Being in blood covenant with the Almighty Creator is a serious matter!
A warning against synchronizing your worldly customs with the blood covenant.
This world's system has many customs that get into people even without thought or decision on their part. These can include, but are not limited to, customs about personal honesty, about how to handle money, how to relate in marriage, how to raise children, how to speak and use words, and many traditions about sexual activity. You need to recognize that as a believer that you are not to operate your life according to the world's system and your culture. To be a believer in Jesus Christ and at the same time to operate in the world's system and culture is called synchronism. It is widespread all over the world, in Third World countries as well as more modernized nations.
Perhaps the most prevalent issue of synchronism is lying, not being totally honest about everything.
Jesus' name is Truth. You cannot have a blood covenant relationship with Truth when you yourself are not truthful in all things. The world's system is based upon lying. Its very foundation is a lie. Satan is named the Father of lies, John 8:44. You choose whose child you are by choosing to be truthful in all things or to depend upon a lie. People lie in order to survive some challenge in life, whether it be financial, personal, social, or anything else. Lying is the survival tool for the world's system. Lying brings a curse to your life for sure.
Your own personal honesty.
Someone said, "No one is so blind as someone who does not want to see the truth."
Before Jesus saved me, I depended upon lying to a great degree. It was not so much lying to other people. I tried to keep that as honest as possible, but not 100%. The real issue is that I had been lying to myself for decades. I was deceived by my own lie to myself.
God can only work with total “gut level” honesty! Any untruth or lie is an invitation for Satan to work. It is a hook that he may get a hold of and manipulate your life. Here are just a few Scriptures that testify about being honest. Your personal honesty is one of the major things that will determine your eternal destiny. Do not take it lightly!
Psalm 51:6 says,
6 “Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.”
You cannot have fellowship with God nor have your sins cleansed without truth.
1 John 1:7 says,
7 “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.”
You cannot come to the Father God without truth.
John 14:6 says,
“6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
You cannot hear God's voice without truth.
John 18:37 says,
“37 Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?” Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.””
God will not hear your prayers if your lips are deceitful.
Psalms 17:1 says,
“1Hear a just cause, O LORD, Attend to my cry; Give ear to my prayer which is not from deceitful lips.”
God cannot dwell with you without your being truthful.
John 14:17 says,
“17 “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”
You cannot come into intimacy with God without truth.
Psalms 24:2-4 says,
“2 For He has founded it upon the seas, And established it upon the waters.
3 Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place?
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully.”
Revelation 21:8 says,
“8 “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.””
Jesus hid the truth from those who do not love the truth!
Mark 4:11-12 (Amplified Bible) says,
11And He said to them, To you has been entrusted the mystery of the kingdom of God [that is, the secret counsels of God which are hidden from the ungodly]; but for those outside of our circle] everything becomes a parable,
12 In order that they may [indeed] look and look but not see and perceive, and may hear and hear but not grasp and comprehend, lest haply they should turn again, and it [their willful rejection of the truth] should be forgiven them.
We are warned that eventually, if we continue to ignore the truth, that God Himself will make sure that we are totally blinded to truth.
2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 says,
“9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,
10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie,
12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
The conscience.
Why is it that eventually we will not even know that we are lying but will be totally blinded, and actually believer that our lies are the truth?
As Watchman Nee has written, there are three functions of our spirit. They are conscience, intuition and communion. These three work together to give us the potential to have intimacy with our Father God utilizing our own free will.
Communion, not meaning the act of taking bread and juice, but rather the act of intimacy with God, is there as a potential.
Intuition is the means whereby we have this communion. Our communication with God is not really at the mind or emotion level, but rather at the intuition of the heart. Certainly we can read the Word of God and understand it with our mind, but in order to really hear God speak to us His personal word, or rhema, it must come through your intuition.
Conscience is where our free will comes in. God gave us our conscience so that we would intuitively know right from wrong. It was set up to give us the free will to either love the truth or not love it.
For instance, if you steal money, your conscience is supposed to convict you of sin. If you have a healthy conscience you will receive that conviction. You may then either confess your sin, be cleansed and turn from it, or attempt to pacify our conscience with the argument, that God knew you needed the funds, and therefore He understand and forgives you. You lean on His "grace," and argue your way out of being honest.
That is when the danger begins!
