Apostle Paul clearly stated that anyone who would strive for mastery, both in the secular and in the sacred, must be temperate.
The word ‘temperate’ in the King James Version is rendered as ‘self-control’ in the Revised Standard Version.
Other versions, such as Bible in Basic English and the World English Bible, render the same word as ‘self-control’.
So it is very important for every candidate of mastery to display the quality of self-control or being temperate.
It is this virtue of self-control that will cause him to be reasonably dedicated to his calling.
He will be able to control his excesses.
He will not allow any form of indiscipline to rob him of his mastery unto elevation.
He will bring his body under subjection to the will of his heart, in order to meet up with a particular goal for a particular period and season.
It is the spirit of self-control that will enable him to pay the price required for the prize of his calling.
If you are not temperate, you will not meet up with the template of your destiny and elevation.
You need to be temperate to operate successfully.
Your body must be fully prepared for this exaltation through mastery, so that you won’t fall at the time of your exaltation.
Can you imagine an athlete challenging you on how to handle the call of God upon your life through his attitude of self-control in secular sport?
How can you become a master over what you do without gaining mastery over yourself?
You need training for your reigning.
You need days and nights for your training unto mastery.
You need abstinence to obtain exaltation.
You need self-denial to be in demand.
Where is your discipline in this matter?
If you are a singer, where is your training on how to handle your voice and control the praise and worship session?
Where is your place in terms of prayer as you prepare for your ministrations?
No wonder, there is no impact in your songs and you have become a mere entertainer.
As a musician and instrumentalist, where is your training in these instruments?
Why do you just wake up to mount up on the key board, drum set without proper training?
How can you raise your head over others while you don’t braze up in the place of training?
As a preacher, where is your place in planning and studying the Word of God ahead of your preaching ministrations?
Is it not when you are about to engage in a preaching ministration that you begin to make an emergency preparation as you contact your concordances, Bible dictionaries, ipads and other materials, both manual and electronic?
You are never prepared for the top with this attitude.
The Bible which is supposed to be your daily companion had been reduced to only a reference material as you contact it when you are engaged in one research or the other; although you attach spirituality in what you are doing.
You are deceiving yourself.
It is when you gain mastery that you will be honoured and elevated as a master in the field of your calling.
You will be placed over those working with you.
How can you lead someone who is better than you?
It is an error!
Remember that at your time of exaltation, you will be placed ahead and over certain people.
How then can you be over a set of people that you are not higher than them both in that area of calling and in other areas such as skill, character and wisdom?
There should be something that you manifest to have an edge over them for you to gain their respect.
You don’t need to be better and greater than them in all aspects of life, but there must be something in you that could definitely command their honour and respect to you.
It may even be something they possess, but they see you displaying a similar thing in a better and higher way, to the glory of God.
May that be your portion as the Lord grants you elevation, in Jesus’ Name!
The earth is a place that is set for the activities of sowing and reaping.
As long as the earth remains, these activities can never cease.
They are ordained by God.
Whatever a man does today is a seed against his tomorrow.
You are created as both sower and reaper.
In the law of nature, you are not permitted to reap from where you never sowed anything; except you are reaping for the sower.
So when someone is out to frustrate and do you any evil, you need to know (as someone rightly said) that you are either reaping what you sowed, or he is permitted to sow something through you (though it is very unfortunate).
The Lord will deliver you from such unfortunate situation and punish the evil doer, to the glory of His Name.
This is the divine order.
The issue now lies on what you choose to sow at any point in time.
Whatever you don’t want to harvest, then the major preventive measure to it is to avoid sowing the seed that attracts such harvest.
If you want to reap elevation, then you need to sow the seed that calls for it.
Things don’t just happen anyhow; they rather, happen most often, as the harvest of something sown somewhere, sometime by someone.
It is one thing to sow a good seed and it is another thing to reap as expected.
One may be doing some good and wonderful things for God, which would have yielded a bountiful harvest for him, but yet would be leaving as if he’s not doing anything to warrant any change in his life.
It is not the will of God for a man to be unrewarded for his efforts in life.
However, for one reason or the other, the harvest of such a one may be hindered or at best, come in a very low measure.
The devil can hinder the harvest of a man, including his upliftment.
The forces of darkness may in one way or the other fight against the harvest of elevation of a man, in order to hinder the fullness of the accomplishment of God’s purpose for him.
What does the Bible say about reaping?
On what ground can reasonable reaping, including the harvest of exaltation, be achieved?