In this piece, we will be looking at ‘How to Rise and Fall in Discipleship’. Indeed, God has not ordained us to follow Him to fall. The call to followership is not a call for falling or unto falling. No child is born for the sole purpose of being killed, you don't start a job because you want to be fired in the same job, you don't start a thing with the goal of ending it, you don't get married just simply because you want to divorce. It doesn't make sense. So, we are looking at the things that make us to rise, the things that make us to stand, and the things that make us to fall in discipleship.

 

The goal is not to share some revelations, so that when we are done with the revelation, we will just go about falling. The goal is that we go about standing; now we know how we can stand, now we know how we can fall. So, we decide to stand.

 

So, let's start from the book of Proverbs chapter 4 and I will read verse 23. Its a Scripture that we are familiar with. We've read it over and over, it doesn’t seem to go away because it's very germane, it’s very important. Proverbs chapter four, verse 23, see what the Bible says; “Keep.” Another version says “guard”, like a security man. “Keep your Heart with all diligence; For out of it spring the issues of life.” Now the message that the Lord has laid in my Heart does not demand me to do so much drama. We are actually expected to have a conversation, like Heart-to-Heart talk, because the matters we want to look at are matters that pertains to our lives.

 

It says; guard your Heart, keep your Heart, protect your Heart with all diligence. The Yoruba people will say; it is in your place of work that people will know you to be lazy; It is in your place of work that they know you to be either lazy or hardworking. The Bible says; don't be lazy with this matter, this is a matter to be hardworking about. Guard your Heart with all diligence. i.e.  All the diligence that you could, all the strength, all the focus, all the seriousness that you could summon all around your life. Put it towards that.

 

It’s a conversation, so I will be doing a lot pausing and talking. Do we realize that if somebody should just come somewhere and want to slap us, even those of us that are women that are not very physical, there is a chance that we are going to catch the person’s hand. When we want to be humble and gentle to the core, we just catch the person, look at the person and drop the person's hand. Intuitively, we want to protect ourselves. If I want to touch your eyeball now, you will not be able to explain it something will just move your hand to stop me.

 

 So, it means currently we are protecting certain entities around us. As a woman, you're walking on the road, a man just comes to tap you at the back. If you cannot slap the person, the way you will turn, it will be a very far distance from the person because you don't want the person to try it again. So, you can guard your back, right? Any part of you that looks sensitive, you can guard it. The Bible says; ‘use all’. You have been given some to protect your eyes, your dignity. Somebody insults you in public, you say don't dare it again. The way you have been guarding your dignity, your honor, the way you've been guarding your eyes. The Bible says Guard your Heart with all diligence.

 

The reason why we have to do that is simple. It says ‘For out of it’; It didn't say; “For out of them.” As if apart from the Heart there's something else No! It says ‘out of it’. Springs or flows, the issues of life, the matters of life. There's a place in the Bible that says all things that pertains to life and to godliness God has given them to us. (1 Peter 1:3).   ‘All things that pertains to’ That ‘pertains to’ is also close to what the Bible calls the issues of life. All things that pertain to your life, they come from your Heart. If you are married today, the man that pertains to your life, it came from your Heart, the woman came from your Heart, the job you are doing now, even for those of us that do works with our hands, we are skilled laborers, maybe you are a technician, you are an engineer; that thing comes from your Heart including the course that you studied in the university.

 

With the exception of some people, every body in the university goes there to study what comes to his or her Heart. Every choice that we make today, including the choice of our religion; whom to believe, what to believe, the Bible says it comes from our Hearts. Since the Heart is what dictates the things we do and we don't do, the Bible says guard it less you don't just do anything, less your life does not follow just anyhow. Guard it.

 

The way I'm emphasizing on it, it’s as if I have only one verse. But I'm sure we have seen what the Lord wants us to see there. Guard your Heart with all diligence, all of it. Please let us not be found careless and the excuse is; when my Heart was attacked, my Heart was on something else.

