I Samuel 11:1-11
Then Nahash the Ammonite came up and encamped against Jabesh Gilead; and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, “Make a covenant with us, and we will serve you.”
2 And Nahash the Ammonite answered them, “On this condition I will make a covenant with you, that I may put out all your right eyes, and bring reproach on all Israel.”
3 Then the elders of Jabesh said to him, “Hold off for seven days, that we may send messengers to all the territory of Israel. And then, if there is no one to save us, we will come out to you.”
4 So the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul and told the news in the hearing of the people. And all the people lifted up their voices and wept. 5 Now there was Saul, coming behind the herd from the field; and Saul said, “What troubles the people, that they weep?” And they told him the words of the men of Jabesh. 6 Then the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard this news, and his anger was greatly aroused. 7 So he took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hands of messengers, saying, “Whoever does not go out with Saul and Samuel to battle, so it shall be done to his oxen.”
And the fear of the Lord fell on the people, and they came out with one consent. 8 When he numbered them in Bezek, the children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand. 9 And they said to the messengers who came, “Thus you shall say to the men of Jabesh Gilead: ‘Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you shall have help.’” Then the messengers came and reported it to the men of Jabesh, and they were glad. 10 Therefore the men of Jabesh said, “Tomorrow we will come out to you, and you may do with us whatever seems good to you.”
11 So it was, on the next day, that Saul put the people in three companies; and they came into the midst of the camp in the morning watch, and killed Ammonites until the heat of the day. And it happened that those who survived were scattered, so that no two of them were left together
In this passage of scripture one could liken Saul to a radical believer, or a “Radical Christian.” He was “radical” because his actions were extremist, they were far beyond what was considered “normal,” they were what some might call “over the top,” and others probably would have said his actions were “crazy."
If there has ever been a time in the history of our nation that we needed some “Radical Christians,” it’s now! We need some preachers who are not afraid to be labeled “extremists” because they are anointed and continue to preach standards and refuse to go along with the mainstream trends of the church! We need some worship leaders who are “over the top” and are tired of entertainment that does not promote God’s presence! We need believers that are called “crazy” because of their zeal to live a holy life and walk daily in the power of the Holy Ghost. We need believers that are so radical that the devil knows their name!
There are all kind of radicals in the world: People do all kinds of radical things, extreme things, and even crazy things. There are radical sports fans, politicians, religious extremists like ISIS and the Westboro Baptist church, racists, and extreme environmentalists. Everywhere you look there are all kinds of radicals. We have become accustomed to seeing people in the secular world doing all kinds of crazy, extreme, over the top things, but we are not used to seeing “radical Christians.”
Saul was a man who became radical, he was the king of Israel, and he was anointed by God. Pay special attention to that word "anointed." The anointing sets you apart from everyone else. The anointing places the power of God on your live. The anointing changes a person: it encourages boldness, it produces fearlessness, it makes us more assertive, and the anointing confronts error.
In our text all the people were crying, they were sad because of the threats from their enemy, but what made the others sad, made Saul angry. He was angry at the enemy, angry at the willingness of the people to compromise with the enemy just to avoid a fight. But Saul was not just an angry man, he was an anointed man. There is something that the enemy will always take notice of: A radical, angry, and anointed child of the living God!
In this age of compromise, this day of backing up and backing down, this era of diluting the gospel and going along to get along with everybody and everything, so many in the church have lost the fire of God and have settled for a, “form of godliness that denies the power thereof.”
But this to me because I can tell you what I have seen in the young men of my church, God is raising up ab army of “Radical Christians.” The Lord is anointing an army of ministers who are going to be more than just echoes of political correctness, more than just pew warmers, and more than just singers in the choir. This army is the radical, extreme, crazy, and over the top Jesus freaks who are going to shake up the church world!
In fact he is raising up some people, who like Saul, are angry at the enemy. They are M.A.D. – Motivated Against the Devil. They are angry at the devil, angry at the spirit of compromise in the church, angry at the spirit that rejects the cross and the blood of Jesus, and angry at the “Ecclesiastical Pimps” that stand in pulpits Sunday after Sunday and label everyone saved regardless of how they live just to get a paycheck!
There has been a spirit of passivity in too many churches for too long now, they have become very comfortable and casual in our attitude toward sin. There has been a seeker friendly mentality and attitude to make everybody comfortable and happy. An attitude that we must get rid of anything that would offend the seeker.
The cross, the altar, the blood, speaking in tongues, emotional responses to the Spirit, messages that mention hell or condemns sin, and sinful lifestyles. All this must be removed, we have got to make the sinner comfortable.
But I feel a stirring in my spirit and I have an assignment from the Holy Ghost to tell the church: Something is about to change! There's someone sitting in your church, somebody that you never really noticed, and that you never suspected and an anointing that is getting ready to fall on them. God is getting ready to put His mantle on them. They are going to stand up under the anointing of the Holy Ghost and become like an Elijah to this generation. They are not going to be seduced by this adulterous spirit of idolatry and witchcraft that has hypnotized the church, and they're going to call Gods people to repentance. They are not going to soft soap sin, or sugar coat the word of God. They are going to declare that there is a difference between the clean and the unclean, the vile and the pure, the right and the wrong, righteousness and sin. They are not going to be concerned about fitting in, about being popular with men, they are going to be clothed with the zeal of God, and their only concern is going to be to pleasing Him.
I have to throw this in here because the Holy Ghost just put in on my heart. I heard someone proclaim recently regarding homosexuals, lesbians, fornicators, Muslims, etc., that we are all on a “journey” and that they are just at different places in their “journey” and we have to give everybody time to become who they are supposed to be. The message he was conveying is that we are all on the same “journey” we are just at different places along that “journey.”
Let me tell you what the Word of God says about the “journey”: Along this “journey” called life there are only two roads, the Broad way, “which seemeth right unto man,” which leads to destruction, and the narrow way that leads to eternal life and “few there be that find it.” What I am about to say is not real popular these days, but I must say it regardless: If you have not confessed Jesus Christ as Lord, if you have not been washed in the blood of the Lamb, if you have not repented and been “baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sin (Acts 2:38),” then you are not saved. You are lost, you are on the wrong road and you need to make a U-turn. If you are a sinner and you have not been redeemed by the blood of Jesus then you are on the wrong road, and it doesn't matter how far you journey down that wrong road it will never become the right road, the only way to get right with God is a course correction.
If you do not receive Jesus as your personal savior and forsake your sins, you will be eternally lost. I know that's not popular but it's the truth, and I say it because I love you. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
There is an anointing that is being stirred up right now in some people that God has called. I want to warn you though, when it happens and you start standing up and declaring the non-filtered Word of God, some sleepy, sloppy, lazy, passive, and indifferent pew potatoes aren't going to recognize the anointing, they are just going to accuse us of being angry.
The only way the church will ever come together, be united for the purpose that the Lord has called us to, “to destroy the works of the devil,” is if someone gets sick and tired, if someone gets fed up with accepting compromise to avoid a fight, and if someone gets angry!
I want to end this “screed,” by saying just one more thing, it’s about time some of you got M.A.D.!
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