There are 6 areas of our life that help define our trustworthiness and provide us with spiritual marketing information.

1.) False Witness – Are we willing to protect the reputation of someone who is not present to defend his honor?
Proverbs 11:12 tells us that,
“A talebearer reveals secrets, But he who is of a faithful spirit conceals a matter.

and

Exodus 20:16

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

When we hear others gossiping about someone not present, will we defend that person? This exemplifies true character.

2.) Diligence in our work ethic. Are we careful to protect the property of the one for whom we work? Even if we are self employed, do we protect the assets of our business. Are we the type of person who can be left in charge with the keys to the safe and inventory.
Remember, we are marketing a Christian lifestyle and this is the marketing information that we make available to those scrutinizing us.

Ephesians 5:15 – 17 tells us,

Another remedy for sin is care, or caution, without which it is impossible otherwise to maintain purity of heart and life. Time is a talent given to us by God. It is misspent and lost when not employed according to His design. If we have lost our time heretofore, we must double our diligence for the future. How many people, on their death bed, would gladly redeem at the price of the whole world, one day wasted. How little do men think, and to what trifles they daily sacrifice it! People are very likely to complain of bad times; it were well if that stirred them more to redeem time. Be not unwise. Ignorance of our duty, and neglect of our souls, show the greatest trivialities of ignorance.

3.) Accuracy and integrity of our word and point of view is a deep measure of our trustworthiness. This relates again to the 9th Law of God’s Moral Commandments. As stated in Proverbs 12:17:

He who speaks truth declares righteousness, But a false witness, deceit.

Can we build trust when we tout a program or service (our own or even one we have just joined)that makes outrageous and false claims, just for the purpose of enticing others to join?

4.) Do what you say you will do. Mathew 5:17 tells us:

Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

How profoundly simple, yet unmistakably accurate, is that statement?

5.) Finish what you start. So often, in an attempt to find success overnight, we begin project after project, become disillusioned, quit and start something else. The Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 4:7
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith

This is great spiritual marketing information.

In our project, are we able to say the same. Certainly Paul was speaking of his work as an Evangelist and in spreading the Good News of Christ. This too is what we do in our every day life. By the life we live, by our willingness to finish what we start, we also shed a good light on the teachings of Christ. Our lives are the measure by which others judge our beliefs. We need to strive for success in everything that we do.

We can even be successful in our failures! (By exemplifying a Christian attitude, at all times.) What we have to do as Christians is develop the attitude that, no matter what happens in this life, we are the winners for eternity! Proverbs 22:29 tells us:

Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men.

6.) Pay your bills! Meet your obligations. In Romans 14:16 we read:
Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil.

This is ultimately the reason for concentrating on success training and gathering marketing information. Each one of us must be successful. Our Holy Lord and Creator owns everything! When we live our lives according to His standards, He rewards us by allowing us to be stewards over His property. The more we grow spiritually, the better stewards we become. The better stewards that we become results in a larger portion, a bigger piece of the pie, more responsibility, more reward!

Jim Rohn (a tremendously successful motivational speakers and personal development coach) says that it is far more important who you are becoming, than, what you are earning. Mr. Rohn goes so far as to say that you should work toward becoming a millionaire, not for the money, but because of whom you will become in achieving the goal. Greed is the most destructive motivation that a person can have.

The emphasis is on becoming a better person, a person of integrity. Integrity is being true to your word, that personal quality that affords others the ability to depend on what you say. When you make a promise to provide a service or product for a certain amount of money, you do it. You protect your customers, as well as yourself.

It is far easier to produce a successful business when you become known as a trustworthy source. In most cases your reputation will precede you! A good program produces loyalty and spreads quite rapidly. When you are true to your word and do not promise more than you can produce just to get a sale, you can the trust of a larger audience.

One of the universal laws of success is that hard work and honesty produce lasting positive results. In other words, “help enough people get what they want and you will find that you receive what you want.” When you over deliver you attract success. A man is only as good as his word.

People buy from those whom they trust. If they trust you they will buy from you. When your integrity guides you as you make your presentation to others you will come across to your potential buyer in a positive way. You are more likely to make the sale with your integrity guiding you, than any other aspect of your presentation.

When you let integrity guide you, you will find it impossible to promise $100,000.00 in 90 days with no effort. There will always be those off line and on line who think that they can promise you th sky and give you nothing for your money. If you are willing to put forth the effort and have the patience and integrity to do so, you can grow a very successful business.

