Welcome to another day the Lord has made that we should rejoice and be glad in. (Psalms 118:24)

The Holy Spirit is warning us, there’s no fooling an omniscient God.

Today’s scripture, Galatians 6:7-8 (ERV)…
[7] If you think you can fool God, you are only fooling yourselves. You will harvest what you plant. [8] If you live to satisfy your sinful self, the harvest you will get from that will be eternal death. But if you live to please the Spirit, your harvest from the Spirit will be eternal life.

Consider…
Abraham Lincoln famously said…
You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.

This morning the Holy Spirit added, there’s no fooling God ever!

It just occurred to me, God asks rhetorical questions to see if we will be Honest, Open and Transparent (HOT) with Him or not. Then the Holy Spirit warned that deception is deadly.

A couple of weeks ago, one of my Bro-end (Brother & Friend) Tony’s preaching points was about deadly deception. He used Acts 5:1-5 (NLT) to illustrate his point…
[1] But there was a certain man named Ananias who, with his wife, Sapphira, sold some property. [2] He brought part of the money to the apostles, claiming it was the full amount. With his wife’s consent, he kept the rest. [3] Then Peter said, “Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself. [4] The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren’t lying to us but to God!” [5] As soon as Ananias heard these words, he fell to the floor and died. Everyone who heard about it was terrified.

Revisiting these verses, the Holy Spirit showed me verse 4 exposes the futility of trying to deceive God when the Apostle Peter told Ananias, “You weren’t lying to us but to God!”

The fatal flaw in Ananias’ futile attempt to fool God can be summed up James Cleveland’s lyrics…

When we get a little money,
And get up on our feet
Why do we change
Whatever God gave you
Is no more than you need
Why can’t you remain the same

Today can be as bright
As the noonday sun
Tomorrow you can wake up
And everything you have is gone

Don’t forget to remember
Where ALL your blessings come from

Those lyrics harkened me back to Malachi 3:8 (NLT), with the indictment…
[8] “Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated me! “But you ask, ‘What do you mean? When did we ever cheat you?’ “You have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due to me.

It seems unfathomable that anyone would try to cheat God, yet we do it all the time when we don’t use what He’s given us to glorify Him by blessing others.

It’s not a coincidence that, Ananias died for his selfishness, rather than being totally selfless for God.

The Holy Spirit continued on to show me that as deadly as trying to deceive God is, disregarding Him is equally as devastating. He explained that while we may not physically die, what we bring forth in sin will be Dead On Arrival (DOA). To illustrate this point, the Holy Spirit led me to 2 Samuel 12:13-19 (NLT)…
[13] Then David confessed to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” Nathan replied, “Yes, but the LORD has forgiven you, and you won’t die for this sin. [14] Nevertheless, because you have shown utter contempt for the word of the LORD by doing this, your child will die.” [15] After Nathan returned to his home, the Lord sent a deadly illness to the child of David and Uriah’s wife. [16] David begged God to spare the child. He went without food and lay all night on the bare ground. [17] The elders of his household pleaded with him to get up and eat with them, but he refused. [18] Then on the seventh day the child died. David’s advisers were afraid to tell him. “He wouldn’t listen to reason while the child was ill,” they said. “What drastic thing will he do when we tell him the child is dead?” [19] When David saw them whispering, he realized what had happened. “Is the child dead?” he asked. “Yes,” they replied, “he is dead.”

Deceipt and disregard are two sides of the contemptuous coin of death that we flip when we take chances on receiving God’s grace.

The Apostle Paul admonishes in Romans 6:1-2 (NLT)…
[1] Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? [2] Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?

The Holy Spirit is emphasizing, we can either die to sin or for it, but one way or another we must die.

As I paused writing that, the Holy Spirit provided clarification of Hebrews 9:27-28 (NLT)…
[27] And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, [28] so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him.

You see, Jesus is coming back to reward those who choose to die to sin and live for Him.

Those who ad Jonathan Traylor sings, puts…

Purpose over pleasure
I ain’t got no time for your shenanigans
I’m tryna make it into Heaven
I ain’t got no time to be playing with sin

God wants us to live for His purpose, not our pleasure. Thus, 1 John 2:15-17 (NLT) admonishes…
[15] Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. [16] For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. [17] And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.

Those verses hit replay from the beginning of brother Traylor’s song…

I be tryna make it into Heaven though
But you be tryna knock me off my course though
Voices in my head screaming YOLO (yeah)
But you only die once too

My flesh be like I’m gonna do what I wanna do
But once this life is over, there ain’t no re-dos
Either go up or to your eternal tomb
You either go up or to your eternal doom

It’s never that easy to choose purpose
But I will die to my flesh & live a life of worship
I’m really really really tryna make it into Heaven
I’m tryna hear him say two words
Like well done

Once again the Holy Spirit has connected eternal dots for me. Today’s scripture is about choosing who we live to please. If we choose to please ourselves, we God will leave us alone, which is eternal death. However, if we live to please God, we have eternal life in and with Him.

Accordingly, for those who choose eternal life with God, Ephesians 4:30 (NLT) exhorts…
[30] And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption.

Our physical life will reflect the eternal choice we’ve made. We’ll either live selfishly dying to please ourselves or selflessly living to please God. But make no mistake, regardless of how many people we may fool by pretending, God truly knows what we’re intending and He will reward accordingly.

Lastly, the Holy Spirit has given me an acronym to help remember our eternal choice on display in our physical lives. The Holy Spirit says live:

Prioritizing
Living
Eternally
Above
Satisfying
Internally
Needless pleasures.
Glorify God above all else.

Today, Honestly, Openly and Transparently live to please God, nothing else will do.

Today’s song is…
Nothing Else

Blessings 4HG (1 Corinthians 10:31)