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HOW MUCH DISCIPLINE DO I NEED?
Warren David Horak
Last week I posted a word from Sandy Warner – “The Lord over the harvest” which speaks about Father’s discipline. This revelation sparked a deeper revelation within me which I believe will help us understand how our Father disciplines us. I hope this word will shed more light on this subject for you.
Sowing and reaping
The way Father disciplines us is by reaping what we sow, if we sow to the flesh then we will reap from the flesh death. The Father is the one who determines how much we reap and for how long? Father’s heart of is full of love and will discipline; not in anger but through love and will give us what we need in order to grow and change. The purpose of His discipline is to train us and teach us righteousness.
Hebrews 12:11
Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
The moment we repent and start to change, the discipline comes less and is needed less. The more we harden our hearts to the discipline of the Lord the more discipline is needed.
The discipline of the Lord is good. If we have learnt the lesson then He has no need to keep the specific discipline in our lives i.e. the reaping of death.
The other side is, He is not only teaching us not to sow seeds of death(sin), but to sow seeds of life(obedience) that bring forth a harvest of life. Life is not just an absence of death; but the presence of Jesus (actively following Him – obedience).
Anything or anyone that draws us away from His word and presence will bring forth death in our lives. The quicker we learn this the less discipline we will need.
There are many areas that we are practising darkness that we do not even realise; these areas will bring forth a harvest. The harder we become towards His discipline, the more severe the Father has to discipline us. His discipline is always there to bring us life and set us free, it is not their for the sake of vengeance, or punishment, but for the sake of correction and change.
Jesus took our punishment but He never took our discipline, we have to bear our discipline and learn the lessons that He wants us to learn through the process of the discipline of our Abba Daddy. He is not mad at us; He is not trying to get even, He is not trying make us suffer for our sin in order to pay for the penalty of the sin.
Abide in Life
He is full of love and wants us to learn to abide in His life and not to abide in death, to teach us this we need to see that death multiplies when we sow it and that it will hurt us when we sin and other around us. The more severe the sin we do and the more light we have determines the severity of the discipline that He gives us. His discipline is not set out as punishment as only Jesus could take our punishment and penalty for the sin through His pure spotless sacrifice of His body and blood.
Isaiah 53:5
But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
He suffered and took the complete eternal punishment for our sin. No matter how much we suffer through reaping of our sin, there is no way all the suffering in the world can pay the price for our most basic of sins, only the sacrifice of Jesus’ Body and Blood can do that.
It is so important for us to understand this, so when we reap what we have sown, we don’t think that our loving Father is trying to get us to pay some form or penance for our sin; until He is satisfied that we have paid for your crime through all our suffering.
Even if we go to jail for our sin, for our whole lives if we don’t trust in Jesus to save us through His blood, when we die we will go to hell and suffer again forever for that very same sin.
The judgements of man on us do not pay for the sins we have committed. AS there is only one sacrifice for all sin --- Jesus.
Eternal consequences
The price for sin will only and can only be paid one way; through the suffering of the Lamb on the cross. The other alternative is through our eternal punishment in hell. We have a choice, the eternal suffering in hell, will never come to an end as our sins are eternal the consequences are eternal and therefore there will never come a day when the people in hell; though they suffer night and day will be set free from the punishment, they cannot pay for their sins; as only one sacrifice was made that could pay the price.
It is only the blood of Jesus that can pay the price for our sins- past present and future.
Therefore it is pride, to think that we can pay for our own sins by suffering or doing some good works.
When we suffer His corrections it is not to pay for the penalty of sin, but so we can learn to turn away from death and walk in life. See Hebrews 12:5-11.
Gods judgements are good. Gods wrath abides over the unbelievers; because they have rejected the blood of His Son.
His mercy abides on the believers, because we have accepted His most precious gift and sacrifice for our sin – the Lamb of God.
He forgives us when we confess our sins, He show us mercy by forgiving us seventy times seven. Yet He makes sure we reap what we have sown, in order to teach us the lesson of life and death. We have a choice; He doesn’t choose for us; He simply allows us to choose and reap what we sow. It is really up to us. The more life we sow the more life we will reap. The quicker we learn this, the better for us and all those around us.
Release from His discipline
How do get release from His correction in our lives?
We need to find out what are the lessons He wants us to learn as the correction will not stop until we have learnt the lesson. The purpose of His judgements of the Church is so we will learn the lesson and repent and sow life.
If we want a different harvest we need to sow different seeds. If we are tired of eating and reaping what we are presently experiencing in our lives, then we need to change what we are sowing. The seed and the condition of the soil determine the type and quantity of the harvest - both life and death.
The best way to get mercy is to humble ourselves and admit our sin and not seek to justify ourselves as this is pride and God resists the proud. When He resists one of His children this is His discipline He doesn’t disown us, but He will resist us as His righteousness resists all forms of pride.
Even though He loves us so dearly, He will resist our pride. He knows pride leads us to death. The quicker we truly humble ourselves and are broken before Him; the quicker He will lift us up to where we belong -- in heavenly places ruling and reigning with the meek and lowly Lamb and Lion.
How do I know I learnt the lesson of His discipline?
I will not only have confessed my sin but I would of repented which means I have changed and no longer do it. Once He sees when I have learnt the lesson and have changed. Then there is now no need for further discipline.
How does He discipline me?
Father has many ways of disciplining us, the most basic way is through reaping what we sow. This can manifest in many different ways, some spiritual and some natural. If I steal then God can allow for us to reap in a number of ways, He can callow the devil to steal from us. This can happen in many different ways, satan could be allowed to steal our money or something else, or we loose our job etc.
The important thing is to understand why the things that happen to us happen to us. We might not always know why, but it is important to ask Father why. You can ask Him is this correction, and I reaping something here?
It is always wisdom to asks Him question and seek understanding in all things? We have been taught that we should not ask why?
This is not true as our Father wants us to stop and ask Him and seek Him for answers. If He doesn’t want us to know then He will hide it from us. It is not evil to ask Him why things happen to us, as long we ask Him in faith. We need to understand the why, so we can learn the lesson of the discipline in our lives.
Why would He withhold this knowledge as the discipline is to teach us something, He knows this knowledge is essential for us to learn. What father would call his child into the room and hit him and not tell why he is discipling him?
If we do this as parents on earth surely our heavenly father will explain why He is discipling us. One of the main lessons He wants to teach us in order to reign with Him is authority comes with responsibility, the greater the authority He is calling us to walk in the greater our responsibility will be.
Therefore His training and discipline will be even more severe if He is calling us to have great authority in the earth. If we miss it and we have authority over two people it will hurt them yet if we miss it and we have authority over one thousand it will affect many more people and much more damage will be caused.
We therefore are not to despise His discipline but accept it as His love in our lives, as He disciplines those He loves.
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