The Prophetic Word - Day 15: God’s holiness reveals our rebellion against the Lord.

“As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?” “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting!”

‭‭Acts‬ ‭9‬:‭3‬-‭5‬ ‭NLT‬‬

If you have dealt with children much you are familiar with their propensity to attempt to distract from what they have done wrong by pointing to a sibling, another child, and so on, and tattling on what they did first.

Sadly, the tendency to project the responsibility for our sin on another is not limited to children. In fact, we do much sinning framed as “appropriate” reactions based on what someone else has done.

One time in my life the Lord challenged me concerning my own sin that I was framing as some sort of “righteous indignation,” as completely “understandable” given what had been done to me.

Thanks be to the Lord, He doesn’t allow me to continue in self-deception. He spoke to me clearly saying, “Now you are operating in the same spirit they (the ones who had wronged me) are operating.” I tried to resist by pointing out that I was the “victim,” to which the Lord added that I needed to repent of my reaction—in this case—an attitude of offense.

You see, the Lord, in challenging the “rationale” in which I was wrapping my sin, isolated my response from what I considered the provocation. Indeed, this is the way we are judged by a holy Lord: Everyone will give an account for what they did—not what caused them to do what they did—when we stand before His throne.

“So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him. For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.”

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭5‬:‭9‬-‭10‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Over the last couple of days we have considered Job’s and David’s reactions when confronted with their sin, outside of the “context” in which they had been viewing the sin.

Job, faced with the fact that what he saw as defending himself, was actually an accusation against God, responded with this:

“I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes. I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.””

‭‭Job‬ ‭42‬:‭5‬-‭6‬ ‭NLT‬‬

David, faced with his sin that was somehow disguised as being what needed to be done to preserve his kingdom, saw that it wasn’t his sin against Uriah he needed to be considering, but the fact that his sin was against God, the One Who made him king in the first place.

“For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night. Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭51‬:‭3‬-‭4‬ ‭NLT‬‬

In today’s opening scripture we see that Paul—as he was heading to Damascus to round up more Christians to persecute—is confronted by Jesus. We see that Jesus asks Paul why he was persecuting Him.

What a realization that must’ve been for Paul—who was doing what he was doing, thinking he was actually doing God a “favor”—to be asked why he was persecuting the Lord.

Remember, no matter how we try to transfer responsibility to someone else, if our actions/reactions are sinful, it is still a sin committed against the Lord.

Let us allow the holiness of God to reveal the sins we may be obscuring in an excuse.

Further, let us recognize that any sin is against the Lord.

Then, let us repent before Him, asking Him to help us to do what is right in His eyes, no matter what “provocation” we may face.

Peace to you.

Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!

#ThePropheticWord