Since the formal beginning of my journey in ministry, over a decade ago, the Holy Spirit has been faithful to warn me of a coming attack ahead of time. He will tell me sometimes from whom but always what the topic is about. He isn’t telling me so that I will stop what I am doing. God is merely preparing me because that is what a Loving Father does. Last night as I put today’s word in the scheduler, the Holy Spirit told me that I would be attacked over the picture. Indeed that nonsense did come, and I will say I have been attacked many times over the pictures that I use. You can see how quickly I ignore the critics of the world.
I want to use this opportunity to speak to a broader problem among Christians. I will use this picture as an example. It was a computerized picture of a Lotus flower. The attack was that this is a symbol in Buddhism and then a snide remark towards me for using it. My answer- who created the flower? You see there are so MANY aspects in life that we avoid or shy away from just because the enemy is using something that GOD CREATED. That lotus flower has no idea that someone else has used it as a symbol of anything. All it knows to do is be beautiful for its Creator, God, every single day. It is not swayed or moved by anything other than the ONE who DESIGNED it into existence.
When God turned Aaron’s staff into a snake was that not God. It does not matter that the enemy performed a counterfeit right after that. God still did it first. There are so many supernatural experiences open and available to God’s people because you were CREATED by God and you are SPIRIT first. It does not matter that the enemy has twisted and using parts of God’s design for his own purposes. That still does not negate that God established something first, and what He did still has More Power than all of hell combined. We walk away from God’s power just because there is a counterfeit out there. If something is that perfect and wonderful there will be a counterfeit. Your clothes, furniture, cars, etc etc are generally copies or versions of an original design, but at a much lower price or quality. That copy will never be the same as the Original. People still desire the original in our world except when it comes to the things of the Kingdom.
Everything in life can have double meanings. Snakes generally represent the demonic, and yet God told Moses to create a bronze serpent on a pole that when whomever was bitten by a snake looked at the it, they would live and not die. God created the serpent. He can use it how He will.
Yes, use discernment so that you do not follow the enemy, but that does not exclude following God in something that He created first despite the enemy having something similar. Stop being stuck in what the enemy is doing, and start looking for what God is doing. If there is a counterfeit, then you know the enemy sees real important value in what God already established. Look for the Original pouring out from the Throne Room. Don’t miss out just because the darkness made a counterfeit or has labeled a simple flower to mean something else.
You have the ability as God’s creation to do good or evil. Does that change anything before God? He sees you for what He created and imagined you into existence to be. You have the same value, Priceless, even if you walk away from Him and continue on lost. You get to choose each day what you will allow in and what you will keep out. Make wonderful choices and when in doubt, seek the Lord! Before you dismiss something, Ask, Seek, and Knock, but Always Listen to the Holy Spirit. If you can’t find the true peace, you still don’t have your answer.
Exodus 7:8-13
8 Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 9 “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Prove yourselves by working a miracle,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.’” 10 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. 11 Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts. 12 For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs. 13 Still Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.
Numbers 21:4-9
4 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. 5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” 6 Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. 7 And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. 8 And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”9 So Moses made a bronze[c] serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.
~Many Blessings
MaryEllen Replenished Hope Ministries