This was a post on Facebook today by the very prophetic and motivational Lance Wallnau.

If the devil can’t stop you – he’ll join you.

It happens like this. After a long season of resistance you finally break out. You start growing…there’s a demand for you, your ideas, your product, you’re speaking and now for the first time the problem is created by success. Where do you go when you have multiple invitations? Simply put, success breeds opportunities. And opportunities are of two types – good and bad. Saying “no” to an opportunity that does not relate to your mission is not easy- but it is necessary. By hiring the wrong employee or getting involved with the wrong alliance or committing yourself to the wrong project you waste time and money and progress. Be careful who you add to your team, beware what crazy idea comes at you. Keep your mission clear and if the initiative does not fit or expand your mission…move on. If the person is not absolutely needed and a good fit…don’t hire.
The devil will join you with the wrong advice, wrong people, wrong projects…all costly and time consuming. Be aware that favor is a “shininess” factor that attracts all kinds of people who have plans for your life. Keep you head clear. Not all opportunities come from heaven. Stick to your mission.And when in doubt. pray with your spouse about any commitment you have doubts about.

Last night, and over the course of recent weeks, I’ve talked to a lot of people who are ‘movers and shakers’ in the Kingdom of God. ALL are under very heavy, direct, personal attack, whether it is to do with ministry, money, friendships, health – well, you name it. I re-posted a Joel Osteen comment yesterday:

I know from my own experience of recent years that it is such a beneficial thing to have such people as he talked about around you, especially when your life is often spent with needy people. As I thought about this quote, someone commented that they thought this was contrary to Jesus’ lifestyle: truth is, Jesus DID, of course, bless the poor, needy, unfortunates. But he didn’t spend his time with ‘time-wasters’ and ‘drainers’, people the enemy puts into your sphere of existence to ‘pull’ the life out of you, the use you to extend their own ministry… Jesus didn’t hang around the Pharisees too much, except to tell them they smelt bad, were hypocrites, blind guides, rotting corpses (I know a church whose ‘motto’ is ‘God is always in a good mood’ – seems there’s one – along with countless others! – that might prove otherwise!): he didn’t go chasing after the rich young ruler, who couldn’t – wouldn’t – sacrifice what was most precious to him. I don’t know who Joseph Campbell is, but I saw this on Facebook the other day, and it’s spot on:

• ‘We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the life that is waiting for us.

Where your treasure is, there your heart is too…. I know plenty of people obsessed by pensions, money, possessions (maybe I’m just a bit of an oddity here, having ‘lost’ the only home I owned to go to Bible School, and lost my possessions 4 times!).

I’ve found out, the hard way, more often than not – that seems to be the way I learn! – that those people are there with you all the time your life is ‘going well’. When trouble comes – as it always will (‘In this world you WILL have trouble…’) – they disappear out of your life quicker than you would ever dream possible, because you cease to be useful to them: or, once you’ve ‘sussed’ them out, you discover that they weren’t ever really friends at all.

Lance says that the devil will ‘join’ you with such people, invitations, advice, projects…God, give us WISDOM (wonderful word in Spanish! – ‘sabidurea’) to know who to spend time with, who to be accountable to – every one needs accountability – who to take with us on our adventure into the Kingdom as it unfolds ahead of us.

Many, many years ago, I heard the excellent Gerald Coates say this: ‘When there is one other person who knows everything there is to know about you, you’re free!’

I’m so, so grateful to God for people like my amazing Rhino mates – Eric, Russ, Mike, John, Steve, Nick, and Phil, who know me inside out – and STILL love me! – and Alan, Ian, Drew, Jules and others, who know me the same way, and protect me from people who are users and drainers… through THEIR wisdom, I’ve shed a few people in recent years, some of whom I’d have once called ‘close’ friends – but close friends who, once my life hit the buffers, which it does from time to time, disappeared quicker than a five pound note in Tescos!

Thank you, Joel Osteen, thank you Lance Wallnau, thank you Rhinos and other dear friends….