Discipline Yourself So You Can Improve Yourself - Dr. Myles Munroe

uh I have come to appreciate a couple of challenges that we have with men and one of them is one that I had to overcome and that is the challenge of self-

discipline

for self-

improve

ment. Can you change the screen for me? Please I need my PowerPoint above please thank you write that self-

discipline

for what self-

improve

ment self-improvement that is a challenge for a man the average man finds it very difficult to undergo self-discipline to achieve self-improvement now except in the area where he feels that if it helped him earn a lot of money, in other words, the man is his priority to exert the effort.

He is more monetary. If he believes that he will get more money and, in some cases, more power over money, he will exert some effort. That's why many men would attend success seminars that promise you'll make more money or expand your earning power or promote you to positions of influence. Men are attracted to those areas in particular, but I think what's missing is what's missing. Do men need it? You have to adjust that. Men need to invest in all balanced areas of life so that they can develop in all these areas. You are an attempt. Unit.

Try writing that word. Triunity. You are a truunity. and you are a spirit in fact you are a spirit you live in a body and you have a soul that consists of your mind your will and your emotions the average man when he is young concentrates on his physical development many young men between the age of I would say that since Ages 11 to 20 become very conscious of their bodies and that's why they are drawn to athletics and sports and develop, maybe lifting weights and they want to show their physical pride and that's okay. then when they get a little older, they don't go to the gym anymore, they don't look now, but their neighbor probably has that problem, they don't do much physical exercise and then they focus on developing their career.

To do business and make money, the average man would make a plan to develop physically, go to the gym three times a day or three times a week, follow a proper eating program and most of you men have done it. plan it, then a man would plan his career, take some time off, maybe go to take some courses or go to university, take a certain specialist, an area of ​​study, get a degree, we plan our social development, but how many of you sat down and Plan your spiritual development the same way you plan your physical development and your professional development.

Do you have a plan for your spiritual development? I remember when I was much younger, as a teenager, I made the decision to mature spiritually and then I made a plan. I knew I had to do some things to make that happen. Most men develop spiritually through a mistake or somehow develop spiritually by falling into problems that they are trying to get out of, so some of them turn to God. develop spiritually but find the women in your lives the word of God says something about Jesus it says that Jesus grew when he was young in wisdom and then in statue, so you got your statue, which is the part of your physical body, wisdom that It is your intellectual part and social knowledge. that's your part of Professional Education, but then it says that he also grew, everyone says that he grew, that means he had a plan, he grew in the favor of God as a spiritual development and in the favor of man, that means he developed socially to work with people to deal with men. and women and living in a community, so Jesus was the most holistically developed man you could study and that became my role model, so I made a decision very young.

I decide okay, I have to develop spiritually, so I put myself on a plan to read the Bible every year and I was about 15 when I made that decision. I wrote a list of things I want to do. One of them was to read the Bible every year. Genesis Revelation once a year, so I had to go. and I found a program that would take me through the Bible every year and I have been reading the Bible every year now, you can imagine as a teenager at 15 how much of the Bible you don't understand, but my goal was not to understand the Bible my goal was to read the Bible and there is a difference because none of us in this room could understand the Bible, no matter how many PhDs you get, the only way to get the information you have is to read.

I discovered it when I was a teenager. that it was not my responsibility to remember what I read from the Bible, so I did not even engage in too many memory activities because I discovered when I was a young teenager when I read the Bible that it says that the Holy Spirit will bring to your memory the things you have learned, so memorizing the Bible was not my priority. I had to instill them in me because the Holy Spirit can remind me of the things I learned, which means that if I don't learn anything, He will remind me.

