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PROCRASTINATION BUSTER NUMBER 3: Stopping the Voice of the Spirit
Manasseh was king in Judah for 55 long years. I guess he thought, “A year of Idol worship and that’s it. Period. And I am back with Yahweh.” It was not to be. Sad. Reason? He was rebellious till the end. I believe he had made his heart too stubborn that he became numb to the pricking conviction of the Holy Spirit which is always: “Repent! Turn from sin now!!” The Lord did not forgive his steely stubbornness (II Kings 21:1; 24:4).
Even the fire and thunder sermons of Amos, the prophet who ministered during his time, had little impact on him! The Holy Spirit jabs your heart with the repeated hush: “It is time to turn around – towards Jesus.” You snuff out that voice that is a blinking candle burning to keep whatever spiritual light there may be in your soul. “Next time out,” you say stubbornly. “I’ll do it in the next meeting I attend!” you say adamantly. Wait a second! Isn’t that what Felix did when Apostle Paul’s gospel message made him sit on pins and needles and “getting a little too close for comfort”? He said, “That’s enough for today. I’ll call you back when it’s convenient” (Acts 24:25).
Felix was in a deadly fix of procrastination! The Bible never records that the ‘convenient time’ he was looking for ever came. He had said a final and repeated “no” to the Holy Spirit who convicts every person of ‘sin, righteousness and judgment’ (John 16:8). This is what is the unpardonable, unforgivable sin – a conclusive defiant ‘no’ to the Spirit’s conviction. Only God knows if you have committed it or not. If the voice still speaks, “Repent! Repent!” there is always hope for your salvation. “God will not give you up, unless you give Him up,” Oswald J. Smith preached quoting from Romans 1:18-32.
How can we forget Pharaoh? When he was bent on making his heart hard, God gave him a go-ahead signal and hardened his heart. The reason God did that was simple: He was stubborn and he hardened his heart first and never changed his mind in spite of seeing many wonders of Yahweh before his very eyes. (The Bible uses the phrase “The Lord hardened his heart” only after he was stubborn refusal to relent after having witnessed the fifth plague wonder – not before that!) At some point of time (only God knows at what point) God has the authority to take away chances of salvation for a person who is stubborn and hardhearted. “My Spirit will not always strive with man,” God told the Noah Generation which was stiff-necked and rebellious (Gen. 6:3).
The best time to come to Jesus in repentance and faith is now!! God’s Word to those who postpone their salvation commitment to Christ is what He gave the Jewish Converts who were thinking of going back to Judaism: “Today you must listen to his voice. Don’t harden your hearts against him as Israel did when they rebelled” (Heb. 3:15).
The Reebok ad that featured Indian Cricketer Rahul Dravid had this caption one time: “Tomorrow is mine.” I like Rahul Dravid. I wear Reebok shoes. But that was a lie. Black lie. Tomorrow may not be yours for the simple fact that Christ could come back as a judge tonight or you could die the next moment or that the Spirit will stop convicting your hardened heart! The ‘next time’ you want to commit your life to Jesus may never come. The road of By and By will lead to the town of Never!
‘One of these days’ will soon become ‘none of these days’!! It is never too early to surrender your life to Christ. But at any moment it can become “too late.” Surrender your life to Him now and live 100% for Him when you have today. Hear Apostle Paul’s arrow to your heart: “Well, now is the right time to listen, the day to be helped. Don’t put it off; don’t frustrate God’s work by showing up late!” (2 Cor. 6:2 The Message).
Prolonged delay in giving your life to the Lord will anger Him. The Psalmist was on the dot when he penned, “Submit to God’s royal Son or he will become angry, and you will be destroyed in the midst of your pursuits – for his anger can flare up in an instant!” (Psa. 2:12 NLT). The Bible warns, He who is “stiff-necked after many rebukes will be destroyed suddenly without any remedy.” (Pro. 29:1 NIV). Jonathan Edwards – a great preacher of the 18th century – was very picturesque when he explained the danger you are in if you delayed a commitment to Jesus deliberately. He postulated, “You hang by a slender thread, with flames of divine wrath flashing about it and ready to scorch it and burn it into bits and pieces!” Shouting, “Jesus, save me!” after you have hit hell will be of no use.
The rich man in hell was told about the unbridgeable gap between heaven and hell by Abraham (Luke 16:26). When the people of Judah started worshipping the sun in the temple of the Lord and feeling cool and awesome about it, God told them something which will make our intestines turn: “I will deal with them in fury. I will neither pity nor spare them. And although they scream for mercy I will not listen!” (Ezek. 8:18 NLT).
The very same God – who never changes – will never hear if we scream for mercy from hell. As someone has said, “Hell is truth seen, too late.” Jonathan Edwards banged the pulpit as he thundered, “Now, God stands ready to pity you. This is the day of mercy. You must cry now with some encouragement of obtaining mercy. But once the day of mercy is past, your most lamentable and dolorous (mournful) cries and shrieks will be in vain (of no use)!”
When Jesus gives us the joy and purpose which the world and its pleasures never can give us even for a nanosecond, why even delay the surrender of your life to Him 100% even by one millionth of a second?! Peter ‘at once’ left his nets and followed Jesus. Why? Because Jesus alone could fill Peter’s heart with an inexpressible and glorious joy’ (Mk. 1:16-18; I Pet 1:8).
“You will lose 33 lakhs if you delay your retirement planning" announced a billboard in the city of Hyderabad. That billboard reminded me of something. This: When you delay your 100% commitment to Christ, you lose that inexpressible and glorious joy which money cannot buy, the world cannot give, and the Devil cannot take away, which Peter talked about, which I have experienced in my life. That is why I am staying up late (it is 2:24 a.m.) to punch in these lines for you to read, buddy. What will you do? Will you bow your life before Him now?
