Ruanna Levi - The Art of Discipline - how to Function under Pressure - Sunday, May 24, 2026

Thank you.

Such a privilege to be with you all.

Um, I was thinking this morning, oh, hope I can pull this off.

And um, but I just suddenly thought, just the value of the word of God.

It's just so precious, it's so holy, it's so worth everything.

And I was thinking in um in worship, I was reminded I couldn't find the guy's name.

I was trying to look it up, but there was a young, I think he was an eight-year-old or a 12-year-old that was very significant in preaching in the Argentinian revival to like auditoriums of children.

And um, and he would be on the stage and he'd have all his intercessors under the stage.

And if he felt like there wasn't enough anointing, he'd start stomping on the stage to get them to pray harder.

So I was like, oh well, I might start stomping and you can pray harder.

Um, Father, we just thank you for your word that's timeless, that's perfect, that is always true.

We love you, we adore you, we want your word, we want your truth, we want your glory, and we want your way, and we love you.

I want to speak today um on the art of discipline and how to function under pressure, and um, I hope it's relevant for everyone.

I think it is.

Um, but we call ourselves disciples, and a disciple is obviously a follower, a student, a learner of someone, and we're disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Um, but that process, that practice of becoming a disciple is the same root word discipline.

And I love the book of Hebrews.

If you haven't read it for a while, read it.

Um, it's incredible.

Um, we don't know who wrote it.

A lot of people think Priscilla wrote it.

Um, and in Hebrews chapter six, verse one, it says this go on to perfection.

I just love it.

Get going, go on to perfection wherever you're up to, whatever's happening, just set your eyes on going on to perfection, not getting bogged down in in moments or difficulties or whatever.

Go on to perfection.

And it's kind of the Hebrews is written because Jews who'd become Christians had chosen to follow Jesus, and then they started facing some heat, they started facing some pressure and difficulties, and it says in Hebrews 10, verse 32 to 33 how they had endured a great struggle with suffering, reproaches, tribulations, but during this time they became companions of those who had been treated similarly in that difficulty, in that process, they became companions with this vast cloud of witnesses through the generations that have walked with God, that have faced pressure, that have faced difficulty.

Hebrews 10:32–33

And I want to pick up in Hebrews 10, verse 34, the second half of verse 34 to 36, if you want to turn there.

Hebrews 10:34

Knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.

Therefore, do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward.

For you have need of endurance, so that after you have obtained the will of God, you may receive the promise.

It's this beautiful, incredible word before us, isn't it?

Don't cast away your confidence, which has great reward.

Your confidence in God, your confidence in the faithfulness of God, your confidence in the Lordship of Jesus, your confidence in his capacity to lead you has great reward.

Don't let the enemy whittle it away.

Don't let the enemy, don't let momentary things compromise her.

For you have need of endurance so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.

And then it's really amazing because that book then goes into this chapter, chapter 11 of Hebrews, which is this whole story of men and women of faith who ran their race.

It goes into this remembering the champions of endurance, and it starts back.

It starts back with Abel, it starts back with, you know, the early fathers, it goes on to Abraham and Moses and so on.

And it goes through all these men and women, these glorious journeys of faith as people traversed the earth following the Lord, seeking his promises.

And I want to just, I'm not gonna go through that because of time, but I'm gonna just go to the next verse, which is Hebrews 12, verse one.

And the writer of Hebrews says here, therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

This is our Lord.

This is our Lord, this is how we stand.

We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.

We are surrounded by men and women through the generations that have run their race, who have tested the faithfulness of God, who have walked into promise.

And the writer of Hebrews here is saying, throw off everything, throw off every weight, every sin that would bog you down, entangle you, snare you, slow you down, and let us run with endurance this race set before us, looking unto Jesus.

You know, every person that we read about in the Bible had a journey.

Everyone had a journey, and that journey was not straightforward.

That journey was not a walk in the park.

That journey was not just clouds and roses.

That journey was through difficulties, through climbs, through green pastures, through gentle streams, through valleys of the shadow of death, through dining with Jesus in the midst of enemies.

