In the gospel of John in the New Testament we read of several people who were followers of Christ for a time and then they walked away from Him. Basically they walked away because they knew a deeper commitment would be expected from each one of them if they stayed. They enjoyed being part of the in-crowd taking full advantage of His provisions of food, spiritual, mental and physical healing, they were impressed and blessed by His supernatural wisdom, power and authority exercised on their behalf, but that’s as much as they wanted.
In other words, anything that didn’t cost, they were more than willing to take. I was grateful for such insight into human nature before I went out on the streets ministering to people. It helped me not to get too caught up in the “save the city” or “save the world” mentality that many Christian people seem to embrace when sharing Christ’s gospel. I went out expecting “to win some” as the apostle Paul put it, but not win all. Having said that, I knew also that I was not the one to determine who would and who would not accept the Lord’s message.
That’s why I spoke to every person who gave me their ears. Mrs Gill gave me her ears, as well as an invitation inside her home for a cup of tea. Her husband had died and was buried just a few days before my call. Naturally she was upset as she told me what had happened. He had been sitting at the table doing a crossword puzzle as he watched an International cricket match on television when all of a sudden he fell to the floor. She came to his assistance, but it was too late, he was dead.
She attended her local church around the corner from her home and it seemed she was getting the help needed for such a sad time. Four months later when I visited her again, Mrs Gill told me that she was mostly at peace, but found herself crying when first awake in the mornings. I explained that her grief may continue for some time in the future, but Jesus, being the Prince of Peace would always be her comfort if she sought Him. She nodded in agreement, but then went on to say that she’d been doing Tai Chi for two years, and “that gives me lots of peace too.”
Mrs Gill was the product of a compromising, man-centered, watered-down gospel – a gospel at no cost. But it seemed to suit her. My encouragement was for her to look only to Jesus as her source for her every need. She let me pray for her but I don’t know if she gave up that practice. Tai Chi has its roots in Taoism. Taoism and Jesus Christ are totally incompatible. I was later to find out that Mrs Gill’s church had been compromising the Lord Jesus Christ and the Bible for quite a few years. There’s only one outcome to be expected from such a choice. Eventually it will dry up spiritually and close down. That’s what happened.
The first time I met Mrs Wood at her door she told me that her brother was in hospital with severe brain damage. She let me pray for her and in the middle of it she burst into tears. I went back about a month later and this time Mrs Wood invited me inside. She had a few questions to ask about the Bible and Christ and because she had some Christian background she did not dispute His claims of deity, nor that He was the one and only Saviour and Lord for the world. We spoke about peace. Again, I mentioned Christ as the Prince of Peace. Like Mrs Gill she nodded and then went on to talk about Tai Chi.
Mrs Wood told me she’d been practicing this for eighteen months and that it gave her, “great peace of mind.” My encouragement once again was to point her in the direction of the Lord, saying that it was peace in our spirit that was on God’s heart, and that if she had that, then peace of mind would be a natural by-product. She appeared reluctant to accept the truth that if one is at peace with God, then one will always experience the peace of God. It was as though this lady was well aware of what was being said, but like multitudes of others, she was going to seek fulfillment elsewhere anyway.
Nine months later I called again. Nothing had changed accept Mrs Wood told me that her brain-damaged brother was getting better with each day. I lifted up Jesus, she lifted up Tai Chi. She shared how she’d not long been home from a five weeks holiday in China. Then she went on to tell me how deeply religious and humble the Chinese people were who practiced Tai Chi. I have no reason to doubt the sincerity of the people she was speaking about, but I did have reason to doubt the sincerity of Mrs Wood. I discerned that she was using this practice as a smokescreen to avoid facing up to the cost of Christ’s call upon her life.
James phoned the church asking for advice about demonic oppression. He’d heard that we were a church that operated in the deliverance ministry so he asked for an appointment. I was part of the ministry team and was asked to sit with him and find out where he was at. James, in his early twenties, made it very clear that he wanted “to be free from these demons.” He was not a believer, so I informed him that it is usually a waste of time seeking deliverance without first surrendering one’s life to Jesus Christ and the Scriptures. So he said he would do so and asked for prayer.
He was also quite ignorant of the purpose of why Jesus Christ came to earth. He didn’t really see himself as one who needed redemption from sin. Like multitudes of people James thought that if he simply “confessed his sin” then all would be ok, the devil would go. In other words, he thought his lips would do what God has told us only a contrite, humble heart will do. I heard the words from James’ lips but I discerned that his heart was far from believing them. Basically, James saw himself as a victim, which was true to a point but he was reluctant to acknowledge the part he played in adding to his problems.
Like others before him that I’d ministered to, he came from a home where there was violence, alcohol and divorce. As a result of such an environment James found it most convenient to blame others. Rejection and unforgiveness were the controlling demons. He thought otherwise, believing it to be drugs and alcohol. I explained that these were the fruit of his problems, but not the root. Abusive, negative words had been constantly spoken over his life from a young age by both parents and so deeply ingrained within him were those words now, that he believed every one of them.
When I mentioned that the demons of rejection and unforgiveness would go only on the basis of him receiving and living for the Lord Jesus Christ, plus confessing true forgiveness towards his parents, he really struggled with the thought of it. James wanted what God offered but only at no cost to himself. We spent more than two hours with this young man in prayer and ministry but in the end we had to bring our time to a close. It was not that God was limited in His power to release James, it was that James limited God, by his unwillingness to let go of his so-called right to be right.
Biblically, “salvation” means: ‘deliverance from the guilt and penalties of sin, to enjoy instead, the unchanging favours of God forever.’ It is a gift from God freely offered to every person. But there is a condition to receiving this gift and that is, one must repent of their sin and by faith alone, believe and receive Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord alone. All through church history there have been multitudes who have acknowledged Christ as Saviour, but not as Lord. To acknowledge Him as Lord does come at a cost. It costs you your life. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” Matthew 7:21.