Discipline: The Shakable Kingdom

See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks.

Hebrews 12:25

One of the great dreams is to build a business and be your own boss. As in every endeavor, there are risks as well as rewards, possible down sides as well as potential up sides.

The most common way to build a business includes debt. Debt can have personal liability, or (at least in real estate) property itself can often stand as sole collateral for repayment. In the early days of building our company, I resisted the lure to take on personal liability. Everything we did contained a “no personal liability” clause. Then one day the irresistible deal came along. I stepped across the line. After that I signed regularly.

One morning, sometime later, I discovered a verse during my personal devotions: “Do not be a man who strikes hands in pledge or puts up security for debts; if you lack the means to pay, your very bed will be snatched from under you” (Proverbs 22:26-27).

This was not the truth I had been looking for. In fact, to follow that principle would have stopped all of my plans dead in their tracks, for I was building a real estate business, and everyone knows you can’t do that without mortgage debt. And much of the debt required my personal liability—meaning that all my assets were pledged to repay the debt, not just the asset against which the money was borrowed.

I tried everything to dilute the meaning of that verse. Well, it’s not a command, only a principle.…It doesn’t say I will have my bed snatched; it only says if I can’t pay. I will be able to pay… This applies to a different time and place. Our laws don’t permit losing everything—‘my very bed’—the risks are different today.

Oh, how I wished I had never seen that verse. It tortured my mind. God had spoken to me, but the best deals all seemed to require personal liability. I had a clear choice to make: my plans or the Word of God. Build the business based on mortgage debt which required personal guarantees; or change my plans, go slowly, and refuse to strike my hand in pledge.

“See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks” (Hebrews 12:25). Do not cross His line. The problem with crossing the line—refusing Him who speaks—is that once you have done it, each successive temptation to cross it again becomes easier and easier. Finally, your dulled senses no longer even distinguish that you are refusing Him who speaks. What is the line He has shown you? Have you stepped across it yet? "Do not refuse Him who speaks.”

The Consequences

What is the destiny of the person who refuses Him who speaks?

If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. (Hebrews 12:25-27)

God declares that He will faithfully remove the created things which can be shaken—the shakable kingdom. Why? So that the unshakable may remain. Created things give cultural Christianity its toehold. Created things defeat us and choke the Word—"the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth” (Matthew 13:22).

When we cross over the line and refuse Him who speaks, He will separate us from the created things—the idols, the shakable kingdom—which dilute our devotion to him. If we cannot remain obedient, if we cannot be holy, then He will discipline us for our own good, “that we may share in his holiness.”

If God is removing or has removed the created things—the shakable—then be glad. For when the shakable is removed, the unshakable remains. The removal of created things is a blessing. The right response to cultural Christianity’s removal is gratitude: “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful” (Hebrews 12:28).

It Happens to the Nicest People

Do not be alarmed if God shakes up your world. Though your first natural thought will disagree, it is a blessing. It is not a sign that you are unworthy—every one of us is unworthy. It is not a sign of hatred, but love. If He did not love you, He would let you completely self-destruct. As it is, He cleanses your life from sin. “Some of the wise will stumble, so that they may be refined, purified and made spotless until the time of the end, for it will still come at the appointed time” (Daniel 11:35).

When God disciplines you by removing created things, by shaking up your temporal kingdom, rejoice and be glad. Created things divide our affections from God and become competition to our devotion. They lure us into the wrong race. They consume our creativity and deflect our thoughts away from the Lord Jesus.

I became a cultural Christian. Created things became idols and divided me from complete, faithful devotion to our Lord. God removed most of the created things I accumulated. I had built a shakable kingdom, and God shook it. Words are inadequate to express the joy and gratitude I feel toward God for the wounds He faithfully inflicted. It may be the single greatest blessing of my spiritual pilgrimage.

The removal of the shakable gave me a deep respect and awe for the character of God, especially His holiness. Gone was the folly that I could outmaneuver God. “Be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ‘God is a consuming fire’” (Hebrews 12:28-29). He is jealous to the point of removing created things.

God Never Over-Disciplines

When my children refuse me when I speak my normal tendency is to over-react. If my daughter deserves to be sent to her room for one hour, I tend to send her for two. I over-discipline.

God never over-disciplines. You can trust God. When He shakes the shakable, when He removes the removable, He is perfect in His discipline of us. In fact, because of His great mercy we can often join Ezra and say, “You have punished us less than our sins have deserved" (Ezra 9:13). Sometimes God under-disciplines.

When God lovingly inflicts pain and removes the shakable, know that you are blessed. He is purging the cultural Christianity from your life. He is making you holy even as He is holy. “Endure hardship as discipline” (Hebrews 12:7).

I SURRENDER

My God and Father, how I have longed to know why You have shaken my life. Now I must confess that I have been building a shakable kingdom. You are making me holy. How I thank You, dear Lord, for Your faithfulness to remove the created things which have divided me from loving You with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength. I surrender the temporal kingdom I have been building to You, and ask You to show me how to worship You acceptably with reverence and awe. Amen.