Silencing the Critics -- Part One | The Worshipper's Thought of the Day

I was having a conversation with one of my social media buddies and just all around good, Christian brother, Mospet Sasa, MUCH earlier this morning.  (Since he's in Kenya, we hardly get to chat because of the time difference. But I happened to wake up in the middle of the night and he saw I was online.)  Several topics came up in our exchange; and as we were going back and forth, I found myself typing the following: "People who have no power criticize.  Folk who have real power in the realm of the Spirit simply pray."  I didn't grasp the profundity of what I said until after it was said.  It had to have been the Holy Spirit speaking through me because it flowed out so effortlessly that I can't even recall thinking about it beforehand.

Not too long ago, I heard Bishop T.D. Jakes say something that bears repeating: "We have overemphasized praise and worship to the point that people believe they can praise and worship their way out of EVERYTHING."  I could not agree more with this man of GOD's statement, which may seem strange considering that I am a praise and worship leader; however, I'm also a teacher of the Word of GOD.  It bothers me to see such disproportionate emphasis on praise and worship in today's church.  We see all degrees of ecclesiastical histrionics--and I'm not kicking anyone because those who have experienced my ministry already know that I flow across a very broad spectrum of worship styles--but I'm wondering what happened to us giving attention to prayer, fasting and obedience?  Since I primarily want to deal with prayer and fasting, I'll just go ahead and get "obedience" out of the way right now.  If the truth be told, no less than 90% of all we're trying to praise and worship our way out of resulted from us not obeying GOD's Word.  Our chickens of rebellious disobedience have simply come home to roost, and then we become emotional wrecks. (Okay?  There you go, that's it.  I'm through and moving on to the next thing. The menu on the left side of the screen lists multiples ways in which I can be contacted to receive any hate mail.)

Now I've posted blogs on criticism ("Handling Critics & Criticism" Part 1 and Part 2), but this topic needs to be revisited from a different standpoint.  There is a false sense of power that the spirit of criticism gives those who so choose to be influenced by its allure.  Shrouded in designer labeled "freedom of speech," a critical spirit empowers people to release into the atmosphere opinions based on their own understanding as opposed to divinely inspired words of edification and exhortation that line up with the Bible.  As Christian Americans, many of us--myself included--are guilty of acquiescing to this nation's culture and carrying it into the church of the Lord Jesus, which is NOT American.  The Body of Christ is under the authority of the King of Glory, not the men and women whom U.S. citizens elect to public office.  Therefore, as far as GOD is concerned, we can save our "freedom of speech" because it's not welcome in the Kingdom.

We need to understand that Kingdom people ARE NOT opinionated people.  Christians are quick to claim that they're "Ambassadors for Christ" all the while clueless as to what that REALLY means.  That we might all be clear, allow me to break it down for you: ambassadors are governmental representatives who have no opinion and only speak what their government tells them to say.  In other words, there's no room for criticism when we're ONLY to say what Heaven's government instructs us to say.  Can you imagine what this world would be like if JUST THE PEOPLE OF GOD would cease from communicating their opinions and ONLY speak what Heaven's King desires to be spoken?  It wouldn't be so hard then to tell who's a Christian, right?  I mean, we would have NO PROBLEM determining the authenticity of one's spiritual rebirth, now would we?  Yet what do we hear in beauty/barber shops, offices, retail establishments and--YES!--even church sanctuaries?  CHRISTIANS CRITICIZING.  And oddly enough, we wonder why the power of GOD is not seen to the degree in which we expect. The answer is quite simple: there are more critics than ambassadors naming the name of Christ.