The two words “discipline” and “discipleship” both have the same meaning in English. To be disciplined by the Lord is tantamount to being discipled by our Lord Jesus Christ.
This basically means that the goal of every Christian discipline is to make us just like Jesus on this earth, doing what He did and speaking as He spoke. Being able to do this however requires us to be making daily sacrifices in our Christian walk with Him, so as to be able to studiously follow in His footsteps.
Making daily sacrifices does not mean death to the physical body. No one will be able to serve God on this earth with a physical body that is dead. But God does require us to be making living daily sacrifices to Him instead of the dead ones, which are completely deficient of the new creation life in Christ Jesus (see Romans 12:1).
A Christian who is not prepared to be making living sacrifices in his daily walk with the Lord cannot bear spiritual fruit. This explains why some Christians are not bearing any spiritual fruit at all, even though they are saved.
There are many who are not bearing spiritual fruit in their Christian lives, primarily because they don’t want to make sacrifices so as to be transformed into the image of Christ. They profess to know God, but they don’t want to be making any sacrifice at all in their Christian lives, which can eventually enable them to know Him more intimately in their Christian walk.
The Lord God wants all of His children to be bearing spiritual fruit. And since God is a Spirit, there is no shortcut to knowing Him more without bearing spiritual fruit. Our ability to bear spiritual fruit opens the door of intimate communication with Him.
As the scripture says about those without spiritual fruit:
“They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.”
Titus 1:16 NKJV
These are Christians who don’t want to be qualified for the high prize before the Father in Heaven. They have disqualified themselves for anything in the Kingdom of God, since their disobedient and obstinate attitude towards the things of God has defiled them. They have rendered themselves redundant in God’s Kingdom, through the absence of spiritual fruit in their lives.
A Christian must be prepared to deny himself of certain things in life, that are actually impeding his spiritual growth, for the purpose of being just like Jesus. He must be willing to get rid of his old lifestyle completely. He must be willing to identify himself with Christ Jesus through His sufferings on the cross, for His resurrection power to be manifested in him.
The Apostle Paul said about himself:
“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Galatians 2:20 NKJV
The process of self-crucifixion for the purpose of being disciplined by the Lord produces the glory of Christ in us. We can truly say that we are his disciples when we are doing this on a daily basis. It’s meant to make us look more like Jesus on the earth, as we are doing what He did in glorifying the Father.
Jesus said as He prayed these words to the Father in Heaven before His crucifixion:
.. “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”
John 17:1b, 4-5 NKJV
Without the crucifixion Christ Jesus would not have been glorified. He finished His work on the earth on the cross at Calvary, before the Father had to glorify Him by raising Him from the dead. God is seeking to be glorified in the lives of everyone of His children on the earth today also.
That’s why Jesus continued before the Father in prayer by saying:
“And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”
John 17:22-24 NKJV
The process through which Jesus shares His glory with us on the earth today is first of all, by disciplining us to be walking in obedience to His written word. And secondly, by directly teaching us with specific instructions and directions, how to keep on walking in obedience to His Spirit.
A Christian who is not ready to obey God’s word and His Spirit cannot be His disciple. A lot of people do so much talk about their Christian commitments, but it’s not everybody who is actually doing the walking of the talk in glorifying Him.
The Christian who is waiting on the Lord to do something for him, may be thinking that his prayers are taking a long time to get answered by the Lord. But in reality, that Christian is actually being discipled or disciplined by the Lord, as he is waiting on Him.
Christian discipline can take a long time, as God is looking at the commitment of our hearts to it. He is looking at us on the inside and not necessarily what we are doing outwardly (1 Samuel 16:7).
He is looking at us through the intent of our hearts. Are you seeking His glory or the glory of men in your prayers before Him?
The Lord had said:
“I am the Lord, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another, Nor My praise to carved images.”
Isaiah 42:8 NKJV
There are some who are seeking to please themselves and their flesh as they are waiting on the Lord to answer their prayers. But unfortunately for them God will never respond to stupid and selfish prayers. Prayers that are not glorifying the Lord God will only glorify the devil and the uncrucified flesh in men.
Our ability to wait on Him enables us to develop a much more and fruitful relationship with Him. This is for our own good. It’s not only for the purpose of renewing our strength, but it is also for us to know Him much more intimately than we knew Him before.
Perseverance in prayer produces disciplined Christians.
The Apostle Paul described our ability to wait for the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise to us with these words:
“But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.”
Romans 8:25 NKJV
The Amplified Bible Translation says it like this:
“But if we hope for what is still unseen by us, we wait for it with patience and composure.”
