The greatest tactic your enemies have against you is to keep you silent.
It has always been this way.
If your enemy can silence your voice and your cry they can continue on in their dominance and destruction of all things you hold dear.
No voice. No critics. Nothing stopping them.
We see this in the United States and around the world. In many countries, Social Media is shut down when there is an uprising because those in power want to stop communication among the groups coordinating the uprising.
In the midst of war, communication towers are destroyed as soon as possible.
When Donald Trump was President, his own social media accounts were shut down even though he was the sitting President. Other accounts by other world leaders that chant “Death to America”, however, were still allowed. Why? Because certain people in America wanted to silence him.
Elon Musk announced that he was going to buy Twitter and people went crazy! The mainstream media declared how dangerous it would be to have him running it. Why? Because he’s not in alignment with those who currently control the company. Elon stated that he wanted to restore a platform where all voices could be heard. The outcome of his Twitter purchase has yet to be decided, but there is a lesson to be learned here.
This is not a new phenomenon and anyone in power, with an agenda that is at risk of failure, wants to silence their enemies.
The Jewish leaders during Jesus’ day used fear and ex-communication as a means to silence the opposition. In John 9, we see how an everyday family was fearful and as a result kept silent. A man, born blind, had been healed by Jesus and the leaders were asking the parents about their son and the man who had healed him.
“The Jews then did not believe it of him (the blind man), that he had been blind and had received sight, until they called the parents of the very one who had received his sight, and questioned them, saying, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? Then how does he now see?”
His parents answered them and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but how he now sees, we do not know; or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him; he is of age, he will speak for himself.”
“His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed Him to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. For this reason his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.” John 9:18-23
The parent, being afraid, kept silent.
I’ve learned that a man without a critique, is a man without a voice. And a man without a voice is someone who has lost their ability to impact their surroundings.
Have you lost your voice?
We must be willing to speak up and speak truth. Yes, you will have critics when you do that. Yes, you may even be hated by many. But we are called to stand for truth and not to remain silence.
Yes, you have the right to remain silent, but perhaps in this case, it is your silence that will grant your enemies power over you.
Photo by Petri Haanpää on Unsplash