The 3 Essentials: All You Need for Success in Life

BOOK: The 3 Essentials: All You Need for Success in Life
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Table of Contents

 

 

 

 

“Everyone is looking for answers. In our world, many voices are offering solutions and it can become complicated to navigate through it in order to find truth. In
The 3 Essentials
, Casey gives a simple formula for activating the greatness inside you.”
—Dr. Creflo A. Dollar
“In
The 3 Essentials
, Casey Treat highlights the three important ingredients we need in order to experience the God kind of success in life: Faith, Vision, and Renewal. By expounding on these biblical principles, Treat shows us how to overcome challenges, renew our minds and develop a brand-new outlook on life. As you meditate on these fundamentals, this amazing book will encourage and inspire you to live a life above mediocrity and settle for nothing less than God’s best for you!”
—Kong Hee, senior pastor, City Harvest Church
“In his latest book,
The 3 Essentials
, Pastor Casey Treat skillfully weaves a garment of three important essentials—Faith, Vision, and Renewal—to help his readers overcome any level of mediocrity that may have infiltrated their lives. Treat provides insightful, practical, and biblical commonsense insights as a thread to strengthen the fabric of our relationship with God and others. With concise teaching, Pastor Treat gives us a biblical pattern marked by faithfulness and commitment, the spiritual keys necessary for every believer to become a positive force in his sphere of influence.”
—Marcus D. Lamb, president and founder, Daystar Television Network
“Pastor Casey Treat is a good friend, and an inspirational leader. His dynamic teaching style and desire to see people won for Christ and flourish in life reflects in those he leads and greatly impacted me as a younger pastor. I pray you would read this with expectation that God can and will speak to you about your destiny.”
—Brian Houston, senior pastor, Hillsong Church
“Just as the human body has minimum daily requirements for vitamins and minerals to maintain good health—so does your spiritual life have basic, minimum requirements that are essential to success and effective living. Casey nails the three absolute essentials that will transform your life, shape your future, and make you a winner in every area of life.”
—Rick Godwin, senior pastor, Summit Christian Center
Berkley Praise titles by Casey Treat
HOW TO BE YOUR BEST WHEN YOU FEEL YOUR WORST
THE 3 ESSENTIALS
Most Berkley Praise Books are available at special quantity discounts for bulk purchases for sales promotions, premiums, fund-raising, or educational use. Special books, or book excerpts, can also be created to fit specific needs.
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Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

 

This book is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.

 

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

 

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from the New King James Version (NKJ) of the Bible
.
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Publishers. Scripture quotations denoted as “AMP” are taken from the Amplified Bible, copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Copyright © 2010 by Casey Treat.

 

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

 

Treat, Casey.
eISBN : 978-1-101-44307-1
1. Success—Religious aspects—Christianity. I. Title. II. Title: Three essentials.
BV4598.3.T72 2010
248.4—dc22
2010017616

 

http://us.penguingroup.com

Jesus came into my life thirty-six years ago and I’ve been learning to live like Him ever since. He gave me four people who have helped me in this renewal process more than anyone else—my wife, Wendy, and our three children, Caleb, Tasha, and Micah. I dedicate this book to these four because, besides Jesus, they are the essentials in my life. I learn so much about the Lord and myself from them. I pray I never disappoint them, and may we all honor our Lord in life and in death.
FOREWORD
Dr. Creflo A. Dollar

 

