0:15

Hey, hey, hey, welcome back everybody.

0:17

We hope you're having a great day, wherever you might find yourself.

0:21

We're so glad that you came back to Campbell Soup Podcast.

0:26

Campbell Soup Podcast. It just gets soupier and soupier every week.

0:32

I don't blame me. Okay, let's jump into it then.

0:36

Rachel keeps me in line. What is our topic today, Rachel?

0:39

So we're going to be talking today about the burden of a critical spirit, and we've just been kind of talking through this because, if you're like us, it's really easy to slip into being critical.

0:50

It's really easy to start seeing the negative, the worst, the scariest, instead of seeing with our faith eyes, and so we want to talk about that today, because a critical spirit really is something that we take on, that God has not called us to, created us for taking on, and so it becomes a burden in our life, it becomes a heavy weight that we just want to maybe talk about, bring out into the open, so that maybe our prayer is that the Holy Spirit might show you where you're being ripped off or where you're carrying something God hasn't called you to carry, because it's critical, it's a critical spirit.

1:27

Yeah, and they recently did a study we were talking about this of two twins in Philadelphia and one ended up in prison.

1:36

So they're biological twins, raised in the same home, had the same opportunities, even physical, I mean, everything was the same.

1:42

Raised in the same home. One ended up in prison, one ended up as a CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

1:48

And so they interviewed him and they interviewed the one in prison and he said of course I ended up in prison.

1:55

If you would have seen my home life, if you would have known who my parents were, if you would have seen the opportunities, I of course I would have ended up here.

2:02

And then, of course, they interviewed the CEO of the Fortune 500.

2:06

The other twin was raised in the exact same environment and he goes of course I would end up as a CEO.

2:12

If you would have had my parents, if you would have had my upbringing, if you would have had my family, you would have had the same thing.

2:19

And so a critical spirit can rob you and I of actually of what we're supposed to do, and so a critical spirit can rob you and I of actually of what we're supposed to do, and so that critical can just it'll change the way you begin to process information, which will then cause your actions to actually keep you from being everything that God has called you to be keep you from being everything that God has called you to be.

2:46

It's so important to talk about this because I think Israel and I both, we're not talking from a place where life has always been really easy.

2:53

We were talking from a place where there have been moments to be hurt.

2:56

I think that in order to deal with a critical spirit and I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, but for me, the critical spirit is not what takes place first.

3:07

What takes place first is the pain is some sort of cut, some sort of a wound that we don't allow God to really heal, we don't walk through the process of, and then that turns into critical disappointment in someone that you trust causes.

3:22

If you don't allow that healing, if you're not honest with it, all of those things then all of a sudden, the fruit of the pain is a critical spirit, and so we don't want to be like you know.

3:33

You just need to be positive. Here's 10 steps on how to turn something negative into a positive, because that's not actually going to deal with the thing that has caused that seed of being critical or being cynical into your heart, and so I think that we have to identify why am I critical?

3:51

And in the seasons where I have started being critical, it always was birthed out of some sort of attack that came against my heart, and so the pH balance of the soil of our heart is really what we're talking about today, and the fruit of that is a critical spirit.

4:08

Yeah, and I mean to sum that up in a different way of phraseology, but a critical heart usually comes from a misunderstanding of God's grace in a situation and so either due to pride or just simple lack of information about God, because if it was just pain because all of us have had pain, but it is understanding of that God's grace, like you were saying, for the pain, because if we don't understand God's grace, then we never get healed, we never experience God can heal that and, like you say, it will fester and then it becomes critical and all of us.

4:46

The Bible says it rains on the righteous and the unrighteous and when it says that it's not just talking about Seattle rain, it is talking about that we'll all go through pain.

4:55

There's not a person we have in church or in life that doesn't have a story.

5:00

In fact, the more we hear their stories, the more you're just like, wow, you know, you hear their story, but how they what you were saying process the pain will keep you from being an overcomer or critical because of that pain.

5:16

And God's grace is there for all of us through all of those pains and just saying God, I need your grace to get through this, I need your grace to forgive.

