Discipline - Personal Life — Hoseah Wu

This morning our Bobby Ohanas was boasting a little bit. He said he came this time to this conference in fullness. Because his wife is with him. And I think I can boast too. The Wu's, we are three generations here.

My father, who is 84, is attending the Richmond Conference. My wife, my daughter, and also my younger brother from Minnesota, his family. And later on in the week, my other daughter and her new husband will be here.

And also I have another brother. And his wife, they'll join us this weekend. So that's real fullness. Well, thank the Lord. Christ is the fullness of God. And that's what we are seeking for, is to know Him and to enter into His fullness.

So we just look to the Lord for a moment, please. Our Father, we confess our great need of Thee. We acknowledge openly that without Thee, we can do nothing. Without Thee, there's nothing. Oh, we do thank You that You have given us Your Son, the Lord Jesus.

With Him, we have all. We just pray that this afternoon You will teach us. You will help us to enter into the Lord Jesus Himself. We just pray that You will prepare our hearts, Lord, not to receive a teaching from man, but Lord, to receive instruction by Your Word, through the Holy Spirit, to give us help.

We do thank You that we can count on Your help, because You are the faithful one. We give praise, give thanks in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. Now, I was given the assignment to speak on this matter about personal discipline.

Personal Discipline as Adjustment and Training

And it is a very difficult subject, and I struggled before the Lord for some time. And as I was given this assignment, I always have a very positive look. It's always a learning situation for me. Maybe this is the area that I need the most.

About my personal life, I need to be disciplined. Well, by way of introduction, life itself, life is adjustment and discipline. You cannot go through life without some form of discipline, or some form of adjustment.

That is life. Even on a natural level, if you want to get somewhere in this world, you have to discipline yourself to get somewhere. Now, I'm in the area of music. If you want to perform well, you have to discipline yourself.

You need to practice. You have to give yourself 100 to what you want to do. Now, I have a friend who is a conductor. And he said before the concert, he would have to tell his wife and kids, he said, I'm going to shut in my study for the next three days.

Now, nobody is to call on me. If I'm hungry, I'll go to the kitchen and get some food, but I'm not to be bothered for the next three days. So in this world, if we are going to get somewhere, we have to somehow discipline ourselves to get somewhere.

Of course, in the world system, we discipline ourselves for our own gain, for our own satisfaction, for our own gratification, for fame, for power, for success. So even on a natural level, discipline is necessary if we are going to get anywhere in this world.

Now, you look at some of those people that have achieved success in this world. You look at their life. In some area of life, there is self-discipline. Now, maybe immortal discipline, but it's discipline.

At night, some of the people in business, they will stay awake, think of ways in the business world to get ahead, to gain, to profit themselves. That is a form of discipline. Now, spiritually, there is also a discipline, but it's a different kind of discipline.

It's a spiritual discipline. In a way, we cannot discipline ourselves spiritually. We don't want to be disciplined. We hate discipline. Now, if you have any kids in your household, you know how they hate discipline.

You tell them to do something, how they refuse it, and how they get angry when you tell them to do something or to obey something. In home, in school, in our society, I think we are living in a generation where undisciplined is prevalent everywhere, particularly in school.

There is absolutely no discipline in school. I know because I taught school for 22 years. It's very difficult to get youngsters to listen and to follow instructions correctly. They all want to do their own way.

Now, spiritually, when the Lord took us out from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, that is the most tremendous adjustment we have to face. From the kingdom of Satan to the kingdom of Jesus, what a transaction, what a changeover.

And just think of the adjustment and discipline we had to go through. From the old creation to the new creation. Something is all new to us. Something is foreign to us. Just think of the adjustment we had to make.

The last four or five years, I usually go to the Philippines to visit my folks and visit the brothers and sisters. The first week when I arrived there is most difficult for me because I had to make all the adjustments, because I had to change my whole lifestyle altogether.

I had to fit into their life pattern, their food, the routine and so forth, the way how they live and so forth. The first is most difficult. Now, I have no way for them to change their ways to suit me.

But since I entered into their situation, I must be the one, I should be the one who is to make the adjustment, to make the necessary changes. And that requires some form, some shape of self-discipline.

Well, God's purpose is not just the discipline. Discipline is under something. So God's purpose is to bring in His sons to glory so that we will be partakers of His nature. Or as in Hebrew, it says, we will be sharers of His holiness.

