Torments of Hell I

Thursday 27 April
READ: Luke 16: 23
MORE LESSON: Luke 16: 19 - 31

The devil tries to deceive people into believing that hell doesn't exist but there is a place called hell. It is not an imaginary place, it is a very real place. Jesus told a story that confirmed that hell really exists. Just like every place in existence is describable and has definite characteristics, hell also has definite characteristics. The first characteristic of hell is that it is a place of torments. It is not just a place of torment but of torments. Luke 16: 23 rightly puts it that the rich man in hell was in torments. Every imaginable kind of torment is in hell. Hell is a place of fire. This is the reason the word 'hell-fire' is commonly used. 'Hell-fire' is not synonymous to hell; it is the fire in hell. Even though the fire of hell is incomparably more tormenting than all the fires on earth put together, it is only one of the torments in hell.

As tormenting as the fire of hell is, a greater torment in hell is the sad memory that haunts the people there. Deceivers have falsely taught that there is no life after death and once a man dies, there is nothing he remembers anymore. From Luke 16: 27 - 28, we see that man still remembers everything he did on earth after he dies. The rich man remembered his father's house and his five brothers that were not born again and started begging Father Abraham that someone should be sent from Heaven to go and preach to them. He also remembered how he lived lavishly on earth and wasted his life in sin. It is a great torment to be continually haunted by the regrets of yesterday when you can't do anything to correct it anymore. One of the great torments of hell is the sad memory and regrets of past mistakes that cannot be corrected but which consequence has to be faced forever. In hell, every sinner will remember the day he had the opportunity to accept salvation through Jesus Christ but he turned it down. That memory will bring great pain and torment.

Another torment in hell is the continual thirst that is there. The man in hell cried for just a finger-tip drop of water but he was denied. Water is so essential to human survival. Geographically, the earth surface is 75% water and the human body is also 75% water by composition. Life without water is unimaginable. Part of the torments of hell is that both internal and external water will be dried out of man. Hell is that it is a place of unquenchable thirst where there is no water forever.

The torments of hell are great indeed. You must not go there and you must do everything to keep all the people you can from going there. Consecrate yourself to Jesus today so that hell will not be your portion.

Prayer/Action
* Declare that your portion in eternity shall not be hell, in the name of Jesus.
* Ask God to take away from your life anything that will make you a candidate of hell, in Jesus’ name.

TODAY'S PROPHETIC PRAYER
Today, I strike my name from the list of beggars and debtors, I shall walk in abundance and lend to many, in the name of Jesus.