Criticalness

Music Video

Main Points

Criticalness in speech, thought or written word infects relationships, marriages, children, families, churches, nations and us with sin causing destruction and division.
Criticalness causes us to stand before another as a self-righteous hypocrite – you have sin, but I am blind to mine.
We tear one another’s character down, pointing the finger, when all the while we are just as guilty of sin in our own hearts.
Who can stand before another without sin?
Have I infected the body of Christ with my criticalness, therefore, choosing to divide?
Their one speck of sin in their eye creates a log of sin in mine.
Jesus says, “Take the log of sin out of your own eye, then you will see clearly how to help them with their speck.” But as it is, we the critical stand before God just as guilty as they.
Be deaf, mute and blind to other’s sin, but BE NOT deaf, mute and blind to your own sin – REPENT.
Look and take care of the weeds in your own garden, stop looking at another’s weeds.
As we are forgiven of our sin, it is through our forgiveness and mercy to others, that we can extend love and not criticalness. We cannot give any of those gifts to others if our hearts are filled with sin and self-righteousness.
It is only by the righteousness of Jesus – His blood, that we are freed from the blindness of criticalness.
When our hearts are made pure by the power of repentance through His blood, Jesus will go on OUR behalf and work in the hearts of others and fight our battles against the wickedness.

James 5: 16 says the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

STORY

Proverbs 14:1 says the wise woman builds up her house, but the foolish one with her own hands, tears it down.

I was the queen of criticalness – the foolish one who tore my house down by tearing the character down of my husband’s and other’s. I gossiped about my husband, slandered and criticized to my friends and to anyone who would listen. In my anger I justified my actions by telling myself: “I need help, I need someone to talk to.” Nonsense!

I separated from my husband for a year. Anger, bitterness and resentment overwhelmed me. We had been to counseling, with no change. This conflict seemed unsolvable - our marriage in trouble for ten years, due to severe loss, tragedy and chaos. I would ask God, “What is the answer to this mess?” He would always reply, “Mercy!” My irritated response, “What does THAT mean?” Hard to fully understand mercy when one has a heart full of criticalness, bitterness, hatred and anger. My mouth was vomiting venom with no restraint. I exhibited the tongue of a snake!

Proverbs 18:21 says, “Life and death are in the power of the tongue and we will eat the fruit of our mouth.”

I ate death over my husband, I ate death over others whom I condemned and criticized. It took the mighty power of Holy Spirit to show me my sinful, destructive ways.

While my husband and I were separated, I became desperate for answers and cried out for more of Jesus, more of His wisdom and more of His Holy Spirit. This was “The Prayer” I prayed day and night.

Jesus answered 3 months later.

My sister asked me to go with her to Bethel Church in Redding, California. She wanted to go for healing and prayer. Upon entering the sanctuary for the morning church service, a huge lump suddenly settled in my throat.

Where are the tissues? How come there are no tissues in a healing church? Feeling that the flood gates of tears would soon burst open, I grabbed a huge wad from the bathroom. After staying for two services, those who needed prayer for needs were called up front. I went up and a sweet young girl prayed over me and without warning, the flood gates of tears burst open. Returning to my seat, I sobbed for nearly an hour until my wad of tissues were in shreds. All the pain and loss of the past ten years of our life and marriage came pouring out uncontrollably. By this time, there was no one left in the sanctuary, but me and my sister. Not aware of where he came from, a precious young man stood behind me, placed his hand gently on my head and silently prayed. It felt like an angel. I was the only one who saw him and a little while after he touched my head, my sobbing began to quiet down and where there was once deep sorrow, there now was unexplained joy and peace.

It was as if the Holy Spirit poured out all my heart pain so that He could replace it with His joy. I heard His words, “Heavenly joy floods the heart when the pain has been purged by His Spirit.” I almost felt like skipping out of that church.

That was a Jesus miracle – walk in broken, walk out skipping!!

We attended the evening service, which was fantastic. Sitting there, I heard God say to me, “I don’t care what you think your husband has done, should have done, did do or didn’t do, I want you to respect and honor the husband I gave you and bring him home.”

Instantly, God’s words burned in my spirit, “You are right in what you say.”

I could not get to the hotel fast enough to call my husband. Upon returning to my room, I quickly called him and asked him to forgive me for not being the wife he needed, for not respecting and honoring him. “Please forgive me and please come home.” We were both a crying mess.

I told the Lord, “I don’t know how to respect and honor my husband; what does that look like?” My parents were divorced when I was young and so I was not able to learn from watching a healthy marriage.

Jesus said to me, “I will teach you; I will show you what he needs. His heart, that ONLY I can see, will I reveal to you, but you must do what I say.

No book or counselor can show you the depths of his heart, only Me. I will lead you and teach you how to respect and honor the husband I gave you.”

And so, He did.

