In the book of revelations, John the Apostle had words of encouragement and disapproval to seven churches that are mentioned. He ends his letters to these churches with this statement "Those that have an ear, let them hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to us," He is talking to the born again church and it is vital that we allow the Holy Spirit to check us out and see if our spiritual ears are really hearing what He is saying to us or are our ears plugged up and not interpreting His voice correctly. We need to recognize God's voice, so He can be motivated to do His will. There is a difference between a condemning spirit verses being chastised by the Spirit of God.

Condemnation represents somebody receiving a legal sentence that in some way they are not only wrong but unacceptable. We can be wrong in our decision making but we are never unacceptable as far as God is concerned. In turn, condemnation makes you feel that there is a punishment that has been imposed on you and you have been found guilty of a crime, especially in the case of a heavy penalty or a death sentence. When the spirit of condemnation is being enforced upon a person, it blocks the spirit of God's love from having its full play their life. The spirit of condemnation makes you feel like your always being punished and you always have to defend yourself because your decision-making is always being questioned. It becomes frustrating to do right and you would just as soon go and watch a movie or do something that makes you feel good whether it is Godly or ungodly. In turn, a spirit of hopelessness comes over you and you just don't think anybody cares. Now there are degrees of these kinds of feelings. The more intense, the harder it is to love yourself, let alone having a healthy relationship with others.

The word for chastisement in the Greek is paideuo: meaning, to train up a child who is the minister to a King and one who has a high rank in God's sight. It is a loving nurturing attitude of a father or parent guarding and training his child for a specific purpose with his God given talents. This is the way our heavenly Father corrects us when we get side tracked with the cares of life.

"Since we have been born from above, we have received the mind of Christ and hold the thoughts (feelings and purposes) of His heart." Our lives can now be directed by the Holy Spirit speaking into our new spiritual ears that we have received and we now have the ability to correctly communicate with God. There are too many Christians still functioning under a spirit of condemnation and believe that, this is the Spirit of God which in turn is hindering their spiritual walk with the Lord.

Jesus said. "He, who believes trusts and relies on me, never comes up for judgment. For him there is no rejection, condemnation or damnation. But he who will not accept Jesus and wants to live his life in darkness and not come into the light, or allow God to show them their immature ways and allow Him to change them, has already been judged and convicted. He is condemned for refusing to let his trust, rest in Christ's finished work at the cross (alone.)"

The reason a person is already judged before they accept Christ into their lives is because, they are still being controlled by their fallen nature that they were born with and they can not experience the love of a father who chastises rather then condemns them. Unsaved people live under a condemning spirit because their true father is the Devil. As parents we need to understand the love of God in our own lives, or we could be raising our own children with condemning actions rather then loving chastisements.

We are to "Discipline our children while there is hope. However, we do not (indulge our anger or be rude, offend or become insensitive because; it lowers our children's self esteem.) This takes place when we go beyond proper chastisements and we cause a moral decay to take place with in them." If God encourages us how to raise our own children, it is obvious that he trains His own children the same way.

We are "In all situations whenever our hearts in (tormenting) self accusation makes us feel guilty and condemns us, God is forever holding on to us, is more loving, and knows how we feel and is understanding in all things. Nothing is hidden from Him." (His love is patient, kind, not puffed up, always thinks the best of everyone and for us never ends.) As long as we allow the spirit of condemnation to govern our lives, the power we need to love God, ourselves and others, cannot take place. When we do this, we make the cross of Jesus Christ of non-effect in our lives. Condemnation is the enemy that stops us from experiencing God's love and hugs that we need daily.

It's only us growing in a deep love relationship with Him that can totally anchor our relationship with Him. When we allow the spirit of condemnation to control our thinking processes, it affects our soul and it's like us committing spiritual suicide. When we in our conversations dump condemnation on each other, that's like us committing murder and is one of the most damaging and serious things we can do in offending God and one another.

God tells us. "My son does not despise the chastening of the Lord. Neither gets weary of His correction. For whom the Lord loves, He corrects. Because God as a Father delights in His children. Happy is the man that finds wisdom and the man that gets understanding."

We have to look at chastisement as a safety net by God.

It is the protective hedge that He puts around us His children. He did the same for Adam as He walked with him in the Garden of Eden. The word garden means a protective hedge. He does this to save us from worry and unnecessary pain in our every day life experiences. God's way of instructing us is that of a visionary.

