“Go. Yield. Stop. Hate. Love.”
“Love”? Define it.
“Hate”? Define it.
Who gave you permission?
Were you the first who defined it?
It is sad how a person is so influenced by Satan, the world and his flesh!
You can ask 100 people what each of those words means and you would get very similar answers for “go” and “stop”. Their common answer would definitely relate to driving and not morality. However, why? The words DO NOT stem from driving but our minds do drive to our most common associations. The word “yield” would have almost 80 different definitions associated with mostly driving experiences. If people were asked from different countries there would possibly be 99 different definitions. The point to using these 3 words proves that most people immediately thought of driving and not morality which brings us to a word picture that people get just as wrong with the first and true “REAL DEFINITION”, WITHOUT your personal flesh (like driving) association.
Another word picture to get your mind in the correct frame to understand this lesson is the common understanding that you would be a fool to answer yes or no to a judge who ask you on the witness stand if you had stopped beating your spouse? You CAN NOT answer that question as an innocent person!!
There are some things that are simple to understanding but due to the worldly differences (such as different driving practices all over the world) there are never “it seems” ONE DEFINITION” to any word. How complicated “stop” has become! Add the intelligent folks and lawyers into the mix and you get semantics to the nth degree to complicate the simple command “stop”!
Now change your thoughts to how when you discuss morality issues there becomes 179 different answers from 100 asked persons.
God DOES NOT AGREE with all of the different possible versions, opinions, or flesh-based experience definitions. He wrote the Bible and it has one definition for all people for all circumstances! Stop, SIMPLY MEANS STOP!
Morally, “yield” means put God first by running the other direction. Yielding is meaning that if you stop you will continue down the bad path; however, if you keep going but, in the opposite direction you will not be overtaken by temptation. “Go”, always means simply obeying God. All the people who have lived in a different culture, or lived with different life experiences, or live on Mars cannot change God’s definitions in scripture.
People are constantly watering down “stop” and “yield” commands from God in his word. During Noah’s time, people DID NOT see “stop” or “yield” AT ALL!
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”
2 Timothy 4:3-4 KJV
If you got in a car and drove around with all the other people who had a different definition of the meaning “stop”, what would happen if you started driving with them and their ideology of “stop”? You will eventually have a wreck DUE TO THE SINGLE WRONG OF NOT STOPPING! Have you ever seen a professional sports player practice their sport? They practice all the time but most of all PRACTICE CONSISTENCY! REPITITION brings the same result. A person in the military trains a particular way in a safe zone to one day put those actions in response to threats of harm with his instincts of past practices to get him safely out of the same situation he practiced at the base. The mind is much different than training muscle consistency in it has even a greater tendency to do something different it should not. The mind analyzes more information sometimes that it doesn’t even actually see. The mind has the ability to shorten your reaction time to fight or flight by actually inductively (NOT DEDUCTIVELY) injecting or subtracting visions that you did not or did see. When you add the issues of the heart with your mind and then with your flesh you have a very complex situation usually referred to as emotions! Emotions cause the greatest diversity among people with any topic! When God says “stop”, do you see his emotions? Usually not, because it takes a very trained and restrained flesh to encounter Holy emotions!
