This is the last message in the series “Auto-correcting God.” In the three previous messages we looked at individuals in the Old Testament who had received an instruction from God but chose not to follow it.
They altered the instruction the Lord had given to them to fit what they believed – to fit what they, in their hearts, wanted to do.
The smart phone’s “auto-correct function” has been used to drive this home. It is designed to catch and correct spelling errors but sometimes it wrongly auto-corrects what the sender intends or desires.
In the three previous messages, we looked at individuals who had received a “word from the Lord” and chose to “auto-correct” it – who chose to modify it – thereby producing consequences that impacted not only themselves but their families for generations.
That’s a lesson for us today. As Christians, we must see God’s instructions for what they truly are.
• First of all, following God’s instructions are opportunities for us to deepen our knowledge and understanding of Him and His ways. In essence, God’s instruction show us His heart, what is truly important to Him.
• Second, when we make a decision to follow God’s instructions, to do what He tells us to do, we are to submitting ourselves in willing obedience to His will. You don’t have to turn to this but do you remember what Jesus says in John 6:38? He says he came from heaven, not to do his will, but the will of the one who sent him.
• I want you to turn with me to John 14:21. Jesus says, “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me...” Thirdly, when we willingly follow God’s instructions, we are showing Him how much we truly love Him.
As Christians, we may not always understand the fullness of God’s instruction – and most of the time we won’t – but that is not a reason to auto-correct it. Turn to Hebrews 11:8.
“By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.”
When God calls Abraham out of Haran, He didn’t give him the complete road map did he? No. God paints an image in Abraham heart of what will happen if he takes the first step of obedience – to leave his country and family. And we see that image – the end result of his obedience – in Genesis 12:2.
“And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing.”
Many times God has given me an instruction and I didn’t understand the fullness of it until I began to “walk it out” – until I took the first step of obedience. As I did, I began to see “why” He gave the instruction and the benefit that result because I obeyed and followed it.
The most important thing we must understand is this – the instruction came from God. Don’t hesitate or delay in obeying it.
And when God speaks, His words will always, always, always produce fruit. Turn with me to Isaiah 55, which shows us God’s heart about His instructions to us. We’re going to read verses 8 and 9.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Many will read these verses and come to the conclusion that God’s ways and thoughts can never be our ways and thoughts. But this is not what these verses are saying. God is not telling us that His thoughts and His ways can never be our thoughts and our ways. He’s simply stating the obvious: “Right now, your thoughts are not My thoughts and your ways are not My ways.”
We see this truth when we back up a couple of verses. Let’s look at verses 6 and 7.
“Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord; and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”
Let’s look again at the first part of verse 7. “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts...” Then we read verse 8: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.”
Isaiah 55 is prophetic and it’s talking about the body of Christ. The Lord’s thoughts can be our thoughts if we are willing to put aside our thoughts and allow his thoughts to become our thoughts – to determine how we think about things. The Lord’s ways can be our ways if we are willing to allow his ways to be our ways.
Ladies and gentlemen, once we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, I Corinthians 2:16 says “we have the mind of Christ.” If we receive the mind of Christ at the new birth, does this not give us the ability to think like God thinks and to have ways like God’s ways? Yes, it does! Now hear me: it gives us the ability but we have to take that ability and use it – put it into practice. Do you see this?
The enemy of the soul does not want us to see this truth. Why? Let’s keep reading. Look at verses 10 and 11.
“For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”
Look at the picture the Lord is painting here. He says “As surely as the rain and snow water the earth so that it brings forth food for the sower, My Word (for us, primarily the Bible) is just as sure and trustworthy. My Word will produce in your life what I desire because My Word has My full backing and support. My Word is just as much Me as I am Me.”
Ladies and gentlemen, this is how God thinks! These are His thoughts! If we make His thoughts our thoughts by agreeing with Him and letting His Words be our words – by letting the Bible be our words – will not our words also accomplish the purposes for which they are intended? Come on. What does it say?
When God speaks, His words produces the results he desires. So, if we speak God’s Word, should not our words produce the same results? The answer is a resounding “yes”!
In Psalm 138:2 we see the great value God places on His Word.
“I will worship toward his holy temple, for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.”
That’s pretty high praise, don’t you think? But most Christians don’t value the Bible the way God values it. Most Christians don’t “hear” the Bible as God speaking to them. They “hear” the Bible as a collection of books written by men. That’s why when we auto-correct God – disagree with Him, change His Word – we are not getting the fruit the Word is designed to produce in our lives. That’s why this issue is so important.
Since we’re talking about corrections.
I need to correct something: Genesis 3 did not make us “smart phones.”
