Disciplined Sons – The Stamp of Legitimacy – Part 4

In the previous studies we considered how:
Our Heavenly Father Disciplines Us According to His Infinite Wisdom
Our Heavenly Father Adjusts His Disciplines According to Our Individual Ways
In this study we will focus on how:
Our Heavenly Father Adapts His Disciplines According to His Intended Will

In the process of developing our maturity, our Heavenly Father adapts His disciplines in a number of ways. For example, His disciplines may serve as: A correcting work to discipline us for our sins. The afflictions that David experienced after his adulterous, murderous affair with Bathsheba, corroborates the principle that God can and does use afflictions as a correcting measure. Anytime you are in experiencing severe discipline, you should stop in God’s spiritual clinic for a check-up. Ask yourself questions like, “Is there some willful sin that I have committed? Is there known, unconfessed sin in my life?”

God sometimes uses disciplines as: A preventing work to keep us from sinning. This is Paul’s explanation in 2 Cors 12:7-10 for his troubles. Lest he should become puffed up with pride, there was given him a “thorn in the flesh.”

Disciplines may be employed by the Father as: A weaning work in order to wean us from the world. It is so easy to forget that we do not live by bread alone and thus develop a “get all you can, can all you get” approach to life. As things begin to strangle our spiritual life, a merciful Heavenly Father may use severe difficulties to prompt us to a reassessment of our priorities and to a fresh realization of our purpose in life.

All of His disciplines are intended to be for: A training work that will mature us if we stay under the pressure! Patience is one of the keys in Father’s disciplining. It is the Greek word, “hupomene” which means to stand underneath. Patience is the Spirit-empowered ability to bear things in such a triumphant way that it transfigures them and results in your growing through the process. In order to develop patience or endurance, one must encounter some resistance. Therefore our Father must bring things into our lives that will serve to motivate us to exercise our spiritual muscles. No pain, no gain is true in building character as well as muscles.

What is the Spirit of God saying to you through the circumstances you are presently in?
1. He may be saying REPENT – I am Correcting You!
2. He may be saying REJOICE – I am Refining You!
3. He may be saying RESIST – I am Training You!
4. He may be saying RECEIVE – I am Loving You!
5. He may be saying RUN – I am Warning You!

Hebrews 12:11, “Now no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised (The Greek word for exercised is gumnazo which means to exercise naked!) thereby. “

Caution must be exercised in regards to Father’s disciplines because a wrong perception will produce a negative reaction.

Disciplines in and by themselves do not make us mature sons. They have the potential to exhaust and embitter; to depress and entice us to quarrel or want to quit on God.

Discipline can lead us into one of four lands: the barren land in which we try to escape from it, the broken land in which we sink under it; and the bitter land in which we resent it; or the better land in which we bear it, become better by it, and begin to be a blessing to others.

Under His disciplines, Father God gives His children the greatest experience of His power in supporting them, of His word in comforting them; of His mercy in warming their hearts; of His wisdom in counseling them; of His faithfulness in encouraging them; and of His grace in strengthening them.

Two boys were walking along a street when they encountered a large dog blocking the sidewalk. “Don’t be afraid,” one of the boys said. “Notice how his tail is wagging. When a dog wags his tail he won’t bite you.”

“Maybe so,” said the other boy, “but look at that wild, mean look in his eye, that looks like he wants to eat us alive. … Which end are we going to believe?”

When we the disciplines of life – the trials, troubles, hardships and heartaches of life, we often find ourselves in the position of these two boys. We know that the Bible exhorts us to “count it all joy” when we encounter various trials. We know that God is working all things together for good to those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. But sometimes we are not quite convinced whether to believe the wagging tail of God’s promises or that wild, wicked look in the eye of the big trial confronting us. What if we count it all joy and the trial bites us or eats us alive?

How should we approach Father’s disciplines that are intended to be a training work that will mature us? Prayerfully, Inquiringly (not why” but what?); Humbly; Patiently; Believingly; Hopefully; and Thankfully

South African pastor Andrew Murray, was experiencing some severe disciplines in his life and his response to them serves as the manner in which we can profit the most and mature the greatest:

(1) I am here by God’s appointment. He brought me here. I can rest in the fact that it is by His will that I am in this difficult place. God never experiments with His children. What He does, He does with calculated reason. He has thought it out, and in His love, wisdom, and sovereignty, He has chosen this place for me.

(2) I am here in God’s keeping. His love and grace are here with me; He has not forsaken me nor left me alone. (Ps 121:5, “the Lord is our keeper’) No matter how dark the valley, the Lord is there with us.

(3) I am here under His training. He will make my trials a blessing, teach me lessons that I’ve never learned, and work His character into me. We would all like to learn through other’s mistakes! But there are many things that we can only learn through our own personal trials. It is in the deepest valleys where we experience the greatest manifestation of His presence, power, and provision.

(4) I am here for His time. In His good time, He can bring me out of this trial- how and when Fie chooses. The season of testing is just that — seasonal, and set by Him. Our focus should not be on the end of the trial, but rather at His salvation and glory which He desires to work in us in the midst of the trial.

A final word of caution: The worst thing that a child of God can do in the midst of severe disciplines is to murmur, fret, quarrel, or quit on God. It is one thing for a Christian to moan and groan in their spirit before God, but a totally different issue when we murmur. A child under discipline by a parent is permitted a certain amount of moaning and complaining: “Oh, these restrictions are heavy I don’t know how I’m going to get through them! No telephone, no car, no allowance; just sitting in an air-conditioned room, on a soft bed, eating my supper. Oh, it’s bad.” Parents will usually let their children get by with these kinds of complaints for a limited time. However, murmuring is never permissible conduct with earthly parents or our heavenly Father.

Will you trust a loving heavenly Father?” Let your response be — Plow on Father because I know you have purposed to make me a more prolific fruit-bearer internally as well producing a crop of disciples externally from your disciplining my life!

(Read Part 1 ·  Part 2 · Part 3)