Stop Getting Run Over by People who don’t Know God

“God doesn’t expect us to get run over by people who don’t know Him.” – Lester Sumrall. This post is dedicated to my fellow Christians who are getting run over by people who don’t know God. Certainly, we are called to turn the other cheek Matthew 5:39, when insulted and persecuted for righteousness’ sake, but it is wise too to balance that with Jesus’ promise, You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you: and you shall be witnesses to Me…… Acts 1:8. Much attention can be given to the first Scripture while not much attention can be given to the second one. If you give it as much attention, you’ll get a lot less run over by that crowd.

Some of the greatest antagonism expressed towards born again Christians (there is no other kind of Christian) can come from religious people. They don’t understand why, but it is very important we understand why. It is a clash of the spirits. We have the Holy Spirit, they have a religious spirit and religious spirits, whilst they hate the Holy Spirit, they fear Him greatly, nevertheless. Never wanting to be exposed by the Holy Spirit, religious spirits will work overtime in their attempts to immobilize us the very moment they come into our presence. If the religious person is a family member, they’ll quickly let you know they “are just as holy as you are!” Oftentimes that calls for us to turn the other cheek, sometimes it calls for us to be witnesses to Me – speak up.

One religious man I worked with quite often expressed antagonism towards me and through the Holy Spirit, turn the other cheek is what I did each time it came, knowing it was a religious spirit behind it all. Then one day his knee gave out which put him out of action for a few months. His attitude towards me changed when I spoke to him of Jesus being the healer. “But to believe that and to experience the reality of it,” I said, “requires one to put their trust in the Lord for healing, not trust in one’s religious practices. Would you like me to pray to Jesus for healing?” He didn’t hesitate to respond in the positive. He didn’t receive a full healing that day but he did experience the presence of the Lord and from that day forward the antagonism ceased.

I had a similar experience with another religious man I worked with; a businessman who put lots of effort into looking good for his clients. As such, his antagonism towards me was always much more subtle. Knowing I stood for the Lord didn’t stop him from blaspheming Jesus’ name from time to time. It’s never easy to turn the other cheek when religious people do that but that’s what I did for a few weeks. He often quoted Buddha and new-age philosophers in his client presentations too, to press home points he wanted them to grasp. One day I decided to speak privately and inform him the truth behind those quotes had all been stolen from the Bible and Jesus, “whose name you blaspheme.” He was a Roman Catholic.

From that time he stopped blaspheming Jesus, and quoted less the heathens! Some time later he began to show interest in the Bible and the Lord and asked questions. Too, I was able to share Biblical principles with him on how to make his day to day business operations work without having stress and hustle being part of the deal. Some years later when we parted ways he said, “I’ve learned a lot from you.” At the last, he knew something of the reality of Jesus’ promise, you shall be witnesses to Me and took both the Lord plus the things of God and the Bible more seriously. Yes, we do witness to the Lord when we turn the other cheek, but not always does that stop us from “getting run over by those who don’t know Him.”

When Jesus said, …..when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, He was telling His people they were going to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It’s what some call “being baptized in the Spirit” for the work of Christian ministry. They had already received the Holy Spirit in a measure because they all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication…… Acts 1:14. There’s little one accord without the Holy Spirit in a prayer gathering, but if there is, there’s little change in the people later. Once the meeting is over almost everybody goes their own way with little remembrance of what it was they had gathered together to pray for. Not for these people though, the Holy Spirit moved so mightily among them their lives were never the same afterwards!

Bible Christians receive the Holy Spirit the moment they confess Jesus Christ is Lord, but if that meant the Holy Spirit has come upon them there would be more evidence of such both in the church and in the world. The evidence is not there so that means there is something more to receive. Baptism in the Holy Spirit is the “something more.” How do we receive the baptism? We ask the Lord to search our heart for sin. If He shows us sin we confess it and get rid of it. From there, we ask Jesus to baptize us with the Spirit and we then receive Him by faith. We don’t sit around waiting till we have spoken in tongues; that may happen immediately or it may not. It may not happen at all. Everything we receive from God we receive by faith not feelings or acts.

To me, the evidence of whether I’m baptized in the Holy Spirit or not has little to do with speaking in tongues, but everything to do with my desire to pray and seek the Lord, hungering and thirsting for righteous, holiness and truth Matthew 5:6; and not just to know these but to live them and to speak up under the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit when the time is right to do so! There are plenty of tongues speakers in Christianity not doing that. And what happens to them? They get run over by those who don’t know God! Yes they do. Satan is not afraid of tongues speakers, he’s afraid of righteousness, holiness and truth speakers.

When Christians discipline themselves daily to pray and seek the Lord in the manner described above, it’s not too long before they know without a shadow of doubt that the Holy Spirit is upon them. The Spirit gives witness to this. When we walk we do so with purpose; when we talk we do so with purpose. We know who and what we are because of what Christ says who and what we are, His chosen children, His chosen messengers and, His chosen friends. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made know to you John 15:15. Abraham was called the friend of God James 2:23. We’re in good company!

Something else readily evident in Christians baptized in the Holy Spirit – spiritual authority. Religious spirits know it as a reality, but religious people struggle with it as a reality. They’re not able to come to terms with it because they’ve never seen that same authority in their leaders. They hear them talking about Jesus and quoting from the Bible but that’s all it is, talk and quoting. There’s no power in it hence no authority. So when they encounter us who do have the power and authority, they can’t help but express antagonism towards us. Not only do we threaten them, we also anger them because they know something’s missing in their leaders and they know they are being sold short. They may never admit that but that’s one reason for their questions later.

What do we do about the non-religious who are antagonistic towards us? How do we stop getting run over by them? The non-religious love their sin! That’s the only reason they’re antagonistic! Every time we come near them the demons within get stirred up. For example: when accusations of sexist or racist, bigoted and intolerant, xenophobic or homophobic etc. are thrown at us, we need to know that as sin-lovers, that’s what they are, not us. Any silly, infantile-thinking PC accusations spewing from their mouths is a reflection of their character, not ours. So the same response applies: turn the other cheek until such time as the Holy Spirit prompts us to stand up and be witnesses to Me. The Lord will take it from there.

Too much of the church is getting run over by people who don’t know God today and there will be no turning back from it. Romans 1:29-31 and 2 Timothy 3:1-5 describe the nature and character of those “sitting behind the wheel” and most of them are on their way to hell whether we turn the other cheek or not. Among the few, however, who don’t end up there will be those who respond to the reality of Acts 1:8 when they look at and listen to us. To hunger and thirst for righteousness, holiness and truth and to live it out is the way to stop getting run over by people who don’t know God. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God  for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every….. 2 Corinthians 10:4-6.