How to Eliminate Spiritual Laziness Once and For All

if you're done playing games it's time to get serious about the things of God I don't want to shame you I want to show you from scripture how to once and for all be done with spiritual laziness you know spiritual laziness comes with a lot of negative effects there's inconsistent prayer life there's inconsistent Devotion to the word there's inconsistent worship believers who are spiritually lazy find themselves being tossed to and fro inconsistent their love of God going back and forth their affections for the world rising and falling if you're done with that if you're tired with of of doing that it's time now to focus in and stop playing games and be done with spiritual laziness and I want to show you how to do that but to start I have a challenge for you and I don't want you to misunderstand what I'm about to say the challenge I have for you is to watch this all the way through and let me tell you why I'm challenging you to do that I'm not saying that if you don't watch this all the way through you don't love Jesus or you're not spiritual no that's manipulation I don't believe that but I want you to get some practice here with developing discipline in this day and age we seek and crave entertainment and distraction and so we want our minds to constantly be stimulated so it can be difficult sometimes to receive the word of God in a long form uh format like this and so I want to challenge you to commit that you will sit through this you will listen to this word all the way through say no to the distractions of the world say no to entertainment and instead discipline your mind and your body your emotions to focus in it's time to stop saying tomorrow I'll get this going tomorrow I'll get back on track or starting Monday of next week that's when I'm really going to begin to commit to the things of God no now is the time to begin to find your roots going deeper and deeper into Christ now is the time to be done away with worldly distraction now is the time to say no to the secular and yes to the spiritual I want to give you three habits that will rid you of spiritual laziness number one is practical discipline the holy spirit will give you the desires to do that which you want to do the holy spirit will give you the desire to do good but you must make the decision to obey what the holy spirit is speaking you must make the decision to implement with discipline those spiritual practices Matthew chapter 26 I want you to go there now Matthew chapter 26 I'm going to begin reading at verse number 40 then he returned to the disciples and found them asleep he said to Peter couldn't you watch with me even for one hour keep watch and pray so that you will not give into temptation for the spirit is willing the scripture says but the body body is weak then Jesus left them a second time and prayed my father if this cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it your will be done or let this cup pass but nevertheless not my will your will be done verse 43 when he returned to them again he found them sleeping for they couldn't keep their eyes open so he went to pray a third time saying the same things again here we see that the spirit is willing but the body is weak now contrary to popular belief the body itself is not evil the body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit created by God you can choose to use your body as an instrument of evil or you can choose to use your body as an instrument of Holiness so the body isn't evil unto itself we can discipline this body we can control this body we can make decisions that bring about discipline now this applies to spiritual acts like prayer and the word because when you're thinking of prayer on the word you may not always consider the discipline that has to go into those things yes as I said the holy spirit will give you desire to pray the Holy Spirit will give you desire to read the word But ultimately you have to be the one who decides that you will implement the discipline to be consistent in these things and this is where many Believers become frustrated because it's not always the answer that they want to hear they want someone to be able to lay hands on them and then automatically they start praying they want someone to be able to lay hands on them and then all of a sudden there's this daily devotion to the word of God but our discipline is found in the daily decisions that we make despite our emotions and preferences and the sporadic happenings of day-to-day life we choose what we ought to do we choose how we live in everyday life discipline needs to be thought of as a spiritual trait discipline is to say yes to The Voice to the Holy Spirit and no to the voice of the flesh discipline hear me now is when you put away your phone and instead go to pray discipline is when you shut off the streaming platform and instead devote yourself to the word if you will make that commitment right here right now you may be saying to yourself well I don't know if I'm able to do this or I don't know if I'm going to be able to carry that out I'll tell you this the holy spirit will help you but if you're willing to make that commitment I I want you to write in the comment section right now two simple words I commit and then hold yourself to that you need to see this as a priority again this is not something that we can put off till later and some of us think well when I'm older I'll take it more seriously or once I get things situated with school or once I get situated with my career or once I get situated with my family Dynamics then I'll be able to focus more on spiritual disciplines or once my finance CH Es are in order once My Health Challenge has been overcome then I'll be able to find that spiritual discipline then I'll give my time to the Lord the problem with thinking like that is you're giving God your leftovers rather than your first fruits this needs to come first applies both to prayer and the word so when I decide to pray I am implementing that discipline look you're not always going to feel like praying you're not always