Do you know anyone who really likes asparagus; but, it doesn’t like them? I use a vegetable to draw a word picture to the fact that a person can like or “love” when the other person (or vegetable) dislikes or “hates” the other. Leave your “emotions” out of understanding and looking at the True definition like the word “stop”. Hate simply means the opposite of love. People seem impossible to discuss such a subject because of “other drivers” and “other influences” instead of looking at the single source of what the word means in relation to HOLY MORALITY! Jesus says they hate you (solid Christ-like people not wavering from the word of God about anything) because they first HATED me. What does “hate” mean when God or Jesus uses the word? It means COMPLETE UNHOLY DISOBEDIENCE from humans that commit idolatry! An idolator cannot be separated from his idolatry actions! A judge can not forgive a murderer by sending the horrible crime of murder into prison as if it were a living thing inside the murderer! Those that hate God will not enter the kingdom of God where he lives. Like the Garden of Eden, there will be boundaries and guards to prevent God’s “ENEMIES” from ever getting in! God declares he will decide if you are “FOR HIM” or “AGAINST HIM”! This Hate/Love understanding is like a true stop/go understanding. They are opposites! What did Jesus do for humans? He loved those whom “hated” him. Well, “those whom hated” is every single human ever created by the Creator (himself). God created humans in “like manner”; which are beings with the supernatural ability to ” LOVE BY CHOICE AND NOT BY FORCE! BEFORE DAY ONE, God provided a way to “love by choice that would be easy if they would just follow the simply instructions like “go” and “stop”. It was Satan’s and man’s “new KNOWLEDGE” (coming from the Tree of Knowledge: ironic new information or words to define all things in deeper details that seemed like a separate source outside of God as if “googling the words” and finding a million definitions to the word stop. How many people are just going to take the first definition of “do not do it?” After some time there became influences by other humans who became “smart from all the knowledge” and this “worldly” peer pressure became another overpowering possibility TO NOT LISTEN TO GOD BY FAITH). “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Roman’s 3:23.
What “stops” hate by humans? You have to back up and recognize the only source! There is only one thing that gives love and that is God. This, one source equals ONE SOURCE! The opposite of refusing love (life with God that is never sick, hungry, evil, never cold and always perfect) is true enough the opposite (life that comes with sickness, hunger, diseases, pain, and death). Thus, to escape the tragedy of “hate” is to learn how to overcome the “knowledge” ( Tree of Knowledge) that causes all the problems and that requires going back to the simple way of life of “JUST LOVE”! THAT IS WHAT TRUSTING A FATHER WHO PROVIDES IN EVERY WAY IS ALL ABOUT! Like baby cubs do with their mother bear. That mother will defend those cubs to the death! She eats but her substance is more geared toward providing for those little cubs than herself. God provided a hospital and ambulance before Adam ever ran the “stop” sign and crashed life for himself and all his children in the vehicle. The hospital and ambulance driver is Jesus. He was the only person that was allowed and knew the directions back to the hospital. God then provided the only matching blood donor back at the hospital. God provided all the medicine and technical expensive medical equipment at the hospital. As a matter of fact God was the only DOCTOR on the planet when Adam needed emergency care! God provided Jesus BEFORE Adam needed him! It was “predestined” that Adam would need the ambulance, hospital and doctor to survive! It was God that “predestined” (he gave Adam a four-way intersection; not a stop sign in the middle of a one-way street) Adam would “not stop”! God gave Adam choices! Choices are the substance of FREEDOM! IT IS STUPIDITY that causes a person not to stop before making a choice! Blaming God for going down the wrong street is DUMB; your sickness, pain, hardships, all the crap is due to the wrecked vehicle your in going down any street you choose because of ” running the stop sign”; it has nothing to do with the street! God provided the choices, the vehicles, the red lights (the bible-which also tell you to yield and go when sage), the ambulance, the hospital, medicine, medical equipment, LIFE-SAVING DOCTOR (who never lets a person die), and the instructional manual to all of life. It was Adam that originally heard God say do not run the stop sign. But Adam found the instructional manual more important, more interesting, full of technical information about everything, more exciting and more trusting than just God’s voice. So Adam decided to one day stomp the pedal to the floor and read the manual as he was crossing the intersection. Nothing in the manual was a lie. It had a lot of knowledge he did not know. But, Adam had been to that same intersection in life for almost 33 years without a crash. He knew everything he needed to know before the manual. The information in the manual was not going to harm him; but how he received the information COULD! Adam had the ability to ask God about anything! God would have given him the correct answer to anything, just like the manual. But, Adam decided for himself how, when, and where he was going to get the information and that was HIS MISTAKE! SO, back to the beginning. Adam and all of humanity, his procreation, have the dreadful life of being affected by his crash physically, mentally, and spiritually. What kind of driver is our individual choice; but some of the damages from the wreck are permanent and some are not. Whether we want to continue crashing at stop signs is our choice. Reading manuals instead of asking God is our choice. Learning how not to be influenced by the added billboards on the side of the road is our choice. Trusting is a choice! Driving is a choice! The four-way has choices! You and I are NOT the only people on the road whether we like it or not! What you and I do can absolutely cause harm to others! I don’t want God driving me; but I do accept his instructions, love, and protection over all the manuals in the car (oh, there are more than one, Satan has put a few there, some really intelligent atheist, agnostics, and others have put some in there) and billboards that tell me there is “no worries”, “no time to go slow down or stop in life”, “just do-it”, “live life”, “it’s your body”; millions more! It’s your intersection.