It's the fullness of the faithfulness of God.

And we are surrounded by this cloud of witnesses, that witness to his faithfulness, that witness that it is worth everything you ever pay, every cost, every struggle, it is worth it for the glory that awaits us.

That is what that cloud of witnesses is singing over us, is shouting over us, is championing us to.

That everything God has said is possible in obedience, surrender, faith, and love.

And the writer says here, since we have this witness, since we know it's possible, since we have these solid records of the purpose, the fruit, the power of walking by faith, then the writer says this lay off, lay aside every weight.

This is a command.

It's not like just as you're going along, maybe these things will just fall off you.

That's not what it says here.

It is a command because of this, get those things which are weighing you down and throw them aside.

Throw them aside.

Every weight, every encumbrance, every burden, every bulky thing, every hindrance, burdens and expectations we're not meant to be carrying.

Our old nature, our old mindsets, fear of man, fear of future, fear of people's opinion.

It's all a weight that we're not meant to carry.

And the sin which so easily ensnares us.

We need to understand that it's not worth just our sins kind of hanging around.

That that little fox, that that thing that we struggle with, that it's just kind of around.

The Bible is so clear.

Get rid of it.

Pray through it, deal with it, whatever you have to do so that it doesn't ensnare you.

And that word ensnare means this something standing around waiting.

It describes it's the word used for another competitor in a race.

You're trying to run your race.

Have you ever seen those running races?

And the person's running, and someone next to them knows they can't actually win that race.

But instead of letting this competitor win the race, they put their energy into distraction, into trying to trip them up, into trying to push them off balance, into trying to get them to falter or stumble.

And that's the word that's used there.

Where sin is trying to press you off balance, where sin is trying to trip you up and you lose time, you lose momentum.

You know, athletes know their competitors.

A lot of, you know, I mean, professional athletes, they know who they're racing against.

They know their style, they know their tricks, they know the kind of things that they'll pull up to slow them down.

And the writer of Hebrews here is saying, listen, understand those sins that you're vulnerable to that could snare you, that could trip you up.

Be aware of them and deal with them and be wise.

It's not to be afraid, it's to go, yep, this thing is an area that I can fall into.

Whether it's despair, whether it's distraction, whether it's judgment, whatever it is, be aware of it and stay on guard.

Watch it.

Don't let it push you around even a little bit.

Lay it aside with a predetermined response.

You know, I I don't know if I know Joel's spoken about it a couple of times at prayer meeting.

I don't know if he spoke about it here, but you know, I love the predetermined responses in the Bible.

In Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abagnago, they're taken captive.

They were probably castrated.

They were prisons, imprisoned in this palace.

They'd been through a lot, and yet they worshiped.

They worshiped.

And when they were asked to bow down and worship the idol of Nebuchadnezzar, they were like, No.

And so the king, furious, heats up this furnace seven times what's normal.

Anyone near it is just gonna die.

And he's trying to get them to just go, no, okay, we will just worship a little bit, we'll just compromise a little bit.

And I love their response.

They say, oh king, we know that our God can deliver us from your fire.

But even if he doesn't, we will not bow down and worship any other God.

It's a predetermined response.

We know God can do this, but even if he didn't, our commitment to worship, our commitment to love, our commitment to obey is not going to waver.

And you know the story.

Even the guards that threw them into the fire died with the heat, but they got in that fire, and Jesus walked with them in the fire, and they came out unharmed.

In Acts, Peter and John that healed the lame guy at the gate, beautiful.

Healed.

A man who was crippled since birth.

Everyone's eyes had seen this miracle of love.

But they so detested that the name of Jesus was being exalted, they beat them and hit them and scouched them.

And it says, Peter and John went rejoicing.

They went rejoicing and said, Even if you beat us, you cannot count us unworthy of suffering from the name of Jesus.

You cannot, even in your beating, you will not silence us from proclaiming the name of Jesus.

And my question is this What is your predetermined response when sin tries to ensnare you?

What are you armed with?

When you get the jostle, when you get the knock, when you get the trip up.

Is it I worship when I'm afraid?

