II Peter 1:8
The twelfth chapter of Hebrews speaks of the discipline of the Lord. It tells us that He “scourges every son whom He receives” (verse 6). That Scripture is being fulfilled as God deals with us in order to bring us into all of His wonderful promises. Many times we think that we are prepared for correction and discipline; but when it comes, we find that we are not prepared for as much of it as we receive. There must be something within us that responds to every truth God gives. The Word that is coming is searching us out and dissecting us (Hebrews 4:12); it is showing us where we are and what we are in our relationship with the Lord.
It is very difficult for a pastor to understand how to father or shepherd the flock. In trying to minister, he often lays a restraint on the people. He knows that they must be submissive, but unless he is careful, he will place a restraint on them. This is one of the greatest problems he faces. In some way he must learn to love the people, to discipline them, and to help them discipline themselves; but he must do it with so much love that they are not restrained. Heavy restraint is no different than legalism.
Even with all of the wonderful things that God is doing for us, we could still end up like a lion in a cage. That lion could tear loose and kill the trainer who is trying to make him do his tricks; but the lion does not do that because he is conditioned. At the flick of the trainer’s whip, he jumps through the fiery hoop and does his tricks. We want something more than jumping through hoops and doing tricks. It must not be that we are merely restrained and conditioned to perform. We are reaching for the discipline to become. In the process of attaining this discipline to become, it may be very difficult for us to follow through with the day-to-day routine of the work that is set before us. The work must be accomplished; but in the Spirit, our spirits must be free and channeled.
Over and over again, the pastors have ministered in ways that put restraints on the people. This must end. Apostolic ministries should lay hands on each pastor and impart to him something that cannot even be explained—the ability by the Spirit to direct the people in such a way that he does not lay a restraint on them. The people must be disciplined but free.
This principle is what makes champions. A man may start out with a handicap; yet with the quality in his spirit of being disciplined but unrestrained, he can become a winner. Johnny Weismuller was very frail and weak in his childhood, but at age 13 he learned to swim. He went on to become one of our first Olympic gold medal winners, winning 5 gold medals and setting 67 world records. After being severely burned when trying to pull his brother out of a burning building, Glen Cunningham was left with scars all over his body, and it was very difficult for him even to learn to walk again. Yet in his day he became the fastest miler, and in 1938 he set a new world record.
These men started with a handicap; and if they had been conditioned by the threat that someone would beat them if they did not perform, their spirits would have been crushed and they would not have succeeded. The same is true of us. We need a greater motivation than the fear of punishment. In one sense, we do need a restraint. We must restrain the tendency to give ourselves to passivity and laziness. God wants something more excellent than what we are; and everything within us that falls short of what He really wants, any tendency to be something second-rate for Him, must be restrained. Yet our spirit must be channeled and set free until, like an athlete, we want to get on the track and run. We want to excel and be the best runner. This is what God is calling for—not for the sake of competition, but for us to see what we can become.
The real motivation and drive is to become! We want to become the prophets and prophetesses that the Lord wants. Not one of us should attempt to get away with anything. We should be concerned for our brothers and sisters and let the ministries know when one of them is having a problem. You do not love your brother if you let him withdraw and are not concerned for him. You do not love your brother and sister if you let them wander off. If you do not say anything about it because you do not want to be a fink, then you are not a good brother, either. If you are the one doing something wrong, you may fear that the ministries will confront you. Without question they should. But do not fear that; desire it. When I was young, I hated correction as much as anyone; and my father frequently quoted Proverbs 15:5 to me, “A fool despises correction.” Do not despise correction—it is like salt that you rub into a wound. It hurts, but it is good for preventing infection. It gives you a double portion of what God is saying.
