Test Everything

Two weeks ago I took a 24 hour trip back to the states to meet up with a guy who is moving his family here from Florida. We had originally met this man and his wife back in November, 2010 when they came down for an exploratory visit to check out the city. We will call them Tim and Lori (not their real names). Tim had grown up in the Philippines. His dad was with the U.S. Air Force and his mom is Filipino. Tim and Lori have been wanting to experience living outside the U.S. for a number of years now and have been doing their due diligence.

I had originally made contact with them through an expat blog on the internet for all non-Mexican residents here in the Yucatan. When they came down in November I met them for coffee at Starbucks and answered many of their questions on what it was like to live in Merida. Because they have two small kids (7 and 4) and because I wanted to show them that it is possible to live here as a family, I invited them over for dinner to our home the next night. Things went as planned and as we hosted them in our home the next evening I felt led to offer to drive down with Tim if/when they decided to move down here.

About 3 months ago Tim called me and took me up on my offer. He paid for my plane ticket and flew me up to meet him in Houston on his drive from Florida. His mom was with him and we all stopped for lunch before dropping her off at the Greyhound bus station so she could get back to Orlando. While at lunch I noticed his mom was praying over her food. Later I asked her about her faith and she told me she was a Christian. She was very nervous for the safety of her son on this trip and I felt the Lord had placed me with Tim to help him on his journey. So we later dropped his mom off at the bus station and then headed for Corpus Christi, TX were we spent the night before our border crossing in Brownsville/Matamoris on Saturday morning. All was going as planned.

We got to the main crossing the next day and got his paperwork done. I noticed when we were at the border crossing checkpoint that there were more police and soldiers stationed there than when I had crossed the year before. I asked someone why and they explained to me there had been a gun battle at that exact location the day before. Consequently, they had a soldier positioned on top of his military Humvee with a loaded 50 Caliber machine gun pointed directly at cars as they came into the area. The Humvee was positioned amongst a small detachment of soldiers on foot. So we moved through the border crossing and headed for Tampico. That was our first destination on our first day of driving.

We made really good timing our first day inside Mexico and arrived in Tampico about 4:30 PM. We checked into a nice Holiday Inn on the northern outskirt of the city and got settled in. We got cleaned up and headed out for dinner and this was where things got extremely interesting. As we were driving down the main avenue through the heart of the city heading to TGIFridays we came upon a military convoy that was blocking off the street for about two blocks ahead of us. I immediately noticed that all of the soldiers had black masks on like what you see on T.V. when the media covers the Narco-Drug War events.

As we are looking at all of this Tim wanted to press on and find our way to the restaurant. He asked me to help him navigate a detour around this situation in front of us. I told him I didn't feel comfortable doing so as I did not know my way around Tampico except for the road we were on. This main artery of a highway would lead us into, through and out of the city with everything we needed (ATM's, Gas stations, hotels, restaurants). I told him I didn't feel comfortable venturing out like this, especially with his vehicle full of all of his possessions. He had his truck packed from top to bottom in the back seats and in the bed of the truck.

As I am processing this situation I felt a check about what we were doing. When I saw the roadblock I immediately felt the Lord was trying to send us back to the hotel. But Tim kept wanting to press on so I gave in and tried to accommodate him. I told him to take a right at the road block, drive about three blocks west, take a southerly road through a neighborhood, and loop back east to get back on the main highway on the other side of the road block. This was a big mistake. As we came out on the other side of the road block like we intended to we found ourselves looking at this....

And the guy with gun has it pointing right at us. You see, there had been a shooting on the main highway in Tampico right about the time we were taking showers in the hotel. And when we left the hotel and headed to go to eat we found ourselves driving up on the crime scene about a block down the road from us completely out of view from our vehicle. We didn't know exactly what was going on at the time. And when we drove through an adjoining neighborhood around the roadblock and came out on the other side we found ourselves driving right into a roaming detachment of Mexican soldiers that were doing block by block sweeps of the area looking for the gunmen. And when they saw us they pulled us over and asked for I.D. Well, Tim decided to leave his visa and passport in the hotel. Big Mistake. Huge Mistake.

First of all, Tim speaks absolutely no Spanish. Right now, I speak some conversational Spanish in the present tense. I can get buy and understand about 30 or 40% of what I hear but speaking it fluently takes time. The soldier in charge of his detachment makes us get out of the vehicle, he puts both of us on the hood with feet spread apart and they search both of us and the vehicle for weapons. Then, because Tim doesn't speak Spanish, the Mexican seargant proceeds to come around to me and interrogate me. I in turn offered to leave myself with him and let Tim return to the hotel and let him get his paperwork. He sat there and chewed me out in Spanish for about 60 seconds or so and then let us go.

So we get back in the truck and what does Tim want to do?.....He wants to keep heading to the restaurant. I was taken back a little. I told him we had better get back to the hotel ASAP and get his papers, that if they found us out again in an hour or so without I.D. we could end up in a military-style Mexican interroggation some where in an undisclosed location and when he got his vehicle back it could be stripped of all his possessions.

