Ananias and sapphira

This section of narrative in Acts 5:1-10 has troubled me for many years since being turned on to God's amazing grace. If the wealth of scriptures that describe that God will never be angry with us again, never hold our sins against us, will not remember ours sins etc are true then what about Ananias and Sapphira? Well after studying the book of Acts for well over 6 months now and after spending some prolonged time over this particular passage, God showed me something interesting that previously I had not seen. I'll show you this from the king James version. The story of this pair ends at v10 and then v11 describes the people's response, v12 gives a description of the power the church was experiencing then v13 says something a little odd!

'And OF THE REST DURST NO MAN JOIN HIMSELF TO THEM: but the people magnified them'

So does that mean the church was experiencing God's power but was not growing in number? The answer is 'No' It was growing because of the next verse v14

'And BELIEVERS were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women'

So what is v13 saying??

There were men and women who liked what they saw, wanted a piece of the action and joined themselves to the church but were not believers, they were merely spectators wanting a share in what was happening but not yet BELIEVERS. Of which were Ananias and Sapphira,

Notice also at 5:1 that Ananias is described as 'a certain man' rather than 'a disciple' or 'believer'

In v3 Peter asks an unusual question 'why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Ghost..?'
rather than 'why did you lie to the Holy Ghost?' its a question about his heart condition, the real issue was whether he was trusting in Jesus and not why he did what he did. A relevant response to such a question would be something like ' He has filled my heart because....' I suggest that satan had access to his heart because his heart was vacant rather than filled with the Holy Spirit.

Anyone have anything to add?

The gospel and Revival

To bring back to life, to revive, resurrect, to re-impower, are all terms synonymous with 'Revival'. It implies bringing to life again that which died and within Christian circles is often discussed and desired. And I can see why because the examples of 'revival' that we have are awe inspiring but it does leave us with the impression that God comes and goes at his will. This gives rise to a doctrine that teaches we must plead with God to pour out his blessings upon us and several old testament verses are quoted such as 'if my people will humble themselves and pray, i will turn and heal their land'. At the heart of this is the concept that God blesses people when they perform well as someone once said to me ' Wales could have revival again (as in the 1904 one) if God's people will return to holiness and purity' or something like that! I was so shocked at coming face to face with this philosophy that i didn't reply, I mean, where do you start? What adds fuel to the fire is the accounts we have of how revival came to various places with all night prayer meetings, fasting, etc. So what is happening here?

I believe that God's word is our rock and when we move away from it we get carried about by every wind of doctrine, so we must reconcile demonstrations of God's power with his word and specifically with what Jesus accomplished at the cross, if not we are in strange waters! so whilst accounts of revival are exciting we must be careful of how they are interpreted by the writer and bring everything under scrutiny of new covenant truths.

The foundation of the new covenant is that God has made us completely acceptable in his sight, forever pleasing to him because of Jesus work at the cross and now all the promises of God are yes and amen in him. We now stand on grace ground, we are in such a position with God were blessings come as a result of us being one with Christ, we are inseparable from him therefore God treats us as Jesus at his very right hand of power and authority. It is absurd to think that we can earn anything more than what is already freely given unto us in this new covenant.

Colossians 2:10
And you are COMPLETE IN HIM, which is the head of all principality and power

How can you improve on completeness?!

Hebrews 10:14
For by one offering he has perfected forever them that are sanctified

The scriptures paint a picture of perfect union with God for anyone who is trusting in Jesus Christ. Our acts of holiness and purity have nothing to do with God releasing his blessings because they are already released Eph1:3 the key rather is within the writings to the church, mainly the Pauline epistles which instruct us with the knowledge of this union. We have an identity in God that is only enjoyed and experienced when we know of it hence Paul’s prayers in Ephesian’s 1 and 3, ‘I pray that you may know....’ acts of holiness and purity flow from the knowledge of this union and are not conditions to getting union!

So experiencing God is when we know, recognise, acknowledge what we already have because of our union with him.

Philemon1:6

That the communication of your faith may become effective by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.

At the heart of revival theology is a misunderstanding of a believers identity in Christ, its promoting a struggle with God to receive something from him which he has already given. The truth is that our minds need to catch up with our new born again Spirit!

The power that is manifested during revival has been there for us all along just as the power demonstrated by Smith Wigglesworth, John G. Lake, F.F. Bosworth etc is availbale to every believer, God is not holding back anything from us but the difference is that these men believed what I have written about our union with Christ, that God has done everything he will ever do for man when he sent Jesus to the cross. This confidence propelled these men into the most amazing signs and wonders. God hasn’t visited us sporadically over the centuries when our performance peaked but rather we see that latent power when his people believe what is true of them because of Jesus.

I don’t know of all the details of each revival but the word of God helps us to dissect information so that we see the truth. All night prayer meetings will not accomplish the manifestation of God’s power but it has the potential to sensitize you to what God has already given. Fasting will not make God move on your behalf but it has the potential to shift your focus from carnal realities to spiritual realities where you can see clearly the finished work of Christ. You being holy?.... well, can you really do that? How holy is holy enough? who are we fooling? Our holiness could not earn us a thing from God, if it could then Jesus would not have come and made us holy which simply means separated unto God. Revival is not a word contained in the bible but we could use it to describe some words that are:

2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore If any man be in Christ he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.

