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
a.to overcome
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