 

My diligence was on something else. I was trying to guard too many things, so when that thing happened, I was not able to guard it. Alright, do we remember the place in Songs of Solomon chapter 1 verse 6 that says; “Do not look down on me because I'm dark?” It says; It’s because the sun has tanned me. My brothers, they've made me the keeper of the vine yards.” I.e., plenty things to look at. “They are angry with me. But my own vine yard I have not kept.” Bible says; ‘keep’. Why was he failing at keeping his own vine yard? Because He was trying to keep other peoples vine yards. The Bible says it is all the diligence we can ever have that we must use to guard our own Heart.

 

Don’t go about guarding the Heart of other people, because that is what some of us do. We go about minding the Heart of people, and then you don’t give attention to your own Heart. If you fail, it is not the fault of the Heart that you are minding, it is your fault. The Bible says it is your fault. When God comes to examine us, He will not say how well did you guard other people’s Heart? The Bible did not even say guard the Heart of your wife or your husband with all diligence, it says guard your Heart.  This is like the crux of the matter.

 

 Don't forget we are looking at discipleship. Usually, discipleship is about a man following another. It's a one-on-one thing. You can't fail and say God the reason I failed is because of my children. The reason I failed is because of my wife. You are to succeed, despite any reason. How are we going to succeed? Because, we will use all our energy to guard our Hearts. We will protect it.

 

Let's go to Philippians 4, and we'll read from verse 6 to 7. I trust that God will give me grace to still share more things with us that will unsettle us before settling us. The Bible says; “Be anxious for nothing. But in everything.” We're looking at some Scriptures that seems to neglect nothing, spear nothing, exempt nothing.

 

It says; “Guard your Heart with all.”  By the time you use all there's nothing left. It says ‘Be anxious for nothing’. Can we see that first word ‘nothing’? It has covered everything right? It says ‘but in everything’, without exempting anything. ‘By prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. Look at it. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding; will what? Guard! We can say again protect; we can say secure. Will guard your ‘Hearts’ --pleural. That's not to assume that we have to have two or three Hearts, it’s because the word is sent to many people. So, all of us, let's guard our Hearts and let us guard our minds through Christ Jesus, that is very important for us to start from.

 

The responsibility is on us to guard our Hearts. But the power to do it is not exclusive to us. You cannot look within yourself and draw strength or power to guard your own Heart. It says we should do it through Christ Jesus. That’s our means.  It is like Without Jesus Christ we are helpless, without Jesus no man, no woman can guard his or her Heart or mind.

 

When a house, a property is unguarded, then the enemies, the robbers, the destroyers can easily come in because no one is protecting it.  One of the things that separates a single sister from a married woman is that there is a man in the life of the woman that is married that guard her life. They normally say there is no honor for a king that has no queen, right? There is no protection, there is no guard  for a woman too--a queen, that has no king.

 

If you're walking on the street alone, if somebody comes to you even though you are older than the person, he may not honor you as much as when you're walking with a man that is even younger than you, it may not be your husband, maybe your younger brother, you're walking with your younger brother. The two of you are walking together, before the guy will come to you, he will think twice. At best, he will just say excuse me, that's where you will begin to see some sign of respect. I'm sorry, please excuse me, please, please, can you; you will be the one to say calm down. Don't worry he's my younger brother.

 

And if you have a younger brother that is well okay, no matter how much calm down you say to that man, he will never calm down. Why? There is somebody beside you. The Yorubas will say; when a dog has somebody behind, that dog will kill a monkey. Guess what! The somebody does not have to be old; you will feel secured. That's how important a man can be. Do we see what we are starting with? It says; “The peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your Hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

 

Now, we realize that on our own we cannot guard our Hearts. If we can do it, or if we will do it; we also like those examples I gave, need Jesus to stand behind us as the mighty one. The Bible says God in the midst of us is mighty. But it is good that God should be in our midst. Sometimes we get confused. Is there God in my life? Is there God around me? Is there God in my marriage, in my home? Because you can't see God doesn’t mean God is not there. So, whether you can see God or you can’t see God, as long as God is there, you have a protection all around you.

