Growing Into Diamond By David Stewart

Originally Posted March – April 2011

Growing Into Diamond
By David Stewart

Diamond is a highly coveted rank in Young Living. Only Crown Diamond is higher. Young Living Diamonds make a lot of money, and that income is for a lifetime that can even be passed on to their children. Diamonds are also privileged to participate in Young Living corporate decisions and policy making. There are also many other perks, like a deluxe all-expense-paid trip to some exotic vacation destination every year. Diamonds also receive free registration to Young Living Conventions for life.

As of January 2011, there were a total of 161,500 Distributors and 28,000 Customers in Young Living.
Of active Young Living 161,500 Distributors there were:
3,744 Executives (2.3%),
672 Silvers (0.4%),
155 Golds (0.1%),
31 Platinums (0.02%),
15 Diamonds (0.01%), and
7 Crown Diamonds (0.004%).

Only 21 individuals in all of Young Living’s 161,500 Distributors have reached Diamond or Crown Level. That means that less than 1 in 7,700 Distributors is a Diamond or a Crown. So what is it that makes YL Diamonds so special and rare? How is it that they have attained such a high and unusual level of success?

But even more important, how can you become a Diamond? Considering that the “odds” are less than 1 in 7,500, it does not seem very encouraging. But, as you will learn, becoming a Diamond is not a matter of odds. Nor is it a matter of chance. So the idea of figuring the odds is not valid. You become a Diamond when you choose to become a Diamond, despite the odds. We will explain to you how that is done.

Technically, attaining Diamond means that you have six legs of your business that are at the level of Silver. Crown Diamonds have six Silver legs plus a seventh leg that is a Diamond. Today we are focusing on reaching Diamond.

But what is a “leg.” Everyone you personally sponsor, and every group that forms below each of them, constitutes a leg for you. For example, if you have personally sponsored 10 or 20 people, then you have 10 or 20 legs and each one can grow into a profitable business. When six of your personally sponsored people become Silver or have a Silver in their downline, then according to the Young Living Compensation Plan, you are a Diamond.

FOUR EASY STEPS TO DIAMOND

So how many of you would like to be a Young Living Diamond? With all that money, recognition, and the affluent lifestyle that goes with it, who wouldn’t like to be a Diamond? We would all like to be a Diamond, wouldn’t we? And we all know how to do it. Right? It’s simple. Here’s how you do it. It can be described in Four Simple Steps:

1. First you sponsor enough people along with your downline so that your Overall Group Volume reaches $5000 per month. Then you are an Executive. Overall Group Volume (or OGV) is the sum-total of all of the purchases made by your downline in a given month plus your own purchases. In general, the more people in your downline, the bigger will be your OGV.

2. Second you choose two of your legs with the most promising leaders and work with both of them until they each have enough people whose purchases, as a Group, add up to $5000 each month. That means you would have two Executive Legs. Two Executive Legs makes you a Silver. Your two “most promising leaders” may not be the person you personally sponsored. It may be someone downline from them four or five levels deep. It doesn’t matter. You just want to find two leaders in two different legs wherever they are, and when they reach the magic $5000 per month OGV, that leg is an Executive Leg.

3. Thirdly you keep working with your two Executive Leader Legs until they become Silver or develop a Silver somewhere in their group. It doesn’t matter where within a Leg a Silver is created. A Silver anywhere in the Leg makes that a Silver Leg for you, even if the leader who built it is several levels below you in depth. Two Silver legs make you a Gold.

4. Fourthly, after you reach Gold, you transfer your focus and effort to other legs of your business that are not yet Silver and just keep encouraging and building them until you have six Silver Legs. Six Silver Legs is Diamond. It is as simple as that.

So that’s all there is to it. Just sponsor lots of people and train them and help them to reach Executive, and then show your downline how to do the same until you have built six Silver Legs. Then, Voila! You are a Diamond. Right?

Wrong.

Diamond is more than a network marketing structure that we put together. It is more than an arrangement of distributors that we have carefully configured. It is more than a set number of legs with specified volumes.

There are some who think that reaching Diamond status is largely a matter of luck, that some people are just fortunate and some are not, which would mean you can’t do much about becoming Diamond by your own effort. Some think that if you just wait and keep your distributorship active long enough you will eventually reach Diamond without doing anything special to get there. They think that somehow six legs will form below them and go Silver without their doing anything in particular to make that happen.

The truth is that becoming a Diamond Distributor in Young Living is neither a matter of luck nor a matter of waiting long enough for it to happen on its own.

The truth is that you have to become a Diamond before you can be a Diamond. Let me say that again. You have to become a Diamond before you can be a Diamond. So what does that mean?

Diamond must primarily become a state of consciousness with you before it can become a fact of your Young Living membership. It must be created inside of you before it can be created outside of you. There is an order of things in the process of creating a Diamondship and it is important to know that order so that you can focus on first things first.

