Dealing with Your Issues By Pam Clark

Pam Clark

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A prophet often sees "down the road," and so often when people approach them about a word, there is the question, "Do they want to pay the price for the word they want to hear?"  The reality is that God wants to be personal with you, and He can be.  But sometimes He may provoke you in ways that you do not want to be provoked, to deal with issues in your life.

Often that is when prophets come under attack (you know, the one that was loved a minute ago), and what is really in the heart of the accuser comes out.   The prophet has to comfort themselves that there was a reason the person asked them.  But that is usually the issue that God wanted to deal with in the first place!  I may want to see the mountains, but miss the views because I won't work to transport myself to them!

We all can personally seek God and find Him.  It's a promise!  It is written in the Word.  So what prevents us?  It is not other people.  And the reality is that God does to a great degree respect your personal life, but we have to learn how He does it.

Are you seeking "the word" that you desire for power, for acceptance, for agreement, or for revelation?  God can give you what you want and send leanness to your soul.  The more I walk with God, the less I need the "words" of others. 

Walking with God

Are you wanting someone else to do the work for you?  God will encourage you to a certain point and then He expects you to take up your part.  At first that can seem quite frustrating but then it gets very liberating, because you realize you can do this walk with God, one on one and it is a joy!

He will incorporate you into the Body with love and service but He is most interested in your getting to know Him.  The more He will choose to use you, the more demand for that He will place upon you.

If you work to get to know Jesus, you can be thought to be a prophet even if that is not your main calling because the destination for every believer is knowing Him.  So often, prophets can discern your roadblocks and realize that you will have to work or stretch a bit to attain the promise and prize that you want to attain.

Some people collect words for themselves, but if they don't work their words, and so they are not seen as people of substance.  Substance is knowing your ground in the Lord and being able to hold on to it, not just holding a fantasy land cartoon of an idyllic life that may never come to pass except in your head.  But incredible wonders that will fill your soul with awe and amazement on who God is and can be is the true joy of the Kingdom.

Life has hard places and many want to avoid them.  But often they are stepping stones to the greater glories.  If you will learn to walk with God you will see Him working with you to come up to the higher places.  You will begin to discern that He is preparing you for greater things and making the lessons easier and quicker because He is setting the stage for it.

But if we fight the realities, we can become so self-focused that we cannot see what He is actually trying to show us.  It's very true that through faith and patience we inherit the promises of the Kingdom.  (Hebrews 6:12) 

Overcoming Evil

One thing God is going to show you is that you can overcome evil like He did.  So many live defeated lives, like I did once, because disappointments seemed to be permanent.  But it was through struggle and wrestling with God - to be in Him and not away from Him - that I have broken through to see that struggles mean something good is about to be revealed.

Acts 14:21-22 says:  And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, "We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God."

Now that is not a Scripture that most people have on their refrigerator, but they might if they really understood it.   This is not a false statement, it is in the Bible.  But the reality is in how you see it and approach it.  God is not a torturer;  the devil is.

Probably like most of you, I would like to be in my pleasure cocoon, but if I were there all the time, I would fail to get to know God on the many different levels He can be known.  He wants us to grow and mature.  When I say that I want to know Him more, I now know that He is going to take me on a journey that will provoke my soul.  But!, if I am "in Him", He will lead and guide it in such a way that I come out way ahead.

The power of salvation - that wholeness spirit, soul and body - is very real.  When I conquer things, I can then administer that salvation to other people and make the world a better place.  We need to ask ourselves who we have on the throne of our lives.  Is it us, the doom and gloom of the devil, or the Lord who IS the Resurrection and the Life?

God is not taking you through gore just to be showing you the dark side.  If He permits you to go through something, it is so that you can come out ahead.  If we willingly choose the dark side, then we will battle those effects without His strength.

When we taste and see that the Lord is good, we may want to pig out on certain things much like I'd like to with chocolate mint chip ice cream.  It shows some that I have enjoyed a bit of that already, but if I have a steady diet of that, my body and health will not respond in a positive way.

