“..Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?”
Hebrews 12:9
Should it be a surprise, when we ask the Father to teach us His ways, to search our hearts, that he actually takes us up on the invite and the journey begins?
I wasn’t really disciplined as a child and what I did receive equated to punishment and rejection. Through the years I learned my “best” performance earned approval and acceptance.
It wasn’t until, as a young wife, I was born again that God began to teach me from His word the value of discipline. It took a long time, much soul searching prayer, and many conversations with David to see and shift some very established mindsets and behavioural patterns.
I had to learn first to value discipline. Then I had to learn how to receive it without feeling horrible about myself. I had to learn the reality of love. All discipline is for the purpose of training. Painful realities revealed by the Spirit are working to conform us into the image of Jesus. They must be received and endured, never rejected, to be conformed and this can never be fully achieved until we are confident He loves us.
All correction, instruction, revealing, comes to us by the Holy Spirit for the purpose of LIFE and because the Father loves us; and because He loves us, He never, never, never, rejects us in our weaknesses, failures, or our humanity. There is nothing that separates us from the love of God and we must be confident in this or our weaknesses and failings, our personal judgments, will keep us away from the very one who is trying to bring us into life.
The process of hearing and seeing your inadequacies, flaws, rebellion, sin, revealed by the Holy Spirit is a continual and painful process, one that must be endured. All pruning, Jesus said, is for the benefit of greater fruit.
As we consider the following verses from chapter twelve of Hebrews, let us remember all Jesus endured for the joy that was set before Him.
It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom His Father does not discipline?
If you are left without discipline, IN WHICH ALL HAVE PARTICIPATED, THEN YOU ARE Illegitimate children and not sons.
Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us for a short time and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?”
But he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.
For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
In this season of realignment, this setting in order that is preparing us for our days ahead, the Holy Spirit is revealing truth, refining attitudes and pruning character and if we do not see this process as LIFE, we will not willingly hear, see, or be transformed by the renewing (changing) of our minds.
The bottom line is not to forget the exhortation that addresses us as sons and daughters, loved by our Father.
Do not be weary when you are reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines (instruction that trains one to reach full development) the one he loves...
May His grace and comfort be to each one of us in these days as we submit to the Father of our Spirits, endure the discipline and enjoy the fruit that flows from it.