Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Wednesday 03/16/2011)

You Don’t Even Know My Story…

Revelation 12:10-12 (New Living Translation)

¹⁰ Then I heard a loud voice shouting across the heavens, “It has come at last—
      salvation and power and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ.
   For the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down to earth—
   the one who accuses them before our God day and night. ¹¹ And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die. ¹² Therefore, rejoice, O heavens! And you who live in the heavens, rejoice! But terror will come on the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you in great anger, knowing that he has little time.”

            Last year a part of our churches affirmation was, “I have survived MUCH, to qualify for this season.”  It is ironic to me that we could stand in church and say this week after week, and still people can judge a book, by the cover, and not even open the pages to read what is between the covers.  As I sat tonight speaking with a girlfriend, I was reminded of a time in my life that I was disqualified, in ministry, not because I wasn’t called, and it was said not even because I wasn’t anointed but because of the way I looked.  You see, I at one time had a nose ring, and although, I sought God with every fiber of my being, and God had used me mightily in the lives of many. The people that looked at me did not know my story, they did not know that I had been sick, and knew God as a healer, I had been, down and knew God as a savior, I had been lost and knew God as my deliverer, and no matter how many times I opened my mouth and spoke under the unction of the Holy Spirit because I looked different than most “church folks,” I was disqualified.  You see most of the people that disqualified me, didn’t know me, and did not bother to get to know me by the spirit, but instead were content to look at the outer man, and say, she should  be in ministry only when she changes her outer appearance.

            We all too often will pass judgment on people without even knowing them, what they have been through or asking God to reveal them, by the spirit.  We want to look at the outer shell, the clothes they wear, how long they have been going to church with us, and whether they look like we think they should, if they don’t we are quick to say and or think that God cannot use them, or speak to them, let alone speak through them.   It reminds me a Paul, before He went through the transformation on the road to Damascus, He thought because He was a Jew among Jews and that He knew the law, and that He followed all the requirements of the religious rites that he was in right standing with God and those individuals who believed in this Jesus, were dead wrong and they needed to be stopped by any means necessary.  It wasn’t until Paul was confronted by the spirit of that same Jesus that he persecuted, struck blind on the road to Damascus and God dealt with him that he began to understand that he did not see people the way God saw them, and the truth that they had obtained was something he had missed because he was so caught up in “church’n.”  When we live by the law and the traditions of religion that often becomes our God instead of the true and living God.  Our worship is restricted by what we have been taught by man that is right instead of allowing God to teach us by His spirit and instruct us through His word. Our Pastor often says, you do not know who is sitting next to you, and how God can and will use them, they may be the individual that holds, your blessing, your deliverance, your ability to overcome, or get you to your next level.  We want to discount people just because they do not look as we think they should, and that is how many of us mess up and miss God.  Whether we believe it or not we can ALWAYS learn from one another, if we are seeing through the eyes of our spirit which are the eyes of truth and understanding.

            I told my sister the other day, I am so glad that God is not us, and we are not God.  He doesn’t think like us, He doesn’t act like us, He doesn’t love like us and He sure does not judge people like we do, for if He did we would all be in a world of trouble.  But I am so thankful He doesn’t.  You see God knows what we have been through, because He is the one that has brought us through.  He knows what has qualified us to sit in the positions that we do.  He knows what we have sacrificed and honored Him with, that has placed us in a position to be blessed in an unusual manner, or has given us unusual insight.  So until we know someone by the spirit, or have taken a moment to look passed their clothes, their jewelry, their, job, and the way they talk and the length of time that we have noticed them in church, or in our circle, we should hold our peace, because we never know who that person is to God, and what God may be intending to do through them, in the lives of His people, and even in our lives.  Give others the respect, and the consideration that you would want given to you, because you never know their story maybe one that delivers, sets free, and inspires and encourages others to keep going and not give up! You may be surprised if you listen, it may be something that surprises even us, and gives us, something we have needed and been missing!