But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another. Galatians 5:15
Which Do You Choose?
One nation under God’s way, truth and life. Would God act like we are acting? What would Jesus do right now in the midst of this confusion, chaos and compassionless life season? Would He react out of the flesh or would He respond out of the Spirit of Truth? Which one? Jesus once said: “I set before you death or life, which do you choose?” What strengthens our civility? Truth and love. What tears it down? False Narrative and hate? Which one are you participating in most? Truth and love? Or False Narrative and hate? Do you really know what you think you know? Do you act out of the need to prove others wrong even to the degree that you will defame their whole reputation to do so? Isn’t this the job of the Holy Spirit, the one we have taken on? It is time to stop lighting our own fires and walking by the light of a man-made fire that will flame out and leave us in the dark without the freedom the light of God so faithfully provides. Read Isaiah 50: 10-11.
Confusion Stirs Up Strife
There is a lot of confusion right now and confusion stirs up strife like no other. Who does this best? Our enemy. He came to steal, kill and destroy. People are saying all kinds of things out of their confusion, disillusionment, fear, disappointment and hurt. In this season of life things are very topsy-turvy and our faith is being stretched beyond what we think it can grow. These are times to live out of the Word of God, not out of our emotional opinions. We don’t always know what we “think we know”, but we do know the ONE Who knows every little detail of what is happening in the seen and the unseen to come. We can have the mind of Christ, live out of this revelation, instead of living out of our mind thoughts, which are tainted by the disillusionment of our times.
Now faith brings our hopes into reality and becomes the foundation needed to acquire the things we long for. It is all the evidence required to prove what is still unseen. 2 This testimony of faith is what previous generations were commended for. Hebrews 11: 1-2
Disagree And Devour?
If you don’t agree with someone, destroy their false narrative with the reality of truth, but don’t destroy them. Instead, speak the truth in love and let God do the rest. Strong disagreement with someone saying things that cause you to feel angry isn’t the time to destroy the PERSON by damaging their long-standing good reputation. There are good people in times such as these, trying to navigate through unchartered waters. Human beings with a human condition, who are making bad choices to speak out of their feelings and not their faith. This does not make them a bad person, or cancel out their good reputation, it makes them just as human as you are. So if you don’t like what they stand for, dislike that, but try to be civil to the person. Let’s not dehumanize people over disagreement.
I have given them your message and that is why the unbelieving world hates them. For their allegiance is no longer to this world because I am not of this world. 15 I am not asking that you remove them from the world, but I ask that you guard their hearts from evil, 16 For they no longer belong to this world any more than I do. 7 “Your Word is truth! So make them holy by the truth. 18 I have commissioned them to represent me just as you commissioned me to represent you. John 17:14-18 The Passion Translation
Of The World?
If we strongly don’t agree with someone do we settle things like a person of faith, believing that God is in control, believing that the truth will stand the tests of unbelief and fake reality? Or do we take matters in our own hands, going beyond speaking the truth and letting God prove it, we decide to destroy the person who is speaking the false narrative and we do great damage to their reputation. Instead of letting truth be proven by the Holy Spirit, we become just like the world, or should I say just like the characteristics of the father of lies. We destroy those we do not agree with. Instead of hating what we say, we become like this world and we hate them, we set out to destroy them. We are supposed to be in the world, not of it, not acting like it, but being intentionally kingdom cultured by our God. If our allegiance is to the Kingdom of God, we must act like it. Help us Lord God to navigate these times of incivility in this world we do not belong.
So Jesus went over it again, “I speak to you eternal truth: I am the Gate for the flock. 8 All those who broke in before me are thieves who came to steal, but the sheep never listened to them. 9 I am the Gateway. To enter through me is to experience life, freedom, and satisfactions 10 A thief has only one thing in mind—he wants to steal, slaughter, and destroy. But I have come to give you everything in abundance, more than you expect—life in its fullness until you overflow! 11 I am the Good Shepherd who lays down my life as a sacrifice for the sheep. John 10: 7- 11 The Passion Translation
Biting And Devouring?
How does following after our flesh, biting and devouring other Americans help our civility? It devalues it and eventually will destroy it and we will fall as a nation; we will lose our freedom to our real enemy, who is within us now, stirring up all this strife. Without civility, we have no unity and without unity, we fall from within and we crash and burn as a nation. This is exactly what the enemy wants, our true enemy, the one we underestimate as we bite and devour one another out of our disillusionment, the very chaos that our real enemy has stirred up. Don’t underestimate the power of our enemy using our human condition against one another. We have never as a nation been this close to losing our freedom and it is on all of us, not just half of us doing horrific things, but also the other half reacting in horrific ways. We are biting and devouring each other and destroying our freedom. The enemy is taking us from within, destroying us from within and we are falling right into the trap set to destroy us.
And then our immaturity will end! And we will not be easily shaken by trouble, nor led astray by novel teachings or by the false doctrines of deceivers who teach clever lies. 15 But instead we will remain strong and always sincere in our love as we express the truth. All our direction and ministries will flow from Christ and lead us deeper into him, the anointed Head of his body, the church. 16 For his “body” has been formed in his image and is closely joined together and constantly connected as one. And every member has been given divine gifts to contribute to the growth of all; and as these gifts operate effectively throughout the whole body, we are built up and made perfect in love. Ephesians 4:14-16 The Passion Translation
Choice~ Bondage Or Freedom?
