I am feeling a bit melancholy this evening.

I started writing this post earlier today, but was hit with a brick of wisdom, when I found that I did not follow my own cardinal rule of ‘trust but verify.

Early this morning I was punked. I am embarrassed about it, so let’s keep this between our special group. I just want to be honest and let you know that it occurred, in hopes that I am not alone.

I was punked by ‘fake news’ on Facebook. I believed the post on my feed without question, out of the emotion over the death of a singing legend, Aretha Franklin, no less. I immediately posted videos of her and condolences post.

The post that misled me showed a pretty frail and distressed looking photo of Aretha, instead of sender choosing one that was more appearing and vibrant.

“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.” – Carl Jung

I admit, it immediately struck my emotional chord, and I quickly reacted with a post of sympathy. Minutes after the post, I went to the news websites, Google, and Aretha Franklin’s official site, and did not find, what would have been, stop the press news. That’s because it was a damned lie!

Another contributing factor to me being deceived, was that my ego, worked with Satan to deceive me. I know this sounds strange already, but allow me to explain to you, my friends. …Keep it between our special group, though.

Yesterday, out of a seemingly divine motivation to do so, I posted, featuring Aretha Franklin’s song ‘Respect’. I emphasize that I was just moved to select this song to feature in a message about giving respect to others. The message was in the context of respect being nonnegotiable.

This is what I posted:

“This is one thing that is nonnegotiable with me, and should be with U, as far as giving it, and receiving it.

If you don’t demand and give Respect, you just may not Love URself – Kevy Michaels

I knew nothing about Aretha Franklin’s grave illness, yesterday when I made this post.

Early this morning I woke to write articles for the blog and check FB. The fake story of Aretha’s death glowed on my feed, like the blue portion of a flickering candle flame.

First and foremost, I reacted quite emotionally. I love ‘Ree Ree’. But it was intensified, by my ego perhaps playing a trick on me. My ego had me thinking that I was gifted or psychic or something, when it was simply a coincidence that I posted honoring Aretha, just yesterday.

My ego had me thinking that God gave me special abilities. You know how people will say, “Ooh yea, I had a feeling the other day that something like that was goanna happen. They say it, of course, after it happens.

I had one of those moments, while caught up in the rapture of emotion for Aretha.

For minute here, I want say this part like a Baptist. I allowed Satan to distract me with fake news. The enemy made me tear up and hold my head up high simultaneously. Then Satan led me to distract thousands of followers. I felt bad yawl.

But luckily it was only on my feed for less than 5 mins. I posted it, then checked the internet, when I should have done it the other way around.

Then to add salt to the aching wound in my soul, a member of a Facebook group seemed to accuse me of spreading fake news. I guess in a way I did, but not intentionally.

What bothered me is that her comment was board, seeming to imply that perhaps my posts and comments too were fake news. That hurt, on top of hurt.

“But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” – Hebrews 5:14 King James Version (KJV)

I hope that God speaks through the next paragraph.

I ask that you feel my heart and soul in my writings.

I pour both into whatever I share, even content written or spoken by others. You see, I am grateful to God for enabling me to weather fairly well through storms, and to survive wiser and more discerned.

I share my life, and lessons as obligation to God for never giving up on me, enabling me to awaken I share my faults and weaknesses to keep things real.

I am being as honest as I can and going as deep as I can allow at this time. I wish that my followers and friends would see me through lens of Love. I’m surely transmitting it rather strongly.

But I accept that everyone won’t appreciate my vibe. I am okay with that. That’s a short sentence, but I big statement for me to make. I wasted valuable years of my life, and experienced some of my biggest downfalls, trying to be appreciated by everyone. …Not any more, though.

I’ve learned that to be arbitrarily despised by others is like a rite of passion to awakening. Many people have treated me as though they despise me, and I really don’t have a clue why. I have been preaching the same gospel for over 10 years. I haven’t been cruel to any of them. They just don’t like me. That is how social media can be as well. Some virtual friends will just want to challenge you.

I spent the past week increasing my friends 7 times. I’am at over 3000 followers now. God has truly answered my version of The Prayer of Jabez, that I have been saying almost daily for over 5 years. I’m grateful!

But, I had do a lot of weeding out the bad seeds, which there are many. There are a lot of hateful posts, animal-cruel videos, porn, prostitution, political-bashing, and riot inciting posts. If you open your page to the public, as I initially did, that is just what you get, a microcosm of how things seem to be now in the public, very misguided and divided divided.

It gets really dark, I must tell you. I had to block many East European women “poking me”, and the more I block, the more they multiplied. But what was most starling was that I had to block posts that were total facades, whereby the profile photos and friends were on one race, but when reading the posts, some of the messages were not consistent with its presentation.

It makes me not feel so bad that I was punked. I used to use Facebook in the mid 2000’s and it was not so seemingly infiltrated. It is really scaring the deception that is occurring. My fear is for those who are spiritually blind or bankrupt. I don’t think that they can see this.

It makes you wonder, how we are expected to discern truth. I want to discuss this subject more and will therefore post a follow up article, after posting this one.

I know, from this experience, at least three items on my list for discerning truth. They are:

• Do your homework first. Trust, but do verify
• Don’t get distracted win your emotions. You may be being played.
• Don’t let you ego trick you into reading meaning into information that makes you look good. Be unbiased when you judge the information you receive.

