Why You Need to Know About How God Brings Correction to His Kids

In this week’s episode, we are going to look at the subject of how God brings correction or disciplines His children. Just how does this work? Tony Evans chimes in about something which occurred in his past. He said, “Once, I got suspended from school in the eighth grade for fighting. Some boy messed with my fried chicken. They served fried chicken for lunch, and this boy took a piece of chicken off my plate. They had to call my father from his job. Now, my father worked by the hour, which meant he had to punch out to come to see why his son, the preacher’s kid, had gotten kicked out of school. He went to the school and came to the principal’s office, where I sat, waiting. I’ll never forget my father’s face as he listened to the story of how I came to get in trouble. I’ll also never forget my father’s response. He told the principal, “Sir, you will never, ever, ever have to worry about my son ever being suspended from school ever again.” As we walked out, he said, “Do you know how much this visit cost me? I am going to take the payment out on you.” Even though I was disciplined, he still fed me. Even though I was disciplined, he still clothed me. Even though I was disciplined, there was still a roof over my head. Even though I did something to irritate him, he was my daddy, and he was tenaciously committed to me.” ¹ Now that’s a story that some of us may be able to relate to. The question we want to ask and know the answer to is ‘How does the Lord discipline His children?’ Why You Need to Know About How God Corrects His Kids that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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#S2-048: Why It’s Important to Understand the Serious Power of the Soul [Podcast]

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Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put it into operation.
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Learn all you can about following the leading of the Spirit. Understand His correction because the Lord disciplines every son that belongs to Him.

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Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11). Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony.
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This week’s question is simple:

How has the correction of the Lord changed your life? Please leave your story in the comments section below.

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1. We are currently teaching in the book of Ephesians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 45 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. Both he and his wife Sharon of 40 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is their mission’s focus and hallmark. Read more about them here.

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Podcast Notes

God’s Correction: Man Is a Spirit Being

The first thing we need to set in place in this area of how God corrects is understanding the make-up of God.
The Lord is a spirit being.
This truth is plainly stated in scripture.

John 4:24 (ESV) — 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Also plainly stated is that man is in the same class of being as God.

Genesis 1:27 (KJV 1900) — 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

If God is a spirit being and we are made in his image and likeness, then we must, of necessity be a spirit being also.
This passage in 1 Thessalonians backs this up.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 (ESV) — 23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Man is three parts, not two.
So many residents of planet earth only recognize two parts to man, soul, and body.
I was in the same boat for the first few years of knowing Jesus.
I thought the same thing.
It’s because of how the believers around me at that time spoke when referencing their spirits.
In that circle, we were quick to testify to the reality of our salvation, but we did so using incorrect terminology.
We would say, ‘I thank God He saved my soul’ or ‘I feel so good way down in my sanctified soul.’
We used the term ‘soul’ interchangeably with the word ‘spirit’ because we thought they were the same.
We didn’t use the word spirit at all — we only referenced the soul.
You can be confused about a Bible subject and not even know it.
This verse in Thessalonians lets us know there are three parts to man, not two.
It shows us that spirit and soul are not the same.
How could they be the same; he lays them out separately spirit, soul, body?
But there are some other things you need to notice in this passage; there are some other words you need to home in on.
Notice the phrase ‘sanctify you completely.’
And with that thought, here is the Definition of the Day.
The Greek word ‘completely’ in the phrase ‘sanctify you completely’ ‘means the whole of each of you, every part of you through and through, so that no part escapes sanctification.
God wants every part of you, spirit, soul, and body, set apart for sacred use.
God wants to use every part of you: He wants to use your spirit, He wants to use your soul, He wants to use your body, all for his glory.
Here’s the second verse that shows us that spirit and soul are not the same.
Look at Hebrews chapter four.

Hebrews 4:12 (ESV) — 12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Notice that there is a division between soul and spirit.
The Greek word ‘division’ means to take the whole and divide it into parts.
If you can divide spirit and soul, then how can they be the same?

God’s Correction: Defining the Parts of Man

Let’s focus on the spirit of man.

Your Spirit Experiences the New Birth

The spirit is the part of your being that is born again.

