If you are a parent, you know what it is to correct your child.
Often that child will puff up and harden his heart against you. You grieve and are often greatly troubled after you give the correction and it feels to you that you are going to be destroyed.
Your salvation is God. Only God can properly restore you. So you cry out to God, asking God to help you.
And after you pray, you put your trust in God that HE will give you exactly what you need to confirm your action as a parent and to restore you that you not be swept away.
*****
This past week, I had to bring correction to a woman in our little church group. It turns out she was dealing with previous correction incorrectly and was sliding backward and getting worse and worse.
During the correction, I was extremely calm and controlled by God as I brought forth the various scriptures by the Holy Spirit speaking exactly what this woman needed by sharing only those scriptures I heard from God by HIS Spirit.
Immediately after delivering the correction, the devil attacked me with many destructive thoughts.
The only thing I know to do is to take each destructive thought to God and ask HIM to give me HIS truth and to restore me or correct me if needed. The devil can say I did wrong in what I said. If I did wrong, it is God who can show me so I can repent. If I did right, it is God who can confirm to me what I spoke.
So I must calmly wait and note everything as the Spirit of God counsels me. And focus on those things told me by God.
Of course I wanted to quit the work of the ministry ... run away ... hide.
When you strive with another person, you are in danger, even when the strife is for the word of God.
It is dangerous to everyone to go forward until the attack area is settled by God in your heart.
So I prayed and waited.
I prayed that I would not be destroyed.
The morning after the correction that was presented by me, I sat calmly, doing nothing. Not even reading the Bible because we might twist scripture when we have been dealing with another person this way. I didn't do anything. I didn't try to read Bible nor do any work on blog. I just drank my coffee and ate my muffin and waited for God to give me what I needed to confirm me or correct me or restore me.
Within a matter of minutes, I heard these words from God after asking HIM what HE wanted me to do.
"Exhort them."
Exhort means: warn
Later God reminded me of some instruction HE gave me during 1975-1980 as HE was training me for the work HE assigned me to do in ministry and later as I was doing the ministry.
* Hebrews 3:13 But exhort (warn) one another daily,
* Hebrews 10:25 exhorting (warning) one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
* Joshua 1:5 There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
(Basically God is saying to me: I put you in this work. No one will be able to win out over you because they cannot win out over ME.)
* Jeremiah 1 I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations... thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.
... Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD.
... Behold, I have put MY words in thy mouth.
... See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.
God used all these scriptures when HE trained me for the work I was to do in the ministry. Often you have to destroy the old way before you can build the new way of life in God.
Parents have this same anointing as a parent.
God reminded me that this is my calling, appointed by HIM. That I must do these things in order to do the work to which I am assigned by God.
So to give me strength to do the work and courage to continue in the work, I need to keep before me the scriptures HE has brought to my mind and focus on the above scriptures during this time of trial.
* Jeremiah 1 God says: And I will utter MY judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken ME, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.
And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the LORD, to deliver thee.
* Ezekiel 1 And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.
And thou shalt speak MY words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear: for they are most rebellious.
And thou shalt speak MY words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear: for they are most rebellious.
God used all these scriptures to instruct me in what I was to do in the ministry. I kept these scriptures before me day and night to give me courage and to keep me in the path of the ministry to which I had been assigned by God. Now 43-years later, I am returning to these same verses to remind me of the work and how God showed me to do the work.
*****
To those who are corrected ...
Keep the word of correction before you day and night and do that word.
It is very simple instruction for you.
*****