When you do your best to sincerely help others achieve their dreams, you will create long-term success. What can be more rewarding, than to help others reach their goals?

There are even those who promote themselves as Christian but have larceny in their heart. Integrity is an essential element of Christian living and personal development.

Principle 1.) Need – At least one personal on this planet needs the special “talent” or “gift” that has been given to you by God’s Holy Spirit. Your talent, skills, special gift is the solution to someone’s problem. Never feel “not needed”! You are the solution to someone’s need.

Principle 2.) Desire – This is different from ‘need’. There is some one (at least one) who has a passionate desire for what you have to offer. Never feel that you have ‘Nothing’ that anyone would want. That just isn’t true.

Principle 3.) Uniqueness – You have something different about you, a quality that sets you apart from the rest.This difference defines your worth. It is you goal to identify it, develop it, magnify it and advertise it. You will attract those who either need it or desire it.

Principle 4.) Focus – Focus on your qualities, on that which you have to offer. The greatest deterrent to success is the lack of focus or undefined focus.

Principle 5.) Order or Sequence – The accurate placement of things or ideas. Prioritize – Create a personal “flow chart” to prioritize those parts of your character that need to be ordered. Emphasize your best qualities first.

Principle 6.) Change – The ability to change, make changes and accept changes. The ability to accept those things in your life that you cannot change but changing you thoughts about them.

Principle 7.) Reward – The Bible speaks often of reward. The reward for righteousness is eternal life. In our personal development we need to understand “reward”, learn to accept “rewards” and give “rewards”. One of the most important factors of spiritual growth is our ability to accept the fact that we can accept reward. It is not wrong to acknowledge rewards in our life.

Look at your life as though it were a business venture. Your partner in this venture is the Holy Spirit of Christ. You are the product under development.

First, in our study of personal development, let’s consider the parable of the Talents. Matthew 25:14-30 (NIV)

The Parable of the Talents
“Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents[a] of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

“After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.’

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

“The man with the two talents also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.’

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

“Then the man who had received the one talent came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’

“His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.

” ‘Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. 29For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 30And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Each living human being has been given at least one (1) talent by the Creator. How we use this (these) talent(s) is an integral part of our success training, our personal development.

Psalms 84:11 (NIV)
For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
the LORD bestows favor and honor;
no good thing does he withhold
from those whose walk is blameless.

To understand the 7 key aspects, we need to look at their relevance in our daily life.

Key #1 – We must… view God as the only true source of everything good in our lives. In James 1:17 (NIV) we read:
Every good and perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights,
who does not change like shifting shadows.

Key #2 – We must… see ourselves as stewards over God’s property. We really own nothing. According to Kingdom Principles – the King owns everything! We learn in Romans 14:12 (NIV) that,”So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.” It is obvious that it is to our best interest to have faithfulness as our primary goal. This is a strict principle of personal development. Jesus told us to seek first the Kingdom of Heaven… When we do this and our primary focus in on being faithful to our Creator and good stewards of all that He has given us, we will be successful both in personal development and our daily lives.

God will reward us. 1 Corinthians 4:2 (NIV) tells us “Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.” And likewise in 1 Peter 4:10 we are instructed, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.”

We are “overseers”, “foremen”, “managers”, we must be good stewards.

Key #3 – We must… allow others to be accountable in their own affairs. Often, especially for those whom we love and care about, we try to be the solution to all of their problems. We must pick our battles. We do our love ones a disservice when we constantly step in and use all of our resources to bail them out of trouble.

Even though it’s hard to do, some times it best for us to do nothing. When we become the problem solver, we do not allow others to grow by learning from their own mistakes. When they fail, they learn. When we take away the struggles, we do not allow the others to grow in strength.

Key #4 – We must… understand natural and divine process. The divinely inspired natural process is to till, sow, nurture and harvest. When we look at Isaiah 40:31 (NKJV) we learn,
“But those who wait on the LORD
shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.

Waiting exemplifies trust. Strength come from waiting, patiently waiting. This is the Law of Process and it requires seasons and cycles. Mark 4:28 explains that,
“For the earth yields crops by itself:
first the blade, then the head,
after that the full grain in the head.”

The Law of the Harvest is best expressed in Galatians 6:9 :
“And let us not grow weary while doing good,
for in due season we shall reap
if we do not lose heart.

