Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Math 7:1,2
Do you find yourself talking to someone about a situation and then talking about what happened and the people involved….next thing you know, you have spoken negatively about another, painting them in a negative light? It is so easy to do. Why? Because we need to make ourselves look better. Why? Who are we trying to please? God or man? or ourselves? We all have this tendency. The best way I’ve found to not gossip is to talk a lot less. I haven’t mastered that one yet, but I’m trying to deal with this as best as I can. I find myself walking away from a trite conversation sometimes, asking God to forgive me for what I just said. Then, later going back to the other person that I said this to and acknowledging my judgment of the one I spoke about. Now, the hard part is to go to the person you talked about, telling them you have judged them and asking for forgiveness. Be vulnerable, be open, be honest, but before you do anything make sure you are in the Spirit of the Lord. In other words, make sure that’s what Holy Spirit is directing you to do, otherwise it can do more damage than good. This isn’t about you, but restoration to the other person.
When I was growing up in the church, I didn’t really belong, because I didn’t feel I belonged. I didn’t take up my bible as a 12 year old, after giving my heart to Jesus, learning how to follow Jesus. I didn’t understand reading my bible was necessary to grow in the Lord. I didn’t learn to pray till much later. I I couldn’t “belong” without obeying the Spirit of God that lived within me. I was so traumatized as a 3 year old going through the fire, I never became a whole person that was meshed body, soul or spirit. It seemed I could never find myself…that person inside of me. She was missing somehow. I was lost most of the time and was always looking for approval so desperate for approval that I couldn’t concentrate on anything that made any sense. I didn’t even learn to talk till I was 26. So, in revealing this, we must accept the reality that I was tormented by demonic influence. Otherwise, it all makes no sense in the Spirit realm.
After leaving home after school, my good girl friend from high school rented an apartment together. I was so lonely and lost. For the first time, all was quiet as there was always some kind of activity going on my my home where I grew up. The TV was always blaring, which I disliked royally, but I realized the depth of how alone I felt for the first time ….I was so empty and longed for something tangible that would make sense to me. All of a sudden I remembered my former experience at 12 where the grace of God had come upon me when I responded to His call. I longed to feel that unconditional love again. I began to look for a church, so afraid of being seen or noticed or called out, I wore a wig and sat on the back row of the last pew, so I could slip out. I filled out a card in the visitor section, why I’m not sure. Someone my age, who was kind and caring ended up with my card, called me and asked if they could pick me up for church that next Sunday morning. I was terrified, actually. Why I can’t say. I think it was because I grew up in a judgmental environment. It was back in the day when you had to tow the line in church or be a reprobate. I never really knew what grace meant. You were “behind the door when the brains were passed out” or “stupid” or any number of adjectives that brought condemnation on a young impressionable heart. I seemed to always be fearful of being “found out.” I’d find myself ducking or such whenever a parent raised their voice. I always felt it must be my fault. I began to attend and turned my life over to the Lord. The pastor knelt and prayed before he began to speak. I had never seen that act of humility before in church. I was deeply touched. I repented and came back to the Lord. I was so full of joy…..for the first time in my life I found a place where I felt I could be accepted. I Loved the word of God and the way I was loved by Jesus, as I felt His presence and felt loved by those around me for the first time in my life. I actually felt like I belonged. However there was this underlying need for approval that would follow me around, causing me to speak unkind about someone without even thinking about it. I was so very insecure….so I found myself trying to make it up by putting others down, not even realizing what I was doing. I began to pray about that and realized that I wanted others to feel like they were the most important person in my life that day. I worked hard to make that happen and learned to listen with “both ears” instead of trying to think of how I was going to reply to what I only had heard a part of what they were really saying. I’d ask myself,
What are they really saying?” It was an experience in love I will never forget. Time passed and I became a bride, a mother and went to work to please my husband, but I never really wanted to work when I had to leave my children. I felt my heart would break every morning I left them. I lost that “esteeming others as more important than yourself” attitude. I think unless we walk in continual repentance, offering up thoughts and ideas, moment by moment, we would like to see happen to the Lord, we cannot maintain any kind of fruit of the spirit on a daily basis. It must be truly “taking every thought captive.”
Later when I realized, again what the word taught and how gossip and slander kept you away from the precious holiness and His abiding presence, ….as I noticed when I opened my mouth my heart smote me, I began to stop and think before I said things. It was very helpful, but too, I had realized that “taking thoughts captive” was a command, not a suggestion. I couldn’t do that on my own, as I found out…they were all overwhelming my brain, when I started. Little by little, I began to gain mastery over stopping my thoughts before they came out of my mouth. “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”
I have learned after a long time of trial and error, my relationship with my Creator is so much more fruitful and I sense more abundant grace when I truly stop myself from speaking “my own words, or making my own bread, only wanting to be called by His name.” As Isaiah recorded in 4:1
May God bless you in your journey of walking in the Light “as He is in the Light.”
The most startling revelation has been that I thought it was I who was being judged by the Body of Christ, but in reality, it was I who was judging them. Woah! I looked at them and didn’t want to participate in what they were doing, because they were not spiritual enough? YE Gads! And I was more spiritual? Yikes! What a wake up call.