Is it I speak blessing over curses?

Is it generosity when lack whispers at you?

Is it the promises of God when hopelessness is crushing in?

These are disciplines.

This is a mindset of discipline that enables us to walk as disciples.

And the writer says here, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

And I was just praying this morning, and I felt like the father said, like he said to all of you, like he said to all of us.

It was like he got down just near our faces, and he was like, Do you understand the race that I've set before you?

Do you understand it?

Do you understand that he has hand crafted a race before each one of us?

It is the most beautiful, the most glorious, and the most perfect course that there could be for your life.

It is the race that is set to bring you into the deepest union with himself that is possible.

He has formed it with his own hands, with his own words, with his own desire to bring you into oneness through that race.

It is holy, it is perfect, it's the course where you will discover who he is.

It is the course where you will discover who you are more than you could ever imagine.

The course is better than anything else you could do with your life.

It's not that we'd really like to do this course, but we've just got to do this course, God said.

No, there is nothing better, there is nothing more beautiful, there is nothing more glorious for you to do than to run the race set before you.

That word endurance means this, it means full of hope, full of joy, patient, enduring, constant, steadfast.

That is how we run.

Full of hope, full of cheer, full of patience, full of endurance, full of constancy, full of steadfastness.

We don't get to run our race in tiny bursts and keep walking off the course.

We won't finish.

Endurance is a mindset.

When we do endurance races, it's all about here.

You have to train, you have to have a certain amount of physical fitness, but the battle's here.

The battle is your mindset.

When your mind tells you you can't finish this, when your mindset says you're too tired, when your mindset says it's impossible, when your mindset says everyone else is faster, the battle is all here.

That's just in the natural.

Looking at other people.

Just look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

And he had a race too.

He had joy set before him and he endured.

He had to walk through those deep valleys.

He had to walk through great mountains.

He even had to endure the cross, endure separation from the Father, which we will never, ever, ever have to do.

And he sat down triumphantly, declaring, it is finished.

His reign, his authority, his glory is forever.

And his race, Hebrew says it was to lead many sons to glory.

That's you and me.

He's finished his race.

He ripped open the heavens and made a way for us to follow him.

He tore down the veil and invited us in, into intimacy, into the presence of God and into the glory of the Godhead.

And Jesus was possibly the most disciplined person that ever walked the planet.

Because he was so merciful, so spontaneous, so engaging, we often think he was just sort of floating around seeing what would happen.

No, he was a man of discipline.

There was a cost.

There was a sowing.

You know, it says so many times, long before dawn, Jesus was up away with the Father, praying.

There was a discipline when he said, I don't just speak my own words.

Can you imagine the level of discipline to restrain your mouth to only speak what the father's speaking?

That is discipline.

Imagine the restraint of Jesus.

He walked past people he didn't heal.

We know because the disciples healed them later.

Restraint.

I only do what I see the Father doing.

That is discipline.

That is honor.

That is running a race.

And sometimes it's hard.

In Hebrews 12, verse 11, it says this no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.

Hebrews 12:11

Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

I feel I feel like this is kind of kindness from the writer of Hebrews.

Let's just call it for what it is.

No discipline feels great at the time.

You decide you're gonna change what you eat, or you decide you're gonna exercise.

I can assure you it doesn't feel great at the time.

But it brings forth a harvest.

It's never gonna feel better than choosing to stay in bed than get up and pray.

It's never gonna feel better to just lie on the couch than put your sand shoes on.

It's not going to.

But it's that mindset that you are doing something under something more that the writer is talking about here.

We used to think, we used to think that motivation led to just discipline, just medically.

We used to think if we could just motivate people enough, we just try and persuade them enough, then they would decide to discipline certain areas of their life, whether it was to stop smoking or you know, whatever health thing you're trying to do.

We just thought if we can just motivate them enough, either like motivate them even with fear, like if you don't do this, then this will happen.

Or motivate them with something else.

If we can just motivate people, they will suddenly become disciplined and walk that out.

And as you would all know from your lives, that is doesn't work.

Simply does not work.