CONSCIOUSNESS COMES BEFORE STRUCTURE

And what comes first? Diamond Consciousness. Consciousness comes before Structure. When God created the universe and everything in it, he conceived it in his consciousness first and then materialized it into His tangible, visible creation. He saw everything in every detail in his consciousness first–galaxies, suns, planets, trees, animals and people–first existed in his mind and were then made manifest. This is the order of creation for everything, including everything we want to create as human beings and offspring of God.

An architect must create a building in his conscious mind, visualizing its every detail, before he can express it as a set of drawings that can be framed by a builder into a physical reality. Like the architect, you must first create an inner consciousness of Diamond, a vision of the state of Diamondship within yourself. But unlike the architect, who must arrange with a contractor to gather the building materials and labor forces to construct the building he envisions, we (everyone one of us) already have a contractor standing by who already has all the building materials and who is ready to materialize our vision according to our directions and upon our command. That contractor is God through the laws of the universe he has provided for us to build and materialize our every dream.

When you can clearly see yourself as a Diamond and can hold fast to that image unwaveringly, following the guidance you receive through that vision, and carrying out the actions directed by that guidance, then the Divine Contractor will assemble your Diamond structure into a Young Living reality. This is because your combined thoughts, feelings, and visions constitute a tangible force and energy that will bring into manifestation whatever it is on which you have placed their focus. If your focus is clear and unrelenting, then your vision has to manifest in the material world. It has to. It is a law of the Universe.

Believe it or not, it was this law that Jesus had understood and mastered that enabled him to create wine from water, to give sight to the blind, and to manifest life where there was death. It is actually a matter of quantum physics, which is the science that concerns the connection between mind and matter, and the creation of matter.

But the application of quantum physics is a subject we won’t be discussing today. You can come to the Young Living Convention in Orlando in September 2011 to hear me speak more on that. Instead, for this article, I will quote a few scriptures that are actually expressions of the laws of quantum physics and which support the points I want to make today:

In Proverbs 23:7, depending on which version of the Bible you read, it says: “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”

And then we read the words of Christ in Luke 17:21: “Behold, the Kingdom of God is within you.”

And then again we read in Mark 11:23-24: “If you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you. So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

And then insofar as what God desires for us, we read 3rd John 2: “Beloved, I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health.”

From these four scriptures you see that how we think of ourselves is what we will be. The power to express God’s qualities in our lives is already within us. Whatever we earnestly desire and claim as our own is God’s will for us to have. And we are God’s beloved. He loves us dearly. His wish for us is to live prosperously in abundance and to be in good health.

So you see God wants us to manifest our highest potentials. We are his children and as his offspring, we were created to excel, to be the best, to manifest the goodness of God’s genes, so to speak, as he has passed them on to us and as we have received them.

But to accomplish the lofty things of which we are capable, by God within us, we must affirm our highest potentials, whether they be becoming a Young Living Diamond or whether we become something else of high value, worthy of our status as children of God.

BEING A DIAMOND PERSON VS BEING A YL DIAMOND

However, today, rather then elaborating on the laws of God that he gave us in order to give us dominion over the physical universe, let’s just talk about how we can all be Young Living Diamonds, as a practical application of these laws. You don’t have to understand the laws to apply them, although understanding them helps provide a solid foundation for our faith.

We did not all enroll as Diamonds when we signed up in Young Living. There was not a little box on the application form that said, “Check here to be a Diamond now.” The state of being a Diamond is something we grow into over time. It is an inner process which becomes an outer reality when the inner work is well done and complete. Diamond is not something we construct. It is something we become.

I must tell you, I am not a “Young Living Diamond” at this time. That is a title only the company can bestow. But I am already a Diamond person within myself. I think of myself as a Diamond. I feel as if I am a Diamond. I can see my wife and I walking across the stage at the Young Living Convention, embracing Gary and Mary Young who are congratulating us for achieving Diamond. I see us enjoying travels to exotic places with the other Diamonds on trips around the world. I constantly visualize myself as a Diamond and I visualize it in the present, not as something way out there in the future. As long as you see something in the future, it will stay in the future because that is where you have placed it in your vision.

Remember the scripture I just read to you from the Gospel of Mark, “Whatever you ask for in prayer believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” The Bible does not say, “Believe that you will receive it, or you may receive it, or you might receive it, or could receive it.” It says, “Believe that you have received it, which means “Believe that you have already received it now, in present time.”

This scripture leads us to explain the difference in setting a goal and in expressing our intent. When we say, “Diamond is my goal,” we are placing our desire for Diamondship into a future time. We can set goals every day, but reaching them is another matter. As long as goals are expressed into the future they will remain in the future.

To be in congruence with this scripture, we must set our intent and affirm, “I intend to be Diamond,” and then set a date when it will be accomplished, seeing yourself walking across the stage as a new Diamond at a specific Young Living convention in a specific location. When you express and internalize your intent, and set a time and place for your intent to manifest, the Universe immediately begins to rearrange itself to accommodate your intention, including your time table.

