Samson & The Spirit Of Might

I am a fan of combat sports, especially boxing.
I like watching kickboxing, karate, more recently mixed martial arts (MMA) and all sorts of combat sports.

I grew up watching wrestling, martial arts movies, Indian films now popularly called Bollywood movies, and of course action movies from Hollywood.
It's the characters or heroes that drive the sale of the movies & the fascination of the fans with their 'power', their skillful fighting abilities or extraordinary strength that keeps us glued to the screen.

Kickboxing as a sport was more popular in the 80"s for some reason, though it's been around with its own heroes, tournaments and titles. It's global appeal just gradually declined. It's champions and personalities that drive every sport. I guess kickboxing didn't have interesting and appealing personalities enough to drive it into global visibility like Jean-Claude Vandamme did for the sport through kickboxing films & action movies. He is a real life martial artist with a kick boxing background, Vandamme is getting on in age now.

We've not had any inspiring professional kickboxer who draws a global attention to the sport in recent years.

We might have found one in Rico Verhoeven.

Boxing has always benefitted from interesting fighters with personalities that have kept their fans glued to the screen right through time. MMA and wrestling have benefitted from that too. A promoter called Dana Whyte saved MMA and brought recognition to the sport through his UFC platform.

The Martial arts has enjoyed popularity through characters like the legendary Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, Jackie Chan, Steven Seagal, and Jet Lee, they helped take marital arts to global visibility through movies. Vandamme was the one predominantly upholding kickboxing, since his silence the sport has not been that visible. I think the kickboxer Rico Verhoeven's move to boxing and his excelling at it through his fight over the last weekend is helping the sport of kickboxing, like Vandamme he is also doing so through movies.

Human nature is fascinated by the extraordinary, we love extraordinary strength, fighting skill or power.
It entertains us.

There was a man called Samson, a Biblical Christian character, a great guy whose story reads like a comic superhero.
Samson was a strong man in a physical sense, raised up by the Lord to be a judge of his people & a deliverer.
The Spirit of might was a dimension of the Lord's Spirit at work in Samson.
Samson was a legend & more, come to think of it!

Let's visualize Samson living in our day.
He would probably pursue a career in combat sports.
It's only natural, that's where he'll get the most visibility and be able to use his superhuman strength effectively.
He may not be needed in the armed forces as such, physical strength is not needed as much as it was needed in ancient times when Samson was born.
We have the use of ammunition and nuclear weapons now.

Samson once killed 1,000 men with the dry jawbone of a donkey.
Let that thought sink in for a second!
These were not ordinary Philistine men, these were trained, skillful warriors. Samson killed a thousand of them in one day!
The Philistine nation were believed to be a nation that's a descendant of giants. They were tall huge men.
Samson killed 1000 of them and piled up their bodies in a heap!
Today our combat sports fighters retire after defeating anything between 40 to sixty men max.
Its very rare to see a combat sports fighter who defeats up to 70 men in his professional career.
More so, the average boxer fights about once a year or twice at the maximum these days.
None of them can defeat the quality of fighters the Philistines warriors were that Samson killed, and their fight records are not up to a tenth of the amount of Philistine warriors Samson killed in one day!

If Samson lived in our day, he would be a wonder, a living legend.

There would be no wrestler, no boxer, no kick boxer, no mixed martial artist or any combat sport legend or guru that would be a match for him.

No human combat sport athlete, soldier, navy seal, or armed force official, no matter how well trained would be able to withstand Samson, no matter how well trained or skillful he may be. The reason is, Samson's strength and might was supernatural.

Samson's might was from the Spirit of the Lord.

It came as a result of the Spirit of God stirring him into power and might.

That dimension of the Spirit is available to us today.

It can still serve us and help us achieve God's purposes on earth today

It was the type of might Samson needed for the day and time he was born in.

Samson was born at a time the people of God used to fight wars, he was born at a time God's judgement was due upon the Philistines.

 Samson was born and raised up by God to take out the Philistines.

