What would you do if you woke up in the morning with a word in bold letters going across your mind like a ticker-tape? What if it was so strong that as you walk through the house it is still there, like a hologram image between you and everything you see? And then as a result of what you see you hear the voice of the Lord speak, “read Jer. 15:19-21”. This passage He gave led me to a few others like Jer. 1:17 and Eze. 22:26. I have not read these scriptures for a long while. Yet it did not take me long to realize that the word I was watching play across my mind was there in these scriptures. The word that was impeding my vision was the word: COMPROMISE. As I watched this ticker-tape a bit more a couple of scriptures in the New Testament that have been on my mind showed themselves; 2Cor. 6:11-7:1 and 1Thes.5:22.
I have been contemplating the word Father gave me for a month or so before the ticker-tape appeared in front of my eyes and to have the Lord speak to me so clearly about it was unexpected. To have Him place this word in my vision and to have Him give me a scripture passage that begins with, “if you will return”, seemed somewhat pointed. I knew I had been negligent in not writing and speaking what I had known was the truth for fear of losing some dear friends fellowship. After a moment of deep repentance I sat down and listened for more, knowing Father was about to give me a fresh understanding of the cost to His Kingdom for what is going on in the Church today.
Compromise= concession, something accepted rather than wanted, (lowering of standards that can lead to potential danger or disgrace). Agreement by conceding, to expose someone to danger, agreement by conceding, to lessen the value of someone or something.
Compromise is a basic negotiation process in which one or both parties in a disagreement or dispute give up something that they have or want in order to get something else they think they want more.
After reading the meanings of the word Compromise. I had to sit and pray a bit to come to a understand what Father was speaking. I have a pre-existing condition with this word and much of what I have seen going on in Church and in our personal lives is affected by it.
The Lord made it plain that I must be careful to listen and not pre-conceive what I write. I struggle with this word compromise as I find my life filled with it. In some instances, compromise is a good thing, but when it comes to our Christ-like walk, it is an ugly thing. I am sure I will need to repent continually as I write this and let the Spirit bring what I am penning into my own living…
Lately I feel that I am surrounded by what I can only describe as compromise in the Christian realm. It seems that everywhere I turn, I see it or am asked to submit to it. I find that in every corner of life, the world system and the demonic are increasingly demanding that we as Christians compromise.
The integrity of God, His Word and the standard found in Jesus’ life and example to us are being reduced to mere historical words and have lost their saving power in many ways. His unfailing Love is being reduced to an illusion. The power of His name is being trampled underfoot by those who use it without reverence. Those who penned the Word for God and set His principles down on paper would be amazed as the absolutes found in God’s Word are eroded by the constant pressures for Christians to “fit in or be acceptable”. Thus the word; COMPROMISE.
Throughout biblical history from Adam and Eve to the future time of Revelations we see what the seed of compromise costs God, His Kingdom and us, our lives.
It appears that in each of us there exists a desire to “fit-in or belong”, whether it be with other “Christians” and their interpretation of God’s Word for the sake of comfort and acceptance, or to get along with people at work or in our play. Being acceptable and “living the middle ground” through concession of God’s truth appears to have more conviction, authority and power than God’s Word and His standard.
In the book of 2 Timothy it is written that, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is good for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” (2 Tim 3:16-17). We are not to interpret it, but accept it as it is written. WE tend to manipulate scripture to fit our lives or what we want to do instead of making our lives fit with what is written and spoken. We tend to judge scripture by the society we are a part of. Its relevance is dictated by our decisions and choices. (We do not judge our living or what is happening by the Word. We instead judge the Word by our lives and what we see around us).
Each and every time that the Israelites compromised the commands that God gave them you see written in scripture that judgment, slavery, confusion, or defeat was on it’s way to their doorstep. Moses even felt the judgment from compromise when he struck the rock a second time, which kept him from entering with the people into the Promised Land. Earlier in Moses’ life we can see the cost of “slight disobediences” or compromise and the cost. One example of the cost of compromising what God says to do happened when Moses did not obey God and bring the elders to the tent of meeting at the beginning of their journey through the desert. The result was that the leadership of Israel had no one who walked in intimacy with God to lead them when he was gone, thus when Moses was gone they built idols or sinned. How about Abraham, telling the king his wife was his sister? He compromised his trust in the One he had covenanted with. Esau was a result of one of his compromises and look what that has brought down through history.
