“and they rose up and cast Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff.”

I suppose that all of us at one time or another have had to deal with a bully. What makes people bullies is their ability to set themselves above us and intimidate. There are a variety of bullies. Physical bullies use brute strength to create the fear of being hurt and therefore control us. Intellectual bullies point out our stupidity and inferiority. Materialistic bullies make successful acquisition of possessions the focus. Religious bullies draw attention to their righteousness, making it quite clear they are grateful for not being miserable sinners and failures like the rest of us. Verbal bullies delight in their ability to speak quickly and leave us speechless in our inadequacy. The political bully understands all the intricacies of the whole world and wonders at the absurdity of our opinions. Finally, outward-appearance bullies exalt themselves because of beauty or dress, insinuating we are ugly and therefore must take our place in the proper caste system.

When discussing bullies, we must understand two points. First, we yield to the bully the power that he has over us. We, like him, falsely believe that the greatness of a person rests in strength, beauty, intellect, material possessions, self-righteousness, or a quick mind. We allow the bully to stand over us authoritatively, for we throw flowers in the parade that the bully gives himself. The proof is in statements like this: “I feel like a wimp because I got scared and didn‰t stand up to the bully.” Who said we were wimps for not standing up to those walking in the flesh? I know who says so! The bully and those of us being intimidated, and I believe both are wrong. We must not let the bullies define what is weak, strong, intellectual, or religious. If we do, we will find ourselves with false definitions. Second, the spiritual man sets the standard! The spiritual person is judged by no one but judges all things. (1Cor. 2:15, “But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no man.”) The spiritual man refuses to measure up to the standard set by the carnal or to play the bullies‰ games that set themselves above to lord it over others. Rather, the spiritual man sets himself below all others, creating a contrast between himself and all bullies that puts incredible judgment on them. The spiritual operate from a definition of man that does not necessitate standing up to a bully, but rather loving and serving. To the intellectual we can say, “We are not wise in our own eyes.” To the materialistic bully, “We live as the sparrow and lilies”; to the verbal bully, “We bless”; to the quick in speech, “We boast in our weakness.” And to the religious bully, we can assert, “We trust not in our works, but in His.” By putting ourselves below the bully, rather than scraping and clamoring to reach his level, we conquer and overcome. Don‰t be intimidated by a bully, for in so doing you have fallen into his false concepts of life.

“This is the day which the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Ps. 118:24

A fellow came to see me who was suicidal. He had fallen back into a homosexual act. He is not a homosexual or there wouldn’t’ be the conviction of God after the act. However, he was ready to “check out”. He definitely wanted the most recent failure to be the last failure. He was less than a conqueror and was done trying.

I looked at him and said, “Today, Brother, is the best day of your life. There is no way that today could be better. If you had perfect victory in the past, today would not be better. In fact everything, and I mean everything, that has happened in the past, is making this the perfect day. For today God is going to deal with your……” I paused. He knew that I was going to say homosexuality. However, homosexuality was merely the cobweb, it was not the spider.

He stopped me, “There is no way that you can say today is a perfect day.” I replied, “You won’t say that in a minute. For today God is going to deal with your unbelief and self-righteousness!” It was perfect; it cut him like a knife. It was God and he knew this was the real problem.

We sat there, talked, ministered, and God dealt with the real problem of unbelief and self-righteousness. In the end, he walked out the door, so happy, with a lift in his spirit. He turned and said, “This is the best day of my life!”

You see, we just think we know the problem. It is always consequence, not the cause.