It is the “HATERS” who DO NOT STOP!
WAKE UP! Even the people that have single-car crashes in the intersection are causing havoc on other people! Yet, anybody that comes to the intersection is called the “hater” because they do not love the mess in the middle of the road?
God says humans can only stop hating by “ONLY DEATH”! Galatians 2:19: “For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.”
Galatians 2:19 KJV
REVIEW:
It is impossible for a human to NOT HATE; due to all have sinned.
It is NOT the sin but bondage to the father of sin (Satan) that HATE is the only possible fruit a lost person can produce.
Depravity is why a “good deed” by Satan’s children is the only fruit that can be produced and will BE WORTHLESS to the glory of God. A man on the opposite basketball team can not even score on the wrong goal and receive a single point toward his own team. All works are of the flesh and therefore will burn in their judgment.
God says death comes from sin. Roman’s 5:12-15
God says that like one man brought death to all men so also one man brings life who did not sin (Jesus Christ). Roman’s 8:2
God says to die daily (Luke 9:23-24) to your old flesh that you can take up the cross. A human that is “reborn” has a new father and is given a new heart.
Human “Hate” WITHOUT EMOTIONS is ONLY defined as by one’s RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD! BUT, THE WORLD is determined to take all of the ideas of GOD out of the definition which creates a creature equal to him! Therefore, I am saying if a lost man, a bondslave of Satan, who gives a million dollars to the church, walks old woman across the street, gives to the schools, the poor, and hurricane victims he is redefining “LOVE” and that which is opposite (HATE)! The lost call prejudice Hate! But God has prejudice to his children. The lost call “racism” hate! But, God created “races” to prevent all mankind from the same wicked conditions of the heart as before Noah. The lost call had good and good bad! First, you are taught that “yield” has no danger! If you make it across the first time you should “yield” in a situation the second time it is easier and less evident there was any danger! Eventually “yield” means “Go with more excitement and pleasure”.
When a player joins a team and is not very good he is said to “sit the bench”. When that player ends his season with no playing time he still gets a “letter”. If the team wins a national championship the bench rider is a national champion. The person gets as much credit as a player who scored a winning touchdown. God holds accountable humans for their sins and ignoring the person is foolish as much as saying the bench rider is a loser (because he never played). When God divides the lost (goats) from the sheep (his flock or saved children) he holds “THE TEAMS” accountable or awards like credit! Thus, the bench rider who never played (word picture: or committed any sin on Satan’s team) will be “IMPUTED SIN” as if killing Abel to Zacharias himself! (Luke 11:51). The bench rider may not say or act as if he hated Abel, whom lived thousands of years before him, but God says HE DOES! It is common that a coach says he will choose a player with “more heart” than skill. God judges the heart and it sometimes is PASSIVE HEART BUT GUILTY JUST AS MUCH! A fan in the stadium may never witness the bench warmer “hating” the quarterback; as the world would make anybody believe he never “did anything”! Emotions are not part of Holy definitions and discernment of scripture. God is Holy meaning perfect in every way; even his definitions of whom is guilty of hate!
