Be Careful How You Listen!
Hi Friends,
I have an important message to give to you today. It is about the voices of the world that want to capture your attention and hold you fast. It is about how to know the Good Shepherd’s voice and to receive healing and deliverance. God is good!
The Vision
I saw a pair of black earbuds that were tangled together. Then I saw them untwist and fall out straight.
I believe that this vision has to do with the messages that we receive everyday through the news media, social media, music, and personal conversations. There are many voices these days, and everyone has an opinion. Our opinions are generally based on what we perceive as truth and what we deem to be lies.
There is no doubt that in the recent past, the very people who were supposed to be presenting the local and world news honestly, while exposing lies and corruption, have been given the label “fake news.” There is less trust in the mainstream news media today than ever before. Last year, in a 46 nation poll, the American news networks fell dead last in trustworthiness as compared to those of other nations’ news networks. Breitbart - Nolte - June, 2021)
In the vision, the ear buds were black. I believe that this represents the idea of darkness. The messages that come through the media that promote the world’s view of life, culture, politics and economics are not all true. However, there is a great deal of effort put forth to promote a narrative declaring it to be “absolute truth.” The media has until recently been able to effectively control the narrative so that others will believe and profess it as dogma. Like a man made religion, the attempt to indoctrinate EVERYONE with their set of beliefs has failed. They had hoped to have full control with no discord, no discussion, no push back. The primary goal was to have everyone believe and support their ideals.
These social, political, and economic beliefs have become a mantra to some. These ideas include CRT (Critical Race Theory), global warming, equity, defunding the police, having open borders, banning guns, canceling free speech and free press, and promoting the LGBT lifestyle in our schools, and in our military. These ideas that were once thought strange and un-American, are now openly encouraged.
Those in power that embrace these social changes and promote these ideologies have begun to create laws that will declare that anything that opposes these “ideals,” are morally wrong. They believe that it should be considered a hate crime to express one’s own beliefs if they are contrary to these ideals. Christianity and those that hold to traditional moral values stand in opposition to these ideologies. Our Constitution’s Bill of Rights also opposes these ideals. And above all, and most importantly, God Almighty, our creator, opposes these ideals!
However, in the vision, we see that the black earbuds are tangled, but they become untwisted and hang straight. I believe that this is a sign that God will answer our prayers. He wants no one to be led astray by the lies of the enemy. God is all powerful. We must trust in him during these dark and uncertain times. We know that we are to be steadfast in faith, waiting upon the Lord to hear his voice.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. He reveals truth to the believer, so that he does not succumb to the lies that are designed to mislead the masses. The perverted beliefs, and messages that undermine the genuine truth will no longer be hidden in darkness, for our prayers and the Lord who answers those prayers are powerful!
We declare that whatever is hidden in darkness, come to the light. We pray that whatever is twisted, perverted and promoted as truth but is not, must be brought to nothing. And whatever the enemy tries to market to us, we will not buy.
But, those who do not know God or those who have not fully surrendered the Lord, can be swayed by the devil who operates in the world. So we bind the devil and all the dark forces of evil that try to create confusion, havoc, discord, disunity, fear and doubt in all people. We cancel every assignment of the evil one who blinds people to the truth and establishes his lies and fears in the minds of people.
Today we need discernment. We need to know and recognize the truth, for lies lead to poor decisions, harmful outcomes and bondage. The truth is what sets us free.
The Lord declares, “My people perish for lack of knowledge.” Hosea 4:6
The Word declares, “Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.” Proverbs 4:7
Where can the truth be found? Where can one go to gain wisdom and understanding? There is only one who is omniscient: It is Jesus.
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6
Jesus is our source of truth and we find his teachings in the Bible, the very words of God.
A friend of mine told me that before she was born again, she tried reading the Bible, but was never able to understand it until she became born again. At that time, her eyes were opened, and she could understand the scriptures. What changed for her? It was the Holy Spirit, the revealer of truth, that came to indwell her, as it is with everyone who truly believes. The Holy Spirit is our personal guide and tutor who gives us understanding and opens the scriptures to us. Hallelujah!
If we have received salvation and the indwelling presence of God through his Holy Spirit, it becomes a natural thing for us to desire to spend time with him and to hear what he has to say to us personally.
