EYE OF THE PHARISEES

God is dealing with the critical spirit in the church today. Many today claim to love yet they are full of criticalness, just like the Pharisees who were full of a critical spirit and were looking at everything in the flesh. The critical spirit is the Pharisee spirit we see in the church today, always judging by the outward appearance. Always judging by the law or their own made-up laws and how they see right and wrong, their version of holiness and righteousness. 

This spirit is heavily partnered with hypocrisy. Everything a critical spirit will criticize you about they are guilty of themselves. They may criticize you for watching TV, yet they watch YouTube all night on their phone. They criticize you for eating candy, meanwhile, they eat cake and brownies. They do the same things just in a different form. This is how they justify themselves, and because you're not doing it their way, you are wrong. 

Read John 7:21-24.

Jesus healed a boy on the Sabbath, and they came against Jesus because no one was to work on the Sabbath. Yet who’s law was that? God’s law or man’s law? The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Who the Son sets free is free indeed. Yet the same Pharisees that came against Jesus about the Sabbath were doing circumcisions on the same day! 

So who’s wrong here? What is wrong is the critical spirit that judges things that don’t concern God's heart but concern only the heart of man. Jesus said to them, “You judge by mere appearances. Judge correctly.” Critical spirits always judge by what things look like. They know men by the flesh. They judge mistakes, flaws, and carnal things that God isn’t even concerned with. 

They know men by what they do and don’t do, yet they don’t know men according to what God sees with men. Even Jesus didn’t judge by Himself! Jesus told them to judge correctly. Let’s see how Jesus judged correctly. 

Read John 5:16-31.

“For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.” John 5: 22, 27, 30-31

Even Jesus in and of Himself could do nothing. He didn’t even judge on His own. As He saw, He did, and as He heard, He spoke. As the Father judged, He executed His judgment. Jesus never judged by the Book. He judged by the Spirit and the Book backed His words. The Spirit was His scope of judgment. Whatever the Spirit said was right, was right. Whatever the spirit said was wrong, was wrong. Whatever it looked like or didn’t look like, Jesus didn’t judge by what He saw or thought.

He judged by the heart of the Father. From the throne room! Critical people judge from their carnality. Carnality is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and as you see, that tree brought death to the world. Yet the tree of life, God’s judgment, brings life. If I judge myself according to my own standards, I condemn myself. I cannot carry out my version of righteousness because it is dead.

Yet if I hear judgment from the creator of the universe, not only does true righteousness appear, but it enables me to bear its fruit. And this is not of myself but by the one who sends us. The one who sends us to bear fruit. By grace through faith. By grace, the empowerment through my faith, my trust that I put on His eyes. What He sees, I shall see, and what He thinks, I shall think. 

Jesus was the perfect example of what a son should look like. How He did things is how we should do it. He was the model and the blueprint. How He thought is how we should think. We are now co-heirs. We are brothers, and He’s the big brother showing us how to complete and do Daddy’s will. 

The Father gave all judgment unto the Son, and now we are the son(s) of God. We have heard it said in the Bible that the saints shall judge the nations. Yet we will not judge it by our own carnality or how we see. As we hear from the Father, we will speak! As He judges, we execute it and speak it. This is just judgment! This is how we judge correctly. There’s no way to judge correctly. He is the way! The Spirit knows all truth and all things and the secrets of man. Through that Spirit, we can judge things correctly because it knows all things and is just. There is only one that is just, and it’s Him. So we must judge by Him, but to judge by Him, we must know Him!

We are under a new law! Read Romans 7 and 8. The law in the book taught us what was ungodly, and by it, I know what sin looks like. Yet I operate under a new law now! The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The law of the Spirit! The law where I hear Him and do what He says. The law where I see what He’s doing and do it with Him. This is how we break a critical spirit, by changing how we operate according to how we see things and how we judge. Most people living with a critical spirit still operate under the law. They are the ones that judge the adulterous one and stone her.

Yet the sons tell the adulterous to go and sin no more. Everything that they do in season and out of season is Rhema. His words are life for those who receive it! Yet those who are dead judge the dead and stay dead. We must receive life to give life.

Most people bound by a critical spirit are highly critical of themselves, and how we see ourselves will reflect on how we see others. We will start judging others and condemning others. Jesus said, “Judge not.” And that is right, we are not to judge! When people tell me, “Judge not,” I say, “Correct.” Yet there is one who will judge you and that one has now given me, the son, permission to execute His judgment according to the will of His Spirit. And now when I judge, it is just because it comes from Him! Our flesh should not judge! Correct! Yet Paul said that a spiritual man judges all things. We are not called to judge, but at the same time, we are called to judge by His judgment. Not by the flesh but by the Spirit.

The sons carry out the Father’s judgment. When the Spirit says it’s wrong, it’s wrong. When He says it’s right, it’s right. We can’t even judge by the Book alone. The Pharisees did that and their judgment was wrong because their eyes were carnal. They saw out of blind eyes. We must judge by the Spirit, and when we judge by the Book, it’s because the Spirit is backing it, and whatever that judgment may be, it will be just because it comes from a just God! What does the Spirit of the Lord say? This is my new scope of judgment. This is my new law! As we hear, we shall judge, and as He speaks, we shall speak. And through His judgment, we shall judge the nations. 

By Joe Pinto

Full Message: https://youtu.be/A3SEywSMoLo