Don't Look Back as Lot's Wife Did

God took Lot out of Sodom and Gomorrah to save him from the filth and preserve him from the wrath of God on the wicked.

When God removes you from the narcissists do not look back and turn into a pillar of salt like Lot's wife!

God specifically told them as they were escaping, "don't look back." I think this is a very good analogy I heard one person use on the internet.

When God has taken us from the company of those who do not love God or us, do not try to get them back. Our minds tend to gravitate toward doubt that maybe we were too hasty or misunderstood.

I have returned to old relationships from time to time only to discover my hope that they would be different after years of absence was all in my mind, it did not happen, in fact they were exactly the same as when we parted company, only worse.

Narcissists tend to become worse as they get older because their life is established and they no longer try to fit in anywhere anymore. The real them shows up in old age.

Ecclesiastes 4:13 "13 Better is a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to take a warning."

Proverbs 1:7

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction."

Those who despise wisdom will grow old in foolishness and ignorance only thinking they are intelligent and wise, they are neither.

Over-sharing is a Problem when Dealing with a Narcissist

I have learned to withhold as much information from narcissists as possible.

Attempting to explain anything to them is to make them the winner in their game. Do not play their game, decline to engage.

They want you to explain and grovel and even lash out so they can feel good about themselves making you the bad guy.

Narcissists love any kind of explanation from us because it fuels their fire to come back with an argument. They have no interest in resolving anything, introspection to learn about themselves or understanding you.

Everything is a competition to appear superior. When we are born again we have no need to feel superior to anyone else. We have complete confidence in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and He is the only One that matters.

If we love Christ Who lives in us we will love people, but they will have no control over our emotions, actions, or mental well-being. Only Christ determines all these things.

Narcissists want us to be controlled by our own feelings imploding any sense of self-control or accomplishment for Christ. The purpose of all of the devil's tactics used by narcissists is to unhinge us taking our focus off of Christ and onto ourselves.

If we do not care if people like us if we are popular or if we are elevated above others we are free to follow Christ without these hindrances.

This is why we remove from our lives those who foster fleshly feelings and attitudes in us through their attacks. Satan's goal is to disarm and debilitate the believer to be unable to stay focused on what Christ has for them to do.

1 Corinthians 15:33-34 " 33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good character.” 34 Sober up as you ought, and stop sinning; for some of you are ignorant of God. I say this to your shame.…"

If we focus on what the narcissist is doing to us we will become disarmed and impotent for the cause of Christ. If we focus on Christ without concern about what others do to us we will be free of the effects of the narcissist's antics. They will be like water off a duck's back, not even worthy of notice.

We only notice them to remind us of their strategies, and to warn others to be aware and avoid them when possible.

Narcissists have the ability to keep emotionally charged people in a state of continual disorientation, questioning every move they make leaves them unable to carry out God's plan for them.

Here is what we are seeing now and can expect to increase as we move further into the end times prophetic events, God was clear in the following passage.

2 Timothy 3:1-5

Difficult (ragingly insane) Times Will Come

"3 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."

A Rebellious Culture Relies on their Feelings without Facts

The narcissist will be angry with you but will refuse to tell you what they are angry about, you are supposed to guess. If you ask you are snarled and snapped at as though you should have known and will not tell you. Secrets to hide their intent are a tool on the narcissist tool belt.

Narcissists want you to feel frustrated by having to wonder and guess why they are upset. There is no "talking something out" to come to a resolution with the narcissist, their love of conflict and their desire to win overrides good ole fashioned horse sense.

Perhaps it is impossible to rationally discuss a matter to resolve it with a narcissist because they don't have a legitimate problem with us, they just use the pretense to control our emotions so we will blow up into anger. If we become angry they can feel justified that they tormented us.

As a child, I had a brother who would poke at me, poke at me and poke at me until I shouted at him to stop. Then he would say to me; "see how you are", as though I was the bad one for blowing up. This is the goal of narcissists, they hate those who are kind and good-natured so they must do something to cause a reaction in them that proves they are not as good as the narcissist thinks.

Narcissists want you to continue shame and guilt over a past that no longer exists. Even guilt over times when you didn't do what they wanted you to do that was not sin. Even kind acts toward the narcissist are taken as manipulation because when they do a kind act it is manipulation on their part. They believe others are just like them and cannot stand someone who rises above their childish foolishness. Narcissists have a bratty six-year-old mentality, irrationally in competition with those they wish were beneath them.

Many church groups have their own rules that God never commanded but they believe are written in stone because a leader decided what everyone else should do. They will intimidate others to obey their rules and if someone refuses to obey them, they will call them names like "rebellious" or "unreasonable", even though it is the narcissistic church leader who is rebellious and unreasonable.

We can always tell if someone is a narcissist, they are mean-spirited without compassion and empathy as they dictate orders to others that God never commanded. Get away from these leaders they have no authority over you, no matter how much they try to make you the bad guy for following God instead of them.

We are free in Christ to follow Him and His Words in the Bible without adding any extra human words to what He commanded.

Galatians 5:1

"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery."

Feel free to say things like; "the Bible does not say that", or "God never told me to do that." If you think the person talking to you might be teachable then you could ask them to show you in scripture where they find that rule and actually have a discussion about the matter using God's Word. However, very few people in this generation are teachable, they think they know everything because everything they think they know is based on their emotions or a desire to believe a certain way. Their emotions and desires dictate their beliefs not facts.

