Men who are entrenched in false doctrines and intertwined with the countless devils that propagate those false doctrines will not be converted without some real-time spiritual warfare.
You are going to HAVE to be willing to march into Hell.
Men and women and young people who are bound in Satan's delusions will not be set free until some saint of God rises up and challenges the status quo. SOMEBODY has to rebuke the devil and cast him out. SOMEBODY has to preach the only Truth that can make them free. And that is the Apostolic Pentecostal Holiness message.
One of the reasons why we see so few people dramatically converted in our time is that we are so reluctant to offend anyone or provoke controversy. Well, Jesus caused controversy literally everywhere He went, and so did His Apostles. Their message was never apologetic, bashful or reluctant. It was straightforward and to the point. People either loved them or hated them. That was an indicator of how well they got under peoples' skin. And when the hatred boiled, their lives were imperiled. Again and again, they literally had to flee the conflict, because the holy Gospel they preached was in fact offending rebellious carnal minds and stirring up whole nests of devils.
Go ahead and remind me here to "speak the Truth in love."
Is it love to remain silent while your loved one perishes in flames?
Many years ago, I pastored a man who had long resisted the call of God. On a particular Sunday night, I pleaded with him to come to the altar and get right with God, but he would not budge.
Only a few days later, a terrible explosion at a local refinery killed and injured several men. I received a call to come to the Burns Unit in Hermann Hospital in Houston. When I arrived, there lay the man I had begged to get right with God only a few days earlier. He was burned over 100% of his body. He was swollen twice his normal size, to the point it looked like he would burst. He was unconscious. When I spoke to him, huge tears began to roll down his cheeks, but he could not respond in any way. He died shortly after I walked out of the room.
On another occasion, I preached in a church on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. A group of teenage boys sat on the front row. One of them had a history of rebellion and misbehaving. At the conclusion of my preaching that night, I did my best to get him to the altar to repent of his sins, but he stubbornly resisted. Later that night, after I had gone to my room and was in bed asleep, I was awakened by the sound of ambulances screaming up and down the beach highway. I learned the next morning that the very teenager that I had pleaded with the night before had been involved in a fatal accident after midnight.
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| Save them from the fire. |
If I saw one of my children, grandchildren or any of my loved ones engulfed in a house fire, I would scream, cry, run, kick down doors, or break out windows to get them out. I would NOT say, "they have a right to believe what they want to believe." I would NOT say, "it is their choice to remain in the fire." I would NOT say, "I might scare them if I come after them too aggressively." And I would consider them to be completely delusional if they argued, "I'm OK! This fire is not going to kill me!" I'm too smart to believe that. I must not be put off by their delusion.
I would just move heaven and earth to get to them and pull them out of the fire. Then, if they literally fight me off and demand that they have the right to die in the fire, or if they want to hate me for the radical approach I used to save them, they will be free to hate me.
But I will have shown MY LOVE FOR THEM in the highest form I know how to show, by confronting them shamelessly with God's Truth; AND I will also have delivered my soul from their blood.
But that will be precious little consolation.
I will forever wish I had done more.
"And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire;
hating even the garment spotted by the flesh," Jude 1:23.
hating even the garment spotted by the flesh," Jude 1:23.
We have dignified the devil and his heresies and heretics by respecting their point of view. We mock God by tolerating damnable lies that send multitudes to Hell in the name of Jesus. We have surrendered to the enemies by tolerating the very people and devils who entrap and enslave the ones we love more than all the world in their wicked self-serving false gospels. Why should I show even one ounce of reverence to any preacher who lies to the people I love, and snares them with false doctrines, deceptions, delusions, lies and heresies that will damn their souls to Hell for ETERNITY?
(Do we still believe in an eternal HELL?)
Is that not all the reason we need to raise our voices against every false gospel on earth? Is there not a CAUSE?
What kind of LOVE is it when I pat them on the back and bless them, and kiss and hug them while they are already in a free-fall into the Bottomless Pit?
This is no time for pretending that all is well.
It is time to preach the fear of God and the only Truth that can make them free.
What will you do when you stand at their casket and realize that if you had only said something more, they might have been saved; but because you did not intercede, they will be forever damned?
You will be ready to scream and kick down doors then.
But it will be too late.
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