See the problem and so I put myself on a program as a man. I said I was going to read the Bible every year. It's been 37 years. Every year I buy a new Bible and I want to recommend it to you because when you read the Bible. Just like I did, I would underline the things that I learn and notes of the things that I understood or that I gained a little knowledge and so my Bibles would always be written with things and one of the things that I discovered is that if you keep your old Bible you can never go beyond the Revelation you have, so I kept buying a new Bible because I wanted a new revelation in every Bible reading and it has been running like clockwork because the Bible is like an onion that you have to keep peeling. layers and if you stay with an old Bible, every time you read a verse it is already marked or annotated, you still get the same thing, so when you come to the Bible fresh, you get you and the Holy Spirit and this book second.

I decided I would pray every day for at least an hour, it could be in the morning or at night, as long as I could find time. I committed to pray, that was my personal spiritual development. I still do it today since I was 15 years old. I decided to fast at least twice a year. 20 days once a year and 14 days at a time every year. I've been doing this since I was 15 years old. I continue fasting 21 days without food, only water, and 14 days eating only water. I still do that to this day. That was my regiment that I maintain, so people look at me and ask: How did you become so spiritually mature at such a young age?

How you know too much? Why are you so apparently intelligent or have so much wisdom? It's not a gift. It is a result and so, if you are going to grow spiritually as a man, you have to organize your growth in the same way that you organize

yourself

, you have to go to the gym and lift weights and jog every morning, you have to do the same. The same thing spiritually you have to organize your life and then the third thing I decided to do was read four books every month. I made that decision when I was 21 years old.

I'm 53 now, so you can figure out how many books I have. I read over the years from 21 to 53 and I read these books and try to stay committed. My most precious gift in my life with my wife and children is my library. I'm reading a book right now. I keep reading. The way here and I'll read it when I get back on my return trip, it's called The Politics of Jesus, it's a very intriguing book and I have another book waiting for me to start reading as soon as I get home for next week. so I spend at least $200 every week every month I feel it on books, it's the quality of the books I buy someone once told me how can you afford to spend so much money on books?

I told him if you think ignorance is If you think knowledge is expensive try ignorance then I told them I can't afford not to buy the books whatever you invest in you will become good in whatever you invest you will become good whatever you invest in you will become good at men, they need to invest in their development, they invest hundreds of pounds every year in sports games, so they are good at sports, they are good at knowing the names of the players, they are good at know the results, but they don't know them. something spiritual because you don't invest in that area some of you invest in clothes and I like good clothes too, you pay 200 for a shoe £300 400 for a suit and then nothing on the books if there is something this conference has to deal with Seeing your life is to anchor you again to become a heavy anchor and you have to invest in your development.

Your father never read books. You never saw him read books. So you don't feel like reading. There wasn't an environment in your house to read maybe everything. What he wanted to know was what was the cricket score, what was the football score, he had no passion for other books just a newspaper so he has no desire to read and I love the way Paul was the mentor of Timothy, Timothy said when you come to see me don't forget my books he said that in prison even in jail he was thinking about his library bring my books he says please become men who are men of the Kingdom men of the Kingdom they grow in wisdom and knowledge and in Statue yes but also in favor of God and humans people go to my website at some point and they get confused they go to my book table back there and they get confused you know I get confused because they look at my table and say what do I buy and what do they mean he has written about so many different things, different topics, how can one person do that? could you?

Can you imagine how many books I had to read in order to write those books and how diverse my reading had to be? To write a book about men, for example, I had to read between 15 and 16 books about men and do research at different universities just to get the basis for writing the book. It took me, I would say, two years to gather the material to produce this book that takes to another level of investment. I want to recommend that you invest in

yourself

, sacrifice and wear that suit a little more and buy some books this weekend, you know, Just organize your life and say look, I'm going to read at least two hours a day. chapter of a book, you will be surprised how quickly you finish that book and the amazing thing is that once you start reading your two hours, it will become so exciting that you will add another two hours that men don't read.

