This message was shared by Apostle Kathryn Krick, Lead Pastor/Apostle of 5F Church, in Los Angeles on March 8, 2026. To watch the full video, scroll to the bottom of this post. We pray this teaching blesses you and equips you to walk as a powerful vessel of God. 

I’m going to teach today how to overcome the accuser of the brethren, the devil. I taught a little bit about the accuser of the brethren last Sunday and Wednesday, and I’m going to be teaching more in-depth on this topic today. If you have not watched last Sunday’s message or Wednesday's message, they are very important messages, so make sure you watch them.

Matthew 13:24-25 

Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away.”

The devil comes in the mind. The spiritual war we are in is in the mind. This can be through thoughts the devil sends or by building on our own thoughts. Maybe it’s a fleshly thought, maybe a negative observation or opinion or perspective about something. It’s not necessarily that it's from the devil, but then the devil can build upon that thought that we have. We have to be aware that there is a war in our mind. It can come from the devil planting thoughts, the devil building upon our own thoughts, and the devil can also send dreams. The devil can play God, pretend to be God, disguising himself as the angel of light, as the Bible says, and send dreams or thoughts that maybe don't sound inherently evil. This is the devil being tricky and pretending to be God. And then the devil also comes in the mind by speaking through other people. The devil can have other people say something that’s shaping a narrative that he’s trying to build in your mind. This could be about yourself, about other people, about the future, or about God. We have to be aware that this spiritual war is in our mind, and these are the different ways attacks come: dreams, thoughts from the devil, our own thoughts he builds upon, and through words of other people.  

2 Corinthians 10:5 

We are destroying sophisticated (spiritual) arguments and every exalted and proud thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought and purpose captive to the obedience of Christ.

This Scripture reveals to us that the spiritual war is in the mind. Much of the spiritual war that we are facing is in the mind, through the devil coming in the mind. 

As believers, we are at war with the devil but it’s not an everyday combat with the devil. The more you follow Jesus, the less he’s allowed to attack. A lot of people are unnecessarily constantly at war with the devil or constantly being bombarded by the devil because they have doors opened—they’re giving the devil access. Some people are giving the devil access every single day, and so the devil is attacking people every single day. But when you give your life to Jesus and you learn about the principle of keeping doors shut to the devil and how to keep them shut, the devil can’t attack you every day. 

When you’ve been in deep bondage in the past, your soul is not transformed immediately. Once you become a believer and you keep doors shut to the devil, your soul can kind of have a mind of its own. It’s not necessarily that the devil’s coming in attacking or demons are coming in your house, but your mind has been wired a certain way, to think like the devil, to be like on a negative frequency. This has to be rewired and transformed and renewed by the word of God. Some people may be feeling like they’re being attacked every day but it’s more so that their mind needs to get rewired from the devil’s ways.

The longer you follow Jesus, the further you get away from “Egyptland” of bondage, and the closer you get to the promised land—the further you get from the devil’s familiar voices. It's like when you leave a city on a boat, at first you see the city lights; you might hear city noises; you might hear sirens when the boat first pulls away from the dock. But the further away you go, the more those noises disappear. That’s how it is with the devil. The more months, the more years you follow Jesus, the less you’ll find such a frequent battle in the mind. But it doesn’t mean that don't ever have a battle in the mind again. Actually it now starts to look like what we see with Jesus. Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit to go into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil for a time. That was a refining fire. It was a testing that God needed him to go through before He began His ministry. And when the devil tempted Him, the Bible says after Jesus won every test, the devil left Him “for a time”—meaning, he wasn’t attacking Jesus every day. Jesus didn't have to fight the devil every day. But there would be specific times when the devil would come and attack later. 

Once you become a believer and as your mind is renewed and you get away from Egypt and you’re not facing such attacks every day, from time to time, the devil will visit. From time to time he will come up with this strategic attack and plant things in your mind. A battle in the mind may come. 

