“And whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that a prophet has been among them.” Ezekiel 2:5
The Lord commissioned me within a few weeks of doing something hard. To confront a beloved long-time friend, a woman to whom I had been ministering, and a long-time loved one with something He wanted them to see and do. That they needed to repent of various sins, to turn away from them, and to make the necessary changes that would bring them into obedience to Him and His ways. I wish I could say I wasn’t afraid confronting them. I was. Or that I wasn’t afraid after. I was. I, too, had to repent. God commands us to fear Him not man. And God doesn’t consider it a game when He commissions His followers to confront others with the truth in love. Nor does He consider it a game for those who receive the messages He delivers through His children. A matter of life and death, of heaven versus hell and the lake of fire, of where we will spend eternity, of the quality of the relationship we will have or not have with Him on earth, of whether we fulfill our life’s purpose on earth or not, of whether we love, worship, and serve Him as He desires or not, none of this is a game. The results of these confrontations grieved me.
One person lashed out with hatred, anger, and vicious accusations, then apologized. The other acted like a dead person, as though the message couldn’t penetrate her hardened heart, through the wall of pride and rebellion. As though she had not received a message at all. Then she heard the words. And did nothing in response to the message. The third who received the message he needed to commit his life to Christ and had never done so despite professing to be a believer made no such commitment. What all three will do in the long-term, whether they will hear, whether they will repent and obey or not, God only knows. But I do know this.
There will come a day, an hour, a moment it will be too late for each of us to turn or return to God, to be in His will, to live for Christ, to forsake our ways and live for God, to yield our hearts and lives to Him, to repent and receive His forgiveness and eternal life, to genuinely believe in Christ, to bear the fruits of true devotion to God, to fulfill our life’s calling, to receive a forever relationship with God, to escape hell and the lake of fire, to know Christ’s love forever, to please God, to live in His will. This isn’t a game. Some of you are procrastinating. The next moment may be too late. Will you put off Christ any longer? If one day He turns you away from Himself and heaven, don’t say you weren’t warned. And if you enter heaven but discover how many rewards you missed because of how far short of His will you fell here, you, too, have been warned. This goes for us all.