CHAPTER TEN

Part 2

Walk a Mile in My Shoes

Christians, beware of being so sweet that you back away from the devil. The suffering-obsessed Christian  reminds you that you are to rejoice in all tribulation, because tribulation builds character.  Supposedly  you should gladly embrace each and every evil thing as a gift of God because you can learn from it.  But Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, not to  sanctify them (I John 3:8).  Bullying is such a profoundly damaging crime against the human soul that God has no use for it except to be glorified in executing justice against bullies.  Even animal excrement is less repulsive than bullying.  At least you can use it for fertilizer to grow things. Bullying is destructive, psychological murder!  And when it leads to  victim suicide, it is physical murder for which the bully himself is responsible, punishable by an eternity in a devil’s hell. Even if a bullying victim killed himself fifty years ago, God is still keeping that sin recorded in His book of judgment  against the bully. Time means nothing to God.  God has sworn to avenge the destruction of his Temple, and that happened thousands of years ago (Jere.51:11). How much dearer to God than some stone temple is a person’s body, which houses a spiritual creation made in His own image!

Sin alienated mankind from God. Sin has sent countless millions to hell.  Sin put God’s only Son on the Cross.  So how can you thank God for the kind of thing you have endured? What you are to rejoice in is any lessons you can learn from the bad experience or any ways you can grow inside as a result of having gone through it.  And even that might take gritted-teeth determination when you consider how costly that lesson was!

Some Christians wallow in suffering.  They write books and preach sermons telling other Christians how to pretend they’re having a picnic while satan is trashing their lives. They say that others who long for the peace and perfection of heaven are immature wimps. But it’s easy to ride out someone else’s famine while you’re chowing down on steak.

Jesus said it was possible to move even mountains through faith in God (Matt.17:20). But some Christians only learn how to make friends with their mountains.  Chances are, those who are philosophical about other people’s problems  have  carved a cozy, secure niche in this world for themselves in it and are quite comfortable with the status quo.

Wisdom is called for in dealing with our mountains, whether they are bad situations or hostile enemies.  God won’t always bless both sinner and saint alike. This Dispensation of Grace will soon be past. The “perilous times” when the saint of God must “do good to those who hate you” (Matt. 5:44), in hopes that the Love of Jesus will soften the heart of fierce persecutors, will be no more and God will at long last pour out his fierce, unadulterated vengeance upon wicked, violent people.

King David knew what it was like to feel vulnerable to the sword thrusts and spear jabs of the wicked.  Above all things, he feared finding himself in a captivity situation where  his fate hung on the cruel mercies of his enemies. “Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies,” he prays in Psalms 27:12.   In I Chronicles 21:9-13  David has just committed a serious sin and is being judged by God for it. The Lord offers him a choice of three possible punishments, one of which is three months of being overcome by his enemies.  David pleads with God not to let him fall into the hand of man, because as a professional soldier he knew how just low depraved human enemies could sink in their cruelty.

Jesus, our supreme Example, was never delivered into the hand of His enemies until the time came he willingly offered Himself up for our sins.  At the beginning of His ministry He miraculously escaped a lynch mob (Luke 4:28-30).  So why should we cheerfully accept every blow of satan that comes our way?

I would like to share further warnings from the Throne of God to wicked, cruel sinners.  These are perhaps, the most hard-hitting warnings in this whole book, but God would hold me accountable if I didn’t share them.  First I’ll cite just a few of the references in scripture which support these prophecies, and you can look them up yourself:

Deut. 32: 22-23; Psalms 2:4-5; and verses 9 and 12; Psalms7:11-13; Psalms11:5; Psalms 37:12-15; Psalms 45:3-7; Psalms 72:4; Psalms 89:20-23; Prov. 1:24-31; Isaiah 13:6-11; Isaiah 63:3-6; Isaiah 66:24;

 Zech. 2:8; Mark 9:42-48; Luke16:19-31; Luke 19:27; Romans 2:5-6; 9:22;