His chastisement is He showing us how much He loves us and how much more we can become in Him. This is what should be motivating us to walk in obedience to His will. His unconditional love and promises cannot be obtained by us living in fear that, He is going to beat us up or condemn us. He wants to set us free from all of the things in our life style that hinders us from having a healthy relationship with Him. We have to look at chastisement as a spirit that we walk in, just as we breathe air ever day. This is what walking in the spirit is all about.

This idea of us asking God to forgive us, (if) there is any sin in our lives is immaturity thinking and a spirit of pride and a measuring up mentality and there is no humility in this statement. Sin is the breaking of the laws of God and we should have been delivered from that the day we became born again believers. We have become saints unto our God after becoming saved. Jesus in scripture is called the King of Saints.

We are "To humble ourselves, recognizing our need for Him, and if we will learn to approach Him and sit in His presence, He will lift us up and make us realize how important and significant we are to Him."

God's chastisements correct our limited understanding of His love and give us a greater vision of how He thinks. This should be a constant experience that we are having moment by moment.

This type of walk with God was first described in Gen. 3:9-13. It was natural and customary for Adam and Eve to walk with God in the Garden of Eden in the cool of the day. Cool of the day does not mean when it cooled off in the afternoon. In the Hebrew, it means...RUWACH a Spirit presence like a wind or breath. When God should up, He would weave His Spirit in their human bodies. Adam lived with an overwhelming anticipation when God showed up. Their oneness and openness in the Spirit gave Adam a quick understanding of God's thoughts. He was totally naked in God's sight and he was unashamed.

When he ate from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and disobeyed God, he became ashamed and focused his thought life not on anticipating God showing up, but he became aware of his nakedness and felt guilty. He decided to take fig leaves, sow them together, and make aprons for Eve and himself to cover their nakedness. When God showed up, he hid. God said "Adam where are you?" Adam answered, "I was naked, I heard the sound of you walking in the Garden, and I was afraid, so I hid myself." God said "Who told you that; you're naked? Did you eat from the tree I told you not to eat from?" Adam said, "The woman you gave me made me eat from it." God then said to the woman. "What have you done?" Eve said, "The serpent outwitted and deceived me and I ate."

Here's where the problem starts. The first thing that happened, they passed the buck. They did not take responsibility for their actions. They hid in the darkness and focused on their shame. They didn't want to come clean and trust God's forgiving grace and love. You will also notice that God asked Adam "(who told you, you were naked.)

I hope we realize; condemnation comes from the Devil. When we feel condemned, our shame in our own eyes increases and we feel dirty and it stops us from running to the Lord. The scripture tells us that the Devil is the accuser of the brethren. If Adam and Eve would have run to the Lord and confessed their disobedience, they could have experienced God's forgiveness and it would have been over. We have the same tendencies to do the same thing today. We need to live in this Spirit of chastisement at all times, so the devil can't pick us off, by making us become dull minded in our understanding of God's total forgiving nature. By walking in a Spirit of chastisement, this will only make our relationship with God stronger. Adam not only shifted the blame onto his wife, but he indirectly blamed God for giving him a faulty woman. Such ignorance is humorously forgiving when you look at it from God's perspective. Adam didn't recognize that his wife was an extension of himself. God cloned Eve from one of his own cells.

Jesus told us. "I am the vine and you are the branches. If we would just hang out with Him, His words of encouragement will make our lives bear much fruit. He goes on to say; way of living, gives us courage and a feeling of acceptance. In turn, it gives us confidence. Now when we go to Him, He will give us the desires of our heart." This will allow Him to give us a word of advice or a task to perform at any time. I think we get caught up with our every day chores and because God does not have a body we can see, the reality of His presence is ignored. We haven't learned how to walk in the Spirit and get in touch with Him.

"God is a Spiritual Being and those who worship Him; must worship Him in spirit and truth." Do we really understand the bond that took place when we became born again believers in Christ? When we don't have awareness that God is our Father and His spirit lives in us, life becomes a time of us functioning in a survival mode mentality. We don't have a feeling of uniqueness and we're not in touch with a person who wants to pour His total affection out on us. Let's remember, we have been joined to Christ and are to share in all He possesses. Nothing in the universe can separate us from Him, but He must continue to be the First Love of our lives if we are going to experience His presence.

Scripture references:
John 3:10-18-19, 4; 10, 15:5
Proverbs 3; 1-13, 19: 18
1Cor. 2:16
1John 3:20
James 3:10