Violence and Blood

We must use violence and shed blood in order to do the will of God.

When Mario Murillo was a young preacher, he was frustrated with his lack of impact on people’s lives. While preaching at a series of revival meetings, he became angry that no one was being saved. He says, "It got so bad that on the final night I preached, I made a rash vow to God. If a soul was not saved that night I would leave the ministry! To reinforce how serious I was, I found a job that would begin the next morning.”

I can’t quite imagine telling God, “use me right now, or I’m going to quit serving you.” Rash behavior is for the young and immature. I would never presume to force God’s hand.

On the other hand, Mario’s mistake was one which only a visionary would make. Visionaries live in the future, and since the future is by definition potential, their hearts are captured by what might be. Mario envisioned that many people could be saved through his preaching; therefore, having seen what might be, he could not be content until that potential reality became actual. So he made his rash vow.

This sort of bursting-into-the-room rashness, this forceful determination that God had better act now or else, is part of what Jesus meant when he said, “the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force” (Matthew 11:12). Jesus does not complain about violence, he praises it, pleads for it. There are some men and women of God whose vision of a godly future is so powerful upon them that they storm the throne room of God in order to demand God’s help. They take the kingdom by force.

Consider carefully the words of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the “Prince of Preachers”: “Those who have received the Spirit in verity and truth are violent men. They have a violent anxiety to be saved, and they violently strive that they may enter in at the strait gate. Well they know that seeking to enter in is not enough, for many shall seek to enter in but shall not be able, and therefore do they strive with might and main.”

Hebrews 12:4 also points to this same rashness in God’s name: “You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin.” We are to strive to the point of shedding blood! Your mental picture here should be of Jesus in the garden, hours before his capture and death, sweating drops of blood as he prayed, “Father, not my will, but thine be done.” Have we resisted sin, really?

The kingdom of hell is on this earth, and our task is to overtake it with the kingdom of heaven. Violence and blood are the order of the day! God’s glory will not be won by those who hold back or those who are afraid. Jesus said, “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” We must pick up that sword and wield it with holy violence in our hearts.

When was the last time you told anyone that hell awaits them if they do not put faith in Christ? When did you last stand before a Herod and call him down from his gross iniquity? Wickedness is rampant around us. This is not an hour for timidity. The man who takes the kingdom of heaven by force, and who resists sin to the point of shedding blood, he is the man who also preaches the gospel boldly. There is no fear in him, no holding back, no moderation, no reasonability. He (or she!) is on fire for God, and is perfectly willing for that fire to ignite everything and everyone around him, whether to purification or to destruction.