Matthew 4:3

The tempter came to [Jesus] and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

Matthew 4:6-11

“If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

The devil spoke to Jesus, even using the Word of God. The things that the devil spoke to Jesus didn't look inherently evil. The Bible doesn’t actually clarify if it was an audible voice or if it was just in the mind, but we see that even Jesus had times when the devil would speak to Him. So we as Christians better not sleep. Especially as you have become totally surrendered to God, you’re walking in abundant life, and you are free, whereas before you were facing attacks from the devil so frequently. Now you’re not. Now your life has so much peace, so much joy, all the time. Praise God. We have to realize we’re not in heaven yet. We have to be aware. We have to be awake. We’re not done with the spiritual war yet. So we have to be aware. Don’t forget! Life can be so good and amazing, with Jesus in the anointing, in revival, but you can’t forget that there will be times like Jesus had when the devil will speak. And the purpose, the motive of the devil, the reason he’s speaking is because he’s trying to trick you. When he comes and speaks in the mind, he’s not going to speak such blatantly evil things, especially when you’ve been following Jesus for a while and he doesn’t have that access anymore to remind you of the past so much. Because as you continue to renew your mind and reject the devil, the Bible says he has to flee (James 4:7). For some who were tormented for a really long time, their soul has to go through a lot of transformation. It’s not immediate! You reject him and you have to keep rejecting him until you see him fully flee! 

We all have to remember that we’re here on earth, living heaven on earth, not in heaven totally. We have to be aware of the devil’s schemes and that he can come from time to time. 

1 Peter 5:8 

Be sober [well balanced and self-disciplined], be alert and cautious at all times. That enemy of yours, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion [fiercely hungry], seeking someone to devour.

The biggest way we need to be alert and cautious is of our mind, our thoughts, our feelings. To not be quick to think that a feeling is true, that a feeling is from God, that a thought is true, that a thought is from God, that a dream is true, that a dream is from God. To not be so quick. We have to be aware always, instead of just jumping quickly on something we feel or a strong feeling we have. Just because you have strong thoughts and strong feelings doesn’t mean it comes from God. 

I’m going to teach you now how you can discern the thoughts or feelings you may be having, especially concerning other believers. 

Genesis 15:1-5

After all these things happened, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. God said, “Abram, don’t be afraid. I will defend you and give you a great reward.” But Abram said, “Lord GOD, there is nothing you can give me that will make me happy, because I have no son. My slave Eliezer from Damascus will get everything I own after I die.” Abram said, “You have given me no son, so a slave born in my house will get everything I have.” Then the Lord spoke to Abram and said, “That slave will not be the one to get what you have. You will have a son who will get everything you own.” Then God led Abram outside and said, “Look at the sky. See the many stars. There are so many you cannot count them. Your family will be like that.”

God said, “You will have a son.” Using wisdom, we should discern that God would clarify if it wasn’t supposed to be with his wife Sarai, who became Sarah, right? He had a wife, a godly wife. So that was the word of God that he could use with wisdom. God didn’t say, “I’m not going to make Sarai to conceive. She has infertility problems and I’m not going to heal it.” He doesn’t say that! It was God's will for his wife to conceive. And that was how he was going to have a son. 

Genesis 16:1-2

Sarai was Abram’s wife, but she did not have any children. She had an Egyptian slave named Hagar. Sarai told Abram, “The Lord has not allowed me to have children, so sleep with my slave. Maybe she can have a son, and I will accept him as my own.” Abram did what Sarai said.

So Sarai listened to this narrative of the devil that came: “Because you're old, you can’t conceive” even though God had spoken. This is an example of how the enemy can bring a narrative, an idea, a suggestion. So this suggestion from the enemy was sneaky because it wasn’t inherently evil what Sarai was suggesting, for Abram to take Hagar, to sleep with Hagar, because she wanted to see the promise come to pass. This looked like a good thing, right? So the devil spoke to her, “Ahh, we have to see the promise come to pass. Here's a way that you can knock on doors, use wisdom to see the promise of God come to pass.” You see how the devil can be tricky? If you’re not awake, you can be deceived. 

