To enable mankind’s return to our original purpose of fellowshipping and walking with God and participating in the cultivation of creation, He created the most glorious and wonderful Way. He requires us to walk out this restoration process amid a world in chaos. This makes the contrast even more obvious as a demonstration of how glorious and wonderful God’s ways are compared to anything man could create without Him. As conditions in the world get darker, the brighter those who are walking in the Light will become.
Proverbs 28:1 says, “The wicked flee when no one is pursuing, but the righteous are bold as a lion.” Increasing fear will come on those who choose to walk in darkness, while increasing boldness will be the mark of those who walk in the Light. Why?
Proverbs 4:18 tells us, “the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the full day.” When we walk the path of the righteous, or the right path, our walk will become continually brighter no matter how much darkness increases around us.
If this is not the case, if we, too, are experiencing increasing darkness, depression, and disorientation, then we have gotten off the right path. As C.S. Lewis said, “If you have taken a wrong turn, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road.” That is called “repentance.” If we ask the Lord, He will help us understand where we got off track, but we must make the choice to turn around and be decisive in doing so.
Psychological studies have revealed that 80 percent of people do not like making choices and resist doing it. No one can repent for someone else, so one primary way we can help others in this time is to persuade them to make this necessary choice. This choice may be uncomfortable but necessary for us to be who God created us to be. Our salvation depends on it.
We must also resist trying to make the decision easier for people to return to the Lord than God made it. The easier we try to make it for them, the more difficult all their other choices will be. Life is about choices. We must make them and bear their consequences. We must also grasp that making choices is not meant to be easy but difficult. This way, those who make the right choice can get on the right path and stay on it.
When an evangelist tries to make it easy for people to “accept Christ” by raising their hands, then asks everyone else to bow their heads and not look around so as not to embarrass anyone, this is a tragic misrepresentation of what it means to follow Christ. This has produced the weakest, most defeated Christians and the weakest, most defeated church. To follow Christ means to turn and go in the opposite direction of the rest of the world, which means the world will hate you. This takes great courage. The faith required to follow Christ is spelled c-o-u-r-a-g-e, and the decision to follow Him requires this.
Jesus did not make it easy for people to follow Him. His first requirement was to leave everything upon which they had built their life. Those who looked back were not worthy of Him. He cannot be “Lord” over anything we hold back from Him. In His own words:
“If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.
“For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25).
The good news is we will find life and find it more abundant and wonderful than we could ever imagine, but also more difficult. In fact, it is the most difficult life we could choose, yet worth it many times over.
© 2023 Rick Joyner. All Rights Reserved.
