Rev. 22:14
Now, we know from Jesus’ words that there are two open paths, once one has gone through the Narrow Gate of being saved. Further, we know Jesus spoke of the possibility of believers being deceived. And further yet, we have Jesus’ words that at judgment, some believers will claim to have prophesied, cast out demons, and have done mighty works in His name. But Jesus tells them to depart, for He never knew them. They are sent to outer darkness, not hell. ( Rev. 22:14 (top) expounds on this.) Even beyond that, we read in Rev. 3 about 7th and last church, that these believers will think they are rich and need no more, and He threatens to spew these from His mouth. Perhaps it is easier to be lured onto the easy path than we might have thought, and that one might not even realize the error.
Think about that parable of the man coming to the wedding feast without the wedding garment. Note that he was only trying to be there as a guest. The guests wear the wedding garment, the cloak of righteousness. This means many had not been made the Bride, but only guests. This man was not even to be a guest, but was sent into outer darkness, outside the City.
Jesus let it be known that many followed Him because they wanted their flesh satisfied, and they saw that He was able to do this by multiplying food and healing the sick. Could it be possible that even our present generation of believers follows Him for the same things? They seek the goose bumps at seeing miracles, and like what they hear about becoming rich, merely by following a carefully explained formula supposedly dug from the Bible. It may be important to look inward and see if these believers are seeking the blessings, rather than the Blesser. Jesus told us to first seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and then all these things would be added. Do we have our priorities reversed, while not knowing it?
Most Christians assume they are on the Hard Path, merely because they are experiencing hardships and attacks from the devil. Unless they have experienced the real Hard Path, they have no idea what it can be like, how hard it really can be. They think because they have been Spirit filled, that they live a Spiritual life. But if our teaching has so far been to remain as babies in Christ, how can one know he has not been deceived? Is it not typical for a child to ignore the future and instead migrate to what makes him feel good in the here and now?
And I repeat, when we seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, we must seek His kind of righteousness, which does not come from obeying the Law. If we do righteousness out of obedience, we are only acting righteousness, for we are doing it in spite of our iniquity within.
One very important part of a verse in the Bible is overlooked by most Christians. When John the Baptist spoke about the coming of Jesus, he told the crowd He would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. We thought in the past, that the fire part meant we were filled with fire for the Lord. So we miss the real meaning of the fire, and are content with the joys of having His Spirit within us. Fire refines, and put with the verses that “sorrow refines,” tells something about what that baptism is about. It is indeed a trip of being refined by sorrows as the Spirit does His work of “showing us all things.” We will find out things about ourselves that will indeed bring sorrow. But we need to see these things in order to do warfare with them, to rid ourselves of them to become the Bride.
All Christians are introduced to both the easy path to destruction and the Hard Narrow Path. But Jesus said that there will be few who take the right Path. Know first that taking the easy path does not necessarily mean going to hell. It means that there will have been wrong baby motives in the good deeds they have done, and those deeds will burn as wood, hay, and stubble. They will bring no dowry to Jesus, and will only make it into Heaven as if by fire.
I suspect the highest reward of many will be to take the place of the fallen angels. However, some will not even be allowed in The City, and those will be sent into outer darkness. These are likely ones who got saved and educated in the Word, but consciously chose to close their eyes to truth that would conflict with their established traditions. The easy path is what is being taught in our churches.
I’d love to hear comments and/or questions from you! Email me!