So Abram did what Sarai said: 

Genesis 16:3-4

So after living ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai gave her Egyptian slave to Abram as a second wife. Abram slept with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When Hagar realized this, she became very proud and began to feel that she was better than Sarai her owner.

Here we see how the devil wanted this all along. This was his master plan: “I’m going to have Hagar seem humble at first, like this is a good idea. And then I’m going to send a narrative to Hagar. I’m going to put in her mind that she should have pride.” And then we see this chaos, this mess, that comes from listening to the devil's narrative that comes in the mind. We don’t see it at first, but it comes. 

Genesis 16:5

Then Sarai said to Abram, “My slave girl now hates me, and I blame you for this. I gave her to you, and she became pregnant. Then she began to feel that she is better than I am. I want the Lord to judge which of us is right.”

Sarai was the one that told Abram, “Do this!” But here the devil came again and she fell for it in her mind: pride and blame. 

Here an example of how amazing people of God, Sarah and Abraham, could be tempted by the devil. Even when you’re anointed and you are a warrior in God’s revival army—you’re leading in some way—even then, the devil can visit. You need to be aware! 

A big scheme of the devil today is to bring division among believers in the body of Christ. He does this because he knows the power of unity. The Bible says, “A kingdom of God divided against itself cannot stand” (Mark 3:24). This also means that the more united we are, the more powerful we are for Jesus, the more unstoppable we are, the more the devil goes down, and the more united we are. And this unity looks like little things adding up. It doesn’t mean that every night, we say a prayer, “I pray and love and unite this believer and this believer and this believer”—and we go through a list of a billion believers around the world. This powerful unity comes by little things adding up—loving your neighbors, all of them, even the ones you don’t know who are on social media, like ministers. Loving all of them—your enemies, the people who speak against you, who speak against the work of God. (I have many messages on this, like Loving Your Enemies.) Love for your enemies doesn’t mean you have to have a warm fuzzy feeling. But it means to not have hatred and bitterness in your heart and to choose to not speak negatively—to choose to forgive them and to speak forgiveness. Make sure you renounce and let go of all unforgiveness, bitterness, offense, and hatred. 

When we all do this, when we all live in this way of love—loving our brothers and sisters that we know and that we don’t know—it adds up to so much unity in the body. Even all of us at 5F Church—I know that God is really going to bless our obedience to Him and He is going to increase this Church in LA in His perfect timing. He’s going to increase it so much! And already, for God‘s glory, we are being leaders in the body of Christ and in this global revival army. So what if all of us here in one church, just one church, all committed to being united? Imagine how much change could come in the world because God has placed us in this position of being leaders, of taking dominion! I share that for you to know that this word is really important today. I also share it for you to see the power that you have in having a heart of unity and love for your brothers and sisters. 

Now I want to reveal this scheme of the devil to bring division in the body of Christ, and for you to see just how horrible, disgusting, and dangerous division is. The devil will speak narratives about other people in your mind—negative narratives about other believers. He will do this in different ways. First, when a person makes a mistake. Everybody makes mistakes. Some are visible to others, others are not, but everybody makes mistakes. So if a mistake is visible to a person then the devil can send lies to that person. It starts being like looking at the speck in somebody’s eye when you’ve got a log in yours. The devil sends accusatory lies towards that person: “You see this mistake they made, that means this and this and this.” He creates a narrative that there’s something really wrong with them, that they could be dangerous to be in close relationship with, etc. But we all make mistakes, and if someone were to see your mistakes, then the devil would also send people narratives like you’re getting about that person. So we’d better not judge, and instead work on ourselves. 

