Brendan Mc Crossan
So I said to myself, I’m going to quit complaining.
Psalm-39-1- so I said to myself, I’m going to quit complaining, I’ll keep quiet, especially when the ungodly are around me.
I awoke this morning with those words of scripture, “I am going to quit complaining,” going through my mind very clearly, and it was obvious to me that the lord was talking to me as I awoke, telling me it’s time to stop complaining; that if I am to become more and more like Jesus there are many things I need to change; like criticising, and complaining. I never realised two things; how much I criticise in small ways just enough to prevent me from thinking how much God detests us criticising one another, and so subtle, I don’t think of it as sinful and displeasing to God.
The other thing I do a lot of is complain, and it wasn’t until Rose and I arrived here in Turkey to visit our daughter that I began to realise that I am forever complaining. The bed is too hard, the mattress is lumpy, you can feel the springs; my back is sore from this uncomfortable bed, I get up every morning moaning I didn’t sleep very well, my tummy is sore, and upset from eating too much foreign food, and drinking too much Fanta lemonade, and the list is endless. I go about complaining, it’s too hot, in Ireland I complained it’s too cold and wet, now my complaint is its too hot and dry. Complaining is never far from my mouth. I have Jesus living inside me, I have the Holy Spirit dwelling with me and the Father also lives in me, and still I complain about everything, my whole life is a constant moan. I am sore everywhere, my head hurts, my back hurts, my legs hurt, and all these things are true, there are many times when I ache all over and I am sore and tired and weary, the dinner wasn’t as good as I would have liked it to be, the chair is uncomfortable, I am too close to the fire I get burned, and this chair is so uncomfortable I have neck pain, and on and on and on I go, complaining about everything in life, and at the same time I am praising Jesus, for this or that spiritual gift or power and all the time I am robbing myself of emerging into a greater power by all my complaining. Jesus never complained, even when he was being tortured by the Romans, and scourged at the pillar, and crucified, there are no records in the bible of Jesus complaining, he went about quietly doing God’s will full of power. And we also have the very same power but we short circuit that awesome power by our complaining and our criticism of others, we do ourselves harm; we prevent the full power that Jesus walked in from operating in our lives by complaining.
God hates complaining, and is determined with his grace and our co-operation to change that complaining and criticising attitude within us, that dwells in our lower nature.
Colossians-3-10- you are living a brand new life that is continually learning more and more of what is right, and trying constantly to be more like Christ who created this new life within you.
Thank God for his mercy and grace that he has poured out upon us, that he is willing to put up with our complaining and criticism for years and years, until finally it’s time to change and merge into that image of Christ within you. Enough is enough, for those who desire the gifts and manifestations of God power and love and healing gifts, it’s time to cast off that rotten garment of corruption of the old self and put on the new that is within you, the new life of Christ Jesus within you.
It’s amazing how much we guard our tongues when the pastor or his wife or someone of importance is around, we get on our false best behaviour, and speak so prettily about others whom we have criticised and complained about before, now they’re wonderful people, in front of the pastor or someone we consider important. Yet Jesus lives in us and we ignore this awesome fact, we forget who is listening to every little word of criticism and complaining. St Paul told Timothy, to stir into flame his gifts.
2-Timothy-1-6 this being so, I want to remind you to stir into flame the strength and boldness that is in you.
It is just as easy to praise God as it is to complain. Paul told Timothy he needed to stir in to flamethestrengthandboldnesswithinhim;thatsamestrengthandboldnessandpowerofGod almighty is within you and me also, and we also need to stir into flame, the new life and power within, and put to death for once and for all the old life, which has already died when Christ died on the cross on Calvary. Instead of complaining about your sore back, say, “Jesus I praise you for touching my back and healing it.” It takes the same amount of effort to do both, but we are so negative we speak the negative out of our mouths almost all the time. It is no more difficult to thank God that you have a bed to lay in, than it is to complain, many a person lays on the floor or in doorways, with only concrete as their mattress.
Philipians-1-6-And I am sure that God who began the good work within you will keep right on helping you grow in his Grace until his task within you is finally finished on that day when Jesus Christ returns.
It is God who began the good work of changing your attitude within you, and he will keep on working within you helping you to do his will, to become more and more like Jesus so that his body all fits together perfectly.
We are of no spiritual use to God if all we do is criticise or complain, he cannot fulfil all his plans within us, we are not God’s robots, God will never force you to change, he expects you to desire to change.
What is your greatest desire in life? Mine is that I want to become more and more like Jesus who lives within me; I want miracles and healing, signs and wonders happening for me, and I am willing with the grace of God already within me to bring about change. God’s word says I already have every Grace and blessing within me, the ability to change is within me, I don’t need to ask God for special Grace and blessings to change. I must be willing to change for the glory of God. I would love to be able to reach inside my chest and pull out of me everything that is getting in the way of Christ’s power within me, unfortunately I can’t do that, but I am willing to tear down every stronghold that the devil has on my old nature, that is still in my flesh, my spirit has changed but my flesh remains the same, and I want to overcome the flesh and allow the spirit of God in my spirit to bring about change. My biggest problem is I tend to forget after a while what I promised myself, and it is here that I need reminding, and this is where the Holy Spirit comes in and reminds me that I am condemning someone or criticising or complaining. There are so many different distractions distracting me every day in life that I need reminding, all the time. What can I do about this, well first I need to repent of my complaining and critical attitude, and ask God for forgiveness, forgive myself, and look
forward to change within me wrought by the power of the Holy Spirit; it will not be by my great awareness or power, but by the Holy Spirits power and strength. I have consecrated myself to the Holy Spirit, to bring about the change I need to become more and more like Jesus, asking him to keep me in remembrance, to stop complaining; he won’t stop me but he will indeed remind me and prompt me as I open my big mouth to complain and criticise, and this is what I need most, the prompting of the Holy Spirit, because in my flesh I am weak but in my spirit I am strong, I can then stop my big watery mouth from spilling out complaints or criticism.
Psalm-38-17- how constantly I find myself on the verge of sin; this source of sorrow always stares me in the face, I confess my sins; I am sorry for what I have done.
How constantly I find myself on the verge of the sins of criticism and complaining, moaning and groaning about everything. And this is sinful, yes my friend this is sin complaining, and criticising someone for whom Jesus died for. Look at the apostles, Paul and Silas and look at their attitude as they were thrown into prison after being whipped and beaten.
Acts-16-23- again and again the rods slashed down upon their bare backs; and afterwards they were thrown in prison. 16-25-Around midnight, as Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to the lord – and the other prisons were listening.
Could you imaginethis happening to you, or me? What would our attitudebe?Wewould more than likely be crying and complaining how hard done by we were, and how painful our backs are. Telling each other how sore we are. Seeing who could cry the loudest and complaining about the lord; how could he let this happen to us, we work for him after all?
Come on tell the truth to yourself, what would you do if this sort of thing happened to you? You, probably like me would be squealing out to God, “how could you let this happen to me,” and you would be focused on your painful back, concentrating on the pain. But Paul and Silas were praying, we’d probably be cursing the people who jailed us and whipped us, calling fire down on them if we could. But what happened to Paul and Silas, a great earthquake happened and the doors of the jail flung open and everyone’s chains fell off, not just Pauls and Silas, did you see how praise and singing to the lord in the midst of a terrible happening brought about the power of God, and the power touched all in the Jail not just Paul and Silas, everyone benefited. And did you also notice that none of the prisoners tried to escape, isn’t that a strange thing? Some of these prisoners may have been there for years, maybe some were sentenced to death, and you would imagine that they would be desperate to escape, but the power of God in that prison was so strong they didn’t even move. The jailer was about to commit suicide by killing himself with his sword, and Paul called out don’t do it were “all here.” Then the jailer asked how he could be saved.
Acts-16-30- he brought them out and begged them, “Sirs what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believeon thelord Jesus and you will besaved, and yourentirehousehold.”
The jailer took them out of the dungeon, not out of the jail, so everyone in that Jail hear the good news not just the jailer, the people in the dungeons knew this was an act of God and stayed in their dungeon and heard the good news. I cannot say if any others got saved but when
the doors of the jail flew open and my chains fell off by themselves then if it were me in there, I would be inclined to listen to the two men of God, and do what they told the jailer. Complaining in that jail would have produced nothing as complaining is negative, whilst praise and singing songs to God is positive, and produces results. This is a great example of the power in praise and the uselessness of complaining, Praise changed the situation, complaining would have them still in jail licking their wounds. The words we speak have life scripture says, and the negative words we speak have only death in them, they benefit no one, and in fact can destroy you, because God says you will give an account for every idle word you speak. Complaining is a negativity, praise is a positivity. Complaining as the dictionary tells us is bad-tempered irritable, belligerent, difficult, tetchy, and unreasonable. For the sake of knowing what complaining really means, write this word in your word document, then click on the word and then on synonyms, then write the word associated with complaining- belligerent, difficult, tetchy and unreasonable, for the full definition of complaining. Here are just two definitions of complaining Complaining- irritable=prickly, thorny, unreasonable Complaining = belligerent, belligerent means, argumentative, confrontational.
Was Jesus nature like those things that complaining is? No! His nature was filled with positivity, there was never a negative word spoken by Jesus in his whole ministry. We are Christ in the spirit, we are his body, should his body live in negativity, complaining about every little thing in life, I don’t think we should, we should learn from this and begin asking Godtohelpyoudowhatyouhavetodo,Hewillnotmakeyouchange,hewillshowyouwhere change is needed then you have to do as this first scripture says- “So I said to myself, I am going to quit complaining.”
When God took his people out of Egypt, he promised to lead them into a land full of milk and honey, but they complained against God all the way through the desert, even though God parted the Red Sea for them they complained and wanted to go back to slavery, then when Moses went up mount Sinai, they got fed up waiting on his return so they complained to Aaron about Moses and God, and demanded they build a new God to worship and they did, they Made a golden calf and worshipped it. They complained about water, they complained about having no food, so God gave them heavenly food and they complained about that also, and demanded meat so God caused a flock of quail to fall down among them, and they ate until full, still complaining. So God allowed an Earthquake and snakes to kill so many thousands of them, and they sin by adultery breaking God’s commandments, and he allowed them to die; he lifted his hand of protection over them. Do you think he would be any different with us, we were supposed to learn from the Israelites mistakes and not do the same things but still we do, we constantly complain; well I do! You can check your own conscience yourself. I have complained all my life and now it’s time to stop God is telling me, and if he is telling me then he is telling you also who read this. “It’s time to quit complaining.” Make a start today while there is still time to change.
Psalm-39-1- so I said to myself, I’m going to quit complaining, I’ll keep quiet, especially when the ungodly are around me.
Christians miss opportunity after opportunity to witness when non believers, {the ungodly are around,} I have sickness and disease in my body, but I don’t go about telling everyone, oh I
have this sickness and soreness just like you, no I tell them Jesus can heal their sickness and disease.
Last night I listened to a Christian woman talking to a group of three other women, one said she had fibermeralgy, {I don’t know if I spelt this right.} and the Christian woman told her how her two daughters both had this same disease, then she proceeded to tell them she also had sciatica, and the other woman said she also had it. I saw this as a great opportunity to offer healing for the Christian woman, but she was so busy telling about her complaints that the chance to witness to Christ’s healing power was lost, I sat there saddened listening, there was so much glorifying sickness there was no chance to tell of Jesus and how he heals through us, the Christian woman who complained about her sickness because this Christian woman was related to me and I couldn’t contradict her with embarrassing her. Here was an opportunity to offer healing and witness for Jesus and complaining about sickness destroyed the opportunity. My heart was saddened to say the least, and I have heard this same Christian woman telling people the same thing time after time, when the chance to witness for Jesus was there when others complained about their pain.
