Blog Archives
IF YOU’RE WONDERING WHEN THIS EVIL WILL END… (4)
God is forced to put up with never-ending willful sin and outright rebellion against His authority every second of every day in this fallen world. HE HAS HIS LIMITS.
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THE REAL VS. THE UNREAL
In this magnificent day in which we live, when long time sleepers are being stirred awake to varying degrees and unaware “normies,” as they are called, are finally starting to see through so many false narratives that had previously captured their minds, we must take note that the Lord will hold everyone responsible, regardless of their sleeping or awake condition, because of the massive effort over many years that was put forth to get us here.
Anyone who has spent years doing manual labor of some sort knows the cost of which I speak. Hard work gets things done. It can be tiring and draining, as we all know, but greatly rewarding. It gives us a great sense of accomplishment. Such effort demands the required rest afterwards to regain one’s health and ability to function properly. This normally comes with a good night’s sleep, of course, but many people who do such labor don’t often get the sleep they need and the labor takes a cumulative toll. Spiritual work involves the same dynamic.
For a brief synopsis on spiritual work and how things operate and get done in the spiritual world, it kinda goes like this: Some nobody real Christian somewhere of no reputation or notoriety labors intensely in total obscurity for pretty much forever in a determined ongoing effort to turn things from darkness to light. It may be someone engaging in heart-rending intercessory prayer, often not even aware of what or who they are praying for. They pray incessantly until the Lord says stop. Prayer of this kind costs. It costs a great amount. But what is gained from such prayer makes a massive difference for something or someone. Our prayer warrior may thus move mountains in answer to God’s call who uses such a method to accomplish His will in the earth.
Most people, including Christians, are never aware of such things. Great things happen and they appear to have just happened on their own. Imagine someone who engages in some kind of secret blessing ministry in which they give to others in such a way that no one knows who the giver is. Some of the recipients know exactly what happened and are extremely grateful. Others simply accept their gift, whatever it may be, as if they were somehow entitled to it with little or no thought of thanking the giver or even knowing there was a giver. They accept the gift without understanding or caring about the great effort that went into appropriating the gift to give. Sound familiar?
THE WAY THE KINGDOM WORKS
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.
“So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
“When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” [Matthew 6:1-6]
It can never ever be overstated what the Lord Jesus has done for us. He did it all with the most humble self-effacing attitude. His greatest work was done in secret in that no one knew by observation that He was the Author. During His ministry, He spent hours in prayer pretty much every night and there must have been times when He pulled all night prayer meetings all alone. The results of His prayers showed up in His ministry work the next day. Keep that in mind when you see so much “Christian ministry” going on all across the country while New Covenant miracles are pretty much non-existent among such people. If the results are not there it should be obvious that the spiritual work was never there either.
The Lord has His reasons for keeping a very humble and obscure low profile and for commanding that His followers have the same. One cannot help but notice that the Lord Jesus always gave the credit and glory to the Father. He would not allow the glorification of flesh or mere humanity in the spotlight, even if it meant His own humanity, perfect and pure as it is. This should give all the glory hound in-the-spotlight Christian ministers great pause. Those who stand in such a place had better deliver or there will be consequences. Most such ministers, of course, never deliver. Their efforts remain squarely in the natural flesh realm. Not only do their ministries never see miracles many don’t even believe in miracles. And Christian ministry without miracles is NOT Christian.
Again, a great amount of behind the scenes spiritual effort by hard-working obscure nobody Christians has gone into the current Great Awakening. It is certainly the Lord Jesus who is bringing it but He must work through His people and He can only work through those who fully surrender to His will and are willing to be used in whatever way He desires. So, just as the Lord Jesus, as our example in this regard, gave all the glory to the Father (even though He later explained that He is the Father), so must all real Christians give the glory for the accomplished work to the Lord Jesus. He is the One with all the authority in both heaven and earth. There is nothing He cannot do. Once Christians actually see and understand this and apply His methods for achieving the work He has commanded must be done, they gain effective understanding that truly, all things actually are possible with God. They shift over into believing in miracles. They see that the help the Lord wants to give MUST include the supernatural.
