Tag: garden

Jezebel, Quotes, Religion and Spirituality, Spirituality

Quotes on Jezebel and Her Critical Spirit

We all have met the “Know it All” spirit – at work, at home, at church. Doens’t matter. That person has no room to listen, no room to grow, no room for anyone else other than themselves and their big egos. They are critical of everyone and everything. In their eyes, you can never do anything right. Have you met him/her?

Me too. It’s exhausting. Just when you do what they ask, they change the rules. You thought you were helping and they meet you with criticism, and tell you how you did it all wrong. They turn the tables on you, especially if someone else is in the room, and make you think you are losing your mind.

This is a spirit of Jezebel – the spirit of control. They criticize others and mock other people just to feel better about themselves. They feed on gossip and can’t wait to spread the news. Be careful who you trust, and with what, with this spirit. There is no privacy, they feed on information, and love to use it against you. Especially if it will help them keep sitting on their “throne”.

It is sad when we sit by and watch this spirit at work and watch people leave the body of Christ because nobody wants to rock the boat and confront it. I have lived through church drama and Jezebels. It breaks my heart to see this happen. The body of Christ is hurting and throwing stones – at each other. Enough already, we have way more important things to do than to hurt each other! Let us repent of criticizing each other so we can be healed before this turns into a root of bitterness…

Quotes on Jezebel Her Critical Spirit

“Insecurity and jealously can be a cause of someone having a critical spirit towards others. Focusing on men and not the Lord can cause one to be critical of every flaw of others. Satan is also the “the accuser of the brethren” (Revelation 12:10) and sadly can work through or use believers to accomplish his work of tearing down. Those who are habitual fault-finders, constant critics of people and situations usually are sick in the body and full of tension and stress. The Scriptural solution to any of us even struggling in this area is clear: “stop passing judgment on one another” and that we can start to love others in the body of Christ, uplifiting them, edifying them and building them up.” ― Greg Gordon
“Nine times out of 10, criticism is a defense mechanism. We criticize in others what we don’t like in ourselves.” ― Mark Batterson
The critical spirit never knows when to stop meddling. ―Mason Cooley
“the Jezebel that works in a ministry like this seeks to tear down and destroy the name of every person who may have attained some kind of recognition in an area of ministry. While they are occupied in naming names and pointing the finger at these ministers, they end up sowing confusion and discord, and cause many people to fall away from Christianity altogether.” – Lance Rowe
“Another thing this spirit is very good at doing is causing a lot of in-fighting, back-biting, and malicious type gossiping among the people that are caught in its web. This kind of spirit knows exactly how to cause major dissension and strife even among the best of friends.” – BibleKnowledge.com
“Behind most church fights and unresolved divisions is ugly human pride. And the worst kind of pride is religious pride. The Pharisaical pride of self-righteousness and superiority.” – Alexander Strauch
“A “critical spirit,” is an obsessive attitude of criticism and fault-finding, which seeks to tear others down — not the same thing as what is sometimes called “constructive criticism.” The only criticism that is ever constructive is that which is expressed in love to “build up,” not to tear down — it is always expressed face-to-face, never behind their back. The person with a critical spirit usually dwells on the negative, seeks for flaws rather than good. They’re a complainer, usually always upset, and generally have a problem or a complaint about something. They often have little control over their tongue, their temper, and have tendencies for gossip and slander, which Paul said were sins “worthy of death” (Rom. 1:29-32).”- Victorious.org

Helpful Links:

5 Ways to Overcome a Critical Spirit – Crosswalk.com
A Prayer for Forgiveness for a Critical Spirit – Beliefnet.com
Overcoming a Critical Spirit – CBN

Spirituality

Stop Weeding the Thistles

Stop weeding the thistles? Really? I had this illustrated to me just this week. Guess I needed to hear it twice in order to sink in lol!

MY LESSON IN THISTLES #1

This is a picture of our garden – well, what was supposed to be our garden. This year ‘life’ happened and we never got a chance to plant it. Oh well. Life is good. So we are giving the land a rest I guess.

For Mother’s Day my two youngest gave me a lavender plant. I would love to raise lavender and plant a whole field of it. So I went to the library and did some research. It does grow here in WI, but it is kind of picky about soil. Anyway, about a month ago I took the small potted plant and put it up in the garden area. I thought hey, it will sink or swim, right? I didn’t go check it. I didn’t even go water it. God – if you want it to grow, it will grow. I left it alone for about a month, well ok, two.

Two days ago I went to see if it made it or not. I really wasn’t expecting it to grow. After all, I didn’t do anything to help it. Can you imagine my surprise when I saw this?