5:24

I need your grace to get through this. I need your grace to forgive, I need your grace to heal, and without that, we just begin to be critical.

5:30

And I like what you said, because it was like you said started out with a pain and then it started to become cynical, and then you become critical, and you and I were talking about back and forth.

5:41

The compounding interest of a critical spirit is exponential.

5:48

You know what I mean? It just keeps growing, it multiplies, it snowballs, and so it's never like no, I'm just going to be a little critical, nobody's a little critical.

5:59

Nobody gives a description as oh, that person's a little critical, no, it's actually.

6:04

It just begins to snowball until you do have what we would call a critical spirit.

6:11

Gosh, you know that's really good what you said, because for me what caused me to walk through seasons of having a critical spirit, that I had to come and go to God, give Him that burden.

6:21

But that's so true because just because that's my story doesn't mean it's the only way.

6:26

So for me, pain caused criticism that turned into a critical spirit.

6:31

For you it was more stopping to recognize the grace of God.

6:38

Right, like that's another way it happens, where all of a sudden pride sits in, where we think somehow we have to deal with the things God uses us for and then all of a sudden we're critical and judgmental of others.

6:48

And I would say another way that a critical spirit for me telltale signs for me is when I'm really tired.

6:56

When I'm tired I've been doing a lot of events, I've been speaking, I have a lot going on in the home and I'm emotionally taxed.

7:03

It seems like that can be a moment where I have to be really aware to guard my heart against a critical spirit when you're tired.

7:10

You know, I think about Elijah when he sat under that broom tree and it says that he was depressed and he was saying he was the only one.

7:18

Everyone else was a sinner. That was a critical spirit really against himself and against God and against other Christians, and I just weariness and being tired is another way that we can, you know.

7:28

So we're not. We're not wanting you to feel bad, we're not wanting you to go, man, that's me.

7:33

I have a critical spirit, I'm failing, but more welcome to the club and there is a way to live better and not start having that bank account full of having critical thoughts and being a critical person.

7:45

Yeah, and it's found. That's what I love.

7:47

What you said is it's found all through the scripture.

7:49

So it's. We're not, you know, it's not just this generation or just the social media world that we live in.

7:56

No, there's been critical spirits all through the Bible, and massive ones, like, you know, the 10 spies that could see, and they even said like they, they, they were able to see some of the things like, oh, it was a land full of milk and honey, but then they were critical of the giants.

8:12

And then, um, there's that story of Elisha, where the gatekeeper, you know, there's a prophetic word and God's going to do something.

8:19

And the guy's like, well, even if, even if he could, how would it happen?

8:22

And Elisha's like, well, even if, even if he could, how would it happen? And Elisha's like, well, you'll see it, but you won't experience it.

8:27

And he died at the gates. And so I think, yeah, what you're saying is we are totally, we have been guilty, but by God's grace, somehow we have not let that compound and you can stop it.

8:41

The Bible says out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

8:45

And so if you can clean, as Rachel said, if you can begin to, you know, deal with those heart issues.

8:51

I loved what you said. Sometimes it's tired.

8:54

Sometimes, for me, I get critical when I'm not doing good.

8:58

When I'm not doing good, then I become critical of somebody who is doing good and I find flaws in it, so that I don't have to necessarily step up or get healed or, you know, maybe put the effort into so then I can become critical to somebody.

9:16

So it is something that we all deal with, huh.

9:19

Yeah, yeah it is. And you know, having a critical spirit is a lot like having bad breath.

9:23

Yeah, yeah it is, and you know, having a critical spirit is a lot like having bad breath, I would say, because people who have bad breath, you know, our masks during COVID taught us all that we all have bad breath sometimes, right, and I think that there have been moments where we need each other to be like hey, here, take this mint you just have bad breath.

9:41

It doesn't mean that you're dying.

9:42

It doesn't mean, you know, you can absolutely live with bad breath, but a lot of people aren't going to want to be close.

9:48

And it is the same with a critical spirit.