Matthew 7:1-3, AMP 

“Do not judge and criticize and condemn [others unfairly with an attitude of self-righteous superiority as though assuming the office of a judge], so that you will not be judged [unfairly]. For just as you [hypocritically] judge others [when you are sinful and unrepentant], so you will be judged; and in accordance with your standard of measure [used to pass out judgment], judgment will be measured to you. Why do you look at the [insignificant] speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice and acknowledge the [egregious] log that is in your own eye?”

It’s powerful that says “insignificant speck” because many times, someone may make a mistake, but it’s the devil who’s being judgmental in your mind and creating a narrative that this mistake is a bigger deal than it is, when the truth is that this person isn’t an angel—they’re a human being, and they are not perfected yet. They’re on a journey, just like you, to be transformed more into the image of God. And we all have weaknesses, so their weakness might be different than yours, but you have a weakness nonetheless, and we’d better not be prideful to think that their weakness is worse than our weakness.

Matthew 7:4-5, AMP 

“Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me get this speck out of your eye when there is a log in your own eye? You hypocrite (play-actor, pretender), first get the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” 

Sometimes there isn’t even a speck in someone’s eye. Jesus was judged so harshly by the Pharisees. They had a huge log in their eye and they were trying to take a speck out of Jesus’ eye, but he didn’t even have a speck! And that could be the case today. The devil can send a negative narrative about somebody based on a mistake that isn’t true, like a false accusation about this person. It could be that in your past a person really hurt you and then something that this person did reminded you of it, so then the devil can build a narrative, “This person is really dangerous, like the last person who was dangerous.” The devil will try to build a narrative upon misunderstanding. Like when they misunderstood Jesus, thinking He was going against the word of God when He was praying for people on the Sabbath, for example, but they were just misunderstanding Him. He wasn’t going against the word of God.

I remember my sixth grade teacher was one of my favorite teachers. She was so kind, and she wasn’t judgmental in any way, but she asked my mom, “Is Kathryn OK? Because in class she looks very serious and sometimes she sighs.” 

Does anyone relate with this? Sometimes you feel like just taking a bigger breath? Sometimes I’ve done that and people look at me and wonder, “What’s wrong?” So I was just breathing in class, and that was the moment, in sixth grade, that I realized that when I concentrate, I have a serious face. I didn't even know that because I’m not looking at myself when I’m concentrating. Nothing was wrong at all. That was a blessing in disguise because it opened my eyes to how we can be misunderstood. That’s a blessing because it teaches you that you can also misunderstand other people, especially if you’ve been misunderstood. 

I was talking with a family member recently and she was telling me how a lot of people think she’s angry and moody. When she told me, I could see what she was talking about. Some people are created beautifully, but just the way their face looks naturally might come across as very serious. And the devil can bring a narrative just by someone’s face. And the devil can put these thoughts, “This person is thinking this about you. This person’s upset with you. This person doesn’t like you.” But in reality, this person isn’t even thinking about you, they’re just listening to something or thinking about something else in their mind.

We have to remember that. There could be misunderstandings, and the devil loves to use those misunderstandings to create narratives in one’s mind. And he can be very crafty about it so that it really makes sense. 

So those are the main ways that the devil likes to bring narratives. He can also bring the narrative beginning with a dream or he can build upon that narrative by giving you a dream and it becomes this confirmation. So we have to be aware of that.

I want to help you understand why the devil loves division so much: because he’s trying to get you to be blocked from being blessed by a relationship. This is what happens when people are against true servants of God. The devil has fed them a narrative—it could be based on their own personal feelings of jealousy or on a misunderstanding. They don’t understand a certain doctrine or they don’t understand why a minister did something or said something—it doesn’t make sense to them. Just like the Pharisees didn’t have revelation of Jesus, of what he was teaching and doing. The devil then builds upon that, and when a person isn’t awakened to see, “This is the enemy building this narrative,” then people can decide to hate that person for their whole life. That’s why you see such intense hatred towards true servants of God, because people have accepted that narrative. They need to humble themselves so that someone can help them and God can open up their eyes.