Not only had it grown it had tripled in size! Despite all the thistles growing around it. Despite all my lack of attention – it still grew! I guess God really does know how to make things grow – even when I don’t cooperate!

MY LESSON IN THISTLES #2

We have these hostas that we got from my mother-in-law about 8 years ago. When I first got married, we planted some at our church, then it was Summit Baptist. Bob and I got married at that church a while back too. We fed and watered them while we went there. Long story short, the Pastor left to go to another church in TX, and the church closed. It was vacant for 3 years. Bob and I moved to another town, and hooked up with some old friends and started with JAM (Janesville Apostolic Ministries) about a year ago. Another long story, short – JAM bought the old Summit Baptist Building. Yeah – really!

And guess what – the hostas were still there. Again, they have been ignored for at least 3 years. They were very overgrown with weeds so the boys thought they would kill the weeds. They bought the spray stuff and sprayed around the hostas. Some of the weed killer leeched in the soil and some of the good hostas died. And many were damaged. All because we were trying to kill the weeds. Overkill the weeds and the good ones get hurt too.

I wonder how that applies to us and our church family? Hmmmm…I remember a good book and a great story…

He told another story. “God’s kingdom is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. That night, while his hired men were asleep, his enemy sowed thistles all through the wheat and slipped away before dawn. When the first green shoots appeared and the grain began to form, the thistles showed up, too.

“The farmhands came to the farmer and said, ‘Master, that was clean seed you planted, wasn’t it? Where did these thistles come from?’

“He answered, ‘Some enemy did this.’

“The farmhands asked, ‘Should we weed out the thistles?’

“He said, ‘No, if you weed the thistles, you’ll pull up the wheat, too. Let them grow together until harvest time. Then I’ll instruct the harvesters to pull up the thistles and tie them in bundles for the fire, then gather the wheat and put it in the barn.’” (Matthew 13: 24-30 MSG)

MY LESSON LEARNED:

Stop weeding the Thistles Diana.

Stop worrying about all the people in your life that are bristly and not doing what they should be doing.

God has this under control.

It is His garden girl.

He is the Master Gardener.

Jesus is the vine.

God gets to weed His own garden.

It is not my job to weed them out.

Trust God and focus on the lavender – it will bloom, and you will get 30,60, 100 times over in the harvest.

Thank you Jesus!

12 steps, Activism, Depression, Domestic Violence and Abuse, Healing, Poetry, Spirituality

Dandelion Roots

I am writing this as I was looking at the grass today, and how quickly the Dandelions grow back. You know you can cut the grass one day and the very next day they are back. Springing up despite all your effort. Kind of reminds me of addiction. You can try on your own. And people will judge you and tell you you are not ‘good enough’ for God, you are not doing it right, you need to…blah, blah, blah.

OR you can go to meetings for years upon years and buy into the learned helplessness motto. “I am this way and I will always be this way.” What a crock! No, God says I can be healed. God says I can be made whole. I don’t go to those meetings anymore – I think it hurt me more than it helped me. Hey, lets get a bunch of “sick” people together and let them sit around talking about how ‘sick’ they are and how they will always be that way. Didn’t work for me. In face I’ve heard that the relapse rate is like 80 – 90%. Kind of reminds me of dandelions. You can cut off the top, but if you don’t kill the roots – it comes back.

How do you kill the roots? In my experience, only Jesus can heal that broken place. He saw how we got that way, He will take care of the offender/abuser, and He can heal it – if we let him. He can get the roots out so the dandelions don’t grow back. And the Holy Spirit can heal it.

Don’ look at the dandelions – LOOK AT THE GARDENER!

Ask, seek, knock of Him.

Sit at His feet.

Trust Him.

Worship Him.

Adore Him.

LET HIM LOVE ON YOU.

Accept His love.

Let down the walls.

Open the door.

And before you know it those darn dandelions are gone!

DANDELION ROOTS

Yellow flowers

springing up

in the grass

The weeds keep

coming back

Cut and spray them

hoping they won’t

come back again

Only to find

them taller

and stronger

the next day

Why not pull

them out by the

roots?

The flower is only

the symptom

It comes back

again and again

because of

the roots

the pain and suffering

the fighting and the strife

the alcohol and the drugs

the razors and the knives

They are all DANDELIONS

We can keep cutting the grass – with meetings, self -control, treatment centers, counseling…but if we don’t kill it at the roots – you know what happens…Let the Master Gardener help today – He knows what He is doing…

The Vine and the Branches

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. (JOHN 15:1-9 NIV)