I have found that the Lord speaks when there is a specific thing he would have us do or have us understand. The first time I heard the Lord’s voice, he gave me a command, a rebuke. He said, “Do not slander my bride.” I knew immediately what the Lord was saying to me. The Lord did not want me to say anything negative about my husband’s church. I had been growing in the Lord and spending much time in prayer, but my husband did not understand what was happening to me. Suddenly I had become a new creation, and he did not want to accept the change. The Lord did not want us to be at odds, for the church that he attended was nothing like the church I chose for myself.
However we are all Christian, if we can confess that Jesus is Lord, God and Savior and that He is the author of life, and that he died on the cross to save us from our sins.
“And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion on the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6
So we need to have patience for one another, for we belong to him.
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:11-13
I wanted to share a story of Samuel, a major prophet in the Old Testament. It was the first time Samuel, then a child, heard the voice of the Lord.
The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.
One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called Samuel.
Samuel answered, “Here I am.” And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”
But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down.
Again the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”
“My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.”
Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.
A third time the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”
Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!”
Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
And the Lord said to Samuel: “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle. At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family—from beginning to end. For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons blasphemed God, and he failed to restrain them. Therefore I swore to the house of Eli, ‘The guilt of Eli’s house will never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering.’”
Samuel lay down until morning and then opened the doors of the house of the Lord. He was afraid to tell Eli the vision, but Eli called him and said, “Samuel, my son.”
Samuel answered, “Here I am.”
“What was it he said to you?” Eli asked. “Do not hide it from me. May God deal with you, be it ever so severely, if you hide from me anything he told you.” So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing from him. Then Eli said, “He is the Lord; let him do what is good in his eyes.”
The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord. The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word. 1 Samuel 3:1-21
I shared that story because it shows us that anyone, even a child, can hear the voice of the Lord. It is the Lord’s desire for us to know him and to hear his voice. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who cares for his sheep. Those of us, who belong to him, can hear his voice.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” John 10:1-5
Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice and they will not listen to another.”
However, it is a terrible thing when a Christian, who should know the Lord’s voice, has through sin, opened a door to a deceiving spirit, and has become bound spiritually. When a Christian sins, the Holy Spirit brings the conviction of sin to the mind and heart of the individual. This leads him to repent. But a weak Christian, one who has “one foot in the world, and one foot in the kingdom of God,” can be swayed or enticed to sin. If there is no repentance even after multiple attempts of the Holy Spirit to convict him of sin and lead him to repentance, the Holy Spirit can become grieved and leave. At this point the person is “on his own.” Without a desire to resist the devil, or to flee temptation, he becomes bound. He is then open to hearing demonic voices. This is not a good place to be.
My brother and a few others I know have taken this dangerous path. They have opened the door to the darkness and as a result they have lost their minds. Confusion, sin, and ultimately torment is the result.
Even in this dire situation, many refuse to surrender to Jesus. He is their only means of escaping “hell on earth,” but with a rebellious spirit, they may refuse to come to him to be healed and set free. It is heartbreaking to see a loved one in this state. But I have learned with my brother that a person must be willing to give up whatever he is doing that caused the bondage. There is no point to deliver a person, if after a short while, he returns to the same sin and the same bondage. To have a lasting deliverance, he must be willing to give up every wicked vice and live for God. This is my hope and prayer for my brother, that he is able to surrender everything to the Lord, and live a joyful and abundant life with Jesus. But until then, we continue to pray and believe that God will move mountains, on my brother’s behalf!
“So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11
Those who desire to be free of spiritual bondage, can simply repent of the sin in their lives and ask the Lord for his deliverance. Yet, if there is no understanding about bondage and the sin that is the cause, then it is best to seek out a god-fearing man or woman who has an anointing for deliverance—someone who has the spiritual authority to cast out demons. Every believer should be able to do this, but not every believer is willing to move in that authority, or believes that he has an anointing for such a ministry. I would like to share another important Biblical story with which you may or may not be familiar:
Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.
