There is such a burden on my heart this morning, and I believe I am feeling the heart of God. I feel His sorrow for those who reject Him, and I am reminded of His lament over Jerusalem:
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing” (Matt. 23:37 NKJV)!
In this season as we celebrate His coming to the earth as a baby, it is easy to get so caught up in the joy and wonder of the coming of Emmanuel, God with us, that we don’t take time to consider what that baby was going to face to carry out His mission on the earth. Generally, we don’t think much about the cost until we approach Easter.
But as this baby grew into boyhood, He was already busy about the Father’s business. When the time came for Him to enter into His ministry at age 30, He knew the Father’s plan. He knew the destruction and penalty of sin, and He knew that He had been sent by the Father to pay that penalty so that man could be redeemed. He knew that GOD had designated Him as The Way. The ONLY Way.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6 NKJV).
Today the world, and tragically, some Christian pastors and preachers, teach that there are many ways to God, or as a New Ager might say, to the Divine Mind, the Benevolent Universe. But Jesus Himself said there is only one way—and that way is through Me. Some of the kindest, most loving people I have ever met are New Agers, and there are some who are still very, very, very dear to me. I spent a few years in their midst, and there was a part of me that wanted to accept that being kind and loving was enough to satisfy God. After all, God is love, right? But God is also holy, pure, and truth. In Him is no darkness at all. “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5 NKJV). Truth when mixed with error is lie. A strategy satan has used against mankind from the beginning.
Jesus was more than a good man, a wise prophet. He was/is the Son of GOD, and He lived a sinless life and died a torturous, cruel, and brutal death, paying for our sin with His own sacrificial blood, so we could be forever delivered from the bondage of sin and the ruler of the kingdom of darkness. “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
Jesus is the ONLY way to salvation and deliverance. Unlike modern preachers, adherents of New Age teachings, and progressives who preach tolerance and inclusivity from a false compassion so as not to offend anyone, Jesus preached a truly compassionate, truthful, hard message: All have sinned, and the penalty of sin is spiritual death (see Romans 3:23; 6:23). I Am the Way to salvation, the ONLY WAY.
“Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the Master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ’I do not know you, where you are from’” (Luke 13:24-25 NKJV).
“There is a great cost for anyone to enter through the narrow doorway to God’s kingdom realm. I tell you, there will be many who will want to enter but won’t be able to. For once the head of the house has shut and locked the door, it will be too late. Even if you stand outside knocking, begging to enter, and saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open the door for us,’ he will say to you, ‘I don’t know who you are. You are not a part of my family” (Luke 13:24-25 TPT).
Jesus looked at the city of Jerusalem and its inhabitants and wept over them, for He desired for all to be saved, but they would not. Today He looks at the United States and other nations and their peoples, and He weeps over them, over us. He offered Himself voluntarily upon the Cross for us, because GOD loves us (John 3:16). He paid the price, at the total expense of Himself, for our salvation, reconciliation with God, and new birth as children of God.
Today GOD is shaking the world. HE is separating the goat nations from the sheep nations and the wheat from the tares. HE is shaking His Church and separating the True Church from the false church. Even as HE does so, HIS heart weeps for those who will not turn to HIM, who will not accept HIS Way. But HE is Holy and Just. HE will not force HIS Way upon us; with a heart of love, HE invites. In HIS love and compassion, HE also warns of the terrible and inevitable consequences of rejecting HIM and HIS way. HE weeps over those who reject HIM, and are shut out by their own choice; those who have chosen the highway of their own will and their own desires rather than Jesus, HIS WAY. “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death” Proverbs 14:12, NKJV).
But HE and all of heaven rejoice over those receive HIM and accept HIS WAY.
“I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance” (Luke 15:7-10).
Our Lord Jesus reminds us today that the fields are white unto harvest, and He still weeps for those who are not yet in His family. I believe the Lord is stirring the heart of the Church to feel HIS heart—it’s time to bring in the harvest!
Lord, let us feel Your heart!
Love, Hugs, and Blessings,
Syandra