Holy Spirit: "That's Enough Facebook!"

God’s not sitting up in heaven waiting to swat you every time you make a mistake. His eyes are watching over you like a protective, caring Father. He wants to help you make the right decision in every situation.First Peter 3:12 says His ears are open to your prayers, so the first right choice you should ever make is to turn away from evil and turn to God, praying for His help and His wisdom. That's always  the best right choice you can make!The worst choice you can make is to turn away from God. Our righteous Father cannot hear prayers that come from a heart that has turned away from Him and has decided to speak evil things. You may say of your words, “But it was the truth!”  But was it what the Holy Spirit wanted you to say? Was it said after much prayer and was it in His love?God won’t answer the prayers of those who use the truth in a dishonest or self-serving way. Speaking the truth with a bad attitude is evil. Remember, the devil uses the truth to accuse us and condemn us. He wants to destroy us with it, and he delights in getting Christians to attack people (and each other) with the truth. Jesus speaks the truth in love to set us free, and He’s the model we should follow.If you wonder why your prayers aren’t getting answered or why your life is filled with strife and misery, you need to determine if you are making right choices in what you say. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you where you’ve missed it, and then begin making the right choices as you speak. That mountain of strife and misery has got to move!

Do the Right Thing

Once you are aware that you are thinking right and speaking right, you need to make sure your actions reflect your right thoughts and words. Recently, I was challenged in this area. I like to look at Facebook on my phone. I also check my email and text messages on my phone, so I spend a lot of time looking at my phone.

One day I was having a really good time on Facebook, when I heard the gentle voice of the Holy Spirit say, “That’s enough!”

I immediately knew I had to make a choice. I liked what I was doing. I liked what I was seeing. I liked checking out all my friends’ posts on Facebook and reading about what was going on in their lives. But in my spirit, I felt the Lord saying, “You have something else to do right now.”“Oh, all right,” I said. I didn’t make a face, but I had to force myself to make the right choice. God was telling me to get back to studying for the message I was going to give that week.

I love to study God’s Word, but at that moment, I was preferring to study Facebook!

In obedience, I put my phone away. So much of what you are reading in this book came from that simple act of doing the right thing. Thank God I did!And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? (1 Peter 3:13)

Loving and serving the Lord means doing what He asks you to do.

And your obedience keeps you safe. The moment I chose to study God’s Word instead of being on Facebook, I made it impossible for the enemy to harm me. I shudder to think what might have happened if I had ignored the voice of the Holy Spirit and followed my own desires instead of seeking God’s righteousness. You can only feel truly safe and secure when you make the right choice by obeying His voice.It’s simple. We are to do the right thing as followers of Christ. Do you remember when we all wore wristbands that said “WWJD” (What Would Jesus Do)? If you’re in a quandary about what to do, just think WWJD. Since you are in Him and He is in you, He is right there to help you make the right choice.

Jesus First

When I was a teenager, I made a right choice that cost me a lot for a season, but it gave me a much better life in the long run. I was engaged to my high school sweetheart, who went to serve in the Korean War. By the time he returned, I had been born again and filled with the Holy Spirit. He wasn’t, and so I told him all about Jesus and how I wanted to live my life for Him. I said, “I love you enough to tell you the truth. You need Jesus. If you’ll serve God with me, then let’s get married.

"I want to raise my children to love God. If you don’t love Him, I can't marry you.”

I was young in the Lord, but I had read the verse of scripture that said, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14). This young man didn’t want Jesus in his life, and so my heart was broken over choosing not to marry him. But I was safe. I was secure.For ten years it was hard as my friends were getting married and having babies, but I trusted God and focused on doing whatever He wanted me to do. As I was serving the Lord, I met and married John Gimenez. We had a wonderful life with Jesus. John has gone on to heaven now, but what we had is still going on today through our daughter and her family, the ministry we built together, and all our spiritual sons and daughters. Praise God! I’m so glad I made the right choice. Choosing to wait for God’s best has brought tremendous happiness to me.The kind of lasting satisfaction and joy I’m talking about comes from right thinking, right speaking, and right acting. It comes because you seek first God’s righteousness, and then He blesses you by adding everything you need to succeed in life. As I said before, it isn’t always easy, but God will give you the grace to make the right choices.