9:51

Sometimes, when we have a critical spirit, we don't know we have one because, like Israel said, we've, we've accumulated to this place where being critical is totally our way of life and so we don't recognize it.

10:05

And so we again. We're always talking about community, but I think when we do carry a critical spirit, community is the most important, because we won't be able to smell our own breath.

10:15

And being critical all the time does not make you someone people are gravitating towards, to be close to.

10:22

And that's the reality and the truth.

10:25

And Israel has told me before when I've had bad breath and I've told Israel why, not because I'm trying to take him down a notch, but because I'm fighting for him, because I want him to be his best self, I want him to be able to, I wanna watch and guard him when he doesn't know something, and he is the exact same way with me.

10:42

I think that, as brothers and sisters in Christ, we should make critical people feel uncomfortable, being critical not by bad mouthing, but being like hey, you have a little bit of bad breath.

10:54

Why don't you just treat that so that people will want to gravitate toward you?

10:59

Well, you're the master of it, but I think we should change the title to bad.

11:02

Critical spirit is a lot like having bad breath, because that is just now, I don't know.

11:07

Wow, I'm always last minute with my brilliant, yeah, and so you want to add a minute.

11:12

I mean, let's talk about that. What do you do? You bring awareness to it.

11:16

You add something to it, new Testament, add to your faith, and so you have to add it's not just if you're a critical spirit.

11:25

You can't just go, oh well, then I'm going to stop being critical, and it's like bad breath.

11:31

You've got to add something if you're going to get past that toxic thing.

11:35

Rach, this is so good. Now I just want to talk about bad breath symbolism and change it into that, because it's really so true.

11:46

There was something that you said on that, though, about having community or having somebody say that to you.

11:53

Number one choose somebody that's also not critical, because that can damage you.

11:58

And it does seem like we gravitate. Don't we the people that will take what we're giving?

12:02

Yep, and then you can just shrink that and then you can just be critical.

12:06

Then you'll be hurt even more. But I also like how you say it and I've had to do it is when you say something to me, I don't take it as a slam, I just know that you're trying to make me better, and though not everybody could do that, not everybody has the right to do that to me, and so it's not just opening it up to anybody.

12:28

You have a right to do that.

12:30

But if somebody else, some, there's other people that did that, that would be creepy.

12:33

You know what I mean? Yeah, totally.

12:36

And so there would be others that maybe do it, that I would go.

12:39

Well, thank you for letting me know, and you know.

12:41

Thank you, at least for the mint. And then I also know, because of the times you've told me it's usually after preaching, mouth is dry, or you know what I mean, all those things.

12:55

Well then, now I just know how to carry some mint. So now I learn these are the times that I'm critical, amazing.

12:59

These are the times when I really need to, you know, add some stuff to that.

13:04

So, anyhow, and we need to be able to do that with our spiritual life.

13:07

We need to be able to go. When I'm tired, I shouldn't be talking about stuff because it's going to lean towards being critical, and I do think it's a muscle.

13:15

You know, having a spirit that speaks.

13:17

Blessing over others does not happen naturally.

13:21

Our flesh doesn't like doing that, Our flesh doesn't like admitting we're wrong, Our flesh doesn't like forgiving and our flesh doesn't like blessing others when we're not feeling good about ourself and so, knowing that then we go oh yeah, well, I'm going to kill my flesh by doing it more.

13:37

And Israel and I, I think that we have decided that in the last couple of years, where there've been moments of like extreme pressure and loss, with people moving away and you know all the things and everyone has stuff, you can make your own list.

13:51

But when we're walking through seasons that are taking all of our faith and it's taking all of our strength, we're probably going to lean towards that temptation to be critical.

14:02

I wanted to read this because I just love it. In 2 Timothy and chapter three it's Paul talking to Timothy and he's telling Timothy in the very beginning, in verse one, through like five.

14:13

He's just saying perilous times will come, People will be lovers of themselves and not lovers of God.

14:18

They'll call things that are evil good and all of these things.

14:21

And can you identify with that is what we're seeing in our world right now.

