The undefeatable power of a clear conscience!

What does one do as a believer in Christ Jesus when others choose to defame you and your name and say all manner of evil against you falsely for His name (the Truth’s) sake? Are you supposed to publicly answer those who publicly defame you? I believe the Word of God has given us clear answers on this.

For one thing, according to the Scriptures, being defamed and lied about is a real blessing. For Jesus Christ said this:

“Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. “Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Mt 5:11-12

My wife and I have been very blessed this past year as have some others we know. I have an unexplainable peace and inner joy with a clear conscience even though I am aware that others have been fed many lies about us and may actually have developed a false picture of us (or others) from these lies. But it is true that the power of a clear conscience can not be defeated. In spite of the incessantly creative yet severely perverted and untrue stories told, I am stronger in Christ than I ever was before the experience of being severely lied about this past year. Here is the thing I answer to my accusers as it is obvious to my conscience before God regarding their choice to lie about me without repenting yet -I am clean! You are not! I know this! And so do you! And you must live with this fact daily unless you repent! I do feel sorry for your struggling conscience.

This blessing of a clean conscience while suffering false accusations seems to be continuous and I am thankful for what Christ has promised. As He has said, we are blessed and joyful with His inner peace. Christ gave the perfect example of enduring those who lied about Him. This was the method God permitted Satan to use to publicly humiliate and place our Lord on the Cross. Yet for the joy that was set before Him He endured this humiliation, despising the shame. Yes, at the end of Christ's time here on earth it was the ordained season for Jesus to be quiet as was prophesied:

“He was led as a sheep to the slaughter;
And as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.
in His humiliation His justice was taken away,
And who will declare His generation?
For His life is taken from the earth.” Acts 8:32, Is 53:7

But Christ Jesus entire life was marked in the Holy Scriptures with continuously speaking out loudly against the false leaders of His day. And this is what drove those mad --who loved their darkness-- as they forced Christ to the Cross through much false witness about Him. Satan will always try to extinguish the bright burning fire of Truth when his servants are threatened with being exposed. It is foolish and clearly false to say Christ's example was always to be quiet in front of His accusers. I have spoken more to this matter on another post called "Contending for the faith" . And it is wonderful to remember the words of Paul here as we know our Lord will always succeed:

"Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place." 2Cor 2:14

And He is the author and finisher of our faith as we keep our eyes on Him and His example.

Also, false accusations helped developed the character of Christ in Paul the Apostle. And our God uses this to do the same for us. If you have been falsely accused in Christ you may have been forceful and successful in your witness against the dark, for this was the norm for Christ and His most serious and outspoken followers. Never forget that there is a reward for those who have honestly endured the lying attacks of others that choose to cut you down when you are speaking the truth --of your own personal witnessing not of hearsay-- about them to call them to repentance and protect others from their error.

It is interesting how there is an accusation out there which says that me and my wife are "ringleaders" working against Mike Peters and his group. For Paul was similarly accused of being a "ringleader":

"For we have found this man a plague, a creator of dissension among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. "He even tried to profane the temple, and we seized him, and wanted to judge him according to our law. Acts 24:5-6

Paul was publicly spoken evil of here... "a plague"? "a creator of dissension"? "tried to profane"? So also, some would attempt to judge us according to their own man-made own laws! I count it a blessing to experience --in a very small way by comparison-- what the Apostle Paul had to go through. Praise God!!!

And Christ’s Apostle Paul said this happened to him and declares what he has done about it here:

“being defamed, we entreat.” 1Cor 4:13

As those who are defamed know in their consciences that they are being lied about, so those doing the lying know they are not telling the truth by the definition of truth. Therefore, we entreat (or appeal to) them to repent and turn honestly to Christ and be honest about others. Don’t forget, God has made it clear to our consciences that they are lying as we know for a fact that they have lied about us. Therefore, we can say without a doubt in our heart that they are in sin and must be called to repent. It is our responsibility to reveal or expose this sin of theirs, just as much as when any other sin we witness of others --who claim to belong to Christ-- needs to be dealt with in love by truth when it has not yet been acknowledged or repented of. And public sin means public repentance. So the answer to the question…Are you supposed to publicly answer those who publicly defame you? is clearly, yes! Unless God has placed it on your heart to be still for a season and for His reason.

Paul, for the sake of his testimony to the Truth of the Gospel, defended many of the specific false accusations which were put against him to discredit him as can be seen in his epistles. With love and truth, we are to do the same. This is why I have not let lies about me or my wife persist or go unchecked and I will not. I am not an apostle of Christ but I am an epistle of Christ as Paul said of believers in this way:

“You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.” 2 Cor 3:2-3

And when someone is out to deface the message God would have us convey to others --through the true and specific testimony of Christ’s work in our lives-- this violent and sinful act should be confronted and exposed completely. Always balancing this with the knowledge that God --through His Sovereignty-- will deal with them otherwise as we leave them in His Hands through prayer.