Romans 8:25 AMPC
Christian perseverance is basically our ability to wait patiently, with the right composure or attitude of our hearts before the Lord. A lot of people do know how to wait, but it’s not everyone who is waiting that has the right composure before the Lord.
A positive composure in this sense requires us not to do anything at all, in bringing the promise of the Lord to come to pass for us, apart from being thankful and praising Him, as we are waiting on Him. He is faithful and He will bring His word to come to pass for us.
Therefore, we are only waiting for the Lord to do what He has promised by exercising our faith in Him. If He has promised you anything in His word, He will surely bring it to come to pass. He cannot deny Himself.
A lot of people don’t like to wait, and as a result they are doing by themselves what the Lord has promised them. They will even say that they are doing what has to be done, in order to bring God’s word to come to pass. And this is where they are mistaken before the Lord.
For example, if the Lord has given you specific instruction or direction that will lead to getting yourself healed; then you will have to follow through with the instruction or direction to be healed. By doing something else you may only prolong your healing process and get things complicated for yourself.
Remember that Abraham waited for twenty-five years to receive the promise of a son (Isaac). In the process of waiting, he and Sarah had tried to help God in bringing His word to come to pass. The result was the birth of Ishmael. Anytime we are trying to help God fulfill His promise, we will produce an Ishmael. It’s okay, but it’s not His very best for us (Galatians 4:22-26).
Do you want God’s very best in answer to your prayer? Or are you just being so desperate, that you don’t mind getting anything in your answer from Him?
God is not complicated. He means what He says, and He will do what He says. It’s people who are creating complications for themselves, and not God. The Christian life is never complicated either. If we are walking in obedience to His teachings, we will discover that life with Jesus is so easy and simple.
Some people have died because they are not prepared to do what the Lord had told them to do. God never took their lives. They died because of their own obstinate actions in rebellion towards God.
The problem with trying to help God in bringing His promise to pass, whenever people are jumping ahead of Him, is that they will eventually own whatever they are getting as a result of such an action. Our faith will get whatever we are waiting on Him for to us; but it will not be God’s very best, if we’re getting it done by ourselves.
Those who are patient to the end while waiting on the Lord, are often the ones who are receiving God’s very best for their lives.
Our ability to wait patiently and with a positive composure on the Lord Jesus to the end, for the fulfillment of His promises in our lives, reveals whether or not we are really His disciples.
It reveals whether or not we can be trusted by the Lord for much more than, what we are waiting on Him for. It also exposes our character through the Christian discipline, so that we are able to see ourselves just as God sees us.
This is what the Lord does for all of us as His children in disciplining us. It’s only an illegitimate child who will reject the discipline of any father on the earth, not to even mention about the discipline of our Heavenly Father.
The scriptures say:
“You must submit to [correction for the purpose of] discipline; God is dealing with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? Now if you are exempt from correction and without discipline, in which all [of God’s children] share, then you are illegitimate children and not sons [at all]. Moreover, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we submitted and respected them [for training us]; shall we not much more willingly submit to the Father of spirits, and live [by learning from His discipline]?”
Hebrews 12:7-9 AMP
As a parent you know that you have to often discipline your own children, for the purpose of correcting what is not right in their lives. It’s part of the normal training that a parent gives to the children.
It’s the same thing with God, our Heavenly Father in our relationship with Him. Godly discipline brings the very best out of our lives as God’s children, if we are submissive to it.
The Lord disciplines you daily through the local Church, as long as you are submissive to the Pastoral authorities within the Church. And most especially He disciplines us through His written word (the Bible). A Christian who is committed to reading and studying the Bible is being disciplined directly by the Lord God. The Lord brings corrections and instructions into the life of such a person, until he or she is fully established in God’s perfect will for his or her life.
And the reading and studying of God’s word requires our timely devotion to it. It is the amount of time that you are investing by reading and studying God’s word, that will determine the Christian character that God is molding in you. It’s only those who are prepared to wait patiently in His presence by doing these two things, who will eventually get His very best.
The Lord God sees through our dedication to such spiritual activities, as the sign that we are His yielded vessels, who can be entrusted with more things from above. It takes a Christian who can persevere to be able to do such things.
The Apostle James described such a Christian with these words:
“But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”
James 1:25 NKJV
In other words, there is a blessing for waiting on God’s promises to come to pass for us. It’s part of the Christian discipline that positions us for the very best from the Lord.
