Devotional Discipline
It is fascinating when reading the Gospels to see the number of instances where Jesus would withdraw into solitude to fellowship with His Father. Jesus’ strength and success in public clearly flourished because of this private devotional discipline. Is it any wonder that we find ourselves facing so many distractions and temptations pulling us away from this same devotional discipline today? Surely the devil knows only too well the chaos that would result in the kingdom of darkness if more and more Christians started to live with the same devotional discipline of Jesus.
We can — and should be — a massive threat to the Enemy. Satan knows that if we were to start walking in the fullness of the Spirit we will totally upend his kingdom. And he knows that it is in the secret place, the place of intimate communion with God that we find ourselves being charged and filled to the full with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. He will do everything he can to keep us from prayer, study, meditation, fasting and the like. He will try to convince us that we are too tired, too busy, or too whatever. He will whisper to us that it doesn’t really matter if we miss a couple of days (and then whisper in the other ear telling us that God doesn’t love us because we didn’t read the Bible). He is a master of deceit and we can be sure that any “sense” or “voice” that we hear drawing us away from prayer or fellowship with God is a messenger of Satan. But we must overcome! We must deny the lie that says “you’re too tired to get up now” when the alarm goes, “just press the snooze button”. We must deny the lie that says, “it’s ok, they’ll be time later”. We must deny the lie that says, “it doesn’t matter if you miss spending time with God today”.
We need to recognise all of these devices as lies. They are attempts by Satan and his demons to pull us away from the life and power that we would receive from the place of quality fellowship with God. It is time that we say no to the lies of our flesh. Tiredness can be overcome. Lack of time can be overcome. We must discipline our flesh to ignore the lies that we hear and let it know who’s the boss. Your flesh is not your master! By disciplining your flesh you will open the door to true freedom. Freedom is not found in letting your flesh do and feel what it wants; freedom is found when you are ruling your flesh rather than it ruling you. So next time you don’t feel like praying know that that is the time to get down on your knees and start praying. And as you discipline yourself by starting to pray, you will soon find yourself desiring to pray. And when you don’t feel like reading the Bible, know that that is a sign for you to pick up your Bible and ask for the Holy Spirit to speak to you through the Word.
