If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” Genesis 4:7.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
The sanctified life is a life of closing the door to sin and opening the door to love. When Jesus worked miracles He did them out of compassion, He was not annoyed or vexed by the people. His heart was reaching out to alleviate their pain, which neither I nor He had ever intended men to experience. My eyes are too pure to countenance evil. Sickness, poverty and death are all evil. They are the result of sin and they are the curse that Adam released into the earth by his sin, of which he never repented.
I want to talk to you about sin in your life. This is very serious and makes all the difference in whether your life will be one of joy and perfect protection or one of torment and one crisis after another. I have equipped you in Jesus to live a sin-free life.
Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Hebrews 13:20-21.
Sin is crouching at your door, and its desire is to get in through that door the minute it can obtain access, but you can be its master. Genesis 4:7.
Even what people consider unimportant can let the devil in. Irritation and annoyance with others is an open door to the devil and he will take advantage of that to cause havoc in your life.
Moses got annoyed and exasperated with the grumbling Israelites. They had been at the verge of the Promised Land ready to go in and they refused to go. Their lack of faith in My Word and their habit of complaining kept them back from their destiny, but it also kept Moses out of the land he so longed to experience. He had the faith to go in, but they did not. And to make it worse, later, when they were thirsty and tired, they blamed Moses, accusing him of not taking them into the promised land but was making them wander around in the desert.
Moses appealed to Me and I told him to speak to the rock for I had compassion on the people even though they had, out of fear, disobeyed Me. But Moses, in his offense at the people’s accusations against him, he struck the rock twice and call the people “rebels,” and stated the HE had to get the water out of the rock for them. He did not consecrate Me before the people but put on the glory on his angry self.
Opening his door to that, closed the door for him as leader and to enter the promised land. He was seeking his own interests and not the people’s or Mine.
Jesus walked with Me in total purity, He never sinned, He never opened His door to the devil. When the people in Nazareth tried to throw him over the cliff, He just walked right through them and left. I had Him covered so that no one could harm him.
We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God, keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. 1 John 5:18.
He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens. Revelation 3:7.
Do you recall when Paul was beaten with rods and thrown into prison in Philippi. You may be wondering why he did not just walk through their midst like Jesus did in Nazareth? Consider this:
It happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling. 17 Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, “These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.” She continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” And it came out at that very moment. Acts 16:16-18.
Paul did not heal and set that girl free out of compassion as Jesus had done when he healed and cast out demons. He had done it out of annoyance. Though the result was good, the motive was bad. Any motive that is not based in love, is sin and can open you up to an attack by the devil. And Paul got attacked. But My grace was more than sufficient to rectify all that followed from the devil’s attack through that open door of irritation and annoyance. Ministers are held to a higher standard for they know more.
And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and sensible steward, whom his master will put in charge of his servants, to give them their rations at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But if that slave says in his heart, ‘My master will be a long time in coming,’ and begins to beat the slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk; the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and assign him a place with the unbelievers. And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more. Luke 12:42-48.
Joseph was betrayed and sold by his brothers into slavery, but the hard feelings they had were not just arbitrary.
Joseph, when seventeen years of age, was pasturing the flock with his brothers while he was still a youth, along with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives. And Joseph brought back a bad report about them to their father. Genesis 37:2.
Joseph was his father’s favorite, and he would tattle on his brothers. This offended his brothers. Also Jacob made Joseph a special tunic that he did not make for them. This offended them further.
Then Joseph had two dreams, in both of which all his brothers were bowing to him. And he told the dreams to his brothers. Which made them even more offended, being considered his slaves.
But all that changed when Joseph matured in Egypt. He walked with Me and he never shared with anyone what his brothers had done to him, not even Pharaoh. Pharaoh did not even know Joseph had brothers and he loved Joseph so much that when his brothers showed up, Pharaoh treated them like royalty and was pleased to know Joseph’s family. And Joseph never told him anything different.
