1. Divine humblings.

2. Divine chastenings.

3. Christians given over to their own lusts for a season.

4. Divine plowing of the heart.

A. DIVINE HUMBLINGS

Divine humblings are the will of God, from time to time, to humble His own people and to make them realize their nothingness in this world and even in the eyes of God. There are times in our lives when we have to eat a large slice of 'humble pie'. We will be made to drink 'the waters of affliction'. This consists of being put in situations in which you will appear to yourself (and to others) in your very worst light. Every so often God deliberately puts us in situations in which we, and others see us, as it were, half naked - and we hate it!  God will do that to us but there is a wealthy place at the end of it all.

The wealthy place is after you have gone through the 'Valley of Humiliation' you learn to care less about men's opinion of you and you only are concerned about God's opinion of you. "With me it is a very small thing," says Paul, "that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment" (1 Corinthians 4:3).

B. DIVINE CHASTISEMENTS AND CHASTENINGS

Divine chastisements and chastenings are God's use of His providential rod of correction to make us wise in our hearts and disciplined in our lives.  We all know that there are some Christians we meet from time to time that we see no evidence of God's rod of correction. You can tell even in an ordinary child whether that child has been properly disciplined at home or not. You can immediately tell the difference between a child who has been corrected from a child who has never (or rarely) been properly corrected. The child who has been chastened at home has, as it were, a humble expression, a humbled demeanor. So it is with God's children. If you meet Christians who have none of this, you know that they are 'bastards' and not God's sons because all those who come into His family must pass under the rod.  "Whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives" (Hebrews 12:6). What is the wealthy place after enduring this? Chastening produces sweetness of Christian character and makes us wondrously kind to one another.

C. LUSTS AND IDOLATRY

The third of these experiences is this: God, at times, gives His people over to their own lusts and to their own idolatry in order that they might learn by painful experience how foolish they are to disobey His written Word and trust their flesh. "He gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul" (Psalm 106:15). We're not talking about the world out there; we're talking about the people of God. He can at times, and may well at times, give us over to some great 'love' of something which we ought not to have.  Very well, says God, take it and eat it! That is how God deals sometimes with His children.  Psalm 81:12 says "So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust: and they walked in their own counsels." These things are written for our learning and they are to warn us. What is the wealthy place that we come to if ever we go through that experience? We learn not to 'play with fire' or go after our own idols anymore.

D. PLOWING UP OUR HEARTS

There is nothing like the experience of God plowing up the human heart.  He doesn't do this all the time, of course, because He knows we could not bear it. If we are to make any real progress in the things of the Spirit, we have got to know our selves. Self-knowledge is very painful because we have a marvelous opinion about ourselves and don't we all think there is nobody on earth quite as “nice” as we are?  That wickedness is in us all and by painful plowing God shows us what is really in us.

This idea of plowing, of course, is a true one. We've all seen the tractor going up and down the field - making long furrows in the black soil. From side to side goes the plow. The man with the tractor knows his work - straight furrows across the field.  What happens?  A host of birds follow the tractor because the ground is full of worms! So is our heart - a can of worms. As God plows up the heart within us by some humbling experience, so He shows us what is in really in us. These are commonplace experiences of all those who are endeavoring to walk with God.  God will prepare us for heavenly places by affliction here below. There is only one way to become spiritual and that is to be under God's 'rod' and under His 'private dealings'.