I welcome every one of you to this new day God has given us! Today He wants to grant us His wisdom. His wisdom is able to change our lives and enlighten our darkness. For quite some time we have been talking about how God disciplines His children to change them into the likeness of His Son Jesus Christ. Today I would like to us see some of the steps God takes in disciplining us. 1) If we are disobedient to God, He first convicts us through the Holy Spirit. According to the Gospel of John, conviction of sin is one of the ministries of the Holy Spirit to us:
«And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment» (John, 16:8).
Through the conviction of the Holy Spirit we will know when we do something wrong. When we find ourselves on the wrong tract, it is the Holy Spirit that helps us to see it, by convicting us of our sin. He is the one who searches our heart to let us know when we are deviating from the will of God:«Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting» (Psalm 139:23-24).
It must be pointed out that the Holy Spirit often convicts us through God’s Word. The purpose of the conviction of the Holy Spirit is that we might repent, – that is the way God changes us and makes us like Jesus: «Turn at my rebuke; surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you» (Proverbs, 1:23).
But if a person does not listen to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, he or she quenches the Spirit. And we are told not do that; we are commanded not to hinder the work of the Holy Spirit. The Bible is quite clear about that: «Do not quench the Spirit» (1 Thessalonians, 5:19 ). 2) If we do not react to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, then God sends us His messengers. That is what happened to David when he wasn’t listening to the voice of his consciousness, disobeyed the voice of the Holy Spirit and did not react to God’s conviction: «Then the LORD sent Nathan to David. And he came to him, and said to him: „There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds. But the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him. And a traveller came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him; but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.” So David’s anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, „As the LORD lives, the man who has done this shall surely die! And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity.” Then Nathan said to David, „You are the man! Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more! Why have you despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in His sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon» (2 Samuel, 12:1-9).
Notice verse 9 where Nathan says about David: «Why have you despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in His sight? » This tells us that God had spoken to David about his sin. The Holy Spirit had convicted David, but he had despised the Spirit’s conviction, yet he was ready to pass judgment to others who have sinned. Do you see how really easy it is for a person to hide his or her sin in the heart, yet judge others who have done the same thing? That is how carnal the hearts of men are. Praise God that He loves us so much and will not allow us to continue walking along a wrong Path. Whomever God loves, He disciplines! We will continue about it tomorrow! May God abundantly bless every one of you! Pastor Rufus Ajiboye