After returning home, it took my husband some time to trust me and believe that a change had been made in my heart. God showed me my heart and mouth - full of criticalness, anger, slander and accusations. I repented to God and confessed my sin to my husband and asked him to forgive me. I also went to each individual whom I had torn down his character, confessed and asked for forgiveness for speaking critically to them about him.

God asked me to clean up my mess and the harm I had done.

The healing that all this brought to me, my husband, our children and friends was enormous -- like a wall of distrust and sin which came crashing down. My enemies fell beneath my feet, unable to rise.

This is the mighty work of God!!!

I crushed my enemies so that they could not rise; they fell beneath my feet.

Psalms18:38

A few months later, God then called me with the support of my husband, to ministry working with the sick, the broken and collapsing marriages.

Jesus healed my heart, my marriage, my family and my career!

He is an amazing God – restorer of broken walls.

INFECTION TO DESTRUCTION

I wholeheartedly believe that the spirit of criticalness is one of the main reasons marriages, children, relationships, churches and nations are destroyed and divided. It leaves a path of destruction and when criticism spews from our mouths and inhabits our thoughts or a written word, we are hell bent on tearing down and destroying the character of another.

When we criticize another in heart or in speech, the truth is, we stand before them as a self-righteous hypocrite saying simply, “You have sin, but I don’t. You are the sinner, but I am righteous.”

Who can stand before God or another sinless? Who is without sin that they can cast the first stone?

We stand just as guilty as the one we are criticizing.

DIVISION

The root cause of division is criticalness. Period!

Each of us have the choice to bring life to relationships or be the condemner. We have the power to bring healing to families, churches and nations or be an agent of division. As soon as criticalness has left our mouths, we have CHOSEN to divide, we have CHOSEN to condemn, and we have CHOSEN to destroy.

Because of these choices, we stand before others as the Accuser himself.

Think about this and I know my words sound harsh, but many of the Protestant denominations have been birthed out of CRITICALNESS. Church bodies that have split over disagreements. They infected that “new and better “church with criticalness and division. This has continued for the past 500 years later, producing over 200 Protestant denominations.

This all began with a little spirit called criticalness.

Jesus called for UNITY in His Bride not division.

Division tears down the house and the strong man can plunder, but unity divides the strong man and HIS house is plundered. Matthew 12:29 says that when the strong man is tied up his house can be plundered.

If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house.

Mark 3:25-27

It would be very wise if each of us searched our own heart and asked this humbling question:

Have I infected this church or the body of Christ with my criticalness in speech, thought or deed?

CRITICALNESS BRINGS DESTRUCTION

When we speak or think critically of another or our family, we are bringing destruction through our mouths. Proverbs said, life and death is in the power of the tongue. When we have sowed destruction and death with our critical words, we will surely reap what we have sowed. May we repent of the criticalness we have spoken over people and our loved ones. May our tongues bring healing and life.

THE SPECK AND THE LOG

So, what do we do when we see or hear wickedness or wrongdoing in another?

Let’s find out.

Jesus talks about criticalness in Matthew.

Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, “Let me take the speck out of your eye,” when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, FIRST take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Matthew 7:1-5

When I am critical of even just one thing in another person, Jesus is asking me FIRST to remove my blindness of all my sins. If their speck creates sin in me, then I must take responsibility for the sin in my heart and not look at theirs.

That one sin is a speck in their eye, BUT it can create a log of sin in my own.

SPECK LOG

Lying Anger

Resentment

Hatred

Impatience

Unkind actions

Unkind words

Harshness

Argumentativeness

Gossip

Pride

Self-righteousness

Fear

Un-thankfulness

The list of sin being produced in our hearts looks like a log…speck in them, log in us.

One sin in them creates a bucket load of sin in me. AND to make matters worse, they may have a dozen or more specks which would result in multiple planks in my eyes. No wonder I can’t see! That is the fallout from criticizing just one person. Add more people with multiple specks and I am in big trouble.

Jesus says, take the sins that are as long as a log out of your OWN eye, repent, and then you will see clearly how to help the other person.

SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS

Criticalness creates self-righteousness in our hearts. It says, you have the problem, but I don’t. It's looking at another's weeds all the while ignoring the weeds in our own garden that actually may be bigger and more abundant than theirs. Yikes!

It would be wise if we asked God, “Judge my own heart, lest I judge another. Remember the admonition in Matthew 7:1-5 as referenced above.

A summary of the Word, “Be deaf, mute and blind to others' sin, but BE NOT deaf, mute and blind to your own.

Who is blind but my servant, and deaf like the messenger I send? Who is blind like the one in covenant with me, blind like the servant of the LORD?