    2Thes. 1:7-9; 2 Pet. 3:7; Rev. 2:26-27; Rev. 6:16-17; Rev.11:18; Rev.19:11-16; Rev.20:11-15

Beasts Destined for Destruction

How beastly you foul oppressors are, saith the Lord, and how marred is the image of the divine in you! You have become a corrupt beast and a vessel of wrath prepared for final destruction. Like a sow you wallow in the filth of this world and draw from it your inspiration for living. Like a rabid dog you seek out victims to sink your teeth into, that they might be infected with your disease of hatred and make a futile attempt to fight back as you laugh in their face and rend their souls to pieces. Like a worm you feed on filth.  Like a virus you infest all of society, and like a virus you kill quickly and are difficult to defeat.  Like a ferocious lion you sink your teeth into another soul and tear it to pieces, then eat your fill. Like an ugly vulture circling overhead you wait anxiously to pick the bones of  those mortially wounded by your father satan, the lion who goes about seeking whom he may devour. Like a laughing hyena you are too cowardly to fight others of equal size and strength. You feast on rotting carcases. Instead of fighting valiantly you devour instead the old, the crippled, the frail and the weak. Like a rattlesnake you lie in wait for a precious soul to destroy it.  Like a louse you infest the soul of that person and drive him mad from an itching desire to get you out of his hair.  Like a shark that smells blood and zeroes in for the kill, you instinctively find the most vulnerable face in the crowd and then, like a bloodsucking leech, you begin to suck the vitality and life out of that person you’ve chosen to torment.  Like a monkey you make mocking sounds at your victim when they cry out for pity.  Like a wild jackass you laugh at the notion that you could ever be called to account for your sins.  So like an ostrich you bury your head in the sand, choosing not to hear or heed My warning, sinner.

But where, oh, where in this universe can you run to hide when My mighty angels seek you out, to drag your filthy, corrupt soul before My judgment seat for destruction?  You who feasted on innocent blood shall be given blood to drink on that day, for you are worthy.

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The following prophetic message is especially for Christians.  It is a reminder to love our neighbor as ourselves. If you encounter abusive people in church, don’t blame Jesus.  He will never stop loving you! In a world of instability and even in an imperfect church, Jesus is our unmovable Rock of Salvation and our Refuge (Psalms 62:7; I Cor.10:4; Heb.6:18).)

Spiritual Bullying

Matt.5:33-37; 18:21-35;Luke 12:45-46; Rom.9:21-22; Eph.4:5;

I Tim.2:5; I Pet.5:3; II Pet.2:1-3

There have been times I have permitted My children to be tested and tried through unkind treatment by other people, for reasons known only to Myself.  I stepped in to shield them when the trial became too great, and deliverance always came at the right point.  I even showed great forbearance to the bullies themselves, hoping against hope that those wicked sinners might come to repentance and faith in My Son the Lord Jesus Christ.  I delayed judgment and justice in order to give the persecutor space to repent.  Many former abusers and persecutors have repented and come to faith in Christ.  Still more feared the opinion of their equally wicked friends and threw My compassion and forbearance back in My face.  So those particular wicked people became vessels of wrath fitted only to receive the outpouring of My indignation in the more unpleasant kind of for-BEAR-ance!

There is a bullying of the body that leaves bruises, disabilities and scars.  There is a bullying of the tender soul of a person which cripples the victim’s development into a person capable of living a fully productive life.  Such bullying of the heart kills or cripples a victim’s ability to have a well-rounded social life, or even their ability to love and reach out to others.  Bullying of another person’s body or soul is punishable by an eternity in a devil’s hell, if  the bully resists the drawing of My Spirit of Grace and decides not to repent.

