Transcription
Our theme for the convention is shining without blemish. I'm speaking to sons and daughters who are destined by God for greatness. I want you to realize that you carry a divine agenda. There are certain things God has written about you in his book of destiny.
Psalm 139:16, even before you were born, God had written in his book that which he will do. And I want you to realize that the timing of God's purpose for your life is what determines when you will be born. So whatever is your birthday, that's the beginning. Add 120 years, and that shows you the duration for your for different phases of God's purpose for your life. Within those 120 years are your season of preparation, and afterwards, there's a season of manifestation. And the seasons of manifestation are often in phases, shining without blemish, protecting your great future through self-control.
In 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (Living Bible), it says, "In a race, everyone runs, but only one person gets first prize. So run your race to win. To win the contest, you must deny yourselves. To win the contest, you must deny yourselves many things that will keep you from doing your best. An athlete goes to all this trouble just to win a blue ribbon or a silver cup. But we do it for heavenly reward that never disappears." Verse 26: "So I run straight to the goal without purpose in every step. I fight to win. I'm not just shadow boxing or playing around like an athlete. I punish my body, treating it roughly, training it to do what it should do, what it should, not what it wants. Otherwise, I fear that after enlisting others for the race, I myself be declared unfit and ordered to stand aside."
In all the different parts of God's purpose for your life, you will always make it in Jesus' name. Amen.
Now, you must realize that winning the race of destiny requires focus. It requires discipline. Self-discipline is the assertion of your willpower over your desires. And it is synonymous with self-control. So, we're going to throw light on self-discipline, self-control, and self-restraint. Self-discipline will enable you to break negative habits that can prevent you from winning your race.
Now, there are some exclusive personal responsibilities, important issues of life you must personally handle. And take note of this: No matter how much your parents, your pastors, your mentors, your teachers, your friends, or loved ones try to help you to get things done. There are still some specific things that cannot be done on your behalf. There are some things that your parents, family, or friends cannot do on your behalf. There are some things that if you do not personally get them done, nobody can get it done for you. And one of them is self-control. This involves abstinence from certain vices and bad habits.
In Proverbs 22:6, "So teach a child the way he should go, and when he is old, he shall not depart from it." Your personal character is ultimately determined by your level of self-discipline. Your attitude to vital people in your in destiny in your life is ultimately determined by you. Parents will teach you, will train you, will mentor you, will correct you, will advise you. But what you would ultimately do lies in your hands. You may be compelled to do the right things for some time, but ultimately, what you will do would depend on your personal decision.
So you are the ultimate determinant of how you choose to use your tongue. For instance, the kind of things you say, even the tone of your voice when speaking with certain people. For instance, talking rudely, talking disrespectfully, frequent lies, pretense, deceit.
Now listen to this: Statistically, the biggest indicator of success by age 32 is having self-control at age 12. This is the discovery of a very, very extensive research. Statistically, the biggest indicator of success by age 32 is having self-control at the age of 12.
What is self-discipline? It is the ability to compel yourself to consistently do certain things that you are supposed to do without someone else compelling you to do them. Self-discipline is the ability to compel yourself to do consistently to consistently do certain things that you are supposed to do without someone else compelling you to do them. It is also the ability to compel yourself to do certain things at the exact time you are supposed to do it. Reading on time, not at the last minute. Preparing on time.
Self-discipline is the ability to consistently restrain yourself from doing something that you are not supposed to do without someone else having to restrain you from doing it. Gradually, gradually, you'll come into that realm and phase of life where you'll be left alone. You will be alone at the beginning, privately and secretly, later on publicly. Then you'll be expected to restrain yourself from certain things without anyone having to compel you to do that. And whether or not you have self-discipline will be demonstrated at such times.
So self-discipline is the ability to manage your thoughts, your emotions, your behavior in order to achieve certain goals. And you'll do this by resisting immediate pleasure or temptations. Hallelujah.
And then self-control. They're quite identical. Self-control is the ability to manage your emotions and behavior to also achieve long-term goals. Like self-discipline, it involves resisting temptation, delaying gratification. Whether or not you are self-disciplined will reflect if you have started saving and you are good at saving. Regulating responses to achieve desired goals or outcomes.
