Capacity And Stature (the Mystery Of Stature And Dominion) by Apostle Joshua Selman: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Opening scriptures

• Those who ought to be teachers still need milk, not strong meat. Only the mature, whose senses are exercised by reason of use, can handle strong meat. Hebrews 5:12-14
• If you have run with footmen and are already wearied, how will you contend with horses? If you falter in a land of peace, what will you do in the swelling of the flood? Jeremiah 12:5
• The widow shut the door on herself and her sons and poured oil into every vessel they brought her; the oil stopped flowing only when the vessels ran out. 2 Kings 4:5-6
• Talents were handed out to each man according to his own ability. Matthew 25:15

All believers are ordained for grace, victory and impact

• We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which he ordained beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10
• This is a high calling, not a low one. A call to victory, to grace, to exploit, to dominion.

Forces that must be engaged to manifest destiny

• Salvation translates a person from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son.
• Favor: destiny cannot be maximized without it.
• The anointing: gives empowerment.
• Capacity: one of the greatest of these forces, and the most underestimated.

Why some serve at a higher level than others

• The election of grace, the privilege and mercy fixed in a person's pre-ordination, accounts for only about 10% of the difference.
• Capacity accounts for the remaining 80 to 90%.

Three levels of authority God can trust a man with

1. Authority over things: commanding resources and elemental forces. The most elementary dimension of spiritual authority.
2. Grace to influence men: the ability to mentor and to be listened to by a generation.
3. Authority to steward God's program on the earth, or within a dispensation: becoming God's reference point for that assignment, the way Abraham became the face of a program to bless the whole earth.

Victory is not dominion

• Victory is personal: using the word to meet your needs, build a house, buy a car, train your children.
• Dominion and purpose are the language of ambassadors, not merely believers. At that level, the realm of personal need has already been conquered.
• God will not entrust nations to someone who cannot yet use the word to meet personal needs. Mentorship must be line upon line, milk before strong meat.

Three definitions of capacity

1. The quantitative limit of a person or a thing: the maximum amount or volume it can hold or contain.
2. The upper limit of an individual's power, competence and aptitude to do, to contain, to absorb, to process and to deliver results.
3. The maximum production or generation rate of a person or a system.

Four dimensions of capacity

1. Volutric dimension

   Size and volume. How much you can hold or retain before saturation, like a tank that wastes whatever is poured beyond its limit.

2. Functional dimension

   Endurance and staying power. How far a person or a system can keep going before breakdown. Physical and mental toughness, willpower.

3. Cognitive and psychological dimension

   The intellectual limit of a person to process information, manage emotional pressure, make rational decisions and sound judgment without being exhausted or overwhelmed. Emotional strength and maturity.

4. Judicial dimension

   Ranking and sphere of authority earned through resourcefulness, breadth of knowledge, accreditation, qualification and competence.

Authority is a weight, not just a delegation

• Authority must be trained for and built to carry, or it becomes a curse.
• The crown and the scepter that symbolize royalty and dominion will only be weights and burdens on the head and hands of a child.
• A sword and armor that depict a warrior are only a weight in the hand of someone unskilled.
• Good things can still destroy you if your capacity cannot receive them. Grace available is not what profits you, it is grace received, utilized and maximized.
• Beware of emotionally exposing people to opportunities, platforms, resources and responsibilities beyond their capacity to steward. It will destroy them and what they represent.

Desire must match growth

• Even Jesus increased before he could be called Savior. A baby or a teenager could not have carried that title. Luke 2:52
• John remained in the wilderness and grew strong in spirit until the day of his showing to Israel. Luke 1:80
• David built a track record tending sheep long before he stood before Goliath. God hid the details of his training so pride would not distract him.
• Joseph's dream came decades before its manifestation. Capacity had to catch up with prophecy.
• Prophecy alone without capacity will leave you disappointed. There is a real journey between prophecy and manifestation.

When capacity is smaller than the grace carried

• It becomes a cost, even a curse, to the person and to everyone connected to them.
• What often flows to a desperate seeker is not the grace they asked for, but the stamina to begin the journey of growth.

You can feel ready without being ready

• A local champion can mistake being the best in a small circle for being ready at a bigger table, until he meets a room where everybody is a champion.
• Growth brings the relationships, intelligence and understanding a level requires. Forcing your way into a realm without growth leaves you unable to function in it.
• Maturity is not a gift. It is a product of time, process and investedness.

