You MUST Walk Away from These People | Pray For God To Open Your Eyes

[Music] you see whenever god has a plan the devil works in the darkness trying to thwart it where there is jesus christ the devil has the antichrist or the spirit of antichrist working where god had a plan for mankind in the garden of eden here came the serpent to work in opposition so you see at times some people have to be removed from our lives because they are being used by the devil but you see god always wins god's will will always prevail so regardless of what the devil plots and plans god's divine plan for our lives is what will prevail for someone who's in a toxic relationship you'll find that they are so consumed by the drama in their life that they can't focus their energy anywhere else let alone prayer a toxic person in your life can also influence you to do evil the apostle paul wrote do not be deceived bad company ruins good morals bad company often brings trouble so the lord in his wisdom in his love and mercy the lord will remove someone that we might not even realize is dragging us down let's say you had a car and something wasn't quite right with it you would take it to a mechanic so that he could look over it well the lord looks over us the lord looks over our lives and sees all of the problems that some people cause in our lives the best remedy at times is for him to remove them all in all we need to trust god the lord has a purpose for everything that happens in our lives and for us as his children we need to trust him because he is in control and he knows what he is doing he allows both good and bad things to take place for the fulfillment of his divine plan jim rohn is credited with saying you become the average of your five best friends it has also been said show me your friends and i'll show you your future well there is some variable to how much we become the people around us the truth is the friends and family we choose to surround ourselves with make a huge impact on our lives their attitudes and lifestyles rub off on us and ours rub off on them that is why it's crucial to beware of the people we surround ourselves with we have to have good company so the lifestyle of some does not rub off on us and discourage and hinder our faith there are instances where god has to remove someone from your life so that he can enlarge your territory a story is told of a pastor who had been called to take over a small congregation this was a church that had less than 100 members but when he got there he encountered great difficulty a lot of people were difficult to work with a lot of people were fighting him as he tried to do the work of god so this pastor and his wife prayed and fasted asking the lord for direction now the lord opened his eyes and spoke to his heart and it came to light that there was a lot of division in and among the members of this church but there was a core group that stirred up a lot of the division in that church now the pastor worked hard and through prayer this group of about 20 members left one by one as they didn't agree with the changes that the pastor was enforcing after that core group left the congregation was even smaller it nearly halved but with those that remained there was a sweet spirit that began to cover that church those that were left were united they became a church that prayed together a church that loved one another but more importantly they became a church that genuinely sought after the presence of god within a year the church grew to from just about 50 members to over 300 that congregation continued to grow until they had over a thousand members now the lesson here is that some people had to go because they were hindering the work of god and they had to leave when it looked like the church was losing it looked like the church was shrinking but god was in fact working to uproot the weeds that were hindering his church how about in our lives who are the people that god needs to subtract in your life so that he can enlarge your territory who are some of the people that are hindering god's work within your life who is it that's holding you back be careful that you are not holding on to people who god wants to subtract from your life paul the apostle warned the church in corinth to beware of particular groups of people they took that as a rule to not associate with anyone who has sin in their life paul responded by saying in first corinthians 5 verse 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters in that case you would have to leave this world he tells us that if we want to only associate with those with no sin we would have to go to a different planet as well we would not be able to associate with ourselves as we have sinned in the bible we see that jesus was often seen with the sinners the outcasts the prostitutes and tax collectors he was often around those who were seen as the bottom of society although we're supposed to be aware of certain groups of people that does not mean we never associate with them it means we put our guards up so their sinful lifestyle does not rub off on us the first person we need to look out for is the skeptic you can identify this type of person by their speech they may say yes they believe but will often add a but to the end of their sentence for example they'll say things like i believe in god but that could have been a coincidence or they'll say something like i believe god can heal you but maybe your body healed because you started eating differently you see with this type of person you want to acknowledge and praise god but they will not join you in this they want you to question god instead of pointing to the hand of god they will tell you it was just science or coincidence that something happened the next group to be aware of is the dividers those that love to cause division and often wear it as a badge of honor romans 16 verse 17 to 18 speaks directly to this type of person it says i appeal to you brothers to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught avoid them for such persons do not serve our lord christ but their own appetites and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive according to the book of romans the heart behind the divider is wrong they are feeding their own evil desire they want people to fight with each other as they do they can trick those who are weaker into being influenced to their side it gives them the power and control they want if you find someone who is constantly causing fights beware of them as they do not have your best interests at heart the third group to be aware of are those who are proud and arrogant these people often make you think that you don't need god they try to get you to trust in your own resources and wealth instead of giving credit to god they point back to their own personal talents and work ethic what these people don't realize is that god is the one who has given them the wealth and