Maximizing Your Potential

phenomenon, is the result of man’s succumbing to life governed by his own devices. The major source of this tragedy is ignorance. The most powerful enemy of mankind is not sin or satan, but this death dealing, life-stealing force called ignorance. The Old Testament prophet Hosea recognized ignorance as the primary source of personal, social, and national destruction. When relaying God’s explanation for moral and social decay among the nations, he wrote, “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6a). The implication is that destruction in any area of our lives, whether personally or nationally, is related to a lack of knowledge. The most powerful enemy of mankind is not sin or satan, but ignorance. This reality is profoundly true as it relates to the maximization of our potential. The ignorance of mankind concerning the value, worth, and magnitude of human potential causes massive oppression of our wonderful treasure. Our planet is now home to over 5.8 billion people, all of whom are “created in the image of God” and possess the potential to fulfill the purpose for which they have been born. Over 4 billion of these people live in countries and conditions described as Third World. The term Third World is not ethnic or racial in orientation, but is more philosophical and conditional in meaning. Technically, it is used to describe any people who have not been allowed to participate in or directly benefit from the industrial revolution, and who therefore have not directly profited from the social, economic, and technological advancement that accompanied this revolution. In practical terms, the term Third World categorizes all people who, for whatever reason, have been robbed of the opportunity to discover, develop, refine, release, and maximize their God-given potential. This miscarriage of justice has often been the result of oppression and suppression, and it is usually generated by discrimination, prejudice, hate, and fear. Many of these forces of oppression are institutional, constitutional, philosophical, and religious in origin, but all are founded on grave ignorance and misconception. The ignorance of man about man is the ultimate cause of all our problems. The key to the knowledge of any product must be the manufacturer because no one knows a product like the one who created it. Therefore, the truth about man cannot be found in the great libraries of our educational institutions or the journals of our scientific investigations. Genesis, the first book of Moses, clearly states that God created man to dominate the earth: Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, in Our likeness, and let them rule [have dominion] over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the