As we studied yesterday, the "Great Commission is not just making converts, but making disciples. The word disciple means "student." It also means "disciplined one." Both apply to our lives in Christ.
When we come to the Lord we become a lifelong student. As we read in I Corinthians 2:10, "... for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God." Because this is the Spirit's nature, if the Holy Spirit is leading us we too will always be searching to know the Lord deeper. We will be compelled to know His ways, not just His acts. True Christianity and shallowness are contradictory to each other.
Because the word "disciple" also means "a disciplined one," II Timothy 1:7 declares, "For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline." Few think of discipline as a fruit or gift of the Spirit, but it is very basic to the nature of the Spirit that we have been given. If we live by the Spirit we will be a disciplined people. This denotes controlling ourselves with focus and purpose. That is why "self-control" is listed as a fruit of the Spirit (see Galatians 5:22-24).
In I Timothy 4:7-8 we are told to "discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come." Nothing of significance has most likely ever been accomplished without discipline. If we will discipline ourselves in Christ we will accomplish things that will bear eternal fruit. If we want to do anything of significance we must seize and apply the great power that is released through discipline.
I have been told a few times by friends who have known me from childhood that they cannot understand how I ever accomplished the things that I have. I understand their perplexity. Many of them are smarter than I am, and much more gifted, yet they languish in jobs they hate while I am doing the kind of things they dream about. Why? Though I was a failure in school, and seemed destined to a life of failure, when I was born again I was given the gift of discipline. Something gripped me so that I knew there was nothing more important or more fulfilling than getting to know the Lord. While others were out having fun, I stayed home and studied for years. To them it looked like I was wasting my life, but now it looks like they are the ones who were wasting their opportunity to do something significant.
It does not matter how old you are, or how many years you may have wasted, it is not too late to change. All discipline will pay off. Our discipline in the Lord will bear eternal fruit. Many would begin to live lives of great fruitfulness and fulfillment if they took just the time they now spend in front of the television and instead spent it in front of the throne of God, seeking to know Him, giving themselves to His service.
The following verses can change lives from one of defeat and discouragement into powerful demonstrations of the kingdom of God. Read them. Ponder them. Pray over them. Obey them.
For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives."
It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?
For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness.
All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness (Hebrews 12:5-11).
Do not waste your trials. They are more precious than gold. As the Lord said in Revelation 3:19: "Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; be zealous therefore, and repent."