A few weeks back God took me on a journey. There were some things in my life and in my character that needed work and as such I needed to completely disconnect from all social media and outside influences so He could speak clearly and I was able to understand His wisdom without distraction. God's asked me to do this several times before so I knew it was something quite serious and very important. You see, God's wisdom is not like our wisdom. His wisdom is not just logic based or knowledge gleaned from life experience. His wisdom cuts far, far above all that and is in itself timeless wisdom. This is why Proverbs 3:5-6 is so true. So what He's told me to do is to share some of what I learnt over my 7 days with the Master. If it helps and encourages you - that's great. If you vehemently disagree - that's fine too. Either way, it doesn't change a thing for me. I know my relationship with God and I'm not here to negotiate or debate it - it just is what is is. What I am here to do is share my heart and what you do with that is completely up to you. Put simply, my job is to be a humble messenger.
With that said I do sincerely hope the things I share encourage you as I believe that is the true heart of God to lift and build each others lives. Ok, so the first thing He spoke to me was this. "Learn to draw in the sand". I knew immediately what He meant when He said this as He brought to mind the story of the woman who the religious leaders of Jesus day had dragged into the street before Him in John chapter 8. They had a claim that she had been caught in the act of adultery and wanted to test Jesus on how He would react to this. Now, there's a lot to be learned from this story but the main thing Jesus got me to focus on was the very first thing He did when they confronted Him with a challenge. He drew on the ground in front of them in plain sight. Have you ever wondered why He did that? I'll tell you why. He did it for our benefit and to teach us something. Keep in mind Jesus was perfect in all His wisdom and didn't ever need to even think twice about giving the proper response - yet He paused and drew on the ground. Why? He did it to teach us what to do when someone puts a challenge in front of you which is designed to manipulate a response.
I'll put this as a plain as possible - manipulation is witchcraft. Even in it's smallest form it's still witchcraft. And witchcraft always has it's origin from darkness. Jesus was light so He knew and could sense in His spirit immediately that what was happening was a lot more than just some religious leaders pulling a poor woman into the street. It was behind that a deliberate attack on His authority, His identity and on what and who He believed. It was an underhanded, cowardly attack from the devil himself and Jesus saw right through it. Now the drawing the ground bit is important and I'll explain it like this. God made the world in 6 days on the seventh day He rested. Did God really need to rest? Was He really tired? Absolutely not. He is infinite in power. So why did He rest on the seventh day? He did it to teach us that we also need to rest. Jesus drawing on the ground was exactly the same. He didn't need to take a minute to think of His response or to calm down so He didn't react to the tricks and deception going on - He was perfect. But Jesus knew that we so often do need to take a moment to chill out, think and hold your tongue before we run our mouths.
He knows we are only human and that we are weak and react easily to manipulation. There are many references in the Bible that mention how much trouble our tongues get us into and that if someone can control their tongue they are considered very wise. What Jesus wanted to teach us here by drawing on the ground was to learn self control even in the face of an offensive challenge. Does this mean we become pacifists that defer all conflict? Absolutely not. Jesus said "Let you yes be yes and your no be no" He wants us to be deliberate in all we do but He also wants us to make conscious choices for our actions and for what comes out of our mouths. What Jesus was teaching us is to it slow it down and to give God the room and ability to talk to you in that brief moment before you just naturally react as we all so often do. Put simply... Don't react - Choose then Act. It may be the difference between starting and averting a war - or keeping and losing a relationship. I'll be sharing more of what I learnt over the next weeks and months and I hope that it does help you in your day to day life and interactions with others. Have a great day guys.
With that said I do sincerely hope the things I share encourage you as I believe that is the true heart of God to lift and build each others lives. Ok, so the first thing He spoke to me was this. "Learn to draw in the sand". I knew immediately what He meant when He said this as He brought to mind the story of the woman who the religious leaders of Jesus day had dragged into the street before Him in John chapter 8. They had a claim that she had been caught in the act of adultery and wanted to test Jesus on how He would react to this. Now, there's a lot to be learned from this story but the main thing Jesus got me to focus on was the very first thing He did when they confronted Him with a challenge. He drew on the ground in front of them in plain sight. Have you ever wondered why He did that? I'll tell you why. He did it for our benefit and to teach us something. Keep in mind Jesus was perfect in all His wisdom and didn't ever need to even think twice about giving the proper response - yet He paused and drew on the ground. Why? He did it to teach us what to do when someone puts a challenge in front of you which is designed to manipulate a response.
I'll put this as a plain as possible - manipulation is witchcraft. Even in it's smallest form it's still witchcraft. And witchcraft always has it's origin from darkness. Jesus was light so He knew and could sense in His spirit immediately that what was happening was a lot more than just some religious leaders pulling a poor woman into the street. It was behind that a deliberate attack on His authority, His identity and on what and who He believed. It was an underhanded, cowardly attack from the devil himself and Jesus saw right through it. Now the drawing the ground bit is important and I'll explain it like this. God made the world in 6 days on the seventh day He rested. Did God really need to rest? Was He really tired? Absolutely not. He is infinite in power. So why did He rest on the seventh day? He did it to teach us that we also need to rest. Jesus drawing on the ground was exactly the same. He didn't need to take a minute to think of His response or to calm down so He didn't react to the tricks and deception going on - He was perfect. But Jesus knew that we so often do need to take a moment to chill out, think and hold your tongue before we run our mouths.
He knows we are only human and that we are weak and react easily to manipulation. There are many references in the Bible that mention how much trouble our tongues get us into and that if someone can control their tongue they are considered very wise. What Jesus wanted to teach us here by drawing on the ground was to learn self control even in the face of an offensive challenge. Does this mean we become pacifists that defer all conflict? Absolutely not. Jesus said "Let you yes be yes and your no be no" He wants us to be deliberate in all we do but He also wants us to make conscious choices for our actions and for what comes out of our mouths. What Jesus was teaching us is to it slow it down and to give God the room and ability to talk to you in that brief moment before you just naturally react as we all so often do. Put simply... Don't react - Choose then Act. It may be the difference between starting and averting a war - or keeping and losing a relationship. I'll be sharing more of what I learnt over the next weeks and months and I hope that it does help you in your day to day life and interactions with others. Have a great day guys.