Your conscience is set up to become less and less functional the more you compromise with your honesty. Your intimacy (communion) with God becomes less intense. He is attempting to get your attention on the matter of being dishonest, and you keep compromising and justifying. As this continues, your conscience becomes "seared," or numbed to the point that as 2 Thessalonians says, God will send you a strong delusion that you will actually believe the lie.
How do you then begin to live?
Many people back away from God at this point, and even begin the backsliding process. I believe that the backsliding from grace can be eternally dangerous.
Others become religious and attempt to satisfy their conscience by dong good works. I see a lot of this!
All God wants you to do is to be honest with Him about your sin, and as in 1 John 1:9, He will wipe it out the second you agree, confess and repent. Repent your way through life.
Here are several Scriptures about our conscience.
Titus 1:15 says,
15 To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled.
Hebrews 9:14 says,
“14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
1 Timothy 4:2 says,
“2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron,”
1 Timothy 1:19 says,
“19 having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck,”
John 8:9 says,
“9 Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.”
Acts 24:16 (Amplified Bible) says,
16 Therefore I always exercise and discipline myself [mortifying my body, deadening my carnal affections, bodily appetites, and worldly desires, endeavoring in all respects] to have a clear (unshaken, blameless) conscience, void of offense toward God and toward men.”
Frogs can be deceived. So can you!
You can boil a live frog by putting it into warm water and then heating it up little by little. Pretty soon, before the frog can respond by jumping out, the water is boiling and the frog dies.
Hebrews chapter 10 gives us a serous warning!
The following passage of Scripture in Hebrews chapter 10, in my opinion, is a serious warning against synchronism. It is in the context of comparing the Law of Moses with its commands and ordinances, with the wonderful grace we have in Jesus. It differentiates between the Old and the New Covenant. It reminds us that those who did not take the Old Covenant seriously perished eternally. Then it states that if we, in the New Covenant, willfully continue to sin, or in other words, practice synchronism after we have seen the Truth, we are subject to a much worse judgment. It states (through the original translation of words) that such a person is actually insulting the grace of God and the Blood Covenant.
I also believe that this portion of Scripture does apply to money issues as well as others. Its context infers that we should have endurance to believe God's promises to take care of us financially, and that those who give up and practice the habits of mammon will suffer a great and horrible future.
Most believers who do not trust in God's promises to take care of them, but rather resort to deceit, lying, manipulation and other practices that the world utilizes for the handling of money, do not realize that they are on a backsliding trip that is slow but sure. After some time, those people's consciences are seared so that they no longer are even aware of their wrongdoing. That condition leads them to further sin unknowingly. It continues to progress until such time as they no longer control their own actions but are given over to perdition.
Hebrews 10:11-39 explains that under the Old Covenant, that the blood of bulls and goats could not cleanse the conscience. However under the New Covenant, that since the Law will be put into our hearts, that our conscience will be cleansed by His blood in order to have intimacy with Him in the Holy of Holies.
Hebrews 10:11-22, 26-31 says,
“11 And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
12 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God,
13 from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.
14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
15 But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before,
16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,”
17 then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
18 Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.
19 Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus,
20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh,
21 and having a High Priest over the house of God,
22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
26 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.
28 Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?
30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The LORD will judge His people.”
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
I so often define grace as simply the Father, and the Son Jesus living inside of your mortal body through the Holy Spirit. Just imagine God inside of you being insulted by the fact that He has given you the power to live a holy life and to have all of your needs cared for by Him, and you are ignoring that truth and adapting the ways of God's enemy, the ways of the world and mammon, as your source of life.
Financial issues can affect your conscience more than anything.
Another prevalent cultural issues is about mishandling money. Actually, its root is really based upon lying. Jesus spoke very often about money. He warned that there could really be no synchronism with serving God and money, and that you could only serve one or the other. In Matthew 6 Jesus linked your conscience with money matters.
Matthew 6:19-24 (Amplified Bible) says,
“19 Do not gather and heap up and store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust and worm consume and destroy, and where thieves break through and steal.
20 But gather and heap up and store for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust nor worm consume and destroy, and where thieves do not break through and steal;
21For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
22 The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is sound, your entire body will be full of light.
23 But if your eye is unsound, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the very light in you [your conscience] is darkened, how dense is that darkness!
24 No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stand by and be devoted to the one and despise and be against the other. You cannot serve God and mammon deceitful riches, money, possessions, or [whatever is trusted in).”
