Page 19 - Evidence of Things Unseen

the discipline we receive from His hands. This is an important matter, for it requires faith
to recognize God’s hand of discipline even as it requires faith to recognize His presence to
heal, or to manifest some much needed provision. In each of these things we must have eyes
of faith to see into spirit realms in order to recognize God’s presence in our lives.
If you are a child of God then you have, and will again, experience the discipline of
God. None are exempt, as Paul wrote:

Hebrews 12:8
But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are
illegitimate children and not sons.

I suspect that I could have a conversation with a majority of Christians today and it
would go something like this.

“Are you a child of God?”

“Oh, yes. I am most definitely a child of God!”

“Then tell me about God’s discipline in your life.”

“Um, well, I do not know what you mean. God’s discipline? I believe that God loves me and
that His Son suffered for my sins so that I would not have to.”

“So then, you cannot think of a time when God has disciplined you?”

“I don’t think God would do that to me. God loves me and wants to bless me. I have had
some bad things happen to me, even some painful things, but I don’t think that was God.”

I have actually had conversations with saints that were very close to this. One wife of
a pastor even rebuked me when I shared with her about God’s discipline in my life. She said
firmly, “My God would not do that.” If she is a child of the same God that I am a child of,
then the Scriptures do testify that He will indeed discipline all those who are His children,
for “all have become partakers” of His discipline.
The problem is not that God disciplines some of His children, and not others. Rather,
it is that many refuse to acknowledge the discipline for what it truly is. These are also
walking in “unconscious reality,” and because they fail to recognize God’s discipline they
do not respond to His correction. As Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers, “For this reason
many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep” (I Corinthians 11:30). It is tragic
that so many Christians experience the hand of God’s discipline upon them, but they refuse
to recognize it. This results in God using more severe discipline, and even then many will
not respond until God finally has to take their lives.
I have often been on the receiving end of God’s discipline, and at times this discipline
has been most severe. If we read the words of the apostle we should expect that it would be
so.

Hebrews 12:5-7
And have you [completely] forgotten the divine word of appeal and encouragement