Key #5 – We must…realize a passion for frugality. This, as part of our personal development plan, goes with the idea of stewardship. Often we try to “show” success by extravagant behavior. Please don’t mistake frugality with stinginess. Frugality simply means to watch how we use the resources that have been given to us. Most rich people are extremely price conscientious. They watch were and how they use their resources.
Proverbs 21:17
He who loves pleasure will be a poor man; He who loves wine and oil will not be rich.

Key #6 – We must… stay in constant obedience to the Holy Spirit. Be careful to learn to listen to the voice of God. Sometimes God’s voice is a quiet stillness deep within our spirit.

To be in constant obedience to the Holy Spirit, simply means to practice the tenants of your faith. Be mindful of God’s Holy Moral Law (the Ten Commandments). These commandments are written on the hearts of men. Follow that gentle nudging (conviction) when situations arise that make it easy to lie or cheat or steal.
Acts 5:29 “But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men.”

Key #7 – We must… cultivate self-confidence by recognizing our limitations. Personal development culminates in developing a sense of self-confidence. This is an extremely important point for a Christian to ponder. We learn to never rely on “self”. To only trust God and His indications to us via the Holy Spirit. These are one and the same. The only way for you to be self-confident is to know that your “self” is in constant communication with the Holy Spirit and is under the constant guidance of the Holy Creator. “Let this mind which was in Christ be in you”. A fully surrendered “self” is only limited by our inability to accept the following facts.

Recognize your Creator only wants good for you.
Make sure that your dreams are not against God’s Law
Fill every conversation about your dreams with positive “faith” talk.
Associate with those who are “on fire” (spiritually, not physically)
Make sure your dreams are seeds sown in other’s hearts
Recognize that your dreams may intimidate others.
Fuel your own FIRE!

We are surrounded by abundance. Nature is lavish, even wasteful in its abundance. Anyone caring to look will find that an abundance of love, joy, money, and health is readily available to everyone willing to accept them. If there is any lack in our lives it’s not because there is not enough, but rather, because we are limiting our intake. What we receive in life is controlled by the limits we place on our emotions, behaviors, thoughts and actions.

There are many factors involved in our opening the valve that controls the flow of abundance in our lives. By the time we become aware of the fact that we create our own limits, our beliefs and habits that produce these limits are so ingrained that they are very difficult to change. Our quest for personal development and growth will help to overcome and change these habits.

Society has its role to play. Since most of the world’s governments have become capitalistic societies, it’s in their best interest to promote conditions and belief systems that produce large numbers of have-nots. Simple economics tells us that in order for capitalism to thrive, there must be a large supply meeting a large demand and you must have people who are in debt to create a large enough demand to consume that large supply.

The simple reality is that the governments of the world make their money from our poor health, debt, and our struggle to “just get by.” Their abundance is dependent on our lack. As we progress along the path of personal development, we reverse these roles.

This does not mean that we have to accept these limitations. While it’s true that most people will never take advantage of information concerning the attraction of wealth and prosperity or personal development, it is freely available to anyone making an effort to look. The law of attraction says that the more you look, the more information you will attract. What fills your life is that upon which you focus. Focus on God first to attain personal development. Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven.

Learning to create abundance in your life concerns much more than simply creating material wealth. It’s about enriching your “Self” as a whole. When you begin to understand the Biblical principles and laws that govern Abundance, you begin to understand that you are not constrained by the conditions of the economy or the amount of your present income. You are constrained by the limits of your belief. The deeper your belief, the more intense your relationship with Christ, the more God will increase your stewardship over His wealth.

Your ability to increase your wealth, live in abundance, and have financial freedom is all based on your understanding of the universal Biblical laws that govern the flow of divine energy controlling your ability to turn potential into reality. These Biblical laws are the promises that God gives us.

There is more to creating abundance than simply placing an order (praying for a financial blessing) or making a wish and sitting back to wait for its delivery. You must give something of value, adding to the flow, in order to initiate this. When you master the art of giving (your time, energy, interest, love, etc.) you start the release of abundance in your life.

Jesus told us in John 10: 10, “ The thief has come to steal, kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and more abundantly.

Wealth, money, success, love, and health are all result’s of divine favor. Being part of the flow means that you are a participating member. Once you understand how to operate in the flow of that divine energy, you learn to work with the Source of energy and actively participate in creating your reality instead of simply letting random worldly thoughts create a chaotic existence for you.

Abundance is not about living a healthy, vibrant life with a purpose and experiencing the joy that comes from possessing a strong sense of Self. It is realizing that your “self” is a purposed expression of God’s love.

