I mentioned a few posts back that I felt lead to share some writings on the act of discipline in our spiritual walk. This may sound cliche and like something we've always heard is necessary; however, in this "American church age", is it possible that maybe we haven't fully understood what this discipline really requires? How about discipline unto death? Oh no... there is no death in following Yahusha (Jesus); we are to be blessed and happy and successful - wrong! Blessings, absolutely, but more death than anything. Death of self simply must happen before we can really rise up in resurrection power and make a difference in this life for the Kingdom of God our Father, Yahuah. Remember this, just as our Savior uttered Himself, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." Our death is His idea, but He promises to bring true life out of it. As I was reading this morning, the desperate "crosses" in our lives that many times are so devastating and even permanent are the very things that shape and mold us in those disciples who truly follow and honor the Father with our whole hearts and not just our mouths... whole hearts that crave righteousness unto full obedience. I am so thankful that our Father brings forth this type of discipline in pure love, patient longsuffering, and at a pace we can handle. All in all, we simply must submit to it, even if we say to Him... "Father, please consider taking this cup from me; however, not my will but your will be done." May the writing below prick your heart, inspire you, and also encourage you to get on, stay on, and continuously crave this narrow road with our Heavenly Father. At whatever stage you may be, know He is with you and will be absolutely faithful to you until the end, always finishing His perfect work. Please note that I have also added a Manna Bite that goes hand in hand with this post. It includes an excellent teaching on what it means to be perfect in Christ, which is really what discipline is all about! THE WAY OF THE CROSS
by Pietra de Bod God has chosen one thing to discipline us, and only that one thing. The Cross. Paul said, “For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2: 2 KJV). Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft (1 Sam. 15: 23 KJV). In fact, the whole inception of evil comes from pride, which created a revolution in heaven. This revolution brought a rebellion that resulted in Lucifer and his angels being thrown out of heaven. The enemy has still not stopped with his rebellion and is working in the hearts of man. Unless you see the importance of two kingdoms that are at the heart of life and death, you are not living in reality. It is either about God’s Kingdom or satan’s kingdom. There is no middle ground. You cannot think that when you stand with your little toe in the kingdom of satan and the rest of you in the Kingdom of God that majority rules. No. We have to see this from a spiritual perspective. Whatever area we compromise in, is ground given to the kingdom of satan. God requires ultimate obedience. Totality. Any disobedience is rebellion, even partial obedience. God takes rebellion very seriously. He sees this as witchcraft. You may say, “Surely my disobedience is not witchcraft?” But God’s ways are not our ways. He does not weigh with the same scale we do. This requirement is way beyond our means. But He has made a way. Our response should be of one who is under new ownership. Hearts willing to be laid bare before Him as He shows us the areas that we either need to let go of or need to repent of. For how can we call Him Lord of our lives when in fact we choose the areas we think He may rule? He is either Lord of all or not Lord at all. The old man has died with Christ on the cross and we are no longer under the law but under grace (Romans 6: 14 KJV). Our relationship with Him is one of worship and obedience, which is the very evidence of our love for Him. Everything we do in our lives is an act of worship. Not sentimental love, for true love is obedience in all circumstances. Jesus said in John 15 that if we love Him we will do His commandments and we will abide in His love. This kind of love is backed up by works of loving obedience. All of us first clean a cup before we fill it and make good use of it. Why do we expect anything different from our Heavenly Father? He wants to use us, but He has to sanctify us, which is to set us apart. We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which He before ordained that we might walk in them (Ephesians 2: 6 – 10 KJV). When someone purifies gold, it is done by heating the gold to such a degree that all of the dross and impurities rise to the surface. Patiently he waits for this one thing as he looks into the gold. He is waiting for his reflection. Even so our Father, to whom we are His workmanship, watches jealously over us, until His Son is fully formed in us and He sees Jesus in us. This is the heart’s cry of Paul in Galatians 4:19, “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.” Our Father watches over us with patience and meticulously takes care of every detail. He is longsuffering and perfect in all His ways. When He looks at us, He sees the work He has done in us. Not just what He preordained, but the fulfilment of it in our lives as we trust Him day by day, of which He is the Author and Finisher. He has made all things beautiful in His time (Ecclesiastes 3:11 KJV). Can you see Him looking at you right this moment in anticipation as He works in you? We will not be able to be His disciples, (the root word of