We Take On Wrath, Yet Have Peace

We Take On Wrath, Yet Have Peace      12-7-14  by Kelly Durant

2 Tim 3:12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. John 14:27

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid

2. The prophets of God in the Bible, the Christians in historical times, the true pastors of today, and any sincere Christian who will speak truth from the Word of God to others will suffer persecution!

Frequently in my past I would take my 4 children out with me to pass out gospel tracts. We would go into stores, laundry mats, beauty salons, and anywhere where we could give a salvation tract and even pray with people. But on the streets you will get attacked and I recall a very ugly incident one time.

A homeless type man with the most vulgar mouth I have ever heard got in my face and started pronouncing curses on me and my children. He said things I cannot repeat here but he claimed he had power to send do good Christians like me to hell that my children would grow up to be perverts living in misery and poverty that I would be cursed the rest of my life for sharing about Jesus with my kids! It was an ugly battle I will never forget! Not all homeless people are sweet and victims of society; some are demon possessed crazy violent people who are very evil!    

3. We live in times when it is dangerous to speak the truth of God because the offended people go on to inflame the mainstream media, the social media, and they seek to destroy you. God, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus are pure truth and light and Satan and his demons are empty of light and they are all about manipulating as many as possible with a lie. Satan’s people hate God’s people because they expose them so they cannot carry out their destructive agendas. 

There will always be a time when you will need to rebuke someone with truth from the Bible to guide them in love, but what happens when instead of that person accepting it that it was from God for their good they reject you and God’s word? What happens when they take it that you are being personally intrusive disturbing their agenda, criticizing them for an obvious major sin and morally calling them out?

You get the blunt of their rage and blame for what God convicted you to share with them! They want to kill the messenger over the message! And more than that, some people are so ignorant of the ways of the Lord and they are so evil that at the first insinuation that they could be at fault over something, suddenly you change from being a friend to an enemy they want revenge on! Christians most often get persecuted by those whom they are trying to love and trying to help!

3. I have experienced the loss of many dozens of so called friends throughout the years and it does hurt deep inside! It hurts when you discover that a person was only your friend for their own self-interests and not because they really were your friend in the love of God sharing your ideals of love and salvation in Jesus!

Where do you think the devil does his dirty work to destroy as many souls as possible, in bars and clubs? The truth is he already has most of those people in his bag so he doesn’t even worry about destroying them! They just keep giving into temptation after temptation because they have no power to overcome it and they destroy themselves! Life on earth is a misery for them and they inherit that as their eternal punishment for not repenting due to the fact they hurt many people and dishonored and dissed their Maker that loved them!

The people governed by their own greed and inordinate out of control passions not living Godly are not suffering persecution. They will suffer judgment when they die though! On the news today it seems like the violent people and unjust ones are praised and the ones conserving good are attacked. But despite good people and Christians being attacked, the Christians have power to gain great victories with our prayer partners! We will be saved from the hell that is to come as well!  But we must be faithful to the end to get a crown of life and never go back! Satan spends a lot of his time in the church and uses a lot of weak people to bring the good ones down and depress you! I have seen how some people go on their knees and pray for long periods of time, who are always there at the Bible studies too, but because they are weak, Satan uses them as a mouthpiece to persecute the ones doing good for God as they stand on the sidelines doing nothing!

4. The Word even states that Jesus went to get the church to face the demons and get them out of the church.   Mark 1:23

23 And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit;

Why is it that in so many churches there are many divisions and some so called men or women of God suddenly fall into sin? It is because Satan spends time in the heads of Christians and wants to destroy them! Those that fall prove some were true to the faith and some were not! The devil does his best to make Christians dead, compromised, and carnal critics of others. Satan, the accuser of the saints, wants us to imitate him (not Jesus)! If a person of us has their eyes on their own self, Satan takes advantage of one’s envy, pride, and weaknesses and the words or actions generated brings on serious consequences!

Knowing we would have to stand persecution and attacks from demons either within our own thoughts, or from without, Jesus sent his disciples in twos. Mark 6:7

7 And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits;

5. Why did Jesus send his people out in twos? Because when one falls the other one can lift him up. We all need to be accountable to another person. That means that we need husbands, wives, children, parents, or Christian friends aware of all the private areas of our lives that are weak to be sure we are not falling into sin. Satan does hate you and he attacks you in horrible ways but when someone is there to encourage you, they become your God sent protection.

We need to be confessing our faults one to another as the scripture commands in 1 John 1: 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

As human beings, we can get into a lot of wrong, unchristian habits, as many of the people of the world are doing today. If we do not have someone there to stop us when we are wrong then, we are at risk and in danger of leaving the way the Lord has taught us and don’t think it won’t happen to you. You and I have seen it happen to some people we thought were strong and inspired in the Lord’s way.

6. Proverbs 26:11 As a dog returns to his own vomit, So a fool repeats his folly.

Many people do not take it serious enough to be Holy and to not be into the sin the world offers but it is a command to “be ye holy as He is Holy”

We want to see others pure in God but do you realize what happens when you correct people, even gently with love with God’s standards? Often they will interpret that you are a holier-than-thou fanatic person, and you get labeled a traitor for not defending them!? Have you ever corrected someone only to find they hated you and persecuted you (gossiped behind your back) for it later?

Think about it, Jesus was the most loving and kind man who ever walked the earth, yet he only had 11 who choose to follow him. At one time He had 70 but when He told others they would need to eat His flesh and drink His blood (symbolic, of course meaning they would need to partake of His body that heals & blood that forgives sins) he lost hundreds of other followers right there because they did not have faith to believe there was an explanation for His words. They only reasoned with their carnal minds and that told them to forget Jesus. Too many do not have the patience to absorb and adapt to Jesus ways and His ways include accepting the uncomfortable, the corrections of our past understandings, and it includes trusting in Him totally which goes against the trends and popular ideas of the world!

7. Jesus taught, healed, and helped thousands, but only a handful appreciated Him and His purpose which was to get others close to God with a new vision of the kingdom of God within us that needs to be shared to save the world. Jesus rebuked Peter in public when he was out of line in his way of thinking but Peter stayed with Him as a friend and later even died a martyr’s death for Him! Only those that are sincerely close to Jesus understand and stay with Him! Wrath, hate, and persecution from others always falls on Christ lovers!

Today, ask yourself, do I suffer persecution and rejection because I offered Jesus love and salvation to another? If you have lost a few friends in the past, if certain family relatives avoid you because they fear you will start talking about Jesus, if the truth of Jesus has been a disturbing issue in a conversation, then maybe you are doing it the right way! John 14:27

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” A true Christian still retains his peace despite being rejected, persecuted or even while facing death!

God’s people always take the brunt of the wrath of those who hate God and Jesus! People are very cruel with their words and even violent to attack those who will not stop proclaiming their faith in Jesus. We face this fact, Satanic people hate Jesus and His followers! Having Jesus means having eternal life and no one will take that from us with their words!  

If you have been hurt, abandoned, or rejected by family or friends and it hurts you still, today is a good time to ask God to heal you from those wounds! Come and pray, and trust prayer does change and heal the wounds others have inflicted!