And Joseph never tried to get even with Potiphar’s wife, who falsely accused him and got him put into prison, either. He never talked about what she had done at all.
And when Joseph tested his brothers and saw the love they had for Benjamin and Jacob, his heart reached out to them too. Joseph, over those years in Egypt away from being the favorite but immature son, became a man of integrity, humility, and righteous deeds who kept his eyes on Me and would do nothing that would sever our relationship.
He gave all the credit to Me for his ability to discern dreams and the wisdom and understanding of how to act upon them for the good of all. During all his years in Egypt, Joseph walked in nobility, even as a slave and a prisoner, and lived a sanctified life. And I promoted him to the palace and into being the leader of Egypt second in command only to Pharaoh and the savior of the land in the years of famine. I knew I could entrust him with much and it would not cause him to sin, as it did Solomon.
Jesus walked with Me and never let the door to sin open in His life, though he was tempted in every way you are by the devil. He was not like Adam. And when people tried to capture and kill Him, they could not. dBut there came an hour in the Garden of Gethsemane when the Lamb I Myself provided to take away the sins of the world knelt down under the weight of all sin that was in everyone’s hands laid on His head as in the burnt offering, the sin offering, the guilt offering that hour in the Garden of Gethsemane and the weight was crushing Him ground. But He turned to Me and took them all into His sinless flesh and gave Me His eternal life in the flesh in satisfaction for the one you lost. He gave His eternal life in the flesh for the life you murdered in Adam in the flesh, for sin resides in the flesh. He took your sins and gave you His righteousness, just as was done with the animal sacrifices of the law in the temple. First the transfer was made, and then the unblemished lamb, now bearing the sin of the one who laid his hand upon the lamb’s head, had to die in justice, for the law is a life for a life. The wages of sin is death. So to death He had to go as the sin bearer. I made Him who knew no sin on your behalf so that in Him you would become righteous with My own righteousness.
He opened the door by taking sin into His flesh and then He had to die. Pilate told Jesus, that he had the power to release or to kill him, but he did not. Jesus had to die for the sins that covered His face. And He had set His face like flint to do that for you and for Me, so that the dividing wall that sin had created between us would be knocked down under the earth never to be raised up again, like the walls of Jericho. They went down under, no trace of them, they went way down under the earth, twenty-one cities down.
Do not ever sin, it will cause evil to come into your life, not of My making, but you have gotten out of My jurisdiction into that of Satan and he can attack if you have opened the door to him. But the good news is you can shut it by the Blood of the Lamb and the Word of YOUR testimony. Answer sin with My Word and know that I am the lifter of your countenance.
But if you do sin out of the weakness of your flesh, you have Jesus, who made propitiation for your sins and that is an eternal redemption. His blood still speaks to Me for you on the mercy seat in Heaven. And He, your great High Priest, ever lives to make intercession for you for, in Him, I have saved you to the uttermost.
I do not condemn you, but in the future avoid sin if you want to live a perfect life.
Be perfect as I am perfect. A man who controls his thoughts and thus, his tongue, is a perfect man, able to bridle his whole body. Which means no sickness, broken bones, falls, accidents, or lack. No torment and no fear, only faith in Me who has paid your ransom with the blood of My Son.
But remember, your salvation took place in the Garden of Gethsemane, what occurred afterwards was the judgment satisfied.
I love you. Live pure and you will be happy, and all will be well with you. Great peace have those who have stayed their minds on Me, for I am your everlasting rock. And the good news is that when I tell you not to sin, with that command comes the power to keep it. Not by human power and might, but by My Spirit.
And the LORD said to Moses, “Say to all the congregation of the people of Israel, You shall be holy; for I the LORD your God am holy. You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another. And you shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD. You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning. You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the LORD. You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. You shall not go up and down as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand forth against the life of your neighbor: I am the LORD. You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason with your neighbor, lest you bear sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.” Leviticus 19:1-2, 11-18.