The Apostle Peter offers this encouragement to those willing to expose the darkness of ungodly liars and deceivers who have an appearance of righteousness but inwardly prove to be ravenous wolves as we come to know them by their deeds:

“And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. “And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.” But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.” 1Pet 3:13-17

I would never say that I have not sinned or that I am without dealing with repentance of sin to some degree daily until my death or Christ's return. But whatever sins I have committed in my life --of which I am aware of through through the Holy Spirits conviction-- I have repented of this under conviction from God. Of all the judgments and extremely false accusations spoken against me personally, only a small fragment of it has some traces of truth to it. Most of it is completely false and fictional, and absolutely none is true of the evil spoken against my wife, Jen. It has been a severe shame of our accusers and I trust God will continue to expose and judge them for the protection of others. I think these men who have chosen to lie about my wife and I could have succeeded better at selling ideas for ungodly fictional novels with their ability to imagine and create such carnal stories. Yet even any traces of truth --to their far fetched accusations-- are buried in the sea of God’s merciful forgetfulness accomplished through Christ Jesus my Redeemer from the foundation of the world and at the moment of repentance.

Paul himself had to admit that he severely sinned against Christ by persecuting His people. Peter had to admit that he sinned through denying he knew Jesus, and again --even after his conversion and being filled with the Holy Spirit-- he then gave way to fear in legalism for a season. I have sinned in my past in ways I regret to this day. Yet the sin --which is magnified and multiplied publicly by those wishing to hide their own deceptions through attacking those who expose them-- was not known to others in any other way but through my own foolish and willing confession to the masked cult leader in Indianapolis named Mike Peters. My "confession" was extremely exaggerated by him long after personal conviction and repentance before God and after I was already washed from the real sin. With God as my witness, if I had not repented the day of my sin and confessed to some friends (none of Mike Peters people) in Tampa, no one would likely have known of this sin in any other way. For none of my accusers witnessed this in any way except that some of them may have met the girl involved long after she had also repented and returned to Christ as well. I thank God she did not fall for the deception of Mike Peters but rather returned to Tampa to a church fellowship there, not of Peters. It is because I hate sin in my life that I chose to repent of what I had done before the eyes of God alone. It is because I didn't continue to trust in God's grace that I foolishly confessed to a legalistic and controlling liar. King David had a true prophet come to tell him of his hidden sin to then repent of it after one year. But by God’s convicting grace --coming from His invisible Holy Spirit-- I had repented immediately without the influence of ANY mere man. And I had witnesses to this same day repentance in Tampa, FL. Again, these were not of Peters group. I have shared more on this in a post called "Redemption from sin OR Regurgitation of sin" .

There is a balance in this however. God may permit others to attack us falsely through lies because He wishes to keep us humble and growing in grace and truth, always remembering His mercy. What is the antidote for treating those blinded with hypocritical puffed-up pride as they speak lies attacking us? It is in the humility of knowing our weaknesses, the grace in knowing Christ’s forgiveness, and the love in sharing the full truth for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Consider King David again. As recorded in 2 Samuel 16, when Shimei falsely accused David of a sin he did not commit, David forbad his men from harming him and permitted the reviling. David perceived that this might have been a way of God correcting him for the real sin he did commit and also thought that God may bring a blessing for his enduring this false charge. How does this apply here? We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. Yet, though God will never hold a repented-of sin against us, He may permit Satan to attack us in such a way so as to invoke the memory of how merciful and forgiving our God has been to us even when we have failed Him so severely. It is not the guilt --that Christ has already cleansed away-- which we remember, but rather His great mercy on our sinfulness. In all of this, God is good! I have made another post before speaking to this matter and called it "Anger and Bitterness".

As repentance has occurred, and we have renounced things of the past, we do not lose heart. But with our consciences cleansed by Christ‘s Blood and empowered by the Holy Spirit of Truth and Grace, we can do all things through Christ Who strengthens us. Even those used of Satan are tools in the Sovereign Hand of God to form us into His Son, Jesus Christ’s image. Yet we know Satan is on a leash and will soon be crushed under our feet after we have suffered a while.

“And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.” Rom 16:17

“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.” 1Pet 5:6-11

I know there are others who can share this prayer with me and my wife…

Thank You, my Lord Jesus, for the strength You have been producing in me as I receive the insults of those who accept lies as a way of living while claiming to be Yours. Please continue to strengthen the consciences of the innocent and confound the thinking of the proud. We love You and trust You to do what none of us --Your children-- can do. Amen.