There is no book in the bible where man’s compromise is not seen in some way. The cost of our compromise of God’s Word and our relationship with Him is seen everywhere. The good side of this malady that seems to always show it’s ugly head is that God’s mercy is fresh ever morning and His grace gives us opportunity to repent. We must recognize that even God’s mercy and grace does not take away the results of our past actions. Our choices set in motion the law of sin and it’s reward. When we compromise God’s Word or His voice we must remember that we cannot chose the reward or result of our actions.
God’s spiritual and physical laws, already spoken, will decide the results or outcome of our compromising actions/decisions.
I would like to look at one aspect of our compromise that I have contended with others over for many years. In the book of Acts 19:19-20 we see a group of people, who practiced magic, bringing all their books and burning them. The result was that the word of God spread mightily. (I have a paper that I wrote on idols that goes into detail on the subject of idolatry on our website). In the book of 2 Cor. 6-11-7:1 Paul brings into the New Testament God’s feelings about compromising His standards and being romanced with the enemy’s ways or items he uses. Basically it says, do not mess with or mix with any sort of darkness or have occult or satanic influences around you. Another scripture 1 Thes.5:22 says, “abstain from every form of evil”. Heb.3:7-10 tells us what attitude we need to maintain in our relationship with Jesus. –listen to Him, trust, and obey what He says. In these scriptures the Lord leaves no room for compromise for the sake of “fun or entertainment”.
If we look at Father and His unfailing love for man we will find no compromise in His activities and association with man. He will not lower His standards for us. He has been drug through so much garbage by man and we have destroyed so many in our evil desires and passions, yet, He NEVER quits loving us. How do we react to such a great passionate love.
Lets break it down a bit with an example; I am married to Lady Dana, she is the love of my life. We are best friends and work and play together. Hypothetically lets put together this scenario— Dana hates blue and I know that but consistently buy her blue colored gifts and I wear bright blue shirts when I am in her presence. What would that say to Lady Dana about how much I love her and appreciate her? It would say I don’t care much about what she likes or dislikes. It would show the relationship to be very selfish and very one sided. It would, it left unchecked, ruin the relationship or badly affect it. IF we would not treat someone we love here on earth with such disrespect as to bring what they show a strong dislike of into the relationship, Why would we do that to our God and Father?
What God likes and dislikes is apparent in the Word. He makes no bones about what He hates and what He likes. He goes even further and shows us what the enemy uses and tells us how much He (God) hates what the enemy does. The enemy perverts what God brings to enhance our relationship and uses the perversions to destroy what God treasures most—our relationship with Him. These things COMPROMISE the integrity of our lives with Him. They destroy or hamper our intimacy. They affect God’s Kingdom and our future.
In recent years, there has been so much witchcraft and sorcery brought into Christianity through the media and it’s far reaching tentacles. Seemingly innocent movies and books filled with sorcery and witchcraft have induced our children to want to mimic sorcerers, wizards and witches. Though people tell me that the underlying themes of these books and movies are about Christ, yet our kids do not practice being like Jesus, Paul, Peter or John as a result of reading these books or watching the movies. Instead they practice being wizards and sorcerers. A tree is known by its fruit, and a spring cannot yield both fresh and salt water…
Let’s look further into the commands of the Lord. Do we do them or do we make excuses for not doing them? Is tradition more powerful than God’s word? Should traditions of men take precedence over The Word? I am sure we would all say the Word is the final authority and our first priority. Yet it does not seem to matter which command we chose to look at, we come up with lots of reasons why we cannot obey them. The truth is that by our actions we reveal we do not accept Jesus as King or Lord, or as the final authority like we say we do. For the most part we believe what He commands are simply suggestions. Here is a good example. Rom 8:1a says that… “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus”, We stop with that comma and take that portion of the scripture and validate not doing anything scripture “commands”. We say, “We live by Grace”. We use this partial scripture to excuse our neglect of duty or disobedience. We say God doesn’t require anything of us. “Grace, Grace”, we cry. So, let’s look at the rest of that scripture (Rom.8:1b), “Who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit”. So the rest of the scripture says—there is no condemnation IF, we walk by the Spirit. So, if we walk fulfilling the lust of the flesh, we will live under condemnation. Simple truth, but not many want to read the whole thing because it will show up our compromises and disobedience to scripture. We ignore the scripture in James that says, Faith without works is dead”. Works don’t get me saved but they do prove I am saved. We must live our relationship with Jesus as if it matters more than any other. Our unwillingness to compromise God and His Word must show.
There is a host of other “compromises” we partake of that negate scripture, elevate man’s traditions, and reject the voice of God:
Why do we believe Christianity should be without cost or pain? Jesus says that we will suffer and be persecuted. Why aren’t we?
