In this piece, we are looking at The Correction System of The Kingdom. We are going to start our observation from Hebrews chapter 12 and we will read from verse 9 and we will stop at verse 11. “Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. 11 Now no [e]chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
Now we are going to unbundle this Scripture, from verse 9-11. What is the Lord saying to us in this place? It says we have had human fathers, and I am sure many of us can relate to that especially for those in my generation or beyond. We can relate to the fact that when we were younger, our parents would want to make sure we grow to become responsible men and women. So, they would correct us. Chastening mean correction, it means discipline. They correct us not because they hate us, they correct us because they love us. They correct us not because of the present, they correct us because of the future. So, I want us to note these things because we want to use examples of what we are familiar with to step us into spiritual familiarity of this concept of chastening, correction or discipline as it might be. It’s just semantics, it’s the same.
So, when we talk about correction, what does correction mean? Correction means that if a person or an individual is being advised against a particular pattern of behavior or attribute. So, when you advise someone against; I am using the word advice because it’s the one that is permitted in the conversation that we are going to have. You advise against a particular pattern of behavior or attitude. So, you are being corrected. So, what does correction mean in the kingdom of God? Now that you are born again, now that you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, now that you have been born into the family of God. Just like any other family that s responsible, there is a correction system. Any family that is responsible will have a correction system if that person would actually live up to the expected behavior of that family. The same in the system of the kingdom.
So, let us go back to that Hebrews 12 with this understanding and go back to verse 9-11 and see what the Lord is saying to us. “Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect.” We didn’t disrespect them because they corrected us, we respected them; Shall we not much more readily be in subjection? You cannot be corrected in arrogance, for correction to make sense, for correction to actually achieve its purpose in your life, you must be yielded, you must be in subjection. So, the Bible says in that verse 9b, “shall we not readily” meaning we have a responsibility, what is our responsibility? To be yielded, to be subjected, God will always correct us because He loves us, He is our Father. What is our role and responsibility as His children? It is for us to yield; it is for us to subject ourselves to that correction.
So, “shall we not readily be in subjection to the Father.” You can never subject yourself to the correction of the king of our kingdom who is also our Father, if you don’t see Him as your Father. Correction in the kingdom of God is not gruesome, but it will become like that, it will be painted in that way if you don’t see God as your Father. It starts from there; you will never understand God’s correction until you understand His Fatherly role in your life and until you accept it. One of the things that we must understand that the Lord is saying to us is that for us to successfully be trained; because we will come to that part. God’s correction gives us training. If you don’t yield to God, and you cannot yield to God until you see Him as your Father. We must understand the Fatherhood of God to understand the correction of God. The Fatherhood of God is the premise, the prerequisite for us to step into or be able to appreciate the correction system of the kingdom.
So, the first thing is the His Fatherhood. That’s why that Scripture says He is the Father of Spirits. Why didn’t it just say He is the Father of all human beings? Understanding the Fatherhood of God, you can’t understand it and put it in the class of the Fathers of the earth. We must understand the Fatherhood of God as it relates to the spiritual nature of God. He is the Father of Spirits and you are Spirit. In John 4, Jesus was saying to that woman by the well, He said God is Spirit and those that would worship Him, those that would release themselves to Him, must release themselves in Spirit and in truth. Those that will worship Him, those that will come to Him, must come to Him spiritually. So, when we are approaching the Fatherhood of God in the kingdom, you must approach it spiritually, that’s the only way you can understand and appreciate the Fatherhood of God. It’s a spiritual dimension of Fatherhood, He is the Father of Spirit. So, if you are spirit you have come to tandem, you have come to agree with the spirituality of your life which is the core of your life, then you will be opened up to the Fatherhood of God hundred percent.
