Stop It. Stop It. Stop It.

"and it's easy to find."

THE VALLEY OF DRY BONES is an analogy of Israel that the Gentile church has used all over the ying-yang, as my mom would say. We’ve resurrected those bones ten ways to Sunday and turned them into a myriad of cultures and groups. One minister even said it was his favorite miracle, and I wanted to shout: “IT’S AN ANALOGY!’

Argh!! To quote a voice I’ve heard a lot: “Stop it. Stop it. Stop it.”

Picking more hairs out of the drain, we have all these songs about the name of Jesus without Jesus Himself being mentioned. It’s like we’re hugging a cardboard cutout pasted with “Jesus” bumper stickers and wondering why there’s no feels. Jesus has already been handled. What? 1 John 1:1.

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;” (1 John 1:1)

“Suzanne, why does this matter?”

Being honest, in my hour of distress, I went all “what the church had told me” and swung the name of Jesus like a battle axe and nuthin’ changed. Nuthin. I mean, I had the grimace, the body sweat, the stance. Then God spoke and what He said sent me spinning.

“Just rest.”

WHAT? WHO CAN REST IN A TIME LIKE THIS?

But Romans 1 says, sin leads to anger, anger leads to violence. Violence makes excuses for itself. And people die. And sin wins.

Notice in none of that did I say “the enemy.” Cause that hair’s a long one, cloggin’ the drain. Okay, let’s pretend we’re still in a battle. (We aren’t.) And pretend Jesus’ death and Resurrection only did part of the work. (It did all of it.) But given we’re going unscriptural with this, we’ll also say that when the devil sinned, he snatched the authority of heaven, became an ugly monster with horns, and immense power … Bwahahaaa. Snort. Can’t. Stop. Laughing.

Okay, okay, I can do this.

We gotta stop reinventing the wheel. Oh, it’s a long story, how Satan became stupid and what God did, successfully, mind you, to destroy him, and there’s a lotta Scriptures, and maybe someday I’ll recite them, but put a tack in the whole thing and take “the enemy” out of your vocabulary. The only thing we’re giving in to is sin. And even if the devil and devils were still a thing (they aren’t), they’d want us to be angry and violent. Defensive. Ready for warfare.

We’re supposed to rest. Hebrews 4.

And a hair in our teeth we need to ditch is how many people are headed to hell. You heard me. For someone to be condemned to hell, they have to be like Judas. It says “Satan entered him (John 13:27).” Salvation isn’t a gameshow, and some people aren’t playing, so they’re out of luck. I mean, “she” accepted Jesus in her heart, but now she’s in an ungodly relationship with some guy, who, I mean, he’s nice, but they’re damned. God isn’t movin’ out and killin’ the spirit man. Ever.

Or those people are still stuck in the Old Covenant wishing for the temple to be rebuilt, so they don’t know Jesus and that means they’re also out. What of the Jews who died in the Holocaust? What happened spiritually to them? How cruel do you think God is? Has the KING OF THE JEWS ditched the Jews? They know Him in ways we do not.

Stop making salvation difficult and God unmerciful. Stop deciding people’s thoughts and intents. You don’t know the heart. STOP making the altar call a club.

TEACH, it is being made a new creation. TEACH, spirit, soul, and body, and JESUS LIVES IN YOU NOW. TEACH, God is accessible and patient and kind. Easy to speak to and easy to hear. TEACH, being filled with Him to overflowing and that our God-language is a beautiful benefit. Do you even know why? I do, and it saved my life.

TEACH, God heals. All the time, anybody, and it’s easy to find. Just know He loves you. That’s all that’s required. We’re responsible for people’s doubt in the way we order our sermons. When we walk in the Spirit, listening to Him, we’ll speak only what He wants said and not our mindset, our personality, our education, our preferences.

God wants Truth. He wants worship. He wants all of us, individually, all day, every single day. And no more spitting and sputtering our self-designed version of Him to the winds.


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com