When I introduced the analogy of the smart phone, I said God created man a “dumb phone” – an individual without the auto-correct function. I was wrong and I thank God for correcting me. The auto-correct function has always been a part of who we are as God’s creation.
I now see and understand the auto-correct function for what it truly is – free will.
God created us with the ability to disagree with Him. He didn’t create mindless robots. We have the ability to say “no” to Him – to auto-correct Him – because He wants us to love Him enough to choose obedience. He wants us to love Him enough not to auto-correct Him.
Ladies and gentlemen, our greatest expression of love to God is a surrendered life – a life of obedience.
And this brings us to our last example in this series of the clay auto-correcting or disagreeing with the Potter –Ananias and Sapphira.
The record of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 zeros in on a truth that many in the Body of Christ don’t truly grasp or understand. Holy Spirit has Luke share this story for one critical reason: When you tell a lie, you open up your life to the devastating effects of satanic influences because you are aligning yourself with the father of lies.
Scripture does not record Ananias and Sapphira receiving a direct instruction from the Lord not to lie. But it’s abundantly clear from the passages that precede it that they had been taught the apostles’ doctrine – the same doctrine that Jesus had taught them, including the importance of godliness, holiness and truthfulness.
Let’s look at a few examples.
We’ll begin in Ephesians 4:23. “Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another.”
Turn to Colossians 3:9. “Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds.”
Now look at 2 Corinthians 4:2. “But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.”
The last passage we’ll read is found in Ephesians 6 and the first part of verse 14. “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth...”
Each of these verses tell us that lying is wrong. We can never a justify telling a lie. Never.
Now turn back to Acts 5. The record begins with the word “But”. This tells us that whatever we’re about to read will be different from what we have read before. This also tells us that this is not the place to start a new chapter.
All chapters, chapter headings, verses, punctuation and, if you use the King James Version, the italicized words were added by the translators and bible sellers. Their intention was to help make the bible more “reader friendly”. In some cases it helps but in most cases it does a lot of harm. But that’s for another message.
In Acts 4:34 and 35 we learn that the believers who had more abundance had taken on the responsibility of caring for those who had less abundance.
“Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the price of the things that were sold, And laid them down at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.”
The believers who had abundance sold their excess and gave the proceeds to the apostles and said “use it to help my brothers and sisters.” Why would they do that? I believe they had tapped into God’s heart for people. I believe they understood that living with excess while others had very little was not God’s will.
With this in mind, let’s read Acts 5 and see how the clay auto-corrects the Potter. We’ll start with the first two verses.
“But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles’ feet.”
Here’s how this plays out in my imagination.
Ananias and Sapphira decide to sell some land and use the proceeds of the sale to bless the “family”. They meet with an auctioneer who says they can probably expect to receive about $100,000 for the property. The auctioneer doesn’t know that God has plans to bless the “family” with an amount far exceeding $100,000.
So Ananias and Sapphira meet with Peter and give him the auctioneer’s estimate promising to give the full amount when the land is sold. About a week later the auctioneer calls. “You won’t believe this,” he screams into the telephone, “your land sold for $250,000!”
Ananias and Sapphira are stunned. They receive $150,000 more for the property than they expected to receive. Now I want you to hear the response you’d expect to hear. “Thank you Lord! We now have $250,000 to give to Peter to bless folks,” they say. “Wow! God you really are blessing your people. We’re just glad to have played a small part in it. We give you all the praise and all the glory!”
Unfortunately, this is not their reaction at all. No even close.
“Look at how God has blessed us! We can keep our promise to give Peter $100,000 and we still have money left over that we can use to bless people when we see a need,” Ananias says. “You are so right, sweetie!” Sapphira says. “Our God is so good! Praise be to God!” Ananias and Sapphira have just failed the Stewardship Test.
What is the Stewardship Test?
God is looking for people to bless with money who will use it for kingdom purposes. The test often starts small. For example, someone gives you $25 out of the blue. You don’t need the money. Your bills are paid. You have plenty of food in the house. Are you getting the picture? But you choose to use the money on something you want but just didn’t have the money at the time to buy. Now you have the money.
Many of us don’t think about how we ask God to bless us with money beyond our needs so that we can use the money for the kingdom. So when a surprise $25 falls into our hands we rationalize using it for our own purposes by saying “It’s only $25. This couldn’t be from God.” You just failed the Stewardship Test my friend.
Does this sound familiar? We promise God to bless the Church with any money above and beyond our needs. So, God takes us at our word and we receive, for example, a 10% pay raise instead of a 5% pay raise. We praise Him for the excess and give the additional 5% to the church. Nope. We use it for “our needs.” But we had promised to give it to the Church. Again we rationalize. “It’s pay increase. Everyone got it. It was across the board. How could that be from God?”