God cannot Father you in the flesh. That’s why if you receive the Fatherhood of God in the flesh, His correction will become gruesome. It will become hard, it will become a burden so heavy, it will become a yoke that you cannot bear. But if you receive the Fatherhood of God spiritually, if you connect with God spiritually, if you come to Him spiritually, if you are able to discern His Fatherhood spiritually, it will become a burden you can bear light and a yoke that is easy. So, it’s important we understand this, because this is the foundation. If you cannot accept the Fatherhood of God spiritually then His correction will never make sense to you. That’s why the Bible makes us to understand that the things that is wisdom for us in the kingdom of God is foolishness to the world. Why? They cannot receive it. Jesus mentioned that the world cannot receive the Holy Spirit, why? They cannot know Him, they can’t discern Him, not because the Holy Spirit is not available, but they can’t discern Him.
The same thing with the Fatherhood of God, many people know God as the creator, very few understand the Fatherhood of God because it is spiritually discerned. So, the foundation is for you to be able to open up to this realm that God is teaching us by the Holy Spirit to step into is understand the spirituality of Gods Fatherhood. He is the Father of Spirits. And it says when you subject yourself to Him, when you yield yourself to Him; another word for subjection is yieldedness, submission. When we yield ourselves to Him, when we submit ourselves to Him, the Bible says we will live. That’s how to truly live. That’s why Jesus was saying those that love their lives, that wants to keep it, they will be the ones to lose it. but those that lose their lives, they will gain it.
So, let us go to verse 10. “For they indeed for a few days chastened us” [meaning that they corrected us or chastened us] as seemed best to them, that’s earthly Fathers. Based on their knowledge and understanding, they discipline us, they correct us. And it said that correction is for a few days. But our Father, God, the king, He does this correction for our profits. Meaning that if there is anything God is asking you to do or not to do is not so that God will feel good, it is for your profit, it is for your profit, it is for my profit. So, if God is asking you as His child to stop lying it’s not so that God will feel good in heaven or the numbers of angels around Him will increase, it is so that you will profit from that obedience. And when He comes to you and says you just lied, you just did this and there is a conviction in your heart, it is not so that God would want to make you feel bad, it is so that you can profit from that obedience. So, every correction of God, every discipline, every chastisement of God is for our profit, we must understand that background. He is doing it for our profit, and why is He doing it for our profit? Because He loves us. And the love of God is not like the world, it is unconditional. There is nothing God is asking you to do today or tomorrow or next tomorrow or next year or for the rest of your life that will not profit you. “That we may be partakers.”
He is chastising us that we may be partakers of His holiness. We must understand this, God our Father loves us so much but there is a border line, God is a God of principles, in Numbers the Bible says; God is not a man that He will lie, nor the son of man that He will repent, He will not overturn His principles for anyone. I want us to look at it practically, when Jesus was hanging on Himself the sin of the entire world, The Bible says; the whole atmosphere grew dark, why God could not behold His Own Son in sin. He is principle based. Does God love Jesus? Yes, He loved Him so much even at that point. But see God is a God of principle, His eyes will not behold iniquity, He won’t change that standard for Jesus. That’s God, that’s who He is, He will not change Himself for anyone including you and I, if He did not change that standard for Jesus He won’t change it for us, so we must understand that God is principled based. So, when God is guiding us and correcting us, because Gods correction is a means of His guidance. When God is leading and guiding us in correction, what He is doing is that I want you to enjoy Me hundred percent. And I know that if you continue in this way, I am, your God, I am your Father, I the one that sees the end from the beginning. We must understand the perspectives of God in our daily dealings, when God is saying don’t do this, it looks as if God is denying you of some pleasure, some excitement in your life, and you are asking yourself God why? Others are doing it even though they are your children, why not me? He is seeing why He will not allow you do that; He sees the end from the beginning, He is the one that declares the end from the beginning.
