Copyright 2010 Theresa Harvard Johnson
Tolerance:
- permissiveness; tending to permit, allow, understand, or accept something;
- an acceptance or patience with the beliefs, opinions or practices contrary to the Word of God;
- willingness to recognize and respect the beliefs or practices of others
Matthew 7:13-14 says, "Go in through the narrow gate; for the gate that leads to destruction is wide and the road broad, and many travel it; but it is a narrow gate and a hard road that leads to life, and only a few find it."
Father has really been speaking to me about FEARING him. Part of that fear is to be so girded up in Him that you truly, truly HATE sin and that you WANT MORE THAN ANYTHING to love him. Some of us need to just stop pretending. We need to walk out the front doors of our homes, businesses and even our congregations and just admit, "I am really working on going to hell, not heaven."
We need to just stand before God, open our mouths and SAY, "Lord, I tell you the truth. I trust in my friends, the ways of this world, the government, and all this other stuff around me MORE than I trust in you."
Reading what I've written might evoke "anger and wariness" in the minds of some; but do you know that this is what YOU SAY everyday when you walk in the "TOLERANCE" mindset of Baal — that place of acceptance in which many believers live today of just any old thing. I often say this, but I get fired up indignant when people get angry about someone making comments about their favorite movie star, their hometown or even telling them what movies they should or should not watch — but they can't muster up an OUNCE of anger when the name of the Lord is raped and pillaged in their HOMES, communities and congregations. They cannot MUSTER UP an ounce of outrage with their "popular and earthly prosperous" favorite spiritual leader falls into sin or teaches something that they KNOW is flesh and leading men into sin.
Something is wrong.
Tolerance is giving sin permission to exist an multiply in and around you without opposition. It is the act of agreeing by not disagreeing. It is the conscious act of "not getting involved" when your voice could be that ONE — that brings just one soul into a place of truth. TOLERANCE is permitting things to take place in your PRESENCE that are EVIL and saying absolutely nothing.
Be honest before the Lord right now, "Ask him are you TOLERANT of sin?" It's going to take Holy Spirit to bring you into this place because most saints will never openly admit that they TOLERATE SATAN walking in and out of their lives — freely. YES! You see, in this "earthbound" mindset we tend to see "people" doing things or behaving, instead of seeing the EVIL operating through them. As long as we CHOOSE to see people, we will miss what Heaven is trying to reveal. It's not FLESH & BLOOD that we battle, but principalities, powers, rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness in high places. So when SIN is in your midst, you are literally seeing the "the kingdom of hell" operate in your midst.
TOLERANCE gives the kingdom of hell PERMISSION to exist in your space — operating freely.
Matthew 7:13 instructs us this way:
- GO IN: This going in refers solely to "entering" into the Kingdom of Heaven. It is not speaking only of getting into those pearly gates of Heaven, but it is speaking off entering into that place of living, breathing and utterly existing in God. It is that all consuming place in which Moses sat with God for 40 days. This "going in" is an appeal to us to enter into God — abide in that secret place where there is no sin, no compromise.
- THROUGH THE NARROW GATE: The word through in Hebrew means to pass over, cross over, march over, overflow, go over, and pass beyond. It means to leave one place and completely move into the next place. This "narrow gate" is not some imaginary physical gate — but it is that entrance that takes us through to Jesus Christ (the gate/door to the Father). That word narrow literally means "contracted by pressure, pressed hard, to press hard upon." In other words, we are to know that choosing to follow Christ involves a pressings, pushing contracting process of getting through. This narrow gate is a picture of INTOLERANCE TO SIN. I want to make this clearer because sometimes people see sin as blatant things like fornication, slander, murder, etc. But sin is also entertainment, competition, comparison, compromise, indifference, idol worship, selfishness, prostituting the gospel, etc. It is the exalting of ANYTHING above the word of God.
- FOR THE GATE THAT LEADS TO DESTRUCTION IS WIDE & THE ROAD BROAD. Satan also has a doorway or a gate. The word destruction in Hebrew literally means "the condemning of the soul eternally to hell." You really don't hear many saints talking about going to hell anymore. People falsely believe that they can keep sinning and repenting. The word WIDE means "MULTIPLE WAYS, UNLIMITED WAYS OF GETTING THERE." One thing that tolerance does is give us these "alternate perspectives" on things. There are no alternate perspectives in God. His word is MATTER OF FACT. His word is sure and unbendable. His word expands in HIM, not in the WORLD. Beware of earthbound expansion…
Right now, this is one of the areas where so many believers are being deceived — or led away from the gospel. This is one of hell's most successful strategies against saints today. Instead of pushing people to cross, tolerance has caused many to fear God more than they fear men; to counsel demons instead of cast them out; to hide when the church is attacked instead of standing for it; to cover sin instead of expose it; to bring counsel from the world into the congregation, etc.
Saints, we were not created to TOLERATE anything that this world presents to us. Right now, the minds of our children are being brainwashed right in the midst of our school systems, through the world-based media, through the movie theatres, through the libraries and television shows. My God, these reality shows have had an ENORMOUS IMPACT… yet, when you many believers are BUYING INTO THESE THINGS… supporting them… and sadly… will ignorantly point fingers 20 years from now when these "children"…. grow up to walk out the pollution in their minds…
We are the church. Yes, Christ is coming back as our King. Yes, the new Jerusalem will be established on the earth regardless of what hell does…
But I tell you, when we stand for truth… by refusing to tolerate the works of hell, there will be fewer souls heading down that broad road…
We must all stand before the Lord earnestly and look at what we tolerate in our midst, and seek to change it. Who are you hanging out with intimately who is in compromise? Are you tolerating their sin — continuing to walk with them under "their terms?" Are you really showing forth the light of Christ?