We need to stay in followship of Jesus. In the darkness of chaotic times, it is easy to step into the trap of the enemy. Will we help people out of the traps they have fallen into by compassion, forgiveness and civility, or will we leave them trapped in their hopeless, fake reality and wound them further by devouring their already damaged reputation by what they have spoken out of being deceived, and out of fear. Flesh out or truth out, which will we choose? Devalue, devour, or point them to Jesus, add value through our civility. Which one will we be? Will we add to the incivility and chaos or will we add value to our civility by making the right choice, letting God be the One Who battles this out, who brings forth light out of darkness. Social media, I used to like it to add value to others, to encourage others, but now in this time were disillusionment, disappointment and despair are at an all-time high in our society, all I see is people biting and devouring each other, devaluing humanity. I no longer see people hating the sin, but hating the sinner, as people have forgotten how to use the civility of agreeing to disagree and have turned to devaluing the person, instead of speaking the truth into the disagreement, they are hating and hurting the person they disagree with. This society has sacrificed all common sense and civility to the cause of what they idolize and now instead of agreeing to disagree the opinions, we hate to destroy the person. We have to change it up to truth and love.
Thomas said to him, “Master, we don’t know where you’re going, so how could we know the way there?” 6 Jesus explained, “I am the Way, I am the Truth, and I am the Life. No one comes next to the Father except through union with me. To know me is to know my Father too. 7 And from now on you will realize that you have seen him and experienced him.” John 14:5-7 The Passion Translation
Man-Made Fires Flame Out
It is difficult when we see people lighting their own fires, walking by the light of a man-made fire and biting and devouring other people that they don’t agree with, good people, with good reputations, tainting their whole reputation as if they never did anything good, destroying their life legacy with words of untruth because they may have gone off the path during this very confusing time, this makes me dislike social media. People are so casual about their condemning words as they devour the life reputation of another with things that are assumptions and speculations, things that they truly can’t know to be true. This week, I saw people destroying the reputation of a very godly woman, who has helped many people in the past with her incredible teachings from the Word. They are attacking and devouring the person, who has fallen off her pedestal of respect and honor because she is saying things they don’t agree with right now. This isn’t God’s way. God has not asked us to make a way for truth by biting and devouring people, by destroying another person. Hurting, confused people steeped in a chaotic culture are just striking out at each other, picking each other apart as their world seems to crumble around them. This is not our finest moment on social media as is probably a good season to just stay away from it, or just use it to post good things from the Word. God knows we need it, His powerful Word that never returns void, that always completes what it was sent to do.
Universal Sinfulness~ So, are we to conclude then that we Jews are superior to all others? Certainly not! For we have already proven that both Jews and gentiles are all under the bondage of sin. 10 And the Scriptures agree, for it is written: There is no one who always does what is right, no, not even one. 11 There is no one with true spiritual insight, and there is no one who seeks after God alone. 12 All have deliberately wandered from God’s ways. All have become depraved and unfit. Kindness has disappeared from them all, not even one is good. 13 Their words release a stench, like the smell of death—foul and filthy! Deceitful lies roll off their tongues. The venom of a viper drips from their lip. 14 Bitter profanity flows from their mouths, only meant to cut and harm. 15 They are infatuated with violence and murder. 16 They release ruin and misery wherever they go. 17 They never experience the path of peace. Romans 3:9-17 The Passion Translation
Not One Perfect Person
There isn’t one of us, who in times of chaos, disillusionment, and disappointment who have not said things that are wrong. I know I have, many, many times in my life said things I should not have said. Do we crucify a person’s good reputation because we disagree with their strong opinions during a time of national crisis? Do we bite and devour each other until we have destroyed each other? Is this how Jesus acted? No, I think not. It was not the way of Jesus. God is the Proof, Jesus is the Proven, The Holy Spirit is the Prover. We must trust our Triune God in times such as these and stay in followship of The Holy Spirit. This was the way of Jesus:
Two criminals were led away with Jesus, and all three were to be executed together. 33 When they came to the place that is known as The Skull, the guards crucified Jesus, nailing him on the center cross between the two criminals. 34 While they were nailing Jesus to the cross, he prayed over and over, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.” 39 One of the criminals hanging on the cross next to Jesus kept ridiculing him, saying, “What kind of Messiah are you? Save yourself and save us from this death!” 40 The criminal hanging on the other cross rebuked the man, saying, “Don’t you fear God? You’re about to die! 41 We deserve to be condemned, for we’re just being repaid for what we’ve done. But this man—he’s done nothing wrong!” 42 Then he said, “I beg of you, my Lord Jesus, show me grace and take me with you into your everlasting kingdom!” 43 Jesus responded, “I promise you—this very day you will enter paradise with me. Luke 23”
Followship ~ Jesus
Yes, this is a good word for us today. We need to die to ourselves, to our opinions, to our causes, it has to be about Jesus, His Kingdom. Right now, we are biting and devouring each other because of disagreement in a season of disillusionment, chaos and strife, we strike back at each other. So sad. We are used by our enemy, the devourer to devour one another. Jesus, in the most horrific of situations, the most unjust circumstance, did not react out of flesh. Lord help us to be like You, to not bite and devour one another, but point each other to You, to Your Paradise… our future and hope. Change it up, our human nature as we connect with You, heart to heart. This is why our relationship with You is so vital to our being a servant like You, One who spoke truth and acted it out with sacrificial acts of love. Jesus, You calm us down before we flesh out all kinds of nasty things and You navigate us away from the traps of strife the enemy has set. We need to be in followship of You in times such as these and this is not an option, this is a necessity if we want to walk in truth and love. The Truth Of Jesus’ Way And Life ~ This Is Forever Freedom ~ A Freedom That Can And Will Endure.
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