Peter has invited several men to watch the Gray Cup Canadian championship football game on TV in Colorado. Near the end of the game, the Toronto Argos was behind with just a few seconds to go, but Peter strongly expressed his confidence that the Argos would win the game. Sure enough, they did win by a miraculous last minute 55 yard pass play. His friends were amazed that he was confident of the outcome. Then he explained that they were watching a time delay replay and he already knew the score.

What is a winning belief system ?

That is what a winning belief system is - It is the assurance of things not yet seen. Winning belief is not what most of us think, where you've got 2 plays to go and you're hoping or wishing or praying or trying to think positively that you are going to win, but there is a chance that you might not. Winning belief is when you KNOW you've won. Then if you're behind at half-time, you still act like a winner. Because you know that's not when the score really counts. Now to create that kind of winning belief system in our lives, for most of us, we have to look at life differently than we have before. Remember what Zig said "If we keep on doing what we've always done we'll keep on getting what we've always gotten." Now for our circumstances to change, we have to change. That means we have to look at life in a different way than we have before.

Focusing on what is important

Use your imagination and pretend you're a little child. Tell me what you see on the video screen up here. What kinds of things could that be? (He draws a red dot on a white paper). (Audience responds a seed, the sun, circle, a jelly bean, a drop of red water.)

Now what do all of you focus on when asked that? You focused on this tiny little area (red dot) when what is primarily up there? The white background. Now that is obviously a trick question - for a lot of us we look at life the same way. We look at this little area and say "Oh that's the way life is" - and we fail to see the big picture. My purpose here today is for us to see the big picture in life.

Circumstances can keep you from deciding

People say to me, "Oh Peter, you're so lucky. You get to travel all over the world and get all of these wonderful kinds of opportunities I don't have." Then they picture it like this. Here is little old me and then out here I have to face something called circumstances in life. And guess what? My circumstances are bigger than me and as a result they tend to control me.

They are like a pulley. If they go well, I feel happy and successful and fulfilled, but if my circumstances go bad ... let's say the economy goes into a recession - well little old me I can't control the whole economy can I? So then we feel less successful and less fulfilled. I always thought "well that's the way life is."

That described my life exactly for many years until I began to meet some highly successful people who had a different approach to life. They did not deny the reality of this, but they also saw available to them a resource or power that was
greater than any circumstances they would ever face and that when they aligned themselves with that resource and had that power in their lives, instead of circumstances controlling them they now had power to have success regardless of the circumstance.

The power for life change

Goodness and mercy follows them all the days of their lives. People ask what are you going to call this resource or this power? Well I am going to give it the label GOD. Now if we had 17,000 people in here right now we would probably have 17,000 different ideas of who or what God is. I am not talking about a religious concept of God here, rather I am talking about the inner concept we all have of who we are and why we are here, because that determines our ability to achieve true success.

For instance, USA Today reported a study of high school students all across
America. They looked at high school students and tried to determine what causes a high school student to have a positive self image or a negative one.

They started to study things like their marks in school, their family background, their economic status, and all those kind of things. But nothing ever correlated consistently, until they asked students this question " What is your concept of God?"

They found the student who had a positive concept of God (like a divine Santa Claus or a loving father who always wanted the best for them) always had a winning self image. Whereas the students with a negative self concept of their God (like maybe some kind of cosmic bully always ready to zap them every time they did something wrong) always had a negative self image.

As soon as I heard that study, it suddenly clicked for me. If I have a negative creator, no matter who or what that creator is, how can that negative creator create a winning, positive creation? You can never rise consistently above your concept of your God. The quickest way to achieve true success and meaning and purpose in life is to change your knowledge and your relationship and your understanding in this area.

Why we don’t hit the bullseye of life

Now something that nobody mentioned this dot could be, at least that I heard, was a bullseye on a target. And I believe that everyone of us are designed to hit that bullseye. We are not made to fail. That is why we feel so lousy when we fail-we weren't made to. The thing is, if we weren't made to fail, if we were born to win like Zig says, then why don't we win all the time?

If you look back in ancient times, like in the Roman empire, back then in their archery games they would call the center the bulls eye. We still do that today. But back then, they would call the first ring around the eye, sin 1, the second sin 2, the third, sin 3 and so on., And we have all heard the word sin in our society. And a lot of us associate it with things like murder, or telling a lie, or illegally parking in a handicapped parking space. And those might be examples of it, though a much more fundamental problem is that we are missing the bullseye in our life.

I looked at that one day and I thought to myself "Wow I might be on sin 346,000." Sure I've had my moments of success, but I also knew when I reflected on my life that I was missing the bullseye. And every day I do seminars people come up to me and tell me how they are missing the bullseye in their life in one way or another. Because when we do it results in death. And I don't mean so much physical death, but rather what I call inner death - emotional death, spiritual death, death in our relationships.

We know we can do something, but when we get out there to do it, something stops us and frustrates us. It is that death at work in our lives. It is like if I had a business person here who was physically dead, I could give him all the money in the world, all the best seminars in the world, but it wouldn't help him would it? Because he is dead, he needs life. And I found that it is the same thing in our lives, we don't just need information for success, we also need transformation for success.

