Excellence with a Soul

The Points of View of Excellence One of the greatest problems in life is misconception. When something is misconceived, it will be misapplied. Misapplication then leads to a wrong outcome. The seeming lack of genuine excellence in many spheres of life is due to the misconceptions about excellence. It is important to note that the way excellence is viewed in the Kingdom of God is different from the way it is viewed in the world. There is a secular concept of excellence that is based on the Worldly Point of View (POV) and there is the kingdom concept that is based on God’s Point of View (POV). In the world, excellence is primarily measured in terms of acquisitions and possessions. Thus, a person with a better grade, job, car, houses, or other material things is seen as being more excellent than the person with less. The truth is that high grades, a good car, houses, and income are very important and should be desired, but we should understand that there is more to excellence than these. The world also regards excellence as a means for self-validation. Thus, the people of the world always seek to validate their sense of excellence by the things they acquire. So, people in the world try to get distinction in school, acquire material results, and possess the good things of life because they believe that these things would validate their sense of being excellent. However, in the kingdom of God, our validation is the Word of God. God says we are excellent, so we believe we are. For us, excellence is not primarily something external that we attempt to acquire but an intrinsic gene inside us that we seek to express. Excellent God, Excellent Offspring A.W. Tozer, in his book ‘The Attributes of God’, lists several notable attributes of God. Some of those attributes are exclusive to God, while some are inclusive of His children. God’s infinitude, immensity, omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence are exclusive to Him, as He does not share these with anyone. God’s love, power, goodness, mercy, and excellence are inclusive of His children as He graciously shares those with us. As God’s children who are made in His image and likeness, we are partakers of His excellence. Excellence is a characteristic of God. Looking at God’s stellar creation and magnificent attributes, we see excellence on display. At the beginning of creation, after God made everything, He said they were perfect (Genesis 1:31). God revealed His excellent nature by His excellent output. As citizens of God’s Kingdom, we don’t do or acquire things to give us a sense of excellence; we do things because we are excellent. God is excellent and He does excellent things. The excellence of God’s deeds is not to validate the excellence of His being. Contrariwise, His excellent deed stems from His excellent being. His magnificent deeds are expressions of His excellent nature. In the same way, an orange tree will produce an orange, not an apple. Similarly, as children of God who have the DNA of God, we manifest excellence in all things because we are being true to our nature. Everything we do must reveal the excellence that is intrinsic to our being. This is the reason a child of God cannot settle for anything less than excellence in work, family, business, academics, and every area of life. God who created us is an Excellent Being, so we are also excellent beings. We are not struggling to attain excellence; we are born with it. When this understanding powers our attitude towards life, it will reset our mindset and approach to all we do. In God’s kingdom, we still go for the distinctions in class, the great accomplishments, jobs, houses, and income, not because we are trying to be excellent, but because we know that we are excellent. Why Excellence? - Manifesting the Kingdom The Kingdom and worldly concepts of excellence are divergent points of view. It is either we are living from the world’s point of view of excellence or from God’s point of view. In the world, excellence is a tool of self-validation, while in the kingdom, excellence is a tool for revealing God’s glory. Excellence in the life of the saints is a requirement for carrying out the will of God on earth. Matthew 5:14-16 says, ‘You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven’ (NKJV). In the Kingdom, we use our excellence as a tool to glorify our Father in heaven. 2 Corinthians 5:20 says, ‘Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us . . .’ God expresses Himself through us, so we manifest His excellence with an ambassadorial mindset. We are ambassadors of God’s excellence. Our output in every area of life must show the quality of our God. This places a greater standard of excellence on the child of God than on the people of the world. Since we serve the greater God, we must display a higher level of excellence. Thus, Proverbs 12:26 (KJV) says, ‘the righteous is more excellent than his neighbour . . .’ When you view your excellence as a kingdom assignment, mandated upon you by God, then you realise that mediocrity and failure does much damage to God’s agenda on earth. In fact, being mediocre is a disadvantage to Kingdom advancement. We cannot afford to be anything less than excellent. This principle is the soul of excellence, and it should guide all areas of our lives. Excellence is our DNA; it is the genetic make-up we inherited from our God