The law of human achievement is fundamentally the law of belief. It suggests that you always behave in a manner consistent with your beliefs. If you believe you are a good person, then you strive for that. If you believe that you are an intelligent human being, then you are. If you believe you can accomplish a task, then you put forth the effort to accomplish that task. If you can’t ride a bicycle, as long as you believe, you can.

James 1:2-8
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

A more powerful aspect of believing is negative belief. In relation to personal development, if you believe that you cannot do something, you will not be able to do that. You will persist in failing until you actually change your belief. Unfortunately, once you decide that you can’t do something, you can’t. Even though we are all capable of riding a bicycle, once you believe you can’t ride a bicycle, you can’t.

Negative belief (the destroyer of personal development and not to be confused with non-belief) will cause you to suffer from self-limiting belief. You believe that you just cannot do it. Your belief is not based on fact it is based on social conditioning. We always behave in a manner consistent with our beliefs, even though our self-limiting beliefs are not based on fact, we still believe that we can’t.

Personal development helps us change our mindset or our belief system. If you believe you are creative, you will put forth the effort to be creative. In personal development, we learn to set goals and implement those goals according to a successful life strategy. We learn a personal self-marketing strategy and begin our marketing campaign with ourselves. We create a sell strategy and sell our talents, negotiate, be a leader, understand the financial implications, manage our time well, etc., then we begin to master all these skills.

Initially, having not mastered these skills, we must believe that we are excellent, then we will make the necessary efforts. We will set goals, design a personal development plan, and set personal goals, family goals, financial goals, life goals and resolve to pay the necessary price.

A vitally important aspect of the law of belief is that we can believe anything that we want to believe. We were given choice. We can believe that we have the ability to be brilliant at marketing, selling, finance, relationships and time management. We can believe that success in business is within us. We can believe that we have the ability to be a millionaire. As long as we truly believe, then we will hang on to that belief, despite setbacks, until our beliefs become our reality. Without a doubt, our beliefs are our reality.

Make a decision to adopt beliefs that are consistent with achieving your goals. All successful people believe consistently that they are successful and focus on what they want to achieve. Join them! Make a decision to change your mindset and personal development beliefs. Your beliefs are responsible for the position you hold at this moment. Changing your negative beliefs will change your reality. Changing your beliefs about yourself means changing your self-concept or self-perception. Your self-concept is your bundle of beliefs about yourself. Make a decision to adopt the self-concept that is consistent with achieving your goals.

Your beliefs come from your cultural environment, how you were raised and what other people tell you. When we are young our most significant others tell us things which define the image of ourselves that we hold as true. If your parent tells you that you are useless, you will grow up believing that you are useless and you will manifest that uselessness in your life. If you are told you are beautiful and sings like an angel, you will grow up believing that you are beautiful and sing like an angel, whether it is true or not.

Everything starts with thoughts that become ideas. Thoughts and ideas express themselves as feelings, which eventually become beliefs. Your beliefs have a powerful effect on your expectations. Your expectations have a powerful effect on your attitude. If you believe you are destined to become successful then this has a strong effect on your expectations, which in turn become very positive. Your positive expectations are translated into a very positive attitude. Your attitude is the major determinant of your success in achieving your goals.

Everything comes back to beliefs. Successful people have the beliefs of successful people; unsuccessful people have the beliefs of unsuccessful people. Make a decision to adopt the beliefs consistent with being successful. Make a decision to shake off self-limiting beliefs and negative emotions. Replace the negative with positive beliefs and positive emotions. Believe in yourself!

The very best way to implement a positive self-image is to base your beliefs on the teaching and examples of Jesus Christ given to us in the Holy Scripture. When you realize that in the eyes of the Creator of everything that exists, you are adored, your self-image has to improve. When you realize that, not only does this magnificent loving God care about you personally, He was willing to sacrifice Himself and suffer an agonizing physical death to give you personally an opportunity to live forever with Him. You are a valuable person, you are loved, you have worth, you are important. You need to believe in yourself because the God of the Universe believes in you.

When we think of this area (Personal development) of success training several things come to mind. We must take a close look, an inventory, of all of the facets that make up our unique personality. By looking at ourselves, we discover the areas in our lives that need the most immediate attention. (Refer to Success Principles)

Let me interject here that this is neither a high browed attempt to psychoanalyze you nor an attempt to ask you to psychoanalyze yourself. This is simply a real world look, a deep introspective of what makes us who we are and how to use what we have to realize success. In order to get to where we want to be we need to look closely and ask ourselves several questions.

