Run Your Appointed Course

Life has rules. If you refuse to play by them, you will never get anywhere. The Bible makes that plain, and it does not apologize for it. Paul told Timothy, “When the going gets rough, don’t be soft… Take it on the chin with the rest of us, the way Jesus did.” He goes on to say, “An athlete who refuses to play by the rules will never get anywhere” (2 Timothy 2:1–5, Message). That is a rule of the game right there. You cannot ignore God’s order and expect God’s results.

One of the first rules is this: you can’t quit. Believers cannot have “glass jaws.” We cannot collapse every time life hits us. The Word shows us how to live. “Do you see what this means?… It means we’d better get on with it… start running—and never quit!… Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it” (Hebrews 12:1–3, Message). That is not just encouragement, that is instruction. The enemy wants you focused on the fight, focused on the punch, focused on the pain. But if you will keep your eyes on Jesus and where you’re headed, you will get back up again and again. Jesus endured because He stayed focused. “He never lost sight of where he was headed” (Hebrews 12:2, Message). Focus is a rule. Quitting is not an option.

Another rule is that you must run your own course. Hebrews calls it “the appointed course of the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1, Amplified Classic). That means God has a course for your life, and your course is not somebody else’s course. Many people stay frustrated because they keep trying to run another man’s race. They chase what looks popular. They chase what pays more money. They chase what they “like.” But that is not how a believer makes decisions. Prosperity is not merely increase; prosperity is being in the will of God and being a doer of the Word. God has a place called “there” for every one of us, and the blessings of God are connected to that place.

So how do you discover your course? God does not leave His children in the dark. “What eye has not seen and ear has not heard… all that God has prepared… for those who love Him… Yet to us God has unveiled and revealed them by and through His Spirit; for the [Holy] Spirit searches diligently… even sounding the profound and bottomless things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:9–10, Amplified Classic). God has good things prepared, and the Holy Spirit is the One who reveals them. That is why we must live led. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14). You cannot live confused and call it normal. God is not the author of confusion, and He wants His people walking in clarity.

But here is another rule of the game: you must guard yourself from the spirit of this world. Scripture says, “Now we have not received the spirit that belongs to the world, but the [Holy] Spirit Who is from God” (1 Corinthians 2:12, Amplified Classic). The world has a spirit, and it carries ideologies, desires, and patterns that contaminate a believer’s discernment. That is why you must watch what you feed on day after day. If you are always engrossed in the natural—social media, entertainment, opinions, and noise—then when it is time to hear God, you will be dull. You will say, “Is that God or is that me?” The more time you spend with God, the more you recognize God. That is not a suggestion. That is a rule.

So don’t be soft. Don’t quit. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Run the course God appointed for you. Stay led by the Spirit, and keep the spirit of this world off of you. If you will play by the rules, you will get to the finish line, and you will arrive where God pre-ordained for you to be.