“He redeemed us so that the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus.”
Galatians 3:14 CEB
In recent weeks, we’ve been learning about the process of spiritual maturation and why it’s important.
As an athlete submits to the discipline of a coach, so should we submit ourselves to the disciplines of spiritual maturity.
Paul wrote about this very thing in his first letter to the Corinthians:
“I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”
1 Corinthians 9:27
Your gifts may take you to the head of the line, but only your character will keep you there.
And it is submitting to discipline that will develop your character. It requires the submission of your mind, will, and emotions to a higher authority.
But we’re not talking about someone being fearful:
We’re talking about moving from fear to focus.
Focus requires discipline. It requires you to take responsibility for your choices and have the personal integrity to own the outcomes that result.
It is the process that refines and matures you in preparation for greater power.
Learn more this Thursday at 7pm during our next LIVE 4 Points Broadcast!
The quality of your character will determine not only how far you go in life—but the level of authority and influence you will be able to exercise.
This is why submission has nothing to do with what you have to lose, but everything to do with what you have to gain; it is not about inferiority but about superiority.
When you begin to mature, you begin to take your personal power back.
It is when you begin to mature spiritually that you learn to stop blaming the devil.
You learn that you always have options. You always have the power to choose.
Focus is not only your ability to choose what you will pay attention to—but also how you will act as well as react to circumstances regardless of how you feel.
It’s the ability to trust God in the process of your spiritual development.
Focus is a discipline that requires faith.
Faith isn’t always a matter of “letting go and letting God,” but the character-refining practice of self-discipline.
To be faithful is to exercise self-control in all things, to run your race in order to win it (see 1 Cor. 9:25, 24), to press toward that high mark (see Phil. 3:14).
“So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control.”
1 Corinthians 9:26-27
Great men and women of God don’t make excuses. They don’t blame their circumstances or find fault with other people. They own every outcome.
Think of David as he was called out for his sin with Bathsheba. He didn’t blame her for seducing him, or that he was lonely and needed companionship, he took full ownership.
“Against you, and you alone, have I sinned;
I have done what is evil in your sight.
You will be proved right in what you say,
and your judgment against me is just.”
Psalm 51:4 NLT
He admitted that he had willed to do whatever he had done.
You must come to a place where you understand that most things have happened to you because you willed it—and is precisely why…
You must understand the power of your will and how to make it submit to your greater purpose!
You always have a choice—you are always in control of your decisions.
It is up to you, through prayer, to submit your will to God’s greater purpose just as Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane.
“Yet not my will, but Yours be done.”
Luke 22:42 NIV
If you fail to embrace the protocol of submission, you sabotage your own greatness and forfeit your future authority, wealth, influence, and prosperity.
Protocol is the process that brings excellence into your life and allows you to operate in an elevated mental space for higher levels of performance.
Protocol elevates you into the realm of greatness, influence, and authority.
The protocol of submission requires the discipline of spirit, the subjection of will, and the refinement of character.
If you jump over this stage, or resist or walk away from it, you’ll sabotage your success.
God wants to bring you through the maturation process so that you can have full access to your inheritance, including all of the blessings of Abraham that were obtained through the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross.
I release the blessing of Abraham and decree its coming upon your life!
The blessing of Abraham includes many things—from intellectual property to an influential name to extraordinary favor and wisdom to unparalleled performance and networks to scandalous wealth—all of which you can learn more about by listening here.
But when it comes to your inheritance, it’s not only the blessings of Abraham but also dominion over a variety of kingdoms, systems, and institutions within the realm we call earth.
“Today I have put you in charge of nations and kingdoms. You will pull up and tear down, destroy and overthrow, build up and plant.”
Jeremiah 1:10 NCV
That means you are in a position to influence every system and institution from education to defense to government to health to media and entertainment—everything having to do with culture, society, and what defines a nation.
I pray you will not abort this stage, because if you do, you will never have access to the new realms of influence and blessing God is moving you into…
And you will never become the history maker the world needs you to be.
“May God Almighty bless you,
And make you fruitful and multiply you,
That you may be an assembly of peoples;
And give you the blessing of Abraham,
To you and your descendants with you,
That you may inherit the land
In which you are a stranger,
Which God gave to Abraham.”
Genesis 28:3-4 NKJV