The biggest key to discerning truth is taking this walk with God. Keep him in your presence with every figurative and literal step. The more you do this the better. The more you do this, he will impart clearer perception on your eyes. He will remove calluses from your eyes.

He will let you know which way to go, and what to believe and what to stay clear of. It would be foolish to even consider figuring this all out on your own. Man created this confusion, illusions, and delusions, but man could never figure out each strand in this bowl of spaghetti.

I believe that God assigns a part of the task for us, but no heavy lifting. He just wants us to do as my dear mother Eunice used to say, ‘Use your head for more than a hat rack.” He wants us to take on the wise steps I mentioned above.

But we are too 1-D-minded to take on discerning truth everywhere, every day, and every how. ….It just not possible.

It is a job for someone with 3-D understanding. Our 1-D brains would explode, if we tried.

Discerning truth is ultimately God’s job, and only through him, will we ever fully understand.

Can I get an Amen?

Kevy.

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Fake News: Lies spread faster on social media than truth does – by Maggie Fox – Mar.08.2018

People are quicker to repeat something that’s wrong than something that’s true

If it seems like fake news is everywhere that may be because it is.

Falsehoods spread like wildfire on social media, getting quicker and longer-lasting pickup than the truth, researchers reported on Thursday.

A deep dive into Twitter shows that false news was re-tweeted more often than true news was, and carried further.

“Falsehood diffused significantly farther, faster, deeper, and more broadly than the truth in all categories of information, and the effects were more pronounced for false political news than for false news about terrorism, natural disasters, science, urban legends, or financial information,” the team, led by Sinan Aral of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote in the journal Science.

Read More

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This last thing…

We are in a different era of information, propaganda, and deception. I saw it firsthand diving into Facebook and Instagram. I don’t blame them. They seem to try to catch it, even temporarily blocking my account multiple times.

It really does seem like foreign interest has infiltrated social media. So, please beware of the fake news out there. It runs rampant.

Word Press, and blogging is much safer, though I was getting spam comments for a period and did not realize that I had published them. I guess I slipped again.

You see, it’s almost like you can’t take anything for granted. You would end up doing like I did, spreading fake news, unknowingly.

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Soul Talk – By Way Of My Heart…Sincerely Kevy– Kevy Michaels – June 20, 2018

We are in an information distortion phase of our civilization.

That’s just me saying this, but look around you, it’s easy to see. To limit oneself of any source of information, means usually that you will be brainwashed with the mainstream version of truth. Accepting information wisely from various sources, forces us to reflect and evaluate more carefully.

My life experiences have convinced me that what most people believe is true, simply is not. I even had experience with this, when living in London, in the early 2000’s.

I worked for CNN and watched how news stories were reported differently and prioritized differently, depending to where it was being broadcasted. I asked around and was told that it wasn’t CNN that intentionally distorted. It was governments and advertisers that influenced news agendas.

Now, why would anyone want to solely rely on such a shaky news platform, and now social media?

Bloggers, from what I have observed, are organic sources of honest information.

Perhaps, they provide an even better source, but they certainly at least complement whatever main source upon which we may rely. Bloggers, like me, put many hours into sharing information and creativity with others, often receiving no reward, except the reward of knowing that they’ve touched someone, if only one.

Big media does not think this way, and its reporting is presented in whatever way that results in more viewers, and money. Bloggers generally are not influenced by the money.

Generally, we are older and wiser and want to share “the good news”.

Please show us love in this regard for in this information war, bloggers may very well become more of a relied upon and credible source, maybe even new day disciples.

I found distortion to be true in a similar scenario. With regard to medical research, sure I check medical studies, side-effects, and what reliable sources have to say. But, I have gained the most from reading patient testimonials, and writing to health bloggers, and alternative health practitioners.

If I only relied on one source of information for the articles that I share, I would be ashamed to post them. If I don’t have first-hand experience with most opinions, I don’t share them.

Please appearance my honesty, dedication, and that of other bloggers. But most of all appreciate the alternative and where we seem to be heading.

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The Art of Discerning Truth explained in less than 4 minutes – 1,674 views – OverWatchChannel – Published on Dec 28, 2014

Music from YouTube Free Audio Library Title “Stale Mate” Performed by Jingle Punks. https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/…

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How can you really know what is true? – 4,042 views – RZIM Canada – Published on Apr 23, 2015

Nathan Betts (http://bit.ly/nathanbetts) of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries answers the question “How do I know what is true?”. Want to read more widely on this question? Check out Dallas Willard’s book, “A Place for Truth” (http://bit.ly/1Blkd6C). This video is episode 15 of the “Short Answers to Big Questions” series, in which we take 50 of the most common questions and objections about Christianity and attempt to give short, succinct answers to each of them. In such short videos, we realize we can only often scratch the surface—nevertheless, we hope to give you lots of food for thought. Do feel free to download each video, circulate it to friends, or share it on social media.

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DISCERNING THE TRUTH – 24 views – Rhinocus – Published on Apr 11, 2016 – SUBSCRIBED 11

This video offers advice on how to know what is real.

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God Will Take Care Of You – Aretha Franklin, Gospel Greats 1999 album – 916,444 views – Pannellctp Traditional Gospel Music – Published on Nov 4, 2011

Aretha Franklin’s Gospel Greats 1999 album are songs that were originally released as a double LP in 1972, Amazing Grace cracked the Billboard Top Ten upon its release, making it one of the bestselling gospel records of all time.

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