One big thing that can get you off of the straight and narrow path, and I've seen this many times, especially with more dedicated Christians, is the trap of having a conspiratorial mind. Always being overly suspicious of people and allowing your suspicion of others or diving into conspiracy theories, take away your genuine love for Jesus and His church, His people. Now, there are things that happen in the world that are evil. Some conspiracies are true, some are just flat out lies. But regardless, as the children of God, having a conspiratorial mind is not an attribute of the Holy Spirit. You don't read about having a conspiratorial mind in the love chapter in Corinthians 13. And it is not a fruit of the Spirit.
A lot of Christians think that if they know all the deep, dark secrets of Satan and they can expose Satan, that somehow that will help people come to Jesus. It's 100% a lie. Following Jesus is about being in the light, loving your fellow brother and sister, and not thinking evil of them. We know that love hopes all things, it wishes all things, it does not think evil of others, it is not thinking others are evil or doing evil. It would be better for you to imagine someone's doing good even though they were doing evil, than to imagine they were doing evil when they were trying to help you or trying to do good. So guys, I have seen this be a huge problem in the Christian community, of Christians who are too conspiratorial. They're wrapped up with conspiracies about the government, conspiracies about what other people are doing. And they're consumed by conspiracies and by fear, instead of by love. We know from the fruits of the Holy Spirit that we should have love, joy, peace, patience, faithfulness, goodness, gentleness, self-control. And against those things, there is no law. But it could become a self-fulfilling prophecy for you if you're thinking, you know, the government's going to take over, I'm going to die by the hand of the government. If you start taking up weapons to try to defend yourself, a lot of people end up self-destructing in the effort to try to preserve themselves from what they think is going to kill them.
Most of the time, guys, nine out of ten times, what is going to kill you is something that you haven't thought of something that is not one of your fears. You're, you know, you're fearful of a government takeover, you're fearful of the next big thing that's going to happen in the world, fearful of a volcano, fearful of a disease, fearful of a car accident. There’re all these things that you can be fearful about or have conspiracies about or think that's going to kill you. And nine out of ten times, the way you're going to die has absolutely nothing to do with your fears. There's some kind of quote that goes, some of the worst things that have ever happened to me in my life were only in my head. And that is true. A lot of people have all these fears, and all these horrible things are going to happen to them, but only in their imagination. And if they were rather to take on the attributes of God, receive the Holy Spirit, and receive his grace and his love and his protection, all of those fears of how they might die or how their children might die or how they might be hurt or martyred or injured or persecuted or betrayed, all of those feelings would leave them. And instead of them being uptight and possibly injuring or hurting other people due to their lack of understanding and their lack of love, rather, they would be securing the body of Christ and helping out others. Instead of always thinking others are going to be stealing their money and thinking they have to be money grabbers, if they were giving more and being more thoughtful and considerate and considering others above themselves, they would be a light to the world and they would see Jesus in the church.
But when Christians go full throttle into conspiracy theory and are suspicious of everyone, that only brings about the wedge of Satan. And I've seen this so many times, guys. I can't reiterate enough how important it is to not fall into conspiracy theories, not on the internet, not secrets that are happening in other parts of the world that you think you need to expose. At the end of your life, it's not going to matter what sins were in the government or what corruption Satan was doing in a dark hole in the world, but what will matter is if your heart was right with God or not. And a lot of people are going to hell themselves, not because the government is evil or because a cop was evil or there's some evil conspiracy going on, but they have evil in their own hearts and that will inwardly destroy them. It will be hate that destroys them, bitterness that destroys them, envy and jealousy, fits of rage, all of those things that are contrary to the Holy Spirit that the judgment of God will come on you because.
So all of these other things are a huge distraction and I want to warn you not to fall into this conspiratorial mind, always being overly cautious of others. Obviously we have to use discernment, we have to use our best discernment and we have to be cautious, but not overly suspicious of others because that leads to hate of others, that leads to doing things to the body of Christ that are completely unfounded and ungodly. So do we really have the love of Jesus in us? Are we living and motivated by love, by righteousness, by truth, by calling other people into His kingdom? Or are we motivated by fear of what may be happening in the world, by fear of the world and not fearful of the living God? So I hope this makes sense to you guys, I hope that you don't have the fear of people or the fear of conspiracy, I hope that your mind is not polluted with all of these things, all these conspiracies on the internet and everywhere else. I hope that your mind is set on Jesus, and you're being filled with the Spirit of Life, that you can be a light to people and not a discouragement to people. Anyways, may the grace of Jesus be with you.
