EXPOSING DECEPTION IN THE CHURCH. By Pastor Fernando

Scripture
But there was a certain man named Ananias who, with his wife, Sapphira, sold some property. He brought part of the money to the apostles, claiming it was the full amount. With his wife’s consent, he kept the rest. 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. The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren’t lying to us but to God!”
Exodus 20:24-26

Observation
The book of Acts is full of great stories about the Early Church and describes the way the Holy Spirit use them to ignite worldwide revival. However, the story of Ananias & Sapphira reveals a church that is not perfect and that there are brothers and sisters whose hearts are filled by Satan and that will bring deception to the family of God. Luke was compelled by the Holy Spirit to write about them so we can learn in further generations how to keep deception outside from the church.

We can see in this passage that deception has a root in pleasing people. We also read in Exodus 23:1-3, “You must not pass along false rumors. You must not cooperate with evil people by lying on the witness stand. You must not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you are called to testify in a dispute, do not be swayed by the crowd to twist justice. And do not slant your testimony in favor of a person just because that person is poor.” Ananias plot with Sapphira and tried to please the apostles by giving them a good (but false) impression about their generosity. Maybe they trying to gain some influence in the leadership, or seeking for some selfish gain! However, God revealed their true motives to Peter in a prophetic way. Peter had a word of knowledge. The Holy Spirit revealed to him about what was going on in the darkness and by shining the light of truth into the situation.

Application
We need to understand and expect that within the church people there will be self-seeking motives, hidden agendas, insecurities, and deception. If we are serious about keeping deception outside the camp, we must be willing to be prophetic people, just like Peter was. The Spirit of the living God is the only one capable to reveal the secret things that hide in the darkness of people’s hearts. God will reveal before hand to a prophetic leader about the deceiving intentions of people. And when God does that, we need to be bold to confront and expose deception by speaking the truth in love.

We need to be aware that Satan wants to fill the hearts God’s people with deception. The enemy wants us to think that we can lie to people when in reality we are lying only to ourselves and to God. We need to be aware of our own tendency to feed a spirit of deception. We must watch how we handle rumors. We must be the end of rumors, not a conduit for rumors. We must have integrity towards absent people. We must be willing to speak about other people in the same way whether they are present or not. We need to be the same in public and the same in private. And most of all, we need to pay attention to the Holy Spirit’s promptings. The Lord wants to reveal the motives of people’s hearts. He starts with us. And if we have a small seed of deception, we must get rid of it immediately. Only then, when we don’t have a plank on our eye, we will be able to discern about the speckle in someone else’s eye.

Prayer
Lord Jesus, please forgive me for the times where I entertained the enemy and allowed him to fill my heart with deception. Please change my heart and make me more aware of the tendencies of my flesh and the work of Satan. Guard my heart from lack of integrity towards the absent, and let me be honest and transparent at all times. Let me be the same in private and in public. Let me speak the same way when I’m around people and when I’m alone. And also, please pour out your Holy Spirit over the church so we can confront deception and avoid sinful behavior among our flock. Give our leaders and saints a clear understanding of the prophetic ministry, just like Peter had it when confronting Ananias and Sapphira. Let our church grow in the prophetic as you show us how to expose the hidden works of darkness with the light of your truth. Amen!