How to Create the Future You Want 
By Dr. Ken Friendly

How many of you want your future to mirror your present state, your present life? You want your future to look just like your present? Well, your life today will look just like your future if you don’t do something different. Often times believers, and I am one so I can say this, have a “God will take care of it mentality” or the miracle mentality about everything. Don’t’ get me wrong; I believe in miracles and I believe God will intervene, but most of what happens in our personal lives hinges on us. Many of us in the church don’t understand routines and most people in the church believe that doing something over and over again is tradition. We have to understand that our future is concealed in our daily routines. If I am going to change my future, I must change something that I do every day because what I do daily causes me to become something permanently. I want to show you in the Scriptures where God showed us over and over the power of habit. Habit is not a bad word; habit is an awesome word. God wants us to acquire habits that will birth the future we desire. Now this works either way, good or bad. Right now, today, you are either creating a disaster or a blessing in your future. It’s never, how did that happen. You see, God wants you to know exactly how something happened because a lesson unlearned will be repeated. There are things that I am doing right now that are creating some disaster in my life it. If we could trace all our failures, we could determine when we started sowing seed for them long ago. The Bible urges us to develop godly routines. The Spirit of God is so good and that’s why He stays on us to stop that this or stop that before it becomes a daily habit. Just because you do something one time doesn’t mean it’s a habit. I love studying biographies. I love studying people, successful people, and I love talking to people. I ask a lot of questions. One thing that is common among the ultra-successful that I discovered, it is that they have something they do everyday, all the time. Routines. You see great men do daily what regular men do occasionally. The greatest investment that Deb and I made - I will never forget it - was in 1988 in Dallas, Texas. We went to a goal-achievement seminar. It changed our life. Of course, we didn’t just go, we acted on the information. You can go to all kinds of seminars and if you don’t do anything with it, it is not going to help you. But this changed my life. I was in the military and from that point on I started getting promotions. Everything I touched succeeded. It’s supposed to be that way but everybody doesn’t know how to do it. We know how to do it now and we have been living on those principles all these years. You see, what you do daily is the real you. What you do on occasion is your potential. It’s your potential because you may do it every now and then even when you know its right and you know it works. It is just potentially what you can become unless you establish it as a daily routine. Great reward requires great sacrifice. I want you to get this. Think about it. Some thing you are doing daily is creating either a miracle or a disaster in your life. It only takes about two or three habits to create an incredible life. That’s all it takes. It doesn’t take a whole lot. That is what God is trying to get us to see. If there are some things that you don’t like about your life, you have to quit complaining about them and start doing something about them. Start doing some thing differently, a daily habit.

Now, how many of you know that Jesus was a real busy guy? He was busy preaching. He was busy teaching. He was busy supervising the disciples. He was busy healing folks. But He was never too busy for some things. Here’s one of them. Look at Luke 4:16, “So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read”.

The living Bible says, “he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures". The Bible even goes on to say that He turned to the place. So He had a certain place, a certain passage of scripture that He always read when He went to church all the time, as His custom was. That is probably why a lot of the folks hung out there because they knew Jesus was coming by because He had a habit. Over in the Old Testament is another witness. Sometimes we want to say, oh, look what God did for these mighty men. But every mighty man or woman of God operated this way. Daniel 6:10 says, Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room with his windows opened towards Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom. How many times? Three times a day as was his custom, as was his habit since his early days. We know how Daniel stood up against the opposition of the day and we know about his deliverance. What gave him that kind of power? What caused the favor of God to come on him? Favor is not just some gasp that God blows that does things for people. No, there are things that you do that create favor. You create favor! God does it but you create it. Somewhere along the line, Daniel’s daily habits put him in a position where he had confidence in God. He said I will never fear because God is with me. He started something that caused his future to be different than his present. Just like some folks have to have coffee everyday, Daniel had to pray three times a day. Just like some folks have to get on the internet every day first thing, Daniel had to pray three times a day. Its just as simple as brushing our teeth everyday. We can brush our teeth thinking about 15 things. We don’t have to wonder about it. No, we have created a custom, a habit. It’s second nature to us just like Daniel had to pray three times a day. That habit created a future for him because the Bible says Daniel was promoted above all his fellows.

The psalmist said in, “Ps 119:162 I rejoice at Your word As one who finds great treasure.

v164 Seven times a day I praise You, Because of Your righteous judgments .