But a terrible, terrible line is crossed when bullying crosses over into the spiritual realm.  The spirit of a converted individual is the Throne Room of My Holy Spirit. There are people in the church who have usurped fearful power over meeker individuals.  Some people carry over faults from their former life of sin into the way they relate to fellow Christians in the church.  For example, a hard-hearted religious hypocrite might refuse to forgive an offense, real or imagined, committed against him by someone else in the church.  He (or she) might pompously proclaim, by twisting My Word: The Bible says that I have the power to retain or remit the sins of anybody I please, and if I choose not to forgive your sin, the Lord won’t forgive you either. You dare to cross me again and I’ll ask God to send you straight to hell! And you’d better PROVE you’re worthy of forgiveness by showing yourself to be a good friend from now on.”  And so the meeker individual cringes away from his adversary and does his best to be a good lackey worthy of mercy. In the process, his close relationship with Me is marred by a slavish fear.

How horrible will be the fate of the merciless religious hypocrite who stands before me! What is even more repugnant than blind and ignorant spiritual bullies are those preachers in the pulpit who know their Bible inside out and KNOW they’re being mean and manipulative.  They just enjoy the heady thrill of power which comes from browbeating the saints for gain.  Some loudly proclaim threats of divine retribution if insufficient offerings are put in the plate. They threaten to pray My chastisement upon any sheep who don’t pay an unscriptural money “tithe” or fulfill unscriptural “pledges” to give money for this or that project, ignoring the fact I expressly forbade the swearing of oaths to God.  Those who refuse to donate free labor in the nursery, church kitchen or on the building site are “cursed with a curse” by spiritual tyrants.  It is then that my indignation boils over.  Christians in the pew are held to spiritual ransom by bully boys in the pulpits demanding tribute from people I have redeemed with My own blood.  Those pulpit Pharaohs  are violating My sanctuary!  They are, in effect, saying that THEY stand between Me and My people, and they expect My people to render  obeisance and obedience unto THEM as overlords to be catered to out of  abject fear of divine retribution!

I dealt with Pharaoh before, now I’m squaring off against him again.  Guess Who is gonna win?  Don’t be duped, My people.  There is only ONE Mediator between you and Me, the merciful Lord Jesus.  There is only ONE Lord, the precious Savior Who purchased you with His own Blood.  And NOTHING shall ever separate you from My Love, saith the Lord Almighty.

God Declares War on Bullies

Psalms 72:4;  2 Thes. 1:7-9

Yea, saith the Lord, I am against communities and nations which look the other way when elderly people are set upon and abused.  I hate, I detest, the prideful, arrogant smirk upon the face of the young thug who gangs up on the weak and the helpless.  I see violent bullies as the most loathsome of dogs, those hooligans that roam about in packs and fearlessly seek out victims to hurt, rob and destroy them.

A vile and godless nation casts away the precepts of My Word and allows its young people to rape,  torture, murder and vandalize at will.  Sodom now fills the whole wide expanse of the earth.  The cries of its helpless, frightened victims rise daily to My Throne and I will be patient no longer.

I speak no longer peace and reconciliation to hardened, impudent sinners, I declare war on them!  I am strapping on My Mighty Sword of Judgment.  I will recompense blood for blood.  I  will fill the servants of violence with the vile fruit of their own ways.  They have shed tears and blood in the earth, and I will dash  them to pieces as a shard of glass is smashed to bits on the pavement.  In ages past I commanded My servants to turn the other cheek and repay evil with good.  I held My peace as lions and wild dogs tore My people apart in Roman arenas.  I showed great forbearance toward persecutors in Russia and Communist China as they put My people in prison, tortured them and put them to death in the most hideous ways. In the workplace and in the schoolyards I admonished My children to bear patiently with evildoers, that they might see the light of My Love in their lives and come to repentance.  A few found life through the forbearance of My people, but  the returns for My patience and forbearance are diminishing. The sinner is hardening in wickedness and is now as perverse as the wicked men of Sodom.

