We come to the scripture that speaks about God disciplining His children as son in Hebrews 12. We've mostly heard that God disciplines with sickness, hard times and trials. We aren't children of the Law or the flesh, but are the children of the Spirit. God is Spirit and disciplines His children (who are of the Spirit), by the Spirit. His Word is Spirit and it is life.
We are instructed and disciplined in and by His Spirit when dealing with the fruit or character of Christ. We must yield to the Holy Spirit when facing the various trials, oppositions and hostilities of the world. Hebrews 12:9 tells of the difference between "the fathers of the flesh" and our heavenly Father. Our earthly father disciplines the flesh (mostly the part that you sit on) and God disciplines the Spirit by His Spirit and His Word.
When we react to the trials of the world by the same discipline of the world, then the Spirit will correct us and bring us into subjection of the Spirit if we listen and allow His correction. Christians need to really pay attention to 1Corinthians 14:32-33. This scripture is speaking about prophesying and speaking in tongues, but there's a very bold statement we should understand and see in Verse 32 which says, "For the Spirit of the prophets (the speaker in tongues) are under the speaker's control (and subject to being silenced as may be necessary)." The King James version says it like this, "The Spirit of the prophet, is subject to the prophet."
In other words, God is not going to make you speak in tongues, your spirit is still under your control. This principle is still true when applied to producing the fruit or character of Christ in your life. Your spirit is under your control. You can either react in the meekness of the Spirit by surrendering your spirit to the Holy Spirit or in the harshness of the flesh. It's not something to be forced out of you, but it's something that flows out of you.
The character of Christ is in you by the very same Spirit that was in Christ Jesus. Jesus only said what the Father told Him to say and only went where the Father told Him to go. This is yielding your spirit to the will of God's Spirit within you. If the "Spirit of the person is still subject to the person," then don't we have a choice in how we react?
We sort of choose what part of the fruit we wish to produce in our lives. I hear people say that, "I have the fruit of long suffering" or "I have the fruit of joy." If this is true, then you've only yielded to a small portion of the Holy Spirit. Remember when Jesus said, "Not My will, but Your will be done?" This is what produces the fruit or character of Christ in our daily walk with Him.
The only way of successfully dealing with the world and the trials that it will bring against you, is to yield to His Spirit. It's not because God withheld part of His nature and character from us when we were born again. It's because we haven't imitated God in His character. Religion gives us many ways of justifying the flesh when we don't walk in His character. We've mostly heard them all, but have taken the fruits that best suit us best. We've been told that, "Not all of us have these fruits," "Yes, but that was Jesus" and "God will work it out of me in His Own time." These might sound good to the hearer, but truthfully, this character will never be seen in our lives until we yield to the discipline and direction of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit knows how we're to react to the world and as His children, we know how we are to react too. It's not a matter of knowing, but of yielding. We know for instance, how to react in what and how we say things, but we're selective in how and to whom we say them. We don't mind raising our voice and being angry at home or with certain persons, but when stopped by a policeman, we react in a very different manner.
Are we living for Christ or living through Christ? If we're living for Him, then it is always a struggle. If we are living through Christ, then it's simply His character coming out.
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