#197 Purified, Not Punished

If you’ve been whispering, “What did I do to deserve this?”, you’re not alone and you’re not stuck there. We’re talking about the difference between punishment and purification, and why the same painful season can either push you into shame or pull you into growth depending on how you discern it. 

We walk through five clear lenses from a biblical perspective: purpose, source, outcome, focus, and process. Using Isaiah 48:10, we revisit the furnace of affliction as a refining place, not a rejection letter. We also lean into Hebrews 12:6 to name something many of us avoid: discipline can hurt, but it comes from love, not contempt. When we mistake purification for punishment, we tend to feel guilt and distance from God. When we recognize refinement, we start to see maturity forming and closeness returning. 

We also tie in Malachi 3:2–3 with the imagery of the refiner’s fire and fuller’s soap, because God doesn’t just expose what’s in the way, He cleans it out. That leads to a real-life challenge: stop focusing so hard on what’s happening that you miss what’s coming out of it. The process may require things to fall off that cannot go forward, but the promise remains steady in Romans 8:28: God can work it all for your good. 

If you need language for your hard season, borrow ours: God is not punishing me, He is purifying me. Subscribe for more encouragement, share this with someone who feels condemned, and leave a review so more diamonds in the rough can find their way here.

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Transcript

Welcome And Set The Tone

SPEAKER_00 0:43

Hello, hello, and welcome back, guys. Diamond in the rough week. I'm so glad to be before you one more time. Thank you so much for coming back with me another week. If this is your first time tuning in, God bless you and welcome, welcome, welcome. Uh, I am so grateful to be here another day. Um, I hope that last week's episode uh resonated with you. Did it help? For those of you that have already listened, um, if you have not, I would encourage you to go back and listen to it. Yes, um, I certainly hope that it helped. Just simply because when you don't have understanding, it becomes a weight on your shoulders that without Jesus, the burden bearer, it gets heavier and heavier every day. Hallelujah. So before we get into it, we are going to pray. Father, I thank you once again for another day. Thank you, God, for another opportunity to be able to pour out what you've poured in. I pray in the name of Jesus that each and every heart is here on purpose, God. I pray that you would pour in what it is that they need on today. Father, we thank you so much for your grace and your mercy, God. Thank you, God, for allowing us to be able to move in this space, God, to be able to help those who desire help to see the diamond that is within. Father, we love you. We thank you. We bless your name. We pray this, we ask it in Jesus Christ's name. We do pray. Amen. Amen and amen. Hallelujah. Amen. So today I want us to talk about the difference between punishment and purification from five aspects from a big that come out of a biblical perspective. Gonna be putting in a little bit of scripture here and there. Um, but I definitely want to remind before we even get into that, even remind us where we've been. Uh, we've been focusing on letting go. You know, it's not an easy thing to do, especially when you are attached. Come on, somebody. Somebody, I hope you caught it. Hallelujah. Because, you know, something can be next to something and not be attached to it. Hallelujah. But when you are attached, uh it's hard to let go. Hallelujah. But this process that we're supposed to be enduring, hallelujah, look, it ain't easy, but it's possible. Hallelujah. So the month has all been been and been all about separation and purification. Um, and um, I've already said uh the focus is letting go, and then the scripture came out of Isaiah 48 verses 10. And every week I like to remind everybody of our anchor scripture uh that we have been focusing in on. Um, behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. Hallelujah. So we know based on that particular verse that affliction is necessary for you to realize that you are chosen. Hallelujah. That he loves you and he accepts you as you are. And that being said, like we are not, what's the word I'm looking for? We are not strangers to trouble, adversity, obstacles, and all the things. You know, the world likes to paint this picture that y'all not supposed to go anything, go through anything if you if you're doing what you're supposed to be doing. So everything is going wrong in your life, you can't be doing everything right. Hallelujah. Job experienced that in the midst of what he was going through in the book of Job. I hope that's a familiar book to you. You know, he called hell, hallelujah. He called a serious hell in the devil's pursuit to try to get him to curse God, hallelujah. But God knew what he had put in him, and he knew that he had chosen him. Hallelujah. He had chosen him because he was faithful, hallelujah. He was faithful to the Lord, and no matter what was going on, God dealt, excuse me, Job still trusted, he was still trusting in the power of God to keep him, protect him, and save him. Hallelujah. And so, you know, don't uh don't let the fiery furnace and the affliction move you. Hallelujah. I want to encourage you, don't let it move you, amen. So with that being in mind, this is where this comes into play about understanding and being able to discern what is punishment and what is purification. And these aspects are gonna focus on purpose, source, the source being like where where it comes from, the outcome, the focus, and the processes. All of these are like the primary, the root of of how we look at the things that we face from day to day, from season to season. Hallelujah. So with all of that being said, the title of today's talk is again, you're being