going to feel like reading the word and sometimes you may feel like a hypocrite because you read the word but don't feel like reading the word or you go to pray but you don't necessarily always feel like praying the body is weak but the spirit is willing the flesh will always desire opposite of what the spirit wants and I'm not describing by the way when I say flesh I'm not talking about the body I'm talking about that old programming that old software that needs to be upgraded the sin nature that desires opposite what the spirit desires you're going to always find that conflict so do you want to know how to pray more here's the answer you have to choose to pray more you want to know how to read the word consistently you have to choose to read the word consistently now don't get overwhelmed by this because we're talking about progress not Perfection you may look at it as a whole your spirituality as a whole your relationship with God as a whole and you may see where you want to be maybe 20 years from now and so it's so overwhelming that you don't even want to take the first step because it seems like it's so far away this is where you have to decide to hear this do the next thing when you don't feel like getting up to pray get up to pray when you don't feel like turning off the phone or shutting off the TV or removing distraction and entertainment when you don't feel like altering plans do it anyway we don't live by feelings we live by faith when you don't feel like carving out a section of your day to devote to the word of God read the word when you've made a sinful mistake and you feel guilt and shame overcoming you you may be tempted to say well I want to stay as far away from spiritual things as possible but when you've fallen into temptation that is precisely when you most need to get back to spiritual disciplines so despite the shame despite the guilt despite wondering if God will or will not accept you you need to choose to do the next thing to get up and to pray to get up and to read the word to get up and to get going for God and this doesn't just apply necessarily uh to the morning I'm talking about anytime the Lord is calling you to the secret place and by that I mean calling you to enact disciplines of spiritual devotion choosing to detach from the desires and the distractions of this world is that's a choice and by the way the more you are satisfied in the world the less you will pursue the things of God not even that the world can completely satisfy it's only temporary satisfaction that we get from the world but when you begin to focus your affections on the Lord Jesus when you begin to get your strength and your sustenance from him then your spiritual appetite becomes stronger this starts as a discipline but becomes a delight this this starts as decision-making but eventually becomes a part of your nature but you have to choose to take that first step no one is going to pray in your stead they may be able to pray for you as intercessors but they're not going to be able to take the place of your private Devotion to God on your behalf they're not going to be able to study and draw closer to God on your behalf you've got to choose to do this for yourself starting now not next week not after the semester not after this career move not after this life decision now it needs to begin now and you need to decide that you're going to commit to this longterm and consistently and what begins to happen then is you begin to find pleasure in the spiritual rather than in the material in fact the things of this world become dull and I'm not saying that you have to be a Hermit and go up to some Mountain somewhere and never speak to anybody again we are in the world not of the world I simply mean that you will find that the things of this world become dim the things of this world begin to lose their allure in comparison to the glories that you begin to experience in the places of prayer and Devotion to the word so do what you have to do but begin to make those decisions nobody is going to make those decisions for you nobody is going to decide and here's a lie that many Christians believe they think that they can't make these decisions they say well I've tried many times to be consistent in prayer or I've tried many times to get into the word let God Be True in every man a liar you've been given a free will you've been given autonomy you've been given the power of choice and you can choose on a daily basis to make those decisions despite the circumstances despite the pressure of the world around you despite the Allure of this secular culture uh despite what your emotions are saying despite the struggles despite whatever is going on internally or externally you can decide you can choose to devote yourself to prayer and the word so that's number one is discipline you have got to begin to take responsibility for your choices stop blaming the devil stop blaming your environment stop blaming your pastor stop blaming your friends stop blaming your parents stop blaming your children stop blaming God and take responsibility for the Free Will that God has given to you you want dominion over demons first you need Dominion over self you want Dominion to expand the kingdom of God in this Earth First you need to see the kingdom of God grow within you and in order to do this you must practice discipline as practical as that may sound it is quite a revelation to learn for many Believers that you are in fact in charge of your choices now we may not say outright well I don't choose what I choose we may not say that but somewhere in the back of the mind we have these deeply seated beliefs subtle as they are that we are somehow being controlled by exterior forces when we are not you have the choice you have been given the power of Free Will so that's number one is discipline remember write I commit in the comment section number two is intentionality this is the awareness of God's presence and the pace of your life acts 17: 27 a very simple verse his purpose was for the Nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him though he is not far from