Have you checked your heart lately??? There is a disease that usually goes undetected and if not treated could result in death.
It is important to have physical exams and it is also important to have spiritual exams. You could be suffering from heart disease and not realize it. Things that will hinder you spiritually could be lurking in your heart without you having any realization of it being there.
Jer. 17:9 tells us, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" It is very important to have healthy spiritual lives so that God can work in and through us, so it is very important to ask the Holy Spirit to do a spiritual examination.
It happened to me. I thought I was doing great spiritually. I was doing all the right things (or so I thought), I was ministering to the poor, I was helping those in need as much as I could. I was teaching a Sunday School class and even preaching occasionally. On the outside everything appeared to be fine (just like those people Jesus was preaching to in Matt 23:27, you know the Scribes and the Phairsees).
Then God got my attention. Sometimes "through the pain in our lives God speaks the loudest" (C. S. Lewis). At first I didn't think that it could possibly be anything wrong with my heart. After all I am a minister and I knew God was using me to some extent, working in the church ministering to others etc. After all I was really trying to work hard for the Lord.
Then things began to happen in my life that I just could not understand. I know God has said that we will all have trials and tribulations, but that we are overcomers. But it was during this time that I asked God to examine my heart. That's one thing about trials and hardship, you will either become bitter or you will become better. You will either draw closer to the Lord or go father away. I wanted to draw closer.
When I asked the Holy Spirit to examine my heart, he began to show me that I had some serious heart problems. One infection called "Pride" was one that was severely crippling my walk with the Lord. I also found out that Pride was not easily recognizable. Most people deny it's existence, and it could easily go undetected, possibly causing death. Two more infections that usually go along with Pride were "Envy" and "Jealousy". These were very serious and could be very detrimental to a Christian's life. Another was called "Judgementalism." . These heart infections usually result in something called a "Bad Attitude." Bad Attitudes will crop up from time to time and can really adversely affect your witness for the Lord.
Well Praise the Lord, Jesus the great physician performed heart surgery and transformed my heart. It was painful at first when I realized how I had let my heart go and get into such a bad condition. I realized that without my knowing it, the enemy had probably turned others away from Christ because of me. I think that hurt more than anything. What a deceiver he is! All the time I thought I was the model Christian, he was working havoc in my heart.
I am telling you all of this because I want you to realize how important it is that you ask the Holy Spirit to regularly examine your heart. Your eternal life and the lives of all those close to you could be in danger of spiritual death.
Some one told me of a relative who was a very active church member. She was very much a servant except to those who were in her family. She had family member who said they would not attend church because of the bad treatment they had received from her. I am sure you are thinking, "some people just look for an excuse." But what if this is true, and because of the condition of this person's heart someone is turned away from the Lord? Could this be one of your family members? Could you be standing in the way of them having a relationship with the Lord and not even realize it?
I remember a few years ago working with two people who loved to talk about the church that they both attended. At the same time they were constantly fighting. One day one of them expressed, "she hated the other one and wanted to pinch her head off when she saw her singing in the choir." There were several of their co workers who were not saved, and the remark was made "if that is Christianity I want no part of it." The sad thing was they oblivious to fact that they were a bad reflection on the Lord. They were unaware of the condition of their hearts.
As I said my friend, when we neglect to have our heart examined spiritually, it could result in spiritual death, not only ours, but family members and others close to us. For your sake and the sake of others, please have a regular examination.
Psalm 145:17 tells us that, "the Lord is near to all who call upon him in truth. He will fulfill the desires of those who fear Him: He will also hear their cry and save them."
That is a promise that He gives us. When we truthfully ask him to examine our hearts as the Psalmist said, "Search me O' God, and know my heart; try me, know my thoughts and see if there is any wicked way in me"Psalm 139: 23-24. I thank God that His mercies are new every morning. I thank Him that He forgives even my unintentional sin. He forgives me even when I sinned and didn't realize it.