To achieve that in His love, God does discipline us. But on the other hand, we have to be willing to cooperate with Him. We have to be willing to place ourselves under the discipline of the Holy Spirit.

Defining Discipline and the Holy Spirit’s Instruction

Now, next, let's look at how do we define discipline. What is discipline? Most people, discipline is simply do's and don't do's. Do's and don't do's, we think that is discipline. I think it's more than that.

I can, through the scripture, we can see that discipline is really instruction. To instruct, to teach something very positive, to correct, to train, to improve, to mold, to strengthen, and to perfect character.

Has to do with our life, has to do with our whole being, has to do with our spiritual character. Therefore, we need to be instructed, we need to be corrected, we need to be trained, we need to be improved, and we need to be strengthened, to mold, and to be perfect.

And so, that's how we define discipline. In the scripture, it's to instruct, to correct, to train, to improve, to mold, to strengthen, and to perfect character. Now, some aspects of discipline, I think this session will just dwell on two aspects.

First is this matter of instruction, and then the second aspect is this matter of evaluation. Be an instructor. To be trained, you need a trainer. An athlete or a soldier. A soldier needs a sergeant. An athlete, they need a trainer or a coach.

And thank God, our instructor, our coach, our trainer is the Holy Spirit. So do bear that in mind. We have no other teacher, we have no other trainer, than the Holy Spirit, that God has given to each one of us.

Therefore, we know in the New Covenant, we do not need anyone to teach us from the outside, but we have the anointing in us. He is doing the teaching from within. That is real teaching, and that requires some discipline, to listen and to be conscious of that inward instruction, inward training, inward voice.

Now, next is the instruction itself, the course instruction. And the instruction is our transformation and confirmation to the Lord Jesus himself. So the one objective of the Holy Spirit's work, instruction, training in our life, so that we can conform to the image of God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

So let's not forget that. That is the goal of the Holy Spirit, to change us, to transform us, so that we'll be Christ-like. That is the objective, the goal of the Holy Spirit. Now this mental evaluation is so necessary on our part.

Because how can we tell that we have learned something? Or how can our instructor really know that we have received something from him, we have learned something from him? It's only by real testing. By what evaluation?

So brothers and sisters, our whole Christian living is a life of receiving instruction as well as a life of evaluation under the light of the Holy Spirit. He will teach us and he also tests us to find out whether we have learned anything from him.

Or if there is anything that we learned in the wrong way that needs some correction. So evaluation has two sides. One is to confirm that we have learned something. And the other one, the negative side, is to discover that we haven't really learned much yet.

So therefore, there is hope for us to be instructed again. Thank God the Holy Spirit nearly gives us up. If we fail, he is very patient. He will keep teaching us until the lesson is learned. So brothers and sisters, here we see there is no shortcut here to be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is no shortcut to the throne. There is no shortcut to the fullness of Christ. So as Brother Connell was sharing last night, and the thought just came through my mind, and this morning as well as this afternoon, because one of the messages I have at home by Brother Kirsten Sparks, entitled this way, emptiness unto fullness.

So there is no shortcut. To the fullness of Christ, we have to cross Jordan. We have to give ourselves up. Emptiness unto fullness. So the Holy Spirit is very particular. We have no way of bypassing. No way.

So brothers and sisters, it's good for us to know that the Holy Spirit in a way, he never gives us up. But the question is, are we willing to endure his instruction and his evaluation until whatever lesson he is teaching us is learned.

Discipline for Corporate Life and Future Sonship

What is the purpose of this discipline? Of course we mentioned the goal of the Holy Spirit is our conformity, our transformation, confirmation to the image of the Lord Jesus. But as far as our practical way of life here on this earth, I believe there are two aspects, or two ways.

One is to prepare us individually so that we can fit into the corporate expression of the Lord Jesus for this present hour. So that the fullness of his life can be fully expressed in the people. Now for instance, if you know your fellowship, as you already know, the problem of any fellowship is not the individual brothers and sisters.

The problem of any fellowship is how we are going to live together. It's a corporate problem, not an individual problem. So the dealings of the Lord, the discipline of the Holy Spirit is to prepare us so that we can be fitted together corporately into an expression of the Lord Jesus on this earth to express his fullness.