Taught by Our Heavenly Father

I could have the temporary pleasure at a serious cost to my strength.  When we over isolate ourselves, we make ourselves weak.  On the other side, some who are never alone, wonder why they never hear from God, but it is because He does speak in that still small voice, and the voice is never a final word, but a continuing word of relationship.

Obviously good parents teach their children to eat right and so does our Heavenly Father.  The more we confront and embrace life, the richer we will be spiritually.  We don't take charge of the process, but we can walk with God through it and find amazingly at how personal He in fact is.  We will find out that He delights in us, but He delights in others too.  And we are called to be His ambassadors and to carry to the ends of the earth His Good News.

If we fail to do our parts, we fail Him and the Body of Christ and our portions will be small compared to what it could have been.  People who walk with God and who hear God can usually speak for God and then they are seen as prophets.  A prophet is a person who can speak for God.  They are still humans.

If you know Jesus, really know Him, you have something to share.  We can all prophesy.  I am glad that He is a never ending God and that His works go out into eternity.  And in all that eternity, He thought of me - and you!  He has made a place for us, but we need to remember that we were created for His pleasure and for His fellowship. 

That can be conflicting when we love ourselves excessively but it is great joy when we learn how to walk in what we were designed for - and that is to rule and reign with Him.  He is not giving over His Lordship to anyone, but He will share it and He will find joy in your strength.  He is a good Parent.

Pam Clark

pamclark@prophetic.net

 

Roland Lane

2 hours ago near Columbus ·

• On Barak Obama and Foreign Policy, An Essay.
  
  The nation is now learning again the value of using some measure of caution when picking its President. Barak Obama like much of the American Democratic Party has spoken Centrist in election campaigns and governed Left with the power of the office. Fear mongering has become standard fare. (Republicans will cut off Social Security-push grandma off the cliff, kill small children and presumably eat them etc.) Election campaigning changed when Bill Clinton realized that issues, no matter how you manipulated them, were important only in relation to the image that you created of the opponent. Clinton neutralized some of the veterans support for Bob Dole by hammering that Dole would kill Social Security. Simultaneously he shored up the Soccer Mom vote with the emotional but effective pitch for safety and the very effective "I feel your pain."
  
  The image originally created by the Left for the opponent George W. Bush was that of stupidity. Bush was a stupid candidate. The stupid candidate cleaned the Democrat clock with election and congressional wins and "stupid" was discarded. The new image put out by the Democratic Party was that Bush was devious. "Bush lied, people died." Devious was good but evil was better. Katrina and the economic Crash were evil things; and although the placement of devious Bush against evil things did not make a great fit, it was good enough to win elections. Bush now had been moved from "stupid" to "devious" to "evil".
  
  The problem for Barak Obama is that word manipulation and proper scene staging worked briefly for Obama in the early years of his foreign policy. Later, his Google/Facebook friends in Egypt successfully used social media to throw a revolution. With the core of the activity played out in Tahir Square in Cairo the revolution coordinated and focused its resources with 24/7 live television. With a little help from Al Jazeera, Katie Couric et al, the supporters of President Mubarak were neutralized. For a person like Barak Obama who cut his political teeth on "community organizing" the Egyptian Revolution nailed down the notion that words had no meaning other than to reinforce the power of the activity or image of the moment. The most powerful image to obtain was the viability of my good vs. your evil.
  
