Find & Fulfill Your ‘Divine List’
Lord . . . remind me that my days are numbered – how fleeting my life is . . . .
teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom (Ps. 39:4; 90:12).
Dear Walk Show Family,
You and I don’t have much time left! I just checked the mortality rate in Seattle, and do you know what it is? One death per person! (For some reason, it always seems to be hovering somewhere around 100 percent!) It is of strategic importance that we get everything done we were intended to accomplish on this earth, and I suspect the timeline is shortening by the second!
GRANDMA TALBOTT HAD “A DIVINE LIST”
Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. (Ephesians 5:15-17).
You’ve just got to hear the story of my grandma, Carrie Talbott, who was my Dad’s Mom. She was a godly woman who, among many other good deeds, taught a women’s Bible study in Seattle, Washington, for 50 years. My Dad and Mom met in a playpen at one of her Bible studies – both at age two!
Late in Carrie Talbott’s life, my Dad was visiting his Mom’s assisted-living facility one day, when Carrie made an interesting comment: “Billy, I have 37 more things left on my list!”
“What are you talking about, Mom?” Billy inquired.
“There are 37 more things I have to do on this earth,” she explained. “Letters to write, phone calls to make, gifts to give, people to visit, etc.”
My Dad didn’t think much more about it until about six months later, when one day he was visiting his Mom, age 87, and she brought up the subject again. Moments before Dad had been told by his Mom’s doctors that she had been given six months to live with a cancer that had been recently diagnosed. However, that was back in the day where doctors often refrained from telling their patients their diagnosis, and so my grandma was oblivious to the prognosis. As Dad kissed his Mom goodbye upon his departure that evening, she remarked, “Billy, I guess this is ‘good-bye,’ because this is the last time we are going to see one another! You see, tonight I’m going to go and be with Jesus!”
“Why, Mom, whatever would you mean by that?!” my Dad exclaimed.
“I finished my list!”
That night Carrie Talbott went to be with Jesus. She is one of those few people on this earth that could say, “It is finished! I’ve completed the work God gave me to do on this earth.” She had finished her list.
DO YOU HAVE A LIST?
The Apostle Paul said, “This one thing I do. . .” We say, “These many things we dabble in.” The Apostle Paul’s life made a mark. Ours makes a blur. –E Stanley Jones
Do you have “a list”? Actually, I am not here speaking about YOUR list, as in a “Bucket List”. If you and I are the initiators of our own lists, it’s horrifying to think that we could actually maneuver ourselves into the plight Jesus spoke of in Matthew 7:21-23:
Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
I am speaking here about the Lord’s list for you . . . the list that, in submission to the Lord, you then make your own! Let’s take Jesus as our model of a “list maker”: Jesus said He didn’t do or say anything except that which He heard the Father saying and doing:
I’m telling you this straight. The Son can’t independently do a thing, only what he sees the Father doing. What the Father does, the Son does. The Father loves the Son and includes him in everything he is doing.. . . I’m not making any of this up on my own. The Father who sent me gave me orders, told me what to say and how to say it. And I know exactly what his command produces: real and eternal life. That’s all I have to say. What the Father told me, I tell you. (John 5:19 & 12:49—The Message).
Further, we are told that “We have the mind of Christ,” (1 Corinthians 2:16), that we might know the thoughts of the Father for our lives. So, where’s your list?
MY FOOLISH LIST
I have my list, perhaps considered foolish by some casual observers of my life – sometimes even by me. The list is not fully focused, is not complete, and its tasks are not completed yet. But it is, I believe, getting closer on these fronts.
At the top of my list is this:
(1) Become like Jesus, through a Spirit-directed, cultivated intimacy with Him and His own.
Yes, if I were to sum up everything I have learned over the course of my life, as a husband, family man, communicator and businessman, I would have to affirm that “Everything flows out of a cultivated intimacy with Jesus Christ. He is no longer just the Prime Mover; He must be the All in All. When we get out of the way and allow Him to live His life through us, we come to embody our message, to see relational waves go out from us across the planet, and to experience the creation being released from its groaning under the curse of sin.”
All the rest of the items on my list flow out of this first item of Spirit-directed, cultivated intimacy.
For example, the second items on my list is to:
(2) help others cultivate the intimacy with Jesus Christ that will result in their finding and fulfilling His “list” for them.
(3) Merging my business with my ministry, in what I like to call a “business-ministry.”
(4) Exploring what it means to create a business-ministry that will accomplish “even greater things” than Jesus did on this earth – in accordance with His promise to us recorded in John 14:10-14:
I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
For some inexplicable reason, for forty years now I’ve been burdened to ask “in the Lord’s name” what this promise of “even greater things” is all about – especially as it relates to my companion burden of building a “business-ministry.” After all those years of prayerful exploration, I believe I have made the single biggest discovery of my business life — a “business-ministry” that actually appears to be capable of doing “even greater things” than healing a leper or raising a Lazarus from the dead! I know it sounds incredulous, but, hey, I won’t laugh at you when you explore what “even greater things” He might be burdening you to include on your list!
Other items on the list are already underway, as in:
(5) Save and/or earn The Walk Show family one billion dollars through the Lifestyle Equity Builder’s (LEB’s) money-management, accelerated-debt-reduction, and investment-management system — certifiably the world’s most comprehensive and effective personal financial-management tool.