He was born to be a great judge of God's people and a one man army against the Philistines.

This was a man who tore a lion on it's prime apart with his bare hands!

Do you know any man or woman who can tear a lion that's in its prime apart with his/her bare hands?

Might was the distinction God put upon Samson.

Samson's might was not in his muscles, going to the gymnasium, or exercising.

Samson's peak condition was not exactly in the quality of food he was eating.

Samson's source was supernatural, Samson's source was God.

The Philistines were curious to know the source of Samson's strength and might.

If Samson was a fitness and gymn freak they would have assumed that's where he got his strength from.

If Samson was muscular and heavily build, it would have been assumed his strength was in his muscles, I have reasons to believe Samson was probably averagely built and not massive in size.

If Samson was part of an army, his enemies would have assumed his elite military training is the source of his capacity.

Samson was a mystery to his Philistine enemies.

Seeing he was becoming a folk hero and a living legend, the scheme to find out his secret and bring him down started.

As long as Samson stayed true to the covenant instruction he had been given from the Lord, he would operate in uncommon and supernatural might.

The Lord was faithful to uphold His side of the covenant with Samson.

There is a lot we can learn from the life and the gift of Samson.

Through Samson's life we see God is the source, He is the giver of every good and perfect gift.

From Samson's life we gather that we are not any better off without following God's instructions. 

Supernatural might remained with Samson as long as long as he obeyed the terms of his covenant.

We see from Samson's life that the Lord has a unique covenant with each of His people.

We have general covenants and we have individual covenants.

Do you have God's covenant individual instructions for your own life?

Assessing Samson's life shows us that human might cannot match divine might.

That which is human and carnal cannot match that which is divine and supernatural.

No one could match the supernatural might of Samson with human strength. Samson's strength was Spirit not human!

Spirits are naturally stronger than human beings.

Samson's might could not be generated by the strength of the flesh.

That which is from the Lord is always superior to that which is of the flesh or of darkness.

Samson's might was superior to the strength of one thousand Philistine men just as the rod of Moses which turned into a serpent was superior to the rod of the Magicians of Egypt which also turned into serpents.

Whatever is of the Lord's Spirit will swallow up whatever is of darkness, magic and evil.

From Ordinary To Extraordinary !

 

There is a philosophy attributed to former NFL coach Jimmy Johnson that captures an excellent truth, the truth that our 'extra' when applied where it matters produces the extraordinary.

It is the idiom "the difference between the ordinary and the extraordinary is the little extra" informs us that our 'little' and our 'extra' has a certain power in it.

They have a certain potency.

It has since become an inspired and motivational quote used to build teams, inspire individuals and motivate people.

It is a philosophy we can apply to every aspect of our lives and specific goals we are working on.

The words little and extra are worth emphasizing.

Excellence doesn't always require massive, revolutionary input but our "little extra" goes a long way in creating excellence and impact.

Our little is much and goes further to create excellence and positive change when applied accordingly, as needed.

Little is much when applied rightly.

Your extra creativity, the extra care, the extra attention to detail can make a massive difference.

Little things can bring  effective results.

Little keys often times open big doors.

Little investments have yielded great increase.

Little advise have saved lives and given perspective.

Seemingly short, sincere and 'little' prayers have wrought salvation.

Little can be much when God is in it!

Going the extra mile sets us apart, creating a distinction about us.

Our consistency and little push to go further and do more creates a compounding interest over time.

We can apply the 'extra' to our thinking, creating a mindset shift.

It has the capacity to radically alter our lives!

You may have been born ordinarily like most people were, you may have attended schools like most people do, you may eat and drink like everyone does but it doesn't mean you are like everyone else because there there is a call on your life to be distinct since you are created unique.

You have been chosen to be more than ordinary.

You have been selected to move from ordinary to extraordinary.

Your little extra is a great key.

Start using it.

A journey of a thousand miles starts with a step.

Start the Start Up business, start the ministry, write the book, create the design, make the business work, make the most of the relationship, birth the child, be the parent who puts in the little extra in love, care, understanding and emotional support.