The second thing is the Holy Spirit is preparing us in this life so that we will fit into what is to come. In other words, to be a ready people for the life to come. As sons. Or, let's put it the other way, as wives of the Lamb.

To be properly fitted to the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, so that we can assist him administering his kingly affairs in the ages to come. Now brothers and sisters, if that is the case, that will require strict discipline.

Now you are not even on a human level. If you are a commoner, you receive one kind of education. If you happen to be born in a royal family, in a kingly family, you receive a totally different education altogether.

You have the throne in view. Therefore, you have to go through much discipline, much instruction, much restriction, which average people will not have to go through. So brothers and sisters, we are called to be kings and priests.

So our spiritual education will be totally different. It has to be, always look at it from the heavenly point of view, not from the earthly point of view. Because God is calling us to be heavenly people.

So our education, our discipline, is strictly heavenly, spiritual. Now the next thing that I think we can go to some of the more practical things that we can share this afternoon is how to be disciplined.

We all know discipline is necessary. That's always the question. So if the Lord willing, I will share three aspects. First, is obedience in faith. That requires much, much discipline. Obedience in faith.

That's the first point. Second is submission in hope. To obey is very, very difficult, if not impossible. To submit is also very, very difficult. It's impossible. And the third thing is sacrifice in love.

Sacrifice. So shall we turn to a few important scriptures. First, let's turn to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 8. And we'll read 5 verses 5 to verse 10. You are to know in your heart that the Lord your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.

Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God and to walk in His ways and to fear Him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks, of water, of fountains and springs flowing forth in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vine and fig trees, pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey, a land where you shall eat the food without scarcity, in which you shall not lack anything, a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper.

When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you. So in these few verses, we see discipline is related to Israelites entering and possessing the land.

So if you put in a New Testament term, discipline is vastly related to our entering into the fullness of Christ. The canon speaks of the fullness of Christ. So far there is no shortcut to enter into canon.

Discipline is the key. Let's turn to another passage and very familiar to most of us. Let's turn to Hebrews 12 and we'll read from 5 to 11. Hebrews 12, 5 to 11. Now we know the book of Hebrews is a challenge to the Hebrew believers to enter in or to press on to something that is far better.

Something that is better. Or sonship. Let's look at verse 5. And you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you, O son. My son do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him.

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 sons is there whom the 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 have earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respect them. Shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of Spirit and live?

For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplined us for our good, that we may be sharers of His holiness. All discipline for the moment seemed not to be joyful and sorrowful, yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness.

And let's turn to one more portion, Revelation 3, Revelation 3, verse 19. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. And I think we'll just touch one more verse. Let's turn to Psalm 17.

Psalm 50, verse 17. For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you. For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you. Well, brothers and sisters, in Hebrews, we read that those He loved, He disciplined.

And He disciplined every child of His. So, brothers and sisters, that is a very encouraging statement. Because it did not say, I'll discipline most my children. It did not say, I'll discipline some of my children.

It says, I'll discipline everyone of my tribe. And brothers and sisters, in that case, we are all included. So take heart. No one is exempted from discipline. You can try to avoid it, as Father Lance said, eventually, He'll catch up to you.

So, why try? Why ignore it? Why reject? And why take lightly the discipline law? Let's evaluate. So I think that should be our attitude. So let's settle this matter. As long as you are a child of God, you are not exempt from discipline.

And discipline is God's love in action. When we are being disciplined, we know we are loved. We see it clearly in Hebrews 12. When we are disciplined, we know we are in the household. You can only discipline those who, those who belong to your household.

For example, I have two girls. I can discipline my two girls. But I cannot discipline Lisbon Barracuda's children. I have no right. Because his children are his responsibility. My children are my responsibility.

And we are God's children. And it's his responsibility to discipline us. So, brothers and sisters, we are in the household if we are disciplined by him. Or when we are disciplined, we know we belong to him.

We are loved by him. We are in the house. To me, that's very encouraging. And it's very comforting that we are loved, disciplined because he loves us. Well, let's share those three points I just mentioned.

Faith Expressed Through Obedience

First, faith and obedience. Now, brothers and sisters, in Scripture, we know belief or faith and obedience always link together. Just merely believe, and if there is no obedience, act following your faith.