Well, I will coddle the impenitent persecutor no more, saith the Lord, nor will I show him the slightest pity.  Because the Great Tribulation is at hand Sodom is about to be destroyed once again, and the wine of My wrath is about to be poured out in full fury without mixture of moderation. Instead of thousands perishing in a single catastrophe, or even hundreds of thousands, it will be millions, even billions of base sinners throughout Planet Earth who are struck down in the Day of my unbridled wrath.  My fury will sweep like a firestorm from hell throughout the earth.

Countless parents have made themselves lower than the beasts of the earth, the way they abuse their children by refusing to make them mind when they are young!  Even a house cat will cuff its young to discipline them.  Not because the cat hates its offspring, but because it realizes that if the young kitten is allowed to do as it pleases it will become prey out in a hostile world.  But godless, unprincipled parents value their own work and personal interests much more than the eternal welfare of their offspring. They  have as little care for their offspring as a salmon does for the eggs it spawns! People worship at the demonic altar of Political Correctness. They give birth but do not nurture.  They smile and look the other way when their child breaks the basic laws of human decency, and they take pride in a “chip off the old block” who’s got enough spunk to get what he or she wants, regardless of who gets hurt.

I can neither bless nor even tolerate societies which allow abuse of the elderly and condone wild behavior in children as normal.  I will hold parents and guardians accountable for refusing to raise their children in My fear.  Great will be the terror of transgressors who stand at the brink of the Lake of Fire and realize that their descent to that terrible place began in the womb when the parents decided not to raise them to know the Lord and teach them to fear My Holy Name.

Unrepentant Bullies Will Burn in Hell

The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God (Psalms 9:17).

Many ministers of the Word airbrush and soft-peddle the sad message of hell and what it means to end up there after a lifetime of sin and rebellion.  The blatant, unsavory truth is this: While parents fight for their children’s “right of self-expression” and refuse to train them to fear the Lord of Heaven, they have no right to choose the CONSEQUENCES  of their decision to rebel against the clear teaching of My Word: Train up a child in the way he shall go, and when he is old he shall not depart from it (Prov.22:6). And: the rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame (Prov.29:15). This does not necessarily always mean corporal punishment, just discipline which fits the offense and serves to teach the child to behave in a kind, responsible manner. I am able to give each parent wisdom to discern the disciplinary and training needs of each particular child, and to judge the intent or degree of responsibility the child is able to be held to, according to his maturity level and understanding.  But parents should be responsible stewards of their children at all stages of their development. They should do their utmost to shield their children from temptations and hazards of this world, as a wise, caring shepherd will protect his own sheep.

Whatever wise, loving discipline I lead you to administer, be firm and consistent in not letting the child have his way in all things.  If you have children, YOU are the parent, and I expect you to act like it.  All too many parents are behaving like spoiled children themselves. Some will only “discipline” their children when they are exasperated with them, and might do actual harm by losing control of themselves!  Discipline is not abuse, it is a vital part of training and guidance. Even unruly soldiers are disciplined when they get out of order.

Kids out of control yell about what they don’t like, and what they do like they will take by force.  I, more than anyone, also have the right to make My own decisions about what I like and dislike.  Bullies freely choose victims to pound into submission and to humiliate.  Tearaway kids torment older people and throw stones at them as they take walks, minding their own business.  If one of these precious elder people has a heart attack and dies as a result of being frightened by such abuse, I hold the child guilty of MURDER in the first degree, and that one is headed for hell, just as sure as Hitler and Judas Iscariot went there after death.

Do not say I must clear the guilty youngster just because he or she is under a certain age.  People of all ages perished when I destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah thousands of years ago.  When I look at the so-called Western “Christian”  nations, I see a permissive, sex-jaded, lustful, selfish generation who are out only for their own pleasure.  My people have reached the point where they’re saying “What’s the use anymore?” And a very few have an “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” attitude which really stinks in My nostrils!

