God said, “Humility, not ability.”

A friend from overseas stayed for a couple of nights recently. He knows my stand for the Lord Jesus, the gospel and the Bible. During times of both national and international disasters he’s heard me speak of the Bible’s promises of blessing and protection for obedience to God and His promises of judgment and lack of protection for on-going disobedience to Him. I’ve spoken about God still being in control during the events of 9/11, the 2004 Asian tsunami, the wars in the Middle East and why Israel is forever in the news, plus the various earthquakes around the world – especially those in recent years; Haiti, Chile, New Zealand and Japan.

The man has had much personal experience with the two (Christchurch) NZ earthquakes, his home being damaged in both of them. But he’s also given testimony to his being spared during those events, plus the sparing of others in his circle. They’ve discussed since, where they were when disaster struck and where they usually are at that time … fully knowing that if they had been there, they would probably not be alive to talk about it today. In other words, each one has acknowledged  that it was not by chance that they’re alive and uninjured today. More than once this friend has been informed that God’s protection was upon him in answer to years of prayer on his behalf.

Prior to 9/11 he didn’t believe me when I spoke of the things of God, but after it he said, “I do now.” Back then I informed him that the world faces more disasters in the future and, “without the Lord Jesus, life will not go well for most people.” Life is not going well for him right now. I’ve known that for a while so I’ve been bringing him before God regularly in prayer. So when he informed me of his coming I knew that in one way or another, this was the Lord’s timing to get serious. At an opportune time I spoke firmly to him saying, “The Lord Jesus has a word for you, He’s going to speak it through me and I strongly advise that you act on it, because He is not going to plead with you forever.“

He nodded and said, “Ok.” Then he said, “So you’re going to tell me what’s wrong with me – is that it?” I said, “I’m not going to tell you anything, the Lord Jesus is. The wrongs are between you and Him. And, whatever wrongs show up for you, will only do so, so as He can put them right. That’s why the gospel is called ‘good news.'” He was open-spirited to this so I proceeded to minister to him using a series of ‘Four Spiritual Laws’ diagrams. He’s heard the gospel before, but in my opinion, there’s nothing like diagrams to reinforce the message, it increases people’s attention spans when Satan would like nothing better than to bring distractions to them.

In times past we’d spoken about the reality of physical laws governing the universe (physics, gravity) and the price one pays for violating them so I mentioned the same applies when we violate God’s spiritual laws – the first law being, His love John 3:16. In other words, push God (Ultimate Love) out of your life and sooner or later (usually later) you’ll pay a price for that in loneliness, emptiness, guilt and fear. I told him that God has a plan for his life, that it would be a full and meaningful life – an eternal plan, “it begins for you the moment you choose it” John 10:10. He wanted to know about those who died in the earthquake. That being a diversion from Satan, I said, “that’s God’s business, not yours.” He nodded.

He already knew something of the second spiritual law that we’re all sinful and fall short of God’s glory (dignity, honor, praise, worship) and as a result, makes us inadequate and guilty before Him Romans 3:23. I asked him for his definition of sin and like most people he referred to thoughts and acts he knows to be wrong. He became uneasy when I mentioned that it is much worse than that – that it is, in fact, rebellion. I said, “Like I was for 39 years, you’re currently an independent, self-willed rebel, out of harmony with God and you’re paying a high price for that … but Jesus paid an even higher price. He died for you, so you don’t have to.” I told him nobody likes to hear that, “but that’s the reality of where you’re at right now.”

I explained spiritual death to my friend as being spiritual separation from God Romans 6:23. Then, “if you think what you’ve been through is hell (and it was) then it’s just a tiny glimpse of what it could be like for you if you choose to remain a rebel.” He nodded as he looked at the diagram showing God as holy and man as sinful with a gulf between the two, that people (rebels) are forever trying to bridge through continuous self-effort and self-righteousness, religious or otherwise. Then when learning of the third spiritual Law, and seeing a diagram of Jesus (the bridge over the gulf), hanging on the cross, plus hearing that Jesus is God’s only provision for his sin John 14:6, he snapped! “That’s it! I’ve had enough of this!”