In slightly over one year our Walk Show family is already on the path to saving over $100 million dollars toward our $1B, 10-year goal. Indeed, many captives are being set free financially through the LEB business-ministry, yet so many have yet to hear about and implement this financial-life-saving service. To get back to the basics you may need to start with Dave Ramsey’s “Financial Peace University,” but when you’re ready the LEB will put an afterburner on your progress toward achieving your financial goals.
(6) Helping our Walk Show family free up multiplied thousands of dollars for the work of the kingdom through our Walk Show “Loan Watch Program,” where we guarantee the lowest possible rates (about half of what is charged by the well-advertised mortgage companies in the region), plus full disclosure of all fees (including those fees hidden by even many other mortgage brokers), and no unexpected changes in the game plan prior to closing (in contrast to about 40 percent of loan customers who get a bad shock at the closing table – sadly, even from many self-proclaimed “Christian” brokers).
Call The Walk Show Loan Watch Program at 1-877-WALK SHOW [925-5746] for your free mortgage analysis.
LIST-FULFILLING IN THE LORD’S STRENGTH AND OUR WEAKNESS
My strength comes into its own in your weakness. . .It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become. (2 Corinthians 12:10, The Message)
Well, that’s my list — in part, at least. And, let me tell you: it is being accomplished in my weakness and the Lord’s strength. Sometimes I am grateful that the oldest, Egyptian origin of my name, Ken, means “Strong/Weak.” What a picture of my life! We should all be named “Ken” ?, because in the divine economy, we only become a channel of God’s strength through acknowledgment of our weaknesses.
I haven’t told you, but during the entire last three years we’ve done The Walk Show, I’ve been ill. And, the worst time of the day for me was the mornings when I did the show! Consequently, every single time I walked down the hallway to our radio studios at AM820 KGNW and AM570 KVI, I would repeat this verse: “Through Him who strengthens me, I am able for anything!” (Philippians 4:13)
The Lord has answered my prayer – then for strength and more recently for healing — doing more than I could have asked or thought.
WILL YOU FIND AND FULFILL YOUR LIST?
I don’t know about you, but I’m running hard for the finish line. I’m giving it everything I’ve got. No sloppy living for me! I’m staying alert and in top condition. I’m not going to get caught napping, telling everyone else all about it and then missing out myself. (1 Corinthians 9:26-27).
It is the purposes of God communicated by the Holy Spirit to our spirits, then, that make up the items on our “lists”.
When you breath your last, will you be able to say, “I finished my list!”? Is the Holy Spirit day by day revealing the thoughts of the Father through the mind of Christ to you? (See 1 Corinthians 2:16.)
As my spiritual Grandpa, Norman Grubb, used to say every morning upon waking, “Lord, what are You up to today and how can I be a part of it?” That’s how you get your list!
Then, it’s helpful to remember Michael Wells’ similar prayer: “Today is too big a day for a human; Jesus, come and be the divine in me!” That’s how you get the power to fulfill your list!
As Gordon Banks said at New Heart Worship Center recently, “Not my way; Your way, Lord!” That’s how you can be certain your list is authored not by your soul but by the Spirit!
And, as my “business-ministry” mentor, the late A. B. Walker put it so often, “In the purposes of God, a well-devised plan never lacks supply.” That’s means that the fruit of your list is divinely guaranteed!
WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU CANNOT FINISH YOUR LIST
Now, there is an important caveat in this list-making scenario: None of us is actually guaranteed that we will be allowed to fulfill our complete list during our own lifetimes — at least, not from the vantage point of our present expectations. And actually, that’s the way it should be, for we are created to be a relational people, whose influence spreads from one person to the next so that no one person can get the credit for the ultimate work that gets accomplished.
[S]peaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work (Ephesians 4:15-16).
In the case of my good friend and business-ministry mentor, the late A. B. Walker, I find myself working on some of the unfulfilled items on A. B.’s list! In fact, before he died, A. B. expressed his burden that he hadn’t gotten his full message out yet. I pledged in my spirit to help make that happen. In fact, in my latest “Boom or Bust” article at www.TheWalkShow.com, I actually articulated what I believe A. B.’s vision to be for the “Rebuilding of our Business-Ministry Foundations.” In other words, his list has in some measure become my own. Isn’t that the way it should be?
I personally believe that it will take at least a couple of generations to complete all of the items on my own list. I take comfort from the promised, long-lasting effects when we commit ourselves to a relational ministry that mentors those who will ultimately, in Christ, help each of us to complete our lists!:
So, my son, throw yourself into this work for Christ. Pass on what you heard from me—the whole congregation saying Amen!— to reliable leaders who are competent to teach others. . . God will make it all plain (2 Timothy 2:2 ff.—The Message).
As I daily plod forward in the formation and fulfillment of my list, I am ever mindful of the Apostle James’ caution:
And now I have a word for you who brashly announce, “Today—at the latest, tomorrow—we’re off to such and such a city for the year. We’re going to start a business and make a lot of money.” You don’t know the first thing about tomorrow. You’re nothing but a wisp of fog, catching a brief bit of sun before disappearing. Instead, make it a habit to say, “If the Master wills it and we’re still alive, we’ll do this or that.” (James 4:13-17—The Message).
Picture in your mind a man on his deathbed. His son leans over to hear his Dad’s last words. Do you think the father will gasp forth: “I wish I had bought more crap!” or “I wish I had spent more time at the office!”? Most people live and die without a divine list.
You and I can, however, do our parts to help one another both find and fulfill our “divine lists.” I am praying for you, trusting that you will fully connect with the opportunities God puts before you toward these eternal ends.
Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness! (Matthew 25:23)
