It is time for the fire of the Lord to come to His house.

 

It is time to teach that he who brings sin into the body subjects the whole body to suffer the consequences. We must be held accountable for our actions.

 

At the same time, when I see the passages in the scripture of how the apostles dealt with sin, they were bold in their declarations of what the Lord expected. There was no hesitation in their actions, giving no thought to the person’s feelings about being confronted. Getting rid of the sin in the Body seemed to be the priority and confronting the sin openly was the only option. The instructions of Jesus in Matthew 18 regarding a brother causing offense or being offended supports an open process in bringing righteousness and justice eventually before the whole body.  

 

There seems to be a common thread to the practice of sin in the Body of Christ. There seems to be no fear of the Lord nor does there appear to be any reverence for His Word and His precepts. All want the blessings of the Lord and what He promises in His Word, but I have seen a pattern that shows that they want the blessings their way and rebel against anyone in authority who tries to bring instruction and/or correction. I have also seen where we as leadership and overseers are not willing to confront overt sin the way the apostles did for reasons of making people uncomfortable. I think that Joshua intended to make Achan uncomfortable! 

If the church is to wake up from their slumber in sin, the only way is for the Pastors and Elders to confront the sin and not allow the silliness and foolishness of it to continue. There is a difference between babes in Christ making mistakes in learning how to walk and those who should be mature, knowing right from wrong and looking for ways to get away with and justify how they live.

 

 

This scripture has always gripped my heart when I read it. When I began to comprehend the scope of how deep this message dives into the lives of the people of the Body of Christ, I tremble in the Presence of God. The Holy Spirit did not and still does not tolerate lying to Him in such a way as to misrepresent how He has provided for His people. I believe that if Anannias and Sapphira would have come clean with what they wanted to give with respect to how much they sold the land for, it would have been okay, because it was the truth.

 

The truth is all that the Lord is about in representing Himself on the earth. He never lies and He wants our lives to reflect the same to the world. He is looking for true witnesses. That is why we cannot allow sin to taint our testimony in any way.

 

The Lord has given me a picture of how sin can affect the body. Most people in the church do not realize or will not recognize that someone is watching how they live for Jesus and are making their evaluations of Christianity, based upon what they see in the life of that one they have been watching. First as an Elder in the church, and now as a pastor, I came to realize very quickly that my life was in a fish bowl.

 

This leaves me with a major decision as to how I want my life to be portrayed: can I be free to do things that many others in the church can do such as go to an ‘R’ rated movie? I cannot if I want to be sure that when someone watches me, they catch me living my life to please the Lord instead of pleasing myself. It also gets deeper in that I must be careful how I conduct myself with my family in public – as a true witness. I must practice what I preach, so to speak. But the deeper thing for me in this is how the presence and anointing of the Holy Spirit has become a treasure to me. Now, I try to live my life so as to stay close to Him; and everyone else gets ministered to as well.

 

The sad commentary on this is that many in the church believe that, we as pastors should be expected to live that way, but they do not have to. Unfortunately, they have someone watching them as well. We all do and we should be His witnesses so that all can come to the knowledge of the truth.