But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.
It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge. Romans 7:19-23 MSG
Here is the example of a misaligned individual. They know the ‘right way’ and even decide to go in that direction but their actions (sin) still go contrary to the way they know they should go. This is where the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) seems to be immature within the individual. The last mentioned and first and easiest fruit the Holy Spirit wants to bestow and grow in an individual is… self-control. This will mean discipline training for the body, soul, and spirit. Learning how to deny the body’s desires (fleshly nature) and rightly recognize the soul’s emotional and feeling based senses and why they are being triggered become regular lessons that the Holy Spirit wants to begin teaching an individual. Conviction becomes the Holy Spirit’s way of letting you know what you need to change.
Paul mentions this ‘drive’ to be in the discipline of being determined to be about what the Lord has for him.
You’ve all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one wins. Run to win. All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You’re after one that’s gold eternally.
I don’t know about you, but I’m running hard for the finish line. I’m giving it everything I’ve got. No lazy living for me! I’m staying alert and in top condition. I’m not going to get caught napping, telling everyone else all about it and then missing out myself. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 MSG
So, what are the disciplines for honing and strengthening the soul and spirit of an individual? For we all know that proper exercise and diet disciplines the body.
The disciplines of the soul and spirit are fasting and prayer.
However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. Matthew 17:21 NKJV
The spiritual realm must be met with real spiritual power. (check out Acts 19:11-20 the sons of Sceva story)
Much of the modern American Church knows little about these disciplines of the soul and spirit. And because of that much of the American Church has become anemic in spiritual power.
Fasting hones an individual’s will and spiritual strength better than any other discipline. But for the proper results for that spiritual power fasting must be led by the Holy Spirit who determines the what and how He wants the fasting to occur within the individual. Length, and what type of fasting is to hone certain aspects within the individual. This all must be directed by the Spirit of God for it to have the effect He wants it to have within you. To launch into a fasting discipline without His personal instructions will only have moderate effect, if that, within you.
Obviously, these disciplines require a person to recognize and acknowledge the ‘still small voice’ of the Holy Spirit within them – rightly and regularly. This recognition of His Voice should be one of the first things that is taught to a new disciple of Christ. But discipleship has become a lost discipline within most of the modern western Church.
Are you wanting to gain dominance over the ‘sin’ that keeps popping up in your life? Discipline guided by the Holy Spirit is what is needed.
Are you listening to Him regularly throughout your day? Is He asking you to begin certain disciplines?