The Six Barriers to Spiritual Maturity and Why They Matter for Leadership

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There is a war being waged for your soul. In fact, you were born onto a battlefield so familiar and so comfortable that you may not even realize you’re in a war at all. We insist that “‘Tis but a scratch!” as though the wounds we carry are minor. We try to push forward on our own strength, intellect and determination, unaware that, spiritually speaking, we are already mortally wounded.

Every war has a “good guy” and a “bad guy.” In this battle, it is God and Satan. Perhaps secular humanism taught you there is no God, planting seeds of doubt. Maybe a poorly formed religion teacher downplayed the devil as a scare tactic or suggested that hell exists, but everyone goes to heaven anyway.

But the logic is simple:

IF Christ is the source of all truth,

AND Christ affirms the existence of the devil and of hell in the Bible,

THEN Christians should affirm what Christ affirms regarding the devil and hell.

Scripture names the devil as a rebel against God (Revelation 20:10), the chief of demons (Matthew 4:10), a liar and murderer (John 8:44), and an enemy of Christians (Ephesians 6:11). In other words, this enemy is real, and he knows our wounds.

The Four Wounds

We go into daily battle mortally wounded by the wounds of original sin:

• Ignorance: difficulty seeing truth clearly.

• Malice/irascibility: being driven by emotion instead of intellect and reason.

• Weakness: a will inclined to choose self over the greater good.

• Concupiscence: a strong pull toward disordered fleshly appetites.

These wounds make us easy targets, putty in Satan’s hands, and Satan exploits them. They manifest in barriers that affect every aspect of our lives, including our spiritual growth and maturity.

I refer to them as “The Six Barriers to Spiritual Maturity.” They are external, intellectual, physical, psychological, cultural and spiritual.

Barrier 1: External

External barriers arise from the demands of work, family and modern life. Finances, raising children, constant busyness and chronic overcommitment can keep us in a constant survival mode. They leave little time for reflection, prayer or simple rest. While these pressures don’t cause sin, they distract us. When life feels chaotic on the outside, interior peace is hard to maintain.

Barrier 2: Intellectual

Intellectual barriers may stem from limited education, confusion, false beliefs, rigid thinking or intellectual pride. Pride, in particular, resists humility and God’s grace. I believe intellectual pride is a chief cause of the decline of faith in God.

Barrier 3: Physical

Physical barriers like addiction, exhaustion, mental health struggles, chronic stress or illness can severely impair our focus, self-control and calm. When our bodies and minds are overwhelmed or depleted, even the most basic prayer routine can become challenging to sustain.

Barrier 4: Psychological

Psychological barriers originate from deep, unhealed wounds: trauma, shame, distorted self-perception, painful childhood experiences, broken relationships or profound grief. These wounds can leave us emotionally guarded or enslaved to our past, making us more vulnerable to the enemy.

Barrier 5: Cultural

Cultural barriers form when we absorb unexamined narratives from society, mass media or prevailing ideologies. Secularism, consumerism, false definitions of success and distorted ideas of identity subtly try to train us to prioritize pleasure, productivity or power over trust in God. When we allow the culture or mass media to catechize us more than the Church does, the pursuit of divine intimacy loses its urgency and appeal.

Barrier 6: Spiritual

Finally, the spiritual barrier: the war itself. The spiritual battle has spilled into the temporal world, most clearly through intellectual, psychological and cultural pressures. Each day, we face a choice in the spiritual battle:

• Do we step out from under God’s authority and place ourselves under the authority of Satan, as Adam and Eve did?

• Or do we accept that, through Baptism, we have been conscripted into this spiritual war?

There is no third option.

Why These Barriers Matter in Business and Leadership

The same barriers that obstruct divine intimacy also shape organizational culture.

In the business world, culture is often explained through strategy, structure, incentives and talent. But in truth, culture is shaped by the interior life of those who lead it.

A leader’s habits, assumptions and unresolved barriers become the organization’s habits, assumptions and barriers. What remains unhealed — pick any of the barriers — within a leader inevitably bubbles up in the culture they create.

I’ll say it again: leadership shapes culture — always.

Healthy organizational cultures reflect the motives and actions of mature, integrated leaders. When leaders are grounded, self-aware and purpose-driven, they create environments where employees can thrive. Teams become more resilient. Collaboration strengthens. Performance becomes sustainable. Fear-based, performance-only cultures transform into mission-driven, contribution-oriented ones.

The key takeaway is simple:

An organization’s culture cannot outgrow the interior formation of its leadership.

Addressing interior barriers is not a “soft” or optional spiritual exercise. Leaders who invest in their interior development are far better positioned to build healthy organizational cultures marked by trust, integrity and long-term excellence.