Definitions:
Limit – a point or level beyond which something does not or may not extend or pass
Restriction on the size or amount of something permissible or possible
Beyond – further on, far off, far away, in the distance, afar, yonder
Beyond limit – without restrictions, above the permissible, far off impossibilities
YOU ARE BEYOND LIMIT
How do I know?
Everyone is created ultimately for glory, greatness, and exploits.
Jeremiah 1:5-7 “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee, and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations’’
Romans 8:29-30 “for whom he did foreknow, he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom He justified, them he also glorified”
God calls you by the name/Destiny he’s given you and not necessarily what others or even you have called yourself.
If you happen to meet with God for the very first time, He will address you based on your destiny & potential (destination, endpoint, purpose)
For example:
Gideon (judges 6:12);
David (1 Samuel 16).
You (John 3:8 “the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hear the sound thereof, but cannot tell where it’s going or coming from, so is everyone that’s born of the spirit. 1 peter 2:9 – ye are a royal …….
What you look like or your background doesn’t define you nor do people’s or friends/family’s perceptions.
Jeremiah 29:11 “for I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end” That expected end is glorious, for you to shine like stars and be limitless, achieving all your mind can ever conceive.
1 Corinthian 2:9 “but as its written, eyes have not seen nor ears heard, neither has it entered into the hearts of men, the things which God has prepared for them that love him”
It’s important that you note that the Bible is a history book and not a storybook. These are accounts of realities that were before us which hold much relevance to our existence today, examples of life, living, and for life.
Adam: this is the true picture of the original plan and mind of God for you and I. (Summary of before earth, creation, and afterwards)
My job today is to introduce you to you. What’s God’s purpose for the creation of man?
Exemplary Biblical Teens
1. Abel – lived a short, but meaningful life. His name means
“whisper”, but his testimony for God spoke volumes – Genesis 3:1 through 4:5
2. Isaac — was born for a special purpose and had the faith to give up his life for God – Genesis 22
3. Rebekah displayed extraordinary faith on an ordinary day and embarked on a radical journey of faith – Genesis 24
4. Esau – He bartered away his future for momentary pleasure. His life was an unending series of regrets and misfires. Genesis 25:20-34
5. Jacob exploited his friends and his family for his own gain, but a radical encounter with God set him on course. Genesis 25-28
6. Joseph was betrayed, resisted sexual temptation, and was falsely accused and yet trusted God enough to see God’s will prevail. Genesis 37-39
7. Miriam – Her quick thinking not only saved her brother’s life
8. Moses – left all the perks of his royal life to identify with God’s people.
Acts 7:20-25; Hebrews 11:23-27
9. Rahab – left behind a checkered past and embraced the grace of a loving God. She became part of Israel’s history. Joshua 2
10. Samson – wasted his natural talents, good parents, and golden opportunities and pursued a life of pleasure and pain. Judges 13-16
11. Samuel – birth was a miracle. As a young man, he listened to God’s voice and became an agent of change in a decadent culture. 1 Samuel 3
12. David – was an obscure and overlooked young man who
sought God as a teen and never looked back. 1 Samuel 16
13. Solomon – He began life with such promise but allowed lust and
greed to eat at his soul. 1 Kings 1 and 2:13–25
14. Josiah – Even though he was raised in a non-believing home by
parents and grandparents who rebelled against God, Josiah chose to pursue God. 2 Kings 22:1 through 23:30; 2 Chronicles 34:3–7
15. Jeremiah – At the age of 17, he was called by God to be a prophet in
Israel. Jeremiah 1
16. Daniel – He was ripped from his home as a teen and forced to live
in a culture that celebrated sensuality, greed, and indulgence. Still, Daniel stood tall for God. Daniel 1
17. Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego – Like Daniel, they too were ripped from their homeland and forced to live in a culture. And like Daniel, they refused to abandon their faith. Daniel 3
18. Esther – Her grace won the heart of the king and her courage saved her people
19. Mary – willingly became a teenage mother and raised the Son of God. Luke 1
20. Lunch Boy – He was the only one who thought Jesus could do the
unthinkable—and he gave everything he had. John 6:
However, living the life beyond the limit will only be made possible with the following in no particular order:
1. Believe – you must know and believe with all your heart that it is possible (Luke 1:45). Not only believing that it’s possible but believing that it is possible for you. No matter where you are or what you’ve gone through, someone has walked the same path and possibly worse and has overcome and now living the life of possibilities. You will be able to believe and increase your faith when you’re mindful of what you feed your mind on (watch, read and listen to). May I ask, who speaks to you on a daily basis? Who mentors you? Who do you follow on Instagram? What do you watch on TV? What music do you listen to? We have uncountable examples of young people doing exploits, living the extraordinary life beyond limitations from whom you may glean hope, learn and build your faith towards achieving your own exploits too.