Now, He has seen the end of your life and He knows that road is not for you. He is your Father and He loves you. That’s why I said that’s the foundation. The Fatherhood of God. Then we now look at His nature, His love, He loves you, and the love of God makes Him eschew evil, He cannot bear it. The love of God makes Him so much considerate for your future that He can deny you of pleasure in the present so that you can obtain the future. That’s God. So It says “It is for our profit so that we can be partakers of His holiness.” We can be partakers of the beautiful future for us that we can lay hold of the things that He has prepared. The Bible says that eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, it has not yet entered into the hearts of men, what God has prepared, what God has made ready for those that love Him. Do we understand this? So, God has made ready for us holiness for us to partake of it, He must guild us and correct us so that we can actually walk the path that He has assigned for us.
Verse 11, “Now no chastening seems to be joyful” Because this is the place where we always have the issue. No chastening seems to be joyful, it’s not exciting. When God ask you to fast for a number of days, and to pray and not watch TV, not be given to entertainment, it’s not joyful it’s not exciting. Yes! No chastening our parents give us because of the man and the woman they want us to become in the future, and the one that our Father, the Father of Spirit gives to us because He wants us to be partakers of His holiness, none of it is joyful. For the present because it’s always about the present. God does not mind Him taking you through a particular rout in the present, He is always focused about your future, your destiny, your destination. You are looking at your present God is looking at the future, you are looking at your today, God is looking at your tomorrow.
When He is telling you don’t be given to fornication and adultery, it looks as if God does not want you to enjoy yourself, but God is looking at your tomorrow, if you commit that fornication today or that adultery today, what happens to your tomorrow? Because He knows these things have ripple effect, it will catch up with you. The man and the woman He wants you to become tomorrow will not be possible if He allows you to indulge today. So, no chastening is joyful in the present, when God tells you I want you to study to make yourself approve and you are given hours and are burning the midnight candles, and you are burning the Scripture and you don’t understand what God is doing with your life, just yield.
Most times we don’t understand it, most times we can’t relate with it, because we are always focused in the present. We can’t relate because God is not just a God of the past and the present, He is also the God of the future. He sees your tomorrow, He is aware, He Scripted your life. He is directing you, He knows that if you take that step, it will council every other thing that is ahead of you and He will guide you against it. So, no chasten is joyful for the present but it is painful nevertheless! This is where we should always be excited, this is where we should follow Jesus, the Bible says looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, whom for the joy that was set before Him, not the joy of the present, the joy that was set before Him. The joy of the future, He endured the cross, He despised the shame. The Bible says He learnt obedience through the things He suffered.
So, Jesus suffered, He was corrected, He was chastened, those circumstances were the ways the Lord was using to chasten Him. Was it easy? When He was in the garden of Gethsemane, He was praying, the Bible says that His sweat was like a drip of blood and He said this present situation is not palatable, is not convenient, it’s not joyful; but nevertheless not my will, not as I desire it in the present, but as God has scripted it for the future. Not my will but yours be done Lord. When we yield ourselves to chastening, what we are saying is; Lord, not my will but yours be done. That’s why the Bible says, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. The way we yield ourselves to correction is to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, the Bible says when we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, in due season God Himself your Father will exalt you. He will put you in that place where He has designed for you.
So, the Bible makes us to understand that nevertheless this process, this correction system, yields the peaceable fruits of righteousness, to “those”; not for everyone. This correction system has the ability to yield but not for everyone. Bible says; It yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those; and I love this because this is important. It yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. So, those who have been trained by it are those that have yielded themselves to it. If you don’t submit yourself, if you don’t yield yourself, if you don’t subject yourself to the correction system of God, you will never be trained by it. and it’s a training module. The Scripture says Jesus even though He was God, He counted it not robbery to be equal with Him. He-Jesus learnt obedience through the things He suffered. He was trained. Romans 12:1-2, I beseech[a] you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies. The process of presenting your body is the process of yieldedness, it’s the process of submission. Present your bodies to God as a living sacrifice, not as a dead one.
