A Spirit of Excellence

Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit [was] in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm.

Daniel 6:3

I have been blessed by a teaching from Andrew Womack this week called

“ An Excellent Spirit”.

Having an excellent Spirit life reflects in the natural life. Excellence comes from God, apart from him we only have vain ambitions. Any success in life apart from God is only to glorify ourselves. What makes people want to excel, be recognized, stand out from others? God in us! We are made in His image, and His qualities are in us. We are set apart, a chosen people! When we understand this we strive to be excellent to please Him, to accomplish His will, when we don’t, we strive to please ourselves or others and accomplish our own wills.

We don’t just wake up one day being excellent. It’s a hard thing. That’s why there is so much mediocrity in the world. To be Mediocre is to be neither good or bad. Doesn’t this remind you of Revelation 3:16

“So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”?

I don’t know that I have ever related that scripture to an excellent Spirit before, if I had I would have soon realized that I easily fall into mediocrity. I say to God and myself, " I’m not lukewarm, I love You Lord, I serve You Lord, I want to be an instrument in building Your kingdom Lord!" But is my Spirit excellent? Am I disciplining myself, purposing myself to have an excellent Spirit in everything? Is my natural everyday life displaying excellence that would be noticed by the world? I think I am guilty of being a bit off and on again.

I remember my first job as a cashier at a little country store. One day the owner said to me, “why are you standing here behind the register? There are no customers in here, you could be dusting and straightening shelves.” I remember thinking, “I have to do that too?” I really had no clue about excellence! Excellence is going beyond expectations, going the extra mile. (Matthew 5:41)

We have to purpose in our hearts to be excellent in the natural and in Spirit. It's a discipline. God gives us what we can handle and we grow from there. If we don’t grow it's because we didn’t purpose to grow.

In the parable of the talents, He gave to each according to his own ability. Some received less than others but they all had the opportunity to increase to more. I may be a 2 talent person but I don’t have to remain a 2 talent person, I can gain more, or I can be lazy and lose the 2 talents I do have. Excellence comes from God but we have a part in it. If I know I have a work to do for God, I want to do it with excellence, I don’t want to be ashamed when I stand before Him.

A. W. Tozer once said, " you know, we'll hardly get our feet out of time into eternity that we'll bow our heads in shame and humiliation. We'll gaze on eternity and say, 'Look at all the riches there were in Jesus Christ, and I've come to the Judgment Seat almost a pauper.'"

(Rom. 8:32)

Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?

We need to say, "Oh God, I want my life to glorify You, so that when I stand in Your awesome presence, as John says, I shall not be ashamed at Your appearing".

(1 John 2:28).

In our natural life, let’s take the shopping cart to the cart holder instead of leaving it in the parking space, that’s investing in excellence.

In our Spiritual life we may only have 2 talents right now but God gives us opportunity to invest them and grow, let’s purpose to do that.