Watch Out!

Acts 5:^3&5 “Then Peter said, ‘Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself.’ As soon as Ananias heard these words, he fell to the floor and died. Everyone who heard about it was terrified.”

In our day, social media will literally explode with this sort of news. Imagine the headline: Pastor snuffs out member’s life for incomplete giving! Or this; Sow correct seed or fall down and die! Bad press! Peter was not in an easy place and I do not envy Peter at all. However, we must know and remember what Peter knew, which is, the person in charge of the church is the Holy Spirit. The wife showed up, Peter gave her a chance to come clean. Acts 5:⁸ “Peter asked her, ‘Was this the price you and your husband received for your land?…’” But because they had connived, and she was more loyal to her husband than to her own destiny and to her God, “Yes,” she replied, “that was the price.” Acts 5:^9-10 “And Peter said, ‘How could the two of you even think of conspiring to test the Spirit of the Lord like this? The young men who buried your husband are just outside the door, and they will carry you out, too.’ Instantly, she fell to the floor and died…”

Why would a spouse be more loyal to his or her spouse than to God? It does not make sense. The Holy Spirit can be lied to. If you think about it, it is funny to say the Holy Spirit can be lied to because can He really be lied to? You are lying to yourself, deceiving yourself because He already knows. He can be cheated. You can hurt the Holy Spirit, do you know that? You can grieve the Holy Spirit and it is so important that we do not ever do that. We must also understand that because He is a person, we need to manage the relationship. The Bible says in 1 Thes.5:19, “Quench not the Spirit”. There is also something called the sin against the Holy Spirit. That is the only sin in the Bible that is unforgiveable. I have heard people say the sin against the Holy Spirit is when you divorce your wife. I have heard people say the sin against the Holy Spirit is when you do not come to church, or when you do not pay your tithes.

All those things are not the sin against the Holy Spirit. What is the sin against the Holy Spirit? Jesus said the sin against the Holy Spirit is when you attribute to the devil what was done by the Holy Spirit. In other words, when someone sees the work of the Holy Spirit and says this is the work of the devil. The person is indirectly calling the Holy Spirit a devil. How come that is unforgiveable? Simple; when someone says that, what happens is, the person shuts himself or herself off from the Holy Ghost. The only person that can guarantee eternal life is Jesus. And the only person that can reveal Jesus to any heart is the Holy Spirit. Can you see the link?  So, if someone shuts down on the Holy Spirit, he or she cannot receive Christ. And that person cannot be delivered from his or her destruction. It is an irreversible process. So, when God says to us in Eph. 4:³⁰ “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” (NKJV). It means the Holy Spirit can be grieved.

Prayer [song]: I have no power of my own (2x). Holy Spirit, I look up to You. Help me! I have no Power of my own. …Holy Spirit, I rely on You. Help me! I have no Power of my own. Amen!