A Critical Spirit Merely Speaks A Reflection Of Itself

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.  And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. 

Along my journey in life the Lord showed me this,that a critical spirit merely speaks a reflection of itself. I say showed me because he taught me,it finally jelled,and I understood.

This was a tremendous help for me.It helped me stop and think about why I was getting mad,it helped me not to get upset at what others did or said.To recognize the spirit.

For instance I would get angry if my husband even looked at a show on television that had a woman scantily dressed,he could not change that channel quick enough before I would tell him how bad he was,he should not be watching that ,he was unfaithful etc.It often ended up in a nasty little argument,that benefited no one.I would condemn who he was as a person.I would be critical.

Yet this was not the real reason I said this. The real reason was I was so insecure,I could not love myself,let alone accept that he loved me. I struggled with this for a long time in my life.I spoke out of this fear.

This was not the only area I would do it. I had others as well and bit by bit I had to start to see what it was in myself that was causing me to act this way.

Even though I loved Jesus,I stilled struggled in many areas of my life,God continually works on them,as He knows when I am able to deal with them.

When my husband was still a non believer and I was growing however slowly,in Christ,my husband would often attack my character. I learned not to react that he was just speaking of his own self.I did not have to get mad,he was no different than I.He to had his own areas that he needed to be delivered from.

For instance he would tell me I was unkind,selfish and self centered. One day I just turned to him and said I am sorry you feel that way about yourself.He looked at me like I was nuts but was quiet.

When we become critical we do so from our own places of weakness. Every time our fingers want to point out at someone,we should turn them back to point at ourselves.

Learning to recognize the critical spirit and what it feeds on helps me to not react in an unloving way to others.Just let it go,do not argue. For spirits that seek to cause division like to see us battling with each other.


Now if someone is critical I realize they are speaking truths that they feel about themselves. Pray for them,it is much easier.I now know some of their weaknesses.

I also see when I am being critical,that I need to look at why I did that.What is the root of it.

I asked my husband one day to forgive me,for the Lord had shown me I had reacted and argued with him,caused division because I was struggling from within myself,from my weaknesses.At that time he was still not submitted to Christ. I told him for the first time about some of my insecurities.It felt so good,I asked him to bare with me as I tried to stop acting out from these places.When I did act out I would always go and say sorry as soon as I could.Always praying,please Lord may he forgive me and forget what I said,that it would not stay in his mind.

In fact I use to share with a friend,that I was so embarrassed because I put my foot in my mouth again and had to go apologize,that I was sure God used my feeling of embarrassment to teach me to stop!

Eventually I did stop for the most part,the spirit seemed to fade away as we stopped feeding it. Of course subject to being human,it does still get the better of me on occasion.