The “sinner’s prayer that produces no changed life. There is no scripture to back up a “prayer of salvation”. The scripture does not teach making “converts”. It teaches us to make disciples.
Why do pastors lead the Church as being the final authority? Eph. 4:11-15 states they are 4th in a list of 5 and are only mentioned once in the New Testament. Leadership should be servant styled and plural as in “elders”…
(All leadership, in any form in the Church, should be under and not over the body of Christ. Mt.20:25-28)
Why do we say that baptism of Holy Spirit is optional? Lu. 24:48 says don’t try to witness until the Promise of my Father (Holy Spirit) comes upon you.
Why is “church” a Sunday morning meeting instead of it being “the ecclesia, the called out ones”, meeting any and maybe everyday of the week to fulfill the purpose of God.
Why do we not make disciples? We call Mt. 28:18-20 the “Great Commission” yet we do not even know the meaning of disciple or discipleship for the most part. (It is definitely not a class nor a program.)
Why is 93% of the church of Jesus sitting and not “going”? Why do we call that normal? Who is going to be held responsible for this condition.
I picked only a few compromises on my short list but for many of us, some of the most controversial. Father is coming for a church without spot or blemish, one that “overcomes”. How does compromising His Word, His hunger for intimacy with us and ignoring His purpose for us fit with that?
Compromise has brought us a lot further from the truth than we wanted to go and cost us a lot more than we have realized and should have paid. What does it cost Father and His Kingdom and what will it cost in the future if we continue to do that which we seem to have always done?
I have nowhere to go with this word. I was right when I began and said it would cost me to write it. I cannot even touch all the compromise I see, in others and myself. What will it take for us to see the Truth and the Truth to set us free? We, the Church, are the reason we are where we are. We need to get back to the Word, intimacy with Jesus, the power of Holy Spirit and the purpose of Father. Until we do we will not suffer persecution, simply judgment. It takes obedience to bring persecution.
I would like to end this letter with what I feel is one of the biggest compromises of scripture. Lets go first to the book of Acts, 5:1-11. This scripture is about Ananias and Sapphira.. Yet, it is really about something much more profound that has been compromised—The fear of the Lord. We have been told that “Fearing God” is to “hold Him in high-esteem with Awe”. In Verse 11 of this passage, the word fear means; fear, dread, terror or as Strong’s puts it, alarm or fright:—be afraid, + exceedingly, fear, terror.
So ALL the church and all who heard what happened were alarmed and exceedingly afraid, in terror.
When we read on in verses 12-16 we find that “the people who heard of the Church” held them in high esteem but dared not to join them… The Church and the power of God caused people to fear God, then to come to Him and find His grace in the time of need. Wow. THE FEAR OF HIS POWER DREW THE UNSAVED TO HIM.
Throughout the Word are statements about, “the fear of the Lord or God”. I have not listed all but probably more than we would like to read.
Ps 111:10 (NKJV)
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
A good understanding have all those who do His commandments.
His praise endures forever.
Pr 1:7 (NKJV)
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
But fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Pr 8:13 (NKJV)
The fear of the Lord is to hate evil;
Pride and arrogance and the evil way
And the perverse mouth I hate.
Pr 9:10 (NKJV)
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
Pr 16:6 –Pr 16:7 (NKJV)
In mercy and truth
Atonement is provided for iniquity;
And by the fear of the Lord one departs from evil.
When a man’s ways please the Lord,
He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.
Proverbs 16:6 (amp). By mercy and love, truth and fidelity (to God and man—not by sacrificial offerings) iniquity is purged out of the heart, and by the reverent, worshipful fear of the Lord men depart from and avoid evil.
When a man’s ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.
Ps 25:14 (NKJV)
The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him,
And He will show them His covenant.
We will never know the depth of His Love and Mercy until we understand and know the Fear of the Lord, (being in a place where you fear offending Him as He can not only destroy the body but can send your soul to hell). We will never understand the incredible depth of forgiving Grace without understanding the depth of His hatred of sin and it’s consequences. Without His Justice, mercy and grace are cheap. Obedience is not something that we are likely to adhere to unless there is a consequence for not being obedient…
BEFORE JESUS RETURNS, THE FEAR OF THE LORD WILL COME UPON US. WE WILL RECOGNIZE OUR COMPROMISE FOR WHAT IT IS, AND SOME WILL TURN BACK TO WHERE WE SHOULD BE LIVING.
Obedience to His desires and truth, out of a pure heart of love for the One who saved me, is the only way I can show Him I love and trust Him. Salvation is free, all it costs is a changed life, giving up your unbelief and unfaithfulness.
In Father’s Hand, neil
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