Are God’s People Collectively Losing Their Minds?

January 12, 2022 Warren Tanner

Micah 7

1 Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grapegleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat: my soul desired the firstripe fruit.

2 The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.

3 That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up.

4 The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity.

5 Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.

6 For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house.

7 Therefore I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.

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We are becoming a divided people. The Body of Christ is turning in on itself. Friends are separating. Families are being divided. Instead of drawing closer to one another, we are being fractured and segmented.

And the worst thing is …

WE DON’T REALIZE WHAT’S HAPPENING TO US OR WHY.

And what IS the ‘what’?

It’s a small thing,

It’s a momentary thing,

It’s a widely believed in thing,

It’s a coercive thing,

It’s THE thing everybody is talking about,

It’s a …

NEEDLE ——

Used to inject a dubious substance,

with ~ admittedly ~ no quantifiable data to determine effectiveness or long lasting ramifications,

into the very temple of the Holy Ghost …

Our BODIES.

“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and YE ARE NOT YOUR OWN?” I Corinthians 6:19

And so I ask: Are God’s People Collectively Losing Their Minds?

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There’s a division taking place among us, God’s people, now. It’s different from the normal in-house bickering relating to some secondary doctrinal issue, or the color of the carpet, or which translation of the Bible to use, or should you wear a suit or jeans to church or ….

That sort of stuff is from within, amongst us. It’s our own biases and opinions we foiste upon each other. That’s to be expected and, to a certain degree, it’s healthy. We need to interact with each other about topics and concerns we don’t see eye-to-eye about. That’s how we find out we need some adjustment. And if done lovingly it can draw us closer to each other.

But that’s not what’s happening now.

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Family members, life-long friends, church members, ministry workers are becoming pitted against one another. The “pandemic” of fear-pressure is starting to take its toll on all of us but …

Why don’t we see how evil this fracturing among us has become? Why don’t we see that this is the strategy of the Devil? Why don’t we see how it’s all being orchestrated to play right into our flesh?

Why, why, why?

It’s getting so we’re afraid to talk to each other. We get together and tip-toe around the “issue.” We ignore it and walk all around it until …

It comes out into the open ——

You’re … whaaat … VACCINATED!?

You’re … whaaat … NOT VACCINATED!?

And then it starts:

The little separation.

The brief silence.

The look in the eye.

The change in tone.

The unspoken distance that just crept into a once healthy close loving relationship.

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This vaccine issue is doing more than potential bodily damage; it’s doing damage to the very Body of Christ. This has to stop. We have to step back and see what’s happening to us. Satan, I’m afraid, is dismantling us from the inside out.

I get it. We all are, in one fashion or another, being squeezed, pressured to chose sides. And once we’ve made our choice, once we’ve made our decision, once we’ve drawn our line in the sand — we don’t want to entertain the potential possibility that we might have made a hasty decision, a decision based on fear.

I understand being in that spot. I think we’ve all “been there done that.”

But if we are not willing to rethink or reevaluate our choices and decisions, we have to ask ourselves: Why not? If it’s fear of having to acknowledge we might have been incorrect …

You know what that’s called:

PRIDE.

And Satan gets us with it every time.

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Satan needs to neutralize us so we aren’t a threat to him. And interestingly, the main thing we might expect him to use against us, persecution, he doesn’t need to use. All he has to do is create a wedge in our relationships, cause little cracks to form … kind of like back in the Garden:

*Adam and Eve — a singular choice was made which created lasting relational ramifications.

*Cain and Abel — a singular action was taken which created irreversible relational consequences.

We make it so easy for the satanic realm to roll right over us. I can hear them all now:

“Hey guys. What can we do to dismantle those Christians. We need to make sure they don’t get in our way this time. We’ve got something big we need to get done. Anyone have any ideas?”

From the back of the group one demon yells out:

“Yeah, I do. Let’s just stick with the same tried-and-true strategy like we used back in the Garden. They fall for it every single time. I swear, if they were any dumber I’d actually start to feel sorry for them.”

And then they all just roll around on the floor laughing themselves silly because of how easily we’re duped.

Satan’s tactic of divide-and-conquer works amazingly well.

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And you know what?

We all know it’s true.

Some practical application:

There is a kind of separation from believers that is necessary. In other words, there may come a time when, after all has been done, separation is the only option. Primarily that falls within the purview of Doctrine.

Such as:

*The Deity of Christ

*The Blood Atonement

*The Virgin Birth

*The Inspiration of The Scriptures

*The Reality of Heaven, Hell and Satan

*Salvation By Grace Through Faith, Alone

Those are the things we fight and die for. Those are what keep us together as a cohesive whole imbued with the power and effectiveness of the Holy Ghost.

For the rest … we are supposed to have enough God in each one of us to see beyond and not let it divide us, separate us.

Because:

We’re a family for crying out loud. We’re the family of Christ. We have an eternal responsibility to keep this thing intact. And, we have to be big enough to know when to swallow our pride, step back, take a breath and … tighten up the ranks.

Sure, somebody made a wrong decision; somebody made a right decision. Who among us hasn’t done something we wish we hadn’t? And who among us hasn’t thought how right we are until … we aren’t?

At this present time (and until Christ returns) we do not have the luxury of sitting on top of our individual hills daring somebody to knock us off simply because we think …

We’re RIGHT!

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*Usually …

I explain certain aspects of the blog as relating to the Scripture I’ve given at the beginning. I’m not doing that this time.

God’s people have been spoon-fed long enough. We’ve come to expect our spiritual guidance and understanding to be neatly laid out so that all we have to do is regurgitate what someone else put into us.

As a result,

*We don’t personally HUNGER AND THIRST AFTER RIGHTEOUSNESS as we should

and

*We increasingly become ill-equipped to personally …

RIGHTLY DIVIDE THE WORD OF TRUTH for ourselves.

Our excuses, our reasons:

*I can’t get up that early

*It takes so much time and effort

*I like to read devotionals

*My life is super busy

*I have things I really need to get done

*The dog ate my Bible ……….

And so,

Nothing really changes except … we become less Christ-like instead of more so.

The honest truth is: If we expect to be victorious for God in the coming days and years, we all have some growing up to do.

We are desperately going to need each other. We don’t need to be fixing hurt feelings and relationships just before the real pressure starts to come down on us.

Is there anything separating you from another fellow brother or sister in Christ? I’m talking about things other than the vaccine issue.

I know: You’re right and they’re wrong. You didn’t do anything. They did it to you. You’re the victim. You’re the innocent party. You’ve been wronged. You’ve been deeply hurt.

OK, so what are you supposed to do about it? And I mean, what does the Word of God instruct YOU to do about it? Who’s going to be first to step up and take one for the team?

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In each one of us, there must be the requisite humility that enables us to:

Minimize Self

in order to

Maximize our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.

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I’ll leave you with a couple of passages to mull over. I hope they will encourage us all.

1 Corinthians 6

1 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? (In other words: Are you being guided by the law of man or the Torah of God?)

2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

3 Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?

4 If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.

5 I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?

6 But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers.

7 Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?

8 Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren.

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Matthew 18

21 Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?

22 Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

23 Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants.

24 And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents.

25 But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.

26 The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.

27 Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.

28 But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest.

29 And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.

30 And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt.

31 So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done.

32 Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:

33 Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?

34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.

35 So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.