We fail the Stewardship Test because we don’t see the greater pay increase as a blessing from God to use for the kingdom. What we’re looking for, if we honest, is a blessing “out of the ordinary” so that we can say “yes, this is God’s doing.”
Folks, when it comes to money, God will test us to see if He can trust us to use it for the kingdom. Sadly, more often than not, we fail the Stewardship Test because we allow our needs to grow when the money grows.
And that is exactly what we see here with Ananias and Sapphira. In my mind I can hear Ananias say, “We won’t tell Peter about the $150,000” and Sapphira smiling and nodding her head in complete agreement.
So Ananias and Sapphira agree that he will go to the bank, get a certified check for $100,000 and take it to Peter. In their minds, they are keeping their word to give $100,000, the amount the property was expected bring. I can see Ananias extending the check to Peter and saying with a big smile “The proceeds from the sale of the land – just like we promised!”
And Ananias stands there holding his hands in front of him. He’s waiting for Peter to say “Thank you, Ananias. You and Sapphira have blessed a lot of people with your generosity.” But Ananias’ smile quickly fades. Let’s read verses 3 and 4.
“But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.”
Peter looks at Ananias and says slowly and deliberately: “Satan has talked you into lying about how much you received for the property hasn’t he? I can see it in your eyes Ananias.” I can see Ananias’ jaw drop as he tries to figure out a response. “The property,” Peter continues, “was yours and the money was yours. Whatever amount you had decided to give would have been a tremendous blessing.”
Peter leans forward placing his hands on Ananias’ shoulders and says softly, “Why didn’t you just tell me the truth? Why didn’t you just tell me you received more than you expected? Don’t misunderstand me. Like I said, a $100,000 would have bless a lot of people. But Ananias, you didn’t lie to me,” Peter says shaking his head. He may have even had tears in his eyes. “Lord have mercy. Ananias, you lied to God.”
Look at verses 5 and 6.
“And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things. And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him.
Ladies and gentlemen, Ananias lies to God and in this passage, it cost him his life.
This record does not have a happy ending.
Three hours later Ananias’ wife, Sapphira, meets with Peter not knowing what had happened to her husband. Let’s look at verses 7-9.
“And it was about the space of three hours after, when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in. And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much. Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out.”
Sapphira’s fate was the same as her husband’s. She lies to God and the price? Her life.
Let’s continue with verses 10 and 11.
“Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost: and the young men came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.”
Here’s the message that I want you to see: Ananias and Sapphira die and miss the blessings that come with a lifestyle that’s godly, holy and truthful. What they said and what they did was a reflection of what was at work on the inside of them.
Trust me, this was not the first time that they had lied to the Holy Spirit. Something this dramatic and drastic would not have happened for a first offense.
Remember it says in verse 3 that Satan had filled their hearts to lie? Do you remember how Jesus describes Satan in John 8? Let’s turn to verse 44 for a moment.
“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar, and the father of it.”
The father of lies had influenced Ananias and Sapphira to lie to God. The word “filled” means “filled to capacity.” What this is telling us ladies and gentlemen is that Ananias and Sapphira would not hesitate to tell a lie if it was to their advantage to do so.
The Holy Spirit is showing us that a lifestyle of lying has grave consequences, especially for Christians. Why especially for Christians? Each time we tell a lie, we are rejecting the conviction of our new nature. We know we’re about to tell a lie before we open our mouths. If we don’t, then we are not born again. Yes, it’s that serious!
And each time we tell a lie, we align ourselves with the father of lies. Let that sink in. We lock arms with the father of lies each time we tell a lie.
Now back to Ananias and Sapphira. Now I don’t want you to think that if we tell a lie we’re going to die on the spot, even though that’s not out of the realm of possibility. Instead think about the blessings you kill before they can manifest because you allow lies – even the “little white ones” – to be a part of your life.
In this record of Ananias and Sapphira, what is the result of their auto-correcting the Potter – auto-correcting God?
When we get to the point of believing and living as if what we say does not have to agree with what we do, we auto-correct God and stop His blessings.
Every lie. Every deception. The Bible says we are not doing this to the person but to God himself. Christians who live this way and do not repent are living unrighteous lives and I Corinthians 6:9 says “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?”
But I thank God that we can examine our lives and align our thoughts and our ways with His thoughts and ways. Remember Isaiah 55:6-11? If this is something that you need to do, please do so right now. Don’t let another moment pass without telling your Father you’re sorry for allowing lies to be a part of your life. Let Him know that, beginning today, His truth will always be on your lips!
Give Him some praise!