This scripture is actually an expression of a scientific law of the universe. To receive that for which you pray or deeply desire, you must be able to see it as being true in present time. If you pray for something to be in the future, it will always be in the future. When you visualize the object of your prayer as already existing in the present, this is what faith is. Visualization is part of the process of effective prayer. When Jesus laid his hands on people to heal them, he was visualizing them as already whole. He did not see them as sick any more. When he commanded Lazarus to rise up and walk out of his tomb, he did see a dead man, he saw Lazarus alive and living as he spoke.

FAITH AS A TANGIBLE SUBSTANCE

Faith is knowing that your supplication has already been recognized and honored by God. With such faith, the forces of the universe will align themselves to grant your wish. In the Book of Hebrews 11:1, we read that “Faith is the Substance of things hoped for, the Evidence of things unseen.” Substance is tangible. It is material. It consists of atoms and molecules and energies.

In fact, research into quantum physics has now proven by actual experiments that thoughts are things. Thoughts are energy. And thoughts can cause energy to form matter. So when the Bible says, “Faith is a Substance,” this is actually a reference to what we now know through quantum physics. But I will wait to elaborate on that at this year’s Young Living Convention.

So whether we are talking about physics or scripture, it is the same. When you pray and visualize your wish in the present, the materialization of your wish may not be instantaneous, although can be and sometimes it will be. What it really means is this: As you are praying, the atoms and molecules and energies that comprise God’s creation, within which his consciousness is present, are at that very moment organizing themselves to make your dream come true exactly as you are holding its vision in your mind.

In classical physics, there is a limit to how fast things can travel or communicate between themselves. That limit is the speed of light. But at the level of quantum physics, the timing of things is not limited to the speed of light. Distant parts of the universe can communicate and respond to one another instantly and simultaneously regardless of the distance between them.

The response of the universe to your supplication is possible, indepen-dent of time, because God is fully aware within his creation and his intelligence is simultaneously at work in every atom, in every molecule, and in all of the spaces in between them. That space that surrounds all matter is not an empty vacuum. It is called “The Quantum Field” or the “Zero Point Energy Field” by scientists. It is a field of omnipresent consciousness and unlimited energy that permeates the entire universe. This field is intelligent and it is responsive to human thought. The existence of this field is a scientific fact. It is also a scriptural fact.

What I have been saying may seem a bit theoretical, and perhaps even strange and hard to believe, but it is both scientifically and scripturally sound. But now, let me make it practical for you. Let me put all of this into down-to-earth terms by which you can grow into the leader and develop the magnetism that will literally attract a Diamondship to form around you.

TURNING COAL INTO DIAMONDS

I like the analog of a “Diamond.” You see, in nature, a diamond is actually nothing more than a lump of coal that has been metamorphosed by tremendous, continuous, and extended stresses deep within the earth. The same carbon atoms make up a soft, powdery deposit of black soot also make up a brilliant scintillating diamond that is the hardest, toughest substance on earth. The only difference is in their atomic arrangement. The transformation from black soot into sparkling diamond is all internal and unseen at an atomic level. But the qualities that distinguish soot from diamond are external and visible at an experiential level.

Soot absorbs light in all frequencies of color, which is why it appears black and reflects nothing back. Diamonds reflect and refract light in all frequencies of color, which is why it sparkles with all the hues of a rainbow, constantly illuminating the world around it with the light that it receives, reflects, and radiates.

In the same way, the elements for being a Young Living Diamond are already within you. They are a part of you. They are you. They only need to be rearranged at a deep level so that instead of absorbing and holding on to the light you receive, you can reflect that light and illuminate the lives of others.

The more completely you learn to transmit and give back the light that God shines upon you, the more you become like the Diamond. You see, the light of God’s presence constantly falls upon each and every one of us, but we have not all learned how to reflect that light as a lamp unto the world. But we all have the capability to do so. The question is: “Why don’t we?”

So let’s go back to the question I asked in the beginning of this presentation. “Who wouldn’t like to be a Young Living Diamond?” You would think that the answer to that would be “Nobody.” You would think that there is nobody who would not like to be a Young Living Diamond. What is there not to like?

The truth is that few people really want to be a Diamond. Some are actually afraid to become a Diamond. They may think it is okay for you to be a Diamond or someone else, but not for them. You see, to be a Diamond is a great responsibility and an image to live up to. You will have thousands of people in your group who look up to you who are at the top as the example to emulate. Maybe you are comfortable at the Young Living level you are now and don’t want the additional work, responsibility, or attention that may come with a higher rank.

In the process of getting to Diamond, you will have many diplomatic challenges. You will have to be the one with the wisdom to know what to do to keep the peace in your Young Living family and to encourage harmony, cooperation, honesty, integrity, and responsible work ethics. You must learn how to be a moderator and peacemaker, a counselor and confidant, a person of unwavering integrity and will, a person of energy and steadfast purpose. You must be the example of a business builder for everyone to follow. It can be a scary prospect to realize that as a Diamond and Young Living leader, people will copy what you do.