Jesus came not to condemn the world but to save it. What saves bond-slaves of Satan? Pies? Million dollar winning lottery tickets? Friendly faces and acts of friendship that the Sermon on the Mount tells us? What about predestined salvation? That would solve every problem about hate; every hate act would be justified by both parties! What about ” loving your neighbor as yourself”? This is where EMOTIONS, OPINIONS, AND MOSTLY IGNORANCE OF THE BIBLE gives you 179 variations of the definition from 100 people! FIRST AND ONLY, the HOLY SPIRIT SAVES through his children that spread the salt and light. Pies and money doesn’t save; but, the “WORD OF GOD”! Jesus started Genesis! Not God but Jesus! Every time you see Jesus as a human you have likely committed heresy as Jesus is GOD! JESUS STOOD IN THE GARDEN TO PREVENT THE DEATH OF ADAM from the very first sin! There is no sin that would not cause death; but, again 100 people would tell you that it would not. God hates sin!!! God hates sin!! How much? God hates sin so much he gave his son’s life to fix the mess! How does God conquer hate? He doesn’t have to! God is TRUTH! TRUTH IS THE ONLY THING THAT IS LOVE! LIES are HATE! The father of the lost gives his children nothing but lies. The God of his creation gives nothing to his children but TRUTH, which comes from the WORD OF GOD! IS THERE ANY SUBSTITUTION FOR THE WORD OF GOD? NO! NO! NO! Why does everyone think pies, money, friendliness, etc? Is a substitution? So, many say they don’t but God feed the people also nd tells us to feed the hungry, take care of widows, take care of orphans, take care of your neighbor like you would yourself. I’m sorry but it does not; as much as it is like the trick question: “have you stopped beating your wife”? There is no substitute for bread! Jesus said YOU SHALL NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE! What is it that if a man gains the whole world and loses his soul? Is it not better that a starving man have eternal bread and water? That is LOVE! THERE IS NOTHING ELSE WHICH SHOWS MORE “ACTIVE LOVE” than ACTIONS! IT IS WHY LIVING BY FAITH is dead without works. God feed the masses physical bread ONLY for them to hear the eternal bread. Jesus did not have the lost feed to gain popularity with his neighbors! As a matter of fact, those that got feed physically every time HEARD THE GOSPEL! THEY EITHER EXCEPTED THE WORD OR REJECTED IT! Many HATED HIM! IF they rejected Jesus they HATED GOD! Jesus said I am whom you said I am. If a person says he is God, he says he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. If you say he is not God, you will find witnesses at the gates of heaven (the Holy Spirit and Satan) who will testify you denied he is God and Satan’s account of your sins will not have been cleansed or imputed righteousness from Christ’s blood. Jesus came to fulfill the law of righteousness. Thus Haters are those that hate God; but, they find ways to spread their hate “BY DECEPTIONS of love” or hate on those love God. THIS IS HOW THE WORLD WILL COME TO SEE NO EVIL! THE BAD AND THE GOOD WILL BECOME ALL “TOLERANCE”! Christians are fading to see bad as “tolerant” ( grading bad things on a human scale like in the days of old). The left will give to the middle because there will be no difference in hate and love. Word DEFINITIONS ARE TURNING INTO THE PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL versions. Why do people call “hate”: actions or associations with racism, bigotry, sexism, homophobic, sexual identity chauvinisms, and etc. Satan is directing the world with non-Godly identifications at all costs. I believe Satan will convince the left to let the right keep their guns, bibles, and stereotype news if the right would just agree that hate is only when the Bible is used! They will deem healing the sick, miracles of feeding people from two minnows, and raising the dead is love as long as none one declares Jesus, was the source!
