“A company of wolves, is better than a company of wolves in sheep's clothing.”
― Anthony Liccione
Stubbornness is a counterfeit strength. Ministering to a young lady awhile back the Lord showed this to me. I needed to hear it, because I have always been told how stubborn I am and actually held some pride in it. Then when I saw the harm it had done in this young woman's life I was almost embarrassed about my stubbornness and I also saw how those words had been spoken over me and cursed me my whole life. The Lord has been showing me how easy it is for the enemy to get into our lives with counterfeits.
Talking to a young man. he told me how difficult it was becoming to study his bible every day and how far away from Jesus he was feeling. He was also feeling guilt. Then he talked about how he would listen to worship music in the car and find himself totally submitted and close to the Lord. Jesus showed him there was a spirit of religion tormenting him, convincing him that reading scripture daily was required, and though we do need to know the Word, it had become a religious exercise instead of a hunger to know the Lord. Worship was where he could abandon all rituals and submit. It was all about loving Jesus.
The enemy can come as an angel of light and why wouldn't he? Counterfeit's are an imitation of truth. A counterfeit keeps you from the real thing. Another area the Lord was showing me was in healing. The Lord wants every single broken part of us healed. So, if we broke a leg, would we hobble around on it and take pain medicine? It would not heal correctly. It might seem like it is healed, but we would probably never run on it again. If you covered up the real problem of the broken leg with a numbing agent, painkiller, who knows what would happen. What if the bone set with your foot facing the wrong direction? Ha. So instead of addressing the symptom, we cannot be whole until we address the real problem, the true brokenness. Line up the bone and put a cast on it. I am truly concerned about the "healing" oils people are using lately and I have seen a change in the people using them. One woman I have ministered with the last few years always used to ask, "What is the root issue?" Now she has an oil to cover the pain. People aren't getting healed, they are getting numbed. I am not saying not to use them, but I am saying, What about the root? Migraine headaches are often brought on by guilt, cancer often has a bitterness root and asthma from fear and anxiety. There is more to it than this and this isn't always the issue, but often times it is. If we cover the root with an oil or numbing agent, the symptom may be gone, but the root wound or issue is still operating.
Many people are resorting to plastic surgery instead of healing wounds. Instead of finding the truth about who they are in Christ, they get breast enhancement, reshape their noses, and even change their gender. It is obvious these people don't know who they are or that God does not make mistakes and He does not make junk. The sad part is that so many people cheer them on. Even Christians, who say they believe in the all powerful King of Kings will not believe who the Word says they are and instead search for themselves in diets, titles, and false friendships. Whenever something does not feel right on our outside, we need to look at our inside. Are we looking for significance in the wrong places? Are our friends turning their backs? How did we treat them? Why did we treat them that way? What is the root wound? Is the oozing wound in our heart that has not been dealt with, getting gunk all over our friends? Whatever is in our heart, comes out our mouth. We can't hide broken for very long.
Over the last several months, I have seen whole families find complete freedom from going back and finding the old hurts and healing the lies with TRUTH. The Lord told us to heal the sick. Healing comes from truth and anything else is a lie or a counterfeit. I have even seen this in the church. Why is one church losing people weekly, while another with the same beliefs is growing like crazy? The growing church has a pastor who is chasing after Jesus. and willing to look at any darkness or old wound in his heart. The Holy Spirit is running his church and his testimony is drawing in the lost. They understand him and want what he has. It's hard to follow a leader who is not moving. The other church is under a counterfeit, focused on the stuff that does not matter to Jesus. Numbers. It strikes me funny that NUMB is such a large part of the word numbers. Drawing people in. A mentor told me once that we preach, we minister to an audience of one and if we start looking at more than that one, if we start needing numbers instead of His approval, we start losing.
I have heard a lot of teaching lately on how we put man first and it gets us sideways. Even in communion when we have grape juice instead of wine, we have taken on the responsibility of keeping the drunkards sober, when that is between him and the Lord. Another form of tickling the ears? The world has told us that one drop of wine can reignite a hunger for alcohol and maybe it can, but God, the Almighty can interfere with the worlds truth. World truth often times is a lie. I heard a man sharing a vision with a younger man and he said, "I know flowers are girlish, but...." That's a lie. God didn't make flowers for girls. In fact, weren't the flowers created before the female? Just sayin'. It's okay to love flowers, men. It does nothing harmful to your masculinity.
There are many other ways the enemy gets us to look at the world and deception, when we are looking for Jesus and truth. The enemy has us battling against flesh instead of the true enemy. The enemy puts a job with a status or title we think we want in front of us, instead of waiting on the true calling the Lord has for us. I just heard a speaker say that instead of looking for titles like apostle, pastor or prophet, we should be pursuing the title of bondservant or follower. The highest position of leadership a man can have in the kingdom of God is Head of his household. It's where he can do the most good and where he can do the most damage if he fails. When prophecy says you have a great call on your life, instead of aiming up at that title, we should be looking down to servanthood or we will never be a great man/woman of God for the Kingdom.
“Doctoring her seemed to her as absurd as putting together the pieces of a broken vase. Her heart was broken. Why would they try to cure her with pills and powders?”
― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