any one of us here's one of the other lies that the enemy causes us to believe he wants you to picture God A Million Miles Away remember Jesus said the kingdom is inside of you where does the Holy Spirit dwell he dwells within you so though you might picture God as a Million Miles Away you have to remember that he's right in front of you he's everywhere at all times put your hand in front of your face and you'll find that God is closer than your hand God is more real than what we call reality think about that God is more real than the device on which you're watching this right now God is more real than the room you're in your physical body is a vehicle that you use to interact with the world around you but God is more real than this physical being don't picture him a million miles away he's right there in the room with you and he's not aloof he's not barely putting up with you he welcomes you so we have to slow down you know everything in this world today is so fast-paced and there's so much noise coming at us from all different directions isn't there so many opinions so many points of chatter so much clutter noise noise noise noise you need to learn to rise above the noise and in order to do that you have to expand your awareness of God what do you mean by that David I simply mean think of God more often be more mindful of the fact that he dwells in you and when you're more mindful of the fact that he dwells in you this mindset begins to shift your life and you begin to see consistency develop in things like prayer the words service worship Holiness I mean my goodness if you're tired of going back and forth back to Old sinful habits simply an awareness of God's presence within you will give you strength against Temptation because you begin to ask yourself what am I doing with the Temple of the Holy Spirit where am I going with the holy spirit's body what am I looking at with the holy spirit's eyes what am I listening to with the holy spirit's ears what am I handling with the holy spirit's hands what am I speaking with the holy spirit's mouth my body body belongs to the Holy Spirit your body belongs to the Holy Spirit and we have to become more aware of this we have to recognize that he is in every moment in your ups and your Downs on your good days on your bad days wherever you may wherever you may be going whatever you may be doing he's with you right there not just at a distance kind of observing but actively participating in your everyday life but you're never going to be aware of this if you're just rushing through life one thing after another distraction after distraction this by the way is why you may have trouble with silence because you have to constantly have the device going or or activity going or speaking with someone why because because you haven't settled peace with God in your mind and in your heart and you as as a Believer have that access to God and many times you leave that unaccessed because you're so distracted by the world so you have to live with intentionality Slow Down slow down even now as you're receiving the word your flesh might be squirming the sin nature might be screaming saying give me something entertaining give me something that's not the word distract me with something else and there's that fighting there's that you you can even sense that battle even now let me know in the comment section if you're sensing that kind of that pool where where there's like this this Str to give your attention to the word that is how much strength the flesh has gained think about that and we give it more strength when we just continue to mindlessly feed it whatever it wants when we as Believers ought to slow down be aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit here right now in this moment Slow Down slow your pace and allow yourself to be aware of the fact that the Holy Spirit dwells in you that God is with you so number one is discipline number two is intentionality that is awareness and pacing slow the pace of your life number three and this right here may not seem spiritual but I want you to consider this God is a god of order number three is organization this is budgeting time and considering Energy 1 Corinthians 14:40 But be sure that everything is done properly and in order now this is in reference to how they were to conduct church services but it's reflective of the nature of God and the principle of order God will not bless a mess God is a god of structure this is why I find it funny when I hear people criticizing uh Ministries that are organized or that are large or that plan things I think that society today kind of criticizes the big and the grand for no other reason other than it's become cynical but that which is organized is of god typically uh this is actually not to say that you know like the corporations are not are of God or that uh every government agency is of God that's not what I'm saying at all I'm saying that order itself the principle of order that comes from the nature of God God is a god of structure God is a god of order I find it interesting when people say things like well I'm not really into organ ized religion well what are you into then I say disorganized religion chaotic religion confusing religion no God is a god of order namely one thing God ever did that didn't have a system he designed the body there are systems there we live in an ecosystem that's based in a solar system there are systems of mathematics there are systems of morality there are systems of spiritual laws the church is a system it's a structure yes it's relational yes it's a family but even a family a family unit is a system and so we have to stop disdaining this idea that there should be order and structure order gives way to Excellence order gives way to consistency order makes room for discipline order makes room for discipline many times people have an issue with discipline because they have no direction and they have no Direction because they have no order and Order helps you to budget your time so don't just wake up and go about your day and just let the day come to you take dominion over