2 Corinthians 4:16 (NKJV) — 16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.

Your Spirit Believes God

Your spirit is the part of your being that believes in God.
In the book of Romans, the spirit of man is also referred to as the heart.

Romans 10:9–10 (ESV) — 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Your Spirit hears God.

Not only is your spirit the part of your being that believes in God, but it is also the part of you that hears God.

Romans 8:14 (ESV) — 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

Now drop down two verses.

Romans 8:16 (ESV) — 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

Your Spirit Grows from the Word

Your spirit is the part of your being affected first when you feed upon the Word.

1 Peter 2:2 (ESV) — 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—

Your Spirit Is What You Serve God with

Your spirit is the part of your being that you serve God with.

Romans 1:9 (ESV) — 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you

Your Spirit Is What Prays

1 Corinthians 14:15 (ESV) — 15 What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.

Now your soul, without going into detail, is your mind will and emotions.
This podcast discusses the spirit, your spirit, the born-again human spirit, and the part of you that hears God.
We have other podcasts on the soul; you are welcome to look them up.
Punch the word ‘soul’ into the search bar on the website, and you’ll produce those Bible lessons.

God’s Correction: Spirit and Soul Are Not the Same: More Proof

But let’s look at these two verses on the soul, and you will be able to see again that spirit and soul are not the same.
James, talking to believers, says these words.

James 1:21 (ESV) — 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

Romans 12:2 (ESV) — 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Notice the following about these two verses:
These are both epistles to believers.

James 1:1 (ESV) — 1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.

James is speaking to Jewish believers.
And he’s telling these Jewish believers that if they receive with meekness the engrafted Word that Word will be able to save their souls.
So, James just got through, telling these believers that their souls are not saved.
How can you be born again, and your soul not be saved?
The answer? — spirit and soul are not the same.
This letter of Paul to the Romans is now addressed to the believers there.
How do we know that?

Romans 1:1 (ESV) — 1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God… 7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, Paul just got through, telling the believers in Rome that their minds are not renewed.
Remember that the soul includes the mind, the will, and the emotions.
Paul tells the brethren at Rome the same thing James tells those of the Dispersion.
They tell both groups that their souls are not saved, and their minds are not renewed.
What does all of this have to do with how God corrects his kids?
Well, we’re just laying some groundwork here.
You now understand that man is a spirit being, and with that in place, listen once again to this verse of Proverbs.

Proverbs 3:11–12 (ESV) — 11 My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, 12 for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

The question is, how does God do this?
How does he administer discipline or reproof?
The book of Hebrews is what we need to look at now.

Hebrews 12:5–6 (ESV) — 5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

It sounds like what we read in Proverbs three, doesn’t it?
Go to verse seven of Hebrews 12.

Hebrews 12:7–9 (ESV) — 7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?

There it is — listen to it; hear it — Father of spirits.
God is the Father of your spirits — your spirit — you’re born-again spirit.
The part of you that hears God.
Our earthly fathers disciplined us according to the earth.
Our Heavenly Father disciplines us according to the spirit.
Your earthly father dealt with your flesh when they were trying to get you in line.
Your heavenly father deals with your spirit when He tries to get you in line — in line with His Word — in line with His plan — in line with His blessings for your life.

God’s Correction: Not with Disasters

God has access to your spirit.
He doesn’t need disasters to get His kid’s attention.
That’s the devil’s work.
Acts of God, as some of our insurance companies state, are not acts of God at all.
They are acts of the devil being passed off as acts of God.
A tornado wipes out an entire town, destroying all the houses.
The little children are homeless.
Families have lost all their possessions.
They’re broken, distraught, wiped out, and some uneducated minister gets up and says that God sent that as judgment.
Another equally uneducated minister will get up and say that cancer is the will of God and that God sent that cancer to try and teach you something.
Let me ask you something.
God is the Father of spirits; that’s what the Word of the Lord says, right?
He’s the Father God.
God is the ultimate expression of fatherhood.
As an earthly father, would you do to your kids what people are accusing God of doing to His kids?
Would you put cancer on your child trying to teach him something?
Don’t we lock people up for this kind of child abuse?
Anybody with any sense at all can see that such teaching is erroneous.
The Lord doesn’t use tornadoes to teach.
He doesn’t use sickness to instruct.
God doesn’t use calamity to correct.
God corrects His kids with his Word – He uses reproof.
He works from the Spirit to your spirit because He has access to your spirit.
Now, people believe this suffering by sickness doctrine is God’s will.
Listen to this commentator.
This quote is found in a well-respected commentary.
I say well-respected commentary; the New International Commentary is an excellent commentary and one that I reference often.
But everything you read from scholars, from the words of men, is not necessarily backed by scripture.
Even scholars get things wrong.
The religious scholars of Jesus’ day got things wrong.
So, here is what this commentator said.