  These are not new things in the study of human nature and politics, but the damage done was that Barak Obama became convinced that the notion of quick words worked in all places all the time. Foreign capitals long have weighed their foreign policy actions by the actual words of the President of the United States coupled with the long view assessment of his person. What have they learned?
  1. Barak Obama is always in campaign mode. Teleprompters and a very friendly press permitted Obama to stage an event, try a variety of words, adjust to the polls and move on.
  2. "Drawing a line in the sand" in previous diplomatic verbal exchanges would have meant in the course of 14 or 15 steps to war, the United States was approximately at level 13. Now its meaning is uncertain.
  3. Both the students of the student-led mini revolution in Iran who found no support in Barak Obama in June of 2009, and the leaders of Iran who are convinced that the United States will grant them a right to own nukes, have drawn their own conclusions about the direction of Obama and US foreign policy. The conclusion is that at best, Obama is erratic and at worst, has no direction. The students in Iran were abandoned and the leadership who had launched a massive nuclear program were emboldened.
  4.The world is now in a most dangerous place. The pace setter and leader of the free world is running its foreign policy like 1968 political Left street theater-momentary, ever changing, and contextually shaped by camera rather than history.
  5. Obama's distaste for being the world's policeman is now overshadowed by his distaste of being its leader. His belief that we as Americans are inherently evil and his notion that the world outside of the US is inherently good will surely bring disaster as nations realign for power and position using all means that each commands. It is the age old problem of all great egotists who find themselves in the seat of power and who eschew the realities of history, especially that history which they do not like. For Barak Obama, that history he does not like is that fact that U.S. foreign policy for the last 70 years has balanced power and responsibility, curtailed and eliminated the advances of Fascists, Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia and is now enjoined in the struggle against Radical Islam.
  
  This is not street theater Mr. President. It is real and the world will not be kind to itself, to you, or to the United States as it wrestles with the uncertainties and evils that will fill the vacuum you have created.

Head of the Year 5774!
At Rosh Hashanah, God positions us to gain access to fresh revelation as we celebrate Him and enter the year ahead.  The Hebraic Year 5774 (Ayin Dalet) conveys a season to See the Open Door to YOUR New Springs! This is a year to establish yourself in your inheritance, or “portion,” granted to you by the Lord.  There is a new well that is waiting for you in your land. Dalet (the fourth letter in the Hebrew alphabet with a numerical value of 4) is also linked with a door.  Go through your doors of opportunity and enter and occupy the land God has given you.  This will be a season that we see the water awaiting us, but in order to do so we will first need to go through our door of opportunity.

Receive a new anointing and be activated for the season ahead as you join us in Corinth, Texas on September 5-8 to celebrate HEAD OF THE YEAR 5774!

The Choice of Life or Death

Deuteronomy 30:

¹¹ “This command I am giving you today is not too difficult for you to understand, and it is not beyond your reach. ¹² It is not kept in heaven, so distant that you must ask, ‘Who will go up to heaven and bring it down so we can hear it and obey?’ ¹³ It is not kept beyond the sea, so far away that you must ask, ‘Who will cross the sea to bring it to us so we can hear it and obey?’ ¹⁴ No, the message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart so that you can obey it.

¹⁵ “Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster. ¹⁶ For I command you this day to love the Lord your God and to keep his commands, decrees, and regulations by walking in his ways. If you do this, you will live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy.
¹⁷ “But if your heart turns away and you refuse to listen, and if you are drawn away to serve and worship other gods, ¹⁸ then I warn you now that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live a long, good life in the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy.
¹⁹ “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! ²⁰ You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. This is the key to your life. And if you love and obey the Lord, you will live long in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

Was praying / meditating and this name came to mind Hebrew Names of God Adonai and Adonai Constructs given in the Tanakh

Introduction Adonai is the plural of Adon, meaning “Lord, Lord, LORD, master, or owner” (the word Adon derives from a Ugaritic word meaning “lord” or “father”).  In the Tanakh, the word Adon can refer to men and angels as well as to the LORD God of Israel (e.g., Exodus 34:23). God is called the “Lord of lords”(Deuteronomy 10:17) and Psalm 8:1 mentions God as “YHVH our Lord.” The plural form Adonai, like the plural form Elohim, is regularly used with singular verbs and modifiers, so it is best to construe the Name as an “emphatic plural” or “plural of majesty.” When the plural is formed using a singular possessive ending (“my Lords”), it always refers to God, and occurs over 300 times in the Tanakh in this form.