This is what Chapter 4 in Leviticus is all about, God's provision for unintentional sin. As you study this with me, you will realize again how God left nothing out. These sacrifices would represent what His precious Son would do for us one day at Calvary. He loved us so much He made sure that nothing would stand in the way of His children's fellowship with Him, not even unintentional sin.
How important it is that we ask him to examine our hearts and confess any unintentional sin. We are the only way the world is going to see Jesus.
As I have said in previous blogs posts, God is calling us to a walk of holiness. "Without holiness no one will see the Lord," Heb. 12:14
Again my favorite scripture, that I believe is prophetic for the time in which we are living:
"Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord arises upon you and His glory appears over you." Isaiah 60:1-3
We must continually ask him to search our hearts. We are that light, the only way this dark world will see Jesus. He said, "If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto Me." John 12:32
LEVITICUS CHAPTER 4
In this chapter we will talk about the "Sin Offering." It was a required offering, remember some offerings were voluntary and some were required.
One of the purposes of this command was to make the Israelites aware of their unintentional sins. It was for those who committed a sin without realizing it. It was a sin committed out of weakness or negligence as opposed to outright rebellion against God.
If you broke the law out of ignorance, you sinned and didn't realize it, this offering would restore fellowship with God.
This reveals an underlying truth, "we are sinners by nature." We are prone to sin even when we don't know it.
Something had to die, blood had to be shed for even unintentional sin.
Isn't it wonderful to know that God took care of everything even when we sin out of ignorance? He loved us so much that he was to let nothing stand in the way of our fellowship with Him. Remember these offerings and sacrifices were a picture of what His precious Son, the Lamb of God would do for us.
I think one of the greatest spiritual awakenings I have had, next to my salvation experience, was when God revealed that I had sinned unintentionally and out of ignorance.
When we truly ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us the things offend Him and keep us from looking like our Savior, He will. I began a few years ago asking Him to reveal to me anything in my life that was keeping me from having that intimate relationship with Him that I had longed to have.
He began to show to me my life through the eyes of the Holy Spirit. I saw that over the years I had let sins such as pride, arrogance, envy and jealousy creep in. I was unaware of the fact that I was not truly glorifying Him in my life.
Sometimes we can go along in life thinking we're okay if we just do all the right things such as going to church, praying, witnessing, giving, doing good deeds. What looks good on the outside is not always good on the inside. This is one of Satan's biggest deceptions. As long as we are not aware of the sins that have crept into our hearts, he has it made. He is working through us and we don't even know it.
We can become religious if we are not careful, just like the people Jesus was speaking to in Matt. 23:27. They were religious people, He called "hypocrites." "For you are like white washed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness."
God knows when our hearts are not right even when we don't. So what should we do to make sure that we are aware of any sin that might creep into our hearts?
We must continually ask God to search our hearts. This is a must dear friend.
Psalm 139:23-24 "Search me O' God, and know my heart; try me, know my thoughts and see if there is any wicked way in me."
The Psalmist is saying "I am naturally a sinner and there could be some sin there that I don't know or realize."
We must ask God to search us, test us, know our thoughts, because we still have that old sin nature that wants to take over and run things. Unfortunately He will be there till the day we die, so we must continually ask God to search our hearts.
Verse3 discusses the sin of the priest or spiritual leader. God had separated them for leadership and He knew that if the priest went wrong the people would follow. He had to offer the most valuable animal, a young bull with no defects. He is more accountable than the people, therefore more is expected of him.
If you desire to be in any kind of leadership, you must count the cost, because more is expected of those who answer the call to leadership.
James 3:1 " Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged by God with greater strictness."
Verses 5, 6, and 7 talks about the blood that was applied. The blood that was shed restored the fellowship and worship of the priest.
Blood had to be shed, because sin was serious to God. Our sins do not go unnoticed. Our relationship with God is based on the fact that blood was spilled. The blood of His precious Son.
We need to keep saying "Search me and try me O' Lord.
Verses 8-12 God wanted the fat, the fat that covered the inner parts. The fat was considered the best. Here we see again God desires our best. The best that is inside us. He desires "truth in the inward parts." Psalm 51:6
He desired the fat on the inward parts not the hide, the head, the organs that we would consider valuable.