 

Don't forget the things we are talking about. Initially the examples are things that affect us physically, our safety, a woman's safety, a woman's honor on the road, in the streets; all those things, they are physical things, but when it comes to the Heart nobody can see your Heart, nobody can see my Hearts. But that Heart, that mind that nobody can see. The Bible says that Heart cannot be guarded by you alone.

 

If there will be safety for your mind, if your mind will remain secured; Let me give us an example of security. You are going somewhere you drop an item in your office, maybe your laptop or your phone or your table and you go and you come back you meet it there. What has happened at that point? The item was secured. There are places in Nigeria that you don't have to go you can still be there just look like this before you return your head, the item has gone. What has happened is that the item was unguarded. Please let me give us an example. We are talking about the mind and the Heart, right? When you let your mind and your Heart in the state, and you went somewhere, we're not saying you were absent minded. Maybe something just happened, you didn’t invest, you didn’t add anything to your mind or your Heart, you left it alone. And then you came back met your Heart the way you left it, you met your mind way you left it. What has happened? Even though you may tell yourself, I've not increased in my mind, even though my Heart is the same. You were secured.

 

Some people will take a break like that and say excuse me; they will go shortly before they come back their minds will be robbed. For other people, it’s not robbery, Items that does not belong to them will be deposited in their minds and in their Hearts. When you start thinking about things that you did not intentionally put into your own system, then you must understand that when you were sleeping an enemy came and added something there. But what happens when your mind is guarded? What happens when your Heart is guarded? Even though you were sleeping, and it is guarded when you wake up? You wake up in tact the way you slept.

 

Some of us will wake up, and wake up with some strange ideas. Things that you thought was possible before you suddenly start doubting it. Before you got married last night, as at last night you slept. You just got married on a Saturday, you wake up on a Sunday morning; And you look at man and you're like, how did I get married to this man? And you are now having a lot of ideas. I don't think I will be faithful to this man. I don't have a future with this man. Ideas starts coming. When you were sleeping ideas, thoughts were deposited in minds. Let's throw it open. Have you ever slept and woke up angry about something before and you were not angry before you slept?

 

So how come are you angry? There is this understanding that we have for some of us that think about the mind. We believe that when we sleep, the mind processes things on its own. Right? The mind collates things, right? Okay, when you sleep, you leave your office, you sleep and you leave your staff to be collating things and then when you come back, they miss collate. Strangers came and deposited things instead of them throwing those things away. They still arranged it for you. They will say what you told them to do is to collate, you didn't tell them to protect. Do we get it?

 

Don't blame your mind for collating evil thoughts. Because your mind was not guarded. So, when an enemy came and deposited the message, what the mind could do was just to arrange it, put it in a manner that you will not quickly forget it. You want to wake up and forget evil. But it has been arranged. What has happened? Your mind was not guarded. And you can’t guard your mind with scientific means, you can’t guard your mind with just thinking.  The Bible says don't be anxious, don’t use anxiety to guard your mind. It cannot work. The only means that God has made available for us is Christ.

 

Do we still remember when the commander of the army of the Lord appeared to Joshua. Joshua was afraid. But Joshua stood up, he said; Have you come for us or you are here against us? When he got to know the man came for them, even him, he bowed for worship. Because you are seeing one that you can rely on and you will start snoring immediately. Because you're confident. Let's use an example. How many of us especially men realize when you trust the driver that is carrying you as a man, you can sleep off. I did not say women, it's easier for women to sleep without checking the CV of the driver. But a man wants to know, can I put my life on this man? When you are sure, you just start sleeping. But, if you are not sure from here to Lagos, you will not sleep.

 

 I have been carried over and over by drivers from here to Lagos or southwest; I won’t sleep. But if I can find somebody that I trust, I can sleep. What is going on? It is can you trust? And Christ Jesus that has been made available for you and I is one that we can trust.

 

Bible says greater is the one that is in us than he that is in the world. It says we are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus, that what? Strengthens us. So, what we're looking at is, it is difficult for a man or a woman to guard his own Heart. A man can sleep with sound mind and wake up with insanity. Somebody has come when the guy or the woman was slipping and they twist the mind. They put the wrong materials in the mind. So, the mind is never stable again. It's like a virus it has been added to it. But when you have a guard for your mind, even when you physically sleep, your mind is still protected. You wake up sound.