I Love Hebrew

Word of the day: Ring
Hebrew: טַבַּעַת
Pronunciation: Taba'at

Share it!

Wow-reminds me of the verses found this week with '22', one of which has an account of an altar, consisting of a 'ring' of stones-...2 Sam 21:22 or Joshua 22 ?

 

LightSource.com

Lord, no matter what happens to me this week give me the strength to push through and trust you. Amen.

The Voice of Truth

[and Faith]
Oh what I would do to have
The kind of faith it takes
To climb out of this boat I'm in
Onto the crashing waves
To step out of my comfort zone
Into the realm of the unknown where Jesus is
And He's holding out His hand
But the waves are calling out my name
And they laugh at me
Reminding me of all the times
I've tried before and failed
The waves they keep on telling me
Time and time again. "Boy, you'll never win!"
"You'll never win!"
Chorus:
But the voice of truth tells me a different story
The voice of truth says, "Do not be afraid!"
The voice of truth says, "This is for My glory"
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth
Oh what I would do to have
The kind of strength it takes to stand before a giant
With just a sling and a stone
Surrounded by the sound of a thousand warriors
Shaking in their armor
Wishing they'd have had the strength to stand
But the giant's calling out my name
And he laughs at me
Reminding me of all the times
I've tried before and failed
The giant keeps on telling me
Time and time again. "Boy you'll never win!"
"You'll never win!"
But the stone was just the right size
To put the giant on the ground
And the waves they don't seem so high
From on top of them lookin' down
I will soar with the wings of eagles
When I stop and listen to the sound of Jesus
Singing over me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth

Deuteronomy 27:6

"You shall build an alter to the Lord your God of uncut stones. And you shall offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God."

Uncut Stones is centered around the fact that God has a calling on everyone's life. Old or young it does not matter to God because all of us are special to Him. If you have life in your body, then you have a calling to be fulfilled. Deep in our core is this understanding of how important each and every one of us are to God. The streets in Heaven are paved in gold, but the one thing God treasures most is our souls. So much so, He offered up His Son, Jesus Christ, as a living sacrifice for us. Our goal is to revive the calling that God has placed in those who feel life has pasted them by, and connect them with a way to find their calling so the

Meaning and etymology of the name Reuben

Reuben Reuben is the first son of Jacob (Gnesis 29:32). His mother is Leah. Reuben forfeits his position as first born when he sleeps with Bilhah, the mother of Jacob's sons number five and six (Genesis 35:22). Reuben's progeny becomes one of the twelve tribes of Israel. '...and [Leah] named him Reuben, for she said, "Because the Lord has seen my affliction..."' (Genesis 29:32). The name Reuben is a combination of two words: The first part comes from the verb (ra'a) meaning see, look, inspect in all the literal senses and unavoidably also the many figurative ways: understand, perceive etc. Some derivatives: (ro'eh), meaning seer; (ro'eh), meaning a prophetic vision; (re'i), meaning mirror; (mar'a), meaning vision; (mar'a), mirror. The second part of the name Reuben is the word (ben) meaning son, offspring. This same word occurs in the name Benjamin. NOBS Study Bible Name List and Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names agree: The name Reuben means Behold A Son. Still, the name Reuben also means Son Of Vision, or Son Who's Seen. Other names derived from the verb ra'a are Beer lahai roi, Ezra, Haroeh, Irijah, Mamre, Reaiah, Reuben and perhaps Si

Manasseh

The name Manasseh occurs five times in the Bible. The most famous Manasseh is the oldest son of Joseph and Asenath (Genesis 41:51). Another famous Manasseh is the son and successor of king Hezekiah (2 Kings 21:1). Among the men that divorce their foreign wives during the purge of Ezra are also two men named Manasseh (Ezra 10:30, 33). In Judges 18:30 a Manasseh is mentioned among the tribe of Dan.