A living sacrifice; You are not disconnected from the process; you are in it. You are not disconnected from what God is doing, you are in it. As a living sacrifice holy, acceptable to God, which is your [b]reasonable service. Verse 2 now says; And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. how does our mind get renewed? In the correction system of God. God renews our minds, He makes sure that our minds are conditioned to follow the pattern and the principles and follow the ancient path that He has designed for us. He doesn’t just fall. It’s something that we must key into, that we must step into. So, it’s important we understand the fatherhood of God. He corrects us because of His role as our Father. We should understand that correction is not convenient, it will usually be painful in the present, but please don’t focus on the present.
Every time you focus on the present, you will lose touch with your future. When Jesus was tempted in Matthew 4 and the devil came to Him and said turn this stone into bread, If Jesus was focused on the present, He would have lost touch with His future. He said man must not live by bread alone, man must not be consumed by the present. I know I am hungry, but by every word. What can secure my future is every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. God is not going to come down from heaven with a big stick to correct you, no, but that’s not how God works. God corrects by His word. God leads you, He disciplines and trains you by His word. We are corrected by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And that’s what Jesus was saying there. By every word that proceeds out of the moth of God. (Matthew 4:4)
So, we understand that yieldedness is important in correction. It is important for us to yield; it is important for us to submit to God. I want us to see a Scripture in Matthew 10 and verse 39. I mentioned it earlier but it’s important that we see it from the pages of the Scripture. “He who finds his life, who has it in His hands, who concentrates on the present will lose it. Anyone who has the present usually will lose the future. And Jesus said and he who loses his life, he who is ready to let the present go, he who is ready to release the present to God, He said for My sake will find it.” Will have it back, there will be return on investment. Until we start understanding the correction system of God as an investment portfolio, we will not understand how to become partakers of His holiness. Being partakers of His Holiness is like being in an investment club and you are given different portfolios and they say to you, this portfolio, if you can invest.
Correction is an investment. If you can invest this particular attitude, this particular behavior, if you can stop this, if you can start doing this; it said the return on investment is hundred percent. Will you have the return on investment if you did not put in your capital? No! even though you wish to have the return on investment, it will not happen until you yield your capital, until you yield and subject your capital to the investment process. That is the way the correction system of the kingdom is. Our capital is our lives, our spirits. When we submit our spirits to God, we have laid down our capital there would be return on investment called eternal life-the life of God. That’s what you will have in return, you will have the quality of life that God has. You will be partakers of His holiness. Is that not exciting? So, God is calling us to an investment table in the correction table.
He is saying put your life down, it will look in the present that you are losing all of your money but you know that’s not how it works in the kingdom. You are going to get it back, and not just back the way it is, but with interest. There would be returns. We should understand that.
Proverbs 24:10, will also show us what God is saying to us about correction in the kingdom. “If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.” If you refuse to yield, then God is calling on your yieldedness. The Bible says your strength is little. Your capacity is small. What shows capacity in the kingdom, is not how long you are able to speak in tongues, it is not how much of the gifts of the Holy Spirit you have; and that’s why the fruits of the Holy Spirit is the hallmark of it. Until we come to the point where our strength is drawn spiritually from the nature of God, we have not gotten there. And it is important we understand this. Yieldedness and submission is the greatest thing. That’s why humility in the kingdom is a show of strength. When you yield to God, you are strong. Resisting God does not show strength. It does not show wisdom; it shows foolishness. Yielding to God, submitting to God, putting on Christ, Humility as a robe shows strength. Imagine in Matthew 4 that Jesus had fainted, Jesus had given in to the temptations of the devil, it will show that Jesus did not have the strength of God.
So, it’s important we understand this that submission also shows that we have strength submitting ourselves to the correction system of the kingdom shows the level of strength that we have in us, in our spirit. So, you don’t resist Gods correction, what do you do? You submit to it; you yield yourself to it. We mentioned that that is important. You submit yourself to the correction of God, what happens is that you are being trained, and in that training comes discipline. There is a component of discipline in Gods training. And in that training comes learning. There are so many things we will never know or learn in the kingdom until we submit ourselves to the correction system of the kingdom. You are wondering wow how comes God was able to do this? Able Paul said the sufferings of this present time, they are not worthy to be compared with the glory. Why? These are men and women that have submitted themselves to the process. And they have chosen to see through the eyes of God.
