Immunity to the Devil's Tactics

We can become immune to the arrow of the devil merely by knowing his tactics and that has nothing to do with you.

If you have done something wrong the Holy Spirit will tell you. However, the devil will attempt to make you feel guilty about doing what God told you to do. You will be judged as bad for doing what is good.

We cannot change a toxic person, we can inform them, assess their response, and decide if this person is willing to change their behavior. If they will not we can walk detached from them feeling no sorrow over losing them as a companion.

Proverbs 13:20-21 "20 He who walks with the wise will become wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed. 21 Disaster pursues sinners, but prosperity is the reward of the righteous."

We are not called to be friends with everyone we meet. We are commanded not to keep company with those who have resisted the gospel and hate righteous living.

Proverbs 2:20

"So you will follow in the ways of the good, and keep to the paths of the righteous."

In order to walk with Christ every day we must choose our constant companions wisely, they must love Christ as we love Christ.

We are commanded to speak the truth of the gospel to those who are perishing but we are not called to become friends with them when they choose to reject Christ. To reject Christ is to reject us, we are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

It will be harder in our day to have companions because the world has become "ragingly insane" as one sister put it one day as we were discussing the end times mentality of many if not most people including in the churches that have become apostate.

James 1:5-8

"5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do."

Obeying God Rather than Man

If you are depending on relatives to save you from hell as though their salvation somehow gets you and "in" the door to heaven, no one can do that for anyone else.

No one will be judged by Christ based on who they knew or who prayed for them. Everyone must stand before Christ all on their own.
No one will be able to say, "but Lord, my husband, father, uncle, commanded me to sin against you.
If you have doubts about this just read the story of Abigail in the Bible who knew her husband had made a very bad decision against God. Abigail defied her husband's wishes in order to honor God and brought safety to her household because of it.
Nowhere in the Word of God are we told to obey the authorities over us if they are commanding us to disobey God's standards and principles.
Love your husband enough to do what is right to honor God. We honor someone by doing what is best for them, not what they want which is evil. Follow the link below to read the story. 

OTQUESTIONS.ORG

Who was Abigail in the Bible? | GotQuestions.org

Who was Abigail in the Bible? Why was Abigail married to Nabal? Why did Abigail agree to become David’s wife?

Who Is Your God?

Ladies, your husband is not your mediator between you and God, Jesus Christ is the only mediator between us and God.

Those Who are Born-Again have the Fulness of Christ in Them

Amen, Amen!!!! It follows that since we are in the fullness of Christ we will not need any man to teach us, after all, who can teach us better than Christ. When other men teach us we evaluate them according to God's word and the Holy Spirit, so really when another man is teaching he is really sharing as we evaluate what he says.

Other men do not have authority over us in terms of teaching, they have a gift given by the Holy Spirit to share with us as we also share with them.

1 John 2:27

"27 And as for you, the anointing which you received from Him remains in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you remain in Him."

John 16:13-14 "13 However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify Me by taking from what is Mine and disclosing it to you.…"

These words were instructions given to all born-again believers. Everyone who has the Holy Spirit living in them can teach, preach and instruct others. Men have the role of teaching in the church, women also teach women and children, and both men and women preach the gospel outside the church.

Men and women alike share wisdom with all believers in the church and outside the church system. The men lead and the women share as the men teach. No one who has the Holy Spirit is excluded from teaching and sharing each within their god-ordained roles.

John 14:17

"the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you."

John 14:26

"But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you."

Never allow another human being to silence you when you are being led by the Holy Spirit.

Men will use many ploys to silence you, they will tell you since you don't have a seminary degree you cannot know the truth, as though the Holy Spirit only goes to seminary. They will attempt to convince the pew people are not led by the Holy Spirit.

Men will attempt to silence women by telling them they may not speak things of the word of God to men or anyone, that only men must do this. There is no scriptural basis for women to live in complete silence about the gospel or Bible teaching.

Every false doctrine is based on a short passage taken out of context to make it say what those who teach it want it to say to control the people.

Spiritual leadership does not control others through false doctrine and intimidation. Leaders are to lead by example and teaching and must be teachable themselves.

Everyone is to submit to everyone else allowing the Holy Spirit to speak through every single believer. If one person has a disagreement the first speaker is to stop and listen, then they are both to go to the word together as well as pray for the Holy Spirit to make clear the truth that they might agree.

Those who refuse to pray and study with someone because they count themselves as an authority over others is disqualified to teach.

2 Timothy 2:23-25 "…23 But reject foolish and ignorant speculation, for you know that it breeds quarreling. 24 And a servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome, but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, and forbearing. 25 He must gently reprove those who oppose him, in the hope that God may grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.…"

The phrase in this passage, "able to teach" is actually in Greek; "able to be taught." No one is above challenges in their teaching and no one carries so much weight in their teaching that they cannot be corrected when in error.

