Separated From Social Media For Forty Days To Hear God's Voice
Separated From Social Media
While I am not one to spend much time scrolling through any of the various forms, I have used the platforms as ministry tools. Mainly because, someone along the way told me that I needed to. Social media shapes us more than we realize in our day and time.
Because of the prevalence of social media, we hear so many voices. Those voices often successfully strive for our attention and distract us from hearing the one voice we need to hear the most. I felt this in my soul. I couldn’t decipher through the voices to hear Jesus clearly. So, I took forty days to clear away all the clutter.
Seeking God’s Voice Amongst the Many Others
Forty days seemed to be the going time frame for Moses and Jesus. So, I figured if forty days worked for them, theirs was a good example to follow. Of course, their forty days was on a mountain or in the wilderness and mine was still at home and in the activity of this world. Even still, God showed me my need for a new perspective.
I realized how easily we get sidetracked in how we view things even when we want to stay on God’s path and please Him with all our heart. In reality, I didn’t get off my path with God. I simply thought my path needed to look a specific way – mainly because of all the voices. Do this. Do that. 5 Steps to take… You have to… You should be doing…
At some point we sit back and wonder, Is this it? And we have to ask God, “Am I walking in Your will and Your plan? Did I get off track in any way? Lord, help me. I want to do You will. I want to please You with the life I live.”
That is a great place for biblical meditation.
Recognizing the Practical Problems With Facebook In My Ministry
Every week I spent a good bit of time preparing social media messages and posts. My primary social media platform has been Facebook for years. Using Facebook for me was a ministry tool, a way to share Jesus and encourage Christian women. For the past two years I watched the visibility of those posts steadily decline due to the opposition and intentional minimization of conservative and Christian pages and accounts on social media.
It’s one thing to work and strive to make a difference in ministry when your ministry efforts are actually reaching and ministering to someone. But when you realize the faucet has been shut off but for a drip, drip, drip, you eventually know that you must re-evaluate.
Re-evaluate, I did.
While I expressed my one issue with Facebook, I could list a page full of other issues and you probably could as well. You know the old saying, “That was the straw that broke the camel’s back.” Their upcoming name and image change came at the time when I was seeking God about what to do and how to best spend my time in ministry. This name change gave me even more reason to pause.
Facebook is changing its name to “Metaverse” or “Meta” for short and reportedly developing a more virtual experience. “Meta” in Hebrew means, “dead.” How ironic! Or is it irony? Or something deeper and darker? I’ve read that Israel is laughing at Facebook, but personally, I don’t feel like laughing. Maybe it is because I am teaching Revelation right now and am right in the midst of the rise of the anti-Christ and the kingdom of darkness deceiving the whole world.
Maybe I Am Going Overboard, BUT:
Death and darkness are too close for comfort. And 2 Corinthians 6:14 tells me that light and darkness have nothing in common. And as a child of the light, I shouldn’t fellowship with that darkness.
Maybe I have read too much into it, but at this point I have seen enough about Mark Zuckerburg, algorithms, and the increasingly damaging impact social media has on us to see a need to make some changes in my own ministry. Ultimately, deep within me resides a sense that something more damaging awaits on the horizon.
On The Other Hand
I also see that Jesus said,
“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.”
Matthew 5:14
And
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works
and glorify your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:16
So, I have been, and still am trying to sort through the changes that I need to make in how I move forward in this next phase of my ministry. Here’s what I know. God called me and I cannot quit. My calling to shine His marvelous light into the darkness of this world needs to be the most efficient use of my time for the most possible impact.
Much of what I have done in ministry will remain the same. I will continue to blog and send my weekly emails, to write and create Bible study tools, to teach women’s periodic online Bible studies, and to record weekly video teachings. I plan to add podcast teachings as well.
However where social media is concerned I’m not exactly sure what that looks like for me and On Fire Ministries. Currently I post on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m pretty sure Facebook, i.e. Meta is “Dead.” Not sure about Instagram, but I plan to continue to use Pinterest in my ministry.
I Would Love To Hear From You!
Please take a moment to send me an email, patdomangue@onfire-ministries.org with thoughts, ideas, Biblical topics, questions, issues that you want to discuss and learn more about during 2022. I want to know how I can best write, speak, and teach in a way that impacts your spiritual growth and helps you walk more closely with Jesus.
You see, if you are reading this, you are the reason I do what I do. Paul said it best,
For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing?
Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming?
For you are our glory and joy.
1 Thessalonians 2:19-20