II Peter 1:1–15 teaches us a great deal about this discipline to become. There we read, Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ … Invariably the Scriptures give us the right perspective. Notice that first of all Peter called himself a bond servant. He did not say, “I am an apostle and a bond servant of the Lord.” That would have made his service an ego trip. In essence, he said, “I am a bond servant; and because I am a bond servant, I am obedient to minister an apostolic Word. I do it because I am a slave of the Lord.” … to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. II Peter 1:1–2.
Notice how many times the Scriptures speak of something being multiplied or increased. There is nothing that you have from God that you cannot have it better, or have more of it, or have it become more of an intensive factor in your life. Are you rejoicing because you moved into some love? That is good, but you can have more love. Do not ever believe that you need to end a day with the same amount of divine grace in your life that you had that morning. Each day there can be more.
How disastrous it is to be satisfied with small portions. We tend to be satisfied with a job half finished in our spirit.
If you but observe, you will see many jobs that someone did up to a certain point and then left unfinished; and that is always indicative of something wrong in a person’s spirit. If you are given a commission and you leave it half completed, it is a sign of something lacking in your spirit. You will probably walk away from God too before He finishes the job in you. You will forsake what He is doing. You will withdraw when the work of the Holy Spirit in you is half finished.
The things that God has started in you must escalate. You can reach a level of relating to the Body of Christ in pure love today, but you will need more love and more dedication tomorrow. These qualities must be amplified in your spirit. You cannot sit back smugly and say, “How wonderful! Now we have finally arrived.” There is never a stopping place in what God has started in your life. You must always go on in it. Every one of us would benefit by starting again at the beginning of our salvation experience and praying again, “O Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13). No matter how much you know that you are saved, that salvation can expand until you are saved to the uttermost (Hebrews 7:25). Do not just slip over the boundary line and say, “Thank God, I am out of Satan’s territory and I have been transferred into the beautiful Kingdom of God’s dear Son” (Colossians 1:13). Never stop at the boundary line; bury yourself deep in the interior of God’s heart before you stop. Go on and on as deep as you can go into everything God has for you.
Peter said, Grace and peace be multiplied (increased) to you … seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. II Peter 1:2–3. God’s divine power has given us everything that pertains to life and godliness—and this we rejoice in—but notice the channel: it comes through the true knowledge of Him. Teaching that comes from a father ministry should open the door for you to see the Lord. Christ must come through revealed in it, because you will not change unless you come into … the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. When a father ministry brings correction, you must tune into the heart of God in it. None of the teaching he brings will work in you unless there is a revelation of the Lord in it. It must be a revelation of His Lordship over your life so that you see Him. And the more you see Him, the more you move into these precious things that He has provided—everything that pertains to life and godliness.
The lack of revelation of the Lord is the reason for our lack of appropriation. Until you know Him and you love Him with all of your heart, He does not release “everything that pertains to life and godliness.” If He released that first, then your heart would be set upon the fringe benefits—all those things of life and godliness that He can give to you—and then they would become an end in themselves, which they were never intended to be. Therefore the all-encompassing revelation of the Lord to your heart must come first. Then you can receive these many blessings without being focused upon them, and without their having priority.
Have you ever wished for a million dollars? It may be in the will of God for you to have all that money, but you will not receive it by focusing upon it. Instead, you should pray, “Lord, reveal Yourself to me.” Seek for a revelation of Him. This truth applies to everything God sets before you. He has everything to give, perhaps even including that million dollars, but there must be a real, living revelation of the Lord to your heart first, before you come into the blessings. Everything that pertains to godliness and to this life and our living it for God is ours—through the true knowledge of Him (II Peter 1:3).
Peter continued, For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. II Peter 1:4. Notice that the promises are not given so that you can get a million dollars. God wants to be so revealed to you that you actually participate in His very nature.
