It’s an uncomfortable topic we all need to hear regularly. I have only heard a sermon taught on this once back in 2003 and I have never heard a minister speak on the subject since. Just remembering how uncomfortable and upset I was as the Holy Spirit corrected me through that minster, I understand why ministers shy away from this subject. But we must share on the subject, because we now have a mass epidemic in our culture where no one ever wants to be corrected! It’s come to the point where even children are taught it’s wrong to correct them.
Receiving correction is a choice. You can choose to reflect on the correction, take it, and grow; or you can choose to reject the correction and never grow. Life is a process, and at some point, we all have to grow up. Look back on your own life and see how far you have come from when you were first saved. If you grew up in church, you’re still able to look back to see how you grew in Christ. Those of us who have taken correction either from parents, school teaches, coaches, employers, and/or the Lord have grown much farther. As an extreme example of not receiving correction, we’ve all seen small children throw temper tantrums. There are some adults that still throw tantrums. It’s embarrassing, but the adult throwing the temper tantrum doesn’t even realize how bad they’re embarrassing themself. For that reason, it’s easy to see why correction is important. True Bible correction shows us to take it peacefully, and not to tell anyone else in strife. Personally, I tell people close to me when God corrects me, but it’s for a good and loving reason.
James 5:16 NKJV
Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
Sometimes our corrections can be sinful and sometimes not. I share my corrections, not just because I want to receive healing, but I hope that the people around me won’t repeat my sin, or if they see me repeating that sin again, they will love me enough to correct me. I don’t want my sin to turn into disobedience and cause separation from the Lord. It’s better to strive to be Biblical, than like the rest of the world, angry and find other people to join their strife.
Proverbs 9:8 NKJV
Do not correct a scoffer, lest he hate you; rebuke a wise man, and he will love you.
Proverbs 15:5 NKJV
A fool despises his father’s instruction, but he who receives correction is prudent.
By the time we’re done with this teaching, you’ll be doing the happy dance! Hehe Not because I’m done, but because we’ll all be reminded that taking correction will make us wise, prudent, and bring us closer to the Lord.
Before we continue on, I want to mention that I do not see in the Bible where God will make you wreck your car to correct you. I do not see where God will put you on a deathbed to learn a lesson. John 10:10 says the devil’s job description is that he comes to steal, kill, and destroy. When I say correction, I am referring to words only.
Hebrews 12:5-10 NKJV/AMP
5And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons:
“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; 6For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.”
7If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? 8But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.
According to Strong’s concordance, scourges, from the Greek word mastigoó, can be literal or figurative. Ever heard someone say, “My parents are going to kill me!” It’s not literal, they didn’t die. Same for scouring, a scourging is a scouring. We can’t say it’s a car accident, or it’s a sickness. I believe it’s used, because scourging is what correction can feel like emotionally. The word chasten, from the Greek word paideia, means training as in “rearing of a child.” The Bible is telling us that The Lord corrects us all because He is our Father. I’ve heard people read this and say, “you aren’t a son if you haven’t been corrected.” People inevitably start to think when they have been corrected as a test if they are a son. Praise the Lord, we don’t have to do that. We have all been corrected. When you read the Bible, and say to yourself, “Ops.. I do that.” Maybe you were sitting in the church, the preacher said something, and you thought “Uh..oh…” That’s the Lord tapping on you to correct something in your life. We should never shut that out but welcome His correction. When we shut that correction out by dismissing it, that’s where we amp things up and sometimes He sends a servant to correct us. Sometimes we can be tempted to feel like the love is gone when someone corrects us, but don’t feel that way. If you don’t know if the correction is an accurate description of your behavior, seek the Lord. If these corrections are accurate, it will make us grow properly. If we don’t take them, we’ll never be blessed leaders.
Hebrews 12 Amplified
9Moreover, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we submitted and respected them [for training us]; shall we not much more willingly submit to the Father of spirits, and live [by learning from His discipline]? 10For our earthly fathers disciplined us for only a short time as seemed best to them; but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.
Correction is painful. The first two times I was corrected by the Lord, I felt crushed. But I realized that I was completely wrong and decided to make a change. Those changes that I made enabled me to walk closer to the Lord. That’s part of the process we all have to go through. Never despise the process!
Mathew 16
13Jesus… He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”
(skipping down, Peter answers who do they say Jesus is)
16Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. 19And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
21From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.
22Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!”
23But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”
These are popular scriptures that are quoted in church. Peter is on a high. He was just told hell can’t prevail upon him. Then he takes that new attitude, gates of hell can’t prevail upon me, and rebukes Jesus with it. The Greek word rebuke is epitimaó which also means to sternly warn. Epitimaó was used by Jesus when he rebuked or sternly warned demons. Peter was sternly correcting Jesus. He was being disrespectful. Here’s the original Hebrew manuscript:
22And then Keipha took him to one side and began to rebuke him, saying, “El will not consent that it will happen to you Adon.” 23But Yeshua turned, saying to Keipha, “Go away from behind me, adversary. Do not trouble me, for you do not understand the words of El, but of the men.”
Did Peter ask the Lord? No! Peter assumed from his own thinking. A lot of these types of corrections go on today, especially because of easy access via the internet. People don’t seek the Lord first, jump out and correct someone or a ministry. But for our purpose, we’re looking at how Peter took this correction. He did something very amazing, he said NOTHING! How many people do we know who would say absolutely nothing? Lord, help us all. Hehe Peter took his correction properly. What blessing was he able to receive?
Matthew 17:1-2 NKJV
1Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; 2and He was transfigured before them.
I don’t think Peter would have been invited to the high mountain had he decided to take offense at the correction. He received it and was rewarded. Later he was able to write about it in 2 Peter 1:16-18.
Mark 11:15-17 Hebrew Version
Jesus Cleanses the Temple
15And when he entered into the Sanctuary, he began to drive out those who sold and bought in the Sanctuary – also the acquisitions (shops) of the exchangers and the tables of those who were selling doves, he banished and turned upside down. 16And he did not allow to carry any burden into the Sanctuary. 17And he taught them and said, “Is it not written that ‘My house is a house of prayer for all the peoples,’ and you [made it] a cave of thieves?”
Jesus didn’t mince words in corrections. They knew they were being corrected. Today, it would be expected to communicate like this, “Guys, could you please move these tables? We can’t do this anymore, because we’re changing the usage of this space. You’re welcome to continue to provide these services outside.” Right? Our society has shifted so far into thinking correction is bad. Here in this verse Jesus is using stern language. Stern doesn’t mean evil, devilish, or flesh-like. This was a stern public correction, because these money changers and shops were doing the same thing that’s done at amusement parks, festivals, and other gatherings; a $1 bottle of water is $5. These people knew how to make money at the temple, your dove died so here’s one three times the price, using improper weights on the scales, and other scams. When people openly hurt the masses, stern public rebukes are in order. Stern public rebukes aren’t for the mother who shows up for the first time to church, her baby cries and she doesn’t yet feel comfortable leaving her baby with strangers. That’s not the heart of Jesus. The Lord will handle those giving the corrections, because they need to make sure they have the heart of Jesus.
I’m going to quickly list six things that I believe will help you take correction properly. Most people get angry, reject correction, and never grow. We don’t ever want to be of that group, because it will stop our growth in Christ. Here are the
SIX THINGS
1. Be open to receive correction
This one is simple. We’ll never completely develop into our calling in life without it.
2. Don’t be defensive
Most often when people get defensive you know they did it! Kids do this all the time.
3. Be truthful and don’t lie
You cannot properly accept correction unless you’re truthful. People live and die never admitting they are wrong. It’s not healthy.
4. Be willing to make adjustments
If you’ve been corrected, change. Don’t have an attitude, “I’m going to do this my way, because that’s what I have always done.” We should be doing what we’re told by our leaders, especially our employer.
5. Keep a good attitude
You can get away with this in the world, but it should not be this way in a church setting. Bad attitudes cause attitude in return, and then it just divides people. Everyone in church must of the same mindset, fruits of the spirit: love, joy, peace, and so on. Ananias and Sapphira from Acts 5 is an excellent example of everyone being of the fruit mindset. The church had a good attitude! No one gossiped that Ananias had dropped dead from lying. Sapphira walked in and she dropped dead the same way.
6. Be ready to repent
True repentance will bring fruit. It’s not a bad thing to look for fruit once you repent. You can and should expect it.
Next post, we’ll finish up on how to properly receive correction. Be blessed with wisdom and revelation in Christ of how we should be receiving correction in our life, so that our faith and prayer lives are always active and prosperous.
Christi
My Prayer Notebook 
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