Strife Free Life – Strife Stops Faith (part 2)

Strife Free Life – Strife Stops Faith (part two)

In the previous study, we saw how strife is marking off a place in your life for demons to inhabit. This week’s post, we’re going to look at some places strife might be trying to hide in your life or the lives of your friends and family. We’ll briefly go over how to remove strife, so you can be in complete peace with active faith. Let’s jump right in…

Disciples get themselves in strife in Luke 22:24-26 _NKJV

²⁴ Now there was also a dispute among them, as to which of them should be considered the greatest. ²⁵ And He said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called ‘benefactors.’ ²⁶ But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves.

We all understand the point here Jesus is trying to make, the greatest one will serve. But what we’re looking at for this study is that strife can be caused by a lot of different things, and in this case who is in charge, the boss.

As long as you have people, you have strife. Because of strife, there are people today who have never even seen a move of the Lord. You wonder why until you learn about the strife happening within the church. “I don’t agree… I don’t like this… The pastor didn’t…” The biggest strife causing remark, “They didn’t recognize my talent.” That’s exactly what the disciples were arguing over. They wanted to be recognized as the greatest, and like people today, they want placed at the top. We see this behavior the other way around as well, “They got promoted instead of me. I was next in line. I should be first.” We can die over this kind of behavior! You might think I’m being a little dramatic, but I’m not! Say someone is in the hospital in critical condition and the family joins together in prayer. They aren’t getting an answer. When they pray, the Lord brings up in their hearts the strife that’s going on withing their family. They might respond to the Holy Spirit by saying, “That’s not important right now,” without repenting. When the family doesn’t get their answer, they turn to church and Christian friends to pray. At the end of that path when something bad happens, people inevitably announce how it’s God’s will that they almost die or die sick. You might think, “God would never do that.” No, He wouldn’t, but we would! The Lord can’t change His Word, because we put ourselves into a bad place against Him and the situation is critical. I am the first one to raise my hand to say that I put myself in a bad place against God a few times and almost lost my life. God couldn’t help me until I made things right. I am thankful for good teaching as a young adult, so I knew where to look for problems. That’s exactly why I decided to share this.

Strife can come from different avenues. Someone might be in strife because they think they deserve something, they’re owed something, or they feel wronged. Right now there is a lot of strife in politics for all of those reasons and then some! 

1 Corinthians 3:1-4

¹ And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. ² I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; ³ for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?

Strong’s concordance defines strife as quarrel, wrangling or debate. HELPS Word study adds that strife means a readiness to quarrel (having a contentious spirit), and affection for dispute. A Greek scholar explains the Greek word eris, translated as strife, depicts a bitterly mean spirit that is so consumed with its own self-interests and self-ambitions that it would rather split and divide than to admit it is wrong or give an inch to an opponent! The word eris is also used to describe politicians, probably because it carries a strong definition of debate.

It’s not healthy to debate everything all the time, it’s the meaning of strife. Debating will cause you to get away from the Lord, and into the devil’s territory. If people keep debating Bible issues, they’ll never have what they’re debating about in their life, because it will come by faith not by debate/strife. Remember the Bible says that love conquers all, not debate/strife. What does love do? See the best and pray.

⁴ For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal?

When you casually breeze by this scripture, you think that one group followed what Paul taught, and another group followed Apollos’ teaching. That’s not what was happening. They were actually dividing themselves against each other with envy and strife. As absurd as this may sound, there are still church goers who divide themselves. This group follows the pastor’s teaching and shuns the associate pastor, and that group follows the associate pastor’s teaching and shuns the pastor. That sounds more familiar to some of us. That’s modern-day strife and divisions we understand. Here’s another one that may sound familiar to you, “We only use the King James Version, everything else is of the devil.” Even worse, “Who do you listen to?” So they can divide and judge. I even have a non-Christian friend that I am trying to get saved ask me, “Do you listen to Joel OySteen?” because he didn’t understand what I believe and wanted to stir up some strife. I was in complete shock. Christians acting like him, the devil. Christianity isn’t based on sides; it’s based on truth. The Lord only moves in truth and speaks in truth. There are many Christians out there who think they’re on a religious crusade for Christ dividing up the churches, especially publicly on social media. The attack ministers and people based on their revelation against another minister’s or their revelation concerning the Bible. We’re all in a different place in our walk. Would it be right to tell a newly saved person not to share the gospel, because they don’t know enough? Emphatically, no! Why do these people become angry at another’s revelation of truth? The Lord only moves in truth, not our truth, His truth. Again, I know these might be hard sayings, but it’s so very important to make sure our faith can stay active.

James 3:14-16

¹⁴ But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth.