The devil loves division in that regard because think of how many people hate servants of God, when God actually had called them to receive from that servant of God. Think of how many people today are oppressed by demons, sick, stuck in life, or not walking in their callings. Some people even have a calling to ministry, and they feel passionate about ministry, but they carry no power of God. And there are people who are attacking servants of God, who hate servants of God, who are supposed to receive from—that was a great blessing God was going to give them, that vessel of God. That was how God was going to answer their prayers. That’s the case for a lot of people who hate servants of God and who attack servants of God. It’s the devil’s scheme. That’s why he loves this division—because he’s holding people back from being blessed by the unity that comes with that relationship, whether it’s a one-on-one relationship, like a Jonathan and David relationship, where you both will be blessed by that relationship, or if you’re called to be a spiritual son or daughter of this servant of God. 

If people were aware of these schemes of the devil, they wouldn’t be so quick to speak against servants of God. They’d think, “Wait, this might be my blessing. The devil‘s after my blessings. The devil’s after my calling. The devil’s after seeing me be free. I’d better wait a second because there are testimonies here. This seems like something the devil would do to try to keep me from receiving from God.” 

People need to wake up. People are sleeping in the body of Christ, and they’re just hurting themselves and the body. They think they’re helping the body, but they’re hurting the body, and they’re hurting themselves. 

The devil also loves division because he loves to try to bring pain to servants of God through persecution. This is one of the big ways he tries to get servants of God or future servants of God to give up: by the pain that comes through other people hating them because of the devil‘s narrative about them. 

Lastly, when there is division between two people, there’s a broken link, and the army is weaker. The devil knows how powerful we are when we’re united, so he’s trying to chip away at how powerful we are as an army by bringing division to try to make us weaker. He loses today!

We need to love people in the world. We need to love all the people who are not believers, who don’t know Jesus yet. This is how they come to Jesus, by our love. “The kindness of God leads to repentance” (Romans 2:4). I did a message where I teach way more on this, specifically about loving people who are in the world, who are not believers, called Mercy Over Judgment. So you can watch that message to learn more about it. We have this calling to really love people in the world—not judge them, not accuse them, but have grace and compassion. Of course they are sinning because they don’t have Jesus yet. How will they receive Jesus? Not by us judging them, but us being kind, loving, and shining our light. The kindness of God leads to repentance. 

We also need to love other believers. We need to love our brothers and sisters, to love them well and to make the intention to love them. We need to be aware that the devil is trying to get us to hate one another—not everybody, but one or two or three people. And it could be a scheme of the devil in the mind for us to think, “Well, you love most everybody; it’s just a couple, a few, that you don’t love.” We need to love everyone. And we need to be aware of the scheme of the devil to try to get us to think wrongly about our brothers and sisters. We need to see our fellow brothers and sisters as teammates. We need to really see them that way. On a basketball court, if you were to think, “I’m not going to pass the ball to this person,” you would lose the game for your whole team, not just for yourself. So we need to renew our minds and see all of our brothers and sisters in this way—that not loving them means we’re not passing them the ball. It means we’re holding back our team from being as powerful as we could be in Christ. And this is being spiritually mature. 

To be spiritually mature is to really get to know God‘s heart. As you know God‘s heart, you get to know more and more each day how much he loves people and how much grace He has for people. I’ve learned so much of that walking in my calling, especially with my enemies. I don't see the fire of God immediately coming down on them even though I know evil that they’ve done. I see God’s mercy and grace; I see God being patient and not desiring them to perish but desiring them to come to repentance. God has so much patience with us. He doesn’t judge us along the way when He waits for us. He loves us through it. He waits on us. He has compassion. He has understanding. 

