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Hebrews 12:5b-6… “My son, do notdespise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; 6 For whom the LordlovesHechastens, And scourgeseveryson whom Hereceives.” (NKJV)
I was listening to 560am Philly radio the other morning, and happened to hear a short snip from a story by the comedian evangelist Patsy Clairmont, who was telling a story that was titled…“A Whooping from the Lord”… I spent an hour trying to research an audio clip of the radio’s broadcast from the specific time slot that morning, but to no avail… L The story centered around a Spirit filled woman, (maybe Patsy’s grandmother), who was asking Patsy if she had ever had a whooping from the Lord… She then proceeded to tell Patsy a story from her past, to teach her about how the Lord disciplines His children who fail to listen to the Holy Spirit…
She tells Patsy about the time she was walking down the hallway in a hospital, on the way to visit a sick friend…when she said the Holy Spirit urged her to reach out and take hold of the hand of a woman (a total stranger) in a gurney that was being rolled down the hall past her… She decided it best not to grab this stranger’s hand, for fear of being considered a case for the “nut house”…
As it turns out, the woman on the gurney passed away a few days later; and she realized that she had missed the opportunity to reach out to this stranger and witness to her, to share the love of Christ… She tells Patsy that this was when she had “a whooping from the Lord”… The Holy Spirit had convicted her about not listening to His urging to share the gospel of Christ with this dying woman…
All Christians are given the Holy Spirit by God at the moment God graces them with salvation…John 14:26… But how well do we as Christians listen to the urging of the Holy Spirit, who is trying to guide us…to teach us…and to help us make the right choices at every turn in our lives ?? Younger Christians (in spiritual maturity, not age) will hopefully learn through the chastising and the scourging God promises to give ALL of His wayward children…in order to bring them back into submission to His revealed will… You can read the entire piece of teaching scripture, explaining the discipline of God for His children, at…Hebrews 12:3-11… Here is the link for this important… http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=heb12%3A3-11&version=NKJV;KJV
Two things stick out in my mind, when I read this scripture about the Lord chastening and scourging His redeemed children… First…if we believe we are Christians, and we are not being chastened…God’s inerrant Word reveals that we might not be one of God’s redeemed children…Hebrews 12:8… But ifyou are withoutchastening, of whichallhave become partakers, thenyou are illegitimate and notsons. (NKJV)
And second…those who finally get trained by the Lord’s chastening (hopefully sooner rather than later), will receive “the peaceable fruit of righteousness… Hebrews 12:11… Nownochastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceablefruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (NKJV)
Is your life filled with anxiety…stress…no joy…no peace…no patience…and no love for those who rub you the wrong way ?? Are you feeling like the Lord is whooping you at every turn and bad decision you make ?? The Lord tells us that if we are indeed one of His redeemed children, that we are to expect chastening and rebuke by Him when we live in rebellion, in consistent, unrepented sin… But the apostle John teaches us that if we confess and repent of our sins to the Lord…that He will cleanse us of all unrighteousness, in…
1 John 1:9… If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from allunrighteousness. (NKJV)
My friends, “the peaceablefruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by” the Lord’s chastising…will yield a Spirit filled life that will be re-energized by the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit…when the wayward Christian finally turns back to the Lord in total submission to Him… I write about the blessings God gives to His children who are walking in sweet fellowship with the Lord, all the time… The apostle Paul tells the believers in the church of Ephesus to “be filled with” (totally controlled by) the Holy Spirit, in…Ephesians 5:18-20…
When we as Christians finally understand that God’s ways are always best for our lives…and we humbly submit our lives to be total controlled by the Holy Spirit that God has given us…then we will experiencethe supernatural love of Christwhich passes our mortal knowledge…Ephesians 3:16-20…the fullness of joy when we are filled with Christ…John 15:11…Colossians 1:11…&…Jude 1:24…and a supernatural God given peace, that goes beyond our mortal understanding…Philippians 4:6-7…as truedisciples (followers) of Jesus Christ…
The Spirit filled Christian who continues to live and mature in their quest of being conformed into the image of Christ (Romans 8:29), should become vigilant and attentive to hearing the Holy Spirit speak to them… And living for the Lord will become a way of life that will hopefully be filled with God’s richest blessings…
I will never forget the whooping I received from the Holy Spirit, when He clearly told me to speak to a neighbor I sat down next to in the drug store, while we were waiting for our prescriptions to be filled… Her husband had recently passed away, and I was urged by the Holy Spirit to speak to her… I chose not to, and all the way home the Holy Spirit kicked my butt for not responding to His urging to reach out to her with compassion…
From that day, I do my very best to listen to the Holy Spirit…and respond positively every time I believe He is urging me to share the love of Christ to those around me in need of hearing the truth from God’s Word… I have learned that I would much rather be wrong about the Holy Spirit urging me, than to disappoint Him and receive another whooping !!
Heavenly Father, I pray that anyone calling themselves a Christian, who is not walking in sweet fellowship with You, would be urged by You to confess…repent…and turn from any and all sins that are hindering a Spirit filled relationship that You desire with all of Your redeemed children… I pray for this perfect peace in all of our lives, that only Christ living in us will bring (Colossians 1:27)…in Jesus’ most precious name and for His sake…Amen…
Blessings in Christ, bruce r mills
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