COUNTING THE COST

Posted on by michellethurman2344

I have been sitting here thinking about the events of this past week and feeling discouraged and disappointed. Don’t get me wrong; I have not lost faith or hope, but I never thought I would see the level of lies, misinformation, propaganda, slander, libel and just plain ignorance bouncing around the air waves, through the news media, internet and social media. I, like so many of us, have grown complacent, lazy and spoiled. It’s all too easy to voice an opinion on social media without ever having to stir from my comfortable chair in my cozy, safe space in my comfortable home. It requires little or no effort and certainly doesn’t require any change in my comfortable life.

BE THE LIGHT IN YOUR WORLD.

All that changed when I was faced with the sudden, unexpected and disturbing reality that those who control our media, air waves, internet and social media are now removing conservative voices from access to an audience and trying to silence President Trump and his supporters. When I think about the threats, nasty statements from celebrities and the verbal assaults on our president and all those who support him; when I see those who are not only allowed but completely tolerated to voice violent and hateful thoughts and ideas through social media and on news media sources, I find it hypocritical and tyrannical for these sources to silence President Trump, his supporters and conservative voices. It is a total violation of our first amendment rights to free speech and is despicable….to say the least.

Therefore, I have cancelled Amazon. This was not an easy decision for me as I have been doing most of my shopping, all my video viewing and reading books through them; but if I believe that this is an attack on my personal freedoms and on the freedoms of my country and my countrymen, and a disrespectful, treasonous action against the president of this nation, then I feel I need to be prepared to “put my money where my mouth is”…..so to speak.

Our freedom came at great cost to those who established it and fought for it. I sometimes think that we, as a people, think our freedoms came easily from a simple document signed by a few men who just wanted to see change. I’m not sure that we know, understand or fully comprehend the cost paid by those brave men. It wasn’t easy…..not for them or for their family and friends.

Of the 56 who signed the Declaration of Independence, five were captured, tortured and executed by the British, twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. In addition, nine of them died during the revolutionary war, and some of them lost sons during that terrible war. They lost businesses, property, homes and family. They were driven from the homes and families, died in poverty and lived in the wilderness in less than comfortable circumstances. They paid the price for their stand with….not just their physical deaths, but with everything they owned or held dear.

If we are to keep those freedoms, does it not behoove us to shift, at least a little, from our comfort zones? If we don’t stand up now we might, conceivably, find ourselves with no freedoms at all. We have heard from God’s prophets that God is moving to save America. Prophets from all over the world are hearing from God that this is a spiritual battle: light against darkness, death against life. God has spoken again and again through His prophets all through last year and right up to the beginning of this year. (II Chron. 20:20 “…….Have faith in the Lord your God, and you will be upheld; have faith in His prophets and you will be successful.”) But that doesn’t mean we can sit back and continue to passively quote scripture or remain complacent. This is a war; we are battling against the forces of darkness operating through the news media, government, and social media. We aren’t fighting with guns, swords, bombs or other weapons of war. Our warfare is not carnal.

II Cor. 10:4 “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” [New International Version]

We don’t need to be violent to fight this war. God is fighting it for us; but we do have a part in it….and that is to stay in intercessor prayer and to stand in the face of the persecution and attacks on our constitutional freedoms. It might come to physical battle, but I hope not; and I sincerely believe it won’t. We need to come into agreement with what God says through His prophets and His Word through prayer and we need to be prepared to give up some of our luxuries. As far as Amazon, social media and others are concerned, the best way to protest against their shutting down sites and trying to limit free speech, and our best strategy, is in the economic arena. Stop buying through them, and make them see that their customers are not going to play dead or take this assault on our first amendment rights quietly. We have a right to be heard. President Trump has a right to speak his thoughts. We don’t agree with the liberal media, the radical left or social media attempts to silence us; and we are not going to go away.

Rom. 8:31 “What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?”

We have a destiny to fulfill and God has said He will see us do exactly that. This battle isn’t just about the United States of America. It is about the world. God is cleaning house. He is coming back for a church “without stain or wrinkle” [Eph. 5:27]. Revival, reformation, restoration; the greatest harvest in history, these are the days. And America has a huge role in that. So….trust in God. Pray, intercede, stand firm; and don’t be passive. Stand up, let your voice be heard, be proactive in declaring God’s plan and His will. Don’t resort to violence, that is not right. When you do battle, do it in the spirit…on your knees with your face toward God. And don’t give up. It’s not over yet. Victory belongs to the Lord!

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Published by michellethurman2344

I was born in California, but both my parents were born in different areas of rural Oklahoma. My father grew up on a small cattle ranch and my mother grew up in the hills of eastern Oklahoma near the Ozark Mts. Both were born in the 1920's when Oklahoma was still more a part of the 1800's than the twentieth century so I like to say I was born of parents who were the last generation born during the old west. Their old west roots had a huge impact on my childhood. I spent the first three years of my life on my Granny's chicken farm. She was my father's grandmother and she owned 60 acres of alfalfa which she rented out and lived on three acres of barnyard where she raised chickens. There was some electricity, but no indoor plumbing outside of a faucet in the kitchen. The toilet was down the boardwalk in a small shed...in other words...an outhouse. The shower was a room under the water tank in the pumphouse. Granny's little three room house was the only painted building on the property. Everything else was raw, unpainted wood including the two room house my parents lived in. And I loved living on that little farm where I pretty much had free run of the barnyard and sometimes even wandered into the fields surrounding it. The town where I was born is along the Colorado River in the middle of the California desert and across the river from the Arizona desert and while we did live there for the first 12 years of my life, we moved a lot due to my father's employment. He was a big equipment operator and we moved to where the work took him, but usually only six months of the year then we moved back to our hometown. We moved to Northern California in 1958 and I have lived here ever since. I am a mother, a grandmother, have one great-grandchild and recently retired. I am divorced and now live with my youngest sister. My sisters and I like to cruise and take road trips. I am enjoying my life.

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