Living a Disciplined Life

Living a Disciplined LifeDr. Frederick K.C. Price No one can be successful in ministry who is undisciplined. There are too many undisciplined pastors, too many undisciplined evangelists, too many undisciplined ministers of the gospel. To be successful, one must be disciplined! In I Corinthians 9:27, Paul says:But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.Notice what Paul tells us here: But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection.... The "I" that Paul is talking about is the spirit man on the inside. "I" is the real you. "I" is the you that has been born again. Your body is not you. You are not flesh and blood.Have you ever heard someone say, "Well, what do you expect? I am only flesh and blood. What do you want me to do, be an angel or something? I'm just flesh and blood."You are not flesh and blood. You are a spirit! You have a flesh and blood body, but you are not flesh and blood. Flesh and blood is where you live. You are a spirit made in the image of God.The great Apostle Paul said that he kept his body under and brought it into subjection. That tells me that the body is out of subjection, and if I do not bring my body in line, it will stay out of subjection.Notice what Paul did not say: He did not say, "I put my body under." If he had said that, he would only have to do it one time. But he said, "I keep my body under." The reason he had to keep it under was because it wanted to get out from under--the same way your body does. And if you do not keep that sucker under, it will get out from under and do something it is not supposed to do. Unfortunately, we hear about it getting out from under all the time in the ministry fraternity.A minister of God has to be disciplined, and it starts with the flesh. If you cannot discipline your body, you will not discipline your spirit. You cannot! It is impossible! You cannot see your spirit, yet you are looking at your body every day, and it will get out of control if you let it. How are you going to control something you cannot even see?You have a body that you are looking at all the time, you haul it around, you push it in and out of cars, you feed it, you are stuffing it, undershirt it, you shave it, you spray cologne on it, you deodorize it, you bathe it; and sometimes it gets out of control--while you are looking at it every five minutes! How are you going to control your spirit that you have not even seen?Paul said, but I keep under my body and bring it screaming and hollering into subject, because screaming and hollering is what it will do. It does not want to conform to God's Word. It is not subject to the laws of God. You have to bring it into submission and keep it there.If you want to be successful, you have to discipline yourself. And it starts with your body. If God cannot trust you with the house you live in, why would He give you 5,000 church members?It costs something to be disciplined. It will make you scream sometimes. It will make you holler sometimes, because your body does not want to conform, but you have to make it conform and bring it into subjection. Subjection to what? To the Word of God and to your own recreated spirit. It does not work automatically; you have to stay with it all the time.I like to eat. I love good food. I particularly enjoy ice cream. Sometimes I will get a craving for it just as they say some women who are pregnant have a craving for some particular food item. Sometimes when I get that craving, just to let the devil know that I am in control, I will deny myself, and I will refuse to eat it. I tell my body, "I am in control--me, the spirit man. The man on the inside is in control. Body, you do not control me!" No ice cream is going to have me crawling the walls at midnight trying to find a fix, like some preachers do with cigarettes.I will say it again, because it bears repetition: A disciplined life is what you have to have in order to be successful in your Christian life, as well as in the ministry!