1/13/14 1:14 a.m.
Be obedient to My guidance and you will always be glad you did as I said. I guide you lovingly. You are a child of the One True God. Think of what that means. You have child rights and privileges. You also have child discipline, as needed, for your growth and character. Because I am all wise I do not spoil My children, but I do love them well and consistently. Exercise your rights as My child and live a life of freedom and joy. Live a life of grace and love. Be humble and giving. Be real and genuine. Be My child for all to see. Know that I love you most dearly.
1/18/14 12:50 a.m.
Know the rules. Know your boundaries.
You are free to do many things but there must be boundaries. Life is hard. I
did not promise heaven on earth, only peace and joy despite the difficulties.
Earth is a training ground, a place to grow and learn. Do not hate the learning
process, it is a valuable part of life. You need it for your spiritual and
character growth. Everyone does. There are no exceptions. Make an effort to
grow through all your challenges and certain challenges will not be necessary
any longer. As you learn the lessons, the challenges will dissipate. Fight the good
fight but learn the lessons. You will have no regrets. Know that I love you.
In this series, we have been discussing sanctification through the power of the Holy Spirit. God’s gift of the Holy Spirit is an act of pure grace. The Holy Spirit not only helps us move toward a desired more righteous (moral) self, as was discussed in part 1, but He also gives us the strength to endure and persevere through hardships that are caused by sin in the world, the hardships we suffer due to the sin of others. Now, let’s go a little deeper. It says in the Bible that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). All are sinners. That means me and that means you too.
We all know it’s true that we sometimes find ourselves hurt by what others say and do. But how often do we think about the impact our own words and actions have on others? While God does the amazing work of growing (sanctifying) us through the sins of others, He is also loving enough to grow and sanctify us through our own sin. While God will not take away our free will, He will work through His Spirit in us to move us to better, more godly decisions. Like any parent, God will speak to us (warn, guide, rebuke) through our conscience to do the right thing.
There are times, however, when we have sin in our lives that we do not see clearly, or we choose not to see clearly. There are times when we choose to do certain things even when our conscience is telling us not to. We ignore the Holy Spirit’s gentle prodding toward correct action because we don’t really see the behavior as all that harmful, “everyone else is doing it”, or we simply love the behavior too much to give it up. Whatever the reason, we allow the desires of our flesh, to overrule the desires of the Holy Spirit. The two are at odds with one another.
You may have heard it said “God will meet you where you’re at, but He loves you too much to leave you there.” This is, indeed, true. You do not need to first clean up your act to be accepted by God. If this was the case, none of us would ever be accepted. That’s because, on our own, we do not have the ability to be perfect. As our natural selves, in our fleshly state, we are prone to sin. That’s why Jesus died for us. The very moment we believe and accept Jesus into our hearts, we are accepted through His perfection. We are given the Holy Spirit to help guide us and we are born again into our Spiritual selves. We are adopted (born again) into the family of God.
Adoption into the family of God has many privileges, salvation (eternal life) being the greatest and most precious gift of all. Adoption into God’s family comes with affection, guidance, and protection, to name a few, but it also comes with discipline when we, His children, need it. God the Father is both wise and loving in His discipline. Like any parent, He desires for us to be our best selves, to represent His kingdom well, and He takes steps to help us get there. This may include allowing us to suffer the consequences of our own poor decisions, with the intention of allowing those consequences to grow, or sanctify, us.
During this time of suffering, as described above, you may say to yourself “Why is God punishing me?”, when in fact He is merely allowing you to suffer the consequences of your own sin. He did not cause you to sin, that was your own free will choice. He just chose not to rescue you from the consequences, as many parents often do. He is hopeful, however, that the pain of those consequences will get your attention, will wake you up, will “teach you a lesson” so to speak, and will lead you back to Him, the Father who loves you more than you can ever imagine. He is hopeful that the suffering you experience will shape you into becoming a better you.
Constant failure to listen to our conscience can lead to numbness to our sin. We may begin to rationalize our behavior as acceptable, or at least explainable. When we stray so far from God that we are no longer sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s promptings, God may choose to intervene through more severe discipline. When we constantly ignore and turn our back on the Father, He eventually ‘gives us over’ (see Romans 1:24) to our own choices. This is when He allows us to suffer not only the consequences of our sin, but He removes His protection and favor such that we find ourselves at rock bottom, feeling empty and confused.
For the Israelites, God’s chosen people, this resulted in their enemies defeating them on more than one occasion. For a long time, through the prophets, God kept pleading with His people to turn from their sinful ways, but they would not listen. Instead, they followed their own selfish desires including the pursuit of other gods, the gods of their enemies, worshiping idols and sexual immorality. After repeated unheeded warnings, God’s favor and protection were removed, and His people were eventually defeated and taken into captivity by their enemies. But God did not walk away. He remained attentive and hopeful. Not only is He patient but He is forgiving. When the Israelites realized the error of their ways and repented, God relented and brought a remnant of them home again.
Today, we are no different. God provides the standard for living through His Word. He speaks to us through His Holy Spirit. He reminds us to follow His good ways through our conscience, but many do not listen. Instead, we follow our own selfish desires, the desires of our flesh (wealth, power, beauty, sexual immorality, and every other form of selfish ambition) which are often fueled by the culture we live in… a culture that is at odds with our soul. Eventually, after much patience and prodding, God removes His favor and we find ourselves defeated by the enemy, the very culture we desired, the extremely deceptive world we live in. The pursuit of wealth, power, beauty, popularity, etc. does not provide the fulfillment we hoped for. We find ourselves lonely, empty, and confused.
But that’s not the end of our story. God stands by, like an ever faithful and loving Father, still waiting for us to recognize the error of our ways, waiting for us to embrace Him again. And when we do, when we finally see the truth and repent, with great joy, He brings us home again. This truth is perfectly illustrated in the biblical story (parable) of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-24:
… “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
“When he came to his senses, he
said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am
starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him:
Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to
be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ So he got up and
went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him
and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms
around him and kissed him. “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against
heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the
father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put
a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill
it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is
alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. (Luke
15:11-24 NIV)
Indeed, God is a faithful Father. He provides us loving standards for living. Standards that, when followed, lead to the best possible outcomes and, when not followed, lead to destruction. Make no mistake, these standards do not come from man, the world, or what is acceptable in the world, for the world’s standards are constantly changing. God never changes, and neither do His principles. As His Word says, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
While God wants to prepare us, His children, to live in the world, He doesn’t want us to become of the world. Instead of the world influencing us, God wants us to influence the world. To do this, we need to resist our fleshly impulses and allow the Spirit to guide our behavior. And when we fail in this regard, which we will do at times, God will use even this for our good. He will allow, or orchestrate, our fall, our defeat, our wake-up call. He will use not only the sins of others, but He will also use the consequences of our own sin to mature and lead us back to Him.
For more on sanctification, I highly recommend the book ‘Secrets of the Vine’ by Bruce Wilkinson that illustrates well the work of God in our lives. ‘Secrets of the Vine’ is a short, easy, and enlightening read you don’t want to miss.
No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:11 NIV)
For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. (Galatians 5:17 NIV)
Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you. (Deuteronomy 8:5 NIV)
My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son. (Hebrews 12:5b-6 NIV)