Principles of the Kingdom (God's Success Principles)

Our purpose should be tied to our God-given talents and Spiritual gifts and knowing our purpose should compel us to use what you have to the fullest. I felt compelled to add something here about the law of use after listening to a message in a series by T.V. preacher, Pat Robertson. Understand, I'm not endorsing Pat Robertson blanketly, though I feel that God has given him insight into certain areas of practical Biblical interpretation. Thus, it struck me like a ton of bricks when he mentioned "the law of use" and illustrated it by explaining compound interest (adding interest to principle so that the added interest also earns interest) and by relating that to Jesus’ parable of the talents (Matthew 25:1-30).  In the case of compound interest, you are using the money you have to gain more money by causing it to earn interest and adding the interest to it so that the total, in turn, can earn more interest, and so on. In the parable of the talents, the ones who invested and used the talents they were initially given, were given more, while the one who hid his had it taken away and given to the one who had most. I had never thought of it like that before, but it also applies to all areas of life, including our gifts and talents. What we don't lose, we use. Physically speaking, if you don't use certain muscles, they atrophy. If you have a talent, whatever it is, for singing, acting, writing, or whatever and you don't use it, you will, to some extent, loose it, or lose the ability to function in it to your fullest capacity. Use, on the other hand sharpens and hones whatever talent or gift you have. As the saying goes, "practice makes perfect." Thus Pat's advice and mine would be to use whatever talent you have to the fullest. In doing so you may not only improve your existing gift or talent, but also gain more gifts or talents in the process. I can't think of any examples from my novel, because actually none of the characters did use even their natural talents to the fullest extent.   As perhaps a negative example, Pilate failed to use his strong leadership ability to the fullest, so that, finally, when prodded by his wife to use it more, he misused it and ended up in trouble for doing so.