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GOD WILL NOT BE MOCKED

THE LORD DISCIPLINES THOSE HE LOVES

What I am about to tell you happened to me. It has happened to me more than once in my life. Watch for the signs from God in your life and do not resist or doubt Him. He is everything He says He is, and He will do everything He says He will do. I can best explain this to you by sharing with you one of the most dramatic “encounters” with God that I have ever had in my lifetime of sixty-one years.

Allow me to go back to my first recollection of discipline. I don't remember now why I was being disciplined, but don't rule out four-year-old activities like back-talking, throwing something dangerous in the living room, or hitting a family member. While I don't remember my insurrection, I actually remember the moments that followed quite clearly, like a flash of video nestled in a black pillow of lost memories, dreamlike but true and clear to me as if I can still look through the eyes of a four-year-old. I remember being about two to three feet off of the ground looking up at a giant of a man, my father, standing five feet, nine inches tall.

My father is a good, honest man—the kind of man who worked two jobs to make ends meet, that is, when he was not going with my brothers and me on a Boy Scouts canoeing trip or watching my brothers or me play basketball, football, or baseball every day (yes, I said “every day”)—who never treated anyone in the family with anything but love and respect, and that included discipline when necessary.

In this instance, my dad told me to stop very sternly. Of course, I was appalled that this man dared talk to me this way. I was mad that he was interjecting himself into my life and telling me that I could not do something that I wanted to do. In smart-mouthed, four-year-old gibberish and anger, I told him where he could get off! I probably jerked my hand at him, as if to say, “Ahhh, get out of here!” (I remember that I had bravely done this after he had started to walk away from me.) In my eyes, I saw a giant that felt confident he was going to rule my life against my will. I could not let that stand (after all, who gave him the right to question me?).

After I rejected his authority over me with a yell and a gesture, to my surprise, he immediately turned to me with a face that looked meaner and angrier than mine (and I was furious!). I stood my ground, though, not out of bravery, but out of sheer anger and pride. I remember feeling so angry at his insult, his intrusion into my life, his blatant bullying. He was stopping me from doing what I wanted to do, and there was nothing wrong that I could see with what I was doing. The arrogance of that giant to push me around just because he could drove me to a fury in which I would take all he had before I would give in to his bullying tactics. As I stood there facing the giant, I felt blinding anger at the intruder who was inserting himself into my life and bossing me around.

Suddenly, I felt my arm being pulled and my body abruptly flying around. In an instant, I felt a pain on my buttocks as my lower body lunged forward in rhythm with that pain. It took me a minute to figure out that he had swung me around and spanked my rear without my permission, without respect for me, my feelings, or my physical pain. The monster's relentless attack on my rights and dignity made me burn into a blinding rage. My body began crying before I could start crying myself. I soon caught up to my emotions and vomited them out of my face in a scream and flood of tears.

I was so in shock and resented the fact that he now controlled me totally and even could make me scream and cry against my will. My whole happy, “do as I want” world was being destroyed by a massive entity of calculating power. I truly remember that after my father had attacked me and “my world” so violently, I did not hesitate to think what might happen to me as I ran after him and started slapping at his backside as hard as I could. I was so angry at what he had done to me that I could not stop myself, and I did not care if I was going to be thrown into the abyss. (Pardon the dramatic language; my dad was the farthest thing from a child-abuser.)

After hitting my dad for insulting me, he dared spank me again. I turned back again in kamikaze fashion to make another offensive attack on my father. I had to make him understand that I cannot tolerate any aggression from him towards me, or I will return everything I've got back on him with wild abandon. I launched my next blind, ill-advised strike on my father. Well, my dad turned again, and with a sense of calm duty, repeated his earlier humiliation of me and my body. This time it really stung.

I could feel my mind beginning to interject a question into my emotions, softly asking, “How long do you think you can take this? That really hurt.” My blind anger answered, “I'm going to give it another attack; this guy deserves it!” So I blindly hurled myself into him, windmilling both arms and hands into that giant's backside, going for his total destruction and ultimate surrender.

Just then, I felt and saw two things happen at the same time that completely and clearly exploded into my reality. I realized for the first time that I was not in control and these giants around me had total power to lift me into the air, hurt my body, mess with my emotions, and control me in ways that I could not control myself.

When I went, arms flying, into another attack on my father, my mom interceded (mom's are often a source of reason when men lose it and go to battle). I heard my mother scream, “Bruce, stop!” and she picked me up with her hands under my arms, and like a rag doll flying up and out of harms way, I hung helplessly in the air as I was being “evacuated” to safety. It just so happened that at the exact same time I began flying out of the battle zone, my dad was turning back for his retaliatory strike, and he looked like he was going for my total destruction and ultimate surrender.

My mind started coming back, becoming stronger than my emotions. I began to realize that I had no chance at beating my dad. As I flew away from my dad and the battle zone, I began to realize that there were powers much greater than me that could turn my world upside down and even jerk me out of my circumstances at a moment's notice. My mom—who was always so good to me, who would give me peanut butter and jelly sandwiches whenever I asked, or just peanut butter and butter sandwiches when I would come in from play and request a snack, or who would sometimes give me milk and cookies and hug me and tell me she loved me and let me hug her back—was saving me. She was my only salvation from all of my pride.

