Why Desire Is Better Than Discipline

Why Desire Is Better Than Discipline by Graham Cooke

I was talking to a friend of mine in Dallas and he said “I really can’t crack the discipline of prayer.”

My question for him was a simple one: “Why try to crack discipline in the first place?”

All discipline is rooted in desire. This means you shouldn’t be asking the Lord to give you the discipline of prayer. You should ask Him to give you the delight of praying.4

We shouldn’t be asking for the discipline to stay pure in our behaviors. We should be asking to delight in purity.4

If you are going to ask God for anything, ask for passion.

Ask for a passion to pray. Ask for a passion for the lost. Ask for a passion for the prophetic. Whatever it might be, ask for passion for it. Then, simply follow your passion.

And to all those that say following your desires is dangerous, I’d say this.

God is extremely passionate for you, so you can be extremely passionate about your desires.

We’re learning to see everything that He sees and we’re learning to agree with his mindset. The law of life in Christ is always about permission for our passions. 2 Corinthians 1:20 says,

“For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God.”

That means that we have a green light until God turns it red. Go until God says no. Don’t sit here waiting for God to say yes. Go until He says no. Go for it!

Seriously, go for it!

God is with you. You have permission. Everything is yes and amen. If He wants it to be a no, He will show up and tell you. Until then, assume “yes.” Get over your bad self. Everything’s yes. Permission is granted.7

You have permission to desire, so pursue your passions! Allow your circumstances to come under God’s passion for you. If I am in Christ then so are my circumstances. If I cannot ever be separated from the love of God then surely my circumstances cannot be separated from the power and intention of God.

I love to close my eyes and imagine the Father and Jesus chatting about my life issues. The smiles, the easy going conversation, the delight in their agreement over me.

Does it change my situation? No! It relaxes me. I feel peaceful, I have confidence in who God is for me. All circumstances are firstly about my transformation. I am the Beloved. His love proves that to me. My trust in His love proves it right back. Another day in the Kingdom.

I digress.

God is more interested in your desires than your discipline.4

He calls us to live in a place of delight in Him. From that secret place He gives us the desires of our heart (Psalm 37:4). Because God is always first, He delights to initiate and we delight to respond to Him. It is called being led by the Spirit.

The Christian experience is not about discipline. It’s about pleasure. When we see this life as being about discipline, we are convinced that we don’t have what we need to live it and it will be hard to get it. That’s not true. We have everything in Christ Jesus!

The trick is to stop asking God for help trying and start asking Him for helpwanting.

PS. For more on the subject, check out “The Art of Thinking Brilliantly.“

PPS. What is one thing you’ve been passionate about but waited on God for the green light to pursue? What would you do today if you knew God has given you the green light on all of your passions?