We have been revived when we received the gift of righteousness and the indwelling spirit of God and all that’s left is for us to know it and our world will never be the same again!

What do you think? Maybe you have read books on revival and have a few spanners to throw?

Giving our life to Christ?

It's commonly suggested that when we become a christian we are 'giving our lives to Christ' but i would say that we are actually receiving his life as he enters us and empowers us with his 'zoe' life. God is propositioning us with his gospel message to come to him and receive his life free of charge and our response is either yes or no. It's really not about what we give up for him but simply receiving his offer of righteousness and the indwelling of his spirit. The gospel contains no conditions other than to believe however we do see that within the book of acts people were instructed to repent and believe but repent means simply to change your mind 'metanoia' change what you have previously thought was the way to God through good works and believe the gospel message of his righteousness becomes mine when I believe!

Martyn Lloyd Jones wrote:

The true preaching of the gospel of salvation by grace alone always leads to the possibility of this charge being brought against it. There is no better test as to whether a man is really preaching the New Testament gospel of salvation than this, that some people might misunderstand it and misinterpret it to mean that it really amounts to this, that because you are saved by grace alone it does not matter at all what you do; you can go on sinning as much as you like because it will redound all the more to the glory of grace. If my preaching and presentation of the gospel of salvation does not expose it to that misunderstanding, then it is not the gospel.

Simple Gospel

2 Corinthians11:3
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled (deceived) Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

I am convinced that there would be no need for so much intellectualizing within Christianity if it wasn't for the fact that the simple message of the gospel has been corrupted over time by religion.

This verse is saying that our minds can become corrupted so that we miss the simplicity of being in Christ. Paul compares us with Eve's temptation in Genesis 3 which was all about convincing her that there was something that she lacked. There was something else that she needed to make her complete ' in the day you eat thereof you shall be as gods knowing good and evil' whereas the reality was that she was as complete as she ever could be before she ate of the fruit. God had given Adam and Eve everything they would ever need to live abundant lives for eternity but they were not established in that or else they would not have submitted to the lie that there was something that God had withheld from them.

It's the very same thing for us Christians today, there is a philosphy that has infultrated the church teaching that there are things that God is withholding from us such as forgiveness, blessings, answered prayers, healing, revival, righteousness but if we will do repentance, good works, fasting, all night prayer meetings, witnessing, church activities, bible reading and on and on the list goes, then God will give the things he has withheld!

But the reality is that as with Adam and Eve he has withheld no good thing from us.

Colossians2:9-10
For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and YOU ARE COMPLETE IN HIM which is the head of all principality and power.

We are not trying to be complete in him, we are complete in him!

Colossians2:13b
..having forgiven you ALL trespasses (sins)

We are not trying to be forgiven, we are forgiven!

2 Corinthians5:21
For he has made him (Jesus) to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Romans3:21-22
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference.
Romans5:19
For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one (Jesus) shall many be made righteous

We are not trying to be righteous, we are righteous!

Colossians1:22
In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblamable in his sight

We are not trying to be holy, we are holy!

My point is that if we don't know what God has already given us we become susceptable to the devil's deception that we lack something and therefore need to go and get it. This philosphy gives rise to all kinds of false doctrines within the church centered around earning favour with God in order to receive from him the good things which he has withheld. It's subtle but effective, because under this mindset we never get to enjoy the blessings that are already ours and the the goodness of God is hidden to those that really need it.

That's why we need able minister's of the new testament (2Cor3) within the church declaring the things that God has already freely given us through the finished work of Jesus at the cross. So our intellectualizing is for the purpose of revealing the deception and bringing us back to a simple knowledge of the gospel.

How should we read the bible?

Like Jesus did! not to learn doctrine or win arguments but to find out who we are. Jesus' parents would have told him about his miraculous conception, about the angels, the dreams, the prophecies. So what do you think his approach to the bible was (what is now OT)? It was probably something like 'if all that my parents say is true then there must be something in there about me!?' And what do you think he found? A lot about him! when he was in the synagogue in Luke4 he found the place in the scrolls which we know as Isaiah 61 speaking of the messiah and after reading it said 'here i am!' (it wasn't received very well) He found his true identity in the word and believed it! 1 John3:1 says that we are NOW 'sons of God' Our lives need to be built upon God's opinion of us as joint heirs with Christ, as IN him, ONE with him, As he is so are we in this world etc etc.This is The process of true change in our lives, discovering our true God identity, what he has made us, what he thinks of us. We live out of the image that we have of ourselves, let's make sure that the image we have is the same as God's by looking into the word to see who we really are!

Reasons why we struggle to accept grace from God part 1

We have been well trained in the world's system of 'you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours' or we could say 'do good get good do bad get bad' from a very early age we've learned that if we behave well then we are rewarded and when we don't there is punishment of some kind. It is true that there was a time when man related to God in that way but what Jesus did at the cross has totally revolutionised the man God relationship. He took the punishment for our misbehaviour past, present and future and then gave us the same right standing with God that he has. There is only one response to this - 'oh thank you, i receive what you've done as a free gift' (or similar!) and we CONTINUE in that same attitude knowing that there is nothing we do or don't do that will effect how pleasing we are to God because of Jesus. If you need the relevant scriptures i will give them to you, just too many to put here!