The Lord has ministered to me through 1 Chronicles 21:8-30. I say, with David, unto God - "I have sinned greatly (boy have i ever), because I have done this thing: but now, I beseech you, do away the iniquity (the gross injustice or wickedness, the violation of rights or duties) of your servant, for I have done very foolishly" and with David, I cried "I am in great distress; let me fall now into the hand of the Lord; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man." And even so, as the angel of the Lord was destroying Jerusalem, the Lord beheld and he repented him of the evil -  and the angel ceased from his destruction- for sin always leads to our own destruction  - and the angel of the Lord stood by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

David sees the angel standing between heaven and earth (angels exist in both realms simultaneously, as do we). David sees the angel's sword and pleads with God on behalf of His people for the sin of numbering the people (something pastors do all the time) - David is a man after God's own heart, and he is a prime example of godly leadership  -  here, punish me, not the people, he prays. Leaders should lay down their lives for the flock, not the other way around. The angel of the Lord then tells Gad the prophet to tell David to set up an altar to the Lord right there on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 

This place was chosen by God for a purpose and a reason- to teach me truths. When we are set upon a path of sin and destruction,  God must bring us to our own personal "threshing floor". This is where they separate the seeds from the wheat by beating it. "Ornan" literally means "that rejoices" or "he that rejoices" and, i mean it when i say this, it is a joyful thing to be chastised by God "for whom the Lord loves, he chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives". Now, scourging sounds an awful lot like threshing- it means "to whip with a lash - severely punish" And we're told to "despise not the chastening of the Lord", and, "Ornan" tells us to rejoice when he does this to us! Rejoice in the Lord always! even build Him an altar there, in the midst of your chastening! To offer up a sacrafice of praise to Him, as we're going through it - to endure it and faint not. It's the hardest thing I've ever gone through - and I want more of it, to become the godly, obedient son he deserves me to be. I want to give my heart as an altar, as his threshing floor. I want the Lord to answer by fire upon the altar of my heart, to accept my sacrafice- to burn away anything unclean in me, forever.  Not just for one day or a week or any other measurement of time.