discipline) unless the cross is applied to our lives. He has to deal with every area and burn away all the wrong thinking and dependence we have in those areas in order for us to walk as He has walked. The cross will always be central to all that God is doing and it must be central to ours as well. The cross is the climax of all things past, present and future. It is the full expression of who God is and who we are in Him. It cannot be a means to an end. We stray from the authenticity of the gospel when we stray from the true message of the cross. In “The Cruciality of the Cross”, P. T. Forsyth writes, “A true grasp of the atonement not only meets many positive features of the present age, but above all it meets the age in its need and impotence, its need of a centre, of an authority, of a creative source, a guiding line, and a final goal.” The cross is where He transforms us. This transformation comes in the same way His transformation took place. From death unto life. As a young boy, Jesus submitted to authority. He submitted to His parents even though He knew that He was sent from heaven. He grew in maturity through submission to authority, therefore becoming disciplined. This is the life of a son. Just like you and me, He had to die daily and be obedient. But we are unable to die to self. We will do our best to die to self, only to find ourselves failing over and over again. We might think we are not trying to die in our own strength. But there is a thin line between walking by faith and doing something in your own strength. Just because you are doing something out of the right motive and it is doctrinally sound, does not mean it is done by faith. Only He can reveal to you from which source you are living. From the flesh or from the Spirit. And He causes us to fail miserably, even after we have done everything He has asked. We go to courses, we pray vigilantly and warfare, but still we fail miserably at dying to self. We cry out to Him feeling abandoned and alone. The reality is that no one can crucify himself. It is at the foot of the cross where even this reality has to hit home, where we see that all our spiritual efforts are like filthy rags. It is a stripping and an unveiling of the true self, where all that is left is only empty hands in complete dependency. We can only lie before the cross in true repentance, but it is the Holy Spirit that does the crucifying at that moment. At that very moment the kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies. This kernel of wheat, this life, dies to all so that Christ may be your all in all. Many refer to this as “The Dark Night of the Soul”. The Dark Night of the Soul is a book written many years ago by St John of the Cross about this actual spiritual dying. This is when the seed of faith will start to germinate in the dark soil. From this very dark place we start to slowly walk by faith in the fear of God because we no longer lean on the arm of the flesh. This is where the will has been brought into complete submission by the Spirit and absolute surrender. We then live by what He has done, and not by what we need to do or think we have done. You are brought to a place of complete and utter nothingness. This is why Paul said, I am nothing. In essence this is where we are brought to. We will often think we have come to the end of ourselves, but only God knows when we have reached that place of complete and utter surrender. To be utterly dependent on the Spirit within you and to submit and do His promptings by faith is the life of discipline. This is why Jesus said that He will liken the man that builds his house upon the rock, whose house did not fall, to those who hear His Word and DO them. Many people will see this as salvation through works, where in fact it is actually the obedience required after salvation. 2 Peter 1: 10 says, “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fail.” And Philippians 2:12 says” Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Your being, which is to say your thinking, speaking and hearing, all that constitute you, has to come from a basis of faith. The Word states, whatever is not of faith, is sin (Romans 14: 23 KJV). This is what it means to walk by the Spirit. We might be able to quote different verses, but do we truly believe it? We will be amazed how much we lean on the flesh in order to do that which is spiritual. Art Katz said, “Just because you can phrase something verbally does not mean you have the corresponding reality. Unless the spirit speaking is in agreement with the speaking, it is a lie, it is only a truth in part.” Has this revelation truly hit home? God has to show us the areas where we are living a lie. He has to lead us in various ways to experience our utter weakness and sinfulness that we too with Paul will cry out that we know that in our flesh no good thing dwells. This is exactly where He wants to get us. A place of such a clear vision and understanding that we can do nothing without Him (John 15 KJV). Not just of how weak we are, but actually how sinful we are as well. Unfortunately, some take longer than others to see the significance of their failures in the light of what Father is teaching them, and very often we have to learn the same lesson over and over again. He has to bring us to the end of our own works, to take up His works. This is what the Word means when saying we can now enter into His rest. To enter into His rest is to walk by faith. In Hebrews 4 we read that they ceased from their own works and entered by faith into His rest. The