Don't Get Discouraged By Criticism: Why God LETS You Have Haters...

 K mention fighting fish to train them 

I was reading a comment someone had posted online. The young woman wrote...

"I have been so discouraged lately. I've been experiencing so much criticism. I've been crying every day."

So how do you deal with criticism? And, importantly, how do you deal with negative, discouraging words and crude behaviors from your haters. For starters, stop letting them in your ear. You should only have God's Words about you in your ears.

Oh, haters....Where would we be without them? I'll tell you. If we didn't have haters we might not know that we're on the right track. You see, haters are drawn like bees to honey. Meaning, demons can see your potential and are on assignment to stop, block, distract and dissuade you. As one pastor said about demons that come against us, they've literally looked into our future and can see what we're going to become. It's their goal to try to block us because secretly they're afraid we'll succeed, i.e., grow strong enough to come against - and remove THEM. So, what's a hater? Glad you asked.

In my own life, I had haters and didn't even know it. I worked on a job and didn't know the enemies I had were REALLY against me. I just thought they were mean girls, you know, like high school drama? It wasn't until one day when one of my haters admitted that she HOPED I would get fired. My mouth flung open in shock because I NEVER did anything against this girl. But, I didn't know how much they secretly envied me. It was then that the Holy Spirit started showing me MORE how they were trying to set me up to fail but they failed instead. How do I know? The pit the enemy digs for us they fall into instead. So, that's a hater on the job, right? But what really surprised me was haters in church, in our business and in my own life. 

We were traveling when a customer's order came in and I thought "Uh, oh." I KNEW what he ordered I couldn't send right away because it was a gift set and had to be assembled. I thought, "Maybe I can prep the supplies here and send it to him?" But I knew that would delay the shipping time which I didn't mind because I could offer him free shipping. Instead of going with "what I thought would work" I prayed and asked Father God what to do. The Holy Spirit said, "Cancel his order". I said, "Okay, Lord. I will obey." Now, this was the SAME DAY the order was placed. I canceled it, sent a refund and an apology. Instead of accepting and receiving that like most Christians do, this person did something really wicked.

The customer went online and posted a terrible customer comment that was completely false. He said that we refused to send a refund and were intentionally holding his funds and that he had to contact his bank. I thought "Wait, what?" It was a hater and I knew EXACTLY WHERE it came from because I looked at his address and it was from the same location as a former employer - who was a hater that Father God warned me about. So, we've covered haters on the job, and haters in business, but what about church? Surely there aren't haters at church, right? Wrong. And, this was one of the biggest eye-opening experiences for me.

I helped someone with a ministry event, gave 200%, above and beyond. I thought we had a "good" working relationship, right? I mean, why wouldn't I? We don't assume that people are against us. Sure enough, one day I got negative feedback on our store's page and I thought, "Huh?" Negative feedback doesn't just happen unless it's someone intentionally trying to sabotage you. And, after a little background investigation, we found out who was behind it. 

The same person I helped with a ministry event was the one trying to sabotage us. This person "pretended" that they had placed an order with us and used someone else's picture to leave negative feedback. I questioned if they were also pretending to serve God or pretending that they were kind and supportive. I mean, I was in shock and for this specific reason. This person, when they were preparing their ministry event went into so much detail about how we as Christians are to serve God in spirit and in truth. I just couldn't fathom how they could now secretly go behind the scenes to try to rip my business apart. I knew it was the devil who is the accuser of the brethren. What made it worse was that they ripped us apart in a scathing, negative comment about products they never ordered or received! When I realized it was the person I helped with a ministry event, I forwarded the evidence to them in an email with the fake image and fake account information they used and politely asked, "You do realize this is illegal and we can sue you for slander?" They made up some excuse and we never heard from them again. But, the Holy Spirit said something about how they would lose their business and might never go into business again. And, I understood why. 

When we serve God, similarly to that "Spirit and Truth" scripture, we can't do things behind the scenes and think God doesn't know or see. Father God knows our thoughts before we even think them. So, here I was with all these different incidents and I started to question why we have haters. Father God said, "They're there to distract you." And, that's an area where now more than ever we have to equip ourselves with knowledge, strengthen ourselves and get a hold of our feelings/emotions. You see, the mark of the beast is coming and it's here. Father God said that in Messages from God. He also said it's witchcraft so we know it's "anything that goes against God".