When we are perfected in love, YHVH gives us the ministry of Judgement, where we can retain a person’s sin, and they will fall over dead at the word’s we speak, because they stand in the way of the Kingdom of God’s advancement in the earth.
Let me tell you about something that happened in the early church that will shake you to your core.
A man walked into a church service. He had just sold a piece of property. Everyone knew about it. He came forward with money in his hands, a generous gift, or so it seemed.
But within minutes of presenting his offering, he collapsed and died right there in the presence of God’s power. His wife didn’t know what had happened. She came in three hours later, told the same lie, and she too fell dead.
Acts 5: 11 So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things.
What could cause such a dramatic display of God’s holiness? What were they hiding? And more importantly, what are you holding back from God today?
Let me tell you what happened and why this story matters more than you think.
I want you to understand something powerful. The Bible calls the gospel of the Kingdom, the words of this life, not just any life, but the life lived in the Kingdom of God.
John 10:10, I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
This is the most wonderful life possible, the life of the faith of the Son of God. This is a life where God is all the time. He is round about you, and He is within you, and He comes upon you, immersing you in His Glory and Presence.
It is a life of continuous revelations, of continuous manifestations of God’s Holy Spirit. It’s a life in which the Lord is continually heard, felt and seen. Listen to me carefully. This is a life without death.
John 11:25-26, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.
We have passed from death unto life, when we enter the Kingdom, which is in a different dimension, the realm of the Spirit, but we are to bring the Kingdom of God down upon the earth.
The very life of God has come within us, and we release it out of us, in the words we speak and the things that we do. Where that life is in the fullness of its manifestation, disease cannot exist, but neither can a lying spirit.
In the presence of God’s healing and miracle power, any form of disease or sickness or germs cannot exist, God’s healing power kills them.
All demons flee in terror; the motivations of our heart are made manifest. Everything covered up is exposed.
Mark 4: 22 For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”
The early church was experiencing a mighty move of God. The power of the Holy Ghost was falling, people were being healed, Demons were being cast out, lives were being transformed, and the believers were so on fire that they were selling their possessions and laying the money at the apostles’ feet.
Into this atmosphere of the outpouring of the Spirit came a man named Ananias and his wife, Sapphira. They had a piece of property. They sold it. But here’s where the enemy crept in. They wanted the glory of giving everything. While secretly keeping some back for themselves.
They thought, what if this move of God fails? What if it doesn’t last? We need a backup plan. We need something to fall back on. Can you see what was happening?
They were doubting God. They were questioning whether this move of the Spirit that He had begun would last. They wanted to get some glory for selling their property, but because of their lack of faith, they kept back part of the price in reserve in case the work of God should fail.
Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, looked at Ananias and said in Acts 5:3
Acts 5:3, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God.
Brothers and sisters, do you see what happened? The moment those words were spoken, Ananias fell down and breathed his last. Great fear came upon all who heard of these things.
Now, some of you might be thinking, that seems harsh. That seems severe. But let me show you what was really happening.
When the power of God came so mightily upon the early church, it became impossible for a lie to exist.
The moment a lying spirit came into the church, there was instant death. You see, God was establishing something. He was showing that in His presence, there can be no deceit, no holding back, no reservations.
The Bible says in Hebrews 10:38-39, Now the just shall live by faith, but if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.
Ananias and Sapphira were in this wonderful thing, and yet they missed it. They made vows to God in a time of great spiritual awakening, but they failed to keep their vows.
Now let me tell you what happened when this fear of God came upon the church.
The Bible says that no man dared join them, but God added to the church such as should be saved.