Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. Revelation 12:10
The devil stands day and night accusing us before God. The critical spirit accuses also. The result is to stir up trouble within the body of Christ. The enemy must be laughing at all of the disunity within the body today. I am not speaking of matters of real doctrinal importance. We always must adhere to the entire teaching of the Bible. I am speaking about the petty differences that cause division, animosity, gossip and slander. We forget the warnings from Proverbs:
It is foolish to belittle one's neighbor; a sensible person keeps quiet. - Proverbs 12:11 (NLT)
Sometimes there is a lack of sensibility within the body of Christ and the critical spirit can take over. Because of our natural born penchant for sin, we would prefer to hear bad news than good. We would rather hear about someone's struggles because innately it makes us feel a little bit better about what we struggle with. The "at least I am not that person" syndrome.
Lastly in understanding the critical spirit we must realize that the goal is discouragement. It may be dressed up with good intentions. I have seen countless times prayer used as an excuse to gossip. I have heard self righteous reasons why a criticism was being leveled. The truth remains that the goal of the critical spirit is to discourage us. I have seen the results of discouragement lead to people forsaking church altogether. That is exactly what the enemy wants however because it is easier to work on you alone than when you are around people of like faith. Ecclesiastes teaches us:
Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. Ecclesiastes 4: 12
As humans we can tend to focus on the negative more than the positive. Just watch the evening news. But remember for every critical spirit there are more encouraging ones as well. We should not forsake the fellowship of the brethren:
Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:25
And the day is approaching. Jesus is coming back for His church. Between now and then we are charged with a work and the enemy will use anything to make us ineffectual for the work God has called us to do. The critical spirit is just one weapon he uses.
What is the remedy then? What do we do when we encounter the critical spirit or when we become it? When encountering the critical spirit we must be steadfast in not enabling it. We can sometimes be too polite and allow slander or gossip a place to foment. Gossip has no place in the lives of believers and listening to gossip is just as bad as spreading gossip:
