Follow Through I

“I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day: the night comes, when no man can work” Jn.9:4

I have friends that do not know how to use up to ten percent of the expensive phones they have. They are not deriving value [exploiting] from the phone. So the question is, why buy such an expensive phone if all you want to do is make and receive calls, send messages and take pictures? That phone is loaded with functionality more powerful than ten mainframe computers of the eighties put together. We do not exploit what we have.

I was in a friend’s car, sharing some of the functionality of the car with her but she obviously had no clue about it. All she cared about was how good the car looked. She was not exploiting the car. To exploit is to take full advantage of. What God wants us to do with our lives is to exploit and derive value from every gift, every talent, every relationship, every resource, and everything He has given us so that at the end of the day, He can say well done.

The Principle of Exploitation simply states, follow up and follow through vigorously on an opening. Once we verify an opening, we are to follow up and follow through. There was a time in history where the British forces came against the Turkish force in a twin battle. The first battle was called the battle of Dardanelles. Turkey had aligned with the Germans and the British forces came against Turkey and bombarded Turkey through that channel. It was so bad that Constantinople sent word to the generals to surrender to the British at twelve o’clock. But guess what happened? At eleven o’clock, the British forces backed down from the battle.

There is so much to learn from that. The British general did not follow through. Turkey would have fallen but it did not because the British did not follow through. When the British discovered what had happened, they launched a land attack on Turkey. If you remember the Principle of the Offensive, Napoleon will release his forces to battle immediately. But the British general delayed again. Turkey was caught off guard but because the British delayed, Turkey regrouped, waited for them on a mountain top and wiped out the British forces. They lost a hundred thousand soldiers in that battle because they did not follow through. I pray that you will follow through.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, I ask for the grace and the ability to follow up and follow through on every opening You set before me, in Jesus Name.