2. Desire – you must have a very strong desire to be extraordinary, to be a light and die empty Matt 5:13-14 “ye are the salt of the earth….the light of the world, a city that’s set on a hill cannot be hidden” Myles Munroe in his book, ‘understanding your purpose’ wrote that the richest place on earth is the graveyard, songs were never sung, books are never written, exploits never done. You must have an unquenchable thirst and passion to find and fulfil your purpose on earth. Your purpose holds the key to the life of living beyond limits. You must purpose in your heart not to contribute to the treasuries in the graveyard but to expend your full potential here on earth.
3. Discover God & You – Colossians 3:3 “but your life is hidden with Christ in God”.
Daniel 11:32b “but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits”
To discover You, you must first unravel God and Christ! Everyone manifests his/her glory by being who God has called him/her to do. The best time to discover your purpose on earth is now as a teenager. When God reveals you to you, you’ll realize you have much to accomplish and will not get involved in frivolities. Your gifting, talents & passion (issues that either excite or get you angry) are indicators of what you’re meant to do or a problem on earth you’re meant to solve.
Romans 8:19 “for the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God”
4. Engage – having discovered your gifts, start engaging them. Join a department in the church where you can have expression and possibly develop your gifts, talents, and passion. Be a volunteer, stir up the gift of God by usage, and don’t bury it!
You must first serve your purpose to God and then to humanity. The secret to beyond limitation is the principle of multiplication Which occurs with usage. The more you use your gifts or are able to express your passion and talents, the better you get and the more exploits you do especially when it’s first given to God and His purpose. Why do I emphasize the God- factor? You may have observed that there are people who don’t acknowledge or even believe in God but yet seem to be achieving greatness? The God factor is important if you want to have it all…John 10:10 “the thief comes not but to steal, to kill and to destroy; I come that they might have light and that they might have it MORE abundantly”, proverbs 10:22 “the blessings of the Lord, it maketh rich and adds no sorrow with it”, John 1:3-4 “all things were made by him and without him was nothing made that was made. In him was life and the life was the light of men. The light (of men) shines in the darkness and the darkness comprehends it not”
5. Build character – hard work, Patience, Persistence, & faith Hebrews 6:12 “then ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promise”
Humility – James 4:6,10 “but He gives more grace, wherefore he says, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble” Matthew 23:12 “and whoever exalts himself shall be abased and he that humbles himself shall be exalted”; 1 Peter 5:5 “likewise ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder…..”
Case study:
Identify the characters you think are the secrets of Frank Edward:
Frank Edwards, Beejay Sax,
My life is a storybook of God’s manifestation. I’m a product of my worship. It’s not by singing, it’s by grace. I’m living in a house that I didn’t pay one naira for. Do you know what it means for somebody to finish building a house and give it to you? You know… and sometimes, every time I come out of my house, I look around, I ask myself, how old are you? Because I know that it’s not by singing. So I feel like it’s time to even let people know the secret behind the glory they celebrate.
