TRAINING: TOUGH LOVE VS TENDER LOVE

1/28/00

Hi Loved Ones,

A few weeks ago while I was speaking in tongues the Lord gave me the instant interpretation of 3 of my words in a particular phrase. I immediately said, "Uh oh…" I was stunned and He had my attention. Those words were: "Training. Error. Correction."

Right at the turn of the year I had been hearing that we had entered a new year of training. The Lord wanted to train us or teach us. I was excited about being trained in new giftings and at that time He immediately starting teaching me in new gifts so I knew I had understood the season.

However later when I heard those 3 little words, "Training, error and correction" it put a greater perspective to the word "training." In one short week I felt like I had been put through a blender and turned on high for a crash course. During that week, I passed by a sign outside a neighborhood church. It was obvious from the scaffolding and workers that they were in the midst of construction and enlargement. The sign read, "Lord, please turn this mess into a message!" It made me chuckle and I identified with the concept that sometimes when we are in the process of growing into spiritual promotions that it can look like a mess. The next day I was feeling that the blender had been turned up even higher. As I passed the same sign again, the Holy Spirit nudged me to turn around and look at the other side. It said, "Lord please turn this test into a testimony!" I thought about those signs and prayed, "OK Lord, what is Your message through all of this? This is obvious a test from You, so please help me pass it and learn from it so I never have to repeat it again!"

After a lot of prayer, changes in attitude, choices, and mercy from Him, I am feeling as though the blender has stopped and I am coming out the other side a lot smoother. I would like to pass on some of the things He has shown me since the first of the year about this year of "Training."

1] GOD IS SAYING YES TO DISCIPLINE

Sometimes we become so immersed in the love of God and His grace, that we forget He is sovereign and actually gives the enemy permission to "pulverize" us. Much of what we consider demonic attack is allowed from God as chastisement. "If troubles come upon them and they are enslaved and afflicted, then He takes the trouble to point out to them the reason, what they have done that is wrong, or how they have behaved proudly. He helps them hear His instruction to turn away from their sin." (Job 36:8-10 TLB)

2] REPAIR YOUR OWN HEDGE: CHANGE

We are in the days where the accuser of the brethren is operating a full scale battle against God’s own. (Rev 12:10) The first target the enemy uses is our sins, faults, mistakes, rebellions, and our weaknesses. These accusations are hurled against us from all directions, (even when we do not hear of them) and as a result there are demonic assignments sent to torment us. If we are quick to close our broken hedges by true repentance with changes in behavior, attitudes and choices, then this gives the devil less inroad. "But now You have broken down our walls, leaving us without protection." (Ps 80:12 TLB) "Come, and let us return to the LORD; For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up." (Hos 6:1 NKJ)

3] RESIST CONDEMNATION

The devil wants to brow beat us with our weaknesses. If we have repented and are willing and teachable in whatever area the devil is accusing us, then resist condemnation. "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit." (Rom 8:1 NKJ)

The Lord will allow us to fall to get our attention, but it is His intent to repair and build us again. "On that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, and repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old." (Amos 9:11) "After this I will return and will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will set it up; So that the rest of mankind may seek the LORD, even all the Gentiles who are called by My name, says the LORD who does all these things." (Acts 15:16-17 NKJ)

4] RESIST TURNING INWARD

The enemy will do everything he can to divert our focus away from worshipping & intimacy with the Lord. There are many, many pitfalls he uses. One of them is ourselves, such as: naval gazing, soul searching, focusing upon our circumstances, needs & feelings.

Almost 30 years ago I heard a traveling evangelist speak a warning. I was very depressed at the time and he looked straight at me as he spoke about the black hole. He asked the audience if we understood how a black hole was created in the universe. He went on to explain that black holes were once stars whose spiraling gravity was so strong, that the star turned inward and lost its light. He said that if we turn inward and focus upon ourselves then we are in danger of losing our light! This pierced my soul and I never forgot it.

If the Lord is wanting to get our attention through chastisement, it only takes our prayer and His quickening power of the Holy Spirit to spotlight a need for change. We don’t have to spend hours of self analysis, miserable thought life and emotions to find answers. We really can learn to pray about it, dump it in His lap and wait upon Him for answers. Until the answers come, we can worship Him and enjoy His Presence. When we are soaking in the Presence of the Lord, every care, every circumstance, every need fades away and only He matters!

5] TOUGH LOVE VS TENDER LOVE

The manner in which the Lord teaches us, trains us is totally up to us! If we are unwilling, stubborn, unyielding, unrepentant, resisting His voice by following our own ways, then we give Him no choice to but use tough love.

"I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.

Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you." (Ps 32:8-9 NKJ)

That scripture is power-packed. I have read it many times, but happened to turn to it in my "pulverizing blender" week. I thought about it in relation to my circumstances of demonic invasion and I suddenly understood what He was trying to tell me: "Sandy, I love you so much that I want to answer your requests for understanding with just a look in My eye. I don’t want to have to put a bit in your mouth and force you to the right or the left and coerce you into making adjustments. Rather I want to merely look your way and your heart be so tuned to Me that you know without My ever saying a Word, that you are in need of some fine tuning."

Many times when I have spoken out of turn (or too long), the Holy Spirit has nudged me to silence and at the same time I have noticed the look in my husband’s ‘eye’. After I have mentioned it to him, he nods in agreement that he had been thinking the same thing. My husband does not raise his voice with me and I cannot remember when he has ever condemned me. I know he loves me and wants only God’s best for me. But to see that eye... It’s the kind of eye that no one else may notice, but I know. It’s that look that says, "Sandy you are treading on dangerous ground. Be very careful and watch your words!" That’s how the Lord wants to teach us. Would that we all become so sensitive to His heart, that we know without a single rebuke where we need to adjust our course!

6] FINE TUNING

If we are yielded - teachable and pliable to the Lord, He has no desire to train us with sludge hammers. It is more a process of fine tuning things that are not quite in harmony with Him.

This year, as you pray about your circumstances and make decisions about what the Lord is doing, consider the possibility that He is wanting to use them to train you in the way you should go. Tough love or tender love, the choice is ours.

"Come now, and let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword"; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken." (Isa 1:18-20 NKJ)

Lovingly,

Sandy