I’ve always been fascinated with the courtroom and lawyers. I think I would have made a pretty good one. I can sure plead my case when I think I’m right. (Can’t I, honey? 🙂 )
There are two sides to any court case. The Prosecution and the Defense. The accuser and the advocate.
They each plead their case and try to prove they’re right, and there are witnesses for both sides. People who help try to prove their case.
An accuser is someone who charges you with doing wrong to bring a penalty against you.
An advocate is someone who publicly supports you and defends your innocence and is in favor of you.
The courtroom isn’t the only place you find an accuser and an advocate. You also see them in the Word.
In Revelation 12:9-10, Satan is called the accuser of our brothers and sisters. He never ceases. Night and day he brings accusations against us. Who we used to be. Things we’ve thought and done and maybe even are currently doing.
I John 2:1 tells us we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ. He supports us publicly and defends our innocence day and night before the Father. His blood stands in our behalf. He always wins! Thank God!
Now, I have a question for you. Are you for the prosecution or the defense? Whose side are you on anyway?
Are You a Double Agent?
You would think that’s a no-brainer. We want to be on Jesus’ side, right? On the side of the advocate. But are we always? I think sometimes we can be like a double agent.
When the first thing you see is someone’s past…their worst day…what’s “wrong” with them, and that’s what we say about them, then we’re on the wrong side. We’re letting the accuser use us. We’re being a double agent.
“But wait! That’s all true! They did that thing. They spoke those words. They are like that. I’d be lying if I said otherwise.”
If we see only their flesh and not who they are in Christ, we aren’t seeing the whole picture.
(Disclaimer: That doesn’t mean we never confront a person in love if they’re wronging us. What it does mean is that we don’t spread the wrong all over town in the form of gossip.)
If we only see their past and not their potential in Christ, we’re siding with the accuser. With the enemy. With Satan.
Yuck! Yuck! YUCK!!!
We need to speak to the potential and not to the past. Or the present. Or the flesh. Paul used to do this all the time.
If you read through his letters, you’ll notice a pattern. He says things like, “That’s who you were, but that’s not who you are anymore. You used to be weak, but now you’re strong. You used to be a slave to sin, but now you’re a slave to righteousness.”
And some of those people were still weak. They were still a slave to sin. To the flesh. But that’s not what he said about them. He spoke to their potential.
So, when we start to say something about someone or make a judgment, we need to stop and ask ourselves, “Whose side am I on anyway?”
When It Comes to Ourselves
Some of us have the “others” thing down pat. We can look at others and see the potential. Speak to it. Draw it out of them. We’re just cheerleaders of the potential inside of everyone we meet. And that’s great, but we think it’s okay to talk down about ourselves.
When it comes to what we say about ourselves, a lot of times we’re on the side of the accuser.
“I’m a failure. I’m weak. I’ll never get it. I’ll never change.”
Whose side are you on anyway?
We can be so full of insecurities, doubts, and regrets that accusation about ourselves just oozes out of us like puss from an infected wound. (I was going to insert a picture of a puss-filled wound here to give you a visual, but they were too gross. So just use your imagination.)
No, we need to only say about ourselves what God says about us.It’s okay to speak to our own potential. We’re worthy. We’re holy. We’re strong in the Lord. We’re overcomers and conquerors.
It’s so easy to slip over on the side of the accuser, but when we do that, we’re spreading puss and infection instead of healing and hope. In fact, He showed me someone I was doing this to without even realizing it. I was speaking to the flesh and the past instead of who He made them to be. I was on the side of the accuser, and that honestly made me cry. I NEVER want that.
God didn’t wait to change Abram’s name to Abraham until after he had a gaggle of kids. He spoke to the potential in him LONG before he ever had any kids. And Abraham agreed with him and said the same thing. And that’s where faith and hope are strengthened, when we say the same thing.
Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and it matters what we do with our words about others and about ourselves.
It’s important that we’re always on God’s side, saying what He says. When we speak to the life and possibility and potential in others and in ourselves, we release God’s power to work.
So….whose side are you on anyway?