Manasseh was king in Judah for 55 long years. I guess he thought, “A year of Idol worship and that’s it. Period. And I am back with Yahweh.” It was not to be. Sad. Reason? He was rebellious till the end. I believe he had made his heart too stubborn that he became numb to the pricking conviction of the Holy Spirit which is always: “Repent! Turn from sin now!!” The Lord did not forgive his steely stubbornness (II Kings 21:1; 24:4).
Even the fire and thunder sermons of Amos, the prophet who ministered during his time, had little impact on him! The Holy Spirit jabs your heart with the repeated hush: “It is time to turn around – towards Jesus.” You snuff out that voice that is a blinking candle burning to keep whatever spiritual light there may be in your soul. “Next time out,” you say stubbornly. “I’ll do it in the next meeting I attend!” you say adamantly. Wait a second! Isn’t that what Felix did when Apostle Paul’s gospel message made him sit on pins and needles and “getting a little too close for comfort”? He said, “That’s enough for today. I’ll call you back when it’s convenient” (Acts 24:25).
Felix was in a deadly fix of procrastination! The Bible never records that the ‘convenient time’ he was looking for ever came. He had said a final and repeated “no” to the Holy Spirit who convicts every person of ‘sin, righteousness and judgment’ (John 16:8). This is what is the unpardonable, unforgivable sin – a conclusive defiant ‘no’ to the Spirit’s conviction. Only God knows if you have committed it or not. If the voice still speaks, “Repent! Repent!” there is always hope for your salvation. “God will not give you up, unless you give Him up,” Oswald J. Smith preached quoting from Romans 1:18-32.
How can we forget Pharaoh? When he was bent on making his heart hard, God gave him a go-ahead signal and hardened his heart. The reason God did that was simple: He was stubborn and he hardened his heart first and never changed his mind in spite of seeing many wonders of Yahweh before his very eyes. (The Bible uses the phrase “The Lord hardened his heart” only after he was stubborn refusal to relent after having witnessed the fifth plague wonder – not before that!) At some point of time (only God knows at what point) God has the authority to take away chances of salvation for a person who is stubborn and hardhearted. “My Spirit will not always strive with man,” God told the Noah Generation which was stiff-necked and rebellious (Gen. 6:3).
The best time to come to Jesus in repentance and faith is now!! God’s Word to those who postpone their salvation commitment to Christ is what He gave the Jewish Converts who were thinking of going back to Judaism: “Today you must listen to his voice. Don’t harden your hearts against him as Israel did when they rebelled” (Heb. 3:15).
The Reebok ad that featured Indian Cricketer Rahul Dravid had this caption one time: “Tomorrow is mine.” I like Rahul Dravid. I wear Reebok shoes. But that was a lie. Black lie. Tomorrow may not be yours for the simple fact that Christ could come back as a judge tonight or you could die the next moment or that the Spirit will stop convicting your hardened heart! The ‘next time’ you want to commit your life to Jesus may never come. The road of By and By will lead to the town of Never!
‘One of these days’ will soon become ‘none of these days’!! It is never too early to surrender your life to Christ. But at any moment it can become “too late.” Surrender your life to Him now and live 100% for Him when you have today. Hear Apostle Paul’s arrow to your heart: “Well, now is the right time to listen, the day to be helped. Don’t put it off; don’t frustrate God’s work by showing up late!” (2 Cor. 6:2 The Message).
Prolonged delay in giving your life to the Lord will anger Him. The Psalmist was on the dot when he penned, “Submit to God’s royal Son or he will become angry, and you will be destroyed in the midst of your pursuits – for his anger can flare up in an instant!” (Psa. 2:12 NLT). The Bible warns, He who is “stiff-necked after many rebukes will be destroyed suddenly without any remedy.” (Pro. 29:1 NIV). Jonathan Edwards – a great preacher of the 18th century – was very picturesque when he explained the danger you are in if you delayed a commitment to Jesus deliberately. He postulated, “You hang by a slender thread, with flames of divine wrath flashing about it and ready to scorch it and burn it into bits and pieces!” Shouting, “Jesus, save me!” after you have hit hell will be of no use.
The rich man in hell was told about the unbridgeable gap between heaven and hell by Abraham (Luke 16:26). When the people of Judah started worshipping the sun in the temple of the Lord and feeling cool and awesome about it, God told them something which will make our intestines turn: “I will deal with them in fury. I will neither pity nor spare them. And although they scream for mercy I will not listen!” (Ezek. 8:18 NLT).
The very same God – who never changes – will never hear if we scream for mercy from hell. As someone has said, “Hell is truth seen, too late.” Jonathan Edwards banged the pulpit as he thundered, “Now, God stands ready to pity you. This is the day of mercy. You must cry now with some encouragement of obtaining mercy. But once the day of mercy is past, your most lamentable and dolorous (mournful) cries and shrieks will be in vain (of no use)!”
When Jesus gives us the joy and purpose which the world and its pleasures never can give us even for a nanosecond, why even delay the surrender of your life to Him 100% even by one millionth of a second?! Peter ‘at once’ left his nets and followed Jesus. Why? Because Jesus alone could fill Peter’s heart with an inexpressible and glorious joy’ (Mk. 1:16-18; I Pet 1:8).
“You will lose 33 lakhs if you delay your retirement planning" announced a billboard in the city of Hyderabad. That billboard reminded me of something. This: When you delay your 100% commitment to Christ, you lose that inexpressible and glorious joy which money cannot buy, the world cannot give, and the Devil cannot take away, which Peter talked about, which I have experienced in my life. That is why I am staying up late (it is 2:24 a.m.) to punch in these lines for you to read, buddy. What will you do? Will you bow your life before Him now?
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