Parents and their beastly, murderous brats will equally end up in a devil’s hell unless they repent and receive Christ as Savior. Sinner, do not say that you will be in good company down there and while I might not be with you, at least your family will be together having a blast in hell’s blast furnace.  In hell there are many guilty, despairing moms and dads who cry out in their loneliness and lament their lack of duty toward their children, their negligence in teaching them that sin exacts a horrible penalty.  At long last they acknowledge that there are dread consequences for rebelling against the righteous Creator of the Universe and following satan.  Doomed, damned parents look longingly across an impassable chasm  to beloved youngsters they are unable to reach, prisoners of satan who share their terrible fate.  Likewise their children pine away for parents now out of their reach.  Their arms are outstretched to parents no longer able to bail them out or make excuses for them.

Parents in hell neglected their families in life and sought only their own sinful gratification.  When they and their families end up in hell the parents are unable to save their children from the everlasting torments of the damned. While they lived, those parents had turned a blind eye to the devilish deeds of their sons and daughters or disclaimed any responsibility for damage done by their wickedness. Now they are pining away in grief that they cannot escape their own prison of darkness to carry a drop of water to relieve the endless thirst of their child. While they lived, the parents refused to allow others to teach their child about Jesus, Who alone can give people living water that they might live and not die in a devil’s hell.  But in that dark, gloomy region of eternal torments, no help, no succor is available.  While the child lived, he thumbed his nose at earthly law and order and took his vindictiveness out on the helpless and the weak.  Now, the bully finds hell affords him no further  hope of redemption or rehabilitation.

I have seen the despair of souls in hell, but I no longer love them and seek their redemption!  Once the utter hopelessness of hell sinks in, the child who ended up there because of the neglect of his parents will scream at them and curse them, whether the parents are living or dead.  Hell is the graveyard of any hope of salvation, and it is a dreadful place of punishment where every last spark of love and caring is finally, totally  extinguished. Any parent who truly loves his/her son or daughter will go to extreme lengths to introduce them to Jesus, Who came to seek and to save those who are lost.

I am fed up with this lawless, perverse generation! Divorce your emotions and your affections from any fellowship with the utterly ruinous things of this present evil world.  Repent of all known sin and walk in Christ, the Light of the World,  Shine unashamedly for Christ in the midst of this rotten hellhole of a world, for soon I shall receive you who love Me unto Myself and let the final curtain of darkness fall.  It is then My terrible final judgments upon a Christ-rejecting world shall be poured out before I return and FORCE mankind to live in loving peace with his neighbor.

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A Light in the Dark

Ephesians 6:12 makes it clear that it is satan and his demons who are fighting us, rather than flesh and blood.  If you are wearing a glove on your hand and hit someone with it, you must assign the blame to the mind which drove the gloved hand to commit the act. Yet I believe that insofar that bullies choose not to repent of their sins, and love to do the works of  the devil, they themselves are to be held culpable.  Admittedly, not everyone has heard the Good News of salvation through Christ.  So what is God’s attitude toward those who haven’t heard?  The apostle Paul gives us the answer in Romans 1:18-20:  The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against the sin and unrighteousness of all mankind, who know right from wrong, and yet continue in sin.  That which can be known about God’s nature is  made plain to them, for God has revealed it to them.  Ever since God created the world, His invisible qualities, both His eternal power and His divine nature, have been clearly seen; they are perceived in the things that God has made. Such people are without excuse. The bully can, even through nature, see evidence of the loving nature of God, Who sends rain and sunshine to mankind for the raising of food crops.  God provides air for everyone to breathe.

But the bully uses every breath God gives him to spew out filthy insults.  The bully uses God’s name as a swear word.  He is a mere pawn of the devil, yet he cannot be excused.  The bully does a devil’s work, so he  will receive a devil’s reward  (II Thessalonians 2:12).

The bully uses the strength obtained from God’s gift of food to  harm other creatures God has made. The bully hounds his victims to the verge of insanity.  The severe, prolonged daily stress of bullying is enough to lower the victim’s resistance to infection and illness, and cause catastrophic damage to his soul.

