No Discipline? The Demons Love You

Discipline may be the answer you're looking for.

The other day, I saw a clip of a catholic exorcist discussing a growing trend in demonic activity over the last several years. He mentioned the growing number of people who come needing deliverance or help with demonic attacks and a glaring common trait between them.

The exorcist's statistics point to an emerging reason: Lack of elementary discipline in a person's spiritual life opens them to demonic attack.

He goes on to state that this means there is not an area in their life in which they are consistently practicing self-denial every day.

He continued by saying that even if those people are going to mass or saying the rosary, there is not a disciplined part of their life in which they have to keep telling themselves no.

No Discipline is Attractive to the Darkness for a Reason

It makes sense if we follow the reasoning.

An undisciplined life easily listens to lies and misdirection. Once a sin is introduced into a person's life, the doorway opens to demonic action and power.

Plenty of Christians rail against the idea of self-discipline. Oftentimes, in their hearts, it becomes indistinguishable from legalism. They hear the term "discipline" and assume it must mean some form of fundamentalist power-play designed to keep people oppressed under the traditions of man and religion.

And the kingdom of darkness loves it when Christians believe it.

Some Christians even revel in their resistance to "discipline" as they proclaim their adherence to the "Holy Spirit".

Discipline helps you Hear God

But there's a big issue with taking up arms against anything that looks like discipline. How are we to be obedient if we never feel the pinch of telling ourselves, "No"?

How can we learn God's voice, and what is our heart?

Christ calls us to abide in Him. Likewise, He says that the ones who love Him will do the Father's will. This nature of obedience rests on a foundation of discipline.

Think about it.

• Do we always feel like taking up our cross?

• Do we always want to love our enemy?

• Do we always feel like rejecting the temptation of sin?

• Does our tongue always look forward to speaking righteously?

Or...do we need to discipline ourselves and use the word "No"?

The undisciplined life can claim that the Holy Spirit is giving direction. However, the fruit it bears often tells a different story. The person's emotions and whims become controlling and what they "feel" makes them slaves.

This is a demon's playground. How easy it is to convince ourselves that what feels good or seems right must be good for us. We jettison any concept of discipline and walk with open arms into enticement. Then, we become consumed by following our lusts.

Discipline Sees Through Satan's Tricks

The thing is: Satan imitates God's character. He comes as an angel of light. So much of what we see looks good to pursue, is delightful to our eyes, and appears as wisdom.

It takes being disciplined by God's structure to contain us. After all, if we chase after knowledge of good and evil on our cognizance, we will never make it.

Knowledge of good and evil and following God's will may seem to be the same thing, but they are opposed. By seeking Christ (the tree of life), we rely on His guidance and hand to move us forward. So often, as sheep, we may see things that appear to be good to us. They may seem like righteous directions that would be useful to us.

Yet, they are poison. They imitate goodness while drawing us deeper to death. His voice calls us away from the abyss.

A Disciplined Heart is Submitted to God

Those poisonous callings of sin play on our lusts and desires, fooling us into believing that our pursuit of satisfying our desires will be good for us. In worst-case scenarios, we fall for the lie that compromising will somehow establish righteousness.

In Jeremiah 17:7-9, God lays it out plainly.

"Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord

And whose trust is the Lord.

"For he will be like a tree planted by the water,

That extends its roots by a stream

And will not fear when the heat comes;

But its leaves will be green,

And it will not be anxious in a year of drought

Nor cease to yield fruit.

"The heart is more deceitful than all else

And is desperately sick;

Who can understand it?"

Simply put, our hearts are not trustworthy. It deceives us and toys with us. Its motives are wicked. If we do not trust the Lord and His goodness, then we will attempt to procure the things we need without Him. The heart becomes the driver of all things and leads us to destruction. We cannot trust the direction of our heart in the day-to-day. What we need to do is trust in the Lord and His guidance.

He will certainly lay things on our hearts that guide us. But the difference between what our heart says and what He lays on our hearts is found in where that thing leads.

The Discipline Approach

When we practice and strengthen our resolve to say no to those fleshly/worldly desires that assault us daily, we learn the difference in voice between the Lord and our hearts. The subtle variations become more pronounced over time when we continuously reject the daily temptations of lust and desire.

It could be as simple as knowing you should go pray and read scripture when all you want to do is scroll through social media.

Or, it could be as tough as sweating through your bed sheets at 2 am as you resist the temptation to give in to your desire for p*rn.

