John 1:16-17 (Amplified) says, "For out of His fullness (abundance), we have all received, all had a share and were all supplied with, one Grace after another and Spiritual Blessing upon Spiritual Blessing and even favor upon favor and Gift heaped upon Gift. For while the Law was given through Moses, Grace (unearned, undeserved favor) and Spiritual Blessing and Truth, came through Jesus Christ."
We see how our Father of Spirits disciplines His children, who are the children of spirits in 2Timothy 3:16-17 (Amplified) which says, "Every scripture is God-breathed, given by His inspiration and profitable for instruction, for reproof and conviction of sin; for correction of error and discipline in obedience and for training in righteousness (in Holy living, in conformity to God's will in thought, purpose and action); So that the man of God may be complete and proficient, well-fitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work."
God is a Spirit and you are a spirit, who is led by the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, "The Words (Truths) I speak to you are Spirit and Life." You train and discipline and correct a spirit, by Spiritual things and words. We've come under fleshly problems, because we didn't heed the correction that would have prevented them. This doesn't mean that God allowed it to happen or put it on us, but that we ignored the instruction that would have prevented it. Galatians 6:7-8 (Amplified) says, "Do not be deceived and deluded and misled; God will not allow Himself to be sneered at, scorned, disdained or mocked by mere pretensions, or by His precepts being set aside. He inevitably deludes himself who attempts to delude God. For whatever a man sows; that and only that is what he will reap For he who sows to his own flesh (lower nature, sensuality), will from the flesh reap decay and ruin and destruction, but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap Eternal Life."
If we believe and accept such things as sickness and problems as, "God put this on me to correct and teach me something," then we have sown to the flesh and will reap from the flesh. If you understand the Spiritual discipline and correction of the Lord, then He will lead you past the satan's pitfalls. Remember, "He who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap Eternal Life."
We've never considered the Truth that we are now Spirit beings, who are led by, disciplined by, corrected by and are living by the Spirit of God, as His Spiritual children in this world. When I hear God's children saying, "God's allowing this to come on me for correction," I think of what Paul says in 1Corinthians 5:5 (Amplified) where a man was having an affair with his father's wife. Either God didn't know this man was having an affair with his father's wife (which is crazy) or God didn't correct this man by physical discipline. Did you wonder why? Paul tells us in Verse 5 that, "In order to deliver this man over to satan for physical discipline and destroy the carnal lusts that prompted this man to incest, so that his spirit might be saved in the Day of the Lord Jesus."
If there every someone who needed it, then this man would surely have qualified for God's intervening and putting sickness and physical correction on him. God, though, instructed Paul to "turn him over to satan for the correction and discipline of the flesh." Without understanding and discernment concerning Spiritual things, we've delivered ourselves (by our own doing) into the enemy's hands, because we've believed it was God teaching us. It seems strange that while this man was involved in incest, that satan couldn't get to that man to do anything, so long as the Church was covering him with prayer. In the midst of his own lack of restraint and his sin, intercession and prayer from those in the Church protected him and God instructed them to, "Deliver him over."
Can it be that we too, haven't listened to the Voice of the Spirit for our correction, when He told us that it wasn't Him, but the enemy who was out to bring physical hardship on us? When God's Word tries correcting us, do we refuse to hear, remaining in our own understanding and reaping to the flesh, instead of receiving Wisdom from God that would deliver us? Have we traded the Holy Spirit for a spirit of infirmity, believing it's God trying to teach us something? When the Holy Spirit tries correcting us by His Word, do we refuse His instructions and go our own way? God doesn't discipline the flesh, in order to train the spirit. He indwells the spirit to bring the flesh into submission. God did discipline the flesh under the old covenant, because the people weren't born-again and their spirits were still dead in trespass and sin. God didn't have access to their spirits, like He has to ours.
God hasn't changed, as far as still correcting and disciplining and training up His children. He still does these things, but now He can reach into the heart of a man, into his new creation spirit and deal with our spirit by Spiritual things. Let's listen very closely, allowing the Word and the Holy Spirit to discipline, correct, instruct, train up, reprove and convict when we need guidance. Don't reject His instruction and reproof, if He tells you that you've "been in error by awaiting and accepting the works of the enemy as being God's allowing harm and destruction to come upon you for your own good."
We must listen to the Holy Spirit for our instruction and understanding. 2Timothy 4:3-4 (Amplified) warns us about "hearing different things that satisfy our own liking and foster errors." Jesus saw this during His ministry, with the scribes and Pharisees who held to their own traditions and causing the Word of God to be of no effect in their lives. In these Last Days, we've done much of the same thing by adhering to our own doctrine and refusing to take correction from God's Word and His Spirit.
It seems easy for a tongue talking Christian to point out the error to one who's been taught that speaking in tongues has passed away, but they continue holding to their own errors of teaching, without seeing them as being error. These people aren't deliberately rebellion or stubbornly rejecting, but are teaching what they've been taught, believing they are Truth. We live in a fallen world, that is still being governed by a fallen angel, who is in total defiance against God. We're not to be deceived by his strategies. We're to listen to the Holy Spirit.
You're not some elite group on your own, who believes others are misled. If you believe this, then you are also misled, in error and in pride. We do however, have the personal responsibility to listen to the Spirit and not simply follow the crowd. Paul couldn't follow the crowd, in the Truth of the Gospel that the Lord gave him. It would have been much easier for Paul, in his flesh and his walk with the people, to preach what was acceptable to them. This would not only have been his downfall, but the downfall of those who seek the Truth.
The enemy offers a compromise to the Church, saying "Those people are already saved and going to be with the Lord, so why stir them all up by teaching something different than what they're accustomed too?" It's sometimes easier to leave folks alone in their beliefs. I haven't found anywhere in God's Word, that tells me to leave them alone and don't take them on into the Rest. We find in Exodus 14:11-12 (Amplified) where God brought the Israelites out of Egypt by a "Mighty hand," but when the Israelites saw Pharaoh's army coming behind them, they said to Moses (and to God too), "Is is because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you treated us this way and brought us out of Egypt? Did we not tell you in Egypt, Let us alone; let us serve the Egyptians? for it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness."
When you get used to something, then it seems easier to just stay in it, rather than change. It would have been easier for Paul to leave the Church in carnality and bondage, but that wasn't God's heart. It would be easier to leave the Church in the place where we've settled, instead of taking them into the Rest and Promises of God. You can't continue into God's Rest and Promises, without first knowing that you are in God's hands and His Guidance. Tradition has strongholds on the lives of those who accept them and it's hard to let go of them and grab onto something new. This is where 2Timothy 3:16 comes into play, in the believer's life. Listen to the Lord and His Word. Determine what is tradition and what is Truth, then walk in Truth.
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