We cannot make it on our own

It is like if we all went out to Los Angeles and jumped into the Pacific Ocean, and we all had to swim to Hong Kong. You might swim a whole lot farther than me and as long as you compare yourself to me you can feel very successful and proud of yourself. You can say to yourself, "I'm 32 miles ahead of Peter. Isn't that great?" And it is, if you compare yourself to me. But if you compare yourself to Hong Kong you're really no further ahead than me in the final analysis. You're not going to make it, you are going to drown just like the rest of us.

And it amazes me in my travels the number of people who tell me their good works are enough to get through life. They are not enough, not when we are facing that inner death in our lives. If I shoot you and kill you, I can't go to the judge and tell the judge "OK judge, look there are 5 billion people in the world, that means there are 4,999,999,999 people I haven't killed, so on average I'm a really good person." It doesn't work that way, does it? We are guilty for what we have done. We might not be the worst person in the world, but we've all missed the bullseye.

It is like if I get caught speeding on the highway at 100 miles an hour. I get called before the judge and the judge happens to be my father, and he says "Peter, I love you, how could you do this?" I tell him I'm sorry. I'm guilty. And he says, "Well as your father I love you so much I want to let you off. But I can't do that, because I am also a judge. As a judge I have to administer justice. And the fine is $100 or 30 days in jail." But what he can do as my father, is he can also take off his judge's robe and say, "Now, Peter, as your father I will pay the fine for you." It's called forgiveness.

The Key Ingredient

And that's what transformed my life totally over 20 years ago. I began to realize why we celebrate good Friday and Easter Sunday, because we have a God who says "Look, I love you so much, that even though you deserve to die, I'll die in your place. I'll forgive you."

Then it hit me, "Wow, if there is a God who would actually die for me, don't you think he would do anything else I need in my life." I mean that would be the ultimate. Just like that father with the speeding ticket, I still have a choice to make. I can tell him, "Now look Dad I want to pay the fine myself. That is my right." Now I could probably afford a hundred dollars, or spend 30 days in jail .....

I've found it is the same thing in life. We all have a choice to make. There is a God who says, "Look I love you so much I'll give you whatever you want. If you want true success, if you want love, if you want joy, if you want peace, if you want a heaven, I've got all that for you. I've made a way for you to have that, and I've also got the reverse.

I've got a Hell. I didn't make it for you, I made it for the Devil and his angels, but you can have whatever you want. The choice is yours." So, 20 years ago I made a choice; I made an affirmation.

The Action Step.

The affirmation went something like this :
Lord Jesus, I need you, I want you to come into my life and be number one at the center of my life. Forgive me for the wrongs I have done. Make me into the person you want me to be.

I made that affirmation 20 years ago and you know what happened? On the
outside nothing. I had red hair before, still have red hair, though on the inside I knew something had happened. I had a new power, a new dimension, a new joy and purpose. And I have had plenty of troubles these last 20 years, they didn't just all disappear miraculously, not at all. But I have had a power and an ability and a wisdom to deal with them like I have never had before.

I would have quit long ago without that power in my life. People say, "Peter, that's what I want in my life, How can I have it?" Well, its actually very easy, ask and it will be given to you. Now that asking involves two things.

First of all you have to be willing to stop doing some of the things you are doing now. Remember, if you keep on doing what you've always done, you'll still keep on getting what you've always got. Did you know that there is only one word in the English language which means to change always for the better and never for the worse? And that is the word repent. So you've got to say you want to change for the better.

And secondly, by faith ask God what he has promised to do in your life. People say well how do you know he'll answer? How do you know he is there? Well if you look through the convention center right now can you hear the music floating through here, can you see the pictures floating through here? Its all here - we call them radio waves and TV waves but we don't realize they are here until we turn on the radio or TV. Its the same thing in life, that's why we've made it this far. There is a God watching over us, and he wants the best for us. We need to turn that on so to speak, and experience it in our lives. And If that's what you want, here's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to repeat that affirmation I made 20 years ago and you can say it silently and sincerely in your heart to a God who will do what he says He will. The exact words aren't important, though what you mean in your heart really is.

Lord Jesus I need you. I want you to come into my life and be number one at the center of my life. Forgive me for the wrongs I have done. Make me into the person you want me to be. Amen.

What lies ahead

Well what now. Well, let me say this, you've got some growing up to do. My little son Zachary is 3 years old, and he can run and walk pretty well, but he keeps stumbling and falling. Every time he stumbles do I keep telling him, "Oh Zach, there you go again, that's the 13th time you fallen today. You'll never learn how to walk and run properly. You're destined to crawl the rest of your life."

No, what do I do? I just pick him up lovingly and say, "Keep on, you're going to get it." Well it's the same thing. You are going to stumble and you are going to fall, but that's not to say there is anything wrong. It simply means you need to learn how to walk.

Now let’s get started walking.