The Christian who is reading and studying God’s word continually can’t ever be forgetful of what it says. He is not necessarily memorizing the holy scriptures; but the Holy Spirit is planting the seed of God’s word in his life. He is the Christian who finds it very easy to obey God’s word every day, because God’s word is alive in him.
Obedience to God’s word in this way gives you the spiritual strength, to be able to stand strong in your freedom as a child of God. You will become a free doer of God’s word, who is never concerned about what the world says or thinks about him.
Faith makes things real while we’re waiting.
The Bible says:
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Hebrews 11:1 NKJV
The unseen as pointed out here is a reference to the materialization of, what we have received as a promise from the Lord. In other words, if we are truly waiting on the Lord for anything at all, we do need a confident hope or expectation in Him, to bring His word to do what He has promised.
A lack of confidence hope in the Lord will derail the fulfillment of His promise to us. God is never delaying the fulfillment of His promises for His children. In many ways He is waiting on us to position ourselves to receive what He has promised us.
For:
“The Lord is good to those who wait [confidently] for Him, To those who seek Him [on the authority of God’s word].”
Lamentations 3:25 AMP
God shows His goodness in the lives of those who are confidently waiting for His word to do what He says.
Our ability to wait on Him is therefore part of the Christian discipline, that is required of us to be able to possess our possessions in Christ Jesus.
God will never give His pearl or precious gem to anyone, who is not well disciplined and proven to be faithfully committed to His way of doing things in His Kingdom (Matthew 7:6). It’s just as any parent will not give an inheritance to a child, who has not been properly trained and groomed to handle it.
A Christian who is not ready to submit to scriptural and Church discipline cannot be a trusted disciple of Jesus Christ. God is looking for those who are submissive to the discipline of His Word and earthly spiritual authorities.
They are the ones upon whom He is pouring out His Spirit. And they are the ones who are constantly bearing spiritual fruit to His glory.
But it’s our spiritual posture as we are standing on His promises that determines whether or not, we are ready to receive or walk in the manifestation of His promises to us.
That’s why the Prophet Isaiah said:
“ .. If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.”
Isaiah 7:9b NIV
If you are not standing firmly on the profession of your faith in God’s promises, you will never be able to stand at all. You will have to open your mouth to be speaking what the Lord has promised you daily.
The forces of evil are always there to make sure that you are not standing at all on God’s promises. They are there to make sure that, you are not speaking about the promises of God. That’s what they are doing to prevent you from waiting on the Lord. Their goal is to hinder you from inheriting the promises of God by doing this.
There are many forces of evil that are against you right now. And many of them are not even revealed to you yet.
However, the more you are getting aggressive in the proclamation of those promises, the more they will begin to reveal themselves to you from all directions.
And as they are being revealed to you, you will have to use your faith with your spiritual authority to deal with them. This is not the time to be ignoring them, or to be keeping quiet about them and their activities. It’s the time to deal with them with your mouth wide open, by resisting them with faith filled words.
This is where a believer’s ability to stand in the face of opposition, is vital to his ability to possess his possessions in Christ Jesus.
We can cry out to God in prayer for anything in life, but He will never make our proclamations of faith for us. It’s up to each one of us, as believers in Christ Jesus, to open the mouth in declaring His promises.
The mouth is the gateway into the supernatural. It’s with the mouth that whatever’s unseen is made to manifest in the power of God.
As we are declaring His promises, we are releasing the power of God with the mouth, in bringing what’s on our hearts into manifestation.
Thereafter we will begin to wait in His presence, until we receive the manifestation of those promises.
Waiting on the Lord for answered prayers requires spiritual discipline. A Christian who cannot wait on the Lord for answered prayers is not spiritually disciplined. He is still a baby Christian.
On certain occasions I had received prophetic words to be declaring over the nations, certain communities and individuals. And in those moments the Lord had led me into various forms of spiritual warfare, over the lives of peoples, nations and communities to whom the word of the Lord had been sent.
And I have often observed that the leading of the Lord into such spiritual warfare were actually for His discipline, corrections and instructions for them, and sometimes for me personally as well. Good and effective spiritual warfare can be waged in this manner, for the purpose of establishing God’s will in the lives of peoples and over the nations.
It’s the simple things that we are doing in obedience to God’s word, that matters most before Him. He uses the simplicity of our faith with corresponding actions to bring His word to come to pass in our lives.
How are you yielding in your Christian life to the discipline of the Lord, while you’re waiting on Him to do what He has promised you?
No matter what it takes, keep on waiting and remain submissive to His discipline. He is in the process of bringing the very best out of your life into manifestation and for His glory. Keep waiting on the Lord! He is faithful! He will never fail or disappoint you!
