I have not posted in a long time as I needed to
take a step back and consider where my true focus had
gravitated to. I had noticed that the articles that
always seemed to be of more interest to me, were more
on the side of what the "enemy" was up to, and that I
increasingly started seeking out those postings.
Doves, I love the Lord and only desire to please Him,
but I felt that this started to grieve the Holy Spirit
because He spoke to me and told me to stop this focus
on the negative and distracting topics, and keep my
focus on Him and HIS KINGDOM. Our primary focus ought
to be to admonish each other with the love and wisdom
of the Holy Spirit, and to build up and edify one
another, and by doing this, we form a "wall" that the
enemy can't infiltrate. We don't need to be looking
into what he's continually planning against us.
Nehemiah instructed the Israelites to build with one
hand and fight with the other. They didn't waste any
time! They knew once that wall was built, they
wouldn't be as vulnerable. In real war you would never
allow the enemy to distract you by creating a
situation that would cause you to lose your true
focus-right? Well he has been busy "lobing" things
into the bushes to get us to turn around long enough
to say "Ah-Haa! I know where your at!" I had found
that my interest was increasingly spent turning toward
what the enemy was doing to distract me, rather than
heeding the instructions from the "General" and to
keep my focus on Him.
So
this is a copy of the teaching The Lord gave me....
To TEACH vs. CONVINCE
On the morning of Jun 26, 2013, I was inquiring
of The Lord some counsel regarding subjects or
topics that focus heavily on the plans of the enemy.
For an example- lets say you find yourself reading
or hearing the teachings of someone that are
obviously about the numerous evils that satan and
the "bad guys" are behind. How much of this
information do we really NEED to know???
And so in prayer about it, The Lord said this to
me-"THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN, TO TEACH AND TO
CONVINCE". He spoke this in answer to my question,
"How do I discern whether some peoples teachings or
information is beneficial to my spiritual well
being?So now I am going to share with you the very
subtle differences between these two words to TEACH
vs. CONVINCE. I pray that you would apply wisdom to
this revelation from The Lord.
We are very "gullible"when it comes to knowledge
because we feel we must be informed about everything
to stay on the safe side. The "safe"side could be
enemy territory if your not careful- and he uses our
inclination to desire knowledge to get us into the
mindset of "I need to know this stuff!" We always
want to outsmart our enemy by knowing his plan- but
if HIS PLAN is to get us to THINK we know his plan,
then he can come up behind us and take us at our own
game. Always remember, not all things are as they
seem! So here it is...
From Wikipedia--
TEACH -1. to impart knowledge or skill to
2.To provide knowledge of, instruct in.
3.To condition to a certain action or frame of
mind
4.To cause to learn by example or experience
5.To advocate or preach
6.To carry on instruction on a regular basis
CONVINCE- this word started out meaning
"overcome, conquer"
1. To make someone agree, understand, or
realize the truth or validity of something
2. Persuade; chiefly to persuade someone to do
something
3.Obsolete
b. to prove guilty
Let me expound on this awesome revelation.
So-how do we determine what information is
necessary, and how much of it we really NEED to
know???
Now
I realize that many Christians put much effort into
knowing what the evil one and all those that support
his agenda are up to, and they feel compelled that
they need to warn their brothers and sisters. But
many of them seem to only search out and focus on
all the evil knowledge rather than the things of The
Lord! So, this is why I was asking The Holy Spirit
to explain to me where to draw the line on how much
of this type information is really beneficial. First
of all, how we approach it is crucial. He gave me
several examples. Picture a mine field; do you want
to continually walk around in it, or hang out there
or maybe pick one up to see if it's the"real" deal,
or do you just want to learn where they are so you
don't get hurt, and get out of there! Or would you
walk over to the crumbling edge of a bottomless
sinkhole to peer into it just because you wanted to
know how deep it was? You see what I'm getting at?
These analogies seem ridiculous to the logical mind.
If you were to tell people that they would gain
knowledge about their enemy by doing this- many
would flock to it to investigate it! Most of the
time the enemy uses our natural curiosity to lure us
into a place that makes us vulnerable, and then he
use's "knowledge" as the reward! Do you see how easy
we could get sucked in? Basically - what I'm saying
is, don't spend a lot of time pondering these
things. He wanted to show me that there were subtle
differences between to TEACH and to CONVINCE. We
know that the result of teaching is to learn, and
the result of convincing is to believe. What mind
set is this evil based information feeding? If you
would LEARN, then you would receive ONLY what's
necessary to be aware of the plan. If you are
dwelling to much on the evil side of knowledge, then
he can CONVINCE or persuade you to BELIEVE him. How
tricky this tactic of his is!
In
JESUS MIGHTY LOVE,
Jacquel
Neff