How Do You Respond?

How Do You Respond?

1/30/18

Often we encounter people who display different opinions from our own and many times after the setting has expired, we wonder if we could have handled things in another light.  Are we allowing our emotions take control of the situation or do we approach differences with a haughty demeanor that others view and then discharge?  How many times have we Christians had this type of attitude when speaking with those with differences to ours, is our feathers up or are we calm and collected as the conversation advances?  We have many examples in the Bible of how to act in these instances and we need to return to these Scriptures in order to ensure that we are being 100% effective for the advancement of God’s Kingdom.

I know that I have not always responded to issues in the correct manner, I did not respond well when I was younger and there are times that I do not respond correctly towards others today as well.  Responses come with a vast array of territory but usually are conveyed with a personal accuracy when challenged, but it is how we display these responses that give us satisfaction or not and it should also allow us to see what frame of mind we are in at the time of discussion.  We all know that if we are trying to get someone to purchase an item from us and the person says “no” and then we commenced to yell at them for turning down our offer, business will not stay intact for very much longer.  It is this type of demeanor that we need to understand before we speak about God, Jesus, or the Church because many times when address people concerning these issues they already have an opinion concerning them and if we light a match under their feet, we may never have another opportunity to witness to them again.

Some of the titles and topics that God gives me to share can be somewhat difficult to complete, but I also understand that He is giving me these topics so that people that do not know His Ways can learn about Him and hopefully one day heed His voice and turn back to God.  Some of the responses to these writings are harsh and cold with others being somewhat receptive but with God stepping on toes of those who call themselves Christians who just sit around waiting for Jesus to return you can imagine that when God calls them out, they are not really in a good mood.  I have to really be careful when I respond to some of these comments, for I only could deepen their animosity or provide an avenue for them to separate themselves from God further.  It is here that we should have the capability to understand just how much the world has control over these people and respond accordingly.

Over the past few years or so and especially over this past year alone, we have witnessed a growing divide amongst this nation concerning how people view issues and then in response how they view the people who have differing opinions.  Many are shaking their heads and wondering why such activities are occurring and just what is the root of what seems to be such nonsense.  All levels of discord are popping up almost every day with a trail that seems to be endless.  As we witness these tense environments rupture, we also can sit back and have the opportunity to watch the responses afterward.  Often, it is the responses to such initial words, attitudes, and gestures that gain the most adherence thus creating a hostile atmosphere to which almost any type of additional response might occur.  It does not matter what setting or level of engagement that this potential bomb could explode for it is evident on the individual level and will rise to the national level if left unchecked.

It is through these contacts and contests that provide us with the perfect opportunity to either diffuse or heighten the situation of disagreement and from what I can tell as of now we have no introductory ideas of backing down from our polarized positions.  What we as humans and more importantly and directly as a nation is how we refuse to notice that our own actions are the cause of such deep and deepening divisions that are in our hearts towards our fellow citizens.  It is laughable to believe that we can be on equal terms with anyone or any other country when we cannot be amicable in times of disagreement with our own citizenry.  This picture also demonstrates just how much alignment with the world we have incorporated as well and at the same time are blinded to the fact that it is the world itself that mass produces such deadly divisions.  If we do not immediately correct these personal atmospheres they shall continue to grow into a civil strife that the world has never witnessed before, one that will take decades to complete and even longer to heal.  But will God allow such an event to occur?  Yes, He will for He has done something like this many times before and since we are no higher than the children of Israel we are the next ones to seek shelter from the waves.

“This is war”, “let’s fight until the finish” or any other type of war-like congruity statements are being thrown around every day and quite frankly these phrases and verbal contacts are taking their toll.  I am very surprised that some type of massive civil unrest has not already been undertaken and to be totally honest it is a testament to our strength that we have not resorted to such fringes yet.  Clearly, through these verbal uprisings we must know or at least feel the boiling temperatures that are inside us but why are we stoking our furnaces instead of allowing them to die down?  The answer lies with what lies within our hearts and as long as selfish, divisional, and worldly politics reign in our hearts these instances shall only continue to increase.  Do you really believe that all of this mess will just go away when a new leader comes into office?  I think not, for the cauldron has been lit and it is being stirred by both sides and we cannot see any melting of the stir stick.

