MR. CRITICAL
Once I led a man to the Lord who had a pretty rough background. After being born again, he joined our church and began criticizing everything. He criticized people for using soap because it wasn't natural. (He could have used a lot of soap too—he needed it!) He criticized people because they peeled their potatoes, and the skin was the most nutritious part. This guy just had an opinion about everything!
I didn't find out until later, but this fellow had been the first person ever indicted by the California Grand Jury three times before he was a teenager. He had lived in reformatories since the age of five. Because of all this, and growing up around so much strife, there was a tremendous amount of anger and resentment in him.
After a couple of months, he came to me one day and said,
"I'm leaving this church. I'm going back out into the desert because there's too much strife here."
I just got bold and told him, "Yes, there is strife in this church, but it's all coming from you. There wasn't any strife among the members until you came in here and started criticizing
everybody. You're the source of this strife!"
"Really? I didn't realize it."
"You didn't realize that when you criticize people over everything they do that they aren't going to like that?"\
This brother just sat down and began to tell me about his background. Then he said, "I guess I just didn't realize it was strife. I just thought it was normal." Then he continued, saying,
"If you were to tell me to act healed when I feel sick, I can do that because I've felt healed before. But when you're telling me to walk in love, I guess I don't know how to do that. I've
never felt love before." I had to take this guy and start teaching him through the life of Jesus what it's like to love people.
Some folks come from a background where screaming, yelling, and throwing things were normal. There are plenty of families like that, but it's not the way God wants us to be.
(James 3:16.)
Do you treat strangers better than your own family? Many people wouldn't dare to treat me the way that they treat their own children, yet they wonder, Why am I having these lousy kid!" scream at me, "Why haven't you done this yet?"
and see how our relationship gets along. If that's how you treat your family, you have a double standard.
When you blast your family members—the people you're supposed to love more than anybody else—it's no wonder you're dealing with rebellion, strife, and division. If you want
godly relationships, you have to start guarding your tongue.
You have to realize that you can't tolerate such strife. Satan comes in through the doors of envy and strife and works every evil work in your life.
Would you allow a poisonous snake to run loose in your house? If it got into the heating vent, perhaps you wouldn't see it for a week or two, but if you knew it was still lurking there,
somewhere, you'd probably say, "I don't care how long it takes, I am not going to live in a house with a dangerous, venomous viper on the loose!" It might not be an immediate
threat, but if you never knew just where it was... hunting.....
Strife is much more deadly than a poisonous snake! Along with envy, strife opens up an inroad for every evil work in your life. It's time you snap out of complacency and recognize that you're in a spiritual battle. You can't tolerate envy, strife, unforgiveness or any other negative emotion.
Some people look at pornographic images and think, Well, I'll never act that out. Every time you indulge your flesh, you are releasing spiritual powers into your life. As you give more and
more of a place to the devil, I guarantee that it will cost you something. Sin will take you further than you want to go, cost you more than you want to pay, and keep you longer than you
want to stay.
Every one of us is exposed to the forces of the kingdom of darkness each and every day. We aren't on R&R (rest and relaxation). We aren't in a secured area where our actions
don't really count. We're in a spiritual battle, with a real enemy who wants to take advantage of us any way he can.
God's Word says, "Neither give place to the devil," (Eph. 4:27).
You are the one who gives Satan inroads into your life. He takes whatever "place" you give him through your thoughts, words, emotions, and actions.
- Andrew wommack (Believers Authority)