When we place a preacher or teacher above all other believers we have an idol and must repent.

No one has a "position" in the church that is above anyone else, all are equal in God's eyes and all need correcting and training in righteousness at times. Any man who is in leadership and arrogantly asserts that you may not correct him is not obeying the word of God. Leading is not "lording it over", intimidating or pressuring others, leading is by example and teaching only.

1 Peter 5:2-3 "…2 Be shepherds of God’s flock that is among you, watching over them not out of compulsion, but because it is God’s will; not out of greed, but out of eagerness; 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. "

When we trust the Lord Jesus Christ and not men we will show respect to everyone no matter what their office in the church is and we will submit one to another unless those who demand submission are disobeying God. The "demanding obedience to them" is disobedience to God. This kind of leader must be removed, if no one will remove him then we must take ourselves from under his leadership and move on to a proper gathering with an eldership in which no one man rules and no one is paid money to serve.

Seek Christ in all things and you will not be subject to the foolishness of those who love to think more highly of themselves than they should.

Why He Didn't Like the Stranger

I heard a short story recently;

One man speaks to another man on the street and says; "see that man over there?" The other man says "yes", and the first man says; "I don't like him." The second man asks him why he does not like that man over there, The answer of the first man is; "I don't like him because I don't know him."

This is subtly common in our culture today when there is no love, respect or hospitality for strangers.

Hebrews 12:1-2 "1 Continue in brotherly love. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it."

Every person we meet and everywhere we go is a person to be loved and respected. There are some evil people we ought to avoid, but in everyday life, we can speak words of kindness everywhere we go as we allow Christ to work in us, He shines.

Fear of man will prevent us from boldly embracing others in love. The fear of man will cause sheepish hiding and self-protection.

When we love Christ we love others. When we love Christ we overflow with kindness, helpfulness and joy at the presence of another human being, someone who might become born-again just by time spent with them.

Our life is rich and full when we have no fear of rejection or appearances. Pretense will destroy all joy and effectiveness for Christ.

Racism happens because those who are racist are fearful of someone or something they know nothing about. Fear is what drives people to be cliquish, superior acting and downright rude.

May the Lord give us the joy, peace, and gentleness necessary to be evangelists for Christ.

The fruit of the Spirit of one Who possesses the Holy Spirit of God looks like the following:

Galatians 5:22-23

"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

Time Is Running Out!

Fear or Christ You Choose

Narcissists constantly live in fear, fear of losing control of others, fear of their environment, fear of not being accepted, fear of politics, and everything else in between.

Fear is continually in the heart of the narcissist because very little of life can be controlled by us. We can only make ourselves feel in control in small ways but when you think about how many things we depend on others about, we really have very little control over our lives.

We cannot control the medical system in our country or our own health.

We cannot control whether there are groceries at the store to be able to shop for our families, we depend on those who grow the food, those who bring the food to the stores, and the owners of the stores and their prices.

We cannot control the weather, the monetary system of our country or the laws that govern us through taxes, inflation and permits we must purchase to build homes.

The list of things we cannot control is very long and yet we have learned to accept this while making ourselves believe we control what we eat and where we go and what we do by adhering to the rules all around us.

Let's be clear, if we are in Christ we have no worries because He is the one in control over all those things we cannot control. However, those who do not know Christ live in fear all the time that they will not be able to control everything in their lives. They have fooled themselves into believing they are in control when they go to the grocery store, when in fact they can only buy what the merchants decide to provide for them or the farmers grow.

The unsaved must believe they control their environment and yet the government tells them they must have licenses and permits to drive the car down the road or build a home. The government tells them the taxes they must pay as well as which roads they can drive on.

We have more freedom in America than we have ever had before but the people are becoming more fearful, angry and easily offended than I have ever seen in my lifetime. All of this is because of fear.

Born-again believers who are following hard after Christ do not have fear, frustration and violence in their hearts. They have accepted that the rules are placed there under the eye of God.

Romans 13:1-2 "1 Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which is from God. The authorities that exist have been appointed by God. 2 Consequently, whoever resists authority is opposing what God has set in place, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.…"

A believer in Christ realized that God has allowed all governments to exist even the bad ones because He has a purpose in all that He does. For the believer, we don't always know the purpose but we have faith that God knows what He is doing.

The happiness of the narcissistic culture is only present when they are getting something they want their own way. For the born-again believer, the joy never leaves them, in fact when they do not understand or do not get what they would like they can assume God has another plan other than our personal desires and what will be best for us and others in the long run.

Proverbs 3:5-6

"5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart

And do not lean on your own understanding.

6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,

And He will make your paths straight."