Don't Limit Your Potential in God Kathryn Kuhlman "Your Future Part 1"

I'd like to talk with you for a few minutes about our future. And I mean exactly that. Not only your future, but my future, too. All of us have a future, and it's just one step ahead of us. My future today is just one step ahead of me. I'm very deeply interested in it. I'm concerned about my future. I'm deeply concerned about my future. That's something that you should be vitally interested in also, your future. It's extraordinarily important, this thing of future. But that's where you and I are going to spend the rest of our life. There in the future. And so, how can we improve our future? I'm not satisfied with me as I am today. Oh, you say, Catherine Kuhlman, are you really concerned about your future? Am I? Because I know that there are greater things out there in the future for me if I only know how to cooperate with God. Don't be satisfied with you the way you are this hour. There's a future out there, a far greater future out there for you than what you are enjoying today. And if we both can learn how to cooperate with God, our future can be great. And so we have to learn how to improve our future. Now, this question, like most every question, has an answer in the Bible. That's why the Bible lives. It has an answer. It's the book of answers. It makes no difference what problem you have. You hunt through the Bible, you'll get your answer. That, to me, is the strangest thing about the Bible. It's just as adequate in our complicated, unsophisticated modern day as it was when it was first written in an age of camels. It still holds all the answers to every problem that any man, any woman of any generation has had to confront. That's the... amazing thing, the startling thing about the Bible. There is absolutely no question, no problem that you're confronted with this very hour. But what if you'll study the Word of God, you'll find the answer to that question, to that problem. Now, in the book of John, the first chapter, the 12th verse, I find these words, which are a formula for having a glorious future. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become. In other words, to those men and women who accepted him, took him into their lives, built their lives about him. He gave the power to become something, to have a wonderful, a glorious future. That is really... All that you and I need to know. Take him. Receive him. And all of our weaknesses will fall away. You will overcome your frustrations, your defeat, your fears. You will have the power. He will give you the power to become. And I want to become. I don't want to stay just as I am. I'm not satisfied with me just as I am. I'm not satisfied with that which I have accomplished in life for humanity. In the past, I'm not satisfied. I want power to become. I want greater power to become. However, the passage continues, and it reads, to become the sons of God. That means to inherit all of God's great things. Literally thousands of people have read that portion of the Word of God, and they have overlooked the real meaning of the Scripture. To become the sons of God, Do you realize everything that is involved in that? It means that you are to inherit all of God's great things. The Bible doesn't deal in little promises. It deals in big promises. We live such small lives. When God expects us to live such big lives, such full, such abundant lives, the Bible doesn't deal in little promises. Whenever the big promises of the Bible have been believed in earnest, great things have happened in people's lives. The trouble with too many churches nowadays, and I don't mean to be critical, But it's true. And it's the fact that the minister is literally afraid of the promises of God. He really doesn't believe. That's the reason he doesn't think big. And he doesn't preach big. He has never experienced. And therefore he cuts it down, whittles it down, makes it small. That's the reason our young people today. have a right to challenge the church. They have a right to challenge these things. In other words, they are saying, either put up or shut up, if these promises are real, then let us see the manifestation of the power of God. They're right in their thinking. I feel exactly the same way. I'm not going to literally give my life for something that is small and little and something that doesn't work. I have given my life for something that's big and wonderful and workable. The greatest thing in the whole world. The promises of God are big. They're workable. The life of a Christian that he has planned for each Christian is one of abundant living, a full life, a glorious life. You know this thing of being happy. I'm so amazed at people who think that to be happy is unscriptural. Unscriptural? If you follow the word of God and live according to the word of God, you'll be the happiest person in the whole world. Life, not only life, but he's promised to give it more than just life, but abundant living. When you take the gospel, really take it and believe it, nothing is too good to be true. Many people attend our services, you know, and after they will adopt the great miracle service, they'll say, that was almost too good to be true. Did our eyes deceive us? Were we dreaming? Was that just imagination what I saw? Nothing is too... Good to be true when you take the Word of God and believe it. If it is there in the Bible, it's truth. And as you believe this, you become big. And only big people achieve big things. Little people with little faith, little ideas, little concepts get little results. So be big in your faith when you think about your future and when you realize, really, that your future is where you're going to spend the rest of your life. It isn't something trivial that I'm talking to you about today. I'm talking to you about something that's vitally important. When you realize that your future is you the rest of your life, then look up. Lift up