We start motivated, and with day within days or weeks, the choices, the painful moments, the times we could opt for the easier option begin to draw us.

And the fascinating thing is that now we understand from neuroscience, even at a neurotransmitter level, it does not work that way.

You can't create the neurotransmitters required for discipline through motivation.

What they've found is discipline, the choice of just I'm doing this whether I feel like it or not, whether I'm up to it or not, whether this is what is captivating my attention or not.

I'm just choosing if I commit to go for a to for a walk at 6 a.m., I just go for a walk, whether it's raining, whether it's windy, whether I feel like it.

You create that discipline, and what they find is at a neurotransmitter level, at a chemical level, what happens is that the motivational center of the brain begins firing.

You discipline yourself into motivation, you don't motivate yourself into discipline.

That is a very, very big deal in the way we live.

And it's why Jesus constantly taught discipline.

He told us what was ahead, he told us of our eternal reward, he invited us into beautiful places of intimacy that should motivate us, but he never left it at that.

He would teach discipline, he would teach pursuing into the word, he would teach obedience, he would teach prayer, he would teach consistent love.

They're all disciplines.

So that's why the writer here in Hebrews is saying, listen, discipline will often feel difficult at the time.

It's never gonna feel like the most pleasant thing on the planet.

Let's be clear about that.

But and it's a very big but, isn't it?

It produces something, it produces something that compromise and complacency and ease and comfort can never ever ever produce in your life.

It produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Can you imagine the privilege?

Discipline produces a harvest of righteousness.

That word righteousness is likeness to Christ.

Discipline is going to produce in you this likeness of Jesus when it's done in love.

It brings us into that same fellowship with the Father that Jesus had.

That's what the word righteousness means.

That's a harvest.

It's not one apple thrown at you, it's a whole harvest, it's a whole life brought in before the throne of grace.

It's a whole level of fruitfulness, an ongoing harvest where we sow and reap and sow and reap and sow and reap, and harvesting, becoming more like Him through discipline, becoming like the one we love, becoming like the one we gaze upon, where our thoughts are becoming like his, where our passions are becoming like his, where our agendas are becoming like his.

That's the fruit of that discipline.

I'm not just gonna let my mind wander with everything the enemy throws.

I'm not just gonna waste time doing whatever.

I want to be like him, his kingdom becoming real and present in ours.

And the writer says here that we will it will produce a harvest of righteousness and peace.

Do you know the whole world is looking for peace?

The whole world is looking for what it would be to walk in peace.

And when they see sons and daughters of God walking in peace, it's like a magnet.

It's like what?

How?

Why?

What is that?

And peace is not pretense.

Peace is not pretending the problem isn't there.

Peace is knowing the Prince of Peace that calms the storm.

You know, Paul wrote the book of Philippians in prison.

In a dark, cold, wet, feral, probably rat-infected prison.

He wrote, Count it all joy, brethren.

You read the book of Philippi, it is championing peace and joy right from a prison cell.

Was it true?

Yes.

Did Paul mean it?

Yes.

Why?

Because he'd been trained in discipline and he's got a harvest of peace.

He's not throwing around.

He's not like, oh, what happened?

He's got a message right from that prison cell.

And I was thinking this morning about some of the more recent heroes and heroines of faith.

I was thinking, I read that Corrie Ten Boom, she was in the in Auschwitz, I believe, but she was definitely in one of the concentration camps, her and her sister.

And they determined that even in that pit of hell, they would discipline themselves to share the gospel, to pray.

They determined that they were going to use every day in that place until they died and went to glory or until they were released.

They would use it to glorify Jesus.

And they write about this time where there was this horrendous lice outbreak.

Like it was so bad.

Everyone was just ripping their skin off.

It was so bad.

And they were like beside themselves, like crying out for mercy to God.

And then the Lord said, just use this time.

And what happened as they began to turn their attention away from the problem, as they began to turn their attention onto Jesus?

How do we use the time?

How do we use the time?

The life got so bad that the Nazi soldiers wouldn't even come in.

They wouldn't even get near all those prisoners.