The devil brings fear. When you feel fear, it’s not of God. That will give you discernment. God thinks the best of people; the devil thinks the worst. So if you’re seeing a lot of negative about a person but not much positive, especially with a fellow believer, that could be an insight that the enemy is bringing a narrative. As I shared, the more that I serve God, I have found, the more I can love people. The more I see the beauty in people. Every person is made perfectly and beautifully, inside and out. Our love for people, for example as we think about marriage, should not be based on looks, but should be based on the heart. We should see beauty in one another because of looking at the heart. I’ve learned that the more I get to know God and His heart, the more my eyes open up to see people how He sees them, to see their beauty inside and to be able to look past faults but see the beauty, and focus on the beauty. And I also noticed that people look more beautiful, because I’m seeing them in the Spirit. I’m seeing the real truth about a person. The truth about a person isn’t their physical looks. Just like if someone’s face naturally looks more serious, that’s not the truth. The real person is who they are on the inside, and so the more spiritual you become, the more you look straight to the inside. So even those of you who are married or want to get married, what God would like is for you to be looking purely on the inside, and you will find each other so beautiful, even if it’s not what your physical preference was originally. 

I want to share with you discernment on how to know whether it’s the enemy bringing a narrative about somebody. People have different personalities and backgrounds, and some people need to be transformed in some areas concerning their backgrounds and personalities. But for a lot of people, their backgrounds and personalities enhance them as children of God. For example, if someone’s background is from a culture in which there was a lot of honor and respect, that culture is going to help them. They’re going to stand out—they’re going to be a leader in the Kingdom of God because of their background. And also in the same way, certain personalities are needed to be just as they are to do the work of God that God has called somebody to do. Somebody might naturally have a way where if there needs to be a problem solved or something need to get done right now, they have this quickness about them, this eagerness to jump in and help. There can be other people who have just as beautiful of a servant’s heart, of a heart to help, but they just weren’t given the personality of jumping in to solve something. They more need to be told what to do, but that’s not a bad thing. We need both. We need that balance. So God knows what He’s doing when He’s creating all of us. He knows what He’s doing, with these different personalities. But what tends to happen is that when someone has a different personality than you, you can think there’s something wrong. This is how the devil can plant narratives when there are different personalities. You could perceive something as rude when the person didn’t mean to be rude. 

Order is very important, but there needs to be wisdom and balance where we’re not robots. Order isn’t about being robots. Let me give you an example. Some people that help me run social media. And maybe I wrote something with a typo and I didn’t tell the person that if there’s a typo, they should change it. But this person, they see it and they just change it without asking me. They do it with a spirit of helping—that's the right thing to do. But some people could say that is going out of order or that’s disrespectful. When we are doing this big work of God, things like this might happen, but a person just has to run up and help with the situation. 

I’m giving some insight of how the enemy can sow seeds of division by planting narratives about other believers because of different personalities and giftings, and all the while, we have different personalities and we’re still growing. But God doesn’t wait until we’re perfect to use us. Someone could think that someone else is going out of order, but they aren’t. Maybe this person has a different weakness somewhere else, just as you do, and they see that. Through all of that, we should have grace and love the person. We should see them as a teammate rather than judging. So I want you all to be aware of that. Those in the revival army, just be aware of this scheme of the devil. He is terrified of us being strong and mighty, and so a sneaky thing he can do is bring narratives, misunderstandings, for you to think wrongly about others. I want you to all grow to see the beauty of the revival army. 

There was a time, as Vivienne, Jeanntal’s mom, shared, that it was only her at the church. She remembers that. There was a time when Jeanntal was setting up all the tripods around the park, the piano, the speakers, and I would be preparing the message and praying in my car in the parking lot. She was getting everything ready herself. And I remember a time when I was doing all the social media, all the editing, and now, look what God has done, bringing person after person, servant after servant with different giftings. I look at Pastor Heather at how amazingly you share, with excitement, the things that God is doing in the announcements. I see the worship band—and eventually we will have more musicians so that they can take breaks sometimes—but we have the exact instruments and voices needed. God did this! God gifted you all perfectly for such a time as this. And for social media and for other things, people help me behind the scenes, running our YouTube and the podcast. There are so many different things: the cameras, those of you who serve before and after church, all the different things you do. It blows my mind to see all these different people, all these different servant hearts for God. You can just see that God sent them. God sent you here. “I created you this way for such a time as this. I gave you this personality. I gave you this gifting for such a time as this, to serve in my Kingdom, to do this specific job. I brought nobody else but you and this doesn’t get done without you. And this is going to get done with excellence because of you.” It amazes me, and no one sees it like I do. None of you see it like I do because I’m working with so many different people. I think, “This person is really gifted in this. They do things that I can’t do.” It’s amazing!

