Sometimes you engage people who are angry. Sometimes you engage people who are seductive, or defiling. Now when you meet people like that, there's a spiritual influence flows that will impact you. I talk with people who are doing phone counselling. I said when you get off the phone, just stop and pray in tongues, and reflect what you're feeling inside, what you're left with after that conversation, and if it's bad, then start to pray and push it away from yourself. The Bible's very clear you know, that bad communications corrupt your lifestyle, so you've really got to watch communications, and make a stand about things that are destructive - so there are some people - now how do you do that? Well it's not such a hard thing. You just if someone's complaining you say well, have you spoken to the person about that? Well don't download the complaint on me; go where someone can help you. If someone's critical you say well, have you checked your facts out, do you know if that was really the case? Is this hearsay? Have you talked with the person? What options have you got apart from just criticising and complaining?
There's always some ways you can stop things - or if they're talking about someone behind their back, say just stop, no, listen I'm not comfortable at all with you talking about someone behind their back. They're not here, I'd rather you didn't do that in my presence right now. You just push back, now that's loving yourself. It's just saying, I am not a trash can, I come up to you, and you push the thing, and drop your junk into me. There's no way that's going to happen, but you've got to put that boundary up, that no one flips your lid unless you say yes. Getting the idea? You've got to say no to some of these things. That's loving yourself. If you love yourself, you'll set boundaries about what you'll receive and accept into your life, in terms of the way people treat you. Now that doesn't mean you just walk away. It means you have to communicate, speak the truth in love, and connect over the issue. That's always a challenge, but we are to do it. It's one of the most difficult challenges we face, but we've got to make a decision we're not going to live in fear. We will do this. We'll start to push against those things.
If you speak up and say something, then what you do is you put the boundary up, and you get an understanding between you; You may like to complain, I don't like to receive complaints. We've got a problem here, so how about when you're with me, you don't complain. It'd be quite simple wouldn't it? I'm sure there are wonderful, good things. Now when you complain of course, you'll have negative feelings and emotions. Why don't you start to actually look at all the things that you could be positive about, and grateful for, and start to develop an attitude of gratitude? You'll find your life changes. So anyway, there it is.
The second area you've got to put a boundary against destructive forces, is the area of visual influence, visual influence, the media, entertainment, books, TV, computers, internet, all that kind of stuff, because it can so easily defile. You get a spirit comes behind it. Much of this stuff is empowered by demonic spirits. I think these are all wonderful inventions, but you've still got to guard what you allow your eyes to see, because Job said, I made a covenant with my eyes, not to look upon a woman. Why? Because where my eyes go, my heart will go - so if you've got to love yourself, just make a commitment to yourself that you will begin to guard what you allow to come into you, around visual media, otherwise what'll happen is your standards will lower, and be eroded. You won't even know what you've got - you're not loving yourself when you do that. Actually you're abusing yourself when you do that, because your value isn't going up, your value's coming down. Why is it coming down? Because what God gave into you, is now being eroded out.