God Disciplines his Children
Friday, June 13, 2008 by Janee
HI THERE BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN OF GOD!!!!!!
how is it going ? I know a lot of you is studying hard, and going through all sorts of up's and downs! yea? I go through them too ^.^
Just last week, my heart just lost its warmth, and I had gone cold >.<>
Then the powerpuffs had a much needed prayer session, where we came before God. Raw, and just let ourselves be immersed in the Holy Spirit. It took a long time before our hearts were softened to hear from God. Through worship and praising the Lord, perserverance, faith..everything..then we heard from God.
Alison gave me a message from God, saying that it's time for me to stand up. Stop looking around for things that aren't there, if you purged your heart, then STAND UP, RISE UP. Use what you are given.
At the prayer meeting the night before, I was convicted of being lazy. Terribly lazy. In a vision of warning, A pair of hands wearing black gloves reached out to me, and I handed over a nice pretty purse. Then the hands opened it up, but it was empty. So it handed it back to me and turned away.
I was reminded of the parable in MATTHEW 25:14-30.
This really brought the fear of the Lord into my life. God gives you something, and what you do with that something determines how much more he will give you.
In this parable, a master gives one servant 5 bags of gold, one two bags of gold, and one one bag of gold. He then left.
The first man put the money to work and gained 5 more.
The second also gained two more.
But the man with the one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid the master's money.
When the master returned, the first man produced 10 bags, and the master said" Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been fruitful with a FEW things, I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!"
He said the same with the second servant.
However, the third servant was afraid to lose that one bag, and only produced what he was given.
The master replied, "You wicked, lazy servant! ...You should have at least put it into deposit, at least I would get the interest. Take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags.
For those who have will be given more, and they will have an abundance. As for those who do not have, even what they have will be taken from them. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
phew..the Lord is Holy, majestic and will not tolerate laziness. Please pray that I will continue to overcome laziness with the strength of Jesus. thank you ^^
That friday in life group, Jmom was praying for us...and she mentioned if your heart has become hard...^.^ just want to say thanks for confirming it..that my heart had indeed become hard, icy cold..but now, God has shattered it, and is stirrings fires within my heart to serve Him, and to RISE UP! Praise God!
I am sooo glad he showed me that, otherwise I may end up showing God an empty purse, which I really do not want to show.
Ah So sorry that this is becoming a long post..hehehe...was supposed to be short, but God wants me to type until I have shared all that I need to.
There's another thing God showed me today during devotion.
THAT WE ARE CHILDREN OF GOD!!!!!
YOU are a CHILD OF GOD. BORN AGAIN =D
yup! Galatians 3: 26-27 " So in CHRIST JESUS you are all children of GOD through faith, for all of you who were baptised into CHRIST have clothed yourselves with Christ."yay ^^ However, you may be wondering, If we are children of God, why doesn't God protect us from all the evil in the world? why do bad things happen to us? why do we have to suffer, even after believing in God?
This question bugged me for a long time..but this morning, I finally understood -in Hebrews 12:
GOD DISCIPLINES HIS CHILDREN.
I'll type some of it out just in case if you don't have a bible near you ^.^
"It says:
My son( and daughter), do not make light of the Lord's discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
because the LORD disciplines those he LOVES,
and he chastens everyone he accepts as his child.
Endure HARDSHIPS as discipline; GOD is treating YOU as his CHILDREN.
For what children are not disciplined by their father?
If you are not disciplined - and everyone is disciplined- then you are not legitimate children at all.
Moreover, we have all had parents who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live!
.....God disciplines us for our GOOD, that we may share in his holiness.
NO discipline seems pleasant at the time but PAINFUL.
LATER ON, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
THEREFORE, STRENGTHEN YOUR feeble arms and weak knees. "
Thank you Lord for you discipline us because you love us!!
He wants the best for us, and he won't take shortcuts.
I pray that we all can endure all sorts of hardships and DON'T TURN away from our Father, as you'll need to find out what He wants YOU to learn from that hardship!
Otherwise, you'll be suffering for NOTHING..and falling into the traps and deceptions of the devil.
Instead, FOCUS (as Lee ping sms'ed me the other day- thank you ^^) to follow God and have courage. Seek Him, and He will meet you.
love to you all..and goodnight ^^ time for Bed =D
Hey Janey,
Thanks for sharing once again with us and I have experienced something similar even though I wasn't able to be with you princesses at the prayer party.
Well, for the past few days I had troubled with reading the Bible, as in, I did not desire for the quality of the time that I spend with God...instead I just read it plainly without meditating or praying over it. I felt suddenly that I wasn't so close to God but my heart desired to be with Him. So I began to pray everyday that I wanted to be convicted with the truth and to have the heart of worship all days of my life.
Then, on wednesday (had sponsoring with anne), and she convicted me with the truth of how important God's words should be in our lives, and that I must start from 0, to build a strong foundation to fulfil what God has set for me. So after that, I started to pray for new relationship with God, to know Him personally from the Bible and in my everyday life.
Then tonight, i was not able to make it to join you girls because i really had to study but i also spent time with listening to sermons, reading the Bible and praying whenever i took breaks. Then finally, about half and hour ago, I felt that God wanted me to stop what i was studying and to get to know Him. So I began to pray in tonuges, and i realised that it was something new...and slowly i started to see the image before me that I was going through the clouds until i saw Jesus. He was there, but instead of the beautiful face that I would have imagined, His face was blurry, but i wanted to see more. As I continued to pray, I began to see Jesus on the cross, suffering the tortures for us...the scene was worse than what i saw in the movie....and i started to weep for what our heavenly father has done for us, so that we can be set free. To me, it was a wonderful moment because very often my heart has grown cold for what Jesus has done for us...it's like..we know what He did...but we still do things in our own ways sometimes..and that's why we are trapped by those lies of the devils. It was absolutely amazing to have the conviction in my heart, for I have asked the Lord to convict me with the harsh truth everyday, so that I can be disciplined to be His servant. What's more is that He showed me a beautiful garden that is full of roses, sun flowers that never decay, but forever fresh, and constantly singing praises to the Lord! I saw myself dancing and singing in that garden and it was just so sweet (and I am a huge fan of roses!! ^^)
Anyway, what i want to share perhaps it's that keep asking for constant renewal of relationship with God, because each time as I go into a deeper level, I get to know Him more and more of His wonderful nature, and He is truly amazing to be with!!! So, even if our hearts have grown cold, IMMEDIATELY we shall seek God, knowing that He shall give us a new heart!
hehe..really time to head to bed...but just wanna type it out before i miss out the bits and pieces in the morning!
Dear Janey, good to know that you're back on track!! Last week's prayer party was good as God was purging out things that we should not have in in hearts! Let us preserve the new heart that God has given us! Laziness? Its not even in your dictionary! Haha! Will uphold you in prayer in terms of that~~ xox
Dear Christy, thanks for sharing too! Altho you couldn't join us, it was great to hear that God spoke to you about drawing closer to Him. Your visions were so kool!!! Haha!! Seeing Jesus~~ Its good that you responded to the Holy Spirit's prompting that you needed to be close to our God! Dancing in a garden of roses is similar to what I had a while back! But surely it was fantastic! Keep the fire burning for Christ, sister! xox