Something to be said for Discipline

Paul writes in Phillipians that he gave everything up and that this was the ONLY way to know Christ deeply. In context, he is talking about denying himself the pleasures and "feel good" things that our modern culture not only takes for granted, but sees as their right. He is talking about the fruit of the spiritual disciplines.


Now, I'm not talking about the "disciplines" that were so prevalent during the Dark Ages....the scorging behaviors people practised to GET salvation or earn their way out of pergotory. I'm talking about the practises our own Lord and Saviour lived and demonstrated, that result in spiritual growth, intimacy and power. For example, when the Spirit led Jesus out into the wilderness, Jesus fasted and prayed for 40 days and THEN the enemy came to tempt Him, and He had the spiritual fortitude and power to withstand and defeat the test. When Jesus knew He had to pass the torch, so to speak, onto disciples, He went alone to fast and pray and THEN He had the wisdom with which to choose.

When our Savior and Lord walked this earth, He was fully man, and in addition to His profound teachings, He lived a life of example that demonstrated in practical ways HOW to have intimacy with the Father. He went alone to pray, He spent time in fasting and solitude, He studied the Word, He denied Himself anything but the simple, needed things, He gave, He served, in short, He loved to the point of His sacrifice on the cross, all enabled by the fact that He went alone to pray, He spent time in fasting and solitude....etc etc. What I'm trying to say is that the reason Jesus was able to do the things He did, is because He practised the disciplines He did. It is not enough to say "well, yeah, of course He did, He was God". Absolutely, He was and is God. But He also was man in flesh, and He calls us to "be perfect as I am perfect", and "be holy as I am holy", and challenges us with "greater things than these shall you also do".

Am I saying that practising spiritual disciplines gets you saved, or helps you keep your salvation? NO! I'm saying that doing what Jesus did, in life, love and deed, following His example, does a mysterious work within our hearts, and we truly begin to grow, in wisdom, revelation and deed, into Christlikeness. When we are prepared to truly surrender and actually begin to live a life where we "offer our bodies" as living sacrifices, and "being led of the Spirit" the way Jesus was, we practise spiritual discipline, deeper intimacy with our Father is the reward.


Notice that the spiritual disciplines involve the body, the flesh. Prayer is a deliberate enaction of our minds and sometimes our knees. Fasting is a denial of our flesh, and a discipline of our soul. Solitude has an impact on our social connectivity, mind, and brain. Serving involves our hands and feet, not to mention that great feeling in our hearts when we've served well. Giving takes our resources and a cognitive choice of our minds, sometimes our bodies. We cannot practise spiritual discipline without our bodies. In fact, I would suggest that in the disciplining of our bodies, and the acts our bodies do, we then grow from strength to strength in our spirits and therein have the power to live, and move and have our being in Him. And He through us!

The Olympics are on right now. One particular athlete stands out...Michael Phelps. I would hazard a pretty safe bet that Michael Phelps did not jump into the pool when the need arose, akin to praying only when things go wrong. He did not exercise and work out only when he got inspired by another athlete, akin to the annointings and impartations we willynilly seek at quik-e-mart revivals and outpourings. He did not go to get instruction from his coach only one day a week, do his own thing the rest of the time, akin to how many of us live our Christian lives. No....Phelps lives, eats, breaths, abides, dwells, in swimming and all the conditioning that goes along with it. His entire life is ABOUT swimming. When he is not in the pool, he is disciplining his body with proper nourishment; when he is not watching tape, and listening to his coach, he is sleeping, and no doubt, dreaming about his next race. The 2 or 4 minutes of glory in the pool result from 4 years of hard, disciplined, sacrificial work, and Phelps thinks it's worth it.
Paul's life of service and profound affect to the church was the result of 12 years of disciplined, wilderness living and learning, where he became so intimate with our Lord and Saviour that he was "caught up into the third heaven" and saw things that he dared not speak of, but even better than that, his intimacy with our Lord was so deep, our Father entrusted him with the "secrets" to our living, and moving and having our being in Jesus, while here on earth, which Paul told us about in his many letters and epistles.

Jesus said live as I live, and Paul did. Paul wrote, "follow my example", and we can. It's not an ideal reserved only for monks and prophets. God would not be calling ALL of His children to Christlikeness, if it were not possible.

And, I believe that by beginning to take one step into one discipline, we learn, grow and are enabled, in that mysterious way of His, to have love and community permeate all aspects of our lives, so that spiritual discipline is not just an innermost state of being. It can actually begin to look like something tangible on the outside, that can be seen....where we truly can be recognized as belonging to Christ because of the action of our love for Him and one another. What am I trying to say? Spiritual discipline practised will become bodily discipline lived. For instance, right now, when I'm bored, I tend to plug in a DVD or find some other way to entertain myself...it takes discipline to get into the Word, or spend time with Father, or call up a friend. When I'm in conflict, I tend to "forgive and forget", let bygones be bygones, and pray like heck that I stop thinking nasty thoughts about them....it takes discipline to remove the broom stick from my eye and have a crucial conversation with them, after I've owned my part first. One certainly cannot turn the other cheek and offer the other one, without self control and discipline, and don't even start with loving my enemies. Sometimes I'm too lazy to love my friends right.

The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Paul says that against such things there is no law, and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with it's passions and desires. My prayer is that I live a life that permeates with fruit, and for that I truly need God's power. No amount of effort and will power on my part will accomplish it, because it only comes about by true heart change. I'm beginning to believe that when I practise the spiritual disciplines with my body, my heart begins to change, my flesh with it's passions and desires, is crucified, and I begin to live as Christ lived.