“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire accomplished is a tree of life and sweet to the soul” – Prov. 13:12,19
On September 22, I ordered online via Amazon a copy of a book I’ve authored, titled Divine Disciplines: God’s Training Ground For Spiritual Growth And Maturity. On the back cover of the book and in the Preface I stated that “there is no development of Christ-likeness in a person’s life apart from some degree of suffering and brokenness. Difficulties are necessary occurrences in the growth and development of our Christian lives. . . . God not only allows adversity, but He even brings it upon us . . . not because we lack faith or because of our spiritual disobedience, but the Lord uses adversity to increase our faith. It is God’s training ground for spiritual growth and maturity.”
Divine Disciplines examines the how and why of God’s discipline. The divine disciplines covered in the book are darkness, delay, differences, difficulty, disappointment, disturbance, and drudgery. The book by no means exhausts the various ways by which God disciplines us, but it will be an encouragement and an enlightenment to you as you see some of the experiences of your life through the various divine disciplines.
This book differs from the best-selling book, Celebration of Discipline, by Richard Foster and other similar books, which dealt with the practice and development of personal spiritual disciplines such as Bible reading, worship, prayer, fasting, solitude, just to name a few. Divine Disciplines gives a name to some of the disciplines God uses to help us develop the personal spiritual disciplines that should be manifested in Christians.
I became interested in this subject when I heard a sermon on it in February 1986. I studied it and eventually taught a Discipleship Training Course on it when I was on the ministerial staff at Ridgeway Baptist Church in 1990. I preached through it at my first two pastorates. I initially wrote it out as a manuscript in 1991, then learned to type in 1992 at my first pastorate when I was given a laptop computer and typed it into my computer. I rewrote it each time I preached through it and did a major revision in 2009 when I left the pastorate to begin Back To The Basics Ministries. Anyway, I will give you more info in the days ahead how it came to be published by Innovo Publishing Company. But, I had hoped when I first put it into manuscript/book form to have it published someday. That desire, which had been deferred for many years, has now been accomplished. Praise God from Whom all blessings flow.
The book will not be released until November, but pre-release orders are now being accepted through Amazon (please see the link below) and through Barnes & Nobles web site. Eventually it will be available for purchase as an E-book. You may order it at the following link: https://www.amazon.com/Divine-Disciplines-Training-Spiritual-Maturity/dp/1613144040/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1506120500&sr=8-2-fkmr0&keywords=divine+disciplines+-+dr.+bobby+mullins