 

We must understand the relationship between the mind and the Heart; because the Bible didn't mention it accidentally. Proverbs says guard your Hearts. Philippians says guard your Heart and your mind. So, Apostle Paul got additional revelation. That's why we have to understand it. Proverbs says out of the Heart flows the issues of life. Philippians says guard your Heart and your mind. I just want us to look again at verse six of Philippians four. It says; “Be anxious for nothing.” And I want to ask us when you see an anxious man or an anxious woman, not from afar, when you come close, how will you know?

 

When your Heart is troubled, sometimes when you place your hand on your chest you could feel it beat very fast, other times you may not hear it beat that fast. What is happening is that you are at rest.  When your Heart is beating that fast, you can do more than what you can do right now. Sometimes when we talk about the Heart, people go too spiritual to begin to understand it. As literal as the Heart is, it is a God's made device that pumps the blood. It controls the things we do. You will do nothing if your Heart is not beating at the rate that is required for you to do anything.

 

So, the Bible says don't be anxious. Some people are anxious about Nigeria, will it break or will it not break? People are anxious. The Bible says Be anxious for nothing notice anytime you're anxious like that if you touch your Heart and you are honest, it will start beating fast. There will be no anxiety when everything is at rest, your brain is calm, everything is calm, your Heart is calm. You can't.

 

People have already said when somebody is anxious like that. They call it adrenaline rush. People will say you can scale the wall, you can jump over the fence and when they tell you, you got here by jumping this thing you will doubt it? Because on the normal day you couldn't do it. But at that time, you could do it. So, when you start hearing it is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh profit nothing; you can then start understanding how the Spirit gives life. Let's quickly go to Leviticus Chapter 17 verse 10 to verse 12.

 

“And whatever man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell among you, who eat any blood, I will set my face against that person.” Please has God changed his mind? It says; Whatever among you were a stranger, or anyone that just among you that eats blood, I the Lord will set my face against the person who eats blood. And we cut him off from among his people. Look at it; for the life of the flesh, is what? In the blood.” That's why you don't eat it.

 

The Bible says; It is the Spirit that gives life.  Look at it. Now we are introduced to spirit. all along we have been talking about the Heart and the mind. It says; It is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh profits nothing. And the Bible says the life of the flesh is in the blood. So, when the Spirit gives life, what is the Spirit giving? Some people will wake up from sleep. Maybe they scream or something, when they check them later after they've died, they will say there is no blood in them, like they've drained them of blood. Those of us that used to watch Nollywood very well. When the witches want to kill somebody in their coven, from where they are like an infrared, like Bluetooth, they start drawing the blood. They are not doing it physically like they are not cutting the person with knives that we can see. We can’t see it so it's taking place spiritually. But what they are drawing spiritually is making a physical impact on the person's life where the person is.

 

So, whenever they are done drawing blood out of the person, the person we die. So, the life of the flesh, and the truth is; this is flesh. The life of the flesh is in my blood. Another way you can put it, the life of my body is in my blood. And that part of me that circulates the blood is my Heart. So, when the Bible says guard your Hearts, that wonder circulates the life, for out of it flows the issues of life. Are they not spiritual matters? Originally, we've been told that the issues of life are from; ‘it is the Spirit that gives life’. It is a spiritual thing.

 

So, when you are holding your chest and your Heart is beating, it is a spiritual thing taking place. We've been taught that there is the physical world and there is the Spiritual world. Sometimes we think there are divisions, you can see the physical like this, and the spiritual like this; you can't define the line that separates. They are so interwoven together. When you hold a stone, as physical as the stone is, it can still be spiritual.