As for the counseling aspect of being a leader in your Young Living business, I used to be a pastor and I do more counseling with people as a Young Living distributor now than I ever did as a pastor. People need counseling from some one who is going before them, whether it is on a pathway of building a business or a pathway to spirituality and salvation. Sometimes, these pathways turn out to be the same.

A person who knows God as their strength also knows that they can’t build a Diamondship alone. They know that God’s hand must be with them in order to succeed. The person who builds their Young Living business in partnership with God knows that you don’t strive for Diamond for the money or the power or the recognition.

You do it because it is the most magnificent means you know to bring good into the lives of the most people. You do it because you want to help others in the most powerful and long lasting way you can. You do it because you love people and you have something good to share with them that will help them. If you want to put yourself in a position to serve God to the maximum you are capable, then go Diamond.

Until you are ready and able to see yourself in such a role and know you are up to the challenge because God is with you, you won’t ever be a Diamond. In fact, you can’t be a Diamond. You can work for it all you want, but you will not get there. God’s universe will not cooperate with you.

HOW TO GROW YOURSELF INTO A DIAMOND

So how do we grow into the Diamond Personality that we must be in order to create and manifest ourselves as a Diamond Distributorship in Young Living?

There is only one way and that is spiritually. Marcella Vonn Harting is a Crown Diamond. She is the top ranking distributor in all of Young Living. She has written several books. One of them is called “The Harting Training System.” It tells you how to build a successful network marketing business. It is available at www.MarcellaVonnHarting.com or by calling (408) 443-0302. When I began reading it, I was looking for a recipe to become a high ranking Young Living Distributor. I was expecting a step by step set of things to do which, if I did all of them, I would become a Diamond in just a matter of time. The step by step guidelines for success are there in her book. But underlying everything she teaches is something else.

Near the beginning, on page 14, she makes this statement: “In order for a distributor to be highly successful, personal growth is the most crucial aspect of effective Network Marketing. It is the one thing separating average results from extraordinary.”

Terri Secrest, another Young Living Diamond, has said, “Young Living is the greatest self-improvement program I know.”

The message is the same in both quotes: For extraordinary success in Young Living, you must grow into the image you seek, and that growth is all about developing your personal self-image. If you can’t see yourself as a Diamond, you will never be a Diamond, no matter how hard you may work toward that end. There are spiritual laws involved here, and you must fulfill the laws to arrive at Diamond.

Exactly what is the goal of personal growth and self-improvement, of which Young Living Diamonds like Marcella Vonn Harting and Terri Secrest, speak? The goal for personal growth and self-improvement is learning how to manifest God’s image within us. “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him, male and female created he them. And God blessed them.” Genesis 1:27-28.

So we all have God’s Image within us. That is a fact. Then why don’t we all manifest it? The answer is simple: Some of us just don’t believe it.

WHY PEOPLE FAIL

Do you know why people fail? Do you know why a person can set a goal and work and work for years to reach it and never get there? Such failure is always for the same reason. They don’t think that they deserve it. If you don’t think you deserve Diamond, you will never receive it. You may work and work and get to Executive or Silver or Gold, and even Platinum, but unless you see yourself as Diamond, you will never get there. And it will be something within yourself that stops your progress to go any further. That obstacle is the size of your self-image. In the final analysis the only obstacle to our complete success in anything is us. As Pogo once said, “We have seen the enemy, and it is us.”

The controlling force in each of our lives is our self-image, our core beliefs about who we think we are. What we believe is what we consider to be our authentic self, whether it is true or not, and it is that belief that sets the limits of what we can achieve. But those are limits we have set, not God. We don’t manifest God’s image because we don’t believe God’s image is our true self. Our self-image is not congruent with God’s image of ourselves.

The fact is that no matter how our behavior and personality may appear to others, we are always true to our self-image. We will not go against it. If our self-image tells us that we are supposed to be poor and that we are never to achieve beyond a certain level of success, we will always be poor and we will never rise above the ceiling we have put over our heads. This is because in our hearts, to achieve more than we think we deserve would be going against our self-image. And, as the Bible says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”

In fact, when people start reaching that invisible ceiling they have placed on their lives and begin to go beyond their image of themselves, they will sabotage their own success. They will do something that will prevent their rising any higher. There is such a thing as “Fear of Success” and most people suffer from this fear at some point. It is just that everyone has a different level of success at which their fear kicks in and seeks to destroy any progress to rise above what they believe they deserve.

Fear is not the opposite of faith. It is the absence of faith. In II Timothy 1:7 we read, “For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” You see, God’s image in us has the qualities of Power, Love, and Clear Thinking. God’s image has no limit.

When we start to go beyond our limited self image, that self-sabotaging impulse to limit our success is almost always instigated at an unconscious level and the person, themselves, may not realize that they, and not their outward circumstances, are what has put a stop to their rising to any higher station in life.

