Can I stand Firm? Can you?

Remember Moses? He endured the contempt of Pharaoh, The stubbornness of the Hebrews, He endured the criticism of Miriam and Aaron his siblings but he stood firm most of the time.

As we grow older standing firm in our ideals and beliefs and in who we are becomes a little bit easier…right?

Eph. 6:13 tells us Therefore 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.

I think however that most of us begin doing the “and having done everything….stand firm“ part of the scripture, when we get older mostly…..

When do we stand firm? Only when we know who we are and fully comprehend who we are in Christ!

Growing up I was never one to go with the flow….I didn’t care if I was accepted or not (still don’t). I realized at a young age that if I cared about being accepted it would stop me from fulfilling my goals and if I cared about being accepted it would hurt me too much if I wasn’t accepted. Wow…that would be giving too many people power over me. I just did not want to ever do that. People can be harsh, critical and just plain evil. If you listen to their negative thinking it can be devastating and disrupt your peace of mind. I care what my husband thinks of me, what my children think of me but mostly what God thinks of me...

Caring about what people think of you is a form of pride (the bad kind)….We need only to care what God thinks of us.

So going back to standing firm…if you know who you are in Christ and have come full circle with him in many areas of your life then is it safe to say that you and I can:

Stand firm when the wicked appear to be winning…(government)
Stand firm in times of crisis (financial, sickness)
Stand firm even when no one will know you compromised.
Stand firm when big people act contemptibly small
Stand firm when people demand authority they don’t deserve
(Chuck Swindoll says this)

God wants us to be firm in our beliefs but sometimes we become a bit shaky due to circumstances and your normal strength leaves you…or you feel that too many hits have come your way….Well…

I’m here to tell you that whatever you are facing, stand strong. Walk in quiet confidence. Be sure without being stubborn, firm without being unteachable, enduring but not discourteous, full of truth balanced with grace. Remember these things and when I feel defeated remind me of them. Please?

Prophets? Really?

I read a piece where back in 1930 President Franklin Roosevelt was busy calming the troubled waters of our nation’s fear of war. He spoke openly of his “lovely hope for peace.” America was not even at the time considering what was going on in the rest of the world. How naïve we were! Little did he know that within months the insane Hitler would unleash his venom and we as a nation would be pulled into survival mode.

Every so often we enter these types of relatively calm era-s in our life, as a nation and spiritually as Christians.

It is easy to forget the prophet's warning to beware of those who superficially heal the brokenness of a nation by announcing "peace, peace" when "there is no peace" (Jer. 6:14; 8:11). And if we feel sufficiently comfortable and relaxed, it's mighty easy to block from our minds the Savior's prediction of "wars and rumors of wars" and His warning that "many false prophets will arise and mislead many" (Matt. 24:6-7, 11).

So.... I want to talk to you about prophets….(bear with me)
We’ve become Christians who are always looking for a word from the pastors, the guest speaker, etc..to somehow validate us. We’ve also learned to accept whatever others prophesy to us without ever questioning it or seeking God in our own prayer time.

Believe me when I tell you to be weary of people that are always prophesying to you. Excessively and consistently… it almost comes across as psychic…. what people?

- Self proclaimed prophets
- TV evangelists
- A brother or sister in the church
- People you randomly meet...

If you’re a prophet truly..you will not be general in your predictions but right on every time…Deut. 18:21-22. These individuals that are constantly giving you a “word” revel in flattering revelation because such revelation flatters the flesh. Don’t blame the person…they may feel they are doing good or right sometimes they just learned to do this by watching others and its a popular thing to do in the church. But always test it for yourself.

We are looking for shortcuts, looking for ways wherein we can skip a few steps..time consuming stuff like praying, fasting, reading the word for ourselves and still be all that we can be. We are kidding ourselves. We have to do the leg work ourselves. I’ve heard people say “I will not leave my house until I get a dose of Joyce Meyer, or Paula White…” Are you kidding me? In all honesty you might be relying on them so that you don’t have to do the work of reading, studying, praying and actually having a relationship with the Lord. We need to go to the Well ourselves at some point in our lives…

These days the popular teaching is prosperity and the feel good theology. If you challenge this and call it flawed beliefs and superficial faith you will be labeled uncaring and unloving. People are happy going to the church with the smiley guy that tells jokes and makes them feel good.

We are living in a world of charlatans….Can you recognize them? Will you be able to recognize them when they come to our churches, when we go to their meetings, when we see them on TV, when we speak to them face to face? It truly concerns me.

Carlton Pearson comes to mind…most of you know who this is. He at one point was a minister on track and now made a left turn and is blatantly in a cult with many followers. I hear Benny Hinn is getting a divorce and somehow people are excusing this… I read about Kim Clement’s false predictions and no one seems to question this guy….I listen to the sermons from Joel Osteen that never deal with Sin….Paula White preaches and no one calls her out on the wrong teachings she gives…man the list goes on and on.

If you read the word…study it and pray, Christ will not lead you astray. It’s the rest of the people than are human and are overloaded with fame, money, and prosperity that have been "Hollywoodised" and somewhere down that road started believing their own deity. If we don’t learn to discern for ourselves we can get caught up with a false prophet and then who will convince you otherwise?

Just something to pray about...your very own discernment!

Be blessed,