God has been teaching me to walk with greater carefulness in the company of people who have tendencies to tear down the character of fellow believers. I have been very careful with what kind of friendship I nurture. Someone having a constant expression of complaints under the disguise of sharing a burden contains a poison too dangerous for me to interact with. If the fingers always point out you can be assured that there are problems within that are self-justified and toxic.
I understand that there are times of such despair in difficulty when a person shares his heart. It is when these tendencies are constant and the patterns are continual that I find a nature very destructive to the life of the Holy Spirit within. Most have learned to recognize this emanation and to either guard against it or embrace it. Some people have very little genuine wholesome encouragement to emanate. Others are overflowing with strength that brings joy, hope, and blessing. Sometimes meeting someone in a store and sharing a short conversation can change your entire day. Why is this so influential?
Things spoken from the heart are vastly more effective. There are those who have their knowledge encased in the book of intellectualism that they convey only with the desire to impress. The effectiveness of such content seldom builds up spiritual health for the man of God. It is designed to impress the weak and grieve the Holy Spirit within the believer.
Isaiah prophesied about the coming Messiah and stated that He will judge a righteous judgment. Isaiah 11:2 And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; V.3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: Christ’s example of how the Holy Spirit manifests His true judgment, is also the method that every believer needs to have confidence in through faith and not by sight. This truth of being an active participant through such depth of holiness within the character of mankind is the element of transformation we all must experience before there can be any accuracy in judgment. Here it becomes apparent that man cannot conclude by merely seeing or hearing.
This wonderful truth is a great challenge that every believer needs to embrace with sincerity and zeal. The Spirit of wisdom and understanding with counsel and might has to be given residence in our heart. Not the spirit of imagination and exploration. When the Holy Spirit has such powerful preeminence and protection within the believer, his imaginational judgment and perception of others is concealed. Oh, may this be found in me lest I think falsely of others redeemed by the same blood of Jesus.
Many times, I have prayed: God, set a watch on my lips. But now I pray: God set a watch on my eyes and ears. We know that the mouth speaks that which is in the heart, so the heart needs fervent, attentive protection! Proverbs 4:23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Now we understand that life’s issues are within the heart. We also know that the heart is desperate to be wicked and is ranked as the most fraudulent tool that we have. Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? This fact as described by God must be the perfect understanding of our God toward mankind. This needs to invoke a sobering dilemma within the saint of God! Oh, how desperately I need a deeper work of the Holy Spirit within my heart! I cannot live one minute without Him!
If I am deprived of His greater presence, than I have become a monster of judgment toward everyone by what I hear and see. Seeing and hearing are the daily functions of many who are professors of Christianity. Oh, Spirit of grace and love, may you lead me into the darkness of eyes and deafness of hearing from the tongue of man, lest I know not that which you want me to understand. I long for your presence in my eyes and in my ears lest I curse and not bless! John 7:24 Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. Oh, Lord, change within me daily that which pollutes your work and word. Remind me of the more important things heaven wants me to know and be. Let me not despise those who you accept. Cover my eyes with love and my ears with your holiness lest my heart becomes defiled and I emanate hell and not heaven, life and not death.
Romans 14:3 Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.
