Success's is the ultimate goal of everybody in any endeavour. Almost all success in any endeavour leads to financial success. The politicians does politics to make money, the academician reads, lectures to make money, the business man buys and sells to make money, the artisan works to make money, the students goes to school to study and make money. In the end all endeavours is to have financial success!

Success can be categorized into three compartments. 1. Bad success, 2. Hard-work success, 3. Good Success.

Bad Success is the one achieved through evil or corrupt means, e.g a student that passes exam by cheating or expo, succeeded but through bad ways, hence bad success , the rich man that became rich through cheating, stealing, embezzlement of public funds, ritual or diabolical means succeeded but a bad success, the politicians that won election by rigging and bribing judiciary has bad success. Any success achieved through evil or corrupt means is bad success.

There is the 'hard-work success' . The success achieved through sincere hard-work without corruption or evil. e.g the student that studied hard and passed exams without cheating, the businessman, artisan, inventor, scientist, politician, academician etc that achieved success through hard-work without corruption, evil or cheating has hard-work success.

The third one is good success. This is the success achieved through God and hard-work . Good success = God + hard work. The hard-work of good success is an expression of faith in God, because faith without works is dead being alone. Anybody can succeed whether religious or not through evil means or through hard-work, but any success without faith in God through Jesus Christ is foolishness before God. The end of such success is eternal sorrow in hell. That is why Jesus said "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Mark 8:36).

Every success without God is an eternal loss. In fact the Bible said "...for whatsoever is not of faith is sin" (Romans 14:23) and "But without faith it is impossible to please him (God)" (Hebrews 11:6). The scripture further counseled us to be "...followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises" (of success) (Hebrews 6:12)

In Luke 12:16-21, God called the successful rich man a fool, He said "...Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?" He is fool because he will spend eternity in hell forever and ever! How many successful people we honour, respect, adore but in reality they are eternal fools for destruction. He may be a professor, a doctor, a millionaire or billionaire, an expert in his field of endeavours etc but he is a fool.

Hear what Jesus said to the rich or successful people of Laodicea in Revelation 3:17-18, "Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see".

Abraham had good success on Earth, he had his success through the hard work of faith from God and he is in heaven today for eternal bliss, joy, success and glory. The rich man in Luke 16:20-31 had success without God, he went to eternal hell forever! This is why Jesus said seek ye first the kingdom of God and it's righteousness and all other things (all success) will be added unto you. He is successful but he does not have Christ in his life, He is successful but he is liar, fornicator, adulterer, cheat, corrupt, embezzler, thief, drunkard, proud, homosexual, takes or gives bribe or living in any sin or disobedience to the word of God. Such are deceived fools by Satan, successful but not saved from sin for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Their success leads to eternal damnation.

They may be regular religious worshiper, giving large sums of money to their religious denominations, respected and adored because of their donation, but before God, their gifts and donations are abomination to God because they are not saved from sin through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. They do not have Christ in their life.

Good success begins with salvation from sin through faith in our Lord Jesus. All you need to have good success is to first receive Jesus into your heart. He is the only giver of good success. Any success without him is a deception from Satan and will eternally damn your soul. He said, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me" (Revelation 3:20). Jesus want to come into your heart and save you from sin and give you good success. Why don't you invite him in now! Next minute or hour might be too late.

Pray this prayer, 'Lord Jesus you are the only giver of good success , every success without you is useless, please Lord come into my heart now and forgive my sins and save me from the power of sin and give me good success because you died for my sins and rose from the dead the third day for my justification, give me the power to sin no more and to love you with all my heart, thank you for saving me.'

He gave Abraham, Job, David etc good success, in our contemporary times gave good success to people like Demos Shakarian, founder of Full Gospel Business Men Fellowship, Henry Heinz, founder of Heinz Foods, Colgate, founder of Colgate toothpaste, Michael Faraday, inventor of Electricity, Clarke Maxwell, the physic researcher on magnetism, Ben Carson, the first surgeon to separate conjoined twins and the best neurosurgeon in the world and many other also, he will not fail you, he will surely give you. He is the only God of good success. Jesus the same yesterday, the same today and the same forever. Amen.

By Christian Z.