God has been putting a lot about grumbling on my mind lately. My grumbling, mainly, and the grumbling which is, in ways, the Spirit of this country and growing into a spirit that is widespread throughout the world. The Bible has a tremendous amount to say about grumbling. I always thought a grumbling spirit was a minor thing, something that God didn’t care too much about – I was wrong. Grumbling, complaining, and doubting are all in the same vein. Paul says of grumbling, in a section titled “Do everything without grumbling:”
Philippians 2:14-18:
14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”[c] Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky 16 as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain. 17 But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. 18 So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.
Now the key to this verse is what Paul says will happen if we do not grumble and argue – what the result will be. He says that we “will shine like stars in the sky” and that he will be able to boast about them if they do refrain from complaining in their obedience to the Lord. I don’t know about you, but if the literal Word of God says that I will shine like the stars in the sky if I do one particular thing, it makes me think that thing is fundamental and important. Not only will we shine, but the saints will boast about our good attitudes to Jesus. I wouldn’t mind if saints boasted about me to the Man. Paul goes on to say that even if he is “poured out like a drink offering” to serve them well, or even if “all of his strength is exhausted” to serve them well, he will do the opposite of grumbling: he will rejoice! Not only that, but we should “follow his example,” if all of our strength is exhausted in helping others. This is conclusive information that we should rejoice in the face of grumbling, obstacles, and becoming exhausted in our work for Christ. This is only possible by renewing our strength through time with Jesus in prayer and praise.
I want to make sure the reader knows that if you try to not grumble through sheer willpower, you may succeed for a time, but long term it won’t work. However, if you try to accomplish this by asking God to take the spirit of grumbling away from you, and you spend time with God in prayer and worship regularly, God will give you the power to succeed (I love switching on the IHOPKC prayer room in my free time - here's a link: https://youtu.be/6LoyUcQIvEU). It may not happen instantly, but keep at it and stay faithful praying against grumbling – God will deliver you in His perfect timing.
Disclaimer, there is some really heavy stuff in these two next paragraphs – if your ears are already open to the message, feel free to skip them:
In the past, when I heard verses about not grumbling, because I had a grumbling spirit, I would say to myself, “That doesn’t sound fair,” or, “They haven’t gone through what I’ve gone through.” So if you’re thinking that to yourself about this article, I have some information for you: I was raped by not one, but two priests when I was in grade school, and they used religious phrases to explain why I was being raped – they kissed me when I was 12 and told me I was “receiving the breath of God.” And many things worse than that. Then as an adult, I served in the Army and got combat-related PTSD.
My interrelated traumas were so bad that I heard voices for a time and spent a few weeks in a psychiatric ward. On six separate occasions. Once, I made it known that I was Christian, and there was a man inside who identified as a Satanist and plotted to kill me while inside. If you think what you’ve been through is worse than these combined traumas, my heart goes out to you and you need to contact me so we can talk about it and so I can encourage you. And even if you don’t think what you went through is worse, you can still contact me for encouragement and support, because I know what it’s like to go through pain. Either way, hopefully you understand that I have experienced a lot of bad things in this life, yet I am still saying that “do not grumble” is a vitally important commandment. Please have ears to listen.
I wouldn’t be telling you the whole truth if I didn’t tell you that I had great blessings as well – like constant loving support from both of my parents, who are still together, and recently a loving wife who supports me when I am down and lifts me up in prayers of healing. I have a warm house close to my church and enough money to put food on our plates and gas in our cars. I have the love of Jesus Christ, first and foremost, who gets me through all things, all trials, all testings from the enemy. And I can testify that He is constantly freeing me from pain. It is not a “one and done” with healing and painful memories, but rather a process. And I encourage anyone and everyone to receive prayer from their brothers and sisters for trauma, and to seek counseling as well (EMDR has worked wonders for me).
All of that is to say, I know what I’m talking about and many people would tell me I have the “right” to grumble because of what I’ve been through. I’ve actually been told that by several people. I don’t want to be alarmist, but the fact is a grumbling spirit can be a spirit that kills you. It takes away your desire to live and to flourish and to worship, the very things we are meant to be doing on this earth, no matter what we have experienced. Again, if you feel like you can’t rejoice because of what you’ve been through, you should seek counseling and healing prayer, as well as repenting of a grumbling spirit. That’s what I did, and I’m telling you it worked great. Even after I was healed from the vast majority of the trauma I experienced in childhood and adulthood, I had dark thoughts about my future. I was in a state of some despair and was scared of falling deeper into despair. Then the Lord came to me and told me to repent of my complaining and grumbling spirit. I did, and the dark thoughts evaporated. The Lord let me know that I am "cutting ties" with the grumbling spirit, and that it will take some time to build up spiritual and mental defenses against this mindset. As best I can, I will continue to improve in cutting all ties to the grumbling spirit. After repenting, I felt like I could finally enjoy life without having to distract myself with the things of this world. I’m telling you, repenting of grumbling is the best thing since sliced bread.