I don't. talking to you I'm talking to the one sitting behind you raise your right hand with me right now say Lord Lord give me discipline give me discipline to seek knowledge please change your life before Christmas Last night I saw two men, I really appreciate them. I don't know where they are but they went and bought all the books last night I autographed each one of them and I told them I said I love you you remind me of me nothing comes to you through osmosis and reading a book in which you have to get away from your friends and turn off the TV and that's hard man that remote control is a powerful Spirit yeah so I want to recommend it to you and finally I would like to say that as a man one of the things I did growing up from my teens to my 20s and 30s It's just that I always instituted what I call a daily devotional with God.

I am out of my daily devotional with God is where I got most of my revelation from. about purpose and potential, those books have sold millions of copies and are still on the top 10 bestseller list today, but mostly I came out of my time with God for years and discovered it and understand why keeping a devotional daily is very difficult. I know that if you are married it is even worse because you know that as a man you have to bring the family together and spend time together. My wife and I made the decision that we will raise our children, no one else will. do that and so we had to commit to devotions every morning with our children before they went to school, so I reduced my travel so I could be home for the first seven eight years of my children's lives.

I didn't travel much because I wanted to be home to have devotions with my son and daughter and all the morning devotions right on time at 6:00 a.m. m. and I led the devotional. I want my children to know that I am the spiritual leader, so I had to lead it so that my son and daughter could understand that this is what the man was supposed to do in their minds and I organized a devotional because there was not much to help me to create a devotional, so I created devotions for myself and took the books I had written. and I made them part of our devotional experience and each of my sons and daughters had to read a chapter of Proverbs every morning, ask questions about it, then they had to read a chapter from one of the books and we talked about it and then we would pray so that God keeps us today and brings those principles into our lives what a joy to hear my son quote me sometimes he quotes me 20 three years old I hear that I am talking to friends they are quoting me and he is quoting me about the things he learned when he was six and seven years in the devotionals they all say discipline Discipline Do you have devotion with God every day and if you are a married man with a wife, you especially need to make sure that happens and if you are a father with children you need to make sure that happens somehow you have that solving it may mean getting up a little earlier but you will have to be the one who remembers R can say I believe in my father's god my father gave me a God to believe in what I want to recommend to you are the devotionalsthat I have gathered over the last 35 years.

This is new, not even on shelves, but they are complete year-round devotionals. On each page of the devotional I put a scripture for you and your family to memorize and I also put one of those passages that I used all the years raising my family in this book and they are taken from the books that I had written so that they really learn the precepts every morning on every page it's not a long day and you can discuss it and then there's a place for you to write down what you hear yourself say in that devotion and it lasts all year long once you finish this you can buy another one and start another year so It's a complete devotion, all designed for you, you don't have to try hard, you know the hard work and you can start any day, other words you can, you can buy this today and start tomorrow morning, just start from the beginning and your year will be over When this day begins, just like that, yes, it is 365 days.

I made this to help people who have difficulty disciplining themselves. spiritual growth and disciplining your family for spiritual growth if you are a single man please get a copy of this and make it your daily discipline if you are a married man and have children especially you can make this your daily devotional and you can use it. to inspire your family to learn the principles and precepts that can help them grow. I am very happy that that young man got a book that he wanted a book. God bless you son, amen. uh I'm going to give this copy to pastor aru because he has those kids that he had to deal with and I know he's been a good father over the years, but I want to give this as a gift to you guys, it will be a great devotion host them during the coming 2008 and that is my latest release called Mil Maro devotional meditation series.

I give it to you as a gift and may God bless you and be a wonderful father as you have been throughout the years. I'll be back today to meet you, uh, but I met so many men last night and a couple of men had tears in their eyes when at the altar some of them were crying and saying how much the night before meant to them, so today I wanted to do something before begin to enter In teaching I also do one last thing and that is that I want you to meet at least three or four men to come forward and share with your brothers what you heard last night that impacted your life.

What happened inside you and that perhaps surprised you. or maybe open up some ideas that you never thought of as a man, uh, what it meant to you to be that that anchor at home or maybe your life needs to be, you know, a little more directive, um, I want maybe five brave men and just the Brave, everyone can stay seated, so I want you to come running here quickly, we have a microphone here and you have 60 seconds to tell me one thing that struck you from last night, we talked about the importance of being masculine. the base and the man are the anchor of the ship of life and we are going to continue the second part tonight, so I want you to do that in the next two seconds. 1 2 Go, can you please come and run here wherever?

