to "replenish and subdue", a pattern for Goal Achievement!
So, let me ask you this question, do you have clearly defined, hand written goals? Do you have a G.A.I.N. plan with a deadline for their achievement? Are you making a daily action plan and investing time each day in creation of your goal? This is key, you must invest time daily working on your goals. It’s like the story of the tortoise and the hare. In the race to the finish line the tortoise invested time daily in the journey, and did not rest until he crossed the finish line. We all know what happened to the hare.
If you follow this pattern - ahhh, there's the SECRET - incremental progress one day at a time, for six (6) consecutive days, and rest on the 7th day, the day of completion, regarding what you've created as "very good!" Add to it faith and belief in God’s natural laws that govern goal achievement, you cannot fail to achieve your goals. Seed + Time = Harvest, 1+2=3.
In closing, I want to leave you with this insight. There are two categories of laws in the world – God’s Natural Laws, and Man’s Laws. Here’s what I know about the latter. Theoretically, we are all subject to Man’s Laws and they should apply to everyone equally, producing consistent results when enforced. But as we all know, in the United States of America, this could not be further from the truth. To illustrate my point here is a very partial list of black men and women where Man’s Laws did not produce results consistent with those experienced by white Americans.
March 3, 1991: Rodney King Beating (LA)
April 30, 2014: Dontre Hamilton (Milwaukee)
July 17, 2014: Eric Garner (New York)
Aug. 5, 2014: John Crawford III (Dayton, Ohio)
Aug. 9, 2014: Michael Brown Jr. (Ferguson, Missouri)
Aug. 11, 2014: Ezell Ford (Florence, California)
Aug. 12, 2014: Dante Parker (Victorville, California)
Nov. 13, 2014: Tanisha Anderson (Cleveland)
Nov. 22, 2014: Tamir Rice (Cleveland)
Dec. 2, 2014: Rumain Brisbon (Phoenix)
Dec. 30, 2014: Jerame Reid (Bridgeton, New Jersey)
March 6, 2015: Tony Robinson (Madison, Wisconsin)
July 13, 2015: Sandra Bland (Walter County, Texas)
April 4, 2015: Walter Scott (North Charleston, South Carolina)
But thank God that such is not the case for how His Laws operate. His laws produce consistent results every time. This is because "God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?" - Numbers 23:19 (NIV)
You see, no matter what race, gender, sexual orientation, age the pilot of an Airbus A321 is, when the engines are revved on the runway and the plane gathers precisely the right amount of speed it is guaranteed to lift off the runway and fly! And so it is with goal achievement. When you follow the pattern God laid out in Genesis Chapter 1, you cannot fail to achieve your clearly defined, deadline-driven, G.A.I.N. planned goals.