All of this was going through my mind instantaneously as my mom held me in the air and with deeply concerned eyes, looked me in the eyes and yelled, but in a pleading, mom way, “Bruce! Bruce! Stop this! Stop this! This is not good. You have to stop this right now.” Then she hugged me. (Wow! My mom pulled me out of the jaws of sure destruction!) I was so glad that she had given me a way out. I did not know where the giant had gone, but I felt safe burying myself deep into my mother's chest with her arms wrapped warmly around me.

The battlefield seemed so far away from me now. The anger had drained out of me and the realization that my world had changed and I had almost died resisting that change weighed heavy on that four-year-old. I now only felt my mom's love fill up inside me like warm water. It weld up inside me until it overflowed from my eyes. I could not stop it, and I heaved and sobbed while my mom held me.

Shortly after our battle, I remember my dad picking me up and hugging me and talking to me about things that I didn't get—I just knew they were his terms for my surrender. But since he was hugging me and did seem to care about me after all, and since I couldn't take him in battle, I decided it was best to live under his rule. After all, I felt safe and secure having someone so powerful caring about me as much as he does.

As I sat on my bed for a brief timeout, I decided to accept his terms. From that time on, I noticed that my dad liked to talk to me, tease me, and play catch with me, despite my inability to catch a single ball he threw to me. But he kept on playing with me. He smiled, continued instructing me, and simply laughed with me when the ball would jump out of my mitt. I began to realize that he really liked me and wanted to help me. He was telling me what he knew would be beneficial or detrimental for me.

Like the time I was told not to touch the side of a hot stove. I immediately reached out and touched it with my finger and felt pain like I had never felt before for the next few hours. I began to realize that when he got angry, it was because I was going to stubbornly hurt and inflict pain on myself for the next few minutes, hours, days, weeks, or years. I won't say that my dad never hit me out of anger, but I will say that, categorically, he never abused me. He loved me. He loved me with whatever he could do to get my attention and show me the consequences of my actions. When I would not listen or see the consequences of my actions, as often was the case, he would hurt me with a slap on the butt, or by taking away something I wanted, but just for a time.

Looking back on my dad and our life together, I have to say he kind of scared me sometimes; however, I do not remember a time that he did not love me dearly. I do not ever remember a time when he did not look out for my best interest. I do not remember a time where he was not interested in me and what I was doing, no matter how great or lousy I did it, like playing catch. Or the time he stayed up until four in the morning typing my report for school because I didn't know how to type and I announced that the report was due tomorrow. I remember my dad saying, “Just this once, but never again! Do you understand me?”

Without my dad disciplining me, I probably would not be alive today. I sincerely mean it. I cannot imagine what my stubborn pride would have led me into. He battled me on my blind ambition to rule my own world and do whatever I wanted to do until I had to surrender. He has stood by me, taken care of me, protected me, and, most important, always loved me dearly as his son. Boy, I am sure glad I surrendered to him and accepted his terms. After doing so, I realized everything that he did to me and for me was because he loved me.

From My “Human Father” to “The Father of My Spirit”

Much like my experiences with my earthly father, I have had more than one occasion where my heavenly Father has acted on the scripture “. . . the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son” (Hebrews 12:6, based on Proverbs 3:12).

Recently I began to question Hebrews 12:6. I made the mistake of asking my Father in heaven, “If this scripture is true, why am I not being disciplined for all my iniquity? Do you still love me?” I had gotten lazy in my pursuit of His word. The Lord had given me and taught me about great powers of faith and healing that I just put up on the shelf and stopped using. The Lord impressed on me one day: “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more” (Luke 12:48).

You might say, “Why didn't you just get back in the word?” My answer: “Why didn't I just do what my earthly dad told me to do the first time?” I liked being lazy and doing what I wanted to do. Paul said it best in Romans 7:15-25:

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

At the same time, I felt so unfulfilled, lost, empty, and worthless. I got to a point where I actually asked God if He cared about me or if He had just given up. I asked God if I had gone too far and had been gone too long. I asked if He was now going to let me go because I had gotten so lazy for so long.

Romans 1:28 states: “Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.” I was now asking God if He had given me over to my wickedness as a lost cause. I didn't believe that He did, but I could not see Him disciplining me. I didn't see His scriptures really coming true like He said, like He had given up on me.

Well, any sane man would have said, “I wish I had never had this discussion with God.” However, sane or not, this was one of those times that come death, destruction, punishment, or neglect, I just had to know. I had to know so that if I was going to witness for God, I could have no doubts, and when I spoke of my Father in heaven, I would know in no uncertain terms what I was talking about—with the conviction that comes from experiencing it personally. Well, I found out how much God loved me. The following experiences will show you the depths of my need for absolute conviction from God, and the depths of my denial, pride, and stubbornness.

