FUNDAMENTALS
OF DISCIPLESHIP
4 (For
the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through Elohim to the
pulling down of strong holds;)
5 Casting
down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the
knowledge of IAUE, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience
of Messiah;
6 And
having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is
fulfilled.
7 Do
ye look on things after the outward appearance? if any man trust to himself
that he is Messiah’s, let him of himself think this again, that, as he is
Messiah’s, even so are we Messiah’s.
Last
week’s post ended with this comment:
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I have heard believers say, “Nothing is going to
happen to me when I commit sin, when I do something I know I should not do,
because I am already forgiven of my sins, past, present and future.” They genuinely believe there is no
consequence to their rebellion against the authority of IAUE; and they have
their own personal experience to back it up.
Well, there is a reason why they appear to be without correction in
their lives.
Hebrews 12:5 And ye
have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My
son, despise not thou the chastening of IAUE, nor faint when thou art rebuked
of him:
6 For
whom IAUE loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
7 If
ye endure chastening, Elohim dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he
whom the father chasteneth not?
8 But
if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards,
and not sons.
Disciples understand that they are held accountable by
IAUE for their actions, and for their refusals to act. Just as they know they are going to chastise
their children when they are disobedient, they fully expect correction at the
hand of the Father when they behave as disobedient children. The ones who do not expect such correction
being brought to their lives are not true children at all, but bastards.
Paul put it another way. He said, “…having
in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.” There is a transition phase
between infants and children in the natural world. Infants are brand new to the world. They have not yet learned what their parents
want them to do; nor have they learned what their parents do not want them to
do. They have not learned what is acceptable in public or social settings, and
what is not acceptable. During this infancy stage, parents generally do not
discipline their children; they use the occasion to instruct them. They are waiting for that time when the
infant becomes a child that understands that there are consequences for
breaking things, throwing balls inside the house, touching the lamp, using mom’s
or dad’s personal things, screaming in restaurants or grabbing things off of
store shelves. When the child reaches
this stage, the parents begin to chasten them at every single act of
disobedience. Why do they do this? It is because the immediate disciplinary
action reinforces the intended behavior.
It works; and children learn to conduct themselves with increasing
maturity; and parents are delighted when they see the progress their child
makes.
So, too, does IAUE wait for his infant ones to reach
that place where they know what He expects, and what He does not desire. He waits for them to arrive at that place
where they know to do good. James, the
brother of Yahushua and first pastor of the church of Jerusalem, said:
James
4:17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to
him it is sin.
Why have you not experienced the chastening of
IAUE? It can only be for one of two
reasons:
1. I am not
of His family.
2. I am still
an infant who has not grown up enough even to know what is the right way to
behave as a member of the family of IAUE.
Last week we discussed walking in the Light as He is
in the light; and that anything that we do or think that we want to keep secret
or unknown to others is darkness in our life.
We know that the one who walks in darkness cannot be in fellowship with
IAUE; so that leaves us with the need to bring things to the light that are
desperate to remain in the dark. That
also means that we must establish a relationship with someone who will walk
with us and hold us accountable in order to protect our steadfast walk in the
Light. For those who are married,
ideally that would be your spouse. For
those who are single, it should be someone who is equally desirous of walking
in the Light with the same sense of purpose; someone that you can trust with
knowing the worst about you.
The first agonizing logistic of this kind of
relationship is the painful injury it will inflict upon your pride. The reason you have kept anything in your
life in the dark in the first place is first and foremost to protect your
pride. Pride, however, is one of the
chiefest enemies of the disciple and the greatest tool of the devil to insure that
you have no fellowship with IAUE. To learn
that reality early is to gain a significant advantage. The
more we begin to realize that life is all about IAUE, that it is not about “me,” the less pride will be welcome in our
life. Pride revives and surfaces only
when we forget this fact.
Now, there is a key that I want you to
understand. We have an option. When we allow darkness into our life, we can
do one of two things.
1. We can
confess our darkness to another in order to maintain a high level of
accountability in our lives; expose the darkness to the light; and be freed of
its power over us; or
2. We can
keep the thought, or action in the dark…keep it secret from all others in order
to protect our pride; refusing to recognize the danger it is to our spiritual
health…and subject ourselves to the disciplinary action of IAUE.
Be not deceived, IAUE is not mocked. If you are a child and you are not dealing
with your mistakes and disobediences correctly, IAUE will spank you…and you
really don’t want Him to do that. I
would encourage you to reread the very 3rd post in this blog dealing with the
topic of “the fear of IAUE.” By the fear
of IAUE, men depart from evil. Once you
are being dealt with by IAUE as one of His children, you have every reason to
fear His chastening.
Despite its unpleasantness, the chastening of IAUE produces
righteous behavior in those who allow themselves to be trained by His discipline.
Kingdom heart: a heart that offers no resistance to the performance
of the will of IAUE.
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