purified, not punished. You are being purified, not punished. Hallelujah. Now I've already detailed you from the aspects that we're coming from, hallelujah. So I'm just gonna go through them one by one, and you know, just move freely as the spirit leads. It says, so the first aspect is by purpose. Now I hope you got your journals. If you don't have your journals and you're listening along the way, make sure that even if you don't stop, listen to it again, get your journal so you can go through it again, again. And I say it every week: like your journal is going to remind you of what you have been through, it's gonna remind you of where you have been, it's gonna remind you of what you have learned because the reality is when you're going through and you're trying to, you know, navigating through through the hard places of life, we oftentimes will forget what we know. Hallelujah. We know it, but it's like it becomes it becomes have a sense of silence to it, like we can't tap into it because we are busy focused on what we're going through right now. But when we put our focus back on what is true, then we can look at the lie and say, No, God is for me, he's not against me, even though I'm going through this, even though that happened. He is for me and not against me. He said, Greater is in me than he that is in the world. Hallelujah. When we learn how to take what we know what's hidden in our heart and begin to apply it in such a way that is relevant to us, right in the moment, it is a powerful, powerful thing. Hallelujah. So when we're talking about purpose, we're looking at reasoning, we're looking at the the focal point that says, Well, why is this happening? Now we have talked about that in our previous episode in detail about you know that question that we did we oftentimes you know, we always come back to it like why is this happening to me? You know, and you know, I say, Well, why not? Hallelujah, amen. Because those he loves, he stra he chastens and he prunes, hallelujah. But wait a minute, we don't want to get ahead of ourselves, okay? Hallelujah. So, why is this happening to me? And you can look at it from the focus of punishment or purification when you're looking at it from the focus aspect, or what did I say, and from the punishment aspect, you look at it as it being some level of justice for wrongdoing, like you're being paid for the sin. Like this is what you get for doing this, like a payment for your sin. And that's how we can look, we can dim it down to punishment, but or we can look at it as okay, this is an opportunity that God is using to transform me, to prepare me for what's next. Hallelujah. Does that make sense? I hope that that makes sense to somebody because at the end of the day, we gotta make sure that we are looking at from looking at it from the lenses of our Father. He has a purpose in why he allowed it to happen. Hallelujah. Now you might have done something wrong, yeah. You very well could, but he works it for our good. So the wrong too is on purpose. Hallelujah. He allows it on purpose because I'm telling you, y'all, I say it all the time. You can't you don't understand what it means to get up until you've fallen down. You cannot get up unless you've fallen down. If you're not down, then how can you climb up? Hallelujah. If you're up all the time, then you'll never know what it looks like to be down. Hallelujah. Okay, so number one was purpose. And when you're looking at it from punishment, it looks like you're paying for sin that you might have done, might be some type of justice for wrongdoing, wrongdoing that you might have done. Okay, and then, or you can look at it from the perspective, a opportunity for transformation, and that it is preparing you for the next. Hallelujah. Which one is positive? Which one's negative? Come on, hallelujah. We gotta be looking for the best out of every situation, hallelujah. Now, number two, looking at it from the source, like where it's coming from. We can either look at it from a place of judgment and wrath, or out of love and discipline. Hallelujah. Out of judgment or wrath, that would be under which one? Punishment, obviously. Or out of purification, which would be this is out of love. This is because of discipline. Look, when you are being disciplined, it's because somebody cares. Hallelujah. Our kids in the moment, they get very angry when we discipline, when we discipline them. But if we never discipline them, I don't believe they would think that we even cared anything about what they do. What they do or what they don't do. Hallelujah. Now, Hebrews 12, verse 6 says, For whom the Lord loveth, he chastiseth, he chasteneth. If on the word in the new, I mean in the King James Version means ING, ing, which is progressive. So if we put it to, if we say, For whom the Lord loving, he chastising. He is chastising. Think of it like that. Like that's what it means. That's what he's trying to say. If God loves me, if he loves me, and he'll love me for a lifetime, then along the way, he's going to correct us, he's gonna discipline us because he loves us. He said, and he scourgeth every son whom he received. See that when you're talking about scourging, you're talking about Jesus, he's when he was scourged, all of his skin, his skin was ripped off of him. Hallelujah. And it won't, and it wasn't done uh nicely, it was done maliciously. Hallelujah! Amen. It was done with the tool that had no mercy. Come on, hallelujah! And so you gotta know that sometimes it don't feel good, and it's downright painful, and you're trying to figure out how am I gonna heal from this thing because the wounds on the scorging is deep, they cut real, real deep, hallelujah! And not only is it deep, but it's jagged, hallelujah, which makes it even worse, worse, hallelujah. And those and those weapons that they use to scourge the men in that time, they weren't the cleanest things, hallelujah. And I'm they know nothing about no sanitation and all of that stuff. How