August 11, 2008
This is a Test, Only a Test
I think we often underestimate the story of Ananias and Sapphira. This narrative is not just about the money, or cheating the church, or lying. And it’s more than just testing the Spirit…it is also about agreeing to test the Spirit. In modern times maybe we haven’t witnessed someone dropping dead from testing the Spirit, but that doesn’t mean that testing hasn’t been occurring. Even today there are things happening amongst us that occurs with the full knowledge of more that one person. Conspiracies can range from covering up for pedophiles to understating collected tithes and offerings. Actually, I’m not so sure that there’s not some Spirit testing occurring in the area of today’s marketing strategies and church growth methods.
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Gail;
-----For centuries man lived, committed his atrocities, and then died by either their own carelessness, their own stupidity, or natural causes. Then one man walked with God and spoke God’s mind to the people. He named his kid “The end will come when he dies”. Then the grandson of “The end will come when he dies” had great faith in what God spoke to him, built a gigantic boat designed by God, and preached a coming end to almost everyone. An undetermined number of people died for their misconception of God and inattentiveness to His holiness and His messages. When God next drew near to man’s affairs, presenting Himself in small ways to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, more people found being in God’s face a deadly thing, especially Sodom and Gomorrah. Once Israel had settled into Egypt, history proceeded as “normal” through four more centuries until God drew near. This time stubbornness cost the Egyptians their firstborn, whining cost the Israelites many friends and neighbors several times, and Korah with, some two hundred fifty other men, became “well grounded“, so to speak, for presuming they could rise up against God’s prophet while God was still hanging around. God’s prophets to Israel were no less to be messed with in His presence to them. Then four hundred years of “going it alone” separated Malachi from John the Baptist, Jesus, His apostles, and arguably some of His second century saints. Some pretty incredible things began happening as God drew near to human events, speaking more message. At this time Ananias and Saphira bit the dust for lying to the Spirit. But, after a couple centuries or so, the same intervening spell of men seeming to get away with murder settled in. This time for nearly two thousand years, including our current experiences. But an examination of each time God draws near to the events of man reveals another Y in the road man’s destiny takes, and another brush stroke that eventually will paint Satan into a corner. The Tribulation, that dreadful time so apparently close, will be a time when God has once again drawn nearer to human events. In fact, He will have drawn so near that many events happening then will not be human at all, they will be directly His. Hundreds of millions will die, probably billions, some for their stubbornness against God and others for their faithfulness to Him. Meanwhile, Satan will be making the last few giant brush strokes himself until he is slobber knocked through the corner into the pit.
-----That is what Ananias and Saphira bring to my mind.
Love,
Steve Corey
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