All I knew then was that I began to download stuff from God and it continued to arrive. The anointing was very strong. By that time in my spiritual walk I had already been with the Lord for several years, and in that time I had experienced and learned more than many Christians do in a lifetime.

         It was not necessarily according to what I wanted, but I learned from the very beginning that making a commitment to God will cost. It will cost a person everything.

         And I do mean everything.

         Eventually I had amassed enough writing to compose my first book. Then I did something I thought was perfectly on the up and up and the right thing to do. I put my book together in an excellent pre-published format and presented it to the eldership of the church I had been attending for the previous six years. I was full of hope.

         They shot it down. They rejected it outright. And they didn’t stop there. They picked it apart. Put me down. Said I was wrong. One brother I held in high esteem told me to burn it.

         I couldn’t believe it. I thought something really good was about to happen. Complete indifference would have been a lot better. You could say I was a tad disillusioned. That’s why, years later, when someone tells me he read my book I immediately ask, “And are we still friends?”

         But even though I never expected such a high level of battle, I would have it no other way. I never really had to utter the stupid phrase, “Bring it on!” This phrase is usually uttered by idiots who have no idea what they’re getting themselves into. All I tried to do was receive from God and get it right, and hopefully shed some light. But it seemed the battle would always find me.

         And I thought, “Why does this garbage keep happening?!” And then I thought, “Right. There’s a battle going on. Those who sign up for the real thing are immersed in unending spiritual warfare. And as a result, many good people are completely deceived and simply do not understand. And the devil and his people (especially the “Christian” ones) are complete morons, have no scruples whatsoever, and are as vile as a forty year-old fast food sludge pit.

         “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.

         “You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.

         “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

         “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers.

         “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?” [Matthew 23:23-33]   

         Sometimes we make bad decisions and it costs us. Sometimes people make bad decisions against us and it costs us there as well. And sometimes we make the best decision any human being can make and it will cost us the most. It is one of the things that make living for God and answering the call somewhat agonizing.

         One wonders how one’s heart can ever be healed after being hit by an eighteen-wheeler, thrown off a cliff, fed through a wood chipper, cast in a dungeon, rejected by loved ones, and even trashed by a pastor or a good friend.

         Or nailed to a cross.

         I know all this sounds overly dramatic but those of you who have experienced what I’m referring to know. You know very well how painful it can be to make a decision for the Lord, follow Him, honor Him, and continue to be faithful to Him while also being the recipient of hatred, gossip, and forty degrees below zero cold-heartedness that you had previously thought people were not capable of rendering.

         And most of this stuff always comes from other Christians or those who refer to themselves by that title, and their modus operandi usually involves protecting their religious turf, religious ideas, religious misunderstandings, religious false doctrines, and religious MONEY that must continue to come in. The byproduct of all this is an outright religious hatred directed toward anyone who dare do anything that may be construed as questioning any minor part of their false religious kingdoms.

         “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.

         “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.

         “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.

         “But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘THEY HATED ME WITHOUT A CAUSE.’” [John 15:18-25] [1]

         We are now living in a time when millions of real believers have thrown off a false religious yoke, have been delivered of deception, and understand fully why religious Christians do the stupid things they do. So many believers have been fooled by silly religious quacks that don’t care about them at all. And many have left their dead churches for places of life.

         The vast majority of churches in America still refuse to allow the Lord Jesus to have full control, but millions of individual Christians have allowed Him full control and are showing the fruit of His authority. And the Lord has created brand new wineskins and keeps creating new ones. And these wineskins properly contain His Holy Spirit and His work, and great things are happening!

         So remember, though the battle rages, the Lord is winning. The Great Awakening is coming forth and nothing will stop it, though religious Christians keep trying. More people are coming to the Lord right now than ever before, and this is happening because real Christians are doing something right! So whatever it is the Lord has called you to do, do it with renewed vigor, strength, commitment, joy, and faith, and don’t be deterred by detractors or circumstances, whoever or whatever they may be.

         They heeded his advice. After summoning the emissaries and flogging them, they commanded them not to speak in the name of Yeshua, and let them go. The emissaries left the Sanhedrin overjoyed at having been considered worthy of suffering disgrace on account of Him.

         AND NOT FOR A SINGLE DAY, EITHER IN THE TEMPLE COURT OR IN PRIVATE HOMES, DID THEY STOP TEACHING AND PROCLAIMING THE GOOD NEWS THAT YESHUA IS THE MESSIAH. [Acts 5:40-42 The Complete Jewish Bible]

          © 2013 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved.