I remember how some people spoke to each other at the beginning of the medical emergency that began in 2020. Emotions were hot at the time and were being freely expressed. People unsheathed the swords of their untethered emotions and cut away at people slicing into them and destroying existing relationships. Sadly, a lot of this was done between believers.

Divisions within the Church are rearing their ugly heads once again. With all the current information we have about medical threats and treatments, the cause of our national economic woes, policies about the border, and engaging in yet another war, the sound of the unsheathing of swords is being heard once again. The accusers have not changed how they see the world. They only experienced an intermission in their expression.

It is one thing to have an opinion. We all have them. It is another thing to not be able to move past an emotional derangement syndrome, opinions about reality formed by the talking heads of our news sources that are spoken in a strange unison, or an overly emotional tweet that fails to seek a deeper level of truth. Some people as simply locked into a place of deception thinking they are living in the real world.

In early 2020, a warning came from the Lord that a great deception was being instituted. Those who announced what was happening were cut deeply with strokes of disagreement and dismissal. After that original attack, the swords were re-sheathed. Now, the swords are coming out once again. The slicing will begin again with increasing frequency as our nation moves deeper into the emotions of another election cycle and as the world, we once knew, continues to spiral into a deeper place of confusion and deception.

There is a way to respond when the swords come out that will honor the Lord. Don’t take it personally when you continue to speak the truth in love. Truth is not always popular even within the Church. This is especially true when a person has been groomed to believe a manipulated version of the truth. Remain humble in spirit especially when people have pushed all your buttons and gathered a troupe of mutual dissenters to slice up your life. It is within that kind of heart that we will remain safe as we contend with the deception and lies that are being spoken.