Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. 11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Revelation 12:10-11 NKJV
A hurt and frustrated couple came in for counseling. Glaring eyes and pursed lips greeted me as they walked into the room. I said a prayer and gave some instructional direction for the meeting together. “I want you to share only from a personal perspective of pain or hurt. You are not allowed to judge, ridicule, blame, accuse or call the other person names.” We sat in silence.
There are only two kingdoms operating in the seen and unseen world. We wrongly think that there is a third neutral stage for the human race to live. There is light and there is darkness. The Bible declares that Jesus came to rescue us from the kingdom of darkness and bring us into the kingdom of light and truth.
ALL accusations flow from the kingdom of darkness in which Satan rules. He is labeled as the accuser of the brethren. From the book of Job, we see that he is looking for weaknesses and sins to accuse us before God. His reign, his rules.
Wherever you find people judging one another, accusing one another, name-calling one another, or pointing out how wrong the other person is; you are living in the devil’s playground. No one wins. An eye for an eye leaves everyone in pain.
When you step onto Satan’s field of accusations via social media, water cooler talk, church hallways, or over coffee, you will not leave unscarred. I bless and honor our President, but what he has allowed spiritually to happen through name calling, has affected our whole country. The accusation door is wide open. Have you heard people justify their own accusatory statements as okay, because the President does this in his tweets?
Only the blood of Jesus covers our sins to take away the justification that the enemy would use against us. We are imperfect, all of us. My standard of conduct compared to someone whom I think is less moral, will not deflect the enemy’s attack. Satan relishes the pride and arrogance that we find in ourselves, when we are feeling justified that we have spoken our mind, no matter how it sounds or who it offends. Harsh and unkind words grieve the Holy Spirit, not Satan.
Jesus desires for us to really love one another. He stated in John 13:35, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Love is action, but it is also communicated in words. Some need to love their neighbor in actions instead of walking by the one in need. Others need to learn from Thumper in the movie Bambi, “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothin’ at all.” I am not sure if anyone is ever persuaded to another’s view point when name calling is invoked. In your social media posting, will anyone be drawn to become a follower and lover of Jesus by the rhetoric you have chosen to use about others? Will they remain in darkness where the light of love is absent?
Three steps can be used in moving forward.
- We need to learn to swim in the sea of forgiveness. Remembering how much Christ has forgiven you, gives you new mercies to forgive others. Jesus forgave us ALL of our sins. Are we limiting the depth and count of forgiveness that we extend to others ?
- We need to retrain our lips to speak blessings. Jesus said we are to bless those who curse us. Blessing and cursing should not flow forth from the same lips. We have to train ourselves to learn to speak blessings. God loves to pour out His goodness in the context of blessing.
- Finally, we need to learn when silence is best. I am not saying we need to be silent to the needs of the poor and oppressed. There are times when our reactive thoughts should just not be spoken back to the person. Take your questions, anger and fears into your prayer closet. Jesus is already interceding for you.
Let’s try to stay off the Devil’s playground of accusation and walk onto God’s kingdom field of blessing and love. Lost lives are looking for the supernatural love of God among the people of God. Will they find us “above all, loving one another deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins”? 1 Peter 4:8. Let’s find agreement in pursuing the “above all”.
Blessings Love y’all