Your faith is not living faith. It's not real faith. We know faith is a gift of God. We have no faith of our own. So, Galatians 2 .20, we are told the faith that we live, the faith that we have, is the faith of the Son of God.

Now, why does the Lord Jesus have this faith? The faith of the Son of God, to believe his Father, completely trust with him. Because our Lord Jesus, when he came, he was prepared to do the will of the Father.

Therefore, his faith is living faith. His faith is real faith. His faith works. So, brothers and sisters, if we are not prepared to obey the Lord, then our faith is not a real faith. It is not a living faith.

It is not a true faith. It's when we are prepared to believe, to obey, then that faith is real. That faith has power. That faith is active in our life. So, brothers and sisters, many Christians today, we live a defeated life because we do want to believe, but we are not prepared to obey.

Therefore, our faith is not a living faith. Our faith doesn't seem to be able to transform our life. There's no transformation taking place. There's no confirmation to the image of Christ taking place.

Because we are not prepared to obey the Word of God. So, brothers and sisters, so, faith and obedience link together. And faith and obedience is the only link that we can have with the Father. With the things that are spiritual.

With the things that are heaven. Because Hebrews, you know, told us that without faith, we cannot please God. There's no way. Those who come to him must believe that he lives. And he's a rewarder of those who seek him.

So, brothers and sisters, faith is the link. And through faith, we honour him. Now, I'm not saying empty faith, just simply believing. I mean faith through obedience. Through obedience, we honour him.

Faith through obedience, we please him. So, brothers and sisters, I hope this will be helpful to all of us. I think for many of us, we live a life of Christian, simply just believing, believing. But never into the obedience of that faith.

And therefore, we live a very undisciplined Christian life. And this doesn't give any power in our Christian living. We live a defeated life and somehow we say, I believe, I believe. Because we lack the element of obedience.

Obedience also needs to be maintained and it's also progressive. Now, I think we know that in Romans 1, there is this term that the righteous shall live by faith. But also in that same verse, it says the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.

So, we have the gift of faith initially, but that faith needs to be activated continuously. So, we move from faith to faith. It's a progressive thing. In other words, we obey. As soon as the Lord has given us something new, we also are ready for it to obey.

So, it's faith, obedience, faith, obedience and faith and obedience. Now, let's turn to the 11th chapter of Hebrews and look at some of the examples there. We know very well, brothers and sisters, that in the book of 1 Corinthians 13, the end of that chapter, Paul mentions three things, faith, hope and love.

Faith, Hope, and Love in Christian Formation

And then if you take a look at the last three chapters of Hebrews, 11th is the chapter of faith, 12th is the chapter of hope and 13th is the chapter of love. Now, recently I was with Brother Kong in Australia and now Brother Kong shared about the three pillars for the building of a church.

Without those three pillars, there will be no building up of the church. And those three pillars are illustrated by three persons through their three epistles, James, Cephas, you want to look at it, it's in Galatians 2, James, Cephas and John.

And if you notice, the arrangement of the epistles, James comes before Peter and Peter comes before John, James speaks of faith in work, Peter represents hope and John represents love. And as our Brother Kong shared in Sydney, without those three pillars, church cannot be built.

Corporate. Same thing applies to us individually. If we do not have faith, if we do not have hope, if we do not have love, we cannot build up a spiritual life in the Lord. There's no way. So through these three chapters, we can look at some of the examples of faith, obedience and action, hope and action, and love and action.

And all of these three aspects require self-discipline. I hate to use this word self-discipline or personal discipline because we don't want to discipline ourselves. Let's be very honest. We hate discipline.

I read, we read Psalm 50, 17. The Lord said, you hate discipline because you cast my word behind you. We don't want any discipline. We want to do it our own way. That is our fallen nature. Therefore, if we are going to have any discipline, we need to rely on the life of Lord Jesus.

It's only through His life, we can live a disciplined life. Now I know you, all of us in this room have tried many, many times and how we failed miserably. We all have tried at least once in our lifetime.

But you determine that you're going to read through this Bible from Genesis to Revelation within the first year. I don't know how many times I tried. Now is that true? Every time you determine to try, what is the consequence?

You fail miserably. You just will not do it. And if you fail to do it, your conscience bothers you. You knew you had to do it, but you cannot do it. And when you don't do it, something inside tells you something's wrong.