The name Manasseh is generally seen as derived from the verb (nasha) basically meaning forget. The name is formed by this verb, and the prefix letter mem, which may indicate the particle that means "from," hence From Forgetting. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names reads Forgetting, Forgetfulness. NOBS Study Bible Name List reads Making to Forget.

But there's quite a bit more to this name. The verb (nasha) means to forget but forgetting something to the Hebrews worked different than for us. We may forget something because it fades from our consciousness, it withers due to lack of attention. To the Hebrews forgetting had to do with an active taking away of something. Something was forgotten because God took that something away. And when God forgets something or someone (obviously impossible when forgetting works the way we know it - God can not forget the way we do), He actively pushes that someone away (Jeremiah 23:29), or that something (Job 11:6). The antonym of forgetting is remembering, and since God can not forget the way we do, He also doesn't remember the way we do. When God remembers someone, He pulls that someone close (Genesis 30:22).

And to make matters even more complicated, there is another verb that is identical to meaning to forget, and that is (nasha), meaning to lend or be a creditor. Scholars perhaps see these two verbs as separate because they seem to denote such different ideas. Perhaps it's been demonstrated that these two verbs evolved into the same form through different paths. But perhaps these two verbs evolved into the same verb so readily because when we lend to someone, we really push that something away from us. When the person who lends from us then brings it back, we remember the item. In our times of banks and interests, we think of lending completely different than the folks in Biblical times did. Possibly because only a needy person would come and ask to borrow something, Jesus insists that we don't ask back what we lend (Luke 6:34-35). Biblical lending is really quite like forgetting.

The name Manasseh, therefore, also means From A Debt. This is significant because Manasseh's brother is named Ephraim, a name with a distinctly bitter secondary meaning. Perhaps Joseph named his son From A Debt, because he figured that besides his gratitude for being rescued, he felt that either God or his family owed him a debt for tearing him away from his father.

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Gad There are two Gads mentioned in the Bible. The famous Gad is the seventh son of Jacob and the first son of Zilpah, Leah's maid (Genesis 30:11). Gad's descendants would be one of the twelve tribes of Israel. His tribe settled east of the Jordan. The lesser known Gad is a prophet in the time of David (1 Samuel 22:5). This peculiar name comes from the verb (gadad), meaning to cut, invade. When 49:19 Jacob blesses his sons on his deathbed, he says of Gad: According to HAW Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, in nine out of eleven occurrences this verb specifcally refers to an act of self laceration in an act of worship (1 Kings 18:28). Its derivatives, however, reveal a deeper meaning: • The noun (gedud), meaning a band of raiders; • The identical word (gedud), meaning furrow, cutting; and • The noun (gad), possibly meaning fortune, but the meaning of the only Biblical occurrence of this noun is debated (Isaiah 65:11). It seems that the verb indicates a cutting with the distinct purpose of laying a treasure bare. The ritualistic cutting results in the exposure of precious blood, and a raid produces loot. The name Gad indicates a fortune for which a troublesome, invasive effort is made. There are plenty of words to indicate treasure or felicity, but Leah who named the son of her maid, chooses this painful word , Gad. Perhaps the reason for this is that she gave Zilpah to Jacob only because she could not conceive anymore. In those days, that was pretty awful, even though she had already given her husband four sons. Subsequently, she harshly accuses her sister Rachel of stealing her husband (30:15). Jacob loved Rachel, after all, and Leah probably didn't conceive because Jacob wasn't sleeping with her anymore. Leah and Rachel exchange a harvest of mandrakes for the right to sleep with Jacob, and Leah conceives again. Her fifth son, Issachar, she names after the word for wage, because, she says, God gave me my wage for I gave my maid to my husband. After son five Jacob keeps coming around, and Leah gives birth to one more son and a daughter; Jacob's only. The name Gad tells of a wife's deep anguish, shame and loneliness. For the meaning of Gad, the NOBS Study Bible Name List reads Good Fortune. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names has the same, but ads Good Luck. A more accurate translation would be Harrowing Fortune.