OUR GREATEST OPPONENTS ARE NOT HUMAN
The devil is a powerful spiritual entity. This is simply fact. The majority of Christians don’t know this, don’t acknowledge it, lose sight of it, refuse to address it, or are much too fearful toward addressing it. Yet, the New Testament states this very plainly. The devil is in fact so powerful that he has gained control over the entire world. The only place he doesn’t have control is in the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus. There is a huge disconnect here among Christians, however. The Lord Jesus acknowledged this fact. The Early Church in the first century was well aware of it. To refresh our memories there is this:
And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’” [Luke 4:5-8][1]
How did the devil gain control of all the kingdoms of the world? Why do we think this passage of Scripture does not apply to the present? Do Christians really believe that the devil controls all the kingdoms of the world at present? How many Christians actually acknowledge this?
It must be few. The few who do are most likely the real Christians of the world. They know this to be true because they are Kingdom-minded. They know when they were born again of the Spirit that they left the sinful world and entered the Kingdom of God. They know they were previously bound by sin and living in the devil’s prison. They know the Lord Jesus busted them out of jail. They thus know how this world really works. They are not unaware of the devil’s power and authority in his own realm. They also know, however, that the Lord Jesus has much greater power than the devil. They know that the Lord’s spiritual power is vitally necessary because the devil is a spiritual being and uses spiritual warfare against us. We MUST in turn use spiritual warfare against him. The Lord Jesus taught all about this and demonstrated clearly how such spiritual warfare must be done.
Therefore, though the great bulk of “Christians” in the world have no spiritual power by choice because they are not filled with the Holy Spirit and don’t want to be, though many convince themselves they are when they are not, and though these Christians represent little or no threat to the enemy, the relatively few real Christians in the world are the ones who work with God and are actually getting the work done and accomplishing the works of their Father. It is the few real Christians who have the courage to actually attack the enemy. The devil has created a prison planet with most of his subjects in jail, unknowingly, and God is intent on busting as many people out of the devil’s jails as possible. That takes effort. It takes great spiritual power. It takes the Lord having actual strong disciples intent on doing His will and being used of Him so He can work through them. Every time someone is actually busted out of the devil’s jail and brought into the Kingdom of God IT IS A GREAT MIRACLE.
THE GATES OF HELL SHALL NOT PREVAIL
Therefore, if you’re wondering when this evil will end, it is ending in part as you read this in that great spiritual work is being accomplished behind the scenes as it were and we see the evidence in part every time someone gets saved, set free from sin, and busted out of the devil’s prison.
Someone paid a great price for such to happen. Someone paid it forward with His very life. Moreover, we know great miracles are happening worldwide and the Lord’s Kingdom is growing larger because the devil is being exposed. The Lord’s LIGHT is shining on the great darkness in this world. His TRUTH is exposing all the lies and false narratives. This combination of spiritual Light and Truth means the enemy must be on the run from both.
He and his minions, including those of the human variety, can run for a while and hide for a while but will never be able to outrun the Lord Jesus or hide forever.
© 2022 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved. [To Be Continued]
[1] Unless otherwise noted all Scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
IF YOU’RE WONDERING WHEN THIS EVIL WILL END… (1)
IF YOU’RE WONDERING WHEN THIS EVIL WILL END… (2)
IF YOU’RE WONDERING WHEN THIS EVIL WILL END… (3)
IF YOU’RE WONDERING WHEN THIS EVIL WILL END… (5)
IF YOU’RE WONDERING WHEN THIS EVIL WILL END… (6)
IF YOU’RE WONDERING WHEN THIS EVIL WILL END… (7)
THERE IS POWER IN THE NAME OF JESUS!
There is absolute power and authority in His Name. And He has given real Christians the use of His Name to activate His authority!
“And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all.” [Acts 3:16]
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If you are looking for a miracle the first thing you need to do is believe in the Lord Jesus. You must know that He loves you. You must also know that He is the one who brought the whole thing up to begin with, in that miracles are His idea. We learned this from Him. We didn’t make it up.
Why then do we sometimes think He would rather not be involved in the very process He created? We never need to convince Him. It has always been His idea. He performed miracles. He taught His disciples how to perform miracles. They taught others how to perform miracles. Miracles have never ceased and continue today.
Well, actually, let me rephrase that. Miracles always cease or become impossible when there is no faith involved. There must be faith. Faith is very powerful. A person must possess it. It may exist within a person in latent form. If so it must be activated.
If a person believes miracles are no longer possible or that they ceased to exist at some point then for that person there can be no miracles, simply because that person believes in the opposite of what the Lord told us to believe.
