The Words of the Fool

     Ephesians 6: “10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

 19Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.”

      Today, it is very easy to judge and criticize and attempt to “warn” people in the name of being a watchman…

        Ezeiel 3: “16 At the end of seven days the word of the LORD came to me: 17 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. 18 When I say to a wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for ^[a] his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. 19 But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself.

 20 “Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, and I put a stumbling block before him, he will die. Since you did not warn him, he will die for his sin. The righteous things he did will not be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. 21 But if you do warn the righteous man not to sin and he does not sin, he will surely live because he took warning, and you will have saved yourself.”

 22 The hand of the LORD was upon me there, and he said to me, “Get up and go out to the plain, and there I will speak to you.” 23 So I got up and went out to the plain. And the glory of the LORD was standing there, like the glory I had seen by the Kebar River, and I fell facedown.

 24 Then the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet. He spoke to me and said: “Go, shut yourself inside your house. 25 And you, son of man, they will tie with ropes; you will be bound so that you cannot go out among the people. 26 I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you will be silent and unable to rebuke them, though they are a rebellious house. 27 But when I speak to you, I will open your mouth and you shall say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says.’ Whoever will listen let him listen, and whoever will refuse let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house.”

      Here is the thing about being a watchman, we are called to warn people in a loving fashion, but we are not called to berate them and beat them into submission by criticism.  Rather, we are called to pray for them.  Even Jesus in their dying hour praying “Father forgive them for they know not what they do…”  He did not yell out “Hey, you morons!!!  You need to see the light!!!”  Granted he did his share of warning while he was alive, but it was always in love, and in the end with Jesus it came down to prayer, as it should be for us.

      Since out battles are not with the powers of this world or even the flesh, but rather spiritual powers, then we need to stop playing the enemies games and start hitting him where it hurts, on the battlefeild with prayer!!! 

       If we are tempted to criticize someone, even someone like say Todd Bentley, we should stop and remember that “Life and Death are in the Power of the Tongue and those who love it eat its fruit.”  Provs. 18:21  Rather than tearing down verbally and especially too others, we should be praying for them.  We need to be taking these things to the Lord and laying our own agenda at the foot of the cross and asking God what he really does desire for us to say and do.  If we cannot truly say that we are free from our own ideas and notions of how we believe a person should act, we should just keep our mouths shut.

       I am going to post some Proverbs…. Allow God to speak to you through them:

      Proverbs 10:19 “When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise.”

       Proverbs 12:15-16 “

 15 The way of a fool seems right to him,
       but a wise man listens to advice.

 16 A fool shows his annoyance at once,
       but a prudent man overlooks an insult.”

      Proverbs 12:18 “ 18 Reckless words pierce like a sword,
       but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”

        Proverbs 17:28 “Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue.”

        Proverbs 18:2 “ 2 A fool finds no pleasure in understanding
       but delights in airing his own opinions.”

        Proverbs 18:7 “A fool’s mouth is his undoing, and his lips are a snare to his soul.”

        So, maybe, the observations you make in regards to an evangelist or pastor is somewhat correct, but what right does that give us to publicly humiliate someone?  It is our goal to build up encourage and edify, if you have a word for someone that might discrace them it should be done in private, not for the whole world to see.

         God Bless ~Amy