I told him that was his choice, but it was a dangerous one to make, “you will not be able to presume on mercy or protection from God from this moment forward.” When someone such as this man, after all the years of knowing me as a biblical Christian replies to that with, “Anyhow, this is all just what you believe,” I know that the Spirit of God has removed Himself and the god of this world has moved back in and he has only one mission, to blind that mind to the light of the glorious gospel of Christ 2 Corinthians 4:4. The man doesn’t deny the spiritual realm … only the Spirit of truth John 14:17. How sad. So close, yet so far. Hell is The Great Regret.

Like many before him, my friend was open to learning about the gulf between God and man, but once hearing, “it’s never what you can do for God, but only what God can do for you through Jesus Christ” it all became too much for the rebellious heart to endure. In life he’s a doer, a man who pushes himself to the limits to achieve the things he has, so when God said, “Humility, not ability” that’s when the rebel showed up. It often does with people in these latter days, in my experience. I didn’t get to share the fourth Spiritual Law with him. The fact that we must repent of our sin (rebellion) and sins (as results of our rebellion) – the fact that we must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior plus Lord……..

The fact that unless we do receive Him as such and believe in His name, we have no right to call ourselves children of God John 1:12 – the fact that we are saved by grace through faith and not by self-righteousness through self-effort Ephesians 2:8-9 – the fact that we cannot justify our sinful thoughts, words or acts by saying, “that’s the way I was born” because Jesus said, “You must be born again” John 3:7 … most people despise those facts. They know they’re true but it won’t stop them from denying them when self is at stake. Intellectual knowledge of who Jesus is and what He did and does is ok, even perhaps an emotional experience of it, but, commitment? Surrender? Death to self, wishes, plans and desires? That’s a different ball-game.  

There are a variety of seemingly good ways one can live the self-directed life but every one of them leads onto a pathway of death, with lots of discord, confusion and frustration along the way – a kind of living death before the real thing takes place. This is a great concern for God. So much so that He warns us twice about it in the Bible Proverbs 14:12; 16:25. God does not want anyone to perish! We who live the Christ-directed life are often accused of living by blind faith, but the reality is, that’s the “faith” of our accusers. They’re forever saying, “I believe this” and “I think that” but always with absolutely no evidence to back it up, only opinions. How blind is that?

Biblical faith is not blind faith; it is faith (assurance, belief, fidelity) in the testimony of God Himself. In fact more than that; it is God’s faith gifted to us the moment we turn to Christ, and it remains the work of God in us right on into eternity. It’s the same faith that Old Testament Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David and all the prophets had, enabling them to accomplish the will of God, before Christ. And when we come over into the New Testament we see exactly the same thing in Jesus, the apostles and everyone else called of God. We live by God’s faith, we walk by God’s faith, we pray by God’s faith, we resist evil by God’s faith, we overcome the world and all its sordid little playthings by God’s faith and we die in God’s faith.

A faith that is anything less than that is not faith at all it’s presumption. And God has nothing good to say about the presumptuous (proud, arrogant, self-willed) person who lives and acts presumptuously regardless of how religious or irreligious, how clever and sophisticated they claim to be. Such a person not only rejects the word of God that comes to them, they despise it. This is so evident in the world today with our political and church leaders; many of them presuming upon God as they shake their fists in defiance at Him over same-sex (sodomite) marriage, abortion (infanticide) and euthanasia (suicide/homicide). No wonder God’s final plan for them includes the second death Revelation 21:8.

So where to now for this man? Well, he’s still a friend, but personally I believe he’s on his own from here on in. He’s hardened his heart therefore God’s got nothing more to say to him. When we shook hands and parted I watched him walk away and only one word came to mind – lost. Everybody’s lost until they’re found by Christ, but like the majority of people in all generations he doesn’t want to be found. Like them, he will continue to question and blame God when bad and sad things happen and when somebody else endeavors to give biblical explanations, he will reject them all in favor of his opinions, “I believe this” and “I think that”. It’s the language of the lost. “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him – the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day” John 12:48.