Sense the Moment

So we are accountable for the message, but not the reception. Only God can grant the reception.

The greatest disaster in evangelical church history was the rise of the notion that the believer is derelict if he/she does not use psychological manipulation to talk someone into “making a decision for Christ.” It is just one step away from the efforts of organized Christian religion in previous centuries using the sword to enforce an orthodox confession. If human power can do it, it’s not the work of God. Nothing any human can do will generate spiritual birth, nor awaken conviction in the soul. Both spiritual birth and conviction are a direct gift, solely from the hand of God.

All we can do is hold the door open; we cannot drag them through.

The burden of compassion is for holding it out there for them to take. Compassion ends there. Whether the intended recipient even acknowledges is not our concern. As long as they stand outside our feudal covenant grant from the Lord, they are His problem. The person touched by His Spirit must be able to sense both a barrier and an open gate. They must sense that they are outside, and that they are welcome to come inside.

More than once I’ve responded with: “Of course what you do is sinful; you know that. But as long as you don’t stick it in my face, it’s not my problem.” They are outside the covenant boundaries, and there is no need to take any action, nor advocate for any action by others. We could never use the powers of this world to accomplish the Father’s glory. The rest of the world is also outside the covenant boundaries. We should expect sinners to sin. Our message is, “This is not in your best interest.” We go no farther; we make no condemnations.

And quite often we won’t even say that much. The decision to say anything at all rests with the Lord. We speak when we cannot be silent, because conviction puts fire in our hearts to say something. Without that fire of conviction, you cannot claim to have compassion. It’s not a matter of training and practice. It must come from within your heart. We must learn to realize that sometimes anything we can say or do will only drive them farther away. We must learn to sense the moment.

Granted, someone who is under the same covenant warrants a different kind of treatment, but even then, their compliance is voluntary. We use force only when it is demanded by our convictions, and for very few contexts, when the fire of divine wrath burns. You can learn to recognize what that is, and what it demands of you. It should be rare.