Dealing with Two Types of Ignorance
I can see two kinds of ignorance in the Bible. The first is a simple lack of knowledge. For example, someone doesn’t know that Jesus paid for his healing, so he can’t act on what he doesn’t know. The second is willful ignorance, which requires first hearing the truth and then deliberately ignoring it.
The issue of simple ignorance is mentioned in Romans 10:14. People who don’t know the Word need someone to tell them the Word. The nice thing about ministering to people who are in simple ignorance is that many times you’ll see God meet them at least halfway. If you can at least get them into “neutral” and have them give you permission to curse their sickness in the name of Jesus, God can honor your faith.
The issue of willful ignorance is mentioned in Hosea 4:6. These were not people who were perishing with sickness because they’d never heard of God’s healing covenant! They’d heard it and deliberately rejected it and forgotten it. God’s take was to just let them wallow in their willful ignorance without helping them. The people in 2 Peter 3:5-7 were willfully ignorant of the great flood and were heading toward judgment themselves.
Paul talked about people who had no excuse because they could see the truth but they deliberately ignored it. The result was that God just “gave them up to uncleanness.”
Romans 1:18-24:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Jesus Himself told His disciples to wipe the dust off their feet and go elsewhere when a city rejected them (Matthew 10:14, Mark 6:11, Luke 9:5). He didn’t say to stay around and try to “come against” the spirit of unbelief over that city until the stronghold of unbelief came down. He didn’t tell them that they had to keep banging their heads into a brick wall trying to reach them in the name of “never giving up on anyone.” (We saw above that even God can just give someone over to his own ignorance if he rejects the Word enough.) Jesus Himself just went to other villages with His teaching when most of the people in Nazareth rejected Him (Mark 6:6). Paul and Silas just shook the dust off their feet when they were rejected in Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13:51).
So when we minister, there are different ways of handling simple ignorance and willful ignorance.
A certain woman came to a church where I was preaching a special service one night. She had been given up to die by the doctors. They had tried to kill her cancer with radiation to no avail. They tried to cut it out of her, but it had spread. They tried chemotherapy but even that didn’t work. Then they told her that she would be dead soon and nothing further could be done. She had never set foot in a church in her entire life – and she was an older woman. But she thought to herself, “Why not try Jesus? If He doesn’t work, I’m going to die anyway, so there’s no downside potential. But maybe there’s something to this Jesus stuff and I can get healed.”
She knew just about nothing about the Bible. I asked her if she would give me permission to command that cancer to die in the name of Jesus. She agreed. So I pointed at her body and said, “Cancer, I command you to die in the name of Jesus!” (If you take this approach, make sure that the person knows that you are speaking to the cancer. Simply pointing at a person and saying, “I command you to die in the name of Jesus” could be taken the wrong way.) I didn’t have to get long-winded or hysterical about it, though I’ll admit that I’m just about always excited when I minister healing because I love watching God heal people. Several months later she got the best Christmas present money CAN’T buy – a clean bill of health from her doctor stating that she was cancer-free!
On the other hand, I had tried presenting the gospel to certain people in a certain town. They did read the salvation message on my tracts, but they were upset and didn’t want Jesus. I continued to try to reach them, but the day came when I just stopped. Why should I try to reach them another time when there were plenty of people around who had yet to hear the gospel for the first time? When you’re dealing with people who just harden themselves, there comes a point when you should just dust off your feet and go elsewhere looking for more receptive people. It is a better use of your limited time on the earth.
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