Through your little extra you will be extraordinary!

Your little extra obedience is about to manifest great results.

That little extra bit of resilience, patience, gratitude, fortitude, confidence, effort, trust, kindness, diligence, and willingness to try is about to pay off in a big way!

I see your little extra turning the tide in your favor!

Productive Failure

 Many times, success has been born out of failure.

Inventors have often made discoveries out of what was called their failures.

Fortunately they didn't give up, today we enjoy what their hard work and right perspectives have produced on the earth.

We enjoy the impact of their contributions in the field of medicine, science, technology, product design and business.

We need to see clearer, better and have the right perspective to what we call failure.

Failure does not have to be what many people dread it to be or have the stigma associated with it if we have the right perspective to failure.

If you can find the gem in your failure, if you can learn the lessons from your failure, and glean wisdom from your failure, then you have not failed.

The failure becomes a learning curve and discovery on your way to your success destination, it is not the end of the road.

It's Winston Churchill who said "failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue trying that counts."

Face life courageously, keep going, keep learning, keep trying and whatever you do don't give up!

Productive failure is what I call failing forward.

It is the type of failure that comes with a benefit in it, it is failure that benefits you and helps you progress.

Many success stories today were birthed from failing forward, such inspirational characters failed productively.

If you are going to fail at anything make sure you fail forward.

Have the right perspective, learn to see life, issues and failure with a new set of eyes, an optimistic vision.

An optimistic perspective will make you see your failures as growth experiences.

We learn more from failure than we do from success.

The Scottish author Samuel Smiles put it this way "we learn wisdom from failure much more than from success."

There is learning and wisdom in failure.

People need to recognize this.

Mistakes help us and force us to analyze flaws and grow.

The wise dissect their mistakes, analyze their failures and evolve from it into better people with better ideas and winning strategies.

Failures teach us humility, they show our humanity, they can develop our empathy, help our emotional intelligence, and help us see new and better ways to accomplish our goals.

Edgar A. Guest in his classic motivational poem "Don't Quit" said "success is failure turned inside out."

"Success is failure turned inside out,
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit—
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit."

Vince Lombardi the legendary American football coach is attributed with perhaps the most famous quote ever on the subject of success and failure, the idiom "quitters never win, and winners never quit"

How true!

The purpose of failure is not to make us quit.

The goal of success is not to never fail.

While we shouldn't go all out trying to be failures, we should understand our failures can be springboards to our success.

Through failure many have been rightly directed in life and gone further than they would have gone if they has succeeded without any failure along the way.

I recently discovered James Dyson, the British inventor built 5,126 failed prototypes over 15 years before successfully creating his bagless vacuum.

Talk about perseverance!

How many times have you tried, and how many times have you failed?

It would seem that men who rise to the greatest heights in life do so on the highest heaps of failure.

Dyson has noted that success can make you stop wondering why things work, but failure forces you to ask why they went wrong.

Whatever you do don't give up now!

You might be one more attempt away from success.

You may be one email, one phone call, one prayer away from success.

You're closer than you think.

You have come this far, and you haven't come this far to give up now.

You may be one last push, one more strike away from your breakthrough.

It is Thomas Alva Edison, credited for being the inventor of the light bulb who said "Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

The journey of a thousand miles starts with a step, you may have failed along the way, you may have made mistakes but you are not where you used to be.

You've made progress, you've improved, you've learned, you've acquired knowledge and you're hopefully wiser.

Keep building, keep going, keep using the blocks of past failures to build a mighty edifice of sterling success!

It is in our nature as people to want to succeed, and we should.

It is a natural innate desire to want to succeed.

However, the path to success can have the bumps of failure in the way.

The great Physicist and mathematician Albert Einstein said "failure is success in progress."

Don't be fatigued because of the failures along your way, don't be defeated by the pressures failure can cause.

Success according to the great Winston Churchill is going from failure to failure without the loss of enthusiasm.

Keep your head high, your hopes up and your faith intact.