14:25

But I love 2 Timothy, 3.10, and I love what Paul says to Timothy after saying all those things he says.

14:30

But you, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, which is different, my purpose faith, patience, love and endurance, persecution, suffering what kinds of things happened to me and all of the different places I went, persecutions I endured, yet the Lord has rescued me from all of them.

14:48

In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived Verse 14,.

15:00

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and what you have become convinced of, because you know that you have learned it and how, from infancy, you have known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise through the salvation of faith in Christ.

15:25

Verse when we're talking about a critical spirit, because we can make excuses. The government's deceiving us, and so I deserve to be critical.

15:28

People that are pastoring are sinning, so I deserve.

15:30

They deserve me to tear them down. My, you know, whatever it might be, we all we can.

15:35

We're smart people. We can come up with reasons why we have permission to be critical.

15:40

But I love what Paul says to Timothy. He's talking about the whole world, all hell's breaking loose, even coming against him, persecuting him, and he says you've seen how I've lived and you've seen that every time I have faced something in my life, you have watched how God has come through and you need to live differently.

16:01

That's basically what he's telling Timothy in second Timothy 3, is don't take the bait, Don't be someone with a critical spirit who amplifies the sin and darkness, but live your life differently.

16:13

And that's what God is asking and offering to us is don't be like the rest of the world.

16:21

Just because others are doesn't mean God's calling you to Don't be like the rest of the world Just because others are, doesn't mean God's calling you to.

16:26

Yeah, and I heard this that a critical spirit can also be seen as a perversion of discernment, and so we can spiritualize our criticism.

16:36

So then, now we have an.

16:42

Well, I need to. It's kind of like what you're saying is that there's these people that are like you know, whether it's church or whatever.

16:45

It's almost like God has placed you on the planet to be the critic, but it is actually a perversion of discernment and so you know, and we don't want to be that person.

16:58

That's always, you know, the critic, and they always say the loudest booze come from the cheapest seats.

17:05

And I think the um, the greater the critic.

17:08

It's usually um projecting something.

17:11

That's, like you said, whether that's a hurt or not, seeing the grace of God, tired, whatever the thing is, but it is um trying to keep and it just the worst part about it is um, it affects your life.

17:25

Like you said, it's bad breath, people don't want to be near you, but it's way more than that.

17:29

It will affect your marriage, it will affect your career.

17:34

There'll be places where you don't understand why you don't get promoted and somebody else does, and it'll be because of the opposition of that critical spirit.

17:43

You'll wonder why. Why is marriage so tough and rough?

17:47

Critical spirit Dealing with your kids as they grow and as they mature Don't want to be around you.

17:55

Critical spirit. Church world Nobody wants to go out to eat with us after church.

18:03

Critical spirit it's pushing people away.

18:06

Church critical spirit it's pushing people away.

18:11

And uh and it is one of the enemy's greatest tactics is for us to even somehow spiritualize it too.

18:14

And then we start hiding more and more because it's like well, we're the only ones that really get the discernment.

18:20

No, it's a perversion of discernment, it's a critical spirit, and the great thing is we don't have to live that way but discernment, you know you can discern good too.

18:29

I love that you say that like a perversion of discernment, because whenever we talk about discernment, we're talking about seeing evil.

18:36

But discernment, it also takes discernment to see good.

18:40

And you know that scripture that says set before you is life and death.

18:45

Therefore, choose life. You is life and death.

18:51

Therefore, choose life. And we have to be people who train our hearts and our minds to see what God's doing and not what the enemy's doing all the time.

18:56

Not always see the death. Set before you in the same instance is death and life.

19:02

And we're so good at seeing the negative.

19:06

Oh, that guy doesn't know this. We say so much negative and so easy, but can we train ourselves to see the life?

19:13

Because God says it's set before us? And you know I we were talking about um in every person and we'll probably do another podcast about this, but I heard this quote that was um in every person is a King and a fool.

19:27

And whichever one you speak to will grow.

19:29

And uh, we're so good at speaking to the fool, we're so good at speaking the death parts and seeing, well, this person this well, they failed at that, you know.