I believe that most of us would agree that the supernatural world represents the most intense setting a person could imagine existed and when we address such an issue we cannot refrain from expressing our actions and reactions to such settings.  We need to remember that this type of realm does exist and is actively involved in your eternal placement, a condition that most may not realize.  When we deal in this setting we must consider the fact that those spiritual leaders have access to our lives and while we are just walking around not paying attention to our spiritual surroundings they are placing themselves in a position to ambush us and if we do not recognize what is going on they will attack us according to what doors we have allowed open, thus giving them access to all of the interior portions of our lives.  Any level of influence will then be allowed to be demonstrated on a command level basis which is why many of us see people fly off the handle at what should seem to be normal and focused areas.  Also, do we really recognize what is at stake and what is transpiring when we have these physical and verbal encounters?  They are not coincidental and actually serve a purpose for the spiritual, an act that we really need to watch out for because we could either damage a person’s chance of knowing God in such settings.

In Matthew 8:28-34 we have a perfect example of what type of reaction needs to occur when extreme circumstances are encountered.  Now, I am not suggesting that people are possessed by demons here (in the examples I have given above) but we do need to recognize that some sort of inner influence is occurring because rational people should not have motives of this magnitude in public places.  The passage reads as follows: ”And when he was come to the other side unto the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? Art thou come hither to torment us before the time? And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding. So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine.  And he said unto them, Go.  And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.  And they that kept them fled, and went their ways into the city, and told every thing, and what had befallen to the possessed of the devils.  And, behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus: and when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts.”  Oh boy, there is a lot of information here.

I know that this biblical example is an extreme account but the personal example I have to offer is just as extreme but on the opposite end of the spectrum.  The other night it was approaching time to go to bed and the before bedtime routine was taking place as normal.  My wife went upstairs to end the evening and our Dachshund followed her routine as well by going outside before she went to bed.  She did not stay out too long but that really was not out of the ordinary especially during the winter months.  My wife and Heidi were in their respective beds by 9:30 or so and I shortly followed them at about 10:15.  I was lying there in bed making sure my thoughts were cleared and within a few minutes time I hear Heidi begin to whine like she needed to go to the bathroom, this event occurred at 10:30.

After I recognized the distinctive sound she makes, I was not happy with her at all and for the next few moments, my feelings transferred from inside my body to the outside.  I threw the covers back waking my wife up and put my house slippers on again.  I took the covers off of the top of Heidi’s bed and began to coarsely chide her for not going outside and doing what she is supposed to just approximately 30 minutes before, but by this time my emotions were antsy as I flipped open her cage door.  Her bed is a simple rectangle cage with a swinging door on the front that has a hinge lock.  It can be noisy at times and if opened quickly without holding the door it will fly back and make a huge sound as it does, this is what occurred as I opened the door and it bounced back and hit Heidi’s hip as she was exiting her cage.  This scared her and she immediately tucked her tail and ran downstairs.  In no way was she harmed or hurt only scared, but I immediately knew that she was frightened and that her entire demeanor had changed.

I took her outside and as I watched her leave the garage she still had her tail tucked and was walking away in slight fear.  It was at this time I knew that it was going to be a long night for when she becomes frightened for any reason she is up and nervous for hours.  Sure enough, when she was outside she did not do anything and came back inside and headed straight for the downstairs couch.  I put some more clothes on and sat with her for an hour or so then carried her upstairs to the bedroom and placed her on the bed with my wife and me.  Her nervousness continued and I understood why for I knew she needed to go to the bathroom but didn’t because of the earlier event.  She did try and go to sleep but there was no way because she was uncomfortable.  Finally, at about 3:00 am, she was finally confident enough to go outside and go to the bathroom and came back in and went right to sleep.

How does this example come into play?  Well, it was all because of my attitude when I got out of bed the first time.  Animals may not speak English but they do pick up on atmospheric conditions coming from the human and this truth came into play that night.  I felt terrible because of what occurred and I was staring at the results of my frustration towards Heidi.  I was out of line and my actions portrayed a situation that is not present in my house and Heidi had every right to be nervous about the conditions.  It was the time of my sitting with her on the couch that God reminded me of the article that I had begun writing the day before, it was this article, you know, the one about how we should respond to others.  It gripped my heart and God hit a home run when He gently reminded me of what had just occurred.  This small reminder convicted me and it still troubles me to this exact moment that I am writing about the incident.  Heidi is okay her and I “made up” so to speak, but my heart still aches for what occurred and I am now more conscious about how I respond to this precious part of our lives.  Yes, it seems a tad minor but it grabbed my heart to teach me the importance of how we respond to others when times of frustration occur.

It is not too difficult to understand why people would like to work together in order to complete a task that has been assigned to them.  It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that if the job is delayed or is not completed at all that the team that was put in charge of such operation should be replaced so that the task at hand is completed.  Somewhere along humanity’s life cycle, we have failed to recognize this detail and are once again repeating such iniquities against humanity.  The Scripture that we just read gives us a great example of what we need to do in order for our lives to function normally again and that is to allow God to throw out all of the junk that we have accumulated inside and to start over and to rebuild our lives according to His Ways.