your head. Square your shoulders. Be big in your faith. Be big in your thinking. You've got a big God. You've got big promises. To as many as received him, to them he gave the power to become. Don't be a little person. Don't be a person with little faith, little ideas, little concepts, getting only little results, if any. The way this comes to pass is that you receive the power from him. To improve yourself. And by improving yourself, you improve your future. It's a strange thing. But you can limit your achievement. You can limit your world. You can limit your future. We draw unto ourselves according to what we are. You can have only that. which finds hospitality within yourself. Oh, to be sure, outside forces also play upon us and determine certain aspects and events of our lives. That's true. But in the long run, we receive just about according to what we are. I'm going to say something. will probably startle you. And that is the fact that I don't believe that we receive what we deserve. Because God has made it so that we deserve much. God made plans in His thinking, in His designing for men and women, for His children. He designed, he planned that we should deserve much. You and I were not made for failure. There was not a single man who's ever been born who will ever be born in the future who was made for failure. No person listening to me this very moment was ever born to be a failure. God gave all the provisions that every man, every woman might live a happy life. And he gave us everything that we needed to make it a happy life. He has plans for you that you should have a great future, a happy future, a wonderful future. I'm not talking about the fact that there won't be troubles, that there won't be sorrow. I'm not telling you about that. There will be. But he also gives you the strength to rise above these things. In that hour of sickness, he'll still give you the equipment whereby you can live an overcoming life. A life of confidence. Inside, there'll still be that great inner peace. Peace of mind and peace of soul. No, I don't believe that we receive what we deserve because God has made it so that we deserve much. But by a lack of faith, by a closed mind, by sinful living, by our littleness, we cut off the divine supply. We do it. His providence doesn't do it. We do it ourselves. You and I are our own worst enemy. Caspin Cooman is her worst enemy. Now, that's something to think about. And I thought about it an awful lot. Oh, sure. I know that there are those out there who, um... Oh, you know, we don't talk about it. Who probably do not... like Katherine Kuhlman, like you like Katherine Kuhlman. We don't just don't talk about it. We just act like it never happened, you know. But I know something this very moment. I am my own worst enemy. I don't care who your enemies may be this hour. You are your own worst enemy. And by lack of faith, by a closed mind, by our littleness, we cut off this grand and glorious divine supply. God doesn't do it. We do it ourselves. We limit Him. The promises are there. The power is there. The potentials are all there. And the potentials are tremendous beyond our comprehension. The potentials... are there for my future, a greater future than anything that I've ever experienced in the past. They're all there. I can have them. It's only my closed mind and my smallness in thinking that keeps me from reaching out and enjoying those great potentials that he has for me. The same with you. You all like to talk about me. And we see these things, you know, in the other person, but we forget ourselves. There isn't anybody in the whole world who could not do a much better job in life than he's doing right now. I don't care how successful you are. I don't care what you have achieved in life. You can do a better job than you're doing right now. I thought five years ago, and at that time I said, I just can't take on anything more. I just can't do it. There are just so many hours in every day. I just can't do it. I can't take on more commitments. I can't take on more radio work. I can't take on more television work. I can't take on more services. I can't do it. I work down now to where it's impossible. And in thinking about it, I could have fallen apart. But instead of thinking about it and having a nervous breakdown over it, I just kept on taking on more and more and more. And I still think. Even though I'm sitting here talking to you, I could do more. I don't know how, but I'm sure I could. Because there's still the bigness of God. There's still the power of God. There's still the glorious strength of the Holy Spirit. And there isn't anybody who could not do a much better job in life than he is doing. I feel sincerely that I could do a much better job than I am doing if I would not be hampered by my lack of a greater faith in the promises and in myself, you know? Therefore, one of the very first things we need to learn is to work mentally with ourselves and lean heavily on God. What is it that you'd like to have in the future? Do you know? If you don't know, you'll never get it. Because in order to attain anything, you have to know what it is that you want to attain. Yeah? I may be talking to somebody today who really doesn't want to have a greater future. You're not really interested in being a better person. And you are this very moment. You're content. Millions of people are literally content to get up every morning, put the same coffee pot on, the same amount of water, the same amount of coffee. You've done the same thing for years and years and years. If you should change your routine, you'd fall apart. You've taken the same bus. You've traveled the same freeway. You've eaten at the same place. You do the same thing day in and day out. And so you're satisfied. But as for me, I realize my future is most important. Your future is most important. For that is where you're going to spend the rest of your life. I want to improve my future.