Pastor A

In order to achieve spiritual victory, you must practice self-denial in all areas of life. This is an active way to die to self. But always be careful to deny yourself for the Lord, in order to better follow Him. You may start with giving up Cokes and putting the money in a special missions offering. You may want to give up a football game for a time of special Bible study or prayer. This is also where fasting comes in as a spiritual exercise. Fasting is going without food for a period of time.

For the Christian, it is going without food in order to better concentrate on the Word and prayer. There are sound scientific and medical principles behind fasting, but if your purpose is not to glorify the Lord, it does not count as a genuine spiritual exercise.

How about giving up that new dress or even your car so that you could give a special offering to the Lord? You will not begin to experience the richest spiritual blessings of the Lord until you begin to sacrificially follow Him. This takes real discipline… but the rewards are well worth the effort.

Actively work to develop good character qualities. Make a list of the qualities you find in God’s Word: honesty, uprightness, humility, wisdom, gentleness with people, etc. Proverbs provides an excellent source for character qualities. Start with the one that you feel you lack the most. Begin to pray that God would develop this quality in your life. Memorize scriptures that refer to it. Look for opportunities to express that quality in your life. God will provide those opportunities. Do it every day. Keep track of your progress.

When that quality has been developed, go on to another quality. This is such a valuable discipline. And it is so much more than self-improvement. God is actually doing the improving within you as you learn His Word and live it in your life. Be especially alert to pride creeping in as you see yourself developing. Remember, it is God’s work and He must receive all praise. You are merely letting Him be Himself in your life.

Spiritual victory is not the impossible dream of the Christian. Neither is it an easily attained goal. It is waiting for anyone who loves God enough to take Him at His Word and obey that Word with all of his heart, soul, and strength.

Paul goes on to explain that the way of escape for impure thoughts is a spiritual exercise. II Corinthians 10:3-5, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: 4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;“

The answering in disciplining your mind is bringing every thought back to Christ. If you are reminded of a sin you once committed and Satan tries to accuse you with it, immediately remind yourself, “Yes, I committed that sin. I am guilty of it. BUT Jesus died for that sin of mine and through His blood it is forgiven and forgotten.” And then thank Him for His forgiveness.

If your thought life is a problem, say, “Yes, I have a weakness in that area and I have sinned much in it. But Jesus died for this sin of mine, too, and now through His blood it is forgiven and forgotten.” And then thank Him for His deliverance.

No matter what the thought, bring it into relation to Christ. When Satan sees that the thoughts he sends only make you think of Jesus, he will soon stop sending them; and in the course of time, you will feel no more pull from them. A stronghold of Satan has been cast down in your mind through a spiritual weapon, the discipline of your thoughts.

The devil gets a foot in the door of your life when you allow sin to pile up in your heart!

Therefore, we must discipline our thoughts. Proverbs warns us in 23:7, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.” Your thoughts reveal the real YOU. Not your actions, not your appearance, not your words, but your thoughts reveal YOU. You will eventually become what you allow yourself to think. It is a proven pschological and spiritual fact. If you sincerely want to experience spiritual victory in your life, you must discipline yourself to think the right things.

Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.“

This immediately does away with the vast majority of movies being shown today, a large percentage of the books and magazines on the newsstands, much of what is viewed on the Internet, and probably a lot of what filtered through your brain in the past week! If something causes you to think the wrong thoughts, it is wrong.

This is perhaps the hardest part of being a real disciple. Our thoughts seem so uncontrollable. They just pop up, whether we want them to or not. But your success in disciplining your mind cannot be measured by the number of impure or evil thoughts you have. It can only be measured by what you do with those thoughts when they come.

You see, Satan knows that if he can control your thoughts, he can directly influence everything about you. So one of the major fronts of his attack on you as a believer is your mind. He suggests thoughts to you, and plants stimuli in convenient places to prompt wrong thoughts. And if he does it long enough, he wears a rut in your mind so that you cannot help yourself: he has reprogrammed you to think in that certain way. By continually bringing up the wrong kind of thoughts, he eventually gets you to act them out. Your wrong thought has become a wrong act. But God says there is a way out.

God promises in I Corinthians 10:13, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.“

“Death to sin” and “death to self” are not enough, alone. You must discipline your life in order to gain spiritual victory. The Bible teaches us in I Corinthians 14:32, “And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.” In other words, you can control your own “spirit”, or you can discipline and control yourself. You cannot do without self-discipline and expect to experience spiritual victory. Self-discipline is a must. Consider:

II Timothy 2:3-5, “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.  4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. 5 And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully.“

Titus 2:12, “Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;“

I Peter 1:13, “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;“

What is it about yourself you are to discipline?

We must discipline our prayer life. Prayer is perhaps the most neglected exercise of our spiritual life. A prayerless life always equals a powerless life. Prayer is the channel by which you and your Heavenly Father communicate with each other. Prayer is that means through which you praise God and worship Him. If you are going without prayer in your life, you are probably not doing much anyway.

You must discipline yourself to pray. Set a time every day that is your time with God and keep it just as you would a doctor’s appointment or a date. Discipline yourself to keep it every day, whether you feel like it or not. We are not commanded to pray when our mood is right: we are commanded to “pray without ceasing.” It is not hypocrisy when you kneel to pray with no desire in your heart: it is obedience.

But do not stop with a set time. Do not let prayer just become a habit. Develop a real prayer “life” with the Lord. Talk to Him throughout the day… as you work, as you drive, and as you study. Jesus loves to hear you pray.

Proverbs 15:8, “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright is his delight.“   

Yesterday we wrote that a lack of desire would hinder your Bible study. Today, we will look at two other possibilities as to why one’s Bible study is not vibrant.

A lack of discipline will hinder one’s Bible study. It seems we all have experience developing bad habits, but not much expertize in developing good habits. For all sorts of reasons, we are side-tracked from doing what we know is right. A prime example of this problem is the fact that a large percentage of Christians do not study the Bible regularly, yet find time to do much less important things.

If you have difficulty in the disciplines of your time, do not just resign yourself to failure. Start somewhere and ask God to help you progress from that point. Set goals for your personal Bible study; challenge yourself to reach these goals and then, keep track of your efforts. Don’t give up.

Another hindrance to Bible study is a lack of obedience. Through Bible study God will show you His will. Your responsibility is to follow His direction. This means doing exactly what He says to do, when He says to do it, and with the right heart attitude.

The Word of God must be activated in your life through obedience. I encourage you this day; get into the Word of God and engage in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.