People usually blame external factors for their failure to succeed or progress any higher in their life’s work, but external factors are effects, not causes, of one’s inability to achieve success beyond a certain level. Did you hear that? External factors that block our successes are the effects of our internal thoughts, not the root causes of our failure. The root causes of failure are the limiting thoughts and beliefs one harbors concerning themselves.

People who have been Young Living distributors for many years, and have even been fairly diligent and consistent in their efforts, but who could just never get beyond a certain level, can usually think of a lot of external reasons why they have remained on a plateau for so long. They don’t realize their external obstacles were created by their own thoughts.

I would advise such distributors to do some serious introspection and consult the emotional books, like “Feelings Buried Alive Never Die” by Karol Truman, or “Releasing Emotional Patterns with Essential Oils” by Carolyn Mein, and find out what fears, emotions, and beliefs they have that are holding them back. (Both of these books, and others, are available at www.RaindropTraining.com.) All of the real reasons for lack of growth in one’s Young Living business are to be found within the person, not in the world outside. And that is great! Because that means if the problem is within yourself, you can fix it.

WHO YOU THINK YOU ARE IS WHAT YOU WILL BE

The limit of our success in everything is the size of our self-image. To improve your level of achievement in life, improve your opinion of yourself, and do it in a real way, not a phony way, in a way that is in harmony with God’s perception of who you really are. Come to know that you are a child of the Almighty and no less. Then learn to act like it.

We cling to our self-image as a moral imperative. To exceed the image we have of ourselves would be contradicting what we believe to be ourselves. In fact, from our viewpoint, it would be immoral and dishonest to exceed our self-imposed limitations. We believe that being a mediocre human being is just the way we are. In our delusion, we may even blame God for our less than exceptional life, saying, “What can I do about it? God made me that way.”

Well, no he didn’t make you that way. He made you in his image. Within every one of us God has placed a blueprint for our highest potential. When we realize the unlimited potentials God has drafted in that blueprint and adjust our self-image to correspond to it, then unlimited accomplishments are ours to achieve. To manifest your highest potential, you must learn how to make God’s image within you correspond to the self-image you hold for yourself.

IS IT WRONG TO BE WEALTHY?

Thousands of Christians have fallen into the trap of believing that there is virtue in being poor, or at least in not being rich. If they make too much money they feel guilty. But money is not the root of all evil, as some seem to believe. The exact wording in the Bible says, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” I Timothy 6:10. In other words, it is not the possession of material wealth that is evil. It is greed and attachment to material things that we err, not in the possession of material things. Remember III John 2 where the Bible says, “I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health.” However, we must always love the giver above the gifts.

Greed, material attachment, and love of money are not attributes unique to the rich. In fact, I have observed that those who are poor or less affluent or unsuccessful in life often carry these negative attitudes to greater extremes than the wealthy. In fact, I have known people where these very negative attitudes are what keeps them poor, less affluent and unsuccessful.

Money has no intrinsic value. It is only a medium of exchange and whatever comes our way only gives us the means to exchange it for something else. We are only stewards of the wealth that comes to us. We can use it to serve our self-centered impulses, or we can use it to make the world a better place for others, while using what is necessary to attend to our own needs and those of our families. This world can only function by exchanges of goods and services and some form of money has been found to be the most efficient vehicle for those exchanges.

Jesus did not personally possess any worldly goods beyond the garments he wore, but his mission could not have taken place without a source of wealth. He and his close disciples needed money or resources for their food, for their lodging, and including money for the oils necessary to carry out their ministry. These were furnished by followers of Jesus who had money. Lazarus was a wealthy landowner who provided resources to Jesus and his disciples. Nicodemas owned a hotel which was available to Jesus and the twelve. Joseph of Arimathea was a wealthy merchant and trader who provided the tomb and the burial spices for the crucified Jesus. Matthew had been a wealthy tax collector with a large house where Jesus and the disciples could retreat and rest.

Even Jesus closest disciples were not poor. They were successful businessmen. They were entrepreneurs. Andrew, James, John, and Peter owned a fishing fleet. Thomas was a carpenter, and carpenters made good money in those days, as did Joseph who provided for the boy Jesus as a father. Jesus did not grow up in poverty. Paul had a tent-making business and financed his own travels to spread the Gospel. Luke was a physician. Herod’s own wife, and other wealthy women, regularly donated money to Jesus and his disciples to support their ministry. Without those financially affluent followers, Jesus would not have been able to accomplish his mission.

So there is nothing wrong with making money, even lots of money, provided it is earned honestly by offering a valuable service or product and provided you act as a good steward in how you use it. It is only when we love money and become attached to what it can do for us, in a selfish way, that money is no longer a vehicle for good.

There are plenty of dishonest people who make lots of money and whose stewardship of their gain does not always serve the highest good. You, who are honest, who would do generous good things with money, and who are offering wonderful healing, life-giving products to the world—don’t you think that God would rather that you be the stewards of his money, than for someone who is selfish?

