Harmful Connections
By Linda J. Waiters © June 21, 2009
There is a saying, “Don’t give the devil a ride, because next he will want to drive.” That’s just how it goes when you join yourself with the wrong people. First, it starts out as a simple lift from one place to the other, only they forgot to mention that they are bringing along all their “baggage” too. And that baggage will only weigh you down and/or stop your progress completely – and that fits right in with the devil’s objective, which is to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10).
Early on in my spiritual walk with the Lord, He taught me the importance of cutting certain people out of my life who were detrimental to the dream He began to give me. As His vision for me started to unfold, He made me aware of people who would speak negatively about what He was leading me to do. I learned how those words fueled doubt when times got tough, and that God did not want me to fail. So while it was hard to do in many instances, I had to learn to cut these people totally out of my life otherwise they could kill the vision.
You could liken them to crabs in a barrel. Using this analogy, in some cases, when they saw me crawling up out of the barrel, their input was meant to pull me back down into the barrel with them. In other cases, they would try and project their fear onto me, (i.e., “Girl…you know you can’t do that.” or, “Girl…you’ve got a good job – you better keep your job.”), totally discounting the Power of God and His part in the plan.
With His help, I drew from His strength and persevered. Consequently, I started and ran a successful word and data processing service. This enabled me to be home with my son during the early years of his life all because I followed God’s lead and acted on His advice.
On the other hand, here is a great account of what happens when you don’t follow God’s lead in this area. Let’s read about King Jehoshaphat’s experience in 2 Chronicles 20:35-37 (King James Version):
And after this did Jehoshaphat king of Judah join himself with Ahaziah king of Israel, who did very wickedly: And he joined himself with him to make ships to go to Tarshish: and they made the ships in Eziongaber. Then Eliezer the son of Dodavah of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, the LORD hath broken thy works. And the ships were broken, that they were not able to go to Tarshish.
Now Jehosphaphat was not a bad king with this caveat revealed in 2 Chronicles 20:30-33:
So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet: for his God gave him rest round about. And Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah: he was thirty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty and five years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi. And he walked in the way of Asa his father, and departed not from it, doing that which was right in the sight of the LORD. Howbeit the high places were not taken away: for as yet the people had not prepared their hearts unto the God of their fathers.
Conversely, Ahaziah was evil as noted in 1 Kings 22:51-53:
Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned two years over Israel. And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin: For he served Baal, and worshipped him, and provoked to anger the LORD God of Israel, according to all that his father had done.
As we can see, Jehosphaphat met with failure because of who he joined himself to. We must never forget that it is not a cliché, God is not mocked:
Galatians 6:7-8:
7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
In spite of the current trend in our culture for tolerance, we must constantly guard against allowing anyone or anything that is against God into our sphere of influence. For instance, being tolerant of those who don’t believe in God and/or who speak against the things of God is a dangerous road to walk on. We are to impact their lives through the Gospel and not the other way around. Where do you stand if, as the Word teaches us in Psalm 14:1, it is “[t]he fool [who] hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.”; yet, you provide a platform for the position? [Emphasis and clarification added.] Compromise, like leaven, spreads – whether it be for good or for evil. And remember, the devil intends to drive. The Word says in Galatians 5:9 that “[a] little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.”
Samuel Johnson is quoted as saying:
“He who praises everybody, praises nobody.”
You have to pick a side.
The same gauntlet that Joshua laid down for God’s people back in Joshua 24:14-16 applies to each and every Believer today:
14 Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.
15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
16 And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods…
What do YOU say?