I finally talked him into going to the hotel. When we got back, as we were pulling into the parking lot at the Holiday Inn, I heard police sirens right behind us. I looked at Tim and told him that right now the city was tense and that we needed to stay at the hotel. I could tell he got frustrated with me. I explained to him that again, this ain't the good 'ol U.S. of A and that we were in a country that is in a perpetual state of martial law.

The rest of the trip took an additional two days of driving. We were back home within 48 hours. The rest of the drive and the trip was very smooth, mostly in part to God's grace and his parents and my family praying for us. You see, Tim's parent's are Christians. And I think the reason the Lord had me driving with him was to help him along the way. On the drive we told each other about our lives and I witnessed to him about the power of God and about relationship with the Lord. But when I got back home and practically kissed the ground in Merida, I had a flood of memories come back through my mind and along with them some emotions. Let me explain.

It has been my spiritual observation over the years that most people will lead you astray if you let them. They just will. And this applies to both believers and non-believers alike. Christians and non-Christians. Much of the advice, counsel, teaching and prophesy that comes to us from others is not coming from God. Not all of it, but alot of it. There are many forms of godliness out there with no real power in the Lord to validate it (2 Timothy 3:5).

"There is a way that seems right to a man but in the end it leads to death." Prov 16:25

The next morning after I had gotten back to Merida and got a good nights sleep, I came down stairs and sat down on the couch with a cup of coffee and started to pray and meditate. And as I did I found my mind flooding with scriptures and memories of times past when others, even Christians, tried to counself me to make decisions that ultimately weren't centered in God's will for me. And as I remembered these things in light of what happened to me in Tampico I started to get angry. I came to the realization that there have been so many key points in my life, so many key points in my walk with the Lord where other Christians have given me counsel and words of prophesy that, if I had listened to them, I would have gotten off course, missed God's will for my life and/or my family, and found myself in harm's way staring down the barrel of the proverbial 50 Caliber machine-gun (see picture above).

When I first came to the Lord my own mother called me a "religous-fanatic" and threatened to write me out of the will because of my Faith in Christ (Bad Counsel). When I first received the baptism of the Holy Spirit I was counseled by one of the ministry heads in our church that I needed to stop witnessing about my experience because I was sowing division amongst bretheren (Bad Counsel). After I received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit I was counseled to get back under the law and honor the literal Sabath by a very well known Christian archaelogist/Senvth Day Adventist (Bad Counsel and Teaching). Many many years ago I was counseled by at least a half a dozen Christians, all of whom I still love to this day, many of whom I still have a great deal of respect for, to pursue a relationship with a particular young woman in Midland even though the Lord had counseled me otherwise (Bad Counsel). I was counseled to not leave my job in 2001 even though the Lord spoke to me several times to do so. Christine and I were counseled to not have more kids after we lost Elizabeth and had two more miscarriages. We later had Joel.

"Test Everything. Hold onto the good. Avoid every kind of evil." 1 Thess 5:21,22

Test everything Brethren. Everything. Every piece of advice you get, every prophecy you hear, every doctrine that is presented to you. Test it all. Every offer, every invite, every request. Go to the Lord and speak with him about everything. Everything. The enemy is working diligently to derail us. Test everything you receive from everyone. Test it all. Don't buy into it until the Lord says "Yes, it's me" and confirms it.  

"Let everything be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses." 2 Cor 13:1

Let the Lord confirm it all, first with his peace within your heart, and if necessary, from outside signs and sources that he raises up.

"If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously  to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him." James 1:5

"For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.... For wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul." Proverbs 2:6,10

"The wisdom that comes from from heaven is first of all pure, then peace loving..." James 1:17

If we will be willing to test everything, every piece of counsel, every prophecy and doctrine, the Lord will generously give us wisdom, understanding (Plans and Strategies) and knowledge. These three things will come directly from his mouth, enter our hearts, and bring peace to our souls.

"I speak the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit. I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart." Romans 9:1,2

Our consciences confirm the wisdom, understanding and knowledge that the Lord puts in our hearts. The conscience is the voice of the heart. Pray, talk to the Lord and listen to your conscience. Listen to the voice of your heart. When I first saw that roadblock in Tampico the Lord immediately spoke to my conscience to turn around and go back to the hotel and I did not listen. I went along with the carnal non-believer and almost wound up in jail for nothing.

This is the picture I get in my mind. See the football player pictured left? The running back that is clutching the ball is you and me. It's the Christian making his way through this world trying to overcome the world, the flesh and the devil. The ball that we clutch is our calling and our faith. The ball represents everything that God is telling us to do on a daily basis. It's the fullness of faith in our lives. Everything that God speaks to us is represented by that football. The enemy is #47. He is trying to take us down and strip the football. He wants to disrupt our momentum.

We have two responsibilities before the Lord. Protect the football (the faith) and resist the enemy.

"Resist him (the devil), standing firm in the faith." 1 Peter 5:9

Test everything. Pray about everything. Hold onto the good. Avoid every kind of evil. Protect the football brethren. Get violent and contend for the faith.

"Above all else, guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life." Proverbs 4:23

Be Blessed,
J.E. Blackshear
www.miraclesinmerida.blogspot.com.