I find a certain statement in this passage to be very interesting and it comes in the form of the demons speaking to Jesus about “if” He wanted to and was going to cast them out of the men to allow them to be cast into a herd of pigs that were a short distance away.  The interesting part about this statement from the demons is where they wanted to be cast into for we all know that demons are unclean spirits and that Jews find the pigs to be unclean animals as well, which means that Satan’s kingdom follows uniformity as well and is not divided in its stance which proves Jesus correct again when He talks to the Pharisees about healing the sick.  We must never forget that Satan can only follow his own kingdom lines and if placing unclean spirits into a person’s inner life is such a “reward” of this kingdom then we need to understand this enemy of ours so we do not lose control of our lives.  This statement also provides us that the enemy’s servants and kingdom have to recognize God and His Kingdom and then automatically submit to it.

I pose the question to you that if Jesus would have acted out of His character or would have reacted hastily what do you think would have occurred here?  Would the physical reactions of Jesus and the others around Him contributed to a positive setting for the possessed men or would the demons be justified in their current position?  There were many different types of scenarios that could have played out here but instead, Jesus’ response to the unconventional setting was perfect and the one who had the authority over the situation handled the situation perfectly.  How many of you would have done the exact same thing if you encountered such demonic activity?  Do you realize that the majority of us have been in contact with a demon at some point in our lives and did not know it?  Why don’t we have the authority to recognize and then react appropriately when this occurs?  We do have the authority but we do not wish to recognize it and then use it according to God’s Ways.

After Jesus had come into contact with the men that were possessed and had cast out the demons that inhabited them the demons requested to be allowed to go into a group of pigs that was a distance off.  Jesus did not yell or scream any commandments to them in order for them to leave the men, a normal “Go.” Was given to them and they left.  There is a period after the word “Go” and not an exclamation point which means that a normal tone was handed out during this process.  The demons fled without a fight for they knew the authority of who they had come into contact with for they also directly address Him as the Son of God.  It was Jesus’ response to that setting that dispossessed the unclean spirits for Jesus understood and the demons understood who was in the authoritative position and who was not, so why do we yell and scream trying to make out point concerning God and Jesus?  When we do, we are not following the guidelines that Jesus set into motion.

It does not matter what type of setting we are presented with there is no reason for us to yell and scream at those who have incorporated another verse than what we have in our lives.  Yes, we can recognize what they harbor and yes, we are to address it if God directs us to do so but if we take the approach of holding a huge sign in front of their heads and scream at them that they are wrong they will just walk on by returning the favor and nothing will be accomplished.  We have touched on this issue a couple of times now and God wants us to understand that this type of aggressive approach is not what we need to be doing to the common person who does not know God.  There is nothing wrong with a fire and brimstone sermon but when we are presenting that type of atmosphere to those who are lost, we are not going to get very far in the witnessing command that Jesus gave us to do.  We have the authority to witness and to bring people to Christ but we cannot afford to destroy their wills before we even begin to share the gospel with them.

Church, do you even understand your authority and how to use it against the world’s ruler, or have you given your authority away and allowed others to usurp the power that Jesus gave to you?  That question is easily answered for we do not even understand what that authority even was in the first place.  It is painful to watch the spirit of the age rip out the heart of Jesus’ bride and to watch her heart beating in the hands of demons while she falls on her face to the ground in agony and experiencing an eternal death.  The fight that she has left goes to glorify her captor instead of towards the One who can give her life again.  She has focused so much on the physical that she has lost the true concept of salvation, redemption, and restoration in God through the blood of His Son.  She has been blinded so much by the world that she does not even believe in the true words of Scripture and what it means for her life and her witness.  Her hands are clean and present with a perfect manicure, yet she has no heart to fight the wiles of our enemy, a complete farce in the eyes of our Creator.

So, Church, go on with your dancing before your idols as the children of Israel did when Elijah and Ahab dueled and at some point in time when your loud screams, shouts, and vibrations cease due to your being tired, God shall answer through His might and holy Ways to set the record straight once again.  You are not acting like the leader that Jesus told us to be but transmitting a false impression (lie) to the ones that we should be witnessing to.  How can we be a functioning body if our hands and feet are holding onto worldly idols and positions?  The world that we are so desperately reaching for is falling apart and if we continue to attach ourselves to its structures we will be destroyed just as it will.  It is important that we let go of the world and take back the authoritative reigns that Jesus has given us to save the world and not take it with us.  What are we doing when we recognize demons?  Are we looking at them and frightened by their presence, do we ignore them all together, or do we cast them out with the authority that Jesus gave us?

