How Does God Discipline Us? | Responding to God’s Discipline

he had to completely tear down my foundations and rebuild them again in order that i could be useful to produce fruit for his kingdom and not for my own kingdom [Music] [Applause] [Music] what do you think of when you hear the word discipline for me i think of soldiers in an army in the military they are trained and drilled in such a militant uncompromising way because they have to be prepared for the line of duty it's painful it's uncomfortable but it is so necessary because when they hear the orders of the commander-in-chief they need to be able to obey swiftly and fully it's the same with us and with god his plans and purposes for us are too big and important for him to allow us to just go down our own path when we stray from the line of duty god will use discipline to bring us back he will allow circumstances to come into our life to get our attention he will allow emotions and feelings to to come into our life to get our attention where we recognize that we've walked off the path that something is wrong and that we need to come back to him god ultimately wants us in the place where we are pursuing knowing him more being conformed to the image of christ and producing fruit for the kingdom god will allow things to come into our lives uh circumstances and other things which may well be the consequences of our own actions or maybe something external with the purpose to wake us up to shake us up to to break any sense of of self-dependence and to bring us to our needs where we are crying out desperately for him because we need him and and we just cannot go on another step without him and god will allow things to come into our life to shake us up and bring our focus back to him and back to him alone it may be because of blatant disobedience in our life it may be because of idolatry it may be because of the poor use of our time and it could even be because we're doing good things in his name but we're neglecting to spend time with him and to do it in his spirit so there are two possible responses to this discipline and one is that we hear his voice and we're prepared to forsake all things it brings us to our knees he gets our attention and we come back to him or it will harden our hearts and push us further away from him because we refuse to receive the discipline of god and we become bitter by the circumstances that have come upon us the true child of god hears the voice of the father and when these things come into their lives they don't start blaming god or anything else or complaining but they recognize that something is wrong it leads to a time of introspection and it brings them back to god speak lord for your servant is listening is the attitude that they have and god has their attention and then he can come to them restore the peace and the joy in them and bring them back on the straight road where he can work in them and use them for his purposes which one do you want to be there's a foundational verse for discipline in hebrews chapter 12 verses 7 to 11 and i'll paraphrase it it's basically saying that god disciplines us because he's a good father who loves us and if he didn't discipline us it shows that we are not legitimate children of his and it says an earthly father will discipline his children for their good and we respect them for that how much more should we respect and receive the discipline of god knowing that he is working for our good and trying to produce something in us he is working a holiness in us and to make us more like christ and although discipline is never pleasant in the moment and it is painful it produces a peaceable harvest of fruit for those who have been trained by it there are a number of other verses as well in the bible which talk about discipline one here is psalm 94 12 which says blessed is the man whom you discipline hebrews chapter 12 verse 5 says do not regard lightly the discipline of the lord revelation 3 19 says those whom i love i discipline so be zealous and repent psalm 39 11 says that those whom you discipline with rebuke for sin you consume like a moth what is dear to them and psalm 32 9 says do not be like the horse or mule without understanding which must be curbed with bitten bridle or it will not stay near you and john 15 talks about god pruning those whom he loves so that they will produce more fruit so the ultimate goal of discipline is to bring us back to god in a place where we're hearing his voice and we are pursuing intimacy with him above anything else and then out of that comes everything christ-likeness and producing fruit for his kingdom it's the same with example of a parent and a child a good parent disciplines their children because if a child is just running around throwing a mark dictating to their parents doing whatever they want throwing a tantrum and the parent doesn't do anything about it that child is going to develop an entitlement mentality they're going to be conditioned into thinking that this is perfectly okay to act however i choose and that they are their own boss and their own god and this is the same between us and god we're not on the same level as god god is not god almighty he is god almighty and he will discipline us to get our attention to to restore to us the fear of the lord and to show us our rightful place and his rightful place where he has our full attention and our full obedience five and a half years ago the lord brought me to my knees and turned my life upside down when i burnt out and developed a chronic illness prior to that i was doing a lot of things that weren't necessarily bad things they were good things but i was doing them with the wrong spirit a striving spirit and a spirit of idolatry i was working four days a week i was trading the stock markets i was helping at church three days a week and i was also doing bible college and the lord was prompting me a number of times to bring me back to that place of communion with him rather than of works but i neglected to hear the voice of the lord i was so consumed in what i was doing and then i had an experience which i'll share another time where i heard the voice of the lord so clearly just a couple of weeks before i burnt out and i actually ignored it then i crashed developed a chronic illness chronic fatigue and lyme disease i was semi housebound i i lost so much in my life my job my finances my engagement broke down i also couldn't look at electronic screens for more than five minutes i couldn't read i couldn't hold a ten minute conversation and this was all a consequence of the actions and the way in which i was doing things which was not of the lord and i have to say that this time of my life was so painful and excruciating and i can't even explain the disappointment the the sadness the heartbreak the frustration that i went through and a lot of people could have looked around at me and said this isn't fair you're a man of god you're serving god and look what is allowed to come into your life but they couldn't see the work that needed to be done on the inside of me and during the darkest period of my life that seemed to go on and on god began to work inside of me and he had my attention i was forced to stop and i came to the abiding place of prayer of the word and just crying out to him in in without any self-dependence and just saying god i need you i'm dependent on you just help me lord help me lord but the work that god did in me during this time was so amazing and i can look back and say praise god for his faithfulness and thank god that he brought me to this place no matter how harsh his discipline was and he has brought me such a rest and a peace and a joy and a love overflowing out of me that i could have never even imagined in the best of circumstances and it's all because god loved me enough to discipline me and to take my eyes off of the things that were distracting me from him he had to completely tear down my foundations and rebuild them again in order that i could be useful to produce fruit for his kingdom and not for my own kingdom discipline is painful but i can promise you that the pain of discipline is nothing compared to the pain of disappointment and this is an opportunity for you where he is getting your attention he is going to reveal himself to you in a way that you could have never imagined and he is going to break you down to build you back up again to be used for his kingdom in ways that you could never imagine so if you are experiencing the discipline of the lord right now i would encourage you stop come before him in prayer come to his word ask him what he is wanting to do in you during this time and i can promise you that he is faithful in doing a work in you and that this discipline will not be wasted if you heed it thank you so much friends for watching i pray that you've been blessed by this message take care brothers and sisters and we'll chat with you soon you

Channel: LION OF FIRE MINISTRIES

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Id: Ao1_VrS3u5A

Length: 10min 48sec (648 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 04 2020