Self-restraint is the ability to control your own feelings and desires to avoid doing or saying something that you ought not to do. It's very synonymous with self-control and involves stopping yourself from acting on immediate ones, immediate needs or desires to choose a more rational or beneficial action.
Galatians 5:16-17 (Living Bible) says, "I advise you to obey only the Holy Spirit's instructions. He will tell you where to go and what to do, and then you won't always be doing the wrong things your evil nature wants you to do." So there's always a battle within every human vessel between the flesh and the desires of the flesh and the desire of the Holy Spirit. Verse 17: "For we naturally love to do evil things that are just the opposite from the things that the Holy Spirit tells us to do. And the good things we want to do when the Spirit has his way with us are just the opposite of our natural desires. These two forces within us are constantly fighting each other to win control over us, and our wishes are never free from their pressures."
Now, this is internal pressure, and there's also you are going to be exposed to a lot of external pressure, and it is already happening with many of you. One of the reasons why every year people come up with New Year resolutions and they don't eventually achieve them is because of lack of self-discipline. Of course, there are other factors, but lack of self-discipline is one of the major factors.
Now, I want you to quickly look at a man called Daniel, who started manifesting positive character traits from a very, very young age. In fact, in his teenage years, and you can see that much later in life because he had already started cultivating the habit of self-control, self-discipline in his teenage years. Later on, he had built a very, very strong character. And in Daniel chapter 6, something interesting happened.
Daniel chapter 6:4 (Amplified Bible) says, "Then the other two commissioners and the satraps began trying to find a reason to bring a complaint against Daniel concerning the administration of the kingdom, but they could find no reason for an accusation or evidence of corruption because he was faithful, a man of high moral character and personal integrity, more than ever before." This is what is being intentionally downplayed in the society, and the church has a big responsibility to ensure that these virtues are properly embedded in the lives of all our sons and daughters.
On time, said they found him because he was a faithful, a man. He was faithful, a man of high moral character and personal integrity, and no negligence or corruption of any kind was found in him. Everywhere you will go, God will enable you to have a good testimony. Amen. In the name of Jesus Christ.
As I speak right now, are these character strengths not already manifesting in the lives of some of you? Are these not the same things that you are being commended for already? I want to encourage you to please keep it up because in the days ahead, this is what is going to separate you from very intelligent people. Because by the time you begin to rise in the journey of life, you'll find many intelligent people. But one factor that will separate even the intelligent will be the factor of strength of character. Strength of character.
Can I quickly put something across to you that affects you very more consistently, and that's this issue of habits? A habit is something you do consistently, either consciously or unconsciously. Something you are used to doing from time to time. Habits exist in every area of life and character. So in your spiritual, in your spiritual life, there are some habits you must cultivate. Moral life, in the realm of personal hygiene, fashion, dressing, personal attitude, how you relate with other people. Do you have a habit of always greeting people first? That's a good one. Your attitude to time and appointment. The use of your tongue. For instance, choice of words, frequent use of positive or negative words.
Then habits also manifest in the realm of finances. They're what we call expensive habits. Expensive habits. And that has to do with spending so much on certain things that could be above an acceptable level. Sometimes, even when you have the money, it may not be the wisest thing to spend so much on such things frequently.
Now, there are good or bad habits. They are positive or negative habits. Habits have a lot of impact on the lives of people in the long run. Habits have been discovered to be a great catalyst for success in different areas of life. For instance, good habits can enhance a person's success and prospects. Good habits. On the other hand, bad habits can hinder or abort someone's potentials in life.
If you sit and discuss with your parents, they will tell you, teachers will tell you observations they made of certain classmates in secondary school who were doing exceptionally very well, some academically, some in some areas of talent like sports, and they had that clear potential to become world-class stars in the process of time. In fact, some of them were already attaining the level of national stars in some capacity, maybe academic or sports, while in secondary school. But unfortunately, that great potential that still had so much to offer, that still could propel them to greater heights in life, that potential was aborted as a result of some destructive habits. For some of them, it was drinking alcohol. For some of them, it was smoking. For some of them, it was sexual sins. For some of them, it was gambling. For some of them, it was wrong association with bad friends, with bad seniors, with bad mentors. So bad habits can hinder someone's potentials in life. It can even abort someone's potentials that is already manifesting positively.
