I know God disciplines me because the Bible tells me so, but Pastor Jen, how do I know when

I'm personally experiencing God's discipline?

Here's one of the most remarkable things about God's ordaining hard things in our lives

in a disciplinary way.

Jesus was disciplined and never sinned.

That's what I mean.

Hebrews 5-8, it says, Jesus, learned obedience from what he suffered.

Now a lot of people read that and they say, whoa, learned obedience.

You mean like he stopped being disobedient and became obedient and thus sinned?

No, that's not what it says and that's not what it means.

When it says he learned obedience, he means he moved as he grew from one degree of obedience

to another.

He becomes a new challenge and he becomes obedient again.

Here comes a new kind of challenge and he becomes obedient again.

He's learning at each stage the actual implementation of his obedient heart in acts of obedience and

he's doing it through what he suffered, which means that God ordained suffering in the

life of Jesus to bring him to the fullest expression of obedience.

Now the reason that's important is because we, I think, forget that God's hand of discipline

may be on us not simply to spank us because we've been bad but to stretch us and broaden

us in what we're doing well.

Job, remember, was described in the very first verse as being an upright man and blameless.

And God gives Satan permission to beat up on him and it wasn't because Job was acting

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