Bitter envy means boil over with anger. It’s hard to believe, but some people actually think spreading their strife is doing everyone a favor. Again, this sounds absurd, but check any restaurant with many ratings on any website, and you’ll see people thinking their strife is doing the world a favor. People become angry only to embellish stories, which is a fancy way to say “lie.” People who are in strife, don’t ever want to admit the truth, that they are in strife and need to deal with the problem. They feel wronged and want to justify their actions. Once the enemy is on the scene, they don’t care who they hurt, because that’s the intent!

¹⁵ This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic.

What wisdom? Verse 14 scripture, lying against the truth is “this wisdom.” The Greek says, “demon like.” Envy and strife in your heart is demonic, acting like demons.

Proverbs 6:17-19

¹⁶ These six things the Lord hates, Yes, seven are an abomination to Him: ¹⁷ A proud look, A lying tongue, Hands that shed innocent blood, ¹⁸ A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that are swift in running to evil, ¹⁹ A false witness who speaks lies, And one who sows discord among brethren.

Christians don’t want to be an abomination. Strife is sowing discord among brethren. I once heard a guest minster label this behavior as “passing out the demons.” Essentially, that’s what it is. When we label it that way, it’s easier to keep it out of our life. Back to James…

James 3:16

¹⁶ For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.

That means those that are in strife are confused, and generating evil works, intentional or unintentional. Strongs also defines this word as instability, commotions, and confusion. HELPS Word Study says this word means to generate confusion. It continues on to say that this “uncertainty and tumult inevitably generates more instability.” This also means there is a constant cycle of confusion, tumult, and instability. “Every evil thing are there,” this means that God is not working in situations where strife is present, because it’s been marked off for demons as we saw in the last post in Ephesians. It’s not that He doesn’t want to work, He can’t work because the Lord has been pushed out.

How to remove strife and confusion out of your life:

Step 1: Check your heart and ask the Holy Spirit if you have done something wrong. If you have done  something wrong, admit you’re wrong, and make it right with the Lord.

This is the most difficult step. People rarely say, “I’m wrong.” It’s easier to play innocent. I know, because I used to pretend to be innocent often. You might say that you have not done something to trigger the other person or group of people, but we are still wrong when we get into strife.  We need to lay down the law in our lives, and decide we’ll admit our own errors concerning strife, so we can move forward in Christ.

Step 2: Refuse to lie and refuse to boast about it.

God can’t move in any lies, only truth. Refuse lying in your life and your home. It’s better to tell the truth here on Earth or be quiet about a matter, no matter how painful, than sort lies out before the Throne of God. Maybe before using family friends or social media as an outlet, talk to the Holy Spirit first. By the time you’re done speaking to Him, you may not even feel like you have to tell anyone else.

Step 3: Refuse gossiping and murmuring.

Gossip and murmuring are the most difficult thing to keep out of our life. Sometimes we find ourselves wanting to tell someone we respect to stop gossiping and complaining, but we don’t want to hurt their feelings. At times for me, it’s come to the point where I’ve had to remind myself, “Who do you want to please, them or the Lord?” Even if the person is doing what I call “Information Officer,” they know everything about everyone and they’re just telling it, it’s still gossip and it’s still an abomination to The Lord.

Remember:
Peace is the manifestation of God’s presence.
Strife is the manifestation of Satan’s presence.

There is nothing like having peace in the middle of a storm, being able to sleep like Jesus in the boat. We should have that in our lives all the time no matter the circumstances. Refusing strife is refusing the devil. That doesn’t mean you have a demon in you, but you are accomplishing their will and you can be controlled by that demon the more place you give to it in your life. Strife stops the hand of God moving in your life. We need God moving on our behalf everyday of our life! We should always remember, it’s not a good witness for the world to know you are in strife with anyone. Jesus said they will know us by our love.

John 13:35 NKJV
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

This is what we have to do, love one another. Can’t be in love if you’re mad, talking about someone or posting on the internet what someone did to you. Love will ultimately push strife out and keep it out of our lives.

John 13:34
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

An older lady, who was the wife of a minister, when people would gossip, she would sing about Jesus. One day a lady asked her son while she was singing, “Is she ok?” Her son replied, “No, she don’t like your gossiping so she’s singing about Jesus.” We need to find a way to shut gossip out of our lives. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. That’s not an anti-smoking scripture! hehe We don’t have to partake of people’s strife as to not hurt their feelings. While this sounds very harsh to some, strife is a manifestation of the presence of devils. We have to be tough on what we allow into our temple of the Holy Spirit.  

Next post will be more on how to keep strife out of your life. Lord please place a guard over our mind to let us see strife coming and help us to refuse to allow it. Let us have your eyes Lord, to see the blessings that we are choosing instead of strife.

Christi