David said, seven times a day I praise You. He didn’t say I will praise You seven times; he said seven times a day is praise is just what I do! It was his habit to praise Him seven times a day. Everything works this way. It is so simple. The words of your mouth are creating your future. You are framing your world with your mouth. You are framing your future with what you are saying every single day. You are not wasting your time when you are doing what God asks you to do. Acts 5:42 says “Daily in the temple and in every house they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. Daily!

Galatians 6:7 says, “Do not be deceived, God is not marked for whatever a man sows that he will also reap. Whatever is what it says. Whatever! The Scriptures go on to say for he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. Don’t get weary while doing good. Why God? For in due season, we shall reap if we do not lose heart. This scripture has to get down down into your spirit man. It has to be more than a cliché. It has to be a law that I buy into because God has set the system up this way. Whatever I sow, good or bad; whatever I do, good or bad; whatever I give, good or bad is going to appear in my life. I cannot change my life until I change what I do every day. Just going to church will not cut it. If I am going to change my life, then I must change what I do daily! Whether it looks like it is happening or not, God said whatever I sow is what I am going to reap. I can prophesy my future. I will not be the same person next year that I am this year. I will not be in the same situation next year that I am in this year. Why? Because I have already determined where I am going. Now I am just walking it out. I only need two or three habits. God says that if I do certain things, I will get certain results. I am convinced of that! I am sold on that. I am committed to the laws of God!

What kind of future do you want? What kind of future do you require? What did God say is yours that you don’t have but you know you want? Think about it. What do you want? What belongs to you? We have to get out of this God will take care of everything mentality. Now, don’t get me wrong: I love miracles . But I understand that there ARE some things that I can do to create my future. I may get a gift of the Spirit operating but I am not guaranteed that. God did not guarantee me that He would give me a miracle but He did guarantee me that He would confirm His Word. OK. Pastor, so how do I get there?

Psalm 1 says, “Blessed is the man, woman, boy or girl, who walks not in the council of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in His law, he meditates day and night. What is that? That’s a habit. That’s a routine. Now, watch what will happen. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season. When? In its season. In its future, a time after he has meditated in the Word of God. There is a time of fruitfulness based on what he did back here. Don’t ever get so preoccupied with what is happening right now especially if you know that you are doing what’s right. Your season is coming! Your season is coming! One thing we have to understand is that a season cannot be stopped. God says that as long as the earth remains, there will always be seasons. A season cannot be stopped. Your season cannot be stopped. God guarantees that if you will become sold out, crazy about this Word and develop a daily habit, a daily routine of meditating in the Word; if you would do that, you are now setting yourself up for a fruitful season that nothing can stop! Now you can walk around with daily expectation, not being moved by what is happening right now. You are not moved by the latest report or the latest gossip! Why? Because you know your season is coming. You are not jealous when someone else’s season shows up because that’s just a sign that your season is on the way, too. So you just hold fast. You maintain your confession of faith and you keep doing good. God said don’t be weary in doing good, in doing what’ right. Your season is coming! Psalms 1:3 says he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season whose leaf also shall not wither. You don’t have to be worried about the blessing of God stopping or somebody taking it away from you. God said your leaf won’t wither. You won’t get the fruit and then the thing die on you. In other words, He adds to you and brings no sorrow with it. And God is still not done because He says, and whatever he does shall prosper. This is not a one dimensional level or prosperity or seasonal fruitfulness. God says if you will establish a daily routine to birth and create your habits, those habits will become your lifestyle. You will know how the things of God work. If you can do it over here for your family, then you can do it over here for your money. If you do it for your money, you can do it for your body. If you can do it for your body, you can do it for your career. That habit becomes a part of me. It is in me and therefore, whatever I do prospers. It doesn’t matter where I am or what I am doing. I am going to prosper. I am going to stand out. I am going to rise to the top. I am giving God something to work with.

In Joshua 1:8 we will see more about the power of a godly habit. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth but you shall meditate in it day and night.” (How often?) day and night. That you may observe to do according to all that is written. For then, (after you have established a daily routine and habit of fellowshipping with the Word of God) then YOU, not God, YOU will make your way prosperous and YOU will have good success. Why meditate day and night, night and day? Because our minds didn’t get saved. Our minds are magnets for fear, worry and unbelief... Our minds are magnets to lust.

God begs us to meditate, ingest this Word. Ingest it! Why? So that we can operate with the mind of Christ and deal wisely in life. If you are going to change your future and get what God says is yours, you must meditate in God’s Word. You can never have a great life unless you have a pure life. And you can never have a pure life unless you have a pure mind. You can never have a pure mind if your mind is not washed daily with the Word of God. Remember, you daily determine what you become permanently!

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