Thankfully, our growth in discipline produces inner strength and resolve. Over time, we begin to see the illusory arguments that are just compromises we want to agree with on an emotional level.

No Discipline? Here's How the Compromise Works

For instance, we give in to compromise when we feel rejected by a spouse or the world and decide that we're completely justified in consuming p*rn to satisfy the powerful desire that burns in our bodies.

Unfortunately, every time we give in to that burning desire, we train our bodies to look to the same thing the next time we feel rejected or alone. We grow in distrust for God and trust in our members.

How quickly we then make the ultimate compromise concerning God's character by saying, "God will understand." We lie to ourselves about who He is to justify who we are becoming.

That's tantamount to cheating on your wife with a woman at the bar because the wifey wasn't around. After all, you simply "burned in your heart with passion." You just couldn't resist. Yet, you tell yourself that she'll understand and give grace for you breaking the marriage covenant because you needed some attention.

The excuses we make for our compromises destroy us because they sound so good. Sadly, we are delusional. Our emotions and feelings fuel the delusion. They control us like a puppet. An undisciplined person will often only hear a tiny, almost silent voice of resistance when coming to the crossroads of temptation. The roar of the feelings and emotions overpowers that voice and quickly agrees with the compromise. The feedback loop becomes: compromise supports feelings, which feelings in turn agree with the compromise. The truth is shoved to the side and papered over by the passionate lust of desire.

A man who is rejected by his wife has not been permitted to then violate God. But our emotions attempt to tell us otherwise. We're hurt. We need attention. We crave physical connection. So we reason things out on an emotional level, pretending that we know good from evil. We then decide that we deserve to relieve the pressure and get rid of the tension within us, assuming that that is the only pathway forward.

As we near the descent into our compromise, we cap it off by saying, "God will understand."

Discipline Cuts Through the Noise

Discipline cuts through the noise. It rejects desire's vocal clamoring for satisfaction and instead acts on principle. It knows what to do or not do precisely because God commanded it or forbade it.

Discipline says no when the rest of the body and mind want to say yes.

Thankfully, the body and mind grow in submitted nature to the spirit when a person lives a life of discipline—especially spiritually.

I am a firm believer that discipline in other areas of life helps in spiritual discipline, but without spiritual discipline, we're merely learning to control the body with no eternal destination in mind.

As we grow in obedience by accepting discipline as a tutor, we recognize the dangerous siren's call for compromise with ever-increasing clarity. What used to seem so convincing becomes a truly wicked suggestion with no illusion of redeeming quality left.

My Own "No Discipline" Experience

I went through this when dealing with my struggles. If I had felt rejected by my wife or cast out by others, then the lust raged within me. After all, I deserved to feel good, and I had to do something about what burned in me.

After winning battle after battle, I began to recognize the lie of the compromise: who am I to justify sin in my life simply because I'm not getting what I want?

We look at God and say, "Since I'm not getting this thing, I'm going to go get it a different way anyway."

We become the petty five-year-old.

I had so thoroughly convinced myself that how my wife treated me on a particular day determined whether I would be obedient to the commands of God.

How utterly foolish of me.

But as I grew in discipline and pursued with vigor the truth of God despite what my body clamored for, I learned a valuable lesson: the compromise was a poorly-fitting, greed-induced, twisted lie.

As I rejected the notion of compromise by grasping the tiny, wispy voice of truth amid the heat, the compromise became hollow and ill-shaped, while the tiny, wispy truth grew to a solid, unmovable foundation.

I grabbed hold of what was true and saw the sway of the illusion lose power over me.

Does this mean temptation doesn't come back around in different ways? No. But as I grow in discipline by saying no regularly (or yes when needed), I can more easily recognize the subtle lies that are parading around behind the offer of a compromise like a cardboard cut-out impersonating a real person.

Discipline vs Compromise

The compromise plays on our lack of truly knowing good from evil. The flesh, demons, dark principalities, and Satan know better than any of us how enticing the compromise is.

This is why we must practice obedience. We must listen to God's direction and follow even when it doesn't make sense. As we go deeper in trusting Him, the less we need His command to make sense because we recognize our inability to be wise.

In essence, we can never claim true wisdom. We must humble ourselves in submission to Him, and then we will embody wisdom by our obedience to God. In the action of obedience to God, righteous wisdom is justified.

So, pursue God's will. Discipline yourself to His command. Trust in Him and what He has laid forth. Reject the compromises with all that you are.

Then, you will embody the wisdom of God.