Advertise Here •Look for baby names •Augment your Hebrew language study •Deepen your knowledge of the Bible •Enrich your cruise to or travel holiday in Israel

Micah 2:13

Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹³ The Breaker [the Messiah] will go up before them. They will break through, pass in through the gate and go out through it, and their King will pass on before them, the Lord at their head.

See "Arrows of Light" by Bruce Cockburn

Be Positive or Be Quiet

Everyone has promises they’re standing on and God-given dreams they’re hoping to fulfill. During uncertainty, it’s very easy to say, “ I can’t do that. I’m too young. I’m too old. I don’t have the connections.” But in this eye-opening message, Joel reminds us of what God said to the prophet Jeremiah. In Jeremiah 1:7, He said, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’” Why? Because there is incredible power in the words we speak. If we want to walk in victory, we can’t speak defeat. As you learn how to speak words of faith, even in the face of doubts, your words will pave the way for God to move in greater ways in your life!

Heard the tail end of this message by Joel Osteen this eve. & he made several points in reference to Jericho, Joshua, and Elisha that were so meaningful!

Lyrics:
Praise is what I do
When I want to be close to You,
I lift my hands in praise.
Praise is who I am,
I will praise Him while I can.
I'll bless Him at all times.

Chorus

I vow to praise You
Through the good and the bad.
I'll praise You,
Whether happy or sad.
I'll praise You
(this is my testimony)
In all that I go through,
(somebody said why)
Because praise is what I do,
Cause I owe it all to You.

Verse 1:
(come on church)
Praise is what I do
(come on church)
When I want to be close to You,
(I lift my hands-somebody lift Him)
I lift my hands in praise.
(somebody say it so the devil will hear you)
Praise is who I am,
(come on praise the Lord)
I will praise Him while I can.
I'll bless Him at all times.

Chorus

And I vow to praise You
Through the good and the bad.
I'll praise You,
Whether happy or sad.
I'll praise You
(Somebody lift your voice and say)

Verse 2:
Praise is what I do,
Even when I am going through,
(see I've learned...)
I've learned to worship You.
(see I want to let the devil know tonight, even though...)
Know my circumstance doesn't even stand a chance,
My good outweighs the bad.
(so I vow to praise)

Repeat Chorus

Now somebody lift your voice
And just go to praising him right now
Somebody lift your voice in this place
Lift up your voice in this place.

Lamb of God - Twila Paris

Your only Son
No sin to hide
But You have sent Him,
From Your side
To walk upon this guilty sod
And to become the Lamb of God

Your gift of Love
They crucified
They laughed and scorned him as he died
The humble King
They named a fraud
And sacrificed the Lamb of God

Oh Lamb of God, Sweet lamb of God
I love the Holy Lamb of God
Oh wash me in His precious Blood
My Jesus Christ the Lamb of God

I was so lost I should have died
But You have brought me to Your side
To be led by Your staff and rod
And to be call a lamb of God

Oh wash me in His precious Blood
My Jesus Chris the Lamb of God

Graham Cooke

“If you are going to live in a high place, you have to eradicate fear and anxiety. You must live in the perfect love of God for you. You have to know who God is for you, and you have to get lost all over again in the depth, and the bigness, and the hugeness of the love of God because fear and anxiety cannot live in that place.”

Saw this when reading reviews of the Anthropic principle...In 1990, Wheeler suggested that information is fundamental to the physics of the universe. According to this "it from bit" doctrine, all things physical are information-theoretic in origin.^[10]

Wheeler: It from bit. Otherwise put, every "it" — every particle, every field of force, even the space-time continuum itself — derives its function, its meaning, its very existence entirely — even if in some contexts indirectly — from the apparatus-elicited answers to yes-or-no questions, binary choices, bits. "It from bit" symbolizes the idea that every item of the physical world has at bottom — a very deep bottom, in most instances — an immaterial source and explanation; that which we call reality arises in the last analysis from the posing of yes — no questions and the registering of equipment-evoked responses; in short, that all things physical are information-theoretic in origin and that this is a participatory universe.