many people, other people's blood ended up on another's? Do you hear what I'm saying? Like at the end of the day, it don't feel good when we are meeting correction, we're meeting discipline, it doesn't feel good, it's not meant to feel good because human nature says pleasure, human nature wants comfort, human nature wants the thing that's going to make them. They want the thing, we want the thing that's going to that if if if we have that all the time, we become entitled, we become spoiled, we become arrogant, we become all of these things that don't please God. Hallelujah. So we got we have got to be disciplined so we'll grow. Hallelujah. We'll we'll continue to come back to him time and time again. We have to grow. Number three, my time is dwindling damn fast, hallelujah. Number three, the outcome. The outcome. You feel guilt, you feel a distance. Hallelujah. But if you are thinking clearly, then you will realize that it will bring and produce growth in you. Hallelujah. The type of growth that makes you a little bit more mature, hallelujah, and makes you closer to God. And so at the end of the day, when you're looking at outcomes, punishment pushes away, whereas purification pulls you closer. Hallelujah. So again, I want to challenge you to look at this from look at the things that are happening in your life from the perspective of purification and not punishment. Hallelujah. Number four, the focus or where it can take you. You know, like when you focus in on it, like if you're looking at it from a punishment standpoint, you feel like a failure. Because you're focusing on what you did wrong. Amen. Hallelujah. But he doesn't want us to look at focus on it and look at it like that. He wants us to focus on what we are becoming, what comes out of what happened. Hallelujah. This is potential. Hallelujah. So purification allows us to be able to see things from a potential perspective, what we are becoming, but from a punishment standpoint, you know, like we failed, like we missed the mark, like, you know, it focuses in on what we did wrong. Hallelujah. Choose at the end of the day, we gotta choose to look at it from the standpoint of purification. And then lastly, number five, the process. The process for punishment, it tears down without rebuilding. Hallelujah. It tears down without rebuilding. Whereas purification, it refines like fire and it removes what can't for can't go forward. We talked about that in a previous episode. Some things that we got on our back and that we're carrying in our bag, they can't go where you're going. Hallelujah. And you gotta be willing to accept that. Amen. And realize that when you do accept that, you accept that you come out stronger, you come out better, you come out as the word would say, like pure gold. Hallelujah. Pure gold is way more valuable than anything else. Hallelujah. Amen. But it has to be purified in order for you for the gold to be valued. Now he equates us as gold. Hallelujah. When we're going through that refining fire. Now, Malachi 3, verse 2 and 3 says this. And this was in a previous episode as well. So, you know, if y'all, if you get a chance, if you haven't listened to all of the episodes about refinement, I dare you to. Hallelujah. Malachi 3, verse 2 through 3 says, But who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap. And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of gold. And he shall purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Hallelujah. So the scripture says to us, like at the end of the day, that the that he is the fire. Hallelujah. The refiner has a fire that is hot enough to get the stuff out. Hallelujah. Amen. But he says that he is the fire. Amen. And he said, what he said, and like fuller soap. Fuller soap is like that lava soap. And that soap getting clean, anything clean. Hallelujah. Amen. I ain't never experienced it, but I have heard about it. You hear what I'm saying? This is what he wants to do, and he's able to do in us if we let him. Amen. We gotta get out of our own way. Hallelujah. So I'm gonna run it through again. There's a purpose. What comes out of it? The outcome, which means like the feeling that we get when we are going through the refinement, when we feel like we're being punished, but we're really being purified. What we focus on in the midst of the thing that we're going through, whether we focus on, you know, everything that we did wrong, the, you know, the failure, the the shame, all of those things. Yeah? Or if we focus on the fact that something's coming out of this. Hey, man, it's been many times where I've, you know, been going through, even when my son passed, when I when I my first marriage failed, when, you know, when I was in college and I wasn't doing very well, and just all of these things, I had to sit back and say, God, what are you, what are you doing? What is coming out of this? Hallelujah. Because I had trust in him. That's why. That's why if you got trust in him, hallelujah, if you got trust in the Lord, no matter what you go through, you're going to look back at that thing and be like, mmm. Mmm. You know, amen. I I promise you, if you trust in yourself, I'm telling you, if you put your trust in yourself, you will always feel like the victim. Amen. You will you will always feel like, you know, woe is me. If you put your trust in yourself. But if you put your trust in the Lord, I promise you, you're gonna look. And look. It's more than just people who put their trust in the Lord put all of their trust in the Lord. They are in that word. They're in that word. I promise you. They're in that word. Hallelujah. Because I'm telling you, the things that happen throughout our life, like, it's easier to stay with the devil. Hallelujah, because I already know that life. I'm just saying, like, we already know what it looks like to be friends with the devil. Hallelujah. Amen. But when we come into a relationship with Jesus Christ, it's all new. And we have to learn. And you