What is the Spirit of Disunity? To me, the spirit of disunity is something we find a lot within our churches and communities, to cause distort and unhappiness amongst fellow christians. A lot of times, the spirit of disunity could come in many forms. It could come in the form of justice, trying to proof another person that he is wrong and you are right. It could come in the form of selfishness, when one choose to stick to his or her own comfort zone, doing only what he wants to do. It could also come in the form of false love, in the name of love you put another person down for “their own good”. You choose to “speak the truth” and tear another person apart. You could also be feeding the spirit of disunity in the name of “accountability” and “sharing life” by speaking ill of those who hurt you and those whom you judge. Spirit of disunity is often judgemental and self-gratifying, where one seek only to speak out of his own selfish thoughts in order to glorify himself.
It is always easy for one to simply speak his own mind and to always pin-point at another person’s faults and short-coming. Its the easier way out and its take no effort at all. It is often our own arrogance and pride that is speaking because we think we know it best and we are right, so the other party is definitely wrong. This is also something I am very much guilty of and is something the Lord is revealing to me and I also believed it is something He wants me to deal with.
So how do we identify the Spirit of Disunity? To me, its to know what God is not.
Many years ago, a viral video on youtube was speaking about Albert Einstein theory of God. That he had proven God’s existence through a debate with his professor. In the video, Albert Einstein asked his professor if darkness, cold and evil exist and Einstein reply was da bomb! Here is what Einstein said.
The young student stood up and asked : “Professor does Cold exists?”
The professor answered, “What kind of question is that? …Of course the cold exists… haven’t you ever been cold?”
The young student answered, “In fact sir, Cold does not exist. According to the laws of Physics, what we consider cold, in fact is the absence of heat. Anything is able to be studied as long as it transmits energy (heat). Absolute Zero is the total absence of heat, but cold does not exist. What we have done is create a term to describe how we feel if we don’t have body heat or we are not hot.”
“And, does Dark exist?”, he continued. The professor answered “Of course”. This time the student responded, “Again you’re wrong, Sir. Darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in fact simply the absence of light. Light can be studied, darkness can not. Darkness cannot be broken down. A simple ray of light tears the darkness and illuminates the surface where the light beam finishes. Dark is a term that we humans have created to describe what happens when there’s lack of light.”
Finally, the student asked the professor, “Sir, does evil exist?” The professor replied, “Of course it exists, as I mentioned at the beginning, we see violations, crimes and violence anywhere in the world, and those things are evil.”
The student responded, “Sir, Evil does not exist. Just as in the previous cases, Evil is a term which man has created to describe the result of the absence of God’s presence in the hearts of man.”
After this, the professor bowed down his head, and didn’t answer back.
In the same way, to identify the Spirit of Disunity we simply need to identify the following:
1) God is Love. So what is not of love is not of God.
As we speak and try to establish a point or to highlight things and situations that may be against our own set of beliefs and may even cause us discomfort, we need to know that God answer is always love. if what we say or do, does not reflect that, than it is not from God but from the devil. and no. Saying you are “speaking out of love” by tearing another person down instead of building him up is not love.
2) Love is to advance God’s kingdom, not to tear it down.
Will the things you say help advance the kingdom and glorify God? A lot of times, we speak without thinking. We speak out of the need to speak and out of our own comfort zone. We do not think or reflect upon our words before speaking it out. Sometimes we even do this in the name of “accountability” and “sharing”, the license to speak ill of another and to pass your judgemental remarks. To me this is no different from gossiping and at times even slandering, because what you say may affect another person impression of that person you just speak ill of. James 1:19-20 says “ Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” There is a reason why we have two ears and only one mouth u know?
So when we have identify the Spirit of Disunity amongst your community what should we do?
1) Pray and seek God’s discernment
A lot of times when we are face with a certain situations the very first thing we do is to judge and draw our own conclusion. Whereas, our first response should be to pray and run to God and seek His wise counsel. Allow the spirit to guide us in our words and actions. Most importantly, pray and fast for that person or situations or whatever it is! If you do not care enough to be praying for your brothers first, than really you shouldn’t be involved or say anything at all.
2) It is a form of spiritual warfare
Ephesians 6:12 says “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” We need to recognise that a lot of conflicts and disagreement is a spiritual attack against the body of christ. What is a better war strategy than to cause distort amongst the soldiers and generals. Therefore, do not fall into the trap of the evil one. If we can recognise that the Spirit of Disunity is a weapon of the evil one and it is spiritual, than our approach and the way we view the situation will be different. Hate the sin, not the sinner.
3) Let it seat for a while
Sometimes during the heat of a problem or situation, it is better to seat it out first. Because when our emotions come into play, it often clots our mind and our heart. Even when we pray, we may not hear God the way we should. Instead of allowing the holy spirit in us to guide us, our self-rightesousness comes into play and mess everything up for us. So seat it out first, calm down and revisit it another day. Act only when the Lord convict you.
4) Deal with it privately.
After the Lord have convicted you and you felt the need to deal with the situation. Matthew 18:15-18 said “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Deal with the situation privately not in public or behave like a loudhailer. Matthew 18 did talk about getting the church and two others involved to help deal with the situation if needed. I feel that a lot of churches has misused this verse in many ways through their accountability system. The entire church leadership board do not need to know what is going on, trust me a lot of them don’t really want to know. So get only those who need to be involved involved. And spare the rest the rant.
5) Show mercy, grace and love.
So maybe you are right, the other party is wrong. But we have all fall short of the glory of God. We are only humans and we make mistakes. Even the greatest man on earth will bound to fall and make mistakes. Just like how God have shown us mercy and grace through the crucification of Christ. Give those who are in the wrong the undeserved grace and mercy because God had first given that to us. 1 Corinthians 13:13 “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” Last by not least, always remember that we are called to love and to be love. No one is ever saved or changed through laws and condemnation, it only happens when we love.
Live A Life That Glorify God 