A week ago Sunday, around 11:30pm, I felt like I needed to spend some time in prayer, it had been awhile since I had any real "alone time" with the Lord..Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with Him, i'm continually in conversation with Him during the day but lets face it, there are so many distractions during the day ie.. work, kids, TV, ipads, iphones, you get the picture..How is it possible for us to hear that "still small voice"?...So, as I'm in prayer, I get to the subject of the Bible study I have at my home and why is it that lately I'm just not feeling the Holy Spirit moving? What He showed me was NOT was I was expecting..CONVICTION..
The last two studies we somehow veer off course and end up on the subject of the Ground Zero Mosque, about the Muslim faith, their beliefs, etc...The group just adding their thoughts/feelings...I can say the conversation was not at all what we as "Christians" should be speaking or acting like.
First thing He shows me is Ephesians 6:12 "For our struggle is NOT against flesh & blood but against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces or evil in the heavenly realms"
A light bulb went off over my head..Start praying against these forces instead of adding to the hate speak & paranoia. Instead, why not pray for God to pour out His Spirit on ALL people. Even though we can't see it, there is a battle going on continually, it's for souls..Satan wants to take down as many as possible. And I should be the last one to help him with the negative thoughts and words!
I think what is sometimes hard for us to accept is that God loves the 6 billion + people on this planet equally, no favorites. He knows every hair on their heads..He has a plan for each of them {Jeremiah 29:11} When we demean/put down/speak badly about any human being we are insulting His creation..We are insulting God..{and pleasing Satan}
A "Christian" is suppose to be all about LOVE..LOVING the unlovely, LOVING our enemies, that would mean..ANYONE who may not like us or agree with us.
We are to build up..NOT tear down..We are suppose to LOVE as Christ loves us..We are to FORGIVE as Christ forgives us..We are His reflection on this earth..We can not do this on our own..We need the Holy Spirit to accomplish this in us..BUT..when we are behaving more like Satan {the accuser} then God we grieve the Holy Spirit & he flees from us..
I realized that this is what has been happening in the Bible study, we were grieving the Holy Spirit, with our
demeaning talk/negative attitudes about what God has created. How can our
study be blessed when this was going on? We were without the Holy Spirit..I shared this revelation with the group last Monday..And all agreed we need to be more aware of the words that are coming out of our mouths..The Lord also showed me the scripture below..Wow, it really nailed it on the head...
James 3:5 "In the same way the tongue is a small member and yet has great pretensions. Consider how small a fire can set a huge forest ablaze. The tongue is also a fire. It exists among our members as a world of malice, defiling the whole body and setting the entire course of our lives on fire, itself set on fire by Gehenna {hell}
For every kind of beast and bird, or reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, BUT NO HUMAN BEING CAN EVER TAME THE TONGUE! it is a restless evil full of deadly poison. With it we Bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. This need not be so, my brothers"
I am a work in progress!
