Have The Gibeonites Infiltrated?

Dealing With Deception

Journey Into The Promised Land

1 Peter 1:13–25 (CSB)

A CALL TO HOLY LIVING

¹³Therefore, with your minds ready for action, be sober-minded and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ¹⁴As obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires of your former ignorance. ¹⁵But as the one who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; ¹⁶for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy.^, ¹⁷If you appeal to the Father who judges impartially according to each one’s work, you are to conduct yourselves in reverence during your time living as strangers. ¹⁸For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, ¹⁹but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb. ²⁰He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was revealed in these last times for you. ²¹Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

²²Since you have purified yourselves by your obedience to the truth, so that you show sincere brotherly love for each other, from a pure heart love one another constantly,^, ²³because you have been born again—not of perishable seed but of imperishable—through the living and enduring word of God. ²⁴For

All flesh is like grass,

and all its glory like a flower of the grass.

The grass withers, and the flower falls,

²⁵but the word of the Lord endures forever.^,

And this word is the gospel that was proclaimed to you.

In the midst of this evil generation, God has called us to walk in holiness before Him. He called Israel to walk in holiness also. That is why they were not to make any covenant with the evil nations around them, yet, despite God’s warnings, the Gibeonites deceived them.

As God’s chosen people, we are commanded to be holy even as God is holy:

But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. (1 Peter 1:15-16 )

The word “conversation” actually means “conduct,” which means that as God’s chosen people, we are to be holy in all manner of conduct.

At the beginning of the decade of the 1990’s, the Lord showed me that a new spirit of true holiness, righteousness, and consecration was coming to the Body of Christ to prepare us for Christ’s coming. Do not be deceived! Jesus is not coming to receive a harlot bride that is committing spiritual adultery with the world. He is not coming for a bride that has become polluted with the sinful lusts and desires of this world. He is coming for a holy end time remnant — a people who have been cleansed and purified — without spot or blemish.

Jesus came to earth, suffered the shame and agony of the cross, died and was resurrected so we could be holy and without blemish. Through the blood of Jesus, He made it possible for us to be clothed with His righteousness and enabled us to live a life that is holy and blameless before Him:

…Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:26-27)

God has planned for us to set a standard of holiness that will reflect the light of His gospel to the world. Paul told the Philippians:

That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world. (Philippians 2:15)

Instead of following God’s standard of holiness, however, the Church has become polluted by the world. Instead of speaking out and rebuking the evil that surrounds us, we have compromised with the world and become comfortable with the sin that surrounds us!

Examine your own life. Have the “Gibeonites” infiltrated your life? Are you deceived and comfortable with sin?

Make this declaration:

I will not be comfortable with sin. I will not compromise. I will eliminate every ‘Gibeonite’ from my life.

*Adapted from MCWE email – Journey Into The Promised Land by Morris Cerullo

Have The Gibeonites Infiltrated? – 9/27

Dealing With Deception

Journey Into The Promised Land