Chastening Yields Spiritual Revelation

CHASTISEMENT YIELDS SPIRITUAL REVELATION

God is the Father of spirits and we are his spiritual offspring. The word of God is written to a spiritual people identifying a spiritual kingdom into which they have been born. The word of God reveals a sharp contrast between the world and the kingdom of heaven. It addresses the fact that we are seated with Christ in a heavenly place, (the Holy Spirit). It points to our divine nature and our ability to live a sinless life here on Earth. As he (Christ) is, so are we in this world today. The knowledge of these truths births a spiritual revelation in the inner man. In the natural, when a child is still very young, his parents begin to teach him the values they themselves live by. Whether these values are good or bad, they are passed down to the child either in formal training or by observation. The same is true with our Heavenly Father. He uses his word to keep our example, Jesus Christ, forever before us.

It is his life that is our inspiration and our strength to fulfil the righteousness of God. It is by his life we live and move and have our very existence. This is the manifestation of son training. It is the Father setting the boundaries of our walk. He is identifying for us the mind of Christ and the need to submit to the desire of the Holy Ghost within us. He admonishes us to be led by the Spirit so as not to fulfil the lusts of the flesh. When the Lord placed Adam in the Garden he instructed him as to what his role was in the Garden and on Earth. He was to keep the Garden, dress it and maintain it. He was to subdue the Earth and rule over everything that crept upon it. If he obeyed he would live forever. Nevertheless, God had to point out the thing that was outside the boundaries of Adam’s fellowship with Him. He had to point to the thing He considered to be sin; the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. But then he also had to tell Adam of the operation of the flesh that would cause him to die. He was not to eat of the tree, neither was he to touch it. Either of these actions would constitute a spiritual separation from God.

The first line of our training is to learn of the benefits of our salvation. This is a learning of the power of the Comforter who is able to maintain our joy and peace in the midst of obedience to God. Adam learned of the benefits of his obedience; which manifested itself in the power he had over the animal kingdom and all that dwelled on the Earth. We learned that obedience to God gives us power over all the power of the enemy.

The second phase of our training is the revelation of the change in our spirituality when we make a decision to disobey the Father. Adam and Eve experienced this in their fall. They hid themselves because they were ashamed and afraid. They knew they had grieved the heart of God.

Likewise, in disobedience, we too, experience the fear and shame that comes with the Spirit of God’s condemnation of our actions or thoughts. This condemnation by the Holy Ghost and the Word of God impresses upon our conscience and it too, unites in righteous indignation to condemn our actions, ways or thoughts. The effect of this loss of fellowship by self-inflicted spiritual alienation from the Father should be enough to cause us to scurry to repentance and a return to our righteous place in God. This feeling of alienation from God is the rod of chastening the Father uses to get our attention. And by all means it ought to be sufficient. Those who have truly experienced righteousness and fellowship with the Father are tremendously grieved in their inner man when they find themselves outside the boundaries of the faith both in deed or in thought. This is as it should be. However, there are those who decide to really push the envelope and continue in sin as a lifestyle. That will not be the testimony of a son who endures the chastening of the Lord.