19:39

Or whatever we maybe it's not a person, maybe it's a circumstance, maybe it's your job, maybe it's a relationship, maybe it's your relationship with the church, but whatever it is set before you is both life and death, and as long as we're on this earth, we're going to see the broken and we're going to see the purpose at the same time, and a person with a critical spirit will always see the brokenness before they see the purpose.

20:02

Hello.

20:03

I don't want to be that.

20:04

Oh, my goodness, so good. The discernment to see good.

20:07

Okay. So you talked about and I thought that was so good, is okay.

20:12

However you were hurt, however you were raised, maybe it's muscle memory, now it's just your critical.

20:19

What do we do from today on? How do we break a critical spirit?

20:23

What are some practical things to do that break a critical spirit and to start choosing life and to start seeing the spiritual discernment of critical what is the good?

20:37

How do we train ourselves to do that?

20:39

How do we get the compounding effect of choosing life versus being critical?

20:45

So I think one of the things that I think is so important we have said it, but the ability to find something good in anything is a great trait to begin to do.

20:57

I know we've done things like to our kids.

21:00

Hey, name one good thing that happened at school today, one good thing that happened in your life today to train our spirits to not just find the negative.

21:11

And I remember when Phoebe was a little bit younger, you know, just doing conferences and seeing people and stuff.

21:17

There were just certain people that she didn't like, and that's okay.

21:20

You know, not every person has to be your favorite, but she just was starting to be a little bit critical of, maybe, a delivery, or you know, a pastor did something that she just thought she was a little bit off color and I was like, yeah, absolutely nothing wrong with you know, you know, examining that and not liking it for yourself, but what did they do Brilliant, what did they do Great?

21:42

What was something? And she began to do that, like, oh, you know what?

21:46

I? I yeah not my favorite communicator, but how they did this was brilliant and I'm going to learn how to do that, or I'm going to do that, and so that would be mine learning to find something positive before you can say something negative, maybe, or not negative at all.

22:05

What about you, rach?

22:11

not negative at all. What about you, Rach, I think too, coming out with the fact that you're negative, that you have a critical spirit and really admitting that and admitting it to God and also maybe admitting it to some people you trust?

22:19

And I like what you said earlier. I think when we have a critical spirit, it's become habitual, and so then everyone around us is used to us being Debbie Downer and everyone around us knows what our response is going to be and we just kind of cope with it, and I don't think that that's the healthiest way to do it.

22:37

And so I think you, you hold.

22:39

You hold me as my husband who loves me, you hold me accountable, and you'll be like Rachel yeah, that's true.

22:45

But what about this, this, this and this? That are all good things happening, and sometimes I don't want to hear it, Sometimes it's annoying, Sometimes I want to be a whiner, but most of the time it's so important for me to change that and not feed off of the negative.

22:59

So I think, admitting it and repenting of it and asking God to convict you and be like God, help me be uncomfortable speaking death over people and things.

23:08

Convict you and be like God. Help me be uncomfortable speaking death over people and things and then having people in your world too that you're like.

23:11

Can you just, you know, maybe we have a code word.

23:14

If we're around a bunch of people and you know I'm insecure and I start acting critical because that's my go-to, Could you, could you help me with that so that I can?

23:36

stop that habit and start new ones.

23:39

I think it's really important to include others in breaking being critical.

23:43

Praiser will be a critical person, and I didn't say worshiper.

23:48

I said praiser, because there is a difference between praise and worship.

23:52

Wow, sorry, it's good.

23:54

No, I think this is really important.

23:56

Because praise is a weapon and praise is really a act.

24:04

Praise is really a action, it's a faith step, it's declaring who God is, even when you don't feel like it.

24:15

The most powerful praise moments in the Bible were not done in a vacuum of blessing.

24:21

They were usually done in a chaotic, enemy attack.

24:26

Because of the praise of who God is, it turned it around.

24:30

And so I just think of that scripture where Saul was tormented by a spirit and then David began to play the power of praise against the spirit.

