Love your enemies -all of them

Do you think that when you go to bed at night and there are all kinds of thoughts running through your mind, especially things that happened during the day, especially negative things, that it’s just your over active mind? Not at all. It’s an attack from the enemy. The enemy does not want you to have peace under any circumstances and every chance he can get to disturb your peace, he will.

Yesterday I spoke to a friend about an incident that had happened. I had actually decided to put the whole thing behind me because it is negative and I don’t need negative in my life. But because she had been away I told her. Last night I couldn’t sleep properly until I had broken off soul ties…….again!! These spirits are very powerful. I think I have enough experience to know that it isn’t just my mind wandering. This was such an attack.

We have to keep our minds and our hearts clean we cannot allow the enemy one millimetre of ground. The spirits that are all over are always watching and take the opportunity wherever they see a door open. It has to be just a little bit open, just a crack is enough.

Even thinking about the wrong things is dangerous.

Philippians 4:7, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

This verse is so profound. It just says it all. Look at the preceding 3 verses:

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!

Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;

And then of course we have verse 8 and 9 of the same chapter:

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.

This is such a wonderful instruction not matter what the circumstances. Firstly, we must rejoice, and be gentle, always. Then we ask God for the things we need, with a thankful heart.  By making a conscious decision not to be anxious, God is going to bless you with supernatural peace. And then we have the instruction to keep our minds free from anxiety by thinking about things that are positive and uplifting. It’s as easy at that! Well, when you say it fast it sounds very easy. It is an ongoing process to keep our minds and our hearts free from stress. It is a very conscious decision we have to make.

Every single time we are offended by another person, every time we are falsely accused, every time we are lied to and every time we take exception to something, we have to realise that we are in danger of stepping into enemy territory. That door is opening just a little and we are inviting emotions in which are not lovely or honourable. We are playing with the devil’s toys and very soon we might be inviting his minions into our mind.

Matthew 5:43-48  “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

If this is what Jesus did and tells us to do, who are we to do any differently?

Confess your sins

I am in the position at the moment where I suspect someone of having done something illegal but I don’t have sufficient proof. It’s a really bad place to be in. It is not affecting the way I am treating the person because believe you’re innocent until proven guilty and I lean toward the side of mercy where there is doubt.

I tried to put myself into that person’s shoes and it hasn’t been that hard. I am far from perfect and I’ve done a lot of things that I’m not going to go around boasting about. If we do things that we have to keep secret it is not good for our souls. There is so much stress because we have to be careful about what we say and do. What if we say the wrong thing and someone realises what we have done? We are going to look bad and will lose face in front of people who think we are good. We could lose our jobs and family and friends could reject us.

1 John 1:8-9, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

James 5:16, Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

Living with this kind of secret doesn’t only affect your mind and emotions but can make you physically sick. This verse says that you must get the thing you’ve done into the open so that your sickness can be healed. Forgiveness is so strong that it can heal sickness.

The other thing that happens is that we are not in right standing with God because the devil has something he can accuse us of. He can stand in the throne room of God and accuse us of whatever it is we have done and not confessed and received forgiveness for.

Revelation 12:10, 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.

And God cannot lie and say that the devil cannot torment us because we haven’t made right with Him.

Numbers 23:19, God is not a man, that He should lie…

So what do we do to get back to a place of righteousness, or are we condemned for ever?

Revelation 12:11, 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.

Daniel 9:9, To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him

It is so important to fix everything we have done which can cause a rift between ourselves and God and between ourselves and other people. It is so much better to live in unity with people and to know that when we speak to God we can come before Him with no guilt. Guilt will kill us in the long run. Unfortunately doing one wrong thing often leads to doing something else to cover up the first thing and so on. God does not need to punish our sins, we are punished enough by the consequences to our minds, emotions and bodies.

Once we have confessed and we have been forgiven we need to forgive ourselves. Don’t remember your wrongdoing once you have asked God for forgiveness. Look up, dress up and show up.

Romans 8:31-34, What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.

Straighten you crown and walk with your head high. You are a worthy child of the most high God and you have to act that way.

Abortion

Facebook has been bombarding us with anti-abortion posts. I think its high time that people take a stand against abortion. Its high time people stand up for what they believe in regardless. Taking a stand and standing with what you say is always better than sitting on the fence.

I was thinking about what I would do if someone close to me were to decide to have an abortion. I know that I wouldn’t like it, but I also know that I wouldn’t be able to judge her. Firstly if I only found out about it after it was done I wouldn’t have been part of the process and thus had no insight into the situation. I wouldn’t know how much fear she possibly went through. Secondly I am not allowed to judge. James 4;12 says, “There is one Lawgiver, who is able to judge to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?” Romans 2:1, “Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.” It’s like the woman who was caught in adultery in John 8:1-11. Jesus told her accusers that the one who is without sin, should cast the first stone. Everyone dropped their stones and left. Not one of us is perfect and we do not have the right to judge anyone else. So is abortion wrong? Yes, most decidedly so. Abortion is murder and murder is always wrong. But, as I’ve illustrated, so is judging and as far as I can discern there isn’t a difference between sins. A sin is a sin is a sin. We should hate the sin, but we need to love the sinner. Jude 1:22-23, “And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.”

How should we treat a woman or a girl who has had an abortion? Just like any other person. We should love her so much. We should love her so much that she can overcome the fear that drove her to have the abortion. 1 john 4:18, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts our fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” That is so absolutely frightening. I  can just imagine the grotesque faces of the demons who inflict the kind of fear that drives a person to ending the life of their own baby. I want to weep when I think about it. We, who are believers, are failing those who are living in fear. Fear of the consequences. Fear of what people will say. Fear that she won’t be able to take care of a new life. Fear of what her husband or boyfriend’s reaction will be. Fear that she won’t be able to complete her studies and that she will be a disappointment to her family. Those are the kind of things that are being whispered to her. The verse says hear involves torment. The Oxford Dictionary gives the meaning of torment as, “Severe physical or mental suffering.” Fear is very real and fear is from the devil. Hebrews 2:14- 15 says that Jesus will destroy the devil and release those who through fear of death were subject to bondage throughout their lives. 2 Timothy 1;7, “ For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”  The ESV version says, “for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self control.” I would think that a sound mind would practice self control.

If we show love to this poor girl who has been through all that trauma we are doing the will of God. That is the only way she is ever going to have a chance to get away from the torment of the enemy. If we were to push her away and judge her as a sinner and mark her as a bad person she is not going to have a hope and a future. Who is she going to turn to if she can’t turn to believers when the tormentors don’t stop tormenting her. And they won’t stop. The devil is a liar.  John 8:44, (paraphrased) “…the devil was a liar from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.“  So, as I see it, the devil or rather one of his demons sets about tormenting someone who is vulnerable. Then, once they are good and scared, he tells them that the only way out of the situation is the abortion, then everything will be okay because it will be over, there will be no consequences and nobody will even know. She goes ahead with the procedure but she doesn’t realize that the torment won’t stop. She will have feelings of guilt and failure. Until she is set free by the love of Jesus she will not be whole.

Our duty is to show her that love and to guide her into perfect freedom.