I have pain in my body but that doesn’t stop me from offering healing to someone in pain. I heard a preacher called Kenneth E Hagin preach prosperity, and telling the audience that he preached prosperity when he discovered in the bible that it was God’s will to prosper his children, he told them he preached prosperity and he had paper shoved into his shoes because they had no soles in them, just two large holes. He told them he preached prosperity because God’s word said so, and preached healing even when he was sick, because God’s word is true it never changes.
So even if you have disease in your body you can still pray with people and see God work amazing signs and wonders and miracles through you, I have multiple times even when I was in terrible agony from pain, I still preach healing because God’s word is true no matter what my body tells me. Jesus took my sickness and bore my disease and someday it will all disappear as God’s word sinks deeper and deeper down into my spirit; in the meantime I am praying with a woman in America, over the phone, who was dying of a malignant disease in the brain, she was paralyzed, developed double vision, speechless, and was given approximately 72 days to live as this was the longest anyone with this disease has ever lived before. This woman has recovered almost 90% she is now walking, talking, seeing perfectly and has been out of the nursing home where she was in, to a darts match in her local pub, the doctor is astounded, he can’t understand it, and her pastor couldn’t believe the change in her as he came to visit her expecting her to be close to death. God is healing her not me, I have sickness in my body, but does that stop God from using me to heal others? No! I have greater compassion for the sick and pain ridden, because of my own pain, and I was paralysed when I was young three times as a kid growing up, and I know what it is like not to be able to do things for yourself, like go to the toilet in privacy, that one thing is so embarrassing. I know pain and suffering, and I can empathize with those in similar circumstances, but do I confess sickness? No! I do not!
I never witness to my sickness or pain, I witness about Jesus; I just realised before I began writing this last two paragraphs how often I hear Christians testify about their pain and aches and sharing with those who are in similar pains and aches, instead of saying, “would you like me to say a prayer for you,” “I know Jesus heals when I pray.”
Complaining has lost us the ability to minister to God’s people. Complaining is negativity at its worst, it’s no wonder God destroyed the Israelites in the desert when all they did was complain against him. He let them wander around in circles in the desert for forty years because all they did was complain against him, moaning and moaning about everything, are you doing anything similar?
Is it no wonder that the ministry were in is so small and not too many awesome miracles happening for us. Our complaining loud mouths are destroying every opportunity that God wants to pour into us his awesome healing sign and wonder power, but he can’t because we are so negative, and if you know anything about electricity you will know you can’t wire a negative wire with a positive wire or it will blow up and destroy the fuse possibly going on fire.
God can’t pour positive healing power into a negative person. It doesn’t work like that. A praising mouth is a positive mouth, and positive energy from God pours into the praising mouth.
It is no wonder that miracles and healing and awesome signs and wonders don’t follow us, it’s is because were so busy telling everyone how much pain and different illness we have. Shut you big mouth before you destroy every God given gift that he has given you.
If you testify to others about your pain or illness then how, can you witness for healing, you can’t, Satan has you trapped in negativity, and God is positivity. The two can’t blend in. Like I said you can be sick and if you don’t confess it out to others, God can use it to heal others. In the meantime thank God he has already healed you according to his word.
If I were to stand up in one of my healing services and began telling people there about my aches and pains and disease in my body, how many do you think would receive healing when I prayed with them? I personally believe, none!
So I said to myself, I am going to quit complaining, especially when the ungodly are around.
This is a time of great outpouring from God’s Holy Spirit and I want to be better prepared to receive it, I want awesome miracle wonder working power, I want miraculous signs and wonders following me. I want to lay hands on the sick and dying, or even pray for them over the phone, and witness God healing them through myself and others praying in unison for the sick person.
You don’t need to tell the ungodly how sick you are, or about your pains, tell them about Jesus he is the healer and deliverer and saviour, he is almighty to heal and work signs and wonders. I am doing my best with the help of the Holy Spirit to get rid of every negative energy within me by stopping complaining, stopping criticising others and trying to live a better life from now on; I want to be like St Paul who said, “It is not I who live but Christ Jesus who lives in me.”
I will shut my complaining mouth up forever in exchange for the glorious wonder working power of the Holy Spirit.
Amen