Shake the Dust Off!

Acts 13:51-52

But they shook off the dust from their feet against them, and came to Iconimum. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

Whenever you have position you will always have opposition. Jesus told his disciples, “No Student is above his teacher, if they hated me, they will hate you also.” In life everyone is not going to be happy about your God given purpose and your anointing. When you stand for Righteousness and work for Jesus get ready for those who want to block your move. In the book of Acts, the Apostles were having great success in spreading the gospel of Jesus. In one particular instance, they ran upon a false prophet named Bar-Jesus who tried to block them form preaching Jesus to an influential leader.

Paul stepped to him and stared him straight in the eye and told him, “O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord and now, indeed the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind not seeing the sun for a time.“

Immediately a black mist fell on the man and he was begging people to lead him around. Now I know that you want to say this to every person that’s been hating on you, but you can’t. You can’t go up to your boss and say, “O full of all deceit….” No No…LOL. There are some instances where you address people head on when lead by the Holy Spirit, but there are other times when you are out numbered by negative people. When you are no longer welcome in a particular place that you simply have to shake the dust off your feet. Or like President Obama had to do when he was campaigning against all the negative things people were saying about him, his wife, his family, his pastor, he said, sometimes you just have to (President Obama gestures as if wiping dirt of his shoulder) go on and brush your shoulder off. I think he got that from Jay Z.

How do you shake the dust off?

1. Ignore them and keep on moving. Don’t waste your time on ignorant people. Jesus said don’t cast your pearls amongst swine. Never waste your time arguing with religious people. There are too many unsaved people to be helped than to waste your time arguing about whose church is more theologically correct.

2. Say a prayer and Refocus. When you feel yourself getting upset go somewhere and pray and refocus as to why you are there. Don’t let them rattle you to the point that you forget your mission.

3. Look at where you’re going and don’t get stuck where you are. If you allowed every person who didn’t like you to slow you down you would never get to your destination.

4. Hold your Peace and keep your cool. Never let them see you sweat. When they get you emotional they have won.

When you are successful in shaking the dust off your feet, the bible says that God will fill you with the Holy Spirit and you will be full of Joy. The good thing about Joy is that it’s different from happiness. Happiness is contingent on outward circumstances; Joy is an inward condition because of my relationship with God. This Joy I have the world didn’t give it and the world can’t take it away. Now go on and brush your shoulders off!

Dear God move all my haters out of the way today! Help me to brush my shoulders off and shake the dust off my feet. You said you make my enemies my footstool and feed me in their presence. Thank you for the Victory!

In Jesus Name.

Amen.