The reader cannot escape the sense of being called by her to a deeper purity of love for God. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the last two chapters, where Lauren talks about the kind of worshipers God seeks and follows up with a call to return to one's first love for God.
She quotes Jesus' statement in John 4:23-24:
But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
This she contrasts with the worship Lucifer offered to God when he was the angel in charge of worship. In Isaiah 14:13-15 it was said of him:
You said in your heart,
"I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.
I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High." (NIV)
Lauren says the Lord reminded her that it was in the midst of heavenly worship where angels sang "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty" that Lucifer's heart sinned against God.
"The Lord asked me to count how many times Lucifier used the word 'I'," she said.
It was in his heart that Lucifer esteemed and raised himself higher than God, not verbalizing his intention for the angels to hear, but unable to hide his thoughts from God Who knew his deceitful heart, the author says. Lucifer wanted the worship for himself.
"The Lord asked me, 'If Lucifer, being in the holy of holies, being the angel in charge of worship in My holy presence, can allow such deceitful thoughts into his heart, what makes you think that on earth, sins cannot penetrate into the hearts of the people when they (supposedly) come into My presence to worship? …'", she says.
Again she quotes:
These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. They worship Me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men. (Matt 15:8-9 NIV)
"If the worship of these people is in vain and the Lord does not accept their worship, where does their worship go? Who is receiving the peoples' worship? ... Lucifer adores and enjoys worship! He desires worship! He wants to be worshiped by God's people!" she declares.
Lauren says it is through encouraging disobedience, hardening of the heart, failure to submit to and obey the commands of God and walking in the flesh instead of walking in the Spirit that Lucifer gets people to worship him. God is a holy God; He cannot accept worship that is stained with sin, she says.
Even in the presence of Christ Jesus, the anointed One, satan entered the heart of Judas, she reminds the reader by way of further example to them that it is not in being in God's Presence, but in being submitted to God that true holiness lies.
Lest one think one's commitment to Jesus would prevent this ever happening to one, she points out that the word 'betrayal' means acting in a way that is contrary to a promise made; it speaks of unfaithfulness and infidelity; living in duplicity; in deceit.
If one's heart is not fully repentant and one's mind is not renewed by the Word of God, then one's flesh takes control of one's spirit resulting in one living a conflicted life; a life of inconsistency, she says. There is a struggle of passions and desires between one's flesh and one's spirit. One's focus will not be on Jesus Christ but on oneself, she says.
But even though satan may seek to trap one in this way, all is not necessarily lost, Lauren hastens to reassure her readers. In the same chapter of Luke in which Judas' betrayal is recorded, she says, the Lord said of Peter:
Simon, Simon! indeed, satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren. (Luke 22:31-32)
Although Peter fell into satan's trap when he denied Jesus three times on the eve of His crucifixion, unlike Judas, Peter repented, overcame and prevailed, she points out. He became one of the greatest apostles of Christ, she adds.
When there is no genuine repentance there is no forgiveness of sin, Lauren declares.
"Here is the conclusion of the matter," she quotes Solomon in Ecclesiastes 12: 13-14 (NIV),
"Fear God and keep His commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man.
For God will bring every deed into judgment,
including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil."
"Saints, if we want to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord, we must allow God to search our hearts and test our thoughts so that God can reveal to us the offensive ways hidden in us, and lead us in the way everlasting," she says, referring to Psalm 139:23-24.
From here, with much encouragement and urging to understand what it is to worship in spirit and in truth, she leads one into her final chapter, in which she calls the backslider to return. Here she also asserts that many a person who started out to follow Jesus and later turned away to other beliefs, had never truly known Jesus in the first place.
"You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me to have life," she pleads from John 5:39 (NIV). Thus she urges those she says have known the scriptures but not the One of Whom they testify, to recognise their need to surrender to Him, that they might become overcomers in whom the truth of God's Word is unleashed.
And she says, in the words of God Himself,
Return, you backsliding children,
And I will heal your backslidings. (Jer 3:22)
Unleashing God's Truth is published by Westbow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson USA, and can be purchased on amazon and koorong.com
Unless otherwise noted, scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.