In verses 5–7, Peter listed seven things to which you are to apply diligence and add to yourself. There is a fine line between this diligence and the legalistic effort that is self-righteous in its whole approach. Peter did not mean that you can decide to be a wonderful Christian and then set about to produce it. Rather, he first explained that the promises bring you into the divine nature, and then he painted a picture showing what that divine nature is. You escape the corruption that is in the world through lust as you become a partaker of this beautiful divine nature. You will actually participate in all of the divine nature of the Lord. As you give yourself to this Word, the divine nature is worked in you. This does not happen by accident; your faith appropriates it, … applying all diligence. Verse 5a. What does “applying all diligence” mean? It means that you pursue what God sets before you with all of your heart. It means that you have the initiative to diligently take it.
When a child is growing up, he goes through various phases of growth. First his feet may get big; then for a while it might seem that all he is doing is growing legs. For a while his ears may be too big for his head, or his arms may be too long; but eventually, everything develops in the right proportion and he becomes an adult. In our spiritual growth, we do much the same thing; we grow one endowment after another. In listing the characteristics we ourselves are to add, Peter was presenting a logical sequence of growth that we can follow step by step.
Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence … II Peter 1:5. It is not enough to say, “I believe; I believe”; that faith must work discipline in your character too. You must apply that faith to your own moral character. Do not fail to apply and focus that faith to a moral excellence in your life. One of the first steps in escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust and becoming a partaker of the divine nature is that you refuse the old nature and you call for the moral excellence to come forth (II Peter 1:4).
Verse 5 continues, … in your moral excellence (supply), knowledge. Not only do you believe to be a good person morally with that overcoming grace in your life, but you also reach to know. Your faith is reaching in, and it is to your faith that you add all of these things. Faith must have knowledge; faith must strive for knowledge. Paul said, “We walk by faith and not by sight” (II Corinthians 5:7); and that is true, up to a point. But it is not true faith if you do not eventually see what you are believing for. Hebrews 11:1–3 tells us that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. We understand that it was by faith that the things which do appear came out of nowhere, out of things which did not appear, because people believed and spoke a Word from God. The same thing is true of you. You have faith, but you are also to have knowledge. You will come to know and to experience the things of God personally.
The third quality you are to add is self-control: And in your knowledge, self-control … Verse 6. How do you learn to have control over yourself? First the Lord gives you a Word about what you are to do and puts you into an uncomfortable situation. Then He says, “Now you are going to develop this self-control.”
It is very difficult to teach a little child self-control, but the Scriptures say that you should do it. Lamentations 3:27 tells us, It is good for a man that he should bear the yoke in his youth. Or, to put it in other words: It is good to harness the child into what he will do later. If you ask a farmer when to start making a child a farmer, he will probably say that the best time is when the child is three or four years old. If he is to be a good farmer, he should start learning about it when he is young. He has to learn the harness. Every child likes to run out and become absorbed in play, and often it is easier for parents to send their child outside rather than work with him. For these reasons, it is sometimes very difficult to teach a child self-control, to determine what, if anything, he will watch on television, to determine how he will spend his time. Is this legalism? No, a child must learn self-control and moderation.
The same is true of us spiritually. We must learn a self-control. We learn to get into the harness. When we get a job, we do it as faithfully as we know how, without backing off from it. There is a discipline that we must learn, so that we do not fail in something God sets before us because like children we stop to go play or to do something that we personally want to do. This does not mean that you will never take a vacation, for there will be times when you need one. But you must learn self-control so that you can do what God wants.
Peter continued, … and in your self-control (add), perseverance. II Peter 1:6. You become disciplined, but can you stay with it? When you start something, be sure to finish it.… and in your perseverance, godliness; and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, Christian love. II Peter 1:6–7. We could eliminate the word “Christian”; it is not in the original. The Greek word here is agape (divine love). It is one thing to have brotherly kindness, and it is another thing entirely to have that holy love from God; but a good place to start is to be kind. That is something to which you can be disciplined. You can say, “Yes sir,” “Please,” and “Thank you.” If someone does something for you, be grateful. If you want someone to do something for you, do not shout, “Hey, you!” Be kind about it. That brotherly kindness is very important, and it is the step toward that divine love.