If we cannot embark upon reaching both sides of the eternal spectrum then we have no chance of reaching the majority of those that fall within the middle portions of that realm which constitute all who we are commanded to go to and teach.  It does not matter who we witness to for the world is lost and the harvest is ripe but if we lack the true authority that Jesus gave us we will be no better than the animals that hold a higher status than our own personal lives.  Repent Church, and allow God to once again give our hearts their beats back so we can preach the gospel of Christ.  The world has voluntarily given its life to its death march but the Church is supposed to be the light and show it the Life Giver, we need to start doing that again before we experience a devastation that shall change the entire world’s status.  A renewed calling is the true response of how God wants us to act when sin approaches our lives, not to buckle under its weight.

God expects His children to respond to the world in an authoritative manner but speak with a loving heart at the same time.  We must never forget that we are in an eternal war for our lives and at no time can we compromise this position.  In war, there is nothing sacred from a vile enemy but we cannot afford to forget the enemy’s tactics while we advance God and His Kingdom.  It is written that we have the same authority as Jesus had while He was on the earth, then why are we not proclaiming this truth?  Jesus was tough and gentle at the same time, He always kept the truth and proclaimed His Father’s truth at all times.  This is our goal and one that needs to be sanctified in our hearts every day and the only way we can do this is to follow God’s Word at all times through living it stemming from what is in our hearts.

Presentation of ourselves to a dying world is of the utmost importance and if we present as a flawed sinner saved through the changing Grace of Christ we cannot fail.  But if our actions continue to shine through worldly actions, the very people who we intend to reach will sort us out as hypocrites to God’s Word and not hypocrites of the world’s standards.  Church, repent and allow God change your presentation and your response to the world.  Stand firm in your testimony and demonstrate Christ through your actions.  God loves each and every one of us and it is His desire to see all live in eternal standards with Him.  How are you responding to all of the corruption around us?  As in the passage above states that even though Jesus acted normally the townspeople did not and rebuked Him and told Him to leave the area.  Jesus did not turn the tables and place a self-righteous trip to show the people what He had just done, but He kept calm and left the area.  It does not matter what the circumstances are or how the others respond but it all depends on how you show your temperament when you are witnessing to others.  We must accept that not all will hear and accept the gospel of Christ but it does not give us the authority to yell and scream at them or to mock them as they walk away.

I understand that we have discussed this type of actions and behavior a couple of times in the past, but it is so relevant today because of the extreme measures that many of us face today.  Each day another scandal or full-blown mess is made public that involves another part of our society.  It seems like no one is immune to such allegations and as these stories expand themselves the tensions and divisions become heightened to the point where we can almost hear the anger grow inch by inch.  The incredible depth and agony of these conditions are literally ripping society apart and right at this moment, we need God in the most complete way known to humanity.  But as the division and canyon become wider and deeper we are expounding this growing space further because we are casting out God of our lives even faster.  It is this in combination with the accusations and allegations against each other that is going to bring further hurt, disappointment, and added stress that at some point will blow if God does not intervene.

It does not matter if we must deal with a restless family pet or a person that is harboring a demon within their life, we need to make sure we know how to respond when these settings expose themselves.  It makes no sense to respond in an unkind fashion or in a reactive manner when challenged, for that type of response is one that the world is constantly displaying and bringing further devastation to everyone all the way down to the personal level.  I do not know how long God is going to allow us to continue our divide but I do know that unless we turn our hearts back to Him the canyon shall continue on its growth spurt and that can only mean higher stress and tension levels.

In a world where chaos seems to have the authoritative upper hand, it is imperative that we take control of the situation in the name of Jesus Christ and act accordingly.  Church, it is time we take back what we have voluntarily surrendered to our enemy and once again separate ourselves from the world and show the Light of God in the darkness.  As I stated above I cannot say what will occur in our personal lives or in our society down the road, but I do know that as that time approaches where God has to take over things will only become worse and we need to be prepared to respond in the correct and godly manner.  And during this present time and when things become worse we need to have our hearts grounded in the Word of God enough to understand what is going on in these people’s lives and then have the capability to explain to them why things are occurring as they are.  God loves each one of His beautifully created children and as each one falls away it breaks His heart even more and it is our mission to help those who are falling but still seek help.  Let us be prepared for today and for tomorrow because we encounter hurting and suffering people every day and we need to show the true authority of God to them when we meet.

DLB