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Thank you for sharing your concerns, dear sister in Christ!

God would not leave them in a place of spiritual deadness.

Praise God for sending many, e.g. Paul, into places of spiritual deadness.

If He engineers such circumstances in my life, then that is where I will be standing firm in Him and witnessing about Him.

Strangely, such circumstances were the subject of today's Oswald Chambers devotion:

We have the idea that we ought to shield ourselves from some of the things God brings around us. May it never be! It is God who engineers our circumstances, and whatever they may be we must see that we face them while continually abiding with Him in His temptations. They are His temptations, not temptations to us, but temptations to the life of the Son of God in us. Jesus Christ’s honor is at stake in our bodily lives. Are we remaining faithful to the Son of God in everything that attacks His life in us?

Are you going on with Jesus? The way goes through Gethsemane, through the city gate, and on “outside the camp” (Hebrews 13:13). The way is lonely and goes on until there is no longer even a trace of a footprint to follow— but only the voice saying, “Follow Me” (Matthew 4:19)

To God be the glory, not man, never man.

I disagree He will send them back in to stay. To minister and to teach momentarily, but not for good. And the synagogues in Jesus’ day were a whole lot different than the Catholic churches of today. I cannot imagine them letting in Paul or any of the other Apostles to teach a Gospel contrary to Catholic teaching.

Here we are, believers born again and filled with the Spirit, just as the believers were then and see how they treat us when we come telling the truth in His name. They cannot bear it and gnash their teeth and practically foam at the mouth to be told what we know in our hearts and have been given witness to by the Spirit.

This sums it up and this is what they cannot bear:

The way is lonely and goes on until there is no longer even a trace of a footprint to follow— but only the voice saying, “Follow Me” (Matthew 4:19).

Very few are willing to do what it takes to follow Jesus. They just cannot do it...safer to stay inside “the church” or their religion than it is to come out and be sent who knows where by the Spirit. If they only knew how thrilling it is to live this way. But it is not for the faint of heart.

I really love the testimony of this lady, a former nun, who left and was born again. She is precisely the type of believer I would like to know. Full of the Spirit of the Lord, but with humor and joie de vivre!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOR3JuQuvqo

God wants people who are not afraid to stand up and proclaim His name and speak truth no matter what!

God bless you,
jodyel