THE CHURCH IS FLIRTING WITH DISASTER

“And do this knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.”—Romans 13:11

 

In a few days, Christians from around the world will be celebrating Pentecost.  Among Christians, Pentecost commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit fifty days after Easter Sunday, upon the twelve apostles and other followers of Jesus, as described in the Acts of the Apostles 2:1-41.   For this reason, Pentecost is sometimes described as the day that the Church was born.  God’s plan for the Church is much greater than most religious leaders will accept or even understand.  Because religion has a tendency to view the future through the lens of past experiences, it is not able to comprehend the exceeding greatness of God’s power in doing a new thing.   God used Pentecost to signal to the world that He was doing a new thing. He was moving forward, using people from all walks of life, which were endued with His power to turn the world from paganism.

The early Church was filled with awe and wonder as they waited expectantly for Christ’s return.  Although the Church was being persecuted, Scripture tells us that daily people were added to the Church and that signs and wonders were a common occurrence.  During this time, people were selling their property and laying it down at the apostle’s feet.  The apostle’s would then distribute what was needed to the people.  A man and his wife, Ananias and Sapphira, sold some property, but kept back part of the amount that they had received from the sell of their property.  Ananias brought part of the proceeds and laid it at the Apostles’ feet; thus, indicating that the amount he had given was the total amount realized from the sell of the property.  The Apostle Peter confronted the issue of lying by saying, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself?  While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control?  Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to me but to God.”  Immediately, Ananias fell dead down at Peter’s feet.  Not knowing what happened to her husband, Sapphira came to Peter.  When Peter inquired that the property had been sold for the same amount as her husband had mentioned, Sapphira replied yes.  Peter said to her, “How is it that you have agreed together, to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.”  Immediately, Sapphria fell down at his feet and died.  The Scripture tells us that great fear came upon all those who heard what had happened (Acts 4:34-37; 5:1-11).

Satan uses the works of the flesh to operate against the Spirit of God (Galatians 5:17).  Ananias and Sapphira not only, “flirted with disaster” when they conspired to lie to the Holy Spirit; but also, reaped the consequences of that flirtation.  When the Church “flirts with disaster” by engaging in the world’s conduct of adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, difference of opinion that lead to open conflict, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, noisy celebrating and the likes, the consequences can be disastrous (Galatians 5:19-21).  What the world serves up as fun and nutritious can only end in God’s judgment, if not repented of, as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira. 

Repentance is the solution for the Church who has been “flirting with disaster” by dinning on the nutrition of the flesh.  The Apostle John wrote, “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.  If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1: 5-9). 

The Church and the world’s Advocate, with the Father, is Jesus Christ the righteous.  It is only through His blood that the Church can be restored into right relationship.  I urge you to allow the Holy Spirit to show you areas where you may be “flirting with disaster.”                                            Prayer—Father I ask that the Holy Spirit would bring to my mind anything where I have been flirting with disaster.  I repent of these things__________________ (name these things), and ask for your forgiveness and restoration, in Jesus Name. Amen.