The Judgments of God

We have spent the last 11 lessons learning to understand what God's judgment is. We learned that "judgment" is not a "punishment" but is an evaluation process. We also learned that God comes up with a plan of action, based on what He finds. If He finds ones with hearts who are set after Him and who are actively trying to serve and please Him, the result of His judgment is rewards. On the other hand, if He finds stubborn hearts and sinful actions, then the result of His judgment will be punishments and/or corrections.

We saw that in every single case, God's motivation and desire is to get people better lined up with His ways, so that He can draw them closer to Himself. He uses positive reinforcement (rewards) to encourage those who are already moving the right direction, and He uses correction on those who are going the wrong way. But His desire in each case is to end up with people who love and honor Him, with people who will live in a way that they know is pleasing to Him and who will avoid the things that they know He doesn't like.

Judging Ourselves

We know that at some point (after we have died or been caught up into glory) we will end up at standing before the Lord, and we will each have to give an account of our life. This will not be a "go to Heaven" or "go to Hell" type of judgment, but more of an evaluation of how well we have served and obeyed Him.

Many people call it the "rewards judgment," because those who have served Him well will receive rewards. We know this because Jesus said, in Matthew 16:27, "For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works." He also said, in Revelation 22:12, "behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work."

If we are actively serving and honoring God, then we can look forward to this judgment. But we should also be aware that God will examine both our actions and our attitudes, and that we will also have to give account of things He finds that did not please Him. (Again, He won't send us to Hell for them, because all sin is covered by the blood of Jesus), but God is going to hold us accountable for our choices and actions. Look at Hebrews 4:12-14, which says,

12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

Did you catch that last phrase...we are going to have to give an account to Him of everything in our lives--the good and the bad. Let me share two more passages on this with you:

Romans 14:9-12
"9 For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living. 10 But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. 11 For it is written: 'As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.' 12 So then each of us shall give account of himself to God."

I Corinthians 3:12-15
12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. 14 If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

Once we realize that each of us will have to give an account of our attitudes and actions to God, we might ask ourselves this question: "What can I do to prepare myself so that He finds more pleasing stuff in me than displeasing stuff?"

I was struggling with that very same question several years ago, when I came across a book by Rick Joyner titled "The Final Quest." It was basically a vision that Rick had about how to overcome enemy activity and fine tune our walk with God. God used an concept in that book (or vision) to answer my question. It was the concept of 'judging yourself, so that you won't be judged.'

Let me rephrase it so make it easier to understand.

We want to prayerfully review both our hearts and actions with the Lord now, while we still have a chance to change the things that don't please Him. Of course, we can't change ourselves on our own, but we can purpose in our heart to cooperate with the Holy Spirit to bring this change and transformation into our hearts. We can come into agreement with God about the things in our life that displease Him, and we can choose His way over our way and ask Him to help us walk out that choice in every aspect of our life.

The more we do that, the 'holier' we will become, and the closer we can walk with God in this life. And it also positions us to for the "rewards judgment" because we will have more in our life that will please Him and less things in our life for which we will have to give an account.

Personal Holiness

Personal holiness is important if we want to have a close and intimate relationship with God. Leviticus 19:2b says, "You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy." That wasn't just something God said for the old testament times--He means it for today as well.

I suspect that pretty much all of us desire to have more of God's tangible nearness in our lives and ministry. We want His strong presence in our churches--His love, His glory and His great power worked in our midst. We want to see the sick healed, the dead raised, all enemy oppression broken off of the lives of our own.

But I am not sure if we are aware of the cost of what we are longing for. I have been reading in the Pentateuch (5 books of Moses) these past few weeks. The children of Israel pretty much had all the things we are longing for. The had God's tangible presence. They had signs and wonders and miracles in their midst. But they also had a requirement of holiness that they were unable to meet over and over again. And it was very costly for them when they could not meet it.

The phrase "you are to be holy, for I am holy" is repeated over and over in those five books. When God shows up, He shows up with a holy standard. Disobedience and wrong attitudes are not tolerated in the midst of His manifest presence. He frequently struck large numbers of people dead for sin, rebellion, disbelief, unholiness, etc. The more God shows up, the more He enforces His standard of Holiness.

It is not enough just to love Him, we also must obey Him. It is not enough just to desire His great miracles and mighty power in our midst, we must also put up with hardships and trials without complaining. He doesn't always do things the way we expect Him to. The children of Israel were constantly muttering and complaining because He worked differently than they expected Him to. If He comes as tangibly in our midst today as He did with them, He will still do things His way, instead of how we expect Him to. And He will still expect us to trust Him without muttering and complaining.

Do we want to see the Lord begin to judge and punish those in our own congregation who are struggling with sin? Do we want to see some of our friends die because they love the things of the world more than they love God? Do we want to see some of our relatives die because they grumbled against God or criticized His appointed servants?

I know that some of you are thinking, "Well, that was Old Testament. God doesn't do that any more. Now He loves without punishing us for sin and disobedience." That is probably what Ananias and Sapphria through when they lied about the money they donated to the church from their land sale. God's presence was still strongly manifest in the early church, and He did not tolerate their lying to Him. He did the thing to them that He did to the children of Israel when His presence was with them in the wilderness--He struck them dead! (That is recorded in Acts 5:1-11.)

I know that some of you are thinking, "Well, that may be a problem for some, but I will be OK, because I am holy." I hate to confess this, but that was my first thought. I love God and I am deeply committed to serving and obeying Him and He is by far my highest priority. In general, I live a pretty holy life, but there are times when I do sin and I need the blood of Jesus to cover me. If I compare myself against some of the more carnal Christians, I come out looking pretty good. But if I compare myself against some of God's favorites...well, that is another story.

Let's take Moses, for instance. I am sure he had a greater level of humility than I do. I am sure he walked in a deeper and closer and more intimate relationship with God than I do. I am sure he had more faith than I do. When I compare myself against people like him...well, they come out better than I do. And the same will probably hold true for you as well. Yes, you love God and do your best to obey and serve Him. But there are still areas in your life where you "fall short" of God's perfect standard. Moses was one of the men who came closest to being the type of leader God wanted him to be. I am guess that he did a better job at it than most of us.

So let's look at Moses. I think Moses walked in closer intimacy with God that any other human being recorded in the bible. He spent more time with God than most of us, he walked in the supernatural, he taught God's ways and he led God's people. But since he enjoyed a higher measure of God's presence, he was also held to a higher standard of accountability. 99.99% of the time he obeyed God's will perfectly. One time he messed up. He had a fit of temper and struck a rock instead of speaking to it. Water still flowed out of that rock; but because of that one mistake, he wasn't allowed to enter the promised land. That is a pretty high level of accountability. I know that I have blown it more than once, but God's grace has kept me in position and it has kept me going. I am guessing that He has done the same for you.

If we want more of His tangible presence in His midst, we must also be prepared for higher levels of accountability and higher requirements of holiness. The more of His presence we get, the more of Him we get--and we can't separate His love from His holiness, because He is both things.

I am not suggesting that we stop pursuing God or that we stop desiring His presence in our midst. But I am suggesting we seriously work with the Holy Spirit to prepare our hearts and to learn to be holy even as He is holy. I am suggesting that we take Jesus' greatest commandment seriously: to love the Lord our God will all of our heart and all of our mind and all of our strength.

If we truly want more of His presence, then we better be ready to give more of ourselves to Him. We better be committed to obey Him because we love Him.

God's manifest presence is not some wonderful toy to play with--it is God Himself coming in our midst. And He comes as a holy God who expects a holy people, set apart for His purpose and willing to obey Him no matter what He commands of us.