You only come if you were shocked last night. I want to hear from you please, I'm going to hold the microphone and you have 60 seconds to share at least one thing that impacted you that you already learned at Manday. 2007 you will now give your name and where you are from and then state exactly and precisely what impacted you. Are you ready? Turn around. Face people. Please can you line up behind him. Okay, go, name and where you're from. my name is OC aut I was from the house of Jesus well from London right um what really bothered me yesterday one of the things was when you talked about how God put Adam to sleep in the beginning and from one person he has created more than 6.7 billion people and how Again he did that with Jesus Christ when he put him to sleep again for three days and hit him in the side and the blood came out and again from the side again from where, like from the rebels, yes, and That was amazing, just amazing. beautiful, thank you very much, my name is Sam Thompson, I am from Nigeria, I came to J's house.

One thing that really touched me yesterday was the father's name because I am 21 years old. I have never had a father who was at home with me, I was always with my mother and I realized that being a man is not just saying that I am a man, it is actually being a man for the family, knowing that this is the basis and This is what you need to do and everything you said yesterday made me realize that I have some work to do in the future and it's something I'm looking forward to naming it God on my side I'll be the best you can put your right hand on his shoulder tell him his words look at him say as a father in the faith as a father in the faith I declare I declare you are a man you are a man my name is Austin I attend Jesus what blew me away yesterday or what when you were talking about you didn't want your wife to work because when I had that idea I thought I was being an African man but I thought I didn't want my wife to work and when we got married when she was going to have a baby I told her I don't want my son to go one day I want you to stay and take care of the child that's right and he's been working and I thought I still don't want her Go, she has a career, but I need to make more money.

I need to be the anchor, so he sucked me off and I want to continue on that path. That's wonderful, so it will be. It will happen. My name is uh Larry Ayola. was raised by a very strong egia man called hund aola and in those days we were raised to believe that a man provided for the family but what was missing in that upbringing was the fact that masculinity or fatherhood is not just about providing money correctly. for family and what I got last night was basically that masculinity or fatherhood is an all-encompassing, beautiful leadership role, so you have to provide the money, you have to provide the spiritual strength, you have to provide the care, love, kindness, patience, tolerance everything yes sir and I think basically last night I left here feeling like a better man because I think I was touched by the Holy Spirit who taught me one or two things basically to be a man you really have to Look to Jesus Christ and live like him and he was complete, well done, well, give him a hand.

Wonderful to share. Hello, my name is Lee Carolyn last night. I don't know if you remember I went. I went down to the front to Have them pray for him and the spirit of God was so strong here and you know I was you know I was killed in the spirit and what I got last night in terms of God building the foundation because I was raised. because of a single mother, single mother situation, my mom raised me last night. God operated on me and as I lay on the ground I could feel that God was giving me supernatural empowerment.

He opened it up for me last night and um. heh heh heh he poured the foundation that my mother couldn't pour into me and last night you also talked about the fact that um God is going to pour the foundation and in the next few days um those foundations are I'm going to be ready and I'm, you know, super, super tired from work. I didn't really know, I really didn't know how to get here, but I thought to myself that I had to, I had to, I had to push so that you know, um, I have. all that God has for me, so praise God, put your hand on his shoulder, look him in the face, you know, when you've been bought by a mother and a woman all your life, you just never hear these words, tell him today that you are a man, today you are a man, thank you very much, I am very grateful for sharing, we like to share more because men need to listen to each other, so, if you have the opportunity to share again, do not hesitate to let us uh.