This is a very interesting point of doctrine because one cannot be saved without faith. Salvation requires faith. Why would one believe the Lord for the greatest miracle—salvation and eternal life—but not for anything else? The Lord taught no distinction in faith, in that one may have one kind of faith for salvation but not for anything else. Faith is faith. It is all-embracing. It can be used for anything the Lord used it for.
But remember, what we are talking about here is faith in Him. Is He shooting straight with us? Is He telling us the truth? Can we really trust Him? Is He for real? Can I really trust my life with Him? When He says He has paid for my sins and can wash them all away, and that He can deliver me from sin and its effects, is He really telling me the truth? Can I really trust Him? If He can take my sin away and actually bless me with eternal life and save my soul, and keep me from eternal destruction, is He telling the truth? Can He really do all that?
It appears that most Christians believe He can. The only way they can believe that is if they have a measure of faith in Him. It is impossible otherwise. Since we have faith for salvation, all we must do from that point is simply believe in other miraculous works beyond salvation.
A MEASURE OF FAITH AND FIRST THINGS FIRST
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. [Romans 12:1-3] [1]
Regarding the use of our faith, there are conditions. Before one can use their faith for anything else, they must first use it for salvation. They must first believe that the Lord can save them from sin. Whether or not one possesses a latent measure of faith or not, faith must arise at some point or salvation is impossible. I don’t know about you, but I thought I was a good guy before my salvation experience, until I heard the Word of God from an anointed minister of the Gospel. I got convicted. I found out I was a sinner.
Of course, I knew that. But because there had never been any solution to it, I, like most people, simply learned to live with it. It may be our conscience telling us we did wrong. Whatever. All honest people of a sound mind know they do wrong. The Word of God calls it sin. The worst sin is sin against the Lord. But when people go about their daily lives sinning on occasion they just continue on. They don’t know what else to do. They try to do right but do not always succeed. Some just give up. Their sin can become a heavy burden. They try to deal with it.
But again, when we are told by the Lord through one His ministers we have sinned, and when our conscience bears witness to that fact, the first reaction is to fix it, and for the first time it looks like there may actually be a solution that really works. That’s why a real minister will not only tell people about their sin, he will also tell them how to be rid of it.
ACTIVATING YOUR FAITH
Somewhere in that process a person believes what the Word of God says and believes he can be set free. That is faith. Whether the faith was always there or not does not matter, because it is there at that moment. A person believes at that moment. He activates his faith.
He is then told he must repent, which means to turn away from sin and quit sinning. Once a person does this properly, according to the Biblical model, the Lord Jesus is then able to forgive and wash away all prior sins committed by that person. The Lord also gives a person power over sin so he can stop sinning. More on that later.
Water baptism is part of this process and that is why it is always closely connected in Scripture with initial faith and repentance. Water baptism is also conducted unto the Lord Jesus and His Name must be invoked as it was all throughout Scripture. Again, there is great absolute power in the Name of Jesus. Many people get delivered at baptism. All former connections to bad spirits and whatever else are severed. A person becomes totally delivered and set free and actually feels a release! Something very profound happens! It can be a very emotional experience and should be.
Salvation is the best thing that can ever happen to anyone. Imagine being taken from certain death on the road to hell to new life on the road to heaven! This is what the Lord made possible through everything He did for us, including giving His very life on the cross. It is why His Name is above every name and carries absolute authority.
Therefore, one’s faith in the Lord Jesus manifested powerfully for salvation can also be used for other things. Keep that in mind as you seek the Lord’s help for your present need, no matter how great it may be. Be blessed!
“All things are possible to him who believes.” [Mark 9:23]
© 2017 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved.
[1] Unless otherwise noted all Scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Attitude of Gratitude
We have much to be thankful for. We are blessed. But we must reserve our greatest thanks for the Lord Jesus. With Him all things are possible!
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THE CHILDREN
And they were bringing children to Him so that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and said to them, “Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.” And He took them in His arms and began blessing them, laying His hands on them. [Mark 10:13-16]
THE WEALTHY POSSESSED BY POSSESSIONS
As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments, ‘DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, Do not defraud, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.’” And he said to Him, “Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up.”
Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But at these words he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property. And Jesus, looking around, said to His disciples, “How hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!” [Mark 10:17-23]
THE CHILDREN NOT POSSESSED BY POSSESSIONS
The disciples were amazed at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” They were even more astonished and said to Him, “Then who can be saved?” Looking at them, Jesus said, “With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.”
Peter began to say to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You.” Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last, first.” [Mark 10:24-31]
Please note that when the Lord taught to give to the poor He was referring to the humble poor and never those demanding a handout. If they beg it is only because they are trying to survive and it’s the only thing they know to do. They would rather never have to ask for help. Many never do. They want to be successful. They want to work and be productive.
There were many poor in the Lord’s day. There was one man who was lame from birth and could not work. He was over forty years old. The only thing he knew to do to survive was beg for alms. Many people had given him alms during his life or he would never have survived. But when Peter and John, who knew this man, after Pentecost, approached him yet again, they did not offer money, because they had none. Instead, they gave the man what he had always wanted—to be whole, to be productive, the serve the Lord the best way possible, and to excel. How do we know this? Look at his attitude after he received his long sought miracle:
Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. And a man who had been lame from his mother’s womb was being carried along, whom they used to set down every day at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, in order to beg alms of those who were entering the temple.
When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he began asking to receive alms. But Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him and said, “Look at us!” And he began to give them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—walk!” And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened.
With a leap he stood upright and began to walk; and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God; and they were taking note of him as being the one who used to sit at the Beautiful Gate of the temple to beg alms, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. [Acts 10:1-10] [1]
This man had an attitude of gratitude. He was faithful. He waited for his miracle for over forty years. When he at last received it he gave the Lord all the glory! Imagine how many children entered into the kingdom as a result of this man’s faithfulness, obedience, and thankful attitude. Good job!
ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE
Be thankful for all you have received.
Be thankful for all you are going to receive.
Be thankful for the One who gave it all for you.
© 2016 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved.
[1] Unless otherwise noted all Scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Pharisees’ Conspiracies and Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit
But the Pharisees went out and conspired against Him, as to how they might destroy Him. But Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. [Matthew 12:14-15a]
There were many attempts on the Lord’s life during His ministry but all attempts failed. One of the reasons such attempts failed is illustrated in the verse above: He withdrew from there.
The hateful and despicable Pharisees, those who could never do anything straightforward and honest out in the open but were ever of a mind to conspire behind the scenes, were constantly huddling together in small secret groups. In this particular case it was probably with the Herodians, discussing among themselves how to stop the God of all Creation from attending to the very ministry designed to save them as well. In their perspective, of course, the Lord Jesus was certainly not God—He was the farthest thing from YHWH they could imagine—and was not even a prophet.
In fact, in their grossly contorted religious view, He was nothing good whatsoever, but a mere phony and a pretender. To them such a conclusion was obvious because He and His teachings were so very different from them and theirs—their perfect traditional theologies and liturgies—and the fact that religious and social appearances seemed so unimportant to Him while they reveled in their masquerades and political connections, and were wholly dependent upon them.
They also hated Him because He could do things they could not, and the people recognized this and pursued the Lord Jesus for the good He did and great love they felt from Him, which meant the people the Pharisees had so successfully corralled and brainwashed for so many long decades quit honoring them and their dead heartless religion that did nothing of any consequence for the soul.
These religious elites thus felt greatly threatened by a single Man who proposed no threat toward good but certainly toward evil, lies, and deception, and cared not in their hearts if such a Man cast a Light on them since they were foresworn to never repent and join Him (because they saw themselves as the epitome of rightness and righteousness already—the supreme leaders of the chosen people), and to never accept under any conditions whatsoever such a false Messiah who made them feel so uncomfortable about themselves to the point that His murder became top priority at all costs.
Many followed Him, and He healed them all, and warned them not to tell who He was. This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet:
“BEHOLD, MY SERVANT WHOM I HAVE CHOSEN; MY BELOVED IN WHOM MY SOUL is WELL-PLEASED; I WILL PUT MY SPIRIT UPON HIM, AND HE SHALL PROCLAIM JUSTICE TO THE GENTILES. HE WILL NOT QUARREL, NOR CRY OUT; NOR WILL ANYONE HEAR HIS VOICE IN THE STREETS. A BATTERED REED HE WILL NOT BREAK OFF, AND A SMOLDERING WICK HE WILL NOT PUT OUT, UNTIL HE LEADS JUSTICE TO VICTORY. AND IN HIS NAME THE GENTILES WILL HOPE.”
Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus, and He healed him, so that the mute man spoke and saw. [Matthew 12:15b-22]
Here we have a fulfillment of the Isaiah prophecy in one verse taking place in the life of a single man, who was just as real as you or I, and just as much in need. When Christianity starts going south, Christians no longer see themselves as sinners in need but as cultural Christians living according to other belief systems and dogmas than the Lord’s pure curriculum, and fallen into taking political sides and becoming issues-oriented rather than God-dependent.
When people at last see and admit they have been made blind and mute by deceptive and extremely evil, secretive demonic influence, they RUN to altars of repentance in the attempt to get free, just as the blind and deaf man did in the above passage. He needed help, of course. A demon had taken control of him and rendered his natural ability to see and speak unworkable. It was not that his eyes and mouth could not function due to any biological defect, but that the demon put clamps on their operation.
As a result, the man was rendered powerless. He could not see, illustrating a lack of spiritual insight, and he could not speak, meaning someone or something had silenced his voice. This man was in obvious fear. He most likely had no idea that a demon had taken control of him, only that he could not see nor speak, and that he was not the person God had created, but much less. When this happens to thousands of people at a time and even more, nations are changed. A populace becomes in great need of Light though they cannot see the need fully, and are often made to believe they must reject the cure. They become afraid to speak. They dare not challenge those who rule them for fear of being subjected to worse.
How many such people in need during the Lord’s time entered into bondage due to the religious influence of the Pharisees, who certainly had no answer for the man’s predicament, but might certainly have been the cause? The Lord Jesus rescued him, though, and did it quickly. The man’s speech and eyesight were restored, and his great fear vanished.
All the crowds were amazed, and were saying, “This man cannot be the Son of David, can he?” But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.”
And knowing their thoughts Jesus said to them, “Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself will not stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand? If I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? For this reason they will be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
“Or how can anyone enter the strong man’s house and carry off his property, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.” [Matthew 12:23-29]
The man’s house had certainly been plundered. The question concerns how the man was bound. How did a demon get into this man’s body, steal his property, make him blind and mute, and plunder his house? This speaks in general terms of nations. Isaiah referred to the Gentiles in his passage, something the Pharisees no doubt had a great problem with, since they hated the Gentiles with a passion. To them, the world consisted of them and human animals—those to whom the Torah did not apply and who could be used and abused in any way they saw fit.
And these Gentiles mentioned in the prophetic writings of a Hebrew prophet would have justice proclaimed to them. Justice! At last! And from a Hebrew Messiah! In whose great Name they will hope!
The obvious connotation here is that the Gentile nations would be in darkness awaiting the great Light. The further question is who put them in this darkness? How did demonic influence so take hold in their respective nations that whole countries were rendered blind and mute? These things don’t just happen. Someone or something causes it. Someone makes decisions toward it. Yet, many Christians are made to believe that victims are in their predicament by their own choosing and through their own fault, and are therefore unworthy of help.
THANK THE LORD JESUS HE DOES NOT HAVE THAT MINDSET OR ATTITUDE.
It is a simple fact that “sinners” in great need of help and deliverance go to “houses of worship” all the time and never get the help they need. Though a great production takes place on Sunday mornings, such people almost always leave the way they arrived. The love and power of God simply does not exist in such places, meaning such congregations in their own right have become blind and mute, and unable to help as the Lord did. How did they get this way?
“He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters.
“Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.” [Matthew 12:30-32]
Uh oh. It appears as though the Pharisees are still here. If they would attack the Lord so strongly and even gnash their teeth at Stephen, they would certainly have a great problem with any of that Pentecostal, Charismatic, weirdo stuff some people engage in. They were never able to kill the Lord through all their secret plots until He reached the point in time in which He would lay Himself down as the Sacrifice Lamb. And no matter what they ever said about Him or did do Him, it could all be potentially forgiven.
But blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is a different story. The fact is that Unreal Christians have blasphemed the Spirit of God repeatedly throughout history and are still engaged in the process today. And they wonder why they cannot do the things the Lord Jesus did. They will never admit to being blind and mute, only that what they have remains religiously proper and in no need of correction.
Just like the Pharisees.
“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit.
You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.
The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil.” [Matthew 12:33-35] [1]
© 2014 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved.
[1] Unless otherwise noted all Scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