The beautiful thing is that we are free to ignore legalistic mandates instituted by men that are not in God's Word. We are free to think with the mind of Christ in logical rational and Biblical ways without a sense of guilt or shame about it.

Mark 7:13 "13 Thus you nullify the word of God by the tradition you have handed down. And you do so in many such matters.”

Be free to evaluate everything a man says by testing it against the Bible, if it is not Biblical discard it as nothing more than human tradition.

Mark of the Beast & Christ's Return in Revelation - Dr. David Jeremiah

The Reality of Hell

https://subspla.sh/f245213

7 Churches of Revelation Overview David Reagan Lamb and Lion Ministries...

Pew Warmers Who are not Born-Again

We are living in a time when "everyone does what is right in their own eyes and few will listen to sound doctrine.

2 Timothy 4:2-4 "…2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and encourage with every form of patient instruction.

3For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires.

4 So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.…"

Many Christian now are turning from the Word of God to political desires. They entertain themselves with all manor of political hype and filthy details of what wicked people are doing, spending more time on this than they think about Christ.

Isaiah 5:21 "Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!"

I am struck every day by the fact that there are more pretenders in the apostate church today than authentically born-again believers.

We can see that even authentic Christians are being drawn away from the worship of God and intimacy with Him, by politics and world events.

While is it wonderful to see how prophecy is playing out from what the Bible says, it's quite another thing to allow those politics and filthy corrupt events of the world to dominate our thinking.

When I am in a group of Christians in conversation and all I hear during the entire conversation is the world events, frustration, and anger over it all I have to wonder if those expressing their conservative views ever think about God in all of it.

Personally, I am excited that we are living out prophecy, I have no desire to stop God's plan from going forward. The devil loves to make people think they are responsible to do something when God told us to trust Him and leave it to Him.

Often conservatism takes priority over Christ. Many people are deeply dedicated to saving their country so they can live freely the way they have always lived. They really live in fear of losing what was God's gift, now ready to be taken away because of our prideful and willful neglect of Him.

There is a worship of self, worship of freedom, and worship of pride, sort of like a person at their high school ball game holding their figure up to show that "we are number one." This is the mentality of most people in our country. The country in which there is wealth everywhere we look.

Most "Christians" today do not express the grief they have brought to God's heart through their focus on self-expression.

Revelation 2:1-7 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:

The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks [a]among the seven golden lampstands, says this:

2 ‘I know your deeds and your labor and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil people, and you have put those who call themselves apostles to the test, and they are not, and you found them to be false;

3 and you have perseverance and have endured on account of My name, and have not become weary.

4 But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. "

The churches of America for the most part speak more about political injustice and personal freedom than they do about Christ. Just like the church in Ephesus, the American church gets on all the right political bandwagons, the problem is that they elevate their personal comfort and desires above Christ.

Christ never promised a born-again believer would have freedom, comfort, and happiness, He did promise trials, rejection, and continual backlash from speaking the truth. We will be accused of all manner of things that are not true, merely to silence the message that brings conviction. Gossip abounds among those who cannot tolerate the truth.

2 Corinthians 11:23-29

"23 Are they servants of Christ?—I am speaking as if insane—I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death.

24 Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes.

25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent adrift at sea.

26 I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers among false brothers;

27 I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.

28 Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches.

29 Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern?"

I do not see the churches, at least in our region being persecuted for their intense stand for Christ and His Word the Bible. Just the opposite, they are capitulating to the ways of the world to be accepted by the world.

The topic of conversation in most churches today is conservative politics, sadly interpreting the Bible according to their politics. Living in a free country is far more important to the average "Christian" today than proclaiming the gospel.

What is the gospel that is being neglected:

We are sinners estranged from God in need of someone to save us. Christ came to die on the cross, shedding every last drop of blood to offer Himself on behalf of our sins. All we have to do is confess our sinfulness and desire to be changed into a new creation by Him.

Christ will not come to dwell in anyone who does not want to be changed by Him. He will not bring salvation to anyone who wants to save themselves.

It's so simple but the pride of the people having been raised on "freedom at all costs" in our country cannot bring themselves to submit to anyone even Christ.

We have been led to believe all we have to do is "say" we are a Christian and we are accepted into heaven. I tell you words are never enough to prove anything.

Did you know that only 3% of communication is words, and 97% is other forms of communication? God looks into the heart and determines if our desire is to be changed by Him or if our desire is to have a puppet who does their bidding when they need something.

It is a very big clue when we see Christians who are embarrassed to speak of Christ, even hostile toward His Word when it is presented in the correction of wrong thinking.

God is looking at the heart, when He lives in us He is working through us to bring about His will in our lives. Those who lack the fruit of the Spirit continually cannot be born-again.

There ought to be Spiritual and emotional maturity in those who have been Christians for a long time. When we see prominent preachers who have been preaching for many years suddenly turn back from truth to defend political lies, we can say definitively that they were deceived because they were never born again. Many preachers are not born-again, but because they have learned how to manipulate and intimidate the pew people they are revered to the point that the pew people no longer think for themselves. They let their pulpit person speak for them. Christ is not in the mix at all.

Matthew 7:15-20

You Will Know Them by Their Fruits

15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?

17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.

19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them."

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."