 

So that thing that you think is natural is spiritual, that thing that you think is physical is spiritual. The Bible says it is the Spirit that gives life and the life of the flesh is in its blood. So, let's quickly look at 1 Samuel chapter 13, I will read verse 13 to verse 14.  Let's do a little bit of application from the statement of verse 14. “And Samuel said to Saul, you have done foolishly.” If a man should do things foolishly, what has made it possible? The Heart! It says; “You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God which He commanded you, for now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Isreal forever, But now your kingdom shall not continue, the Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own Heart. And the Lord has commanded Him to be a commander over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”

 

Can we see that? It says; the Lord has sought for a man after His own Heart. By the state of the Heart of Saul, he did foolishly. Now, if any man will do wisely, it is going to be by the state of the Heart of the person; that person must have a different Heart.

 

Now, we have already realized that the life of the flesh is in the blood, right? And the Heart pumps the blood. Do we know how it does the job? We don't know. Right? Because we are not medical people, right? We don't know by what means it does it. There is a power that is at work in you and I literally speaking that makes our Heart to pump blood. It’s a power, and that power dictates the mannerism of the pumping. And the rates, the beat, the style of the pumping will determine the mannerism of your behavior. When you say Lord, give me a new Heart, you're asking God, Lord, give me a new system, a new pumping system.

 

Let's give an example. Maybe you're a brother, when you were single, and much more single; like 14-year-old 15 or 16; When you see a girl that looks beautiful, you begin to look at her. Maybe you do that up until 20 the time that you confess that indeed I'm a born again do you behave the way you used to behave before then? No! What has changed? You're still looking the same but your Heart is beating differently. The Bible says as the deer pants for the water brook so my soul longs for you. There's a way the deer pants for the water. Have you seen people that watch football match in the stadium? Do you see them looking moody? No, you can say it was a group thing, but when there is a goal, everyone will be shouting. What's happening everybody’s Heart is beating at the same rate. I have a watch that reads my Heartbeat.

 

And I've realized that whenever I'm inside a vehicle, I'm traveling, no matter how short the journey is, once I am in a vehicle, my Heart beat faster than when I'm not traveling. It’s true; As you are in that bus, that taxi, whether they squeeze you or you they squeeze you, your Heart beats faster.

 

Now you could just realize that way you are in those places there is a tendency for anxiety. It is easier to do things, that's why whatever you do in those moments, you need to be sure because you might be doing things fast. You can even break your marriage fast in the vehicle because everything is working fast. Your life is fast somebody tells you something you get angry fast everything is fast; that is for the vehicle. What about the stadium What about those who go for disco, club; they are dancing, you will be seeing blue lights. Sometimes they might be shooting they won’t hear because the sound of the gun is not even up to the sound of the music.

 

 So, in the time that they are doing music if they give them cocaine, we just take it. Why? The Heart is already beating fast. If your Heart is beating well and cool and calm, when people bring bad things to you, you will first ask; are you normal, are you okay? What should I do with it? but when your Heart is beating at that rate, it is like you have joined a frequency. I wish I can be talking as a scientist, because some things can be scientifically explained.

 

The sound is coming from my mouth is coming with a frequency, a voice frequency. You may not understand it but it is coming like that, your Heartbeat is beating at a rate that is with every other person, whatever they do you do. And to commit a sin is very easy. All of us are sinning. All of us are sinning. So, the Bible says lest you join them to do evil guard your own Heart. So how can you be in a club and you guard your own Heart? So, the first thing is actually to get away? The Bible did not say you should be dragging, it says flee all appearances of evil. So, music, when they play them, maybe by whiz kid or anybody. If you stay in the atmosphere, your Heart will beat differently.

 

A single brother that wants to commit fornication will set up an atmosphere an environment; the music you want to hear. There must be a mood you want to create. So, when the girl opens the door of your room are Heart will start panting or beating at a different rate before she came. If the Heart the does not pant or do anything, if you touch the girl, she will want to slap you. So, if you don't want danger, guard your Heart. Your Heart has started beating beyond normal, guard it. Through what? Is it by getting a good tight cloth that you can guard it? No, the Bible says through Christ Jesus. You must be intentional, before your Heart start beating beyond control. The Bible says, use Christ to bring it to order, use Christ as the break. My Heart is beating too fast, let my Heart slow down.