It began with bumps and a rash on my legs that itched unbearably and would even bleed, a condition I had for several weeks. I had cataracts in both eyes. One eye was so bad that my vision in that eye was completely fogged over. Three different doctors said that it was highly unusual for someone my age to have cataracts in one eye let alone both eyes. What's more, my retinas were bleeding, so an ophthalmologist had to administer shots directly into my eyes to keep me from going blind, yet he could not tell me if the treatment would actually prevent me from going blind. I was getting migraine headaches so severe that they temporarily blinded me. My blood pressure was high, and I was always exhausted. I also had a cracked tooth that later abscessed and had to be pulled. The tooth was about a year and a half of pain as every treatment failed in trying to keep the tooth.

You may think, “That must have been when you realized that God was disciplining you.” If you thought that, you would be wrong. At this point, I had only begun to consider that maybe God was disciplining me. Instead, I was thinking more along the lines of simply feeling under pressure, experiencing the normal difficulties of life (which would pass), or being a victim of plain ol' bad luck. In order to get my attention, God would impose more discipline on me.

It came in the form of a burning pain in my stomach that began about 4 p.m. on a Friday. When the pain became more than I could bear, my wife took me to the emergency room on Saturday at 2:45 in the morning. My blood pressure was 212 over 104. By 8 a.m., two doctors were standing side-by-side at the foot of my bed telling me that I was going to die.

Right then I knew that this was God putting His foot down and saying, “Bruce, enough is enough. Nothing short of death is going to convince you that I am serious about my word. I do mean what I say. Much has been given to you and you have mocked me. Much has been given to you and you have given back little in return. I warn you and punish you, but you continue to be in my face with your rebellious, disrespectful, selfish, negligent nature. It is finished. Either you repent or I will bring you home to me. If you are not going to do the work I sent you to do, then you are worthless to me on earth and a poor witness. You mock me and you mock my word by taking so much from me and then giving nothing back for no other reason than just being slothful or apathetic to the needs of my people!”

At that point, I was rejoicing more about the fact that God loves me than concentrating on whether I was going to live or die. Some of you might think I am being less than honest, or trying to show off a sense of bravado, but that's not the case; I really was rejoicing. I knew that God was in control completely. Whether I lived or died, I knew I was in His hands. I knew that I knew that I knew that God had orchestrated this whole thing to discipline me. I knew that I had to surrender and that Jesus was my advocate to help save me. I knew that I was totally under God's love, care, and discipline, and He was willing to do whatever it took to convince me of it. I knew that whatever happened would not be just dumb luck.

I realized such joy in that God had not forgotten me, He did not throw me over to my selfish ways, and He would make me face death to get my attention rather than lose me. Because I lived it, I now know without reservation and I can tell you firsthand that I would rather be on my deathbed knowing that God is in control and guiding my every word, thought, and footstep (even if figuratively), than to be totally healthy and not know if God is paying attention to me anymore. Or worse yet, not even having a God to watch over me and love me. I learned that He means what He says and says what He means in the Bible when He says he disciplines His children, the ones He loves.

Following the ER visit, the 3 days in the ICU, and the additional 2-day stay in a regular hospital room, the discipline continued. I was instructed to undergo a series of shots—administered in the stomach by myself, an experience that caused me to have cold sweats. In addition to the self-given injections in my gut, I was still receiving shots in my eye and taking a series of medications. Only recently did I receive my final eye shot. I am feeling better than I have in years. I heeded my Father's discipline, and He did as it is written in Psalm 103: forgiven all my sins and healed all my diseases (v. 3), redeemed my life from the pit and crowned me with love and compassion (v. 4), and satisfied my “desires with good things so that [my] youth is renewed like the eagle's” (v. 5).

In a similar way that God said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them” (Numbers 20:12), and just as God “was about to kill” Moses for disobedience (Exodus 4:24), God was disciplining me.

Some might be thinking that I should not be so egotistical to compare myself to Moses. Others might say that God would never discipline His children in this way, especially not today when “New Testament God” is more civilized than “Old Testament God.” To them I say that in Ephesians 5:1 God told us to imitate Him, and “God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right” (Acts 10:34–35).

Read the scriptures regarding discipline! These examples given to us through God's word are for us to learn from and emulate, not put up on a high shelf and believe they do not relate to us in a personal way. I am here to tell you that God will be just as true to His word with you today as He has been with His people at any time in history. If you search for the word “discipline” in, for example, the NIV Bible, you will find forty-nine occurrences of the word. Let's look at a few:

Blessed is the man you discipline, O Lord, the man you teach from your law . . . (Psalm 94:12).

“Blessed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty” (Job 5:17).

He who heeds discipline shows the way to life, but whoever ignores correction leads others astray (Proverbs 10:17).

“My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punished everyone he accepts as a son.” Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it (Hebrews 12:5–11).

“Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent” (Revelation 3:19).

Don't ever think that God won't discipline His children, and discipline them harshly if necessary, when they stray from Him. If you are a Christian and you do whatever you want and it seems as if God isn't disciplining you, then you may want to consider whether you're one of His children. Remember: God does not lie, and,

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers (Galatians 6:7-10).

Bruce Townsend 
Writer & Host of The Truth Television Show