Mentoring Men for the Master

HOW THE HOLY SPIRIT TAUGHT ME TO DISCIPLINE MY LIFE

What is the key to living a victorious and useful life?  Many answers have been given.  Some say, “Prayer is the key.”  Others say, “Consistent Bible Study,”  “Dependence on the Holy Spirit,”  “Personal soul winning,”  or “Faithfulness.”

But there is something which must precede all of these things.  What is that?  Discipline.  Discipline must precede the common devotions of the Christian life.    Before you can prevail in prayer or internalize the Word  or be an effective soul winner, you must have discipline in your life. When Jesus called His disciples to follow Him, He did not say, “If any man would follow Me, he must  pray, read his Bible, etc.”  But Jesus said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Matthew 16:24).  This word of Jesus is found in all four Gospels:  Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23; John 12:2 5.  Jesus was saying, “Before you can follow Me, before you can live for Me, you must bring your life under my discipline.  You must quit living to please self and start living to please the Savior.”

So I want to talk about the important business of discipline.   Let us consider 6 things about it:

  1. The Purpose of Discipline – is to glorify Jesus Christ in our body.
  1. The Power of Discipline – the life that is disciplined for Jesus is a powerful life.  Because you see when you discipline your life for Him, He entrusts His power to you then you will see that power in your life.  You become useful and effective.  See 1 Cor. 9:27, “But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”
  1. The Price of Discipline – First of all the body  must be disciplined.  In 1 Cor. 9:27, Paul says we must “bring under subjection,” which is the Greek word (doulagogeo) which means “to lead as a slave.”  The verb is present tense which meant Paul consistently led his body into slavery to Christ. When it is disciplined the whole life can be disciplined.  “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.  And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.  Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air.  But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”(1 Cor. 9:24-27).
  1. The Painfulness of Discipline – A denial of the path of least resistance costs us in the present but pays off in the future. So take the high road rather than the low road.  You will either make your body your slave or your body will make you its slave.  (1 Cor. 9:27).  If you would discipline your life you must walk by faith, not  by feeling.  More often than not we do not feel like engaging in spiritual exercises.  For example, we don’t feel like getting up to pray but faith tells us Jesus got up long before day to meet  with His Father and enables us to do the same.
  2. The Prize of Discipline – not to gain salvation, but to glorify God and have a powerful impact upon others, even soul winning. No one is saved by discipline.  Eternal life is the gift of God.  But the prize is the ability to win men to Christ.  This is what Paul is saying in 1 Cor. 9:27.
  3. The Process of Discipline – discipline comes from the Latin verb “Discere” which means “to learn.” It is not accomplished over night.  For the Greek athlete the training period was ten months long and some athletes in the Olympic games practiced 6 hours a day for 4 years to win gold medal.  Discipline must be constantly enforced in our lives for it is not “doing what comes naturally.” Some applicable steps to follow are:
    1. We must be guided by the Word rather than our will.
    2. We must be moved by conviction rather than convenience.
    3. We must be moved by the Holy Spirit rather than the human spirit. (Gal. 5:16).
    4. We must live by truth rather than for thrills.
    5. We must have our eyes on the eternal rather than the ephemeral.
    6. We must desire God’s wonderful purpose for our lives and recognize that it is more important than our pleasure.

Why I chose to teach on Discipline?  The answer follows:

Our first module  ends on July 8th, 2011.  This means we have only one more session after this week.  Our purpose has been to acquaint you with 10 Imperatives you must follow in order to be  A Real Man – a godly husband, godly father, godly church member, godly Christian business man, Christian citizen, etc.  You know as well as I that in order to obey t he 10 “Imperatives,” we must live a disciplined life.

But how do we live a disciplined life in a culture marked by “Hurry, Worry, Bury?”  It is not easy, and it takes time to learn.  I have been seeking to learn and live a discipline life, including the discipline of my physical body, for many years.  I am far from perfect, but the Lord has taught me enough that I have found an incredible power for the living of these days.  So I thought the Holy Spirit spoke to  my heart this morning, (June 27th about 9 AM) and told me to teach this Friday and Saturday on “The Power of a Disciplined Life” and humbly illustrate from life what a disciplined life looks like.  Of course, the basis of my message will be clearly from the Bible, which is the supreme authority on discipline in the history of the human race.  I urge you to come to these sessions and especially if you are struggling to obey the 10 Imperatives.  And if you have missed any sessions, this will be a time for “Catch-up”.