the day by telling it what goes where take dominion over your time by writing down how you will spend your time being intentional I know that in my life this has been a very helpful tool especially with all of the different things that come at me from lots of different directions people pulling in so many different directions many people saying I just need 20 minutes I just need 30 minutes I just need 5 minutes and people don't realize that if all of their time were added up there wouldn't be enough time in the day to get back to everyone and so I have to learn to be disciplined to make sure first and foremost that I'm making time for the Lord time in the word time in prayer I structure my day around that time for my health time for my family time for my wife time for my daughter make sure that we have date nights make sure we have family days make sure that there's time for rest make sure that there's time for preparing sermons that there's time to meet with the staff about media and events and administration and legal considerations make sure that there's time for all of it and so in order to do that there has to be this budgeting of time there's nothing wrong with that organization is spiritual get it out of your head that organization is contrary to spirituality get it out of your head that the more spontaneous something is the more spiritual it is yes God can be spontaneous but he's only spontaneous to us he had the plan all along God may seem disruptive but it's only disruptive if we've planned according to our own way instead of God's way because he's ultimately going to do what he wants to do so everything must be done properly and in order and and don't just budget your time by the way budget your energy you say what do you mean by that well you only have so much emotional energy to give throughout any given week so picture your energy I'm talking about emotional energy mental energy picture it like in a cup and imagine that the energy is like water you can only give out your energy to so many things and otherwise you become drained don't give yourself to every development in church drama don't give yourself to gossip don't give yourself to slander don't give yourself to defending yourself don't give yourself to explaining yourself to people who refuse to misunderstand you know there are some people who are benefited by their misunderstanding of you because it helps them to feel better about themselves and so they have to stick with the narrative they've built about you so to defend yourself to them would be a waste of time don't give your energy to that don't give your energy to backbiting don't give your energy to doubt don't give your energy to cynicism don't give your energy to guilt don't give your energy to the lies of the enemy don't give your energy to people who just want to take take take take and never want to give back guard your energy and give the first fruit watch this now give the first fruit of your finances yes to the Lord we all know that give the first fruit of your time yes to the Lord we all know that but consider this give the first fruits of your mental and emotional energy to the Lord when is that at the peak for you for some that's in the morning for some that's in the evening whenever that may be give that best to the Lord the first fruits and you'll find that as you begin to guard and budget your energy just like you guard and budget your finances just like you guard and budget your time you'll find that there is a consistency that begins to develop in your life because you're not giving yourself every which way to everything you're learning to say I'm not going to waste my time my breath my mental energy on something like that learn to rise above the noise learn to be without distraction learn to stay focused on what really really matters you only have so much time you only have so much energy and you have to learn to pour that into the proper compartments structured throughout the day God does everything with order discipline without organization can become activity without progress let me say that again discipline without organization can become activity without progress because discipline is action Oran organization is Direction and if you're acting without knowing where you're going then you're going to find a lack of progress in your life so you need to do all three of these together maybe you have had discipline and you've made decisions every day to do what you know you ought to do but there was no Direction you didn't decide what book of the Bible you were going to actually read by the way and this is I'll get back to that point in just a moment just off on this tangent you ever noticed that it's easier to commit to a discipline when you have a plan that's why organization is there so for example you go to read the word and if you're just kind of scattered reading a few verses from Isaiah then jumping back to Genesis and jumping forward to Revelation and scattering yourself all over half a chapter of this here and half a chapter of that there and a couple of verses from this section and and this story over here you're jumping all over the place how are you going to know you're making progress where where's the where's the line here where's that commitment taking you so discipline without out Direction doesn't yield any progress so you need to decide what book of the Bible are you going to start reading I want you to tell me in the comments right now what book of the Bible let let's make this plain here what book of the Bible are you going to commit to reading starting now and if you're already in a book of the Bible tell me which one you're going to finish and then tell me when you're going to pray when are you going to pray Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday all the way through Saturday and Sunday when are you going to pray on those days what is your schedule will look like you need to be a good Steward of what God has given to you and that will yield fruitfulness so again number one is discipline number two is intentionality slow your pace be aware of the presence