cannot learn who Jesus Christ is all by yourself. Hallelujah. You gotta get in his word so that he can renew your mind. Amen. If you're getting in a relationship with Jesus Christ and you never renew your mind, you you still you still the sinner you were before you met him. Hallelujah. Because your because if your heart ain't changed, then your mind can't change. And if your mind don't change, your behaviors won't either. Hallelujah. Amen. I hope that somebody can can receive that and understand it. And see, here's the thing if you don't have your total trust in it, that's what it's gonna feel like. Everything that you go through is gonna feel like punishment. Because you are unaware that there's a process where some things have to be, you can't take everything with you. Some things have to fall off in order for you to grow. Now we use the parable and equation of a plant all the time. That if you don't get rid of dead leaves on a plant, it will choke the life out of what is alive. You have to get rid of it. Amen. You can't look. I promise you, you can't become the creature that Jesus desires you to be, living the whole way. This is why he says you can't put new wine in old wine skins. Like you can't, because it's gonna make what's old burst. Because the old can't handle the capacity of what the new brings. Hallelujah. You have got to figure out how to let it go. If you're trying to do it on your own, and nine, look, nine, look, probably most I don't even know the statistically, but you can't do it by yourself. Okay, how are you trying? You cannot do it by yourself because you're not meant to do it by yourself. Hallelujah. Amen. It's just like when you're learning math. Like you can sit there and count on your fingers, but when you're talking about depth, I'm talking about calculus and algebra, all of these things. You need something to teach you how to do those things, amen. At least the fundamentals, so that you can begin the process of learning. And even as the deeper you go, the more you learn, the more help you'll need. Hallelujah. And that's that what? That maturity. You learn how to totally lean on the Lord because even in the beginning, you know, you confess Him and you start off. That thing, look, especially when you get past the honeymoon stage of the relationship, when you're talking about Jesus, hallelujah. I just believe there it truly is. There's a honeymoon stage, and everything is paradise. La-da, la-da-da. But then all of a sudden, you get that, wait a minute, wake up, call, like, where in the world did this come from? And then you begin to sit there and wonder, what in the world did I do? And then that's that's where you meet him on that at that crossword, crossroad that says, Am I gonna go back to what I know, or am I gonna keep on pressing forward to learn who I am now? Hallelujah. This death. You heard what I'm saying? So today I want you to declare, to declare that God is not punishing you. And you gotta say it with me. God is not punishing me, He is purifying me. Hallelujah. God is not punishing me, He is purifying me. I pause on purpose. Got my words all twisted up. It's not, it's not, let's say, let's see. It's not what's what it is, it's more about what's coming out of it. Hallelujah. That's that focus piece of it. Like, don't focus on what's happening so much so that you miss what's gonna come out of it. Hallelujah. Something is gonna come out of it. You're going to go from the prison to the palace. Hallelujah. From the inside out, hallelujah. From the prison to the palace. Hallelujah. Now we're getting ready to go. But the purpose of the show today it was to help you to be able to discern the difference between tearing down and building up and how God works it all for your good. Final scripture for today. Romans 8.28. This is a very popular scripture. It is my one of my favorite scriptures. And it says, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Hallelujah. Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for every heart that you brought here. I thank you, God, for all that you're doing through this podcast. I pray, God, that people are blessed by it. I pray that as I move and go forth, I pray that my obedience pleases you. I pray in the name of Jesus, God, that you'll continue to shape us, make us, and mold us into the men and women of God you desire us to be. I pray, God, that we get to the point where we can receive the diamond that you have placed in us before the very foundations of this world. I pray, God, that we can answer the call, that we can fulfill the purpose, God, that you have uh given us to fulfill while we're on the earth until we get home. God, we love you so much. We're so grateful. Father, I'm so grateful to be a vessel that is being used by you. I pray for my brothers and sisters in Christ all over the world, and I pray for those that don't know you today. I pray that the laws will be found in the name of Jesus. God, I pray that my my prayers are pleasing and acceptable in your sight. We pray this, we ask it in Jesus Christ's name. We do pray. Amen. Amen and amen. Hallelujah. I hope that you are able to glean from this. Amen. I hope that it blessed you uh abundantly. I pray that you will come back as we are um next week. We will, I think I got my dates right. I don't think I do. I don't know. But the next week we should be starting uh talking about pressure with purpose. Hallelujah. Amen. I gotta look. I think it might be another Friday in this month. Um, and so I don't know. We'll see. But if it is, it's okay. It's okay because we're gonna work it out. Hallelujah. We're gonna work it out, amen. So y'all have a great day, a great week, and I hope you'll come on back with me. Tell somebody else about the podcast. Yes, and y'all be blessed, and yeah, have a and and and wait man, okay, I gotta do it. My it's Michael says, remember, you are a diamond in the rough, amen. Hallelujah. Blessings and love from me to you. Y'all have a great day.