Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet
Often I hear people say: "I don't want to hurt my family." They say such things after they have been caught committing adultery. I am always amazed because they think by getting caught they have hurt their family, but they hurt their families the minute it came into their hearts to commit adultery and when they yielded to their desire.
Adultery, fornication, thiefts ... begin before the act. When a person makes provision for the flesh to fulfill these desires, they have already hurt everyone in their path, even if they do not get caught. The act takes place first in their hearts.
Paul speaks of a "perverse nation" ... Indeed we do live in a world that is perverse. Many sins are even approved by today's world. But these sins are not approved by God. Jesus Christ (THE WORD) remains the same ... "yesterday, today, and for ever" ... Heb. 13)
Perverse means: showing a deliberate or obstinate desire to behave in a way that is unreasonable or unacceptable, often in spite of consequences ...
The person who commits adultery, fornication, homosexual acts, thefts, cares about himself and not about others and especially not about his own family. This is a form of "violence" when a person considers only what he wants. And because of violence, God destroyed the earth and man (except for Noah) in the flood.
Gen. 6 ... The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
The primary thing we do when confronted with temptations in any form is to pray, asking God to show us what to do.
I Cor. 10 ... There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. 14Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.
Sexual sins may not be the issue for us especially when we are older. But what about stealing? Money can be such a temptation and if we fail to pay proper wage to the workman we fail to do that which is right in the sight of God. It is so important to keep money under check and do what is right in the sight of God, even going "the extra mile" in the case of workmen.
I did something I regretted a few days ago. A man sprays my grass and trees on a regular basis. Lately I have had so many things break and have had so much money I've had to pay for replacement that I have felt drained and had prayed to "turn this around".
Every time I go to my mail box, I notice spreading weeds in my grass. So when this man came to spray, I explained this spraying wasn't killing the weeds and I didn't want to do it anymore because weeds were taking over anyway. He left. That night I became concerned over what I had done. The trees do need to be sprayed annually. I called this man and told him I think I was wrong and asked him to go ahead and spray. He returned the following day and sprayed. He was very nice about it. When he sends me a bill for spraying, I plan to add $20 to the bill to pay for his gas expense in coming to spray when I didn't let him spray. It isn't much but I think it would be wrong to ignore what I did for it did cost him something the first time he came to my house.
We have to be careful about the way we deal with other people when it comes to money.
I Tim. 6 ... For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 11But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.
Even though I've had a lot of replacement expense this year, the money has been there to replace the item and to pay for installation. To go forward fearing and trying to avoid spending money is lack of faith. We need to commit everything to God and go forward doing what we have to do and what we can afford to pay for without that fear of tomorrow. And that only comes with prayer and paying attention to that which God has said.
We do not want to spend what we do not have thinking that is faith. That is not faith.
We have to live in this world without abusing this world, doing what we can afford to do and paying fair wages and resisting that which we cannot afford.
To have faith in the money we have saved is also a danger.
In all things, we must pray.