Do you realize how much good you could bring into the world if you had the income of a Diamond? Do you realize how many people will be healed and helped along the way because they were introduced to essential oils because of your Young Living business? This is why you need to desire to be a Diamond. If you try to do it for the money, you won’t succeed. You must do it because you want to help others and the income of a Diamond will enable you to help more people than the income of anything less.

Not only that, when you become a Diamond that means many in your Young Living family will become affluent and successful, too. There will be many who become Stars, Executives, Silvers, Golds, Platinums, and even Diamonds themselves, all within your Young Living Family. As the head of your Diamondship you must grow into a powerful engine pulling a long train of distributors to their many levels and destinations of success and affluence.

Anytime someone fails at something good and worthwhile, it is because deep down inside they do not believe they are worthy of receiving or achieving that something. They don’t consider themselves “good enough.” We insult God when we feel “unworthy of success” or “unworthy of affluence.” We are direct descendants of the King of the Universe whose wealth is beyond measure. We are heirs to all that he has. But we cannot receive our inheritance if we don’t claim it just because our low sense of self-worth says we don’t deserve it.

Some people even mistake a poor self-image as a spiritual thing. They mistake it for a form of humility. But having a sense of poor self-worth is not humility. It is ego. Ego is mistaking your identity as something less than the image of God, by which each and every one of us were created. It is renouncing God’s presence within us.

God is the model after which we were all patterned. Humility is knowing that God is the sole doer in us, in mankind, and in the universe. Ego is thinking that we are the doers and creators of success, and not giving God the credit for what He has done through us. Humility is being anchored in the peace of knowing and accepting who we are as offspring’s of Divinity.

I use a lot of Young Living oils every day. I like the blends like Believe, Acceptance, and Gratitude. I also like Highest Potential, because that is God’s image. I like to apply these oils to my chest while praying for God to strengthen my commitment with all of my heart. I apply them to the medulla at the center of the back of my head and pray for God to support my commitment with all of my mind. I apply these oils to my forehead, between the eyebrows, and pray to strengthen my belief in myself, my acceptance of God’s assignment for me, and for constant gratitude to God with all of my strength and will power. I like these particular oil blends, but you may find others that are better for you and apply them in different ways to support your mission.

HEROS ARE MADE, NOT BORN

If you will notice in any good novel or movie, the hero or heroine is never a hero from beginning. They start out as unremarkable people who grow into their rolls as leaders, saints, or saviors. They are often reluctant and even unwilling to step into a leadership role at the beginning of the story.

They are like Moses who, when first approached by God, was reluctant to accept God’s assignment to go to Egypt and deliver the Hebrews. (See Exodus 3-4.) In every good story, during the hero’s journey, they are transformed by their mission from ordinary people into the extraordinary expressions of God’s qualities they become. So it is with your journey to Diamond. You will be transformed by the mission until you attain its measure. Whether that transformation is complete or only partial is up to you.

Moses did not consider himself capable of the task to which God had assigned to him. In fact, he complained to God, saying, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?” Claiming, “They will not believe me, nor hearken to my voice.” etc. etc. Then Moses even tried to convince God that he could not accept the assignment because he was not an effective public speaker, saying, “Lord, I am not eloquent, . . . but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.”

But God would not accept Moses’ excuses and Moses finally accepted the assignment. Moses started out as a simple man without experience or skills in diplomacy or national leadership, but he grew into the assignment and by the time he died, he was a powerful spiritual, temporal, and military leader who did deliver the chosen people of God out of bondage and did bring them to safety and prosperity in the Promised Land.

The Bible is full of stories about men and women who grew from simple people into the roles of prophets, saints, and leaders, both spiritual and temporal. Jesus disciples are examples of simple men who, through their commitment and loyalty to Christ became supermen and saints. None of them could have foreseen the heroic roles they were to play and the strong men they would become when they embarked on the path to which Jesus called them.

So when you embark on the path to Diamond, you may not feel you possess the necessary qualities or that you can exert the leadership required. But if you step onto the path that leads to Diamondship with courage, faith, and conviction that “You are a Diamond, and God wants you to be a Diamond,” you will grow into the assignment, just as Moses grew into his. And when the mantle of Diamondship is draped across your shoulders, you will be ready for it or you will never receive it.

PRACTICING THE PRESENCE OF GOD

So how do we become that spiritual, generous, and magnanimous person that is a Diamond? The answer is through constant prayer. This is because you can’t become a Diamond without allowing God to be with you, lending you his constant hand, ever standing close by your side. Cultivating his presence is the only way to grow into the spiritual person you need to become to measure up to the leader that Diamonds are called to be.

There are many prayers you can pray and many things you can do to build your relationship with God. One of them is simply “Practicing the Presence of God” throughout your day and throughout your life. In Isaiah 26:3 we read, “God will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Him.” We also have Paul’s admonition to the Thessalonians in Chapter 5:16-18: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstances.”