Same thing with this matter of witnessing. You know, as the Lord's people, you ought to witness, share the Gospel with the unsaved. And that's how often we neglected the opportunity the Lord has given to us.

Right there. We know we have to do it, but somehow we cannot do it. And when we fail to do it, we feel miserable inside. Brothers and sisters, I believe that is a teaching and discipline of the Holy Spirit to tell us apart from Him, we cannot do anything.

So brothers and sisters, one of the lessons the Holy Spirit is teaching us is that we have to cast upon Him. He is the wisdom. He is the energy. He is the power. He is everything. Without Him, there is nothing we can do.

This matter of discipline, it's not that I can discipline myself. It's simply I just give myself over to Him. So in a way, faith and obedience, strictly speaking, is surrendering. Andrew Murray said that surrender and obedience is not something God wants you to do.

He expects it. The reason He expects it is because He has given the life of the Lord in you. That life in you, that new life in you is a surrendered life. That life in you now is an obedient life. Therefore, God expects surrendering and obedience from you.

So thank God, what He demands, He supplies. And the problem with us, we know God demands something, but we try to use our own self, our own energy, our own know-how, our own ability to meet God's requirements, and therefore we feel miserable.

Walking in Obedience With Christ

Now this matter of faith and believing that God has given Christ to us, it is not a small matter. So sometimes I feel that sometimes we overlook the place of Christ in our life. Isn't that true? How we overlook?

If Christ is the beloved Son of God, He is what He claims He is. And He came into your very heart and took up His residence there. Brothers and sisters, it is not a small matter. The very Creator Himself, the Redeemer Himself came into you and into my heart and took up His residence there.

It is not a small matter. But do we express the greatness of Christ in our lives? We fail. Because basically, we fail to believe that the life in us has the power, the energy, the ability to express all that is in that life.

It's because of our unbelief and also because of our disobedience. Let's look at the 11th chapter of Hebrews. First is this matter of walking in obedience. Walking in obedience. The illustration here we find verse 5, chapter 11 of Hebrews, Enoch.

And the Old Testament, Genesis, we are told that he walked 300 years with the Lord. And he was not. And the Lord took him. Walk of obedience. Brothers and sisters, in the New Testament way, we can put it this way, is to be yoked to Christ.

To be yoked to Christ is not an easy matter. Because we have no choice. Wherever he goes, we go. Our natural tendency is we want to do it our own way. We have our own desire. The flesh is still in us.

We want to think things our own way. We think we have a solution to our problems. And so therefore, we struggle, we struggle, until the moment here comes that we know we can no longer struggle. Then we submit.

We obey. So brothers and sisters, this matter of walking in obedience with the Lord will require a tremendous discipline. I'm sure you heard some of our brothers in this platform in the New Testament share how difficult it is to walk with the Lord Jesus.

Some people think to walk with the Lord Jesus is such a beautiful, such a happy walk. Because he's so perfect. We are so imperfect. He's so holy, but we are so unholy. He's heavenly, we are earthly. There's such a contrast between his life and our life.

So for those two lives to walk together is impossibility. But thank God he calls us to come and follow him. Therefore, all the adjustment, all the discipline has to be from our side. Because he's unchanging.

So any change that needs to take place has to be from our side. And thank God for giving us the Holy Spirit to change us. And all we need to do, brothers and sisters, is just to simply give our will to him.

Will our will to him. So that he can do his work in us. So this matter of walking with the Lord, brothers and sisters, if we walk close to him and walk close with him, we will find how difficult, how impossible it is.

It's only by grace. It's only by grace that we are able to walk. To walk with the Lord will require a tremendous discipline on our part. Many Christians like to do works for the Lord. Therefore, in Christianity, we are full of Christian activities.

Radio, television, not just this country. In fact, it's worldwide now. So everybody is engaging in some form of Christian work. Brothers and sisters, but to do the work of God under the direction of the Holy Spirit is a different matter altogether.

Because everything that we do has to be initiated by him. If it is going to be of any value. So this matter of ministry, this matter of walking for the Lord and with the Lord will require a tremendous adjustment on our part.

I know some brothers express oftentimes about certain brothers. He says, Oh, this brother possesses a tremendous gift. Such vision, such seeing. And yet he is not doing the work that's comparable to his vision.