When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power. Acts 19:11-20
There are pastors and leaders who are more than willing to help someone in need of inner healing and deliverance. But we must be careful to not force anyone to receive a full deliverance, particularly if they are unwilling. Many of them have no intention to live for God or plan to give up their sinful lifestyle, so it will be far worse for them if after being delivered, they return to their sin. the Lord explains:
“When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first.”
Luke 11:24-26
As long as someone is not willing to repent, and declare that “Jesus is Lord,” he will not be able to hold his deliverance. In this case, it is best to pray and wait upon the Lord for a change of heart. Once a person wants the Lord and his freedom more than he wants to hold onto sin, he can be delivered.
A woman I met recently, just went through a deliverance. I am praying for her to have the Holy Spirit’s strength and boldness to maintain her freedom. So many times it requires a new mindset and a new way of understanding the authority that we have over the devil and his demons. To the average non-believer, the troubles of men and women are understood to be merely mental, emotional or behavioral disorders. But it is more likely the person suffers from demonic oppression or possession, which comes through generational sin or through the individual’s own rebellion, or refusal to forgive an offense. Rebelling against God and refusing to forgive another, create chains and concrete boots.
Unforgiveness
It is so important to forgive others when we or a loved one is wronged. And it is important for us to ask for forgiveness when we have wronged another.
“Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.” Ephesians 4:26-27
What this scripture is saying is that if we hold onto an offense, rather than making it right and apologizing for our part in the conflict, we open a door to the devil and his demons, to come right in and take a seat. So we must not let the sun go down upon our wrath, but take care to make it right, right away!
Those who were victims of abuse can find it very difficult to forgive, and so they suffer depression or oppression. They feel justified to harbor resentment towards the offender, because “they deserved it.” But without realizing it, they have closed the door to their own freedom by holding onto the offense, and refusing to forgive.
Some that hold onto an offense will say over and over again that they have forgiven the person, but when you speak with them, they are quick to bring up the offense all over again. It shows by their attitude towards the offender that they haven’t really forgiven them. This is a scripture that they have failed to understand:
“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Matthew 6:14-15
Those who are in bondage because they are holding onto an offense, must understand that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23
And if they want the Lord’s love and forgiveness, then they must show love and forgiveness to others.
Generational Sin
In regards to generational sin, this is an important scripture:
“The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.’” Exodus 34:6-7
This passage of scripture does not mean that the children are to be judged for the sins of their fathers. But it does mean that the sin of a family opens the door to demonic activity. And “familiar” or “family” demonic spirits want to hang around and influence oppress and possess their children and other family members.
The generational sins and resultant curses can be broken in the name of Jesus.
Lifestyle Sin
Some cannot receive their deliverance because they are not ready to give up the sin in their lives. Sin, and especially lifestyle sin can be difficult for some to give up. Let us say that you are making a lot of money at doing something that the Lord deems sinful: Prostitution, owning a bar or gambling house, selling or making pronography, stealing people’s money through trickery or shady financial practices, cheating or helping other to cheat on their taxes…
If you make a living on underhanded means, you may be unwilling to sacrifice your job/business to be set free.
“For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.” 1 Timothy 6:10
If your lifestyle sin involves sexual sin, there are soul-ties between you and your partners. These can be broken, by renouncing the sin, breaking the relationship, and commanding in the name of Jesus that the soul-ties be broken. Unfortunately, so many people live in fear and shame and cannot see their way to freedom. They deceive themselves, declaring it to be impossible. But the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. So bite the bullet and get right with God!
“And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.“ Hebrews 9:27-28
So this vision of the black earbuds, that were entangled and then untwisted and falling straight, shows us that God’s plans, for those who turn to him for wisdom and understanding, is to undo the lies and straighten the narratives that have been twisted or perverted. The Lord wants us to be filled with his Holy Spirit, and with noble and pure thoughts, not with the thoughts, motives, and values of the world. We are not to embrace the world, but to separate from it.
“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” 1 John 2:15
So, let us live for the Lord in the freedom that he intended for us. Let us be willing to share the love of God with others and in so doing help them to experience their full salvation, healing and deliverance. We want to be useful to the Lord and we want people to experience the joy of spiritual freedom found in Christ! Hallelujah!
So Let us be careful how we hear, and to whom we listen.
God bless you and keep you! Know Him! Love Him! Serve Him! Amen!