If you share tomorrow, we will have the opportunity for you to share as well and also, uh, I'm going to pray that tomorrow we will have the opportunity to have a question and answer period. I'm going to cut off a little bit of my time, I don't know, we're going to work tomorrow just so we can talk about some of the issues that we're talking about. I have some questions from you so we can interact with each other because I'm not here as an expert, I'm really here as someone who has gone ahead of many of you and I'm back to give you a little bit of what I learned and then I want to learn from you too. and so, men helping men. to become better men, that's what it's all about, amen, amen, so, let's start tonight, I want to remind, remind you that this is the second part, so, please, could you put them in your notebooks, remembering the products that we talked about last night, tonight's topic. is the second part when we talk about the title of this conference and the title or topic of the conference has to do with the anchor, so I want you to write at the top of your page and this is my second session.

I know we had some great sessions this morning. but please write this if you want strong men in difficult times the presenter strong men in difficult times the presenter are we ready guys media let's go to work thank you uh our specific focus these three days is the man the presenter write it as your subtitle the postman what is he the anchor the man the anchor building strong men in difficult times is the goal of the 2007 mandate and we left it last night defining what an anchor is that I want to pick up there as we move into session number two if you weren't here last night for please get a copy of the last session what do you guys think?

It is essential because it is the basis. What is a number one anchor? We define an anchor from the technical definition as an object that is considered. be a reliable or main support, secondly, an anchor is defined as something that serves to firmly hold an object, very important definition and, thirdly, we define an anchor as anything that provides stability and security, stability and security very important and we also observe that an anchor. It is defined as an object to which you attach something to keep it in place and something that prevents things from happening an anchor prevents the boat, for example, from being carried by the currents of the day I repeat an anchor can stop the boat the family the marriage of being carried by the currents of today finally an anchor is defined as that which brings rest you can make things rest when an anchor is in place ankors can also make you rest give you security peace when you know an anchor is present you can rest I think my wife and two children are always at rest because I play the role of anchor of the family they do not wonder about the future they have complete trust in me providing them with stability and security Now last night and please write this below we talked about what Anor represents and Anor represents the base the base is the anchor of the building we know that in a ship in a ship the anchor is the base of that ship that ship is hit and torn and twisted by the waves it has no foundation the hull of the ship is not a foundation found.

I'm pausing for a reason. Having a nice, beautiful boat does not include a foundation. The foundations do not move. The only thing that secures a Bo boat is an anchor that can find a rock. then the entire hull is at rest, so the anchor is the fundamental component of the human family. Now the second point I want to make is that the anchor is tested in storms, no matter how much you brag about an anchor the only way it will be tested is when you hit tough times. I remember one day in the Bahamas, where I still live, we had a little boat called the Boston Whaler and my friend and I would go out and water ski every day after school. own boat we work on submersibles and we bought our own boat both men.

I love water skiing on water just flying and one day we went to the back of an island called Rose Island and there was sand everywhere where we were skiing on the back. there and suddenly we decided we wanted to go do some diving on a reef, well we found a rock and we dropped anchor on the rock, we set the anchor, the current was so strong that the current took the anchor and actually broke the anchor. now we were in danger we had a boat without anchor in the current we say having an anchor is not enough because your anchor must be able to withstand what storms if it breaks Under pressure the boat still becomes a victim of the current so it is not good enough to Say I'm a man, we have to ask what kind of man, what can you handle.

There is some reassurance here from our great Creator through the apostle Paul. Can I just quote what he said? He listens carefully, he said, and God won't let you be. tested beyond what you are capable of overcoming understand understand in other words it doesn't matter listen carefully please what is coming against you what you didn't expect I mean you had your plans and they fell apart things just happened to you keep it in mind Keep in mind the God's promise, he still wouldn't allow that if he wasn't able to get over it, which means listen carefully.

God will verify the quality of his anchor by the test he allows to come to you. Say he should get this please, some of you have. Saying this is the worst thing I've ever had and God sent me to tell you no, this is the best revelation of how tough you are. God would not allow it if you were not made for it, so if your test is greater than the guy sitting next to you or behind you that is because at this moment your anchoring capacity is stronger than otherwiseGod would not allow that test. I have to be personally responsible for insuring a million dollars a month for salaries in my company.