Many will undoubtedly take issue with my belief that Christ-rejecting sinners should be punished.  Now, I believe that where there is sincere repentance, peace with God is possible.  But He certainly isn’t going to bestow a blanket amnesty on those who go around bragging about their sins, instead of repenting of them, and God isn’t going to admit such hardened souls into His heaven.   This world is extremely lenient toward hardened criminals, and our spiraling crime rate reflects that.  Many innocent people have been murdered here in Northern Ireland, just over religious differences.  I read about two men who were convicted of killing a  Catholic and his Protestant buddy  in a pub, just because “mixed” friendships are frowned upon here.  After sentence was passed upon them, the two murderers laughed and smirked.  They had just found out that because of the “peace agreement,” they would, most likely, be released in just six months’  time. How cheap their grisly entertainment came! The conflict here gets so perverse that when sectarian murders occur, grieving relatives might be taunted by others who support the opposing faction.  How could anyone with a sense  of fair play  feel that such a diabolical, unrepentant attitude ought to go unpunished by the Lord? It is NOT the place of individuals to avenge themselves, and earthly  justice is biased and unreliable. But the day will come when God is going to wipe the dirty grins off the faces of sinners for good, and dole out to them the comeuppance they escaped in this world.  Every young hoodlum who was let off the hook for being “underage” , and stuck his tongue out at the judge who was powerless to sentence him, will one day face an angry God Who will turn his laughter into shrieks of terror.

The smirks of sinners are inspired by the minions of darkness, who want bullies to THINK they’ll get away with it in the end.   Demons of varying ranks spread satan’s dark influence throughout the earth.  The Bible refers to them as principalities, powers, and rulers over the darkness of this world (Eph. 6:12).  The bully’s beliefs are rooted in darkness.  His attacks are founded on lies whispered to his soul by the demons who control him.  The mass media which promotes the tawdry things his darkened soul holds dear, is also driven by the prince of darkness.  That system which pulls the strings of his likes and dislikes is motivated strictly by greed. 

Remember these truths I have received from the Lord and benefited from myself.  They will go far in fortifying your soul against verbal bullying in particular.  Remember above all things to rely on God moment by moment to bring the truth to the surface of your consciousness the next time you are verbally attacked.  I have, in the past, had to work with the public, and a tiny percentage of them are mentally unbalanced.  They are sometimes snappish, impatient, or rude.  They may feel superior to you because you’re the one behind the counter serving them, and they know you need their money to survive. Some years back  I even had to work with a couple of people who were verbally  abusive.  They despised me for my mild nature.  One even taunted me for being “too old for the job”.  But I saw these people for what they were: lost sinners who act out their true nature.  I knew my value in the eyes of God.  I remembered that I am a citizen of His eternal Kingdom, and have no soul ties to this present world I live in as a mortal human being.

God has shown me my own frailty.  It is He Who holds me together moment by moment, even as He holds this whole universe together and prevents all the atoms of His creation from flying apart.  I must depend on His life in me for all the wisdom, goodness and strength I need. What God did for me was nothing less than a miracle.  My ability to love others was shattered by the bullying, and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit enabled me to love others again with God’s love.

There are still battles with the devil, for he never gives up easily.  He sometimes dredges up old memories so vividly that they seem recent.

There are times I sleep but don’t feel refreshed. The Lord showed me that experience has its roots in all the thousands of taunts I endured from those who wished I would die.  God must continually fill me with His resurrection life. My zest for life is supernaturally imparted. When satan brings back bad memories I must remind myself that everything any evil person ever said about my life being a waste of space is a lie from hell. Then I would literally feel God breathing life back into my soul, driving out the  death inflicted on it through bullying.

I must forever lean upon God, Who keeps the truth fresh in my mind, so that those shadows of darkness are driven back by the power of the Light of the World.

Be blessed.  Amen.