Instructively, punishment of the Lord (YHWH), which may take the form of sickness or some other suffering, aims to restore the afflicted to proper conduct (cf. Deut. 11:2), as the simile for the punishment, “like a father his son,” shows.²

Did you hear these words?
This commentator says that God uses sickness as a form of discipline, just like a father does his son.
God doesn’t use sickness — He doesn’t have sickness to give in the first place.

Matthew 6:9–10 (ESV) — 9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

It’s God’s will that things be on earth as they are in heaven.
How is it in heaven?
There is no sickness in heaven; that’s a Bible fact.
And, as you can see from this verse in Matthew 6, it’s the will of God that earth experiences things as they are in heaven.
No sickness in heaven – no sickness in earth; that’s the will of God, plain and simple.

Some Sickness Is A Matter of Personal Responsibility

In this area of sickness, people struggle to find answers to why sickness appeared in their bodies, why they were struck with this condition, and why they have to go through this.
The easiest thing is always to abdicate responsibility and lay it off on the other guy.
Lay it off on God; God must have put this sickness on me to try to teach me something.
Lay the problem off on God because when you do, there is no adjustment that you need to make.
There’s no personal responsibility.
Who wants to fight God?
Well, if you really believe that sickness is the will of God, then why are you going to the doctor trying to get out of God’s will?
Is it possible that lifestyle choices are the reason you are struggling with diabetes?
I know that this is so because I pastored for ten years.
I buried a church member who had diabetes and wouldn’t listen.
This individual would come to church with a huge drinking container of Pepsi.
I tried to help her, but she wouldn’t listen.
Her husband was the same way.
He wouldn’t listen, and he was always sick.
You know it doesn’t sound spiritual to talk to people about diet, to try to encourage people to exercise and live a moderate lifestyle.
But it is spiritual — it is scriptural.

1 Timothy 4:8 (ESV) — 8 for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

The King James version has bodily exercise.
The Greek word bodily training is a word we want to look at.
It is the word ‘gumnasi’ — it’s where we get the word gymnasium.
The word means physical exercise — the activity of exerting your muscles in various ways to keep fit.
Paul alludes to the physical training undertaken by athletes and others in the Greek gymnasia, where men stripped naked for exercises. This image would have been familiar to his Greek readers because the gymnasium was the center of civic life in Hellenized towns. ³
Let’s reread this — I haven’t strayed; I am still talking about how correct His kids.
He doesn’t use sickness.

Bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way.

Comparing bodily exercise to godliness is a relative statement comparing the things of heaven to the things of earth.
Godliness and holiness are heavenly concepts.
Physical exercise is an earthly concept.
There is a great gulf between the heavenly and the earthly.
The heavenly is always greater than the earthly.
The heavenly produced the earthly.
But that doesn’t discount the earthly.
God made the human body to move.
Think about this now.
In the first century, agriculture was a big deal.
Farming is challenging work — it’s physical work.
Yet, they had gymnasiums.
They didn’t say I don’t have to exercise; I work hard at my job.
Bodily exercise is of value — get the value that it has.
So, I am talking about personal responsibility — doing your part of wellness.
You cannot violate laws of nature and get God’s power to work for you.
But there is the other side of the coin.
There are some terrible diseases on planet earth.
Where did they come from?
Where did cancer come from?
Where did COVID come from?
My nephew died of a disease that nobody even knew what it was.
They couldn’t find it, they couldn’t diagnose it, they didn’t know how to treat it, and he died.
They named the disease after him — Billy’s disease.
Where does this junk come from?
It doesn’t come from heaven — God is trying to make people well, not make them sick.
This kind of stuff only has one source, the devil.
Don’t blame God; blame the other fellow.