Do you have a grudge or something bitter in your spirit against a brother? Let me tell you what to do. First of all, be kind to him. Maybe you do not love him as you should right now, but to the brotherly kindness you can later add love. These qualities are like a sandwich with many layers. You add each quality, one at a time; and the last one you put on is that superingredient—love. Then the whole process will be complete. But start by being kind and considerate.
This is the way for a church or a Kingdom facility to function. All these qualities should be in evidence. We determine to walk with God. We will work at it until we are literally fountains of holy divine love flowing out, until we are obedient, disciplined sons and prophets of God doing the will of the Lord in the earth. The course of discipline is the way these things will happen. Disciplining yourself is not a self-punishment; it is a total acceptance of Hebrews 12, which deals with the end time and the Kingdom coming forth and tells us: “Do not despise the chastening of the Lord. Because He loves you, He will discipline you” (Hebrews 12:5–6). We must experience that chastening.
Let me explain this from a father-ministry’s viewpoint. For example, let us take a young man, full of zeal. He can intercede and prophesy and move right with what God is speaking. In fact, he is ready to help an established pastor if that pastor is not functioning well. He will do it in a nice way of course, but he is set to do it. But what happens if we cross that young man? Chances are that things will come out of his spirit which are not right. Then he needs to start back with II Peter chapter 1 again and work at it until he has that self-control, that perseverance, that diligence to do the will of God.
A lack of this type of discipline is the reason people have a hard time when they get married. This is especially true of girls. When a little girl goes to school, she can be a nasty brat and yet no one beats her up. If a little boy is a nasty brat at school, someone probably will beat him up. In the process, he learns to relate and communicate. If he gets enough of that, finally he has the stamina and courage to be a good husband and a good father, because step by step he has grown up and learned what it takes to be a person. But a girl can be shielded and protected and spoiled by mama and daddy, until finally the mating urge hits her and she gets married. She may have no capacity for making decisions whatsoever, nor does she know how to relate or what to do; but she feels she must get married. What a shock it is when she learns that she has to cook, to mend her husband’s clothes, and to be nice to him even when he is not nice to her. Then she will have to be a person and contribute.
Do you know when we should start preparing people for marriage? When they are still in diapers. Do you know when we should start preparing you to rule over ten cities? (Luke 19:12–17.) Right now! One step would be to add a little bit of good moral excellence. In other words, when you volunteer to do a job, then do it! If you volunteer to work in the garden, or can tomatoes, or collate books, or clean the church, then do it. How can you rule over ten cities if you cannot even follow through to do a simple job? You must have some character. You are to be a son of God; and as a son, you will have to do more than make a symbolic gesture of bringing down the world systems. You will need to have the dedication in your own spirit to follow through with all that this entails.
Am I criticizing what you are doing? No, just what you are not doing. We can all have a great joy in the Lord, but we must also reach in with all of our heart to become everything God wants us to be. Let us reach for that love. How do we do all of this? By applying all diligence.
Peter went on to say, For if these qualities are yours and are increasing … All the time they have to be increasing. Do you have a little self-control? Then get some more. You never know how much self-control you will need. Prophets need a lot of self-control. Do you think you have attained that brotherly kindness because you have mastered the ability to hide things well? Go a little further than that. You need more brotherly kindness. You need more love. If these things are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. II Peter 1:8. You will not be useless and you will not be unfruitful.
For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. II Peter 1:9. All deception comes from a lack of diligent application to every bit of revelation you receive. This message will not do you one bit of good if you do not apply all diligence to it; you will be blind and will walk right into every trap the devil lays for you. But if you do diligently apply it, it will help you to be very fruitful. You will serve a real purpose in the Lord.
