TODAY’S DEVOTION (Wednesday 26th March 2025)
“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 Corinthians 9:26-27 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 85TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF VICTORY
Today I want to share with us something I learned from the LORD through an incident that would have claimed my life. You know God teach us in different ways. Sometimes what He use a preacher to say may not make sense until you come face to face with realities of life.
You see, I have escaped premature death several times in my adult life. But this one left me with a deep lesson on discipline.
I remember this incident that happened in 1999. I have just turned 23 and have been in the ministry since 1994. We were preparing for my official commission into ministry which was billed to take place the following year.
Then I decided to visit North Central Nigeria for a personal prayer retreat. I was hosted by a beloved pastor who had visited our Church few months before. I took the opportunity to write my first book “Power to Become”.
I usually visit the Church auditorium of one of the largest Churches in North Central Nigeria to capture the thoughts God was giving me for this book.
One day I finished writing a portion of the book and was on my way to my host’s house when this happened. I was walking by the roadside to view the city when a passenger bus failed brakes and started coming towards me. I saw it quick enough to jump away from this vehicle that had lost control.
Sadly, someone died in the vehicle, but I escaped being killed. Then it downed on me that if our lives lack “brakes” we will be running out of control like that vehicle and always be making very fatal mistakes of life.
A life without brakes is sometimes worse than a vehicle without brakes. A vehicle without breaks could kill just one person but a life without breaks will always wipe out a generation. It will do things that unborn generations will be born to weep about. Whenever destiny people do not know when to apply the brakes of life, they will defeat their destiny.
Whenever they do not know when to stop, they will be stopped by the consequences of their actions. Whenever they do not know when to stop showing contempt, stop sinning against the LORD, stop going towards the wrong direction in life, they will come into a season where they reap the consequences of their actions.
GOD DOES NOT WANT OUR LACK OF DISCRETION TO DESTROY US.
He did not create anyone without discretion or brakes. It’s just that most of us do not use them. We all have the brakes of life attached to our spirits, souls and bodies. It is called self-discipline. People who do not know how to apply the brakes of self-discipline will always have some forms of satanic oppressions to live with.
There is captivity in freedom. I have taught this for many years. There is captivity in freedom to sleep with whoever you choose to sleep with, there is captivity in the freedom to eat whatever you want to eat, the freedom to marry whoever you want to marry, etc. There is captivity in freedom. You must know that and not allow your freedom to ruin you.
Indiscipline and lack of self-control will thrust a man into a dangerous freedom and turn him loosed; too loosed or free to be delivered from the yokes of his enemies. If you are not self-disciplined, you are like a vehicle without brakes.
People who lack self-discipline always do not know when to stop; they do not know when to put their bodies under. For instance, if you lack self-discipline, you will always let your anger go out of control. You will let your sexuality go out of control. You will let your carnal desires go out of control.
If any of these things go out of control in your life, you will do things that will turn out to be a ruin; sometimes a ruin that only a walk in truth will help you out of. That is why the Bible presents a life without self-discipline to be the reason for most endemic problems of life.
Most marriages break because couples lack the brakes of self-discipline. In some, you find the man doing terrible things to the woman, until she can no longer bear it. While in others, you find the woman doing terrible things to the man, until he can no longer bear it. They do not apply the discretion of self-discipline.
FRIEND, LACK OF SELF-DISCIPLINE HAS BEEN THE CURSE IN THE LIVES OF MANY MARRIED PEOPLE.
Most businesses crumble for the same reason. Most Churches split for the same reason. Most youths destroy their future for the same reason. Most anointed pastors fall into the sin of sexual perversion, adultery or fornication for the same reason. Most praying people end up with stagnant lives despite their prayers, for the same reason.
God knows if we do not have self-discipline, we will ruin ourselves. That was why he stirred Paul to write the blessed words we consider this morning as our devotional text.
The words read, “…But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”
In one of our “School of the Spirit” sessions some time back, we spent time to uncover the three basic needs of the flesh – food, sex and comfort and how to make sure they do not destroy our destiny. Most perils of life are traceable to how men handled those three things – sex, food, and comfort.
Sex for instance, has become more of a curse then the blessing God created it to be in the life of so many people due to lack of self-discipline. Homes have been broken by it, Children born outside family lines by it. Lives destroyed by it. Diseases are transmitted into many by it. We can go on and on!
If your life lacks brakes as a Child of God, you will never get to your glorious destination in God. Paul made it clear that if he did not apply the brakes of self-discipline in his life even as a preacher; he will preach to others and be rejected before God!
In other words, he will not get to his destination, which is eternal rest with Christ. However, he lived his days putting his body under subjection and keeping his brakes functioning at an optimal level. He led a life of self-discipline and self-denial. That was why he ended well.
Friend, are the brakes of your life functioning? Failed brakes are dangerous. Are you functioning? Do you know when to put your body under so that it will not rob you of great blessings?
If Samson had applied his breaks when he met Delilah, he won’t have died the way he died. If David had applied his brakes when his eyes caught a naked woman bathing, he would not have killed a man and married his wife. If Abraham had applied his brakes when Sarah, his wife, suggested that he sleep with Hagar, her maid, there would be no Ishmael in his life.
Do you have something you are not applying your brakes on? God sent this word to prevent us from ruining our lives. Now, bow your head in prayer and repent like Samson, David and the rest did. Ask the LORD to show you mercy and grant you a swift intervention.
Don’t forget, the sacrifices of God are a broken heart. A broken and a contrite heart God will not despise. Seek His mercy and He will give you a fresh start!
Also, if the brakes of your life are completely damaged; if you do not have self-discipline, you can ask the LORD to impart it into you.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY.
“For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” Ezekiel 36:24-27 NKJV