Don't worry about when you share the truth with people, just obey the Holy Spirit, and no matter what the reaction of the hearer, it will be right because you obeyed God.
We cannot judge our delivery or timing by the reaction of others. They hated Jesus and all the apostles. And, God said we would be hated by nearly everyone when we speak the truth to unbelievers.
2 Timothy 4:3
"3 For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires," We live in a world in which many people if not most, see a correction as a personal attack. They have been trained by our culture that they should only receive praise and nothing else.
The praise we see is more like false flattery to elevate rather than truth to encourage.
Proverbs 29:5
"A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet."
Proverbs 26:24-28
"Whoever hates disguises himself with his lips and harbors deceit in his heart; when he speaks graciously, believe him not, for there are seven abominations in his heart; though his hatred be covered with deception, his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly. Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone will come back on him who starts it rolling. A lying tongue hates its victims, and a flattering mouth works ruin."
Flattery is a form of manipulation and has its roots in lies.
The best encouragement is when we instruct someone to improve themselves not flattery that builds pride and disarms people to be more easily manipulated.
Proverbs 16:18
"18 Pride goes before destruction,
And a haughty spirit before stumbling."
A person who loves wisdom will also love instruction, this person will be able to discern between good advice and bad advice while able to choose the right way.
Proverbs 4:5-9
"5 Acquire wisdom! Acquire understanding!
Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth.
6 Do not abandon her, and she will guard you;
Love her, and she will watch over you.
7 The [a]beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom;
And with all your possessions, acquire understanding.
8 Prize her, and she will exalt you;
She will honor you if you embrace her.
9 She will place on your head a garland of grace;
She will present you with a crown of beauty.”
Only those who love wisdom can set aside their ego to be able to receive correction or instruction. There are few people left in these end times who love wisdom more than they care about being exalted in the eyes of others.
2 Timothy 3 describes our world and even those in the church gatherings today. It shows us the level of intense rebellion in the hearts of most people.
2 Timothy 3:1-5 1. "But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.
2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,
4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5 holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these."
You might say to me; "I know lots of nice and friendly people" and I would tell you I do too, however, if you were to move past superficial talk to correction or instruction you would see the real them emerge and often it would be prideful and defensive.
There is a popular phrase now: "unsolicited advice" as though it is wrong to offer advice unless someone asks. This fits well in our culture in which people will not receive any advice unless they ask for it and it must flatter them in some way.
We can get along with anyone when we stand for nothing. We can get along with anyone when we act as though everything they say and do is alright with us.
Those who have many friends are often superficial and of little to no help in guiding anyone to salvation in Christ or helping a believer grow in wisdom. Even when we are kind and loving in our delivery our words will be seen as an affront to their elevated idea of themselves.
I cannot count the number of times I made innocent statements about God's Word to Christians and were treated with contempt or at the very least ignored completely. After which I was left out of the group clique.
These facts should not discourage us, we were told this would happen in the last days when everyone did what was right in their own eyes and no one will listen.
Because we are living in the last days we find more false conversions than authentic ones, everyone wants to believe in a "higher power" to feel safe, but they don't want Christ.
As 2 Timothy 3 says in verses 1-5, these people will have a form of religion but negate Christ. They will even claim to be Christian but fight with anyone who corrects their false doctrine or erroneous beliefs about the Bible.
One person once told me this; "we must say things in a way that they will be received." I answered with a question; "you mean the apostles and Christ didn't speak the gospel in a way that it would be received because they were martyred for their faith?"
We are not to be concerned about making the right delivery, we are to be led by the Holy Spirit, speaking when He tells us to in the words He gives us. If we are figuring out our own way to be accepted by men then we are fleshly and depending on ourselves.
Those who are "doing their Christianity in the flesh" are depending on themselves to figure things out because they are walking without faith in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 10:19-20 "19 But when they hand you over, do not worry about how to respond or what to say. In that hour you will be given what to say. 20 For it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you."
Those who depend on human rituals and tactics are not depending on the Holy Spirit. When we depend on the Holy Spirit we will say what God wants us to say, He knows what the other person needs. Human formulas assume that everyone thinks and acts exactly the same way. God knows intimately the heart of every human being, only He can know exactly what is needed in the words and the delivery.
So many false ways devised by humans are being taught in Bible colleges and seminaries that work against the Holy Spirit and water down the principles of Christ. They remove boldness, transparency,m and forthrightness. Everything now is cloaked in sappy language and positive metaphors to flatter and entice. We need none of these human tactics when we depend on the Holy Spirit to do His work through us and in spite of us.
May believers set aside all that they were taught by human institutions and begin consulting the Holy Spirit.
Jeremiah 29:13
“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart”
Without the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives we are flying blind.