Word picture: Two basketball teams, one coached by God and one by Satan. Both teams can experience the game (life) and both have similar goals, (scoring like making money or just having a better quality of life) getting personally better, and maybe achieving a better set of skills while playing. Each team has their own coach. No coach ever advises the opposite team members to play for the betterment of their opponent. Satan has his own goals and each member of that team will follow his coaching directives. God in like manner coaches his players. If God were to teach his team a special play or give them special looking uniforms with fancy legal gold lace around the collars and waistbands of their trunks, the opponents could not have what they have in identical matching attire. It would be illegal and cause the players confusion from identifying their own members on the court and especially any viewers watching the game. It is a very simplified word picture but if God gives Love as he has only been able to give with the gift of his own son’s blood the best the other team could experience is being a witness to such love from the coach to his players or a lie from Satan to his players that would hopeful deceive and temporarily satisfy their flesh as a replacement for what he can never give or cares to give! That is a simplified explanation of how it IS TRULY IMPOSSIBLE FOR GOD’S OPPONENTS to understand real “love.”. God says patience is a gift from the Holy Spirit. But, could you not say you have seen lost people say a professed atheist or agnostic, demonstrate patience? What about the other eight gifts: love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, and gentleness? Anyone, without emotions, would have to call God a liar if he disagrees with God’s own statement in scripture about those who receive such gifts( Galatians 5:22-23). Paul does not in any manner give the idea a bondslave to Satan can bear the fruit of peace or joy or any of the other! But, how so many Christians CLAIM THEY DO! WHAT IS WRONG? It is the world drivers changing their views from Gods definition to the world’s definition. Theologians break down the scripture in an exegesis manner to understand why in some verses the mention of “fruit” is singular and plural with the mention of gifts from the Holy Spirit. I mention this to skip to the focus of real genuine Christ-like “love” that comes only from Christ (Holy Spirit) combines the 8 into “love” as a single fruit. The two best observations of “Holy Spirit love” comes from a man who had it genuinely and another man who had the “Holy Spirit love BUT his flesh was present during him bearing the fruit. The first is Stephen. Stephen gave “love” to his neighbors and got “STONED TO DEATH” for his “act of love. Did Stephen show the other 8 parts of the single fruit like Christ? Yes! Stephen gave his neighbors the bread and water of life. But, they hated God and took it out on him! His neighbors needed what only the “love of the Holy Spirit” can give, the truth (word of God). Christ died for HIS ENEMIES. STEPHEN, full of the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:55) was willing to die for his enemies because he made the “statement” of forgive them “of this sin” (Acts 7:60). What did that mean is super important for the full understanding of “real love”! Stephen was FULL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT! WHAT did God do immediately after his son died on the cross? A. Matthew 27:45 says “DARKNESS FELL”! The meaning of darkness can be found in Amos 5:18; 8:9. Darkness means INSTANT JUDGEMENT!!!!!! It usually was plagues or death! B. Second, Stephen’s stoning was a typological prophecy of Saul receiving forgiveness. Some writers believe that Stephen was stoned before Christ was crucified; but, in verse 7:52 Stephen accuses everyone in the courtroom of their fathers persecuting the prophets before them and murdering the righteous one whom they prophesied about. But, Saul stood there before his journey to Damascus and led the group to Stephen’s murder! Think of Stephen NOT PRAYING FOR SAUL! Think of Stephen explicitly praying for Saul and the someone else we are not told about because Stephen knows (he is full of the Holy Spirit, which is required to prophecy). Stephen literally asks God to harden Saul’s heart! God was going to blast everybody in Sodom and Gomorrah; but, Abram petitioned God about Lot and others ( even though there were no others than just Lot and his family). The angels started heading toward Sodom to kill everybody. Had it not been for the prayer of Abram, Lot and five more of his family would have never made it out of the path of God’s swift and just wrath!!! God can speak to them one more time before pronouncing judgment on the heart of Saul. So, Stephen does not pray for something that does not come true! When the last stone was thrown and Stephen “fell asleep” (died) God would by all the knowledge of synergy of scripture have sent JUDGEMENT upon Saul, particularly! There Is your TRUE LOVE! THE ACT OF PRAYING (the right heart without the emotions of the flesh confusing your mission as a GOSPEL THUMPER!) FOR MERCY THAT A MAN MAY BE GIVEN ANOTHER CHANCE BEFORE JUDGEMENT CARRIES GOD’S ENEMY who hates him to HELL!
