Consistency In Devotion by Pastor Dolapo Lawal: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

What to Do After a Spiritual High

After a conference, a retreat, or a season of concentrated prayer and fasting, many people feel closeness to God fade once they return home — often because there is no one nearby to keep challenging them, and the one-eyed man is king in the land of the blind. This teaching draws from Matthew 4:1-11, where Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness and tempted by the devil only after forty days of fasting — never during it. Temptation is proof of being a believer, since an unbeliever is not tempted; there is a law within a believer, contrary to the flesh, that temptation is aimed at overriding.

The Difference Between a Test and a Temptation

A temptation is a seduction that pulls a person away from the will of God; a test validates and confirms what God has already built into a person. James 1:2-4 teaches that the trying of faith works patience, and patience allowed to finish its work leaves a person entire, wanting nothing. Abraham could release Isaac on the altar only because a long season of training, from Genesis 12 to Genesis 22, had already worked patience and detachment in him. In Matthew 26, Jesus was told in Gethsemane that He must die on the cross; the temptation on the cross was the call to come down and prove Himself, but the test was to stay. Anyone tempted is drawn by their own desire, not by God, since God tempts no one — but a test is God accrediting the work already done.

Three Temptations That Follow a Spiritual High

• Turning stone to bread — the lust of the flesh, meeting a legitimate need through an illegitimate shortcut, using a gift to serve only oneself instead of serving others with what was received.
• Jumping from the pinnacle of the temple — the pride of life, presumption dressed as faith, forcing God to prove Himself publicly instead of moving in compassion. John 14:13 shows that even answered prayer is tied to the Father being glorified, not to proving a point.
• Bowing for the kingdoms of the world — the lust of the eyes, a counterfeit breakthrough or open door that looks like an offer but is not from God. The devil's offer is always inferior to what God intends to give; accepting the lesser can cause someone to miss the greater, even when it looks like gain in the moment.

A young professional was once offered a lucrative monthly contract after a season of consecration, but declined it on discovering the source of the money was not clean — and God later gave him two contracts instead.

Don't Overcompensate the Flesh

After a period of fasting or intense prayer, there is a strong pull to indulge the flesh to make up for what it was denied — undoing in days what weeks of discipline built. David was not attacked in his lust when he was at war; he was attacked when he stayed back in comfort and relaxed instead of going out to battle, and that decision led to his fall, with further family consequences following from it. Rest is necessary, but it is not license to abandon the disciplines that were built.

Building Consistency: Routine, Not Repetition of the Retreat

Going back to normal life does not mean going back to the conference's intensity; it means returning to and building a sustainable daily routine. Prayer can be broken into small blocks across a day — fifteen minutes before leaving home, another stretch during a commute, another during a work break, another before bed — adding up to about an hour without needing one long, difficult sitting.

Consistency is built by making something a daily habit first, before trying to extend its duration. Committing to twenty minutes every day for a week will naturally grow to thirty, then further, without force.

The Cheat Code: Community and Accountability

A conference's power often lies in being surrounded by people provoking one another toward good works; that provocation can be recreated by structuring prayer partners across the week — one friend on Monday, another on Tuesday, other days set aside for family or church intercession, a colleague on another day — so that consistency in prayer becomes a matter of structure, not willpower alone. Reaching out to someone nearby for accountability, rather than assuming no one close by can help, closes the gap that familiarity often causes people to overlook.