Capacity is a direct result of growth

• Building capacity is one of the greatest demonstrations of faith in God, in yourself and in your future.
• Your level of investedness in building capacity is proof of what you actually believe.

Stature draws followers, it is not chased

• Do not be in a hurry to look for people to mentor. Searching for those to mentor while nothing in your life is attracting those who need you is the way of fools, not champions.
• Jesus got up early and went alone to a solitary place to pray. He departed alone, but because he was a man of stature, Simon and those with him followed after him and said, all men seek for you. Mark 1:35-37
• If you are a man of stature, the weight you carry, the track record of integrity, character, competence, delivery, power and sustainability, is enough to pull someone who studies your life and finds it worth emulating.

Six keys to building capacity

1. Recognize and admit the need

   For growth and capacity as the key to maximizing grace. Watching those who represent your future can reveal the gaps in your own life.

2. Invest time in prayer

   Praying in the Holy Ghost, for edification and not only for needs. No man becomes a champion in the kingdom without years of consistent, strategic prayer.

3. Invest time in the study of the word

   And in gaining spiritual understanding, not just studying like a good Bible student.

4. Invest time in gaining useful knowledge

   Concerning the laws of life, effective living, and expertise in your field.

5. Submit to mentorship

   For your growth and development. Never outgrow the need to be guided. The greatest enemy of mentorship is history, familiarity with someone that stops you receiving from them.

6. Capacity grows with use

   Deploy your time, energy and skill within the space allowed to serve, and you grow as you serve. Nehemiah was a cupbearer before he was a rebuilder.

Ten areas to build capacity for an impactful life

1. Your spiritual life

   Functional knowledge of God, doctrine, the dynamics of prayer, how faith works, deriving profit from the word, walking in authority and power.
   • Five indicators of spiritual growth: passion for God born from deep fellowship, Christlike character, high-level spiritual illumination, the outworking of power and wisdom producing victory and dominion, and investedness in purpose and impactful living, capped by love toward God and men.

2. Mental strength and transformation

   Comes through study, mentorship, healthy exposure and praying in the spirit.
   • Four indicators of transformation: your perceptions, your interpretation of things, your definitions, and the accuracy of your beliefs.

3. Emotional intelligence

   How you perceive, process and respond to people and happenings, whether good or bad.
   • The maturity to manage the spotlight without being distracted by it.
   • The strength to be disliked and criticized without it affecting your self-worth.
   • Anger management, and the courage to accept responsibility without shifting blame.
   • Overcoming paranoia and hypersensitivity, an unfounded suspicion that people intend to deceive or harm you.

4. Physical health and bodily vitality

   You only have one body. Mismanaging it costs you through death or degeneration. Healthy eating, exercise, guarding what you watch and hear, and speaking the word maintain it.

5. Leadership

   Four levels: self or image management, people management, vision or project management, and resource management.
   • Image management is correct behavior, not a logo. Don't debrand yourself in public.
   • Resource management includes not abusing another person's platform: don't say on someone else's platform what you can only defend on your own.

6. Financial intelligence

   How to attract financial resources with dignity, how to manage and effectively use money, how to grow and increase wealth, and how to preserve and transfer it.

7. Effective communication

   Exchanging thoughts, ideas and information so the receiver understands the message clearly as intended.
   • Utterance and oratory are both an edge. Be coherent and articulate, not rambling.
   • Discern your audience. Don't frustrate children, the elderly or the uneducated with an unnecessarily complex delivery.

8. Goal setting and time management

9. The skill of mentoring

   Using the leverage of your skill, experience, platform and status to guide, educate, connect and support the less experienced.

10. The skill of asking and receiving

    Asking means to investigate and inquire until solutions are birthed, not merely to make a request.
    • Ask God: prayer. Ask men: education and mentorship. Ask nature: observation and research. Ask yourself: contemplation.
    • Receive from God: faith. Receive from men: honor and gratitude. Receive from your own spirit: meditation.

Closing charge

• There is no champion who is a champion by luck. The price for dominion is transformation, not desire.
• Knowing that God intends for you to reign is not enough. You must contend for knowledge.

Altar call

• If you are honestly saying, I hear you, I want to make it right with Jesus, I do not want to return home the same way I came, get up and come forward.