They can see that the future is glorious, that’s why He will say that I count all things dung for the excellency of Christ. The excellency is better, greater, is more rewarding than whatever we are going through now. So, there is learning in correction, there is training in the components of discipline. A well trained corrected son of God, is the one that will enjoy a mature relationship with God. Many of us have not seen God yet, many of us have not been able to understand the depth and the width of the love of God. Why? We have not submitted ourselves to this correction. Sons and daughters that actually submit, that live their lives daily on the alter before the throne are those that enjoy mature relationship with God. Those are the people that glow with His glory. Why? This world they know that they are only passing by. They know that God is their destination, they know that God is their future.
I want us to read a Scripture in 1 Peter 5:6, it is important we see these Scriptures because they will help us. Let me start from verse 5; “Likewise you, younger people; submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, even though the proud is born again, even though the proud has confessed Jesus as His Lord and savior. God resist the proud, but gives grace; enables, the humble. Therefore, for this reasons humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. So, there is something called due time. There is a due time. One of the issues we have as believers is that we want to be in control of our lives, we want to determine the future, we want to determine our tomorrow, but God has all these things in His purview.
Your responsibility and my responsibility is to do what? Humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. So that in due time only He will do that which only Him can do. Because, this is how we can enjoy a mature relationship with God. You won’t be anxious, Jesus said be anxious for nothing but in all things with prayer and supplication and thanksgiving let your request be made known to God. and let God in due time give response to your prayer. Don’t faint, don’t be weary.
I want us in closing to read Galatians 6:9, “And let us not grow weary while doing good, -submitting ourselves to correction is a good thing. And don’t be weary of it. Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” Let us not lose heart. The kingdom of God is a beautiful kingdom, it’s a blessed kingdom, there is so much that God has for us. But we have a responsibility, yield yourself to Him, submit yourself to Him, let Him have His way in your life. And has He has His way there will be a transformation in your life. You can come to God as you are, but He doesn’t want you to remain the way you are. He wants to transform your character; He wants to transform your life because there is a future. Surely there is an end and the expectation of the righteous, the righteous that have submitted to the will of God, that have yielded to the correction of God, will not be cut short.
Surely there is an end, He wants to transform you. Our profit is that future; our profit is to be partakers of His holiness. Let us not throw it away. The correction of God is an opportunity to invest. Every time God corrects you and He is asking you to submit, see it as an opportunity to invest. That God has opened up for me a window to invest, and once you plug in your investment; the Bible says as long as the earth remains, seed time and harvest will not cease. As long as you plug in your seed, the seed of your obedience, there would be a harvest. as we submit ourselves, to the correction of God, it has not yet appeared what we shall be, but when He is revealed, we will be like Him. Let’s never forget it. The king of our kingdom is calling us to a negation table. And He is saying come, He said come unto Me all you that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.
Don’t stop quoting that Scripture at that point, it said take up my yoke; that’s the correction. He said it is easy, and my burden is light. There is a yoke of God, there is a burden of God, but the yoke is easy, and the burden is light. And as we submit ourselves, as we take it up in submission under the mighty hand of God, I see the Lord giving us returns in our lives that will be beyond our imagination in the name of Jesus. I believe it’s a good time for us to pray and release ourselves to God, I don’t know if you have been resisting God before, God has been nudging your heart for you to receive Jesus correctly as your Lord and savior, and you have been resisting Him, He is telling you this is an opportunity to invest and there are returns to this investment. God is not unjust to forget your labor of love, in that you minister, you do minister. I want you release yourself, this is a good time to release time to release yourself, come to the negotiation table, come let us reason together, everything God has been asking you to do and has been prompting your heart to do and you have been resisting can we come to God this morning afresh and say Lord I am ready to let go, I am ready to invest, I am ready to let you have your way, I am ready to humble myself under your mighty hand, I am ready to release myself entirely for your use.