Isaiah 42:19

CLEAN UP YOUR MESS

If we have been VERBALLY CRITICAL ONLY (NOT in our thinking as it could hurt someone), to or about another – parents, spouse, ex-spouse, child, relative, in-laws, student, friend, teacher, volunteer, co-worker, pastor, leader, government official, someone we don’t know, groups, churches, ministries, online, God or ourselves, then clean up your mess and go confess your sin and ask for forgiveness for being critical; for tearing down the character of another.

This may have to be done many times over in our lifetime.

DON’T however, mention their sin while confessing and asking for forgiveness of YOUR own sin. In other words, don’t say, “Because you did ____, I have been critical of you, please forgive me. NO!

When asking for forgiveness NEVER EVER speak of another's sin or their wrongdoing – that’s pointing out what they did wrong, which is just more criticalness. Get it!!

Simply state, “I have sinned against you and Jesus. I have been critica,l and I am so sorry. Would you please forgive me?

OTHER SUGGESTIONS

Read through a chapter of Proverbs in the Bible daily, according to the day of the month since there are 31 chapters in this book. It gives much wisdom about the heart and the mouth.

Also, I highly suggest doing a Heart Inventory on criticalness.

On this inventory write down in one column the person or thing that causes criticalness in you. In the second column write down what happened and in the third column write down your sin – what is the log of sin that was produced in your heart from their action or words.

THROUGH THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF JESUS

Through the righteous blood of Jesus, we are no longer critical, but filled with mercy, no longer bound by the hate of the accuser, but by the love of Jesus. We declare out loud, “I am no longer critical by the righteous blood of Jesus Christ and He frees me of my blindness, I now can see.”

When our planks are removed, we are no longer blind, through the power of repentance by His righteous blood. (And it is only His blood that continues to purify our hearts and make us righteous. The enemy needs to hear us shout this truth.)

Then mighty Jesus goes on OUR behalf and works in the hearts of others and our battles.

I believe it is through His forgiveness to us, and consequently our forgiveness, mercy, love, and speaking the Word of God on other’s behalf that we can help them. We cannot give any of those things to others if our hearts are filled with sin and self-righteousness.

Remember, forgiveness and mercy change us and changes them.

The Word says that the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. So true it is…don’t forget that!!!

Those who have been forgiven much, forgive much!

GOD FIGHTS THE BATTLE ON OUR BEHALF

In summary, when we see or experience wickedness from others, whether it’s words, actions, beliefs, wounds, injustice, betrayal, Jesus is not asking us to be critical, but discerning by first searching our own hearts.

LORD, what is the sin that is being produced in my OWN heart, because of their wickedness?

He is asking us to approach the situation or wound with a pure heart lest we be just as guilty. We need a heart willing to let the Judge correct, rebuke and discipline OUR sinful hearts first.

Then, as our hearts remain pure before Him (ceasing and repenting of sin), Jesus then comes in the back door and fights this battle on our behalf.

And that my friend is healing.

Remember, the spirit of criticalness desires to infect, divide and destroy. As we repent of this spirit and proclaim Jesus’ blood and righteousness over our hearts, healing will come…..like a waterfall.

INVENTORY OF THE HEART

Taking an inventory of our heart is powerful and life changing. When we see on paper the VOLUME of sin that has been stored in there, it’s mind boggling to comprehend all the junk we have lived with day after day. We then begin to understand why we are sick, confused, angry, suicidal, violent, impatient, harsh and critical, with relationships crumbling and bad fruit produced instead of good fruit.

By the power of the Holy Spirit, an inventory reveals the sin and motives which lie deep within the heart that we cannot see. Sin which longs to hide, destroying us and those we care about.

There is great healing by writing down the sin produced in our hearts; seeing it with our own eyes, hearing our mouths repent and confess - cleaning it all out. It turns our hearts into new wine skins. It says in Mark 2:22, and no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.

When we see a speck in another’s eye, it can make us angry, critical or fearful or all the above. That speck creates a heart full of sin as long as a log. The speck is their sin and the log is our sin. The inventory reveals just how long our log is and surprisingly how many logs we have in our eyeballs. No wonder we are blind!!

As Jesus says, “Take the log out of your own eye and you will be able to see clearly.”

When we begin to see and face our sin, wisdom, meekness and understanding fills our heart. It is so beautiful! Healing begins as Jesus reveals and forgives the sin we have been carrying quite possibly for many years.

Ask yourself what am I struggling with the most - fear, anger or criticalness?

When the heart fills up with these issues, they give birth to a pit full of other sins.

Take a Heart Inventory and conquer criticalness through the righteousness of Jesus when you are struggling with a relationship, family, job, addiction, pain, disease or sickness.

Let the Holy Spirit be your guide.

Repent, confess and make it right with others if and when needed. Healing will come, but it must first begin in our own heart.

So take an inventory when the heart fills up with criticalness.

INVENTORY

THE GARDEN

FORGIVENESS

Criticalness

Healing of The Heart