I get excited when I think about the tools God has equipped us with to take our lives to the next level. We have a reason to shout when we know that we have the power to construct our lives and fulfill our highest potential! Everyone goes through periods in life when they wonder what the missing links are to reaching their destiny. Casey Treat is no stranger to that process of self-discovery. He is a man who has experienced the transforming power of God’s Word and has allowed his change to impact others in a profound way.
The 3 Essentials
is evidence of his desire for people to unleash their potential and turn their dreams into reality.
Everyone is looking for answers, and in a world where so many voices are offering advice and solutions, it can become complicated at times to navigate through it all. In
The 3 Essentials
, Casey gives a simple formula for activating the greatness inside you—Faith, Vision, and Renewal. Through practical explanation, he clearly lays out how these three essential biblical truths are the foundation for creating success and fulfillment in your life. No matter your background, you hold the power to craft your future by implementing these principles.
I am a firm believer in the importance of providing practical solutions to life’s issues. That is why I believe this book is such a powerful resource. Having a vision and submitting to God’s methods of bringing it to pass are so important. The Word of God provides the answers we need. We must release our faith to receive them.
Now more than ever is the time to make the Word of God the reference point for everything you do in life. God has a specific plan for your life, and He knows exactly how to bring it to pass. By activating the three essentials, you will be in the perfect position to rise above average and achieve the abundant life He has designed for you to live.
—Dr. Creflo A. Dollar
INTRODUCTION
The 3 Essentials
A
s children we all dreamed of happy, successful lives. We saw ourselves as policemen, athletes, pilots, presidents, princesses, teachers, and more. We never thought of being sick, poor, addicted, or depressed. It was not until years later that we even knew of financial pressures, layoffs, bankruptcy, and sickness. No child dreams of a poverty-stricken, defeated life, but many people end up there. We get stuck in the battles of life and never find victory. Everyone wants to experience success in life, but many just do not know how. In marriage, in business, in family, in relationships, and in health, no person starts out on the journey with a desire to fail or to feel mediocrity at its best. Yet so many are struggling today, walking through life feeling unsatisfied and unfulfilled. Maybe as you hold this book in your hand, you are feeling this way, too. You know there is more inside you waiting to be discovered, that deep in your heart there resides greatness and the ability to carve a significant mark on this world. But maybe, too, you’re not quite sure how to unleash those dreams into reality. I’m so glad you’ve picked up this book.
The truth is, as a Christian, you
do
have everything it takes on the inside of you to make every desire of your heart come true. You were created in the likeness and the image of God, and every aspect in your life can reflect the abundance and creativity of our amazing Lord. And no matter who you are, where you’ve come from, or what season of life you might be in right now, one thing is certain: God has more for your life and wants to bless you in a supernatural way. However, so often our human nature weighs us down and pulls us away from operating in the power of our spiritual nature. We begin to live our lives in the tempo and flow of the world around us, and instead of rising above every circumstance, we find ourselves pessimistic, focused only on our immediate realities, and stagnant in all realms of life.
These three attitudes are the exact opposite of what we need to experience God’s best for our lives. Pessimism steals our faith in God’s Word. Being focused solely on our current realities robs us of our ability to create a strong vision of our future and a hope that we will see God’s blessings come to pass. As a result, stagnancy invades our lives and we fall into a deep rut of mediocrity and feelings of dissatisfaction. Life doesn’t have to be this way! It’s certainly not what God desires for each and every one of us.
I want to help you understand how to operate in and position your life for the God kind of success and prosperity. Let’s turn our pessimism into faith, our short-term focus into vibrant, long-term vision and our stagnancy into an acute ability to change and renew our lives. These are what I call “the 3”: Faith, Vision, and Renewal.
After thirty years of pastoring over ten thousand people each week, as well as teaching all over the world, I am convinced now more than ever that success in life and our ability to change are based on three essential biblical truths. At every age and in every circumstance, these three factors hold the key to experiencing success. From the person who is just beginning their relationship with God to the Christian who has been walking strong for decades, these three are vital for continual spiritual growth. For the one who is struggling with addictions, the one healing from a broken marriage, or the one confused about their destiny, these three will guide them all to clarity and victory. And for the one building a prosperous business, the one seeking to enlarge their life with a fresh perspective, or the one pressing in to a deeper relationship with God, these three will springboard them forward to the next level in life.
