Is God Burning Your Fields
"Christians" as a whole have lost the sense of God’s discipline in their lives. The Bible is emphatic, "But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons." (Hebrews 12:8).
Not one of us is spiritual enough or mature enough to be above the discipline and chastisement of our Heavenly Father. One of the greatest offices of the Holy Ghost is to chasten, disrupt, or scourge the Christian that He might produce holiness in him. Those words are mostly unknown and even hated in today’s church world.
Look at the meaning of these two Biblical words.
Scourging: to flog, a type of beating that was used to get flax out of grain. It separated the impurities from the pure. No, God does not beat us with a stick, but He will burn our fields and take away our joy until we repent and turn back to His will. He will even allow our finances to fall apart or our bodies to be sick and infirmed as He disciplines us toward total obedience to Him and His Word.
Correction: A trainer, to correct and instruct. There are no perfect Christians. We all need correction and training and we will need it all the days of our Christian life. Our God, by the wonderful methods clearly set in His church instruction, trains the Christian to Godliness and holiness. No one person is a law to himself or herself. I need correction and if I ever get too big to accept it, I’m in deep spiritual trouble.
The Methods of Chastisement Are Set in His Church
If you are not under the disciplines of a solid Bible church, you are in trouble spiritually or soon will be. If you are so smart to think that you do not need discipline and chastisement, you are probably backslid or in the process of backsliding, and don’t know it. The Scripture says, "Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all [of you] be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble." (1 Peter 5:5). God uses Pastors, Evangelists, Elders, and just plain dedicated brothers and sisters. Women should be wise to advise another as Godly mothers of Israel. (No woman is ever used by God to rebuke a man). The men in God’s church should also care for one another and watch over each other’s spiritual needs.
Pastors (Shepherds) are appointed by God to guide the church life under the care of Godly Elders. To ignore a Godly Shepherd is to ignore the Spirit Himself and you will be judged for such actions. Listen to the exact words spoken by the Holy Spirit. "Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that [is] unprofitable for you." (Hebrews 13:17).
Woe to the Pastor or Elder that "lords" it over God’s heritage and does it without the sovereign words of the Holy Ghost.
Look carefully at your life to see if God may be burning your fields trying to get your attention. "And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." (Hebrews 12:5-6). For they verily for a few days chastened [us] after their own pleasure; but he for [our] profit, that [we] might be partakers of his holiness." (Hebrews 12:10).