How New York City Got Its Juicy Nickname “The Big Apple” — And What It Means To The World

                              

Why do we call alphabet characters because A is always A and B is B at 2 am? In the morning the letter C is still C whether it's in Africa, Asia, America, and elsewhere. It doesn't change and that's why we call them characters writes Myles Munroe.

 

We call numbers characters because one is always one and two is always two whether you use it during the day or at night. Why we call principles characters because principles are laws that never change. 

 

Gravity is a principle, you can fast and pray and speak in tongues but if you jump off a building you're going to die because you are violating a principle. Character is that way.  That's why a person with character does not live on what's popular, they live on principle and this is why it's very difficult for most politicians to have character because politics is based on popularity which means you will literally sacrifice your principles to protect your popularity which cancels your character what that means is means you cannot be trusted.

 

There are preachers who are politicians - they would sell their principles for a pot of porridge. Character, therefore, is simply that which is unchanging. 

 

I want to give a few more definitions of character for you to understand how serious it is.

 

Character is a commitment to a set of values without compromise. What are values?  They are things you value. If you value your marriage vow you will never commit adultery. When a person commits adultery they don't value their marriage. 

 

Character is the dedication to a set of standards without wavering. What are the standards that you've set for your life? Your standard produces your character. Tell yourself that you will not violate your standard. You got to say that every day. If you do not tell lies that's a standard, if you do not steal that includes stealing time from your job. Telling people you are sick when you are not sick is a lack of character. 

 

Character is so subtle there's no excuse in life for breaking your standards. I hear people say sometimes, “honesty is my best policy.”  Honesty should never be your best policy never because the best policy means I have second best, third best, fourth best, fifth best, and I can't trust you. A person of character would say honesty is my only policy.

 

 Character is a self-imposed discipline for the sake of moral convictions. Your future depends on your character, not your charisma, and most leaders whether they are politicians, preachers, or parents try to live off their charisma, they try to live up to their talent, and they try to live off their gifts. Your gifts will never protect you as a matter of fact your gift will destroy you because the only thing that can protect your gift and your talent is your character. 

 

A person without character will say one thing and promise something else, so you never know who you're talking to when you're talking to them, they lack character.

Character is the sacrifice for principles. Character means you are willing to sacrifice friendship to protect your principles. Who are you with right now that you shouldn't be with, think about it. What are you doing right now in secret that you shouldn't be doing?  Are you willing to sacrifice that to protect your principles?

 

Character is simply integrity. This means that you are one with yourself. I did some research years ago on the word in Hebrew for holiness. I discovered that the root word for holy is one. The Hebrew concept of holiness is integrity. 

 

The foundation for trust is integrity when you are one, people will eventually trust you that means your word is always good you say what you said you do what you said and then you act what you said that's holiness so wearing a long dress or a white collar with a purple shirt turned backward with a big chain in your pocket it's not holiness wearing a long robe with a turban on your head doesn't impress me.

 

Don’t be attracted to charisma seek out the character you know some years ago my wife and I hosted a marriage conference in our church and I met this guy when I was doing a show for the 7000 Club with Pat Robertson in Virginia Beach and I was doing a series of programs with him and the people there and I met this guy and he did a show on marriage and I was so impressed.

 

He had a book and everything and sounded good I didn't know him I just met him for the first time and we were having this marriage conference in our church in the Bahamas and I said you know this guy sounds good so I approached him and I invited him to come to the Bahamas he was so excited to come to the Bahamas so he came to the Bahamas and he did the seminar with me and it was a wonderful session, he even brought his wife with him.

 

Two months later, I saw an article where he got a divorce from his wife. I was confused. So, I called him up,  he was living in Colorado at the time and I said I just want to make sure that this article I’m reading is not true. Are you divorcing your wife who was with you when you did a seminar for my people who believed you and he began to try and explain himself I said you will never come back to our church and you will never come back to our island, I hung the phone up and called the bookstore I said remove every one of his books on the shelf because if what he is teaching is not working for him it shouldn't be taught to us?  

 

Your life is the weight of your words. There's no such thing as personal life. Don’t you ever tell people what I do in private is none of your business? It is my business because it determines whether I trust what you say publicly. It's called character. As a matter of fact, I have come to the conclusion that a person of character doesn't need to talk, they just show up?

 

 When I first met Nelson Mandela it was the most overwhelming moment in my life. He had just come out of prison his first trip was to the Bahamas he wanted to meet my Prime Minister Sir Lynden Pindling who was the first one to agitate for his freedom out of prison so he wanted to come and thank my prime minister personally.

 

His first trip out of prison was to my country and the prime minister called me and he invited 16 people to the dinner and I was one of them  I don't know I got such an honor to meet an icon I think some of you saw the photograph of us together a couple of time. When I saw him I saw a character on two legs. He didn't have to speak. Do you know why he went to prison for 27 years and never changed his conviction? That's why you respect him. 

 

Do you remember the definition we gave of character? It is important you see the word image for character. Three things will test your character. They will tell whether you have character or not.

 

The first one is power when you give a person power the character shows up.

 

The next one is money when you give a human a lot of money their real self shows up and number three access to sex, if you give a human access to sex their character shows and that is why every human on this earth that has ever failed was because of either power, money or sex. 

 

God gave character before power, God created you and gave you the mandate to dominate the earth with God's character, not a difficult thing you're a king just like your father but your territory is the earth therefore the image is the first thing God gave you and god gave you that because he knew that without character the power will destroy you. People say power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, I used to believe that but that's not true power does not corrupt, power simply reveals corruption.

 

Get rid of things that can destroy your character and that might include some friends that include some habits.  You are in danger of all that you've built, everything you've built but your whole life could be destroyed in five seconds.  If you think you're safe, you better protect your character. You are as safe as your character. 

 

What's the source of values, remember they produce character. In that case, you have to get your values right. The most powerful component of leadership is philosophy. Why philosophy, it is your belief system and your belief system is a result of the things you value.  Whatever you value, you believe. Your belief system produces your values and your values produce your morals. So, morality is really a product of your values. 

 

If I value my marriage vow then morally I will be faithful to my wife.  It’s related, and when my morals are in place, it informs ethics.  So it is unethical for me to sleep with another woman because my morals dictate that I cannot violate my values so I protect my character.

If my ethics are in place my ethics will produce my character and my character becomes my lifestyle. Remember, I told you, don't lead out of your position, you lead out of your life. There is no private life, a person of character doesn't care if you discover their private life. If you are afraid that I might find out about your private life you have no character.

 

Vision without values is destiny without discipline no matter how great your vision is it can be destroyed. Your destiny depends on your personal discipline. Character will always protect your vision.  Samson had an awesome vision. God trusted this man. He was supposed to save the people of Israel but his private life destroyed his public vision.  

 

Whenever you decide to do something and you hope no one finds out you are in danger, never do anything from this day forward that you don't want anyone to find out about and you'll have character.