Faith, Vision, and Renewal. They are not new ideas, but you will learn new ways to use them in the following chapters. Everything starts with faith; faith in God is the beginning of a relationship for eternity with Him. Faith causes us to see good things in the future and because of this we develop vision of success and prosperity in life. New vision causes us to realize that we must change and renewal begins to happen as we are motivated to move toward our vision. As you grow in your ability to appropriate Faith, Vision, and Renewal you will accomplish your goals and develop even greater dreams for life that you never dared to dream before.
No one thing can solve every issue in life. We have heard the sermons and seen the books of
the
secret,
the
answer,
the
key, and
the
miracle drug, but the fact is it takes more than one thing to deal with the problems and challenges we face every day. On the other hand, we don’t want a list of twenty things that become so convoluted and confusing that we are lost in the system. Faith, Vision, and Renewal are all you need. I think you will see as you apply these three to your life that good things start to happen. Everything won’t change in a moment; it took years to get where you are now. However, everything can change. With the right tools, we can see remarkable things happen. It is possible to overcome the problems, change the negatives, and develop a new life that is happy and fulfilling. To do this you need three things: Faith, Vision, and Renewal.
Without faith, it is impossible to please God, and this is simply because the only way any one of us can approach Him and begin a relationship with Him is through faith. We will receive nothing from God unless it is by faith in Him and in His Word. And until we are able to exchange all our doubts and fears for a life operated by faith, we will never get started on the road to a great life filled with true prosperity. As we study together about what faith is (and what faith is not), you will learn how to grow your faith to mountain-moving proportions. You will walk with faith and be able to utilize it as a powerful force to bring about the dreams God has placed in your heart.
The second essential for a successful life is vision. Proverbs 29:18 reads, “Where there is no vision, the people perish,” and we can clearly see this truth manifested today all throughout the world. So many are stuck in their negative circumstances, boxed in by their limited thinking, and they believe there is no way out. They have shrunk their visions down to a mentality of survival instead of one filled with hope and conquest. The reciprocal of this proverb is also true: where there is clear and strong vision, the people prosper. When there is a vision of conquest, the people will conquer. Where there is a vision of adventure, the people will live daring and exciting lives. You can make your life be anything you want it to be, and it begins with vision. This book contains tremendous and effective tools to help you clearly define what your vision is today, as well as how to change it (if need be) to ensure you experience all God has to offer.
Finally, the third nonnegotiable essential for success is renewal. A person engaged in the process of renewal is one who has the desire and the ability to change. God is a God of renewal and is ever looking for new ways to bless and prosper our lives, but if we cannot learn to adapt to His plans, His twists and turns, and His ways of doing things, then we cannot receive His gifts. How many times have we said, “This is just the way I am” or “I’ve always done it this way” or “My family has always dealt with this issue”? We condemn ourselves to be the same and to have the inability to make the changes needed for the life we truly desire.
You
can
change
any
area of life you are dissatisfied with! You can have the successful marriage, the happy and fulfilled teenage kids (that’s right, you read that correctly), the prosperous business, and the emotional and physical health you desire. It may take some renewal—and a bit of time—but the results are so worth it. The third section of this book is all about how to become new, how to think in a new way, and as a result, how to act in a new way. If you will apply these truths to your life, I guarantee that you will begin to experience more joy and peace in your life than ever before.
In addition, at the end of each section I have included a manual to allow you the opportunity to immediately put these principles into practice. I want to offer you the practical steps to discover the fullness of life you desire.
Faith. Vision. Renewal.
If you will embrace these three vital truths, you will enjoy success, prosperity, and the overflowing, abundant life Jesus has for you to experience. “The 3” are not far off or impossible pipe dreams. We all can begin to walk in God’s perfect will for our lives. “The 3” have worked in my life for over three decades, and I have seen them transform the lives of countless individuals in my church and people around the world. They will work for you, too. You can possess faith that moves mountains, a vision for success in life, and yes, even
you
can change!
Let’s not settle for mediocrity. Let’s not live in circumstances below God’s expectation and design for our lives. Let’s go for God’s very best and learn to live a destiny filled with joy, adventure, deep satisfaction, and supernatural power. This book will show you how.

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