Devotions with Pastor Dick

The Discipline of the Lord

Hebrews 12:5
“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.”

It is very easy to grieve the Spirit of God; we do it by

• Making light of the discipline of the Lord,
• Or by becoming discouraged when He rebukes us.

If our experience of being set apart from sin and being made holy through the process of sanctification is still very shallow,

• We tend to mistake the reality of God for something else.

When the Spirit of God gives us a sense of warning or restraint,

• We are apt to say mistakenly, “Oh, that must be from the devil.”

“Do not quench the Spirit” 1 Thess. 5:19
Do not resist His discipline when He says to you, in effect,

• Don’t be blind on this point anymore
• You are not as far along spiritually as you thought you were.
• Until now I have not been able to reveal this to you.
• I’m revealing it to you right now.

When the Lord disciplines you like that,

• Let Him have His way with you.
• Allow Him to put you into a right-standing relationship before God.
• Don’t become discouraged when you are rebuked by Him.

We begin to pout, become irritated with God, and then say,

• “Oh well, I can’t help it. I prayed and things didn’t turn out right anyway. So I’m simply going to give up on everything.”
• Just think what would happen if we acted like this in any other area of our lives!

Am I fully prepared to allow God to grip me by His power and do a work in me that is truly worthy of Himself?

• Sanctification is not my idea of what I want God to do for me
• Sanctification is God’s idea of what He wants to do for me.
• But He has to get me into the state of mind and spirit where I will allow Him to sanctify me completely, whatever the cost

“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.” 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

Pastor Dick