For nearly a year, the Lord’s had us listening to testimonies of people radically saved and delivered out of the occult – New Age, witchcraft, satanism, etc. – due to its rapidly growing popularity and, we believe, its prominence in present and soon to come end-time events.
One of the most recent I heard was actually from the 70s, from a man who was very high in rank in witchcraft, due to his family heritage. As we’ve heard over and over in these kinds of testimonies, those who come out of the occult frequently grieve over the stark contrast in the commitment and dedication they observed and experienced among those pursuing demonic spirits, practices, rituals, and powers (even if they didn’t know to identify them as demonic at the time) vs. the commitment and dedication they observed and experienced among professing Christians for pursuing God/Jesus and the things of God’s Kingdom. This man was no exception.
He shared that while still in witchcraft, they had no fear or hatred for those who received Jesus only as their Savior (in lifestyle) – but that those who were both greatly feared and greatly hated were those who had also received Jesus as their Lord and were living by, teaching, and preaching His Lordship. If you’ve ever tried making this critical distinction, you’ve probably felt the ramifications of his profound admission. Yet so many churches are stripping away this truth today and are then boastful and self-congratulatory about how many more crowds want their Jesus.
There is no argument – MANY more will be willing to receive Jesus as their Savior than will ever be willing to also truly receive Him as their Lord. But when we remove the revelation of His Lordship from our soul-winning strategies to try to attract more people to Him, we only end up making false converts – or true converts to a false Jesus. Those in the occult have no fear of or hatred for these converts because the enemy knows they are no threat to him and are actually still part of his territory. And even better in his estimation, they are often now inoculated from believing and receiving the true gospel that also involves turning from sin to follow Jesus as their Lord, because they believe they’re already saved. May the overwhelming love of our Father compel us to do all we can to help rescue this MANY from the horror that awaits at the end of this tragic deception, which Jesus revealed in Mt 7:21-23 and other passages.
The word “Lord” occurs around 5,000-7,000 times in the Bible (depending on translation), while the word “Savior” appears around 40 -100 (the lower end for the most literal translations). Let’s do our best to emphasize His Lordship in our own lives and to those we share about Him with as much as He does. Will many more reject and walk away from the reality of Who He is? Unfortunately, yes. But Jesus never watered down Truth to gain, keep, or appease the crowds and neither should we. As Isaiah said in the sermon I shared a few days ago – May we love people enough to tell them the Truth, even if we risk them hating us for it on earth, for the chance that they might eventually receive the Truth and love us in Heaven – rather than failing to tell them the Truth so that they’ll love us on earth, but will ultimately end up hating us from hell. 
