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Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.  1 Cor. 4:2

I have noticed a great lack of seriousness in the body of Christ towards the bible and spiritual things.  This is a symptom of a much deeper sickness that is hidden away down deep inside of individuals.  It says in the Old Testament (Jer. 3:22) that God would heal some of their backsliding.  A person can’t be healed of something unless they are sick.  Many are sick in their spirits (see 2 Cor. 7:1), many are sick in their souls (see Psalm 41:4), and many are sick in their bodies (see 1 Cor. 11:30).

All sickness is death slowly approaching.  Just as in the natural many walk around with cancer and don’t even know it.  I had a friend years ago who walked around with a broken neck and never knew it.  The doctor told him if he had jarred it just the right way he would have been paralyzed for life or could even have died.  I had another friend who had cancer and didn’t know it till it was too late.  The doctors told him, “If we had just known about it earlier, we could have prevented it.  You’ve got 4-6 months to live.”  He died last year, and he was a very close friend that struggled with sin his entire life.  He kept backsliding and going into sin again and again.

I’m reminded of a minister who was in his early 30’s and married with a 3-year-old little girl.  He was involved in something and the Spirit of the Lord told me he wouldn’t live for another year because of it.  He died less than a year later.  I remember another minister who backslid and I and another brother tried to reach him with the truth.  The Lord told me one day to pray the same prayer that Paul prayed in 1 Cor. 5:5 for this man (who was married with several small children). So I went and picked up another friend and shared with him what the Lord told me and we both prayed the prayer together and then we buried him less than a year later.

My friend, sinning will kill you early.  Sin is a disease that spreads like a cancer.  You may not be able to see it or feel its effects for a while…but the poison of it is spreading to all of your physical and soul/spirit bodies.  The writers of the New Testament spoke of this often.  Be not deceived, whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.  If you sow sin, you will reap death.  Some will reap it physically so that they may die but their spirit be saved, and some will perish eternally – for they loved the pleasures of sin more than they loved Christ and His word.

It is time to wake up and keep His commandments and sin not!!  The Lord is trying to bring many to this place, but it takes faithfulness on your part.  So few it seems want to really be faithful to the Lord.  They only want the things of God on their terms and in their way.  It says in Acts 20 that Paul wept much for these types of people.  He even said that he warned you night and day.  Yes, he warned you.  If you want to see what he warned you about, just read Romans through Hebrews.  The New Testament is filled with warnings.

Lot’s wife was warned to not look back.  But like the children of Israel who were delivered from Egypt (the world), God just couldn’t seem to get Egypt out of them.  And most of them perished physically and spiritually.  They just absolutely loved the world and the spirit of the world.  And they split hell wide open to forever spend eternity in the regions of the damned; never again to have a second chance.  Lot’s wife was warned.  I heard another brother say that Sodom and Gomorrah could have had upwards of a million people in it; and God couldn’t find 10 righteous people in it.  And at the end of the day only 3 made it out alive.  All the rest went to hell in a moment of time, including Lot’s wife.  But God had warned her, He had made a way of escape for her.  He warned her to flee the city of sin, but yet the city of sin lived on long and strong in her heart.

Jesus said that only a few would make it.  I think He meant exactly what He said.  The spirit of the world is a very strong spirit to most.  Even Demas (who walked and ministered with Paul the apostle) forsook him because he loved this present evil world (2 Tim. 4:10).  But the result of all this started with a seed that was planted long ago.  Let me explain it this way: when Abraham and Lot’s herdsmen had strife due to the size of their herds and the feeding situation.  Abraham told Lot to pick whatever side of the valley he wanted.  Abraham was the elder one and he was walking in love and humility towards Lot, and Lot took advantage of it and took the best.  But notice what divine scripture says: that Lot chose the way that was towards Sodom.  The next thing we read is that Lot had pitched his tent outside of Sodom.  And the next thing we read is that he was living in Sodom, and the final thing we read is that he is an elder of the city of Sodom for he is sitting at the city gate.

Did you notice the progression?  It went from bad to worse.  But the sum of what I am saying is this; that it all started way back at the valley when he should have submitted to the authority of God in Abraham and humbled himself under his Uncle and his elder.  But he wanted to do his own thing and go his own way.  He had to have seen the blessing was with Abraham.  He should have just gave all that he had to Abraham and said, “I am your servant and will go where you go, and will do what you tell me to do.”  But instead he invited the devil over for dinner and the devil brought his pajamas.  And Lot lost everything, including his own wife. Because of his own personal love of the world.  And that love spilled over to the weaker vessel and she wasn’t strong enough to bear it.  It was Lot’s responsibility to tend to his wife’s spiritual needs as well, and he forsook her in her hour of need.  She should have been out in front of him fleeing with him pulling up the rear and watching them to make sure they all obeyed the divine command to not look back.  He probably never even knew what had happened to her till later on.

I think more of this goes on than we care to admit.  The husband is out in front fleeing instead of in back pushing the flock forward and keeping them all together.

God is looking for faithful men.  Men of backbone, and men of conviction.  Christianity is a strong mans gospel.

Will you be found faithful in that day?  Will you really even make it?  Or will your portion be with the hypocrites?  You know and God knows, and soon the whole world will know.  I can only pray that you will read the New Testament and do what it says; otherwise you will stand in front of the white throne instead of the blue one.  The Father’s throne is white, but the Son’s throne is blue.  Look it up.  If you see a white throne in that great and dreadful day…you’re in trouble friend.  The choice is yours today.

There are ones even reading this today who are asleep in the spirit.  And you may even be very sick in your soul.  God can – and He wants to –  heal you, but you will have to come to Him on His terms.  I would encourage you to meditate long and deeply on 3 John verse two, which says, “Beloved, I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers.”  You will notice that your spiritual prosperity and your physical health is based upon how well your soul is doing.  What you feed the soul and the mind will affect the spirit and the physical body.  See 2 Cor. 7:1 and ask yourself why the soul is not mentioned in that verse.  And also ask yourself why is the soul mentioned first in Hebrews 4:12 instead of the spirit being mentioned first as it properly is in 1 Thess. 5:23

 

See you on the front lines.