Judgement, are we too quick to judge?

      Since I started my blog, my point was to cut past my own judgemental attitude and to go straight to the Bible and point others back to there as well.

       I have been  convicted a lot about judging others, and I am really seeking God to get rid of this attitude.  It is so easy to look at others and say that we have the right to judge them or “expose” their sins.  It is a lot harder to sit there, bite your tongue, and wait to see if God would have you speak at all.  Pride always speaks first, and pride is the first to judge.  Are we willing to, as Christians, set aside our pride and truly obey the word of the Lord to be known by our love for each other? 

       I recieved an e-mail today from a friend, a forwarded massage about judgement by Kathie Walters and this sums up everything I have been saying, and probably says more clearly than I did.  I hope this edifies you like it did me, or at least convicts you.

      God Bless ~Amy

       “I was sitting in a restaurant texting my daughter, Lisa. (I am home in Macon, Georgia) Suddenly the Lord said to me, ” 24 hours.”
Next my thoughts were invaded by people and sounds.
Judgments – the judgments that you make in your own heart (Jesus said)  are going to come back to you. judgments are made out of pride and an ignorance of the understanding of the grace of God.
I will explain further on so please bear with me for a few minutes.
We are all kept by His grace alone. “We are kept by the power of God” the Bible says.
First of all man’s problem is not sin, it’s pride – all sin comes from pride. When we get out of the grace then we will fall into the first hole that we come to. Humility is knowing that it’s ALL God. We are saved, sanctified, KEPT by the grace of God.
WHEN GOD LIFTS HIS GRACE

When we lived in Orlando years ago we had Arthur Burt minister in our church one evening.
After the service we brought Arthur, some other friends, and another young English guy, Jeremy, back to our house for some supper.
As people sat around chatting, Jeremy interrupted Arthur and asked “Oh by the way, do you know Evangelist Stan Brown?” (Not his real name).

“Yes, as a matter of fact I do,” replied Arthur, and he continued his conversation with someone else.
Jeremy was excited. “When this man was in the UK and he had tent meetings and that’s where I got saved,” Jeremy said.
“Do you know where he is?” “Well, yes I do,” Arthur said, and turned away to resume his conversation. I thought Arthur was behaving a little weird.

“But Arthur, where is he (Stan)? I would love to contact him,” Jeremy said, now a little impatient. “If you must know brother, he is in jail.” Arthur again began to talk to someone else.

By this time poor Jeremy was losing it.
“What do mean, in jail? Why is he in jail?’ A bewildered Jeremy was in shock.
“Well brother, if you must know. “He is in jail for child pornography,”
Arthur looked at Jeremy now.

Jeremy couldn’t understand it at all and was speechless. “How could that happen?” Jeremy asked, “Brother Stan was so anointed, he led me to the Lord, and there were so many people saved and healed in his meetings.”

“Brother” Arthur said to Jeremy, “When a man gets into pride, God lifts His grace and then he falls into the first hole that he comes to.” Well we all got a revelation that night, but I have seen it happen again and again.” God resists the proud and gives His grace to humble.”

What do you do?
But what do you do? Do you make judgments about the one who has messed up? Better not, Jesus warned about that. ” The judgments you make will return to you again. Do you know that people who judge others often fall into the same sin eventually?
So what do you do? Do we all ignore the sins and failures? No of course not. What I am saying is that God will deal with things and His people – but He may not want to use YOU. In which case you have nothing to say. You want to throw stones? I would be careful about those stones,. They have a way from becoming a boomerang .
I said this last week – but read it again
I told this story last week- but I am telling it again because it’s very important that people understand about making judgment. Where are your judgments coming from? Are they personal judgments? Are the made according to what your ears hear and your eyes see? Jesus did not make judgements that way- neither should you. God will bring a word -and the word will do a work. But Gods’s word will come by the Sprit of God and God will use a vessel who is open and whose heart has compassion for the person involved.
One time years ago when David and I were traveling in America ( we lived in London at the time), we ministered in some house groups in the North Atlanta area.
On the Sunday we were due to speak at one of the larger house groups. We had not met this
particular house group leader before and so one of the other elders took us to the house on Saturday night to meet the pastor in charge of the Sunday group.

We went to this man’s house. Myself, David, and a girl who was traveling with us on that trip. Her name was Sue. When we knocked on the door a nice looking man answered. He welcomed us and I assumed he was the leader we were there to meet.
As he shook my hand and smiled at me- I saw a spirit of adultery in his eyes. It was not a hidden thing, it was bold. I must say that it shocked me. I could see from Sue’s face that she saw it too.