My first album, “The Definition”, when that album came out, you know, Loveworld Records helped me to produce that album, and the first night we sold a hundred thousand copies at A Night of Blaze. Now, that was a lot of money, and then I was still climbing a bike. And we didn’t know it was going to sell that much. Then we had another program, Night of Blaze. It was all sold, and they called me. They said we made money from your CD, we will like to give you one million. Ehn! I thought! One million? That’s a lot! So, I called my mum. God bless my mother. My mum took me, she took me to church every day of my life, Scripture Union, S.U yeah. And she said, you know it’s your first fruit. Leave it for them. I thought, one million naira! And she that was telling me, leave it for them, she didn’t have one naira. I mean, me and my mum, we hawked together in Enugu. I would hawk this direction, she would hawk that direction. So she could have thought that this is a breakthrough. One million, God, and she said I should leave it for them. It’s my first fruit. Well, I didn’t have a choice but to obey her. So, I told them, I don’t want it. They said, are you sure? I said I don’t want. Maybe from the next one.
Do you know what God did? Now they took me to South Africa to shoot my first video. They said, okay since you don’t want money let’s make a video for you. And while we were shooting, I met some people and they asked, “are you the Frank Edwards?” We love your music. We didn’t even know you are a Nigerian. But your music needs to circulate, go everywhere in the world. But here is what you’re gonna do. You’re gonna remove Jesus, and use God. It sounds the same. Nobody will know because for your music to circulate, people that the name Jesus offend need to be your fan too. So, by the time you use God, they won’t find it offensive. So we will be able to circulate your music. And when I saw the offer, I thought Jesus, God, the same thing. It’s not much difference. Nobody will know. You know, God spoke to me and said, see, if you do this, you will not last and if you don’t, whatever they promise you, I will double it for you. So again, I let it go. I mean, I let the offer go. Even my then manager thought I made a mistake. You know managers always want more money. He thought I made a mistake but I made my decision, so I let it go. I came back.
And then God began to do His thing.
I released my second album. Someone from nowhere… He said someone is trying to reach you. She’s looking, in fact, when she started looking for me, she sent all her staff – If you don’t find Frank Edwards, don’t come to work. And they came to my church and spoke to some of my pastors. And then my pastors called me – someone is looking for you. They gave her my number and she called me. And then she said I’ve been listening to your music and you know as I listen, God keeps pushing me to do something for you. Do you want to come and see me in my office? I know you’re big. I said, big? Send the address first.
She called all her staff members. Took pictures with me and then she said, nothing, I just want to bless you. I just want to bless you as God placed in my heart. And then she gave me an envelope. I said thank you. You know, it looked big. It was on my way home that I opened the envelope. I opened it, so I called her, I said ma, the envelope you gave me. She said, what? I said, “look what is inside”. She said that’s for you now. And besides, anytime you want to do anything, the bill is on me. Okay. Then now I have $10,000. I didn’t do anything for you. I didn’t sing. Nothing! I said, “thank you”. I went home. I removed my tithe and my seed – that’s very important as well.
The upper week, they said, “someone is looking for you”. They gave the person my number. “I played your music, it blessed me so much and God placed it in my heart to bless you”. Can you come to my house? I went there. The same story. You know God does not make empty promises and He knows how to cause the chain reaction, you know. Then the upper week. This other woman called me: “where do you live?” I said I live in Allen. I mean, then I already have a good home and I was very comfortable. And she said ah ah! Ikeja, Ikeja is noisy. How do you create your music in that noisy environment? So she said, “Would you like to move to VGC (Victoria Garden City)?” And then you know, the first thing I did was calculate how much a plot of land is in VGC, even that’s if you find. So when I made the calculation, I now told her. I said hmm, I’d love to but now I have things, other things I’m working on that I need to do with money. So this is not… And she said, ok, when will you like to move? So I said, “I will work on it”. You know, I was thinking I would pay for it. And the next thing, I saw trucks in my house. And they said what would you like to take out of this house and what will you like to leave here? So as I talk to you, I didn’t lose the other place. I have the two. They said what will you like to take out here? I said I’ll take… If you want me to move, I’ll take everything. He said no! Just take the things you will need because the other place is already furnished. When I mean furnished, I mean, ask my manager, he knows my house. I live like a king and that was what God promised me. And I kept my own part of the deal. I did not disobey.
Exercise:
Think for a moment and please a note of warning, don’t think small. Consider your passion, gifts, talents & dreams, then the level you want to get to in achievement. What do you desire to become and achieve for yourself, your family, your church, your country, your continent, and the world at large. Write these down
Joel 2 end-time army
Thank You.