If we have a vision of the Lord, that vision in a way limits us. We cannot do what most people do. Let's face to it. Vision increases our spiritual horizon. But vision often restricts the activity of the flesh.

And that's very, very hard. Because we have a love for the Lord, we think we should do things for him. But brothers and sisters, if our work, our ministry is to the only value, has to be initiated by the Lord himself.

And if that is the case, brothers and sisters, we need to disperse. We dare not to move until he tells us to move. Therefore, this matter of waiting is vital in working with the Lord. I know it's a hard lesson to learn.

But it's a necessary lesson. And this last few years, especially with some of the Chinese in this country, there are many groups. They love the Lord. They study the world together. They fellowship freely in the Spirit.

They grow in the Lord. There's a real manifestation of the presence of the Lord. Souls God save. But many of them, as soon as they form themselves into a church, then they get into a tremendous problem.

Troubles begin. You know why? Because they did not seek the might of the Lord. They move into something they think is simply expedient for themselves. Therefore, they enter into a great deal of agony, spiritual agony.

So, brothers and sisters, if our service, our work for the Lord is to be of any lasting value, we have to learn to wait for the direction from the Lord. Walking with the Lord will require discipline. Working with the Lord would also require discipline.

And then, one of the examples in this chapter of Hebrews 11 is the love of Abraham. He lived a life of obedience. We know a few times he tried his own way. Remember one time he went to Egypt because there's a famine in the land and how he got himself into trouble.

His unbelief, his disobedience. Discipline, sometimes we have to learn through hunger. Because once we know about hunger, then we appreciate the food. I think one of the problems in this country, we have plenty of food and we don't know what's hunger.

So we don't really appreciate what we have. And I think Abraham, in his case, God is teaching him a lesson so that he will hunger and thirst after God himself. Because the perversion is in the land. He was in the land.

But he left the land and went into Egypt. And he thought in Egypt he could find real food. But he found trouble. And later on in his life, in the case of Ishmael, again it's something that he tried to do for God.

So brothers and sisters, so we need to walk in obedience. We need to look in obedience. And we also need to walk in obedience. And all of these three aspects of Christian life require a tremendous discipline on our part.

Because discipline, strictly speaking, is learn how to say no to the flesh and say yes to the Holy Spirit. That's all. Even the cap, what is discipline, spiritual discipline, is simply learn how to say no to the flesh and say yes to the Holy Spirit.

And brothers, that lesson is the hardest lesson to learn in this life. It will take our whole life to learn how to say no to the flesh and how to say yes to the Holy Spirit. And that was the lesson the Holy Spirit was teaching Abraham.

To say no to his own need. But to say yes to God. Then I'll give one more example in this chapter of the 11 of Hebrew. It's in the case of Moses. It's not easy because the world is its attraction. It's very, very tempting.

Not to speak of this world system, even the religious world. There is full of attraction. And Moses was marked out for God to be a leader for the nation Israel. And because he was a marked person, therefore he went through strict discipline which the rest of the Israelites did not go through.

Now brothers and sisters, all of us in this room, we are all marked people. And God will discipline you and he will discipline me. Until he gets us where he wants us to be. And Moses had the courage to refuse to be called the son of Pharaoh.

Refuse. Brothers and sisters, that would take some discipline. You know, in the empire Egypt, to be called the king's son is something. In this world, to be recognized as somebody is something. There's an attraction there.

In the Christian world, to be recognized as a person who has tremendous prophetic ministry is something. There's attraction there. But because Moses was a marked man, and because he knew he was under the discipline of the Holy Spirit, he refused.

He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh. And brothers and sisters, there are situations we have to refuse. We have to refuse. We have to be separated. We are a separated people. Therefore, we need to refuse some of the attraction surrounding us.

That will require a tremendous discipline. And not only Moses refused, then he left Egypt. And what is the median? Median. Brothers and sisters, to refuse is one thing, but to let Egypt is quite another thing.

And let's speak of this, brothers and sisters, we are marked out for the Lord. We are people separated under the Lord himself. We are not our own. We've been purchased by the blood of the Lord Jesus. We can never claim our own.

We are marked out. And we have no part of this world. And yet the flesh is often drawn to what's in this world. The soul is often drawn to what the religious world can offer to us. And therefore, we need to be a disciplined people, have the courage to say no to these things, refuse, and if left those things, if necessary.