Weekly Pursuit – Week 2 of August
Verse:
Heb. 12:11 “Now no discipline at the present time seems to be a matter of joy, but of grief; but afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been exercised by it.”
Rom. 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
Excerpts:
Jacob’s history is a type of the discipline of the Holy Spirit. We see a crafty person who was filled with schemes and deceits. But at the same time, we see a person whom the Holy Spirit disciplined step by step…. Indeed, he lived a toilsome and hard life. All these experiences were the discipline of the Holy Spirit; they were the trials that a clever man had to go through. Those who can scheme and who are resourceful will see God’s hand upon them. The natural life has to be pressed out. Jacob’s history is a picture of the discipline of the Holy Spirit. (The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, chap. 1)
The discipline of the Holy Spirit refers to what the Holy Spirit is doing in our outward environment; it refers to His arranging of all people, things, and happenings, through which we are being disciplined…. The major work of God toward us through the Holy Spirit, aside from the Holy Spirit as the anointing, is in His outward discipline.
The end result of the discipline of the Holy Spirit is always that we may be torn down, broken, and reduced to nothing. It is through the discipline of the Holy Spirit that God completely tears down our old creation so that the element of His new creation may be built up in us. (The Experience of Life, chap. 12)
Jacob experienced the continual discipline of the Holy Spirit. As a result, his cleverness was never able to have its way. On the night at Peniel, Jacob learned the greatest lesson; it was actually the best night of his life! He thought he could have his way with anyone and could similarly have his way with God. But when he came face to face with God, God touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh, and he became crippled (Gen. 32:25)…. For Jacob’s hollow to be touched meant that God had touched the strongest part of his natural life. From that day on, he was crippled! …This is the kind of experience that makes us the people of God. One day God will shine on you and show you how evil, wicked, and conniving you are. When God shows you who you are, you will not be able to lift up your head. God’s light will terminate you and force you to admit that you are finished. You will acknowledge that you dare not serve God anymore and that you are not qualified to serve Him any longer! From that point on, you will no longer trust in yourself. This is the discipline of the Holy Spirit. (The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, chap. 1)
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