For some people, discipline, in general, is difficult, but as a child of God, being a disciple is all about learning how to be disciplined. Dealing with desire and self-will can be daunting when you have no discipline. In that case, you will need help disciplining yourself and staying true to your commitments.
Anyone who knows me closely knows that the first thing I look for in a person is their love for God and how much of their heart is after Him to do all of His will. Loving God with all your being is always the answer to anything concerning your walk with God. If your heart’s desire is in heaven with God, then your life will show it when it comes to the discipline you walk in while on the earth. I’m not saying everything will always be perfect and easy for you because you will constantly be tested and challenged by outward temptations. Still, your continual discipline of the flesh will protect your heart and keep it true before the Lord.
To discipline something is to take that in opposition and bring it into subjection until it’s changed. It can also be the idea of making a disciple of something.
Discipline can be very easy if you do it from the correct perception, God’s perception. All it takes, for starters, is a word from God. Obedience to that word from God is what will discipline your disobedience. If you continue in the words of God, then you will continually discipline your flesh and cause it to line up with God’s word to you.
Everybody wants to know what action to take to put this flesh under submission. The real answer is faith and obedience to God’s word, which is more about your heart than doing something in the flesh. If in your heart you’re busy doing the works of God in obedience unto Him, it will be very difficult to give life to the works of the flesh.
Everyone deals with the body of sin. No one is exempt from it. But overcoming your sin and its manifestation can be easy when you love God and apply discipline and obedience to your love.
When the word of God calls to you, commanding you to follow, all those who hear and follow will be awakened from their disobedience and begin to be faithful in all things. But to reach the end of your salvation, you must endure the man of sin, the body of death that has dominated you all of your life.
So how does it work? It’s very simple! After hearing the word of God, you believe it like it’s the eternal truth of God. When you believe it, you receive it into your heart. And finally, after it’s in your heart, you obey it. Your obedience and your continuance in the truth will punish your disobedience. Said another way, when your obedience is fulfilled, your disobedience is punished and brought to justice.
You don’t have to spend all your time trying to kill the flesh; it’s already crucified in Christ Jesus. All you have to do is walk the same path of obedience to the truth as He did, and it will bring you to the death of the cross, where the old man is crucified with Christ.
You don’t have to figure things out on your own. You don’t have to devise special tactics to trick the flesh into subjection. You don’t need a gimmick to serve God and be faithful. Use the power of God that His word gives you. Just follow the same path as Jesus, and it will get you there. He loved God and disciplined His flesh by obeying the truth that His Father gave Him. It’s that simple.
You’re a disciple because you are being disciplined to walk in the truth. If you have been called, you already have what it takes to overcome the flesh. All you have to do is let it work for you on God’s behalf. Follow God’s words very closely; they will lead you to eternal life in all your thoughts.
Who said you must obey the flesh, with its manifestations of sin and death anyway? Your lust and disobedience don’t count as truth. O, that’s right, the devil said you had to obey it. But now I have some great news: the devil is a liar! You do not have to obey the devil and his lies. You obey the truth that you do have (no matter how little you think it is), and it will continue to bring you more and more truth until you come to the fullness of all truth.
The apostle Paul wrote about this very thing. Read it for yourself in 2 Corinthians 10:3-6.
Follow the truth and obey it, and while you’re busy doing that by faith, your flesh will find itself being disciplined by the actions of obedience to the truth.