Good habits can enhance the promotion of a person. Good habits can enhance your promotion. There are things you, if you do it intentionally and consistently, you will attain certain levels of success that is even that is predictable. That is why a good school would intentionally groom the students to do certain things together consistently, and there is always a predictable outcome in the results of students from such a school. On the other hand, bad habits can bring about the downfall of a person, of a star, including imagining stars. Bad habits can bring about avoidable setbacks. Avoidable setbacks. There's nothing as painful as that in the journey of life. Sometimes things will happen, unpleasant things will happen. But one of those things we don't want to experience are things we could easily have avoided. Avoidable setbacks. And most of the time, young men and women expose themselves to major setbacks that could easily have been completely avoided if they had taken certain decisions, made certain choices, or avoided clearly avoided certain parts or relationships.
Hear this: Your future can often be predicted by the kind of habits you consistently engage in. Your future, your tomorrow can often be predicted by the kind of habits you consistently engage in. The potential success or promotion of many people can be predicted by their current habits. Can be predicted by their current habits. And in the same vein, the potential failure or downfall of many people can be predicted by their current habits. Bad habits lead to aborted destinies. Bad habits lead to unrealized potentials. So we've seen many young boys, many young girls that were potential stars, but their bright prospects and great potentials were cut short due to bad habits and lack of self-discipline. You will never be in this group in the name of Jesus. Amen.
So your future is largely determined by your habits, and you have the choice between positive or negative habits to adopt. So in this second part of the message, we're looking now on lack of self-discipline, lack of self-control.
Lack of self-discipline is when you know what you are supposed to do, yet you fail to compel yourself. I intentionally will include that word, compel. You fail to compel yourself to do it as often as required or at the right, at the exact time. I take that again. Lack of self-discipline is when you know what you are supposed to do, yet you fail to compel yourself to do it as often as required or at the exact time. Secondly, lack of self-discipline is when you know what you are not supposed to do. You know what you are not supposed to do, yet you fail to restrain yourself from doing it on a consistent basis.
So some restrain themselves sometimes, and just once or twice. Once or twice, we've seen situations where a virgin, through the teenage years, through the age of 20, through age 25, and just one night of fondling with someone that she was not married to, she was still a a single. Just one night, and that she lost her virginity and she got pregnant. Just once. Just once. So many times, just once that someone could do the wrong thing could expose that person to the ultimate damage that comes from indulgence in that particular thing.
Someone can be described, described as guilty of lack of self-discipline when he knows what needs to be achieved, yet he personally fails to do it that way or within that strategic timeline. He fails to do what is necessary to achieve that goal within the strategic timeline.
Proverbs 14:1 (Amplified Bible) says, "The wise woman builds her house on a foundation of godly precepts, and her household strives, but the foolish one who lacks spiritual insight tears it down with her own hands by ignoring godly principles." Another version says, "by her actions."
So what's the lesson from Proverbs 14:1? Without self-discipline, you can use your own hands or actions to hinder yourself. You can use your own hands, your own actions to cause avoidable problems. I pray you won't cause problems for your family. You won't cause problems for your school. Instead, you will be a consistent instrument of joyful testimonies. You will win prizes and bring joy and honor to your family and school in the name of Jesus.
When you leave discipline out of your habits, they can ruin a person. Things like smoking, heavy drinking, drug abuse, lying, cheating, gossiping, uncontrollable eating are habits that you need self-discipline to break. Self-discipline is a learned skill that requires effort. It requires practice and the consistent application of small, focused actions to build strong faith.
I want to let you know that you are carrying, you are carrying a glorious destiny, a great destiny. You are in the phase of preparation. And any time from now, you'll be entering into the phase of global manifestation. Amen. God's purpose for your life will be fulfilled. Amen. You will not fall along the way due to lack of self-control. Whatever is that weakness, the Lord will break that yoke today.