Personally, I am not just the President, I am the key man and those insurance companies know what that means. I generate what happens in the company now I can manage it. No one else in the company can handle it because the Creator gave me that test every month, so I don't do it. groping around complaining and why the hell is this and why am I having a hard time I don't have any hard times I'm a tough anchor God reveals the quality of your Anchor by the level of testing he allows you to go through, so if you're not going through a lot, either your quality is still weak or just wait a while.

Nobody in this room, nobody is safe. Nobody. You can pray as much as you want and fast. Everything you want. You could speak in tongues. You could give a million. dollars to the Lord every month you are going to be tested, let no one tell you that following Christ is a trial walk, I wish I could. Come back next year and just teach them how to be men of tests. It needs to be taught because no vision is validated until it is proven. Oh, I don't want to go there. I'm tempted. Let me give you. Shall I give you just one? principle about proofs ok your proofs are designed according to your statements write it quickly please i say it again your tests in life are designed according to your statements that means if you don't want any proof don't declare that You won't do anything in life.

Some of you understand it the moment you make a declaration that you are going to do something, life requires proving what you declared you were going to do, that is the principle of life, so if you say, for example, never do it. I'm going to have sex before I get married all the old girlfriends show up next week phone calls start coming in free lunches show up and you're wondering what happened you just invited the test with your statement I'm going to start a business and all the hell in the hell wake up upstairs, hey, hey, someone else is declaring, declaring something there in London, let's all go and see if he means it and I tell you that the principle of life requires that that statement be proven.

You remember Peter said to Jesus, Jesus said, not me. I don't know anything about the other disciples, but I will never leave you or abandon you. Jesus says oh no Peter, you should have thought of that. Anyone here said no, I have problems on your hand. He says man. Satan just demanded that you stand trial. about what you said he said I can't help you all I can do is pray that your faith your belief does not fail in the midst of this you still believe what I told you the anchor is tested by the storm the anchor is Only if it survives write that some of you have been sent here to this conference by God because God is about to take you through something big in 208 and He wants you to remember His instructions in 207.

He wants to force you. aware that you are about to undertake a big project that he had planned for you, it will scare you but he wants you to learn to survive the little ones in 207 God will never trust before trying Hallelujah write that please God will do what he never trusts before to test if God is going to use you and trust you with something he has to test you now the Bible says that God tempts no man look at this why God does not tempt any man by the WR write the word temp below I'm going to give you this, this is free.

Write the word temp. Everyone say, tempt temp, say it again, tempt temp, oh man I need more time, hey boy, say tentt temp, say it out loud, temp, say Temptation Temptation. The word temptation is not a negative word the word temp or temper or temptation is a military term that was used by the Greeks under the Romans in the process of making a sword to fight in a battle and the way they made the sword was a process called temporary or tempting, let me Describe the tempting thing they would do: they would take a piece of steel, they would put it in the fire and they would tell it that it gets so hot that you can see through the steel and you will see little black dots through the steel, those dots blacker than the heat What it reveals is the areas where the molecules are not yet together, so they would put a hot sword on a steel anvil, take a steel mallet and a hidden steel on steel and break the points where the molecules are still They are separated and when they hit.

They would get together and keep hitting it until there were no more black spots left, then they would put it in cold water and the molecules would freeze and strengthen the steel, then they would take it and put it back in the fire. and it heats up again and they find more stains in different places, they put it back on the Anvil and they take that Steel mul and they hit it and hit it and hit it until all the stains disappear, they put it back in cold water and then they put it back into the fire and they continue doing that process fire churning cold water fire churning cold water fire churning cold water anyone feels like that fire churning cold water and they do it until there are no more stains left now they know that this the sword can't be it will break in the middle of a battle where your life depends on it in other words you never trust a sword that has not been tempted the a oh a a a a oh n n n