When we think about the word correction, what thoughts, what emotions come up? Are they positive or negative? For many of us this word represents negative past experience. Therefore, it should be avoided if at all possible. The range and power of individual response can be huge and sometimes difficult to overcome without help and healing. In our flesh we want to push the issues away and avoidance seems to be a pathway of least resistance and a quick escape from the pressure of potential confrontation. This is flesh and if we continue to use avoidance, escape and denial we remain in bondage in our flesh and hinder our future and our potential in God. On the other hand everything about God is miraculous! If we are born again we are His child and we belong with Him in the spirit and in the miraculous! It is self-defeating to continue living in the flesh when we have the privilege of adding the miraculous, spiritual dimension offered to all of God’s kids.
Now a negative response to the word correction is a good indication of past wounding that is unhealed and therefore a miracle waiting to happen. In the healing process Father may need to bring correction to our sin to make our healing possible. Generation after generation we suffer the consequence of improper correction. We pass on what we have learned from life experience both positive and negative. Typically this is not an area in life where we are expecting or looking for the miraculous yet we should eventually realize that every encounter with God is miraculous even when He brings correction! Father’s love is pure and true and is expressed with each encounter we have with Him. In my experience with His correction in my life, there has never been fear, shame for my mistakes, or a desire to run from Him to avoid consequences. In correcting me He has never been angry or demeaning. On the contrary I have felt loved, accepted and encouraged and as I repented for my sin, joy welled up inside of me and I wanted to run, jump and shout! These are miracle encounters I wasn’t look for or expecting! I was totally unaware that a superior Person in my life could bring correction to my mistakes in such a life changing manner that I would be overwhelmed with gratitude for the miraculous experience. For me, correction has always been a fearful, demeaning experience usually accompanied by shame and intimidation. I could never imagine that Father’s correction would be polar opposite. To feel loved and accepted while being corrected was beyond my ability to comprehend. It’s miraculous. It’s life changing. It’s God!
In Father’s correction process He may ask us to do something we don’t want to do; like go to someone and repent for our sin toward them or in some other way make right a wrong we have committed. As difficult as this can sometimes be our miracle is waiting on the other side! I know from personal experience! Back in the early ‘90s Father used John Wimber of the Vineyard Movement to confront me with this same scenario. I knew I had to go to some people and apologize for withdrawing from them. When I made my list there were 11 names. I hated the thought of even seeing these people again much less apologizing to them! However, I knew what Father was asking me to do, so I made the appointments and one by one I completed the task at hand. What I didn’t realize then was that there was a miracle waiting for me on the other side! Father didn’t send me to confront their sin against myself and Gerri. He sent me to deal with my sin against love by withdrawing from them! It was about me and my sin and the need for my obedience to make it right for me. None of them apologized for their sin against us. They made it very clear that we were the enemy. That is there cross to bear. What happened in me was life changing and it didn’t happen until I left the last appointment. As I got in the car and drove away, joy hit me so hard I could hardly stay in my seat and drive. I was even hanging out the window and shouting as I drove through town going home! I was free! I was forgiven! I am a new man! WOW! What an overwhelming reward for obedience that was so difficult to accomplish! My miracle had arrived.
If you haven’t already done so, I hope this short note will encourage you to invite Father’s correction. Your miracle is waiting to happen.

Roger

P.S. Father may require us to go where WE don’t want to go in order to release us to go where HE wants us to go!