So talk to him all the time throughout the day. Let thoughts of gratitude to God be the first that come to you when you awaken in the morning and let thoughts to God be your last when you go to sleep at night. And then talk to him about everything you do and see and experience throughout the day.

“God, it is sure beautiful outside today. Thank you for this sunshine and the beauty around me.”

“God this sure is a good breakfast. Thank you for providing it. And I thank you for the people who prepared it.”

“God I can’t find my car keys. Please lead me to where they must be or help me remember where I last laid them.”

“Lord, so-in-so really irritates me and I have to be in a meeting with her today. Please keep my heart calm and peaceful so I can see your presence in her and feel the love you have for her as my love.”

“Lord, please help me find a parking place. I am in a hurry and I don’t have time to drive all over the place. Thank you, Lord.” . . . etc. etc.

There is nothing so small or insignificant that you can’t share with God. Sometimes I just like to mentally repeat a name of God, over and over in my heart. Along with that there is a prayer I often like to pray silently to myself, “Dear Lord, may my constant repetition of your holy name transform me into Thy likeness.”

It doesn’t matter what you say to God, just say it. Address Him constantly as the source of all goodness and inspiration. He is, after all, your Daddy, so you can feel comfortable sharing anything with him anywhere, any time. God is touched when we share even the small things of our lives with him.

THE PRAYER OF JABEZ

I would now like to share a prayer with you that I say every day, morning and evening. It is taken directly from the Old Testament. It is called “The Prayer of *Jabez.” It is well known and perhaps many of you have heard of it and, perhaps, are already using it. There is a small book on the prayer entitled The Prayer of Jabez by Bruce Wilkinson. I highly recommend that every one of you buy it. You can get it at any Christian bookstore. You can also order if via the internet at Amazon.com.
* Pronounced “Jaw’ bez.”
The prayer is buried in an obscure passage of a seldom-read book of the Bible. It is in 1st Chronicles 4:9-10. The whole prayer is composed of only four short phrases, but each one is packed with powerful meaning that can transform your life. Here is the Bible passage:

Jabez was more honorable than his brothers . . .
And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying,
“Oh, that you would bless me, indeed,
and enlarge my territory,
that your hand would be with me,
and that you would keep me from evil . . .”
So God granted him what he requested.

If you pray this prayer from your heart on a regular basis, God will grant to you what you are requesting, just he did for Jabez. But what, exactly are you requesting here. For a full explanation, get the book I am recommending. For our purposes here let me explain as follows, line by line:

1. “Oh, that You would Bless Me, Indeed.”

This is an unusual prayer in that Jabez is not asking for anything tangible for himself and neither is he asking for God to bless someone else. He is asking God to bless him, personally. And when he adds the word, “Indeed,” he is saying to God, “Bless me, Lord, and I mean Bless me a lot because I need it.” In other words, when we pray this line of prayer we are opening ourselves to all of God’s blessings, not just a few. We are saying, “Pour it on me, Lord. Give me everything you want me to have. I am open to receiving as much or as little as you want to me to have. I won’t let my little image of myself stand in the way and be an obstacle to what you have in mind for me.”

2. “And Enlarge my Territory.”

The territory spoken of here can mean many things. It doesn’t necessarily mean land or property. It means to enlarge whatever you have or envision. It can mean to enlarge your ministry. It can mean to enlarge your family. It may mean to enlarge your Young Living business. Whatever it may means to you specifically it means to increase the size of your responsibilities, to increase the size of your ability to take on bigger and bigger challenges, to accomplish greater and greater achievements, like Going Diamond. Since “enlarging your territory,” also enlarges your responsibilities you may pause at praying such a prayer. Your fears and your limited self-image may be saying, “No. We don’t want a larger territory. We already have more than we can handle. We can be satisfied with what we already have. To take on more could be too much. Etc.” But when fears and reservations start to surface from this line in the prayer, that is when you move on to the next line.

3. “That Your Hand Would be with Me.”

This is the line that saves the day for you. You don’t have to handle this enlarged territory by yourself. You are asking God to work with you. You are going to manage this new enlarged territory in partnership with God. So you need not be afraid you can’t handle it. There is no limit to the size of a territory that God and you can’t handle together. But there is still one more line to the Prayer of Jabez.

4. “And that You Would Keep Me from Evil.”

The word, “evil,” is also translated as “sin” in some versions of the Bible This line is a crucial part of the prayer, because when you start rising to higher and higher levels of success in your newly enlarged territory, Satan will tempt you in various new ways in order to bring you back down to the limited self-image of your former life. There are innumerable forms of Satan’s traps. Your enlarged territory can place temptations before you that you never had to face before. The additional income you receive from your larger territory can cause you to develop attachments you never had before and to develop desires you never had before that could distract you from God and from your original godly intent. The surest way to lose God’s blessing, which you asked for in the first line of the prayer, is to commit a sin. Sin is anything that places a barrier between you and God that will inhibit or stop the flow of his blessings into your life. These so called “sins” can be in the form of unwholesome thoughts, attachments to material things, and/or unrighteous actions. So what you are asking in this last line of the prayer is not for “God to help fight evil,” but you are asking God to “Keep you from evil.” If you try to fight Satan directly, you can lose because he is strong. But if God keeps you from having to fight Satan at all, then you don’t have to worry about losing the fight because God takes care of that for you and you never have to do battle alone for yourself. So what you are saying in this line is that you want to remain within the fortress of God’s protection, completely isolated from Satan, evil or sin, which will remain on the outside.

