The World Belongs to Risk Takers

By David Spencer

This book is auto-biography of the life of Dr. David Spencer. In the book, you will find real life applications to complicated life issues. Dr, David Spencer will challenge you to go beyond living a "safe" life; to go beyond living a boring, Christian life and to begin to live like those in the book of Acts. Dr. David Spencer will encourage you to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit and dare to become a risk taker for God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Sep 14, 2018
• ISBN: 9781543947861

David Spencer

David Spencer was born in the UK and has been visiting Thailand for both work and recreation for more than 25 years. Now retired, he and his Thai wife divide their time between their rural home in Singhaburi and a seaside residence near Pattaya.

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INTRODUCTION

A

RISK-TAKING

LIFE

One of my core convictions in life is this: THE WORLD BELONGS TO RISK TAKERS! Breakthrough achievements tend to be gained by the risk taker, not by the cautious and overly concerned. Fearlessness. Boldness. Faith. Risk. These are all qualities upon which I have sought to base my life.

This life philosophy is currently being tested in my own life. Just a few weeks ago, I was diagnosed with a terminal disease. The doctor explained to me that I have pancreatic cancer, which is one of the worst diagnoses you can ever receive. The projections for me are not long, nor are they optimistic.

Shortly after I heard the news from the doctor, I took some time to seek the Lord. During my time of prayer, God reminded me of a conviction that I have held all of my life: God determines the number of my days. If I am doing my best to obey the Lord, nothing can take me out of this life before it is God’s time. And nothing I do can extend my life beyond God’s time.

Job declared this fact: "A person’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed." (Job 14:5)

David declared this concept as well: "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." (Psalm 139:13–16)

I truly believe this! Nothing and no one can stop God’s plan for my life! Therefore, I can afford to take risks. I can afford to believe for big things. There is no reason to fear or to shrink back from the future. My days, my months, and my work are all in the hands of God. So why not live a risk-taking kind of life!?!

Let’s take a minute to define the phrase risk takers. According to BusinessDictionary.com, Risk takers are individuals or businesses that tend to behave in a way that can potentially cause physical harm or financial loss, but might also present an opportunity for a rewarding outcome. Most business types that thrive on innovation will encourage a risk taker mentality among management to help support the creative process in other staff members.

I am not proposing that we live reckless lives. While my tendency is to enjoy living on the edge, I am not actually suggesting that we become thrill seekers and that we take baseless or unnecessary risks that could harm us or those around us.

What I am suggesting is that you can live a risk-taking kind of life out of a relationship of faith. Here is what I mean:

•God has a plan for you.

•He wants to use you.

•He has amazing things in store for your life and for your future.

•He is limitless in His capacity. He has all knowledge, all power, and all the resources needed.

When you begin to care about the things that He cares about, He gets especially involved in doing some incredible things through your life.

When you know you have heard from God, and you know that you are moving toward something that is His heart, you can step into a place of resolute and fearless action. It’s from a position of faith that you can act in a brave and courageous manner. If my life has demonstrated anything, it is that when you step out in faith, God moves and releases to you heaven and earth to bring about His purpose.

Through the pages of this book, I hope to communicate to you my life message. Knowing that I, most likely, do not have many days left on this earth, I wanted to write down some of the history of my experiences. But my goal is more than just to record my memories. My desire is to use my journey to encourage you and to reveal a little more about the God that I serve.

Actually, this is often the way that we see who God is in a unique and clear way. We see Him at work in the lives of someone else, and through their personal experience, we come to know a little more of what our God is like.

To quote Henry Blackaby, The names of God in Scripture reveal something of His nature, activity, or character. You come to know God by experience—at His initiative—as He allows you to learn something new about Him. As you experience God, you grow to know Him more intimately and personally. As you grow in your knowledge of Him, you will naturally want to express your praise, gratitude, and worship to Him. One of the ways that we worship Him is to praise Him and honor Him by acknowledging His names. (Experiencing God, page 15)

In the Old Testament, we see the people of Israel referring to God based on the experiences that they were having.

•In Genesis 22, Abraham refers to God as Jehovah-Jireh— because he had just experienced God’s unique provision of a ram for sacrifice. Abraham defined God as the God of provision based on this moment in his life.

•In Exodus 17, Moses refers to God as Jehovah-Nissi—because he had just experienced God’s deliverance and victory in battle. Jehovah Nissi means the God who fights for me.

•In Genesis 16, Hagar was all alone and fearing for her life. God sends an angel to her to encourage her and give her direction, and she exclaims, "You are El-Roi, which means the God who sees me."

These are just a few of the examples that we find in the history of the Scriptures. I could take pages and pages to list these names and teach from those revelations (which would be a great personal study project). But what I hope to do instead is to make my own declarations about the God that I serve. So each chapter will be titled based on this idea.

And in each chapter, I will attempt to do several things:

First, I want to tell my story. God has done some amazing things in my personal journey.

Second, I want to glorify God in very specific ways.

Third, I want to teach from God’s Word and these experiences some things I believe you will find applicable to your life.

My prayer is that you will come to know the God that I serve in a very personal and powerful way, and that as you come to know Him more completely, you will choose to live a risk-taking and resolutely fearless life.

CHAPTER ONE

THE GOD

OF

GENERATIONS

One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts. They speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty… (Psalm 145:4–5)

One of the first thoughts I had after receiving the diagnosis that I was dying was that I wanted to make sure my children and grandchildren know some of the stories of God’s power and faithfulness to our family over the generations. One of the key practices among people of faith, throughout the Bible, was to tell the next generation the stories of who God was and what He had