In the times we are in right now, what Pastor said is so true. Now I couldn’t tell you all the details of the message leading up, but when this was spoken in church probably 4 or 5 years ago, it pierced my spirit. I felt a witness, and it was like something I was already feeling that wasn’t quite stirred up yet, suddenly awoke and rattled the foundations.
I may not have to say this, but I do. As there may be some out there that are unaware, or even some that have glazed over this. but in this time and age the devil is doing his best to divide, conquer, and scatter the church and this nation. We see it on the news and hear about it on social media. Mask or no mask. Vaccine or not. Mandates imposed upon us. Safety or is it socialism. Police defunding protests. Racism. Hate crimes. Hate speech. Political conspiracies… and the list goes on.
The USA used to be “United We Stand”, but the little and big ripples in the waters of all of this is turning it into a “Divided We Fall” nation. The devil (yes I blame him) is sowing discord everywhere. Creeping into families and this nation with sometimes even violent indifferences. People’s opinions now are deemed attacks against others beliefs. Intolerance erupts if someone has a different viewpoint than theirs. I am not here to argue anything, but to bring to light the obvious. We are being taunted, and to a certain degree, controlled by the master manipulator.
The devil is sitting back with his feet propped up since he stirred up a huge storm of division while we, our nation and the church, are being destroyed from the inside out. We should be more concerned with the attacks and deceptions from within, and not the attacks from the outside. But we have the discernment God gives us to turn this storm around. And more importantly, we have the authority and power in Jesus to get the job done.
There is no time for devil drama in these last days! It’s time to turn our focus back to Him and His will. Unity in Christ is what we need. We don’t need to sit in our boats and watch the seas roar around, we need to proclaim, “peace! Be still.” We may not be able to change things immediately. But instead of getting into conversations with others sharing our complaints, we need to be the storm and say, “we can do more for this situation by praying, than by comparing nonproductive notes.”
Yes, it takes effort. Yes, it takes huge faith. But constantly complaining and doing nothing is exactly what the devil wants us to do. He wants us distracted and to give up, and to think things will take care of themselves. We see what happens when we do nothing. It get much, much worse. But there is one thing that the devil hates. It’s when God’s people calls him out because they recognize what he is up to, and in the authority of Jesus’ name, rebuke the storm in unity. News flash devil, the church is tired of weathering the storm, now we are the storm!
Blessings!
Elder Steve Smith