Notice Jesus said, that is impossible to serve God and at the same time operate in the world's system of finance, here referred to as mammon (wealth, personified). I speculate that mammon may be more than just a custom of the world's way of handling money, and that it possibly is even a strong demonic being who heads up this system.
It is eternally dangerous to attempt to live in the worldly ways of money, which is mammon. I believe that Scripture tells us that it can lead to eternal destruction and damnation even for believers, a condition often referred to as backsliding. I realize that this is a controversial subject, therefore I simply submit Scripture and am asking the Holy Spirit as I write to illuminate to each of you the truth of this as a protection for your eternal well being.
In this book and in most of my writings I refer to living our lives in a manner described as "Walking in the Spirit.” That means that knowing we are not perfect yet, that we need to be hungry for holiness and righteousness, and as we sin in life that we immediately confess and repent and hate our sinful activity and/ or thoughts. This type of living, in my opinion, pleases the Lord. However, walking in the Spirit is not to be confused with willfully sinning and willfully walking and living according to the traditions and customs of the world's system, especially mammon.
A personal testimony.
One of the misunderstood characteristics of God is His integrity. “Integrity” comes from the word “integer”, which means whole number. An integer does not have a fraction, it is whole and complete. Integrity carries the meaning of being pure, upright, honest, whole, congruent, finished, complete, and honorable. A person of integrity is pure; he is not mixed with some truth and some deceit. He is not mixed with some honesty and some dishonesty.
God is a person of integrity and He desires to work that characteristic into us as we mature in Him. Sometimes people start to walk with the Lord after living without integrity and they assume that God is just like them. However, God wants to change us into His likeness; into people of integrity..
The first thing that God began to work in my life, after He became Lord of my life, was to rid me of all dishonesty and lack of integrity.
Matthew 5:8 says,
“Blessed are the pure [not mixed, integrity] in heart, for they will see God” If you really want to see God, seek a pure heart!
I had only known the Lord for about six months when He began to reveal things to me from my past that needed restitution . I had habitually underpaid my government income taxes before I became a Christian (just call it cheating). The Lord directed me to pay back all that I had cheated the government.
The amount I estimated was more than I could have paid back, but I told my accountant to make the necessary adjustments anyway. He advised me not to do it, as it was his opinion that I would never be caught. I told him that God had already caught me. He did not know what to think about that! He went ahead and reported the back amounts. I have since changed accountants!
As it turned out, that was the year that the new tax laws provided for massive tax credits for the employment of students. I owned a retail business and had employed dozens of students. The tax credits totally wiped out the amounts I owed.
In addition, the Lord gave me the promise in Matthew 17:27, which says, “But so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.” Each and every year since then (1980), I have received a miracle of some kind when it came time to pay my taxes! I call it “finding a fish with a coin in its mouth” for me. My new accountant loves to watch for the “fish” every year!
Money is one of the most important measures of our dedication to God.
He told the Rich Young Ruler in Matthew 19, that his religion, power, influence and youth would not gain eternal life for him. In fact, He told him that all of those things in which he trusted could keep him from eternal life. Jesus told him to give all he had to the poor and come follow Him. The Ruler would not do as Jesus said. God does not always ask us to give away all of our money, but He does want us to subordinate whatever we have that could be taking the place of God. This man was trusting in “other gods.”
Jesus never asked me to give my money away, but I surely did. Looking back, I can see that it was the Lord that had influenced me. I got into a giving frenzy when I first came to God. It made some people mad, but God spoke to me when the last cent was gone. He said, “Now you have sown what is corruptible, and you will reap the incorruptible” (1 Corinthians 15). I can tell you that since 1979, God has been faithful to what He said to me! There were many times when it did not look as if He would be faithful, but He always was.
God does indeed desire prosperity for you. However, He is more interested in your character and integrity than He is in your financial comfort. The word “prosperity” carries the root meaning of integrity. You cannot have Godly prosperity without integrity.
3 John 1:2 says,
“Beloved, in regard to all things I pray that you prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers.”
I have learned that prosperity in the soul always comes first and is the most important issue. Any material prosperity that God has designed for your life will be an outflow of the prosperity of your soul.
Material prosperity can mean something different for each culture, but to God I believe it has a very simple definition: having enough resources to execute your God calling, and having enough left over to give to the poor and to the Gospel. We are also called to bless Israel!