A Real Enemy           

 

Beloved, we have a real enemy. He is satan, the devil. He is so evil that I believe the English Language does not provide the right word with which to describe him. This enemy of ours is very busy. In 1Peter 5:8, the Bible says that the devil roars around like a lion seeking whom to devour. And we are encouraged to “resist him steadfast in the faith”.

 

The point is that this enemy of ours will make you his target once he realises that you are a threat to his kingdom. Naturally, no mother would sit back and watch a stranger come and snatch away one of her siblings. She would do anything to protect what is hers. So also it is with the devil. He wouldn’t sit back and watch you come to take anyone from his territory. He will make you the object of His constant attention. But “thanks be unto God, who always causes us to triumph in Christ, and makes manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place” (2 Cor.2: 14).

 

Wow! What a year this has been for us as a family. As challenging as it has been, we are rejoicing in the assurance that not one hair on our heads has dropped to the ground without the knowledge of Our Gracious Father. He, who also promised not to tempt us beyond what we are able to endure, has been faithful to fulfil His word. So, although we have been troubled on every side, yet we are not distressed; we may have been perplexed, yet, we have not despaired; persecuted, we have not been forsaken; cast down, we have not been destroyed (2Cor.4: 8-9). Praise the Lord! No matter how much the devil has tried to afflict us, to stop us from accomplishing God’s will and purposes, he has discovered that ‘the things that have befallen us have rather led to the furtherance of the gospel’. The devil may have tried very hard to delay the production of this and other issues of the ‘Millennium Echo’, nevertheless he has failed in his attempt to stop it. For, when God opens a door, the devil and his demons are too small to shut it. May I seize this opportunity to express our appreciation to everyone who has stood with us through what have been very peculiar trials?

 

Taking Action

You’d recall that in the last issue of the ‘Millennium Echo’, I told you about an encounter with a friend who confronted me with the fact that I had never really explained to her how to be ‘born again’. I had assumed that she knew about it all, but was only being stubborn. What a relief it was that she eventually got saved. I don’t know how I would have faced the Lord if she had to point an accusing finger at my face before God’s judgement throne. That experience around the mid-1980s, revolutionised my Christian life.

 

I’m sure you would like to know what I did after that encounter. I published a tract titled ‘Sorry, I thought you knew’, and sent it to as many people as I knew. The tract was based on my encounter with this friend. It gave the simple message of salvation, and explained what it was, and how, to be born again. It was important that I took action, for as the English adage goes, ‘once beaten, twice shine’. I also wrote another version of the tract for Christians titled ‘Have You Told Them?’ The tract encouraged Christians not to assume that our close friends and relatives understood what it was to be saved. Recently, I have revised the tract for non-Christians and given it the title, ‘Just in Case …’. I have also published another tract based on my experience with my late GP titled, ‘I Never Told Him’. I endeavour to carry these and other tracts in my handbag whenever I’m in motion, and give them out as the Spirit of the Lord leads.

 

The Heart of God

Dear friends, I don’t know whether or not we appreciate the pain that goes through the heart of God when a person dies without Christ and goes to hell. Except the Holy Spirit gives us a revelation on this matter, we would remain complacent on this issue of soul-winning. The point should be made that any time a sinner dies without Christ, it defeats the very purpose for which Jesus died on the Cross. For, it is not the will of God that any should perish, but that ALL will come to repentance and be saved. God did not create hell for man, but for the devil and his demons. How it touches my heart so deeply whenever I hear Reinhard Bonnke declare that “there’s only one thing and one thing only … I want to see heaven full and hell empty”. Wow! I would to God that we all made this our number one goal in life.

 

 

All Things to All Men

The interesting thing about the gospel is that it is so simple, that it can be explained in so many ways. This is typical of God – simplicity. He makes the gospel so simple and so uncomplicated that it makes one wonder how anyone can refuse to accept such love – so freely given.

 

The point is that those who hear the gospel and harden their hearts or fail to believe it, have themselves to blame. How about the many who do not even know what it is to be saved?  It is true that many have heard (and some even ridicule) the phraseology ‘born-again’. But the truth is that many do not know what it means.

 

Dear friends, we have been duly commissioned to “go into the world and preach the gospel to every creature”. Romans 10: 13-14 puts it this way: “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved”. It then goes on to ask, “ How … shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?

 

Beloved, there is nothing that the Lord can do if we do not take steps of faith to share the gospel. Paul was conscious of this when he cried out, ‘woe is me if I do not preach the gospel’. In 1 Cor.9: 22, he went further to say that he had ‘become all things to all men, that (he) might by all means save some’. We may not be able to save everyone, but some will be saved. And perhaps, if were all determined to save some, then we may end up getting everyone saved. Think about this!

 

 

Despise Not Small Things

Another very interesting thing about God is that you cannot always predict how He would act at any point in time. That makes Him Sovereign. Hence, the Bible says that His ways are not our ways, neither are His thoughts our thoughts. God can save a person any time, anywhere, anyhow. He can use even the things that look so base in the eyes of man, to save a soul. Ours is to be sensitive in the Spirit, and to be obedient.

 

Although I had heard testimonies of people who got saved through reading a tract, I was particularly encouraged recently when I heard a very prominent man of God say that he got saved through reading a tract someone had given to him. I’ve also heard other testimonies of people who got saved through reading a book.

 

Beloved, let us be faithful in fulfilling the Great Commission. That is one thing that Jesus has specifically required all believers to do, irrespective of our age, sex, race, colour or position. No one is too big or too important to preach the gospel, or to share the good news with others. Jesus says that if we are ashamed of Him before men, He also will be ashamed of us on that day when we shall stand before His Father and before His angels.

 

Believers’ Mission Statement

You will recall that in one of my issues of Heffo, I mentioned that the mission statement of every spirit-filled believer is in Isaiah 61:1-3:

“The spirit of the Lord God is upon (us); because the Lord has anointed (us) to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent (us) to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified”. 

 

Through the grace of our Lord bestowed on us, we shall be enabled to do that which we have been commissioned to do. We need to be conscious, and focused on the reason for which we have been saved.

 

Need for Balance

One of the reasons many of us ‘forget’ the most important thing we have been saved to do, is the fact that we are too entangled with the affairs of this life (2Tim.2: 4).

 

Whilst we go about our daily activities, let us ask the Lord to help us to maintain a steady balance in our lives, so that like Jesus, we would be able to ‘render unto Caeser, the things that are Caeser’s, and unto God, the things that are God’s. Remember,

‘only one life twill soon be past; only what’s done for Christ will last’.

 

Remain blessed, and keep the fire of God in you burning