The Refiner’s Love

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When its all said and done, the central message of the new covenant, remains the same; love one another.  God is love remember.  Love isn’t something He has, it is Who He is.  If we’re going to be godly, then we’re going to have to be lovely.

When its all said and done, the central message of the new covenant, remains the same; love one another.  God is love remember.  Love isn’t something He has, it is Who He is.  If we’re going to be godly, then we’re going to have to be lovely.

I’m growing more and more appalled at the spirit of criticism that is so evident in the Body of Christ.  While it’s always been there, it seems that hell is working overtime to trap God’s people in this destructive spirit.

It actually takes very little discernment, to sense or feel a critical spirit.  It only takes a simple knowledge of scripture.  Read the following passage afresh:

Eph 4:29-32

29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. 30 And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: 32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.  KJV

One thing I’ve learned for sure, is that when people are under pressure, what is in their heart in abundance, does indeed come out.  Pressure always magnifies a situation, and often we find out who we really are during those moments.  The individual that is seemingly the most spiritual, kind and loving person we’ve ever seen, let’s their true character be seen when they’re under pressure.

When people are weary, and allow themselves to actually be found meditating on things in others that they may not understand, they often give place to a critical spirit and begin to “see” things only through that filter of “how they see things” at the moment.  It’s a subtle but very real trap.

You can hear the sharpness in people’s conversation that manifests itself in what the Bible calls ill-will or resentment.  The sad thing about this is that people who continually give in to a critical spirit, show themselves to actually be full of resentment, and the word of God says that resentment and bitterness “doth eat like a cancer.”  People who continue to harbour ill will towards others do great damage to themselves, and yet they actually derive some kind of perverse pleasure out of holding fast to what they feel is a justified opinion of someone.

God’s word says to BANISH this stuff from us!  Verse 31 from the above passage in the Amplfied Bible reads thus:

Let all bitterness and indignation and wrath (passion, rage, bad temper) and resentment (anger, animosity) and quarreling (brawling, clamor, contention) and slander (evil-speaking, abusive or blasphemous language) be banished from you, with all malice (spite, ill will, or baseness of any kind).

It’s almost impossible to have a truly intelligent conversation with such an individual, because they are so self-assured of their opinions, that there isn’t room left for real discussion.  They’re self-persuaded of their righteous standing in an area, to the point that it shuts out all real wisdom.  Unless, they’re able to pull hard on true Godly humility, and deliver themselves out of this snare of the devil.  It’s really difficult however, because a spirit of criticism brings with it a degree of moral blindness, that disallows clear vision.

The passages above say these things “grieve the Spirit of God!”  That should be reason enough to make us want to stay as far away from such foolishness as we can.  Why would we want to do such a thing?  We MUST let go of resentment, evil speaking about others, having spite towards others and ill will.  It only damages our own future and hinders God’s working in our lives.

I always remember something Rev Francis Frangipane said once.  He said, “God so loves you that He will continue to put you into situations that offend your mind, so that He can get to your heart.”  Think on that.

We labour sometimes under the misconception that if we go somewhere else, find another church, get another job, that our personal areas of weakness will be better, because after all, we won’t be around “those people” who agitate us so much.  Listen, if the problem is in you, that spirit of wounding from the past, always feeling rejected or having the need to prove yourself, you won’t get away from it by a geographical change.  It leaves because YOU make a spiritual change!

When you move on somewhere else, guess what?  God so loves you that He’s going to continue to surround you with people who grate against you just like they did in the last place you were.  You know why?  Because He LOVES you and wants that stuff that continues to cause you to react as you do, OUT of your spirit!

The bible says that Jesus “sits as a refiner” in Malachi 3:3.  A refiner of silver watches over the cauldron or pot, and keeps the heat at the perfect temperature while the raw silver ore is within.  He makes sure the heat isn’t too low, or too high, but just enough to keep bringing up the impurities of the metal.  As impurities rise to the top, he faithfully skims the muck and residue off the top, and allows the heat to go back to work, purifiying the silver.  Jesus sits as a refiner sits, and loves us so much that He keeps the heat just right.  Why? Because if the ore is poured into a mould too early, in time the vessel will develop cracks in it, and it often has to be broken and thrown back into the cauldron.

We all need to surrender to the Refiner’s love, and cease allowing a critical spirit to function through us.  It’s not Godly, as it promotes division in the Body of Christ.  May we all truly THINK before we speak.  May we be SLOW to speak, and quick to listen.  One thing is sure, you cannot hear God while your mouth is full of cursing.  Let us all learn how to keep the ‘law of kindness’ in our mouths, so that goodness might erupt all around us!