We went on into the living room and there were a number of people standing around and some sitting around, chatting. An old minister/friend from England was sitting there, talking to someone and seemed oblivious. I couldn’t understand it – surely if I could see this,
Arthur could see it. He had been in the ministry for 60 years.

I was trying to talk to Arthur with my eyes- WHY DON’T YOU DO SOMETHING?”Surely
if I can see this brazen spirit, you can too.”
Sue was trying to do the same thing to me. She was making weird faces at me across the room. Suddenly Arthur put down the Orange Juice he was holding and gave forth a very loud message in tongues. The whole room was silenced. After that he gave a message in English. It went something like this, “You have until this time tomorrow to uncover or be discovered by the Spirit of God.” Then he picked up his Orange juice and continued his conversation with the lady next to him.
Well when we got back to place we were staying I went immediately to my room. ‘Ok God what Was that all about?” God said to me ” I couldn’t use you Kathie because you already judged the man in your heart.” I realized that was true. When I saw the spirit of adultery – I was already making assessments and judgments. Not consciously but unconsciously. With most of
us, our minds are geared that way because` we haven’t been taught NOT to live in that realm, of sight and sound and feel.

Of course Arthur Burt has been around a very long time, he is not a dummy.
I am sure he SAW the spirit but he didn’t know it until God told him .

You see when God tells you
The word he gave did its own work. But Arthur was detached from it. The word came from God not from Arthur.
We had a great meeting in the morning but in the evening the leader took off with a lady in the church and never did come back.

So I learned some more about the spirit of false judgment and how it is rooted in pride. “He Has showed you Oh man what is good, and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly and to LOVE mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

Don’t cut yourself off from people – there by the grace of God go I. Better to beware of the Pharisee Spirit – the Pharisees didn’t know they were sinners – that’s dangerous. They distorted grace and mercy of God and judged people by their own standards and out of their own hearts.
You know what – the wonderful and powerful acts of God in Lakeland and the disappointments that came from Todd’s personal failures have brought to light a lot of things that I believe God is looking at.
There are judgments that God has made – on the responses that have arisen out of people’s hearts.
I would be very careful about any judgments you make right now out of your own heart.
When I got that word tonight, “24 hours” I couldn’t finish my nice salad.
The noise and peoples faces who came crowding in on me were like clanging cymbals.
Get released
If you made a judgment about a church, ministry, or person ask God to release YOU and then you release them. People do dumb things sometimes. About every ministry I know has said something dumb from time to time. Well if you judged people by those things you SAW or HEARD, you will write everyone off. You would be the only one in church on Sunday, you and the cat ( and you would spoil it.)
King David
We don’t know people’s heart – King David committed adultery, then murdered Bethsheba’s husband. I would say that most of us would immediately disqualify him for the ministry – let alone kingship. But you know how God referred to David- ” A man after my own heart.” What?? You’re kidding aren’t you God?

Do you know why God said that about King David? Was it because he was doing so good “Pastoring the kingdom”? No it was because he was honest. When the Prophet Samuel came to confront him, Samuel told him a story about a man and his one sheep. Remember the story? There as a man who had many sheep, but he wanted the one sheep that other man had, so he killed him and took his sheep ( making reference to David taking the one beloved wife of his servant when he himself already had many wives).
You got me!
Do you know how David responded? He said “Oh ,I didn’t realize that she was actually married.” No, he didn’t did he? When Samuel said, “Thou art the man.” David said ” You got me.”
People made judgements about people without having any revelation of the heart.
Religious spirits always create false standards in the mind and then you make judgments according to the false standards out of your own heart.
If people have judged you when they didn’t understand where you were coming from and where your heart was at- pray it off or better still have someone else break it off – release people you have made judgements about – quicky.
God didn’t ask you – He didn’t ask your opinion about it – about anything. If He gives you a word that’s different. You can bring that word and offer it. But you are just the mail man- not the judge and jury. You had better bring it with humility knowing that YOU are only kept by His grace.
You have the witness of the Spirit in YOU. Why does the Bible say “You have the anointing within you, and you don’t need anyone to teach you.?’ Does that mean we don’t need teachers- well of course not as God has appointed teachers – but you have to witness to the teaching. You can’t blame someone else because you didn’t listen to the witness in your spirit for yourself.
Anyway – I am excited to be going back to Australia and New Zealand and also going to a 6 country Danube cruise with my husband soon-
I am looking forward to coming to your area- I had a wonderful time in Spokane last week- end such neat hungry little duckies
Hope this helps you understand about judgments – be blessed
If you would like to real the whole story about the “Spirit of False Judgment” ( and how NOT to operate in it) then you can order here :
http://99.48.104.6/store/books.html “