Nobody is perfect. Everyone is still growing. But God uses them; God uses us anyway. So I want you all to have this heart, to see your brothers and sisters, this army of God, how they are blessing God, blessing the work of God, blessing me, taking things off my plate, serving, blessing the world with their giftings. As you renew your mind with these truths, it’s going to help you to have more love for your brothers and sisters, more understanding and more grace, and to see people more with God’s eyes. 

Luke 10:38-42

But Martha became exasperated with finishing the numerous household chores in preparation for the guests, so she interrupted Jesus and said, “Lord, don’t you think it’s unfair that my sister left me to do all the work by myself? You should tell her to get up and help me.” The Lord answered her, “Martha, my beloved Martha. Why are you upset and troubled, pulled away by all these many distractions? Mary has discovered the one thing most important by choosing to sit at my feet. She is undistracted, and I won’t take this privilege from her.”

Mary and Martha had two different personalities, didn’t they? For those of you who have Mary personalities, you might be judgmental towards Martha. And those of you who are like Martha, you might have been confused by this Scripture your whole life. The different roles that Martha and Mary were doing was perfect. Martha wasn’t wrong in doing what she was doing. She was preparing food and making sure everything was okay for Jesus. He needed that. It was very important she served Him in that way. And that’s the way that God gifted her. Where Martha went wrong was in listening to the narrative of the devil about Mary. And that’s why Jesus rebuked her and corrected her. 

It wasn’t that Martha was doing something wrong in serving God in that way; it was that she became distracted. It could have been pride or jealousy. Maybe she started doing more things than she needed to be doing. Maybe the preparations were already finished, but she started to feel a little like a victim and prideful, “Ugh, Mary is over there with Jesus!” And she busied herself more unnecessarily, when she could have been finished and then joined Mary. So maybe out of pride and victimhood and offense and annoyance and then judgment towards Mary, she listened to the devil and spoke the devil’s words during this beautiful, anointed time. 

The point is, we have different roles. And sometimes we can be judgmental and say, “What I’m doing is more spiritual. What they’re doing isn’t as spiritual. What I’m doing is more important. What they’re doing isn’t as important.” But some are Marys and some are Marthas, in terms of their different roles. And we have to be careful to not listen to that narrative of the devil to judge others and to think that what we’re doing is better than another. 

The devil hates it when people are used by God. Keep that in mind, whether it’s people speaking against servants of God and ministries, or whether it’s your fellow brothers and sisters. We should have a heart that we’re always bringing peace and love and unity, so that they can be strong and not held back by doing the work of God that God has called them to do. And we should focus on improving ourselves and just stay focused on doing the work God has called us to do. 

It’s time to grow in unity like never before. The way you become spiritually mature and able to always be in God’s will and to have victory over the devil is when your eyes are opened up to his schemes. I want to encourage you: the next time if you have a negative thought about someone, especially a believer, remember this word. I encourage you to bookmark this word. 

Whenever you hear a message that you’re convicted by, where you know, “Oh, I need this. My eyes were really opened up,” or, “I was deceived in an area. This word opened my eyes,” this is food you need—not just today when you heard it! You have to return to this word! I really want to encourage you all in that! If any of you struggle with thinking negatively about others or judging others, I really encourage you to listen to this word a lot and meditate on it, because God wants you to be totally free from that and to have His heart for His people and to live in peace and harmony and unity.