Remember that Jabez was an honorable man, more so than his brothers, and God answered the prayer of Jabez. Pray this prayer yourself, every day, morning and evening, and you will find that God will answer your prayer, too. You will live a blessed life. Your territory, whatever you choose that to be, will be enlarged. God will be with you in your new enlarged territory, sharing the increased burdens and responsibilities. And he will prevent you from engaging in any direct confrontations with the devil alone.

There is a verse in the Old Testament, Exodus 14:14, that I like to recall when adversarial situations appear in my life: “The Lord will fight for you. You have only to keep still.” And then I recall Psalm 46:10: “Be still and know that I am God.” Keeping still is keeping your focus on God and not allowing anything to distract you from that focus.

When applying the Prayer of Jabez in your life, and specifically applying it for your Young Living business in growing into Diamond, apply the prayer to more than yourself.

But first, pray it first for yourself, “Oh, that you would bless me, Indeed, and enlarge my territory, that your hand would be with me, and that you would keep me from evil.”

Then also pray it for your family and friends, for whom you can pray in general or specifically naming names: “Oh, that you would bless my family and friends, Indeed, (or Aunt Suzie or Pastor Janet), and enlarge their territories, that your hand would be with them, and that you would keep them from evil.”

And also pray it for your downline, and even specifically for your leaders, “Oh, that you would bless my Young Living downline, Indeed, and enlarge their territories, that your hand would be with them, and that you would keep them from evil.” And remember that in visualizing yourself as a Diamond, you will never be Diamond unless lots of your downline become Executives and Silvers. So visualize your leaders as attaining their goals, too. Your prayers and faith in their achievements will help them to succeed to whatever goals they have set for themselves.

In fact, you can pray the Prayer of Jabez for anyone or any group you choose. Your church. Your community. Your fellow workers.

You can also change the words within the context of the meanings of each portion of this prayer. And remember the words of Jesus from Mark’s Gospel: When you pray for something, “Believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

It does not have to be the Prayer of Jabez, but however you pray, do so regularly every day and you will be amazed at the transformation that will take place in your life, in your family, and in your Young Living business.

This is the secret to achieving any goal you set. And if you choose Diamond as your goal, this is the way you will grow into the dazzling personality that you are, the person who will walk across the Young Living stage and accept your trophy and your plaque, inscribed with your name as a Young Living Diamond, a leader who has helped thousands find a healthier happier life.

NOTE: This article is based on a presentation of the same title given by Dr. David Stewart at a seminar entitled, “One Degree of Difference,” in Paducah, Kentucky, March 25-26, 2011, which was recorded and available for sale as a CD or set of CDs from Sound Concepts, (800) 524-4195 or at www.EssentialProductInfo.com or at www.CrownDiamondTools.com.

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2. Finding a Coach to Help You to Diamond, by David Stewart, PhD

As a Network Marketing Company, your first contact from which to receive information and advice on building your Young Living Business is your Personal Sponsor. The wonderful thing about Network Marketing is that when you have questions that exceed your Sponsor’s knowledge or your Sponsor’s level of achievement, your Sponsor has a Sponsor who may know more or who has achieved a higher level who can help you.

Sometimes you may have to seek your answers several levels above your sponsor, but this is okay. It is the way Network Marketing is supposed to work. No matter what your need for information or guidance, someone in your upline will almost always have the answers for you and is eager and glad to share them with you.

Sometimes it is nice to have a personal coach to spend time with you in training you to reach your Young Living goals. Such coaches are hard to find and may not be in your upline. While your upline will counsel you for free, since the growth of your business benefits their business too, coaches from other lines charge fees for their services.

One coach I have engaged myself, and whom I hold in high regard, is Monica Goldberg, a Young Living Platinum. Monica went from Silver to Gold to Platinum in four months during 2010 and is on her way to Diamond. Monica obviously knows how to build a successful Young Living Business, and how to do it efficiently and in minimum time. When she worked with me, I engaged her services in four one-hour-long telephone consultations spaced out over a two month period. Her advice and guidance to me have been invaluable. My Young Living Business has grown exponentially ever since.

If you wish to benefit from Monica’s wisdom and experience in building your own Young Living business, she lives in Wisconsin and may be reached by phone at (608) 629-6555

Her coaching sessions are interactive and with each session she assigns you things to do to practice what you have learned and so you will be prepared for the next session. Monica also has some excellent training CDs for sale.