The Land of the Scales

Ever experienced this?  Someone you knew from your yesteryears who was on fire for God, empowered to serve…then down the road you meet them again, to find out they are atheist or in another faith, whatever.  I mean when you knew them those days, they were powerfully born again.. so what happened!?

I had good old friends from school days and college were on fire for the Lord always telling me what the Lord was speaking to them while I myself was not saved during my school and college days, so I was interested in their progression of growth, and watched from the sidelines.  Years down the road after I was saved, I met them again and talked about Jesus never imagining for a moment they stopped believing and they smiled sweetly and said "Oh, we were so immature those days, it is like a dream now!"  I was stupefied and mystified.

The questions looms, did they lose their salvation?

Truth is once you are saved, there a dozens of verses to confirm that God will never let us go..He holds us on the palm of His Hand and no one can snatch us out.

Then there can be two answers to this mystery.

The first is this:

Either a person was never born again in the first place.  The person may have just had a wonderful emotional response to God which faded over time.  Salvation is a spirit to spirit experience, the Spirit of God awakens the human spirit to spiritual life and saves the soul.  Yet, if there is an emotional response to the Gospel, over time, emotions change, flicker and fade.  Nothing in the realm of emotionalism is stable.  As water and oil do not mix and the oil of the Holy Spirit never can anoint and bless a soul if the soul is filled with water figuratively speaking and the water of the world washes away spiritual truth offshore where their spirit never really had a spirit encounter with God.  Flesh, emotions and spirit do not mix if not in balance and harmony and in right order as oil and water do not.

The second is this:

I know a young man who was so on fire for Jesus he wanted to serve Him in ministry and start a Bible study and read the Bible cover to cover along with tons of Christian books.  Then one day, he had a series of bad situations happen in his life and he hated God.  He professes today he is an atheist; he roars with anger at the mention of God and is a very angry man.  He even stopped working..and stopped speaking with most people and is living in isolated misery.  He is a mystery, because he was "more" born again than many born agains, better than most!

I believe that he has not lost his salvation, but right now is living in the Land of the Scales.  Satan has temporarily blinded him and covered his eyes with scales.  A person who is really saved will always have the Holy Spirit to convict them of their sin, even if it is at the tail end of their lives.  Today, he has rejected God, and the world says he is on the road to hell.  But somewhere, the Holy Spirit is there, quenched, but waiting to convict him of truth, one day.

To the world it may look as if such people have lost their salvation.  The truth is even on their deathbeds, the Holy Spirit will bring them to repentance.  Because once we are saved, we are sealed with the deposit of the Holy Spirit, sealed means never leave..we quench, we reject, but still one day, conviction will flood such people again.  Even during spiritual revivals, where the presence of the Holy Spirit is especially strong, hundreds and thousands of people get convicted and return back to the Lord, or come to Him newly.

 Once we are saved, blood-bought and redeemed through the Blood of Christ, we cannot lose our salvation.  Jesus' Blood is so powerful and precious.

More often than not, this kind of walking in the Land of the Scales where a believer cannot even remember he or she was once saved or remember anything of God is a supernatural work from the devil, many times, even black magic does these strange things to "ex-believers."

We need to stand in the gap and pray and intercede for such.  Then, even on their deathbeds, the Holy Spirit will bring all to remembrance and the scales will fall off their eyes and He will deliver them out of the Land of the Scales.  But we need to pray for them and not give up, and not say they are doomed forever, they need intercession....they were blood bought and that is never lost...to a soul.

Again, if a person once saved never returns to Christ....back again.. this verse holds true Matthew 10:33 But everyone who denies me here on earth, I will also deny before my Father in heaven.

But then the question looms, did they really know Christ in the first place...going to church and doing ministry does not necessarily make one a true follower.  Judas was in the presence of Christ, taught by Him and walked with Him, and still he walked away...did he really receive Christ, did he really know Him?   On the other hand, Peter denied Christ, but came back...the come back is the crux.  That has to be...

Rita...