of God in your life and this will help you with number three to be organized now you're intentional now you know why you have the why for the what you do these three things and you do do these three things consistently for the next six months and watch how drastically your spiritual life has changed watch how drastically your commitments have changed but you have to do all three and you have to commit to this long term you may mess up here and there look let me just be real you may get to the end of the day and realize oh my goodness I didn't read the word today or you may go two days and realize I haven't carved out a section of the day for prayer yet you'll make mistakes but again we're not talking about perfection we're talking about progress and so you do these three things you implement these disciplines you implement these Keys their biblical principles of wisdom you do that and I want you to watch how the Lord begins to use what you give to him you can build the altar only God can send the fire and so my prayer for you right now is that as you yield your life to Jesus in this way as you pull away from the world and focus on the Lord as you give yourself over to discipline that is choosing to do what's right even when you don't feel like it as you give yourself over to intentionality the awareness of his presence slowing the pace of your life as you give yourself over to the nature of God and being organized and structured and a good Steward of your time and your energy you will see that spiritual laziness won't be able to stand you will break that power of that spiritual laziness and you'll find that the Holy Spirit had given to you what you needed all along so father I pray you help them to do it not just to hear this word but to do what is spoken through this word we yield Our Lives to you aresh and holy spirit say this out out loud say holy spirit help me to do it we honor you we bless you Jesus just take a moment now give him praise for what he's doing in your life say thank you Holy Spirit say thank you holy spirit thank him for giving you the desire thank you for his reminders constantly of his nearness thank him that he's given you wisdom to implement organization thank him thank him thank him in Jesus name we pray I want you to say it because you believe it say Amen if you enjoyed this message and you think others really need to hear it go ahead and leave a like on the video right now and also I want to stay connected with you so make sure you've subscribed to my channel and click the notification Bell when you do subscribe so that you and I can stay connected on a regular basis and now I want to challenge you to participate in what God is doing through this ministry I want to challenge you right now to get involved to the giving of finances you know we as Believers have a responsibility to support the gospel now let me make this clear your giving is not tied to your healing your giving is not tied to your deliverance your giving is not tied to your spiritual breakthrough your giving is not tied to your loved ones coming to the Cross Jesus will heal you Jesus will deliver you Jesus will give you breakthrough Jesus will save your loved ones because the price has already been paid the cross it's paid in full he said it is finished so why do we give well we give because we believe in the message we give because we believe in the work will God bless you financially as you give financially I think so I believe that I see that in scripture but even then generosity is only one component of biblical Financial fruitfulness because you have to add to that good stewardship and you have to add to that wisdom and of course all of those components work together to where you see in increase but all that aside I don't want you to give to get I want you to give because you believe in what we're doing and I'm so grateful for you because you support week after week you you share the content you comment you tune in you pray I I couldn't feel the prayers of God's Saints so thank you for praying for me but I as your brother in Christ am asking you also to consider supporting this ministry through financial giving this ministry I don't know what's going on but we are seeing growth and it's not slowing down just when I think it's going to slow down it keeps speeding up and we've been saying this for the past couple of years because every single month it's just been growing growing growing growing and we have what is called growing pains and so as we begin to do larger events as we begin to expand our media reach as we begin to expand our projects we also need the support from you to come in to help help aid that so let's expand the kingdom of God let's see people saved healed delivered and empowered as we take this message all around the world I'm asking you will you consider right now if you haven't done this already you've been blessed by the content you've been blessed by the ministry will you consider right now going to David Hernandez ministries.com partner and signing up for a monthly gift those monthly gifts really help us tremendously when it comes to planning because we can see what to expect every single month if you're not led to do that or maybe you already are a partner you can also give a single gift by going to David Hernandez ministries.com donate whatever you do single or monthly large or small it all counts I love you I appreciate you I pray for you and until next time remember nothing is impossible with God

Channel: David Diga Hernandez

Views: 240,161

Keywords: How to Eliminate Spiritual Laziness Once and For All, 3 Habits That Make You More Consistent in Prayer and the Word, how to be more consistent in prayer, how to be more consistent reading the bible, how to eliminate spiritual laziness, stop spiritual laziness, how to stop being spiritually lazy, david diga hernandez, david diga hernandez holy spirit, david diga hernandez live, david diga hernandez latest, david hernandez, diga hernandez, spiritual laziness, spiritually lazy

Id: e2vTjj-Bo1Q

Length: 32min 20sec (1940 seconds)

Published: Wed May 15 2024