Wheeler was awarded the Wolf Prize in Physics in 1997.
Wheeler has speculated that reality is created by observers in the universe. "How does something arise from nothing?", he asks about the existence of space and time (Princeton Physics News, 2006). He also coined the term "Participatory Anthropic Principle" (PAP), a version of a Strong Anthropic Principle. From a transcript of a radio interview on "The anthropic universe":^[11]

Wheeler: We are participators in bringing into being not only the near and here but the far away and long ago. We are in this sense, participators in bringing about something of the universe in the distant past and if we have one explanation for what's happening in the distant past why should we need more?
Martin Redfern: Many don't agree with John Wheeler, but if he's right then we and presumably other conscious observers throughout the universe, are the creators — or at least the minds that make the universe manifest.

I want to look at why some use flattery, and most of all how dangerous it truly is. It would be best to start with what flattery means.
KOLAKERIA (Greek)
There is a difference between encouragement and flattery. The Greek definition of flattery means motives of self-interest. If someone uses flattery on you, they want something. On the other hand, when someone says they like the way you play the piano or guitar they are trying to say, “your dedication to learning to play an instrument is becoming evident.” That is encouragement. That kind of encouragement will cause someone to continue the pursuit of their craft, free from the strife that comes from trying to live up to the overstatements.
The encyclopedia’s definition of encouragement, means, “to inspire with hope, courage or confidence.” The Greek word for encouragement is parakaleo which means, “to call near, or invoke and comfort someone.” The Bible instructs us to encourage one another,(Heb. 10:25) but it warns us about flattery. (Rom.16:18) When someone is struggling through a trial, we are to encourage them with hope, but there is a tendency for many of us to not want to see anyone suffering, and our encouragement can step over the line and into flattery. That is one of the ways our flattery has the mark of control and manipulation in it.
In a way, Peter, the disciple of Jesus, was trying to control the Lord by saying he didn’t want Him to go to Jerusalem and suffer. (Matt.16:22) In these scriptures Peter uses the word “rebuke” when speaking to Jesus. That word means to forbid, but it also means, show honor, to raise the price of, to admonish. Peter was trying to tell Jesus that there was a higher value for Him to stay with His disciples, than to fulfill the purposes of God by dying. I’m sure Peter was hurting inside at the thought of his friend dying, so he was willing to use any ploy to stop the pain. Peter was using manipulative flattery with the hope of controlling the mind of the Savior of the world. Jesus dealt with that spirit the only way that is affective. He commanded Satan to get behind Him.
PATHAH (Hebrew)
The Hebrew explains the word flattery pretty much the same as Greek but with a few more colorful illustrations. It’s a primitive root; “usually figuratively (in a mental or moral sense) to be (causatively, make) simple or (in a sinister way) delude: allure, deceive, enlarge, entice, persuade.”
The intent of flattery is to make a person simple, or just delude and deceive them. To make someone simple is an attempt to strip them of their astuteness and discernment. There is great power in flattery and freewheeling compliments. That power is just about always used to control or manipulate in some way.
Psalm 78:35 tells of Israel flattering the Lord with their mouths, and that was for the purpose of deluding, alluring or trying to make simple the King of kings.
Ps.78:35 And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer. Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues. For their heart was not right with him, neither were they steadfast in his covenant.
It’s one thing to try to control another man or a leader using a flattering tongue, but it’s quite another to try that trick on God Almighty. We all use words to control others on very regular bases, and flattery is the worst of these weapons. But when it comes to Jehovah God, there can be no false pretense, or over used platitudes that will bring God under our control

Barbara J. Yoder

It's our heart God's after. If He has our heart, He has us. He had Moses' heart. It took years for Moses to get there, it transformed him.

 

Seems to go with the recent prophetic words spoken to me by Jennifer at the Friday night group.