PEARLS, PIGS & PIT BULLS. . . .

Matthew 7:6 - Don't give holy things to dogs, and don't throw your pearls before pigs.  Pigs will only trample on them, and dogs will turn to attack you.

God has been teaching me a very valuable lesson in the past year or so. . .  OK so I am getting it, but it is taking some time.  The lesson. . ."Shut your mouth".   No, he is not saying "Shut up".  God is not rude and mean like that.  But the bottom line of all He has been showing me is, in my language, to shut up.

I am one of those people who gets so excited when God gives me a revelation on something, or does something huge in my life that changes me and makes me more like Him.  Usually that's a bit of a painful process because He has to expose the things in my life that are not like Him, and through teaching and life circumstances He begins to purge and pluck out and purify.  And the result is beautiful.  BUT, I get SO excited that I just HAVE to share it with my friends.  I'm sure you know the feeling.  God illuminates something in His Word, or speaks to you on a certain subject, and you get so stoked that you can't wait to share it! Yeah, we've all been there. 

Those revelations, that God-given wisdom, the life lessons. . . they are like pearls.  They are precious and valuable, and a treasure to you.  You feel like God just gave you a beautiful gift and you want to show everyone!  How many women do you know who got engaged and hid the engagement ring so no one could see it?  No way!  They are holding that hand out and showing it off to everyone they meet.  But when it comes to the treasures that God gives us, many times, if not most of the time, it is an intimate and special thing that He wants us to hold and treasure and value and care for.  There was a lot of time and effort and many times pain that went into Him working those things in your life.

Have you ever read about how a pearl is made?  It's really amazing.  ­The formation of a natural pearl begins when a foreign substance slips into the oyster between the mantle, which is an organ that produces an oyster's shell, and the shell, which irritate­s the mantle. It's kind of like the oyster getting a splinter. The oyster's natural reaction is to cover up that irritant to protect itself. The man­tle covers the irritant with layers of the same 'nacre' substance that is used to create the shell. This eventually forms a pearl. 

So basically, the beauty comes as a result of something foreign in the oyster being covered by the mantle producing substance. . . .I'll let you chew on that for a minute. 

Now when we look at how precious these treasures are, and we understand then how precious the "pearls" God gives us are, we should really begin to desire to hold and guard those things much more than we want to blurt them out to anyone who will listen.

How do the pearls get trampled by the pigs? 

Well, one way is they critique what you just shared.  Have you ever had a great experience with God and He revealed so many wonderful things to you and you excitedly share it with someone, only to have them respond with doubt, criticism, and a chain of theological babble on how that just can't be because according to their doctrine. . blah, blah, blah. . .  The deflating feeling that brings is unbelievable.  The smile fades from your face, and you even begin questioning if you heard from God.  I mean, if it was really God, they would 'get it'. Right?  WRONG!  When God speaks to us He speaks within our own language.  The language of our life, our current circumstances, our level of understanding, and into what He wants to accomplish in us and where He is taking us.  Unless they are on the exact same page as you, it's not going to be the amazing treasure to them as it is to you.  

Another way the pigs trample the pearls is what I like to call 'culturing pearls'.  Cultured pearls are man-made.  They are not nearly as valuable and rare as a true pearl.  They may look nice, but still. . .   These are the folks who feel the need to 'add to' what God is speaking into your life.  They feel like they know personal areas of your life that need changing or tweaking, so they add their opinions to what God is telling you, with statements like, "Well, you have to be careful not to. . ." Or, "You really need to watch that you do this, or don't do that. . ."  As if God left something undone in you and now they must come along and finish the job.   Or here is my favorite; They will 'pray' with you but use that prayer to actually send you a message of what they think you need to be doing and not doing.  That one absolutely floors me.  How can anyone use prayer like that is beyond me.  See, the problem we run into when we blurt out all that God is saying and doing in us, is that, number one: In our zeal we tend to leave things out.  Number two:  He may not be finished with His work in that particular area of your life yet.  And number three: Other people's opinions really only damage what He is trying to do in you, because they are not based on a full understanding of all the details that are involved.

The third way pigs trample pearls (and there may be many more, these are just what I have come up with), is silence.  Silence can be more damaging than them adding their two cents.  Your mind begins reeling and questioning if you have even heard from God.  You have no idea what they think (which, by the way, if you haven't guessed by now, is irrelevant) about what you just shared.  DO NOT allow the enemy to come in and lie to you.  If you are in a relationship with Jesus Christ and you are in His Word regularly and you sit under sound teaching, you know God's voice!!  Period!

No human response is an indicator of whether or not you have heard from God.  That is only measured by His Word and His Spirit.

I believe the "pit bull response" is self explanatory.  Some folks will absolutely tear apart everything you say and believe God has said to you.  They will arrogantly tell you "God won't do this"  and "God will only do this in this manner".  They use life experiences and church affiliation to form their doctrine, and are so rigidly opposed to anything else that they will absolutely shut you down with their attacks.  You can walk away from those encounters bloody and battered and scarred for life. 

So God, in His infinite wisdom, has provided us a solution in our scripture text. . . .

Matthew 7:6 - Don't give holy things to dogs, and don't throw your pearls before pigs. Pigs will only trample on them, and dogs will turn to attack you.

In other words. . . Shut your mouth.

Unless you know for a fact that God is leading you to share a particular thing, don't!  He gives us many treasures.  Some are meant to be shared, but many of them are meant to be held in our hearts and meditated upon and valued as something intimate and personal from Him.  If we are sensitive to Holy Spirit we will know which is which and what He wants us to do with them.

He may also place a person in your life that you CAN share most things with.  That person will usually be in a trusted mentoring type position in your life.  Someone who you have given the right to speak into your life.  That you feel safe sharing things with and they have constructively guided you through many aspects of your walk and growth with God.  Like your Pastor maybe.  I am blessed to have that in my life.

I wish I could tell you I had all of this down in my life, but I am preaching to myself here as much as anyone else.  But I am learning, most of the time painfully, but learning.

I would also like to add, that when we experience these reactions to what we share, it is a great time to reflect and find out if we have been a pig or a pit bull and hurt someone else when they have shared their 'pearls' with us.