24:42

A critical spirit is so much.

24:44

You know, declaring who God is, declaring what he's done, declaring what he can do, really begins to chip away.

24:54

And I look at it, remember the old school. I don't think they even have them on playgrounds anymore Teeter totter.

24:59

You know the teeter totter. You'd be on one side and then the other, outweighing the teeter totter of life with praise versus criticism, you know, piling on.

25:11

And we would do that. Three or four guys would get on one side and just almost spring the other side.

25:16

So outweigh criticism.

25:19

So good, Because we live in a.

25:22

It's hard to just get rid of all criticism. It's just hard to just get rid of all criticism.

25:26

It's just hard, but you can outweigh criticism with Thanksgiving outweigh it with praise, yeah, and I would even add I think if we are going to say ways to stop criticism, this would be number one.

25:42

Number one is praise, because it outweighs the negative and critical that's in our world, but it also disrupts, it interrupts the mindset and patterns that we have going on, and so praise disrupts that.

25:56

When you look at Old Testament praisers, it says that it sent ambushes through the enemy's camp, that there is confusion, it interrupted the plans of the enemy, and so when we praise, it's not only just building our own spirit, it's interrupting the lies of the enemy, the negativity, the things that are going on in our atmosphere.

26:15

And then worship establishes the Lordship of Christ.

26:18

So praise is more about creating the freedom in the atmosphere so we can go into worship.

26:24

So that is so important.

26:42

That's so good, Israel. If you're an employer or a parent, learn to praise.

26:47

Praise your spouse.

26:50

Praise your spouse instead of just critical you didn't do the dishes right or you didn't praise your kid yeah, they didn't do this.

27:02

But can you find somewhere to praise them in?

27:04

Praise an employee?

27:06

Praise them in?

27:12

Praise an employee yeah, they're a knucklehead, but learn to find what they're doing well and you will see results.

27:16

Praise a boss yeah, Praise the boss.

27:18

Hey, thank you for doing that. You do really good at this and I think you'll really see some transformation.

27:24

Yeah, I love that and I would. I would just say to fasting from negative thinking and stopping it like cold Turkey, not, oh, I'm only going to let a little bit a day.

27:35

I'm only going to have a little bit of sugar. Well, I don't know if you're like me, but I can't just have a less sugar.

27:39

Some people are disciplined enough. I have to, like discipline myself.

27:43

No sugar, no sugar. I have to break it, and I think for me too.

27:48

I think different personalities are different, but I think when it comes to being critical, it really does accumulate, it really does start new brain patterns in your head and it really does become habitual.

27:59

So in order to break that, you have to stop it fast from doing that.

28:03

And whatever you want to grow, you feed. Whatever you want to die, you starve.

28:07

So starve the critical talk, starve the critical thinking in your mind before it even comes out of that mouth of yours.

28:15

And then feeding positive.

28:17

And so what Israel was saying is practice being positive.

28:21

Practice, not talking about the thing that's bugging you right now, but practice.

28:25

But what do you see? That's good, and the Bible talks about this.

28:29

All of this is so biblical and we could go through scripture after scripture.

28:32

But whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, whatsoever things are praise worthy and honoring, you know what are those things and beginning to put that in your diet and starving the other, you will see so many breakthroughs in your life.

28:48

Yeah, think on these things is what the King James version says.

28:52

Think on these things, think on the blessings, think on the goodness of God.

29:01

It'll change because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Hopefully this helps, hopefully this is a breath meant into your and my life.

29:08

I don't think I'll ever forget that analogy, rachel, and I think I want to use it all the time is God, help me, come on, we want to have that.

29:18

We want to reflect God's glory, we want to speak God's glory.

29:22

It's hard with critical bacteria, backwash mouth, whatever all that is, but we can with God's word.

29:30

Amen, yep.

29:30

I think the easiest way to earn favor with man is just to stop the criticism.

29:35

Being non-critical is so attractive.

29:39

I love it. Give me a kiss because.

29:41

I just you have good breath.

29:43

That's it.