All nature teaches this principle. If you do not use a member of your body, it withers. An athlete trains and trains until finally his muscles are like fine-tuned instruments to respond to his every wish; but if he stops training, his muscles weaken. Species of bats that live in caves and hunt by night have very poor eyesight. Over the centuries they have developed a kind of sonar system for navigating and hunting food, but they cannot see very well. Species of fish and salamanders that live in deep caves do not have eyes at all anymore, because there is nothing for them to see in the total darkness. Do you understand this principle on a spiritual level? If you do not develop your spiritual qualities, then you lose what you do have (Matthew 25:29).
Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble. II Peter 1:10. Give yourself to what God sets before you, and you will not stumble. It is that simple. Do not excuse yourself from the discipline of whatever work you are doing. If you need a change, fine. You can change to some other work. You may say, “I just want to sit around and read my Bible and listen to tapes.” But that can be a cop-out too. I am concerned that you read the Word and listen to tapes of the Living Word; in fact, I think there should be more of it. But there should also be some doing of the Word (James 1:22). Every Word and every bit of knowledge has to be applied. You must apply all diligence to walk in every Word, in every truth that God sets before you, for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you. II Peter 1:11.
Maybe you do not like the work you are doing and think that you would like to trade jobs with someone who is a leader over you. If you did that, you probably would be sorry. James 3:1 tells us that teachers and leaders come under heavier judgment and condemnation. Everything is more difficult for those who are commissioned by God to lead others. You are learning to be a faithful steward now so that someday you can be sent to help take care of the flock. In the meantime, you must learn how to stick with the task God gives you. Sometimes you may feel as if you are in prison because of the disciplined life the Lord is requiring of you. Like Paul, we are prisoners of the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 3:1; 4:1; Philemon 1, 9). We have been taken captive and now we are in training to become something in His name. We are being set free so that we can become total bond servants, by love to serve one another (Galatians 5:13). We will be free to give everything—our time, our money, our individuality—to serve the Lord.
Do these concepts frighten you? We are taking our responsibility in the Kingdom of God. If we are faithful in the little things, He will make us ruler over many (Luke 19:17). But it starts with being faithful before God. Take the burden. Get in and prophesy, intercede, work. Love the Word and hide it in your heart. Apply all diligence to walk in it. The Lord is looking for those humble, unassuming people who will be faithful. For them the doors swing right open, and an abundant entrance into the Kingdom is supplied.
In II Peter 1:12, Peter said, “I shall always be ready to remind you of these things that you are to be diligent about.” This brings up an important point. When someone tells me that I should be doing something, I want to know, “Do you do it? Do you practice what you are preaching to me?” As a shepherd, I try to set an example of waiting on the Lord and of working as well (I Peter 5:3). I have a deep desire to so walk in the grace of God that I can say, as the Apostle Paul did, Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. I Corinthians 11:1. I want that.
A lack of this carefulness has been the problem in some of the Kingdom businesses. Occasionally we have seen the little people working in the business very sacrificially, but the money was not all going to meet the needs of the Kingdom. God is not pleased with that, and the little people do not like it either. They have a drive and a demand to be dedicated, and they want the leaders to lead them into it. If a leader is not willing or dedicated to do this, he will usually restrain the people. This must not be.
Peter was an example to the flock. He said, Therefore, I shall always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you. And I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder. II Peter 1:12–13. That is what I am doing too; I am stirring you up. You know all these things already, but it does not hurt to be reminded of them, over and over again. Peter continued, knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you may be able to call these things to mind. II Peter 1:14–15. He was saying, in essence, “Not only will I tell you these things as long as I am around, but I will also see to it that there is someone to tell you the same things after I have gone.”
You can put a little honey in your coffee, but it does not do as much good if you do not stir it. The same is true of the spiritual deposit that God has placed within you—you have to stir it up. You must apply all diligence to walk in it. Repent of every area of halfheartedness and the tendency to do things halfway. Reach in to appropriate the faithfulness and the diligence of the Lord. Let there be a perfect level of faithfulness that follows through to the perfect completion of everything God assigns to us.