We want to look holy or appear holy on the outside, but it is not the outward, but the inward best that He desired.
The rest would be burned on a wood fire in an ash heap.
Isn't it funny how we concentrate more on the outward (our good deeds and all), and He is more concerned with the inward.
One day the outward will be ashes and dust.
Verses 13-21, talks about when a community or a nation sins. We see here again where sin is important to God. If a nation sins unintentionally, a high price was to be paid. The most valuable animal had to be offered, a young bull. It was the same offering as the priest who had sinned unintentionally.
This shows that just as there is an individual responsibility, there is a corporate responsibility. God judges individuals, but He also judges nations. And when He judges the whole nation we are in it.
This is a scary time for our nation, especially as I heard just yesterday that our President declared that, "we are not a Christian Nation."
The scripture for the repentance of a whole nation is 2Chron. 7:14-15, "If My people, who are called by My name (Christians), will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways( repent), then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now My eyes will be opened and My ears attentive to their prayers in this place.
Note that the scripture says, "If My people." I have often thought it odd that we talk so much about needing revival in this nation. You can't revive something that has never lived. Christians have to be revived, but those who are not Christians have never been born spiritually. They are spiritually dead. We need revival among God's people.
We must pray for our nation and our leaders, but first we must pray for God's people to be revived. The condition of our nation is a reflection of the Church. This is why I believe God is calling His people to walk "holy" before Him. And as I said in earlier posts, "those who are hearing from Him are answering this callto holiness."
We tend to get angry when we see all that is going on in our nation. We are not to get angry at the sinner. In fact Jesus said, "forgive them for they know not what they do." They are blinded to the truth. If you will remember Jesus didn't get angry at the sinner, He was angry at the money changers in the temple(the religious people) He said, "My house will be called a house of prayer."
There is little praying going on in Today's churches. If you do have a "prayer night" usually very few show up. I like what Jim Cymballa said in his book, "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire," "You can tell how popular a church is by who comes on Sunday morning. You can tell how popular the pastor or evangelist is by who comes on Sunday night. But you can tell how popular Jesus is by who comes to the prayer meeting."
We have to, as God's people, humble ourselves and pray and seek his face (ask him to search our hearts as we said earlier) and turn or repent from our wicked ways.
That is what is wrong with the world, they haven't seen Jesus in the Church. What was the scripture I quoted earlier, Jesus said, "If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me." When we, as Christians, lift him up for the world to see, we will start seeing people drawn and souls won.
Verses 22- 26 These scriptures speak of the unintentional sins of leadership, not spiritual leadership just leadership. Verses 27-35 speak of the unintentional sins of a member of the community sins. The sin offering for these unintentional sins are less (a male goat and a female goat), but a price had to be paid. Blood had to be shed. Sin causes death.
That is something to think about because sin causes death today. When there is sin in our lives, even what we refer to as little sins or unintentional sin, it causes death. It could be the spiritual death of those close to you. It causes the death of happiness peace and joy and the abundant life God promised us.
Jesus paid the price our sin once and for all on the cross at Calvary. As we are seeing in the sacrifices, God did not leave one thing out, even sin that we do unintentionally. These sacrifices would be a picture His Son the Lamb of God.
Just as the Israelites would lay their hand on the head of the young lamb or bull and slaughter it in payment for their sins, our sin was was laid on the Son of God. He was the "slaughtered Lamb," slaughtered for our sins.
We can have fellowship with our Father because the price has been paid. God loved us so much that He made sure everything was covered in those sacrifices, even unintentional sin. We saw in the sacrifices that everything was exposed as the sacrifice was cut into pieces. Just as our Savior was hanged naked on a cross and every part of Him exposed to the world.
We represent Him to the world. What an awesome responsibility!!! Let us strive to lift Him up and glorify Him in all that we say and do. Let our lives be a "living sacrifice," a sweet smelling savor" to our Lord.