1.) Who am I? You might think this to be a crazy question but it’s not. When asked this question, your first impulse is to give your name. Your name is not who you are. Your occupation is not who you are. Consider this. You are unique. You were created with a unique blend.

Take a moment and think about what distinguishes you from every other human being?

2.) Where am I? How silly! I’m right here. or I’m in New York or I’m in France? For us to really understand the implications of this question, we need to step out of our normal mundane mindset and think in terms of spiritual location not physical location.

3.) Where do I want to be? The answer to this is what we’re looking for. This is the prize.(Refer to Practical Application)

All of these questions will be explored to a greater depth in following Personal Development articles. In order to get the most out of this website, take each section and complete all of the articles in that area. the answers that you are seeking are there. If your in a hurry and you need the answer right now, sorry. Success doesn’t work that way. Please use these links to learn more.

Luke 20:20-26 (Amplified Bible)

20 So they watched [for an opportunity to ensnare] Him, and sent spies who pretended to be upright (honest and sincere), that they might lay hold of something He might say, so as to turn Him over to the control and authority of the governor.

21 They asked Him, Teacher, we know that You speak and teach what is right, and that You show no partiality to anyone but teach the way of God honestly and in truth.

22 Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar or not?

23 But He recognized and understood their cunning and unscrupulousness and said to them,

24 Show Me a denarius (a coin)! Whose image and inscription does it have? They answered, Caesar’s.

25 He said to them, Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.

26 So they could not in the presence of the people take hold of anything He said to turn it against Him; but marveling at His reply, they were silent.

In the days that Jesus walked this earth, paying taxes to the Romans was especially grievous and difficult. The Romans were a foreign and occupying force and the tax burden was heavy. The image of the emperor and the inscription on the coins symbolized the oppressive power of the Romans. However, as governing authority in the region, Rome exercised dominion dominion under God.God holds every emperor, king, president, governor and their subordinates responsible for the way in which they exercise their authority. He also holds all subjects responsible for the way that they submit to that authority.

For this reason, it is not only lawful, it is an obligation for each citizen to support the legitimate functions of the government as an ordained institution that is ordained by God. All duties to the government are limited and superseded by the absolute allegiance owed to God alone.

Every ruler and every person ruled must remember that all things are ultimately His and He will call everyone to account for the way that they have handled His property. This is the absolute natire of stewardship.

He said to them, Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.

We must remember that if we are faithful in the small things, He will make us stewards of greater things.

First we must understand the meaning of success. Is attaining wealth success? Not in and of itself. Success is equipping yourself to handle life on this physical world and learning the principles that will put you on the path to success.

Secondly we must learn to recognize and map our individual path to success. These principles are covered in our Success Training Bible study and the Study of King Solomon’s Principles through the Proverbs. These can be found at the Christian Success Institute

The Holy Scripture is packed with every bit of information that is necessary to developing a successful life. Becoming a diligent student is vital to equipping the Christian to gather and handle success and to become a good steward of the success with which he has been blessed.

While learning through diligent study we can also put the learned principles into action. The Christian Success Institute also offers loads of up to date information necessary to develop an on-line business. The Internet Marketing Strategies critical to the financial success of on-line entrepreneurs.

In order for a diligent student to become successful in an Internet business, it is wise to learn the principles necessary to launch and manage an on-line business. It is possible to manage and market affiliate relationships with other successful companies, such as the affiliate program at The Christian Success Institute.

Affiliate links, however, are easily spotted and avoided. This can be frustrating. One of the best ways to use affiliate URLs is to convert them to ‘tiny urls’ at http://tinyurl.com or to purchase a domain name that can be pointed to an affiliate URL.

These are effective methods but, for the truly successful, owning at least one website is a must. I recommend that everyone needs a website (for product sales) and a ‘blog’ to direct traffic to your website.

The Christian Success Institute also owns and operates ‘iNet iMage Developers‘ (http://inetimage.com). iNet iMage Developers is a Christian based website hosting company which offers discounted website hosting and design for students at CSI. http://inetimage.com hosts many websites at affordable prices but, for CSI students, the discount is deeper. The Special hosting package can be found at
‘ Special Hosting Packages’
http://inetimage.com/csi/csispecialhosting.htm

It is our goal to help every Christian to live a successful life and to spread the Gospel to all nations.