Success is Discipline

(Joshua 7:13): Arise, sanctify the people. You shall say, Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow; for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: There is a curse in your midst, O Israel; you shall not be able to stand against your enemies, until you have taken away the curse from among you.

Israel, as the chosen people, was bound to win its battles and struggles under the banner of a promise. In the same way, every child of God will never fail unless it is to glorify His name that God allows it; in other words, he will always succeed in whatever he undertakes, because it is a promise.

• The Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you will always be on top and never be on the bottom... (Deuteronomy 28:13). But there is one condition: you must be a disciplined and wise child. Discipline is a quality of God's children.

So lack of discipline is an obstacle to the blessing of a child of God. Most of the time, failure is due to sin not confessed and repented of. That's why God told Joshua to sanctify the people before resuming the conquest, because sin would prevent the Holy Spirit from working on their behalf.

• When God is there, we succeed; when He is away, we fail. It is in discipline that God's promise is fulfilled.