They just left them alone for like two weeks because they didn't want to get infected.

And so they had full rain for two weeks to preach the gospel, to pray openly, to teach the word all day, all night.

They weren't sent out to do their work.

And as they set their eyes on Jesus, there was this harvest of righteousness.

And I read the stories of like Brother Yun, who was one of the leaders of the Chinese Underground House Church movement, persecuted so badly that his own mother could only recognize him from a birthmark.

Tortured so many times.

And there was times when he was caught and thrown into high security prison.

And instead of going, you know, just let me die, he would go, oh, he was put in isolation.

He would go, oh, it's time just for me and Jesus.

He would discipline his time into this.

I've just got this window where there's no one else to speak to, there's no work to be done, there's no preaching of the gospel, it's just me and the Lord.

And he would count that time as holy.

And when it was over, God would get him out.

Walk straight out of high security prison.

Because that is our God.

Paul says in Galatians 6, verse 17, From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus, was a discipline of what he had endured, and had brought him to a peace as proof of his ownership by and loyalty to Jesus.

Galatians 6:17

We're not going looking for trouble, but there is a discipline that we're invited to come into.

And maybe it's time to set the alarm to pray.

Maybe it's time, and I speak to myself as well, to put the phone aside, to choose worship, to give sacrificially, to fast, to show hospitality, to find ways of kindness when I could just be looking after myself.

These are all disciplines, they're all costs, and they will all bear fruit, all of it.

I found this quote the other day.

It's from a marathon runner, but I really like it.

His name's Eliod Kipchoki.

He's an Ethiopian marathon runner.

He says, actually, only the disciplined ones in life are free.

If you're undisciplined, you're a slave to your own moods and your own passions.

And I really liked it because we kind of think of discipline as this thing that kind of locks us in.

But here's this guy saying, discipline is actually very freeing because you're not controlled by the moment, you're not controlled by the last thing you've felt or crossed your mind.

And um I've been really enjoying getting to know reading about John Wesley.

He started the Methodist movement, which many of you would heard about, but he was a revivalist in the UK.

And he just they called him the Methodist, a Methodist.

It was a derogatory term because they were kind of mocking his discipline.

He had this method.

His method was he arose at 4:30 every morning to pray.

At 6:30, he would preach to the miners who wouldn't be around later in the day when he would preach to other classes of society.

He spent his time on horseback in prayer and study of science and medicine and engineering, anything he could find as he rode to the next place to preach the gospel, to teach to disciple.

He fasted two days a week.

But do you know what?

He had fiery love.

He had fiery love.

And he preached till the last day of his life.

And I can't remember if it was 89 or 94.

It was incredibly old in that time.

Fit well preaching to the end.

The love of Jesus Christ.

And it's taught me that our culture is just so fixated on momentary comfort.

And yet, this discipline that is possible for us as sons and daughters of God has so much fruit.

Jesus was an overcomer.

And I love in Revelation 2 and 3.

I won't read it now because of time, but they're letters to seven churches.

They represent all kinds of things that we all face as the church.

But do you know the one thing that is in every single one of those letters?

It ends with this to him who overcomes.

Jesus's plan for every believer is to be one who overcomes.

One who overcomes.

It's part of our inheritance.

Jesus said in John 16, verse 33, These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace.

John 16:33

In the world you will have tribulation.

But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

Do you know when he said that?

Be of good joy, celebrate, I've overcome the world.

He said it as he prophesied that his disciples would scatter.

He said it as he left for his final prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Because the overcoming of Jesus often looks like complete surrender first.

Jesus has overcome the world.

Every pull, every temptation, every pressure, every authority of the enemy, every barrier in the world to God, Jesus has overcome it.

And as disciples, if we will discipline our lives, discipline our minds, we get to walk the path with this overcomer.

It was a quote, but it felt like it fitted with this so well.

It was by Ian Simpkins.

It says, When we lack purpose, we distract with pleasure.

When we lack calling, we distract with comfort.

In my experience, a culture built on comfort eventually produces a people exhausted by distraction.

It just undid me.

The times I have let myself be exhausted by distraction looking for comfort.

