Spiritual Disciplines – Path Without End

I’ve spent all weekend pondering and praying as to what is the best starting point when it comes to spiritual disciplines? I think this may be the most important point. We can think of so many disciplines that could be listed and are important, but this must be more than just a list. The true warrior of God is not about living it “list”, but it is about becoming a Godwalker, and how do we do that?

Enoch or Esau? (That is the question.) Enoch pleased God and walked with God. But Esau sold his birthright for pots of beans. And please understand, it wasn’t just one pot of beans. Esau made that choice every day! God’s Word gives us the details of when he finally crossed the path of no return, but his daily lifestyle leading up to that ultimate choice had set the stage. He didn’t just get there in one day, he had been sowing the seeds of his careless garden for years! He had been embracing beans and ignoring God for years!

Enoch, on the other hand, had been in love with the Presence of God for years. He daily sacrificed beans for the Presence of God, more of the Holy Spirit, to be empowered of God to be a Godwalker, and God took him! God actually raptured him off the earth! An early picture of what we believe will happen again in mass, in the rapture!

The first spiritual discipline is cultivating such a love for God that you do as Jesus said: Love the Lord thy God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. (Is that a discipline you might ask?) In that process we daily seek more of the Holy Spirit to empower us to walk with God, be a modern day Godwalker! But as long as we keep trading the Presence of God for pots of beans, we will always be a vessel of dishonor in the great house of God. Do we settle for beans?

In past times people used to say, “He is a man of God.” People recognized when someone purified themselves and dedicated themselves to the pursuit of God. They set themself apart and God made them a vessel of honor, a real spiritual warrior. We don’t here that phrase much anymore, but the Bible plainly says Enoch walked with God, and I have been inspired with the thought of being a Godwalker for many years. I share this thought whenever I can, and this is where spiritual disciplines have to begin! Not with a list and an emphasis on will-power, but a person in love with the Presence of God! So much so that he becomes the warrior! He is Samurai for Christ! He loves God with all his heart, soul, mind , and strength, even as Jesus said!

I could give you this one spiritual discipline; to stop spending your life pursuing beans but pursue Holy Spirit, and God’s will will be added to you! Wealth? A mansion? Maybe, or maybe not, but it would no longer matter! It only matters to us when we love the things of this underworld more than God and the kingdom above!

In Psalms 91 we see great supernatural power. I have memorized that chapter and have been praying it for many years now. As we face this COVID curse my spiritual garden is full of the seeds of Psalms 91. Prayer is a discipline. Sowing seeds is a discipline. However!!! That chapter sums itself up at the end when it says…

“Because he has set his love upon me (God, Jesus, Holy Spirit), therefore I will deliver him: I will set him on high, because he has known my name. He shall call upon me and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation.”

Do you see the “because” and the “therefore” at the beginning of all those incredible promises? Study them closely. Understand what it all means. It’s not about a list. It’s about becoming a Godwalker. It’s about being an Enoch and not an Esau. It’s about being Mary more than Martha.

We will continue in our teaching of spiritual disciplines. I’m asking God to help me teach it in the proper way. God looks at the heart. How would God teach spiritual discipline? Where would God start? I think he would start in the book of Song of Solomon. I think he would tell us if we gave our body to be burned at a stake, but did not “love”, it would all be for nothing. It would be hollow, shallow, and cheap.

Most of us need to cast away the selfishness of our beans and work on our love. And for that we need a lot of prayer and the Holy Spirit. But do we love that much? It is our choice. We choose beans or God every single day. Will we neglect the one who gives us each day for another pot of beans? Will we be a cheap sword from China?

Do we love God and others enough to pursue him with our whole heart and become more than a citizen of heaven, but also the warrior? Warriors are not looking for a comfort zone. When the people went into the desert to hear John the Baptist, they did not find a man wearing soft clothing and living in a mansion.