You have seen a first string player on God’s team known as Stephen. Now I give you a fourth-string player known as Jonah! Jonah was a prophet like Stephen with a mission to give the gospel to a very like evil group! There is no reason why the Ninevites did not kill Jonah, with the exception of dying to their old flesh and becoming born again in Christ Jesus. The huge difference is Jonah was not FULL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT when he went to them to preach. The Ninevites repented and Jonah “was displeased and angry (Jonah 4:1). Jonah did not have the same heart as Stephen. He would have looked like one of the opponents (lost guys with anger) on the court with his anger! Jonah was not on Satan’s team but he very much resembled anybody who would have walked over to those guys camp who was killing all of their friends and family just for fun and displaying their bodies around town on stakes. The Ninevites were easy people to “HATE”! THE LOST would have hated on them also. But, the difference between a lost guy loving and a saved guy loving always comes down to “loving” God’s enemy can only be by recognizing God’s wrath was for some reason stalled upon you and I long enough for us to repent of our sins and except Christ as Saul or the Ninevites! It is predestined that all be saved because Jesus stood in Genesis before the first sin with an atonement already in place; but, man would have to come to know about his atonement by faith (which took the entire Old Testament of prophecies and typological events to happen) instead of just simply Jesus snapping his fingers and willing it true or by just eating a fruit and having been given the knowledge through “NO EFFORTS OR WORK OF HIS OWN”!
11. After all those 10 points, there must be the understanding that everytime you use the word with the letters “l”, “o”, ” v”, “e”, the definition of “MORALITY LOVE” has NOTHING TO DO WITH “puppy love, evolutionists’ love, affection like ninth grader love, animal love, thousands of more descriptions of how the word has been associated with the same thought as THE FRUIT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT! People have started world million, billion dollar campaigns to save the whales and animals in the name of love. If you want to think that “love” and the “love of Christ” which saves us is a synonym, forget it! You will never understand; but, debate and argue that the love of Christ is something the same as some kind of love from this world! Love is not sweet, an adjective that can be compared like four different, yet all “sweet” fruits!
12. God describes “Love” as a sword!
It is not sweet at all unless you accept “LOVE” for what it truly is as God made it. God says love is truth! God came as Jesus and rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, picked up the book on the throne and ate it.
“And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up, and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.”
Revelation 10:9 KJV
Is “LOVE” described as an adjective like when you buy a beautiful new $80,000.00 car? No! Love is only described and defined as a “WORK OF GOD”! God uses many metaphors and literary imagery to describe the essence of “love”! Satan HATES LOVE! SATAN is the essence of hate! Lies and all forms of confusion that water down, confuse and satisfy the flesh in temporary worldly ways have become synonyms for love; but, they are not examples at all! When God heals a man of a plague, would that be the same as an idolator who does not worship God and gets credit for saving a life? No! It is only in your mind as “alike” situation of “compassion, skill, love, professionalism, many worldly adjectives could apply, but Satan makes sure that “love” is the quintessential word used only to water down “TRUE LOVE”! GOD CLEARLY says ” depravity of man is “good works which get NO CREDIT”! Each player can score a basketball goal; but, one player CAN NOT RECEIVE CREDIT BY “SCORING FOR THE OPPOSITE TEAM”! A man who is saved must score ” WITH THE RIGHTEOUS HEART” or he doesn’t even get credit! God’s ways are higher! Christians MUST STOP CONFUSING others (lost and saved) that love is everything “THAT SEEMS GOOD TO ANY MAN”!
LOVE IS THE WORD OF GOD.
LOVE IS TRUTH (100%).
LOVE IS THE GOSPEL (sword) that saves or kills. How does it kill? It kills because the person himself chooses the lie! Read the story of Moses with Pharoah. Moses never raised a sword, yet he did! Moses gave the gospel to everybody all the time. There were people dying around him all the time! Why were the people bitten by snakes? Not because there were so many mice running around and there was a local pet store that raised and sold them. God used them as getting the gospel (the sword) to the people who were
“supposedly the saved Israelites”. Many died!
Would you call God a HATER? I HOPE NOT!