Yet at the same time, there is a bit of truth to what I felt, but my attitude was totally wrong. I would go and feel like I was hearing a grace of love message and then the speaker or teacher would pass over some “hard” scripture that would be hard for those who wanted to “take hold of ONE Man and make their own bread and wear their own clothes, but wanted to be called by HIS name” Ouch! I seemed to be always disappointed coming away from church, for I felt like I heard a message that the “Pastor had fowled with his feet.” Ezk 34:19
Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of the pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink the clear waters? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? 19Why must My flock feed on what your feet have trampled, and drink what your feet have muddied?’ 20Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says to them: ‘Behold, I Myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.…
So, when I heard the error, it wasn’t enough that I was disappointed, I might go share that with someone else to let them know how disappointed I was. It would also just confirm what they too would be thinking and then we would carry on a discussion about the church and how wretched, poor blind and naked they all were. Unfortunately, I forgot to look into the mirror of the word to humble myself before the Lord….and pray for those involved. An intercessor is one who is to yield to the Spirit so that they can be used to bring unity to the Body of Christ, not division.
Now that I have repented, I can see where I have completely gone awry in most everything I thought. It’s kinda like, “misery loves company.” Where the vultures are there the body will be gathered? Something like that. In others words, it seemed like I would take up with other disgruntled believers who also had been wounded and judged the body as well. There are more out there than I care to imagine.
We are called to be salt and light. To restore our brother when he is in error and to pray for those that spitefully use us. Math 4. We can get into a “rant” about the Body of Christ when we are specifically told in Math 18 that no matter how many times a person sins against us, we must forgive. Seventy times seventy comes out to be around every 2 minutes. So, let us not go “weary in well doing but let us encourage one another while it is still called today, lest any of us shall fall short of entering that rest. The rest is walking in the rest of the dying of the old man the old nature and walking in newness of life.
We must pray continually and consistently to find help in our time of need. The world, satan and our flesh all walk hand in hand to keep us from this rest. Walking in the Spirit, consistently offering up thought patterns, judgments …..waiting till the fruit can be seen not giving way to the fears, the struggles and the anxieties of daily living. Giving all we have till we have overcome the flesh, devil and the world. Then, to keep that position, we must continue in the same way we entered there.
Then the man brought me to the front of the temple by way of the north gate. I looked and saw the glory of the LORD filling His temple, and I fell facedown. 5The LORD said to me: “Son of man, pay attention; look carefully with your eyes and listen closely with your ears to everything I tell you concerning all the statutes and laws of the house of the LORD. Take careful note of the entrance to the temple, along with all the exits of the sanctuary.
We must be very careful to look, watch and listen. In Mark 4 the word tells us, Take care how you listen and take care what you listen to. Luke 8:18 commands us to: “Take heed how you hear” and in Mark 4 the same passages is translated “Take care what you listen to”
So we could take from these two passages two different commands.
- Take care HOW you listen
- Take heed what you listen to
One is directing us to consider well how we are listening. If we have heard passages before, we can even quote them ourselves and sometimes they go in one ear and out the other. So we must ask Holy Spirit to make every word real to our spirit so that we lose nothing that Holy Spirit would desire to make clear to us that day.
Then next is taking heed. Truly, taking heed is doing what you have heard. Taking the word to heart. David said, “Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee.”
Let us be careful to mark well the entrances and exits to walking in the Spirit, lest we be found outside the “faith.” I’m not saying necessarily lost. However, Paul said to examine ourselves:
Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!”
Do you meet the test? I pray we all do! Repentance, daily repentance is the key to walking in the rest of God and having no other gods, and idolatrous spirit before Him.
In order to be light and salt, we must have the attitude of a servant first and foremost, then pray concerning the issue and ask God how He would have you approach the issue. If He does not speak, then just pray about it till you see a change or He tells you how to deal with, even if you are suppose to do anything. When the Lord spoke to me about going to my pastor, I was shocked beyond belief and said, “who am I?” There was a lot of problems going on the in church and I had been fasting and praying at the time and was very close to the Lord….and could hear a pin drop in my head, so to speak, so I knew it was the Lord. I sure didn’t want to go, however. God will let you know if you are seeking him to glorify the Father in all you do. Otherwise, he can’t flow through us or “use” us in his stead. We are His hands and feet upon the earth. He chose to do it that way. I’d rather not be “used” as it is a lot easier to slide through on a pastor’s coat tails than die to my flesh, but each of is is THE CALLED. We are all called to hear the Lord and walk in the anointing he has given us to abide in.
Will you my brother or sister, learn to abide so the Body will become the bride she is to be “without spot or wrinkle. He is coming back and will restore all things “on earth as it is in heaven.”
I didn’t even know this was happening. So, I began to notice my behavior and began praying about it. It began to be something after my prayer, that I really noticed. It stood out, so it was easy to spot in my speech, but not yet in my thought patterns. “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”
I grew up with religious judgmentalism all around me. It was and has been a very hard habit to break, but I’m working on it, steadily. One thing I’ve noticed, if I repent to person I was speaking to AND THEN have to go to the person I spoke negatively about, I curb my speech pretty quick. It is so embarrassing to have to confess our faults to someone that you have sinned against. However, the bible does say, “Confess your faults to one another, that you may be healed.” God does not mince words when he talks about judging someone else. “How can you say you love God whom you can’t see when you can’t love your brother, whom you can see?” We usually pass judgment according to our own strengths and pride about those strengths, anyway
Because of my metabolism, overeating has never been a huge issue for me. I would mostly, forget to eat instead of over eat. I’ve never eaten because of stress, I do other sinful stuff. I OCD about taking supplements and overindulge in too much exercise, work on eating things that are good for me to the point of being OCD sometimes. So, I might immediately assume that they overeat and they are glutenous instead of possibly having a health problem. I remember as a young child, I would hear a family member always commenting about how overweight people were. It was disgusting to them.