God’s Correction in Proverbs

Let’s go back to Proverbs three.

Proverbs 3:11–12 (ESV) — 11 My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, 12 for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

The Hebrew word discipline means training to improve strength or self-control.
Do not reject the Lord trying to train you to be self-controlled.
Do not find His forceful admonishment repulsive.
That’s what the word despise means — ‘do not despise the Lord’s discipline.
It means to reject with contempt, to spurn.
You know, turn your nose up against.
Do not despise the Lord’s discipline.
This passage in Proverbs also says, ‘don’t be weary of His reproof.’
The Hebrew word weary means to abhor or find repugnant.
The Lord’s reproof is a forceful warning expressing strong disapproval.
That’s what reproof is.
How do you get that reproof?
In your spirit, God is the Father of Spirits.
He reproves — he checks you in your spirit.
That’s the Lord’s discipline — that’s the correction or rebuke that the Lord gives.
The French common language version of the Bible has this translation.

“My son, accept the Lord as your educator.”⁴

Deuteronomy 11:2 (ESV) — 2 And consider today (since I am not speaking to your children who have not known or seen it), consider the discipline of the Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm,

Job 5:17 (ESV) — 17 “Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty.

Deuteronomy 8:5 (ESV) — 5 Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you.

In the Old Testament, correction was physical because their spirits were dead.
But in the New Testament, the Father of Spirits disciplines your spirit.
That’s how God corrects His kids.

Now Father, I thank you today for being a good father. A good father disciplines His son because he wants them to turn out right. He doesn’t want them to go down the wrong path. Thank you, Father God, oh Father of Spirits for dealing with our spirits and not leaving us to our own devices. I thank you for all of this in Jesus Name, Amen.

How Important in the Kingdom of God Are the Kings Kids? Encore

__________
References:

Tony Evans, Tony Evans’ Book of Illustrations: Stories, Quotes, and Anecdotes from More than 30 Years of Preaching and Public Speaking (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2009), 80. ↩
Bruce K. Waltke, The Book of Proverbs, Chapters 1–15, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2004), 249. ↩
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 1 Ti 4:6–11. ↩
William David Reyburn and Euan McG. Fry, A Handbook on Proverbs, UBS Handbook Series (New York: United Bible Societies, 2000), 77. ↩

emeryhorvath.com

Equipping people to pursue God's glory

Why You Need to Know About How God Brings Correction to His Kids

Podcast: Light on Life Season 9 Episode 39

by Emery Horvath

Listen to the Audio

Click Play to Listen | Right Click to Download | Subscribe in Stitcher Radio

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

This week’s question is simple:

Episode Resources

We are currently teaching in the book of Ephesians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Stitcher Radio Google Play

iTunes

Podcast Notes

God’s Correction: Man Is a Spirit Being

God’s Correction: Defining the Parts of Man

Your Spirit Experiences the New Birth

Your Spirit Believes God

Your Spirit hears God.

Your Spirit Grows from the Word

Your Spirit Is What You Serve God with

Your Spirit Is What Prays

God’s Correction: Spirit and Soul Are Not the Same: More Proof

God’s Correction: Not with Disasters

Some Sickness Is A Matter of Personal Responsibility

God’s Correction in Proverbs

Listen to the Audio

Click Play to Listen | Right Click to Download | Subscribe in Stitcher Radio

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

This week’s question is simple:

Episode Resources

We are currently teaching in the book of Ephesians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Stitcher Radio Google Play

iTunes

Podcast Notes

God’s Correction: Man Is a Spirit Being

God’s Correction: Defining the Parts of Man

Your Spirit Experiences the New Birth

Your Spirit Believes God

Your Spirit hears God.

Your Spirit Grows from the Word

Your Spirit Is What You Serve God with

Your Spirit Is What Prays

God’s Correction: Spirit and Soul Are Not the Same: More Proof

God’s Correction: Not with Disasters

Some Sickness Is A Matter of Personal Responsibility

God’s Correction in Proverbs

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