The Discipline of Submission to the Father's Will
Greetings and good morning brothers and sisters. This is Dr. James Perry continuing with our series
where we seek to explore the deeper meanings of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Over the years,
the heavenly Father has revealed many revelations of spiritual truth to me, and I want to share them
with you. This morning we will ponder our lives as we seek to understand the discipline of
submitting to the Father's will.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Discipline of Submission to The Father's Will
"There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death."
Proverbs, Chapter 14, Verse 12.
Brothers and sisters, a young man starts out in life with several worthy goals. He has all the resources
that he needs in order to achieve these goals. He has a healthy body, a good mind, and a good job,
and yet with the passing of time, he is no closer to achieving his goals than when he first set out to
accomplish them. What went wrong?
Concerning his intellectual goals, he had no plan as to how he would achieve them, and he lacked
the self discipline to train his mind to pursue and master the long course of study required. Some
other desire would pop into his mind, something not as rigorous but more gratifying in the short run.
And with an excuse or rationale, he would leave behind his pursuit of rigorous study. As he
continued to exercise this lack of self discipline and dedication, the days grew into weeks, and the
weeks into months while the months grew into years. His goal likewise continued to remain out of
sight.
Concerning his material goals, they enjoyed no better success. His economic resources were spent
the same way as he spent his intellectual ones. There was no plan for spending the money. He would
make a decision to buy something that he really needed, but soon undermined by his desire to have
something else. In this way his resources were spent for immediate gratifications rather than for his
long-term goals. He knew that he was spending all of his money, but he had no idea where the
money was going.
Then one day, the thought occurred to him that he needed discipline. He needed a way to control and
directionize his efforts. So he made a schedule that allocated his time and his money. With this
schedule, he experienced discipline. One of the most difficult things to accept was the marked
decrease of his time and money spent for pleasure, but he also saw the reason why his goals
continued to remain far distant. Self gratification consumes resources. Total pursuit of self
gratification consumes total resources.
He also came to understand the fundamental difference between discipline and lack of discipline.
When discipline is lacking, the will is free to choose any action at any given time. There are no
restraints on the choices. In discipline, the will gives up the right to choose any action at any
given time. The will agrees to follow a specific course of action in a given time frame. In giving
up the power to act in any direction and at any given time for the restriction of acting in one
direction at a specified time, the will acquires the power to achieve its goals. In order to achieve a
goal that is worthwhile, it requires discipline, dedication, persistence, and know-how. The self-
imposed limitation on the will accomplishes all of these requirements.
To achieve the goal of righteousness and perfection, a similar problem exists. In this case it is the
problem of submitting our wills to the doing the Father's will as revealed in His Son, Jesus. Our
wills can never of and themselves achieve righteousness and perfection. Our wills can never
respond the correct way in all situations because we have to give up something in order to do so.
We desire to be treated right, but often times find some insurmountable barrier in the way of
treating others right. This sad predicament occurs because sooner or later a situation arises
wherein to treat another right, we have to give up that which is more important to us.
Our souls can never achieve perfection by themselves because they simply do not know how, and
even if they did, they would lack the power to bring it about. That which is imperfect can never
by itself achieve that which is perfect. Only that which is perfect can achieve the spiritual miracle
of perfecting the imperfect. But there is a solution to the problem of righteousness and perfection,
and that solution is embraced in the wholehearted embrace of the Father's will.
By giving up the right to choose our wills in favor of choosing the Father's will, we can and will
achieve the goal of divine righteousness and perfection. The divine will is precise and ordered.
Each act of choice of the divine will accomplishes something of eternal value. There are no
wasted acts. The divine will is very efficient. It does things the best way, therefore the only way.
When we submit our wills to the divine will, there never can be insurmountable barriers to doing
right.
Nothing can stand in our way in achieving divine righteousness, since we will never be called
upon to give up that which is most important to us, which is the divine will. And as for our
achievement of perfection, the very power and the know how resides within us, guiding and
powerizing us every step of the way. Every righteous decision brings us a step closer to divine
perfection as demonstrated by Jesus when he lived the life in the flesh.
This concludes today's message on understanding the discipline of submitting to Father's will.
We hope you find something in this message to ponder and pray about as you go about your day.
Until next time, this is Dr. James Perry.
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By Dr. James Perry
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The Discipline of Submission to the Father's Will
