Have you ever been led by the Spirit of God to speak bluntly or harshly to anyone? Some Christians believe that harsh speech is not love and that we must always be sweet and concerned about people’s feelings. I’ve been such a one and have lived most of my life thinking that I had to be kind, gentle, and meek with everyone. When I was not, my conscience smote me, but I have learned that our conscience is not the Holy Spirit. It’s connected to what we’ve been taught, which may or may not be true.

Two days ago I had a vision of me pumping weight with one hand and my right arm looked like “Popeye”’s. Oh yes, I have been exercising the power to bless and not curse, but my left arm in the vision was skinny and withered looking, hanging limply at my side. It’s true I have never been like Elijah standing up to Ahab, boldly decreeing there’d be no rain and have it be so, nor have I told the Pharisaical people in my life that they were full of robbery, wickedness and dead men’s bones and that they were hypocrites and white-washed tombs. But Jesus did! Would we accuse our Lord of being too harsh and unkind? But hear it: We’re to be just like Him and like all the others who’ve gone before us, even calling a rattlesnake a rattlesnake so that light could expose their condition and bring conviction for repentance in their lives.

Today, in America we have been losing our freedom of speech, and it’s happening in many other countries who were once free, as well. Now saying what is biblically true could get us locked up in prison and worse, but brethren, we must not fail to speak “The Truth,” without which no man can be set free. The reason there’s so much lawlessness in the land AND in Christendom is that people aren’t confronting wrong doers, and not demonstrating power like Moses did. Who is there among us who can make leaders tremble?

I believe that righteous judgment is missing in our land because we’ve not been carrying our weight… The vision of my having a limp left arm brought an acute awareness to me that God is wanting all His people to be built up to execute righteous judgment and do mighty works, not just me. So often, if we have confronted sin, we’ve been like Eli who told his children that they were doing wrong, but did nothing about it. Paul’s instruction to believers was to turn those in deep sin over to the devil to deal with their flesh, not slap them on the wrist. I’ve known the Lord for over fifty years and I have never once seen this enacted in a church, or even heard preaching or teaching on it. I believe the reason that little of God’s power is displayed by so many of God’s people is that imputed righteousness is not enough to do great works. We have to deal with all the filthiness of OUR flesh and spirit having righteousness established in us, before God’s power can be channeled through us.

No wonder the Bible states that WHEN God’s people humble themselves, pray, seek His face and turn from their wicked ways, THEN God will do all he has promised and use us to accomplish His will…. THEN He will raise up judges on spiritual Mount Zion to judge the Mount of Esau (flesh) for the purpose that people will learn righteousness. Yay! Our Lord will thunder OUT OF US, doing more than the prophets of old did. Jesus said that we would do even greater works than He did, so it’s time that we’re like those 700 Benjamites long ago who were not only sons of the right hand, but skilled with their left hands as well. We’re going to need both in doing the works to defeat the enemy, so it’s time that we all started lifting weights and become like “Bells of Holiness,”….NOT “dumb” bells!