AUGUST 17, 2025
Topic: “INTIMACY AND SPIRITUAL WARFARE IN THE CHURCH- DECEPTION “
Text: Acts 5:1-11
Memory Verse: “While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And when it was sold, was it not at your disposal? How is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” Acts 5:4.
Prior to Pentecost, there was no real sense of fellowship among God’s people. Although there was friendship, consideration and love, but no deep sense of unity and oneness. On receiving the Holy Spirit, they were drawn together into the kind of fellowship that can be achieved in no other way. Once we belong to Christ, then we belong to everyone else who belongs to Christ.
The intimacy they had with God helped them to sell their properties, brought the proceeds of what was sold, laid it at the apostles’ feet. Distribution was made according to the needs of individuals. They had everything in common. There was no pretense or deception. Unfortunately, Ananias and Sapphira sold a piece of property, brought part of the proceed and kept part it to themselves, which was contrary to the practice then.
Ananias and Sapphira produced a serious fracture in the fellowship because they thought more about themselves than they did about the fellowship. They were free to sell the land, free to do whatever they liked with the money, but they were not free to lie to the Holy Spirit about the amount of money brought to the Apostles. This caused spiritual warfare against deception or hypocrisy which swiftly brought upon them, the judgment of God. What happened to Ananias and Sapphira stands for all time as a warning of how seriously God views the defilement of His Body?
Ananias and Sapphira pretended to surrender everything to God but deliberately held some part to themselves. Is someone holding back part of his/her time to serve God? Is anyone holding back part of God’s tithe? We may deceive men, but no one can deceive God.
PRAYER: My dear heavenly Father, there is nothing that can be hidden from you. Help me to be faithful to you in all my dealings. Have mercy on me in Jesus’ Name, Amen.