biggest struggle for us is to stop from religious works. I myself can testify that it took me many years to learn the reality of how I tried to save myself. This truth takes very long to sink in when you are desperately trying to live a holy life. This is because you think you are in God’s will and “oh so spiritual”. It is a juxtaposition between faith and doing. All of your doing must be by faith, but that faith is birthed out of death, which is at the cross. The reality of your own weakness in the light of His all sufficiency. In the light of what He has done. Not just your salvation, but His sufficiency for your every need. No one can teach you this. Only He can. And there is only one place where He will teach you this, the cross. He shows us our true motives, our pride, our selfishness and more. He intensifies the heat of the fire to burn away the dross so that He eventually sees His image in us. Only then does He equip us for our purpose in life. Many of us mistake the sanctification as the equipping, but it is actually the cleansing and the setting apart of the vessel. The equipping comes once the character has been formed. God is faithful and merciful to use us even in our immaturity at times. This does not mean the person is perfect and never sins after sanctification. It does mean that the vessel’s character has been forged to sustain the persecution that will come once God starts to truly use them. These saints have gone through immense suffering, in order to prepare them to bear the suffering and persecution that will follow. For the moment that you have died to self and no longer seek your own kingdom, but His, is the moment that you have become a target for the enemy of His Kingdom. This is where resurrection life is essential. With His character comes His anointing, power and authority. His strength is made perfect in our weakness, but only in obedience. This is very similar to the growing stages of a child from crawling to walking and running, to that of maturity. And God has never been in a hurry. It is a learning process of gradual maturity from childhood into sonship. This is why the creation is waiting for the adoption of the sons and daughters of God, and not the children of God. There is a big difference between a child of God and a son of God. Sonship speaks of maturity. We know that maturity has nothing to do with age, but rather with character. This is also where the cross no longer is just a symbol of dying to self, but the very power of God to save the lost! To be a son speaks of representation and government, whereas a child is restricted and still has to be fed the elementary of the Kingdom of God. For everything there is a season and a time (Ecclesiastes 3:11 KJV). His promise to us has always been that He will prune us so that we may bear fruit, and fruit in abundance. This glorifies the Father when we bear fruit. It also speaks of a process that is ongoing. The pruning is a necessary process of discipline. Paul clearly states that if we are not disciplined we are illegitimate and not true children of God (Hebrews 12: 8 KJV). Acts 5 says that the Holy Spirit is given to them that obeys Him. Many ask to be filled with the Spirit or desire a fresh touch from God, but how is their obedience to the Spirit? There has to be a willingness and a desire to recognize opportunities of obedience, which one welcomes in order to become a true son. This is when you choose to be sensitive to your Lord, your new owner who has bought you with His blood. We can look at the pruning as the cutting off, but sometimes a branch has to be tied in such a way that it bends in order to grow a certain direction. That is the discipline. Pruning stimulates growth, but discipline brings direction. There comes a time in our walk with God where we are no longer satisfied with the crumbs. We want the real thing and we do not want to see it just displayed in others, but in us. We want God to use us and we want to be done with sin. This is authenticity. Once we have committed to this kind of Christianity we commit to the way of the cross. In effect you are committing to dying. Not to salvation, that is just the beginning, but to dying. The way of the cross is not a sentimental feeling or romantic illusion, nor is it something we hang around our necks. It is reality! The way of the cross is death. It is the only true authentic way of saying it and anyone who has been on this very narrow way of the cross will testify to this. This is an obedience that takes pre-eminence over dreams, aspirations, traditions, culture, family and friends. This is where you tell God that you are willing to lay all aside and leave all behind to follow Him. Obedience unto the Lord is an obedience unto death. There can be no resurrection life without the cross. God uses the cross to cause us to die to self, so that we may walk in obedience to Him in faith. Each obedience requires the Holy Spirit whilst at the same time we become like Him. Embracing your cross is not an option. It is the only option. NOTE: Many of these writings by Pietra de Bod can be found in the PDF books on the Resources page of this site.
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Special NoteThese writings are written in love and a spirit of servitude. They are not designed to judge but make us think. We are all sinners in need of saving, and we all need encouragement and absolute truth to endure on the narrow road to sanctification and ultimately eternal life. Categories
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