UNTIL YOU RECOGNIZE “LOVE” IS ONLY BREAD AND WATER THAT SAVES ETERNALLY YOU WILL NOT UNDERSTAND THE SWEET FLAVOR DESCRIBED OF LOVE AS BEING “patience, joy, forbearance, goodness, gentleness, self-control, kindness and faithfulness. Now read the stories of Jonah and Stephen. Notice particularly how BOTH GAVE THE GOSPEL! BOTH HELD UP A SWORD! Those in both stories that received the “threat” (as many Christians deny and lie that God does not do) either lived or died physically and eternally. Those that Stephen witnessed to killed him first! Those were the God haters! The Ninevites would have died if Jonah had gotten his way; but, God uses the righteous prophet Jonah as an example that our flesh can deny us of those sweet attributes of the fruit of love. Stephen showed he was “FULL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT”! HE HAD THE QUINTESSENTIAL GIFT OF LOVE! HE would have very much followed through with any orders of God to kill those in front of him had God given him those orders like Moses. However, he asked God to harden the heart of Paul (Saul) that he might be saved and sacrificed himself for his enemy! God answered his prayer! Paul (Saul) got saved not long after being in charge of stoning Stephen! Reading about Paul and understanding his ugly hatred past for Christians and Christ reveals a revelation of the new birth that transforms Saul into a parallel like Stephen only with MORE FERVOR in his writings! All this is due to the love of Christ given to Saul from Stephen! Many have described Saul’s amazing experience while traveling down the road to Damascus to get more authority to increase his venomous hatred toward followers of Jesus as “the time of Saul’s call from God”! That is not true! Nor is it true that Saul was “predestined” (as defined by Calvinist) to be saved no matter how many times he denied Christ! Remember Abram, he petitioned (very important word that throws Calvinism in the sewer) with God to stop the destruction of Sodom. Then he petitions for the saving of human lives who will repent and this he saves Lot and 5 others. Stephen petitioned God to not consider his stoning as a final shaking of the dust off his sandals until God could arise the next day with new mercies and the plan set forth at the foundation for every last possible chance that the wicked, evil, ugly, murderer Saul might hear the gospel again to be saved! See that road down to Damascus did not get Saul saved. The prophecy of the lost is that they see with their ears the truth! It is “love” of and with the eyes that has prevented billions from hearing the truth! It is many, many times that it is “LOVE THAT KILLS, STEALS, AND DESTROYS” the life of a lost person. You have heard, “you can love someone to death”(unknown)? Saul was BLINDED, that he might SEE! God has been accused of FORCING SAUL INTO A SAVED STATUS while on that journey! God forced him to shut up and see with another source; God put shackles on Satan while Saul heard the gospel again due to Stephen’s petition! Saul choose to accept the truth instead of a lie of love from Satan!
Stephen judged Saul and everyone standing in front of him as enemies of God (going to hell) and himself (Acts 7:52- Stephen would be a false prophet on so many levels to call Saul -who by many say was saved before he was born-and then pray Full of the Holy Spirit for a man ALREADY FORGIVEN- that is truly crazy). Stephen judged them all as though they were about to get the promise of God’s immediate wrath like Sodom and Gomorrah when they called Jesus a liar Synergy of scripture- Jesus told Stephen to go and preach and immediately if they reject you go and MAKE JUDGEMENT ON THEM. Matthew 10:14-15) God told Stephen what that judgment would be (Some say that God says they could later get saved and a person never knows; does scripture say God change his mind? God told Stephen, all the d)disciples, that it would be decided, period! So if a guy lived 300 years after Stephen shook his sandals of the dust would God’s promise still be good?)! Then they attacked him as murderers! In Stephen’s few last breaths he bound his flesh in the FULLNESS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT and prayed his last predestined prayer: (ask and you shall receive), please dear God give these men another chance to receive the bread and water of life that you have given me, before bringing the angels to kill them (blotting out their names in the Lambs’ Book of Life). Stephen did not ask God to forgive them of his murder!!!!!!!! Stephen did not ask God to forgive him of his murder!!! I should repeat this a third time: Stephen ASKED GOD TO FORGIVE THEM OF “EVERY SIN” if you would just stall their judgment they are promised at this very moment (death) like that of Lot; they would be truly forgiven as Saul.
If Saul (Paul) were to get a saved he would be imputed righteousness of Stephen’s murder but also of Abel to Zacharias or any other Christian on God’s team that died due to lies!
In the end, DO NOT BE MISTAKEN to interpret Stephen’s prayer to think God did not revenge the death of Stephen upon every God hating murdering piece of crap (isn’t that what you think when you see a guy murder 100’s of innocent men, wome, and children?). Well for the sake of Christ not eating any more bitter works of our lazy selves, I suggest start prophesying the gospel of Christ like you mean it! Amen!