Another disclaimer: sometimes the enemy attacks us with a worrying spirit, which causes us to grumble and worry internally. In this case, perhaps all that's needed is prayer against the worrying attacks of the enemy. This could solve the problem in itself, if you don't have a "grumbling spirit." The enemy is wily, and he'll make you think you're "guilty guilty guilty" when the cross declares you're "forgiven forgiven forgiven." Don't fall for it. Pray against the attacks of the enemy that can cause worrying and grumbling.
Now let’s take a look at what the Word of God says a spirit of grumbling (not worrying/grumbling attacks of the enemy) can lead to. In Exodus 16, the Israelites grumbled after they were delivered from Egypt:
Exodus 16: The Israelites said to them (Moses and Aaron), “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”
The Israelites were delivered from 400 years of slavery, but all they could think about was meat, and how they couldn’t eat it. They had a grumbling spirit and it was hurting them. But that’s not the end of the story:
Exodus 17: But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?” Then Moses cried out to the LORD, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”
Of course, it had only been a day and no one had died, but they grumbled about what had not happened yet anyway. And the Lord provided both meat and water to them. The Israelites tested the Lord in this way 10 times – they even determined that they should stone Moses, the Lord’s representative and emissary to the Israelite people. This is what grumbling leads to – open rebellion against God. This is the most poignant example of what happens when we do not repent of a grumbling spirit. Because of their grumbling, they rejected God, and God had to take action to correct them. So The Lord told Moses about the judgment for their grumbling:
Numbers 14: Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the LORD fills the whole earth, 22 not one of those who saw my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times— 23 not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it.
The Lord goes on to talk about how Caleb has a “different spirit” than the rest of the Israelites. The Lord was talking about the Israelites’ grumbling spirit! On the contrary, Caleb follows Him “wholeheartedly.” So a grumbling spirit is the opposite of following God wholeheartedly! Verse 24 continues:
24 But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it. 25 Since the Amalekites and the Canaanites are living in the valleys, turn back tomorrow and set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea.[a]”
26 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron: 27 “How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites. 28 So tell them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you the very thing I heard you say: 29 In this wilderness your bodies will fall—every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me.
And so grumbling led all the adult Israelites to experience death in a forsaken wilderness. God takes grumbling seriously. Why? Because it leads to open rebellion against God and all the things of God, if left unchecked. Just look at what the Israelites did when they were dissatisfied with how long Moses was taking to receive the Law on Mount Sinai. They grumbled against him:
Exodus 32: When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods[a] who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”
Many things can be considered “grumbling.” Sometimes grumbling is disguised as an opinion: “These kids, these millennials, they don’t pay attention to what’s happening in the real world, all they do is post on Facebook and Snapchat.” That’s an opinion, but it’s also heavy, heavy grumbling. It’s grumbling about tens of millions of people in a sentence. Whether or not it’s true is irrelevant. It’s basically saying that God isn’t working amongst the younger generation. Or an even more common opinion: “These Democrats/Republicans, they’re wrecking the country.” Again, grumbling about tens of millions of people in a single sentence. It’s wrong. It’s against the commandment of God not to grumble and argue amongst ourselves. And it implicitly states that God is not in control of what is happening amongst His people and His will has been completely thwarted by mere humans. This is antithetical to the sovereignty of God.
So what should we do instead of grumbling? There are two major weapons that we have against grumbling: 1. Repentance for embracing a spirit of grumbling, and 2: Giving thanks! Though we will not be completely successful in immediately taking grumbling out of our lives, both of these things should be done when we find ourselves complaining about our jobs, our past, or even the weather! The power of life and death lies in the tongue (Proverbs 18:21), and when we speak judgment and negativity over our lives or the lives of others, we are speaking in agreement with the demonic spirits that hate us and rejoice when our lives go wrong. We need to break this agreement with the spirit of grumbling, and begin speaking in the spirit of thanksgiving to God.
I hear this grumbling spirit all around in modern media. Basically all 24-hour news (Fox, CNN and everything in between) consists of grumbling disguised as information. And it has an effect on our human consciousness, on our own personal grumbling. Be wary: society is full of disillusionment and doubting the goodness of God. Don’t fall into the same trap as those who follow the ways of the world. Rejoice in some worship music instead of switching on the 24 hour news cycle. Spend more time in thanksgiving with God than you do in grumbling. You will find yourself happier and closer to Jesus, the love of our lives, than ever before.
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