But the human soul was made for much, much more than mere entertainment and escape.

It is purpose that gives weight to ordinary moments.

Calling reshapes even mundane work into something holy, sacred.

Without those anchors, comfort slowly becomes captivity.

There's a reason so many people feel restless even while they're surrounded by convenience.

Because we were designed and created to participate in something bigger than ourselves.

Pleasure can numb that hunger for a moment, but can't ever truly satisfy it.

So pay attention to what keeps numbing you beneath that distraction may be an invitation from God to wake up, live deeply, and give your life away for something eternal.

You know, God has such glorious plans for each one of you.

They're so glorious that they require focus, they require purpose, they require calling.

He knows the encouragement, the encounters, the tenderness of his voice that we all need.

The teaching, the connection, the community that we need.

And he's better than we could possibly imagine.

But when God shouts in Isaiah 41, Comfort, yes, comfort my people, says your God.

Speak comfort to Jerusalem.

Cry out that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned.

Do you know it's the same verse, same voice that in verse three, it's the voice crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord.

His comfort comes in on what we prepare.

His comfort comes in when we make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

His comfort comes in when we make valleys flat, when we bring down mountains, when we prepare the way for the Lord, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed.

Let's make straight roads in our lives for Him, bringing into alignment what He has for us.

In Hebrews 12, back where we were, verse 12 and 13 says this, therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.

Strengthen hands.

Strengthen knees.

Make straight paths.

You know, I heard a fascinating thing this week.

It was a study they were doing.

Um, and it's a study on people who are currently undergoing chemotherapy.

Considered it possibly, you know, horrendous.

And what they've found is you know what the best possible outcome in that scenario is?

Run.

You're all looking at me with flat faces.

It's true.

They've found that when we would all go, the best thing anyone could do in that situation is just lie low, do nothing, rest.

They've found the best possible short-term, long-term outcomes.

Exercise.

In fact, they're running a study in Bathurst.

They are asking people undergoing chemotherapy to have four to five hours of exercise a day to break through.

To break through.

It's stunning because what we thought we needed in terms of comfort and rest and just lie low, suddenly it's like what you need is to run.

Because when you run, there's a whole lot of chemicals that are released in your body that are toxic to everything fighting against your body.

When you decide that discipline, when you decide that movement, when you decide to arise, something breaks off, something happens, something budges, something gives way.

This is a medical study.

And I'm telling you, it's just a picture of what happens in the spirit.

When we most feel like lying low, feeling sorry for ourselves.

You get up and you get out that door and you go and love someone.

You get up, you stand up and you begin to pray for somewhere.

You get up, you stand up and you begin to worship the name of Jesus.

You begin to get up and stand up and go, God, where can I give this money to?

You begin to get up, you begin to stand up and you go, I will not lie down in the corner.

I have a voice, I have a song, I have a hand, I have an anointing, I have a calling.

It's time, it's time to arise, and it's time to have our eyes open to what belongs to us, to the great cloud of witnesses, to the disciplines of being an overcomer, to disciples who walk in obedience unto glory, disciples of the one who knows us better than we know ourselves, with joy, with gladness, with singing, and with your running shoes on, beloved.

With your running shoes on.

I want you to pray that they would just get a new measure, a new willingness to run the race set before them, run into the things of God, run into the glory of the race that the Father has uniquely prepared for them.

That they wouldn't be distracted, they wouldn't be knocked aside, they wouldn't be entangled anymore, but they would run the race set before them unto glory.

Amen.

I long to restore you, I long to inspire you.

You have begun a journey with me, a journey of fulfillment.

I call you to run with me.

I call you to lay your burdens at my feet.

The burdens you carry slow you down.

I want to take you faster.

I want to take you higher.

I want to take you into my glory cloud.

You will be forever changed.

My glory cloud will immerse your spirit.

The journey is coming to you and in you.

My victory is complete in you.

You are warriors, you are dreamers, you are healers, you are restorers.

Be grave, be bald.

I will sing over you.

Step out on this adventure with me.

Arise, my children.

Arise.