Where the sin begins: The Watch Letter

“The more grateful you are, the more clean you are. When you are ungrateful, you can’t be clean because it leaves you loaded down with sin.”

Our Pastor, Chief Apostle H.C. Gunn, shared this in January, as the Lord has been dealing with him about his expectations of us living clean, holy lives as people who profess to be Christians. I read one definition of a Christian is a person or people whose behavior and heart reflect Jesus Christ. So, that tells us that since Jesus’s life was holy and clean then if our life doesn’t match him how can we call ourselves Christians? Another thing Jesus' time on earth showed us is he was always grateful to God. The gratitude was not in him saying thank you when he prayed or praising God at various moments but the gratitude was in the condition of his heart and how he respected, obeyed, and loved God and treated who and what was entrusted in his care.

During service, at The Body of Christ, Inc. - Tallahassee, Chief Apostle Gunn said the Lord said a backslidden, lukewarm Christian is a nasty Christian to him and that the Lord can’t stand our filthiness -- it causes him to vomit -- Revelation 3:15-18. We know how it feels to taste something or smell it. Something that is so putrid it causes us to be nauseous or vomit. That's how God feels when he encounters us in a filthy state. When Chief Apostle Gunn said the words “nasty Christian” it made me think of the word abomination (something that causes disgust).

Here are some examples of how abomination is used in the Word of God.

Proverbs 12:22 - Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD: but they that deal truly are his delight.
Proverbs 15:8 - The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright is his delight.
Proverbs 16:5 - Everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.
Proverbs 28:9 - He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be an abomination.
Proverbs 11:20 - They that are of a froward heart are abominations to the LORD: but such as are upright in their way are his delight.
Proverbs 20:10 - Divers weights, and divers measures, both of them are alike abominations to the LORD.
Proverbs 15:26 - The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the LORD: but the words of the pure are pleasant words.

Where can we find ourselves in these scriptures?

In thinking further about what Chief Apostle Gunn said about ungratefulness and uncleanness -- basically, they are synonyms -- I wondered what sin comes out of being ungrateful. The Bible shows us that the answer is pride (Romans 1:21).

From the very beginning, ungratefulness was the welcome mat for sin and the beginning of pride. And pride was the fall of mankind. Even Proverbs tells us pride comes before a fall or destruction. It's no coincidence that one of the largest movements against God's intent is called "Pride," which is tied to the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah, who went after strange flesh (Jude 1:7): "For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter. (Deutronomy 32:32)"

Satan was ungrateful to be in God’s presence and his service, which cultivated pride and we know how the story goes. Then he helped convince Adam and Eve to also be ungrateful for the blessing, peace, life, and provision God had given them by encouraging them to see things through the lens of pride. But as our pastor says, every tub has to sit on its own bottom. And, in order for ingratitude to cultivate pride in Adam and Eve, they had to agree with ingratitude. The moment they choose ingratitude was when they left the will of God, not just when they ate the fruit or were expelled from the garden because the scripture says “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) .”

The Lord has clearly expressed, through the spoken and written word, his hatred for ingratitude and pride and that to truly reverence him as God you must hate what he hates.

“The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogance, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.”( Proverbs 8:13)

So, if ungratefulness is the seed of pride (FYI: God inspired hundreds of verses in the Bible about pride because it plays a major role in dividing us from him), then here is the type of sin that comes from it according to the scriptures:

A loss of desire to seek after God
A hatred of serving God
A refusal to allow God in our thoughts/thinking
An agreement with deceit
A choice to exalt yourself as king instead of God.

2 Timothy 3 really brings home what the Lord has been ministering through Chief Apostle Gunn: Here are some highlighted phrases from that chapter.

“...In the last days, perilous (treacherous) times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God … having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof ….Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

Be sure to listen to Chief Apostle Gunn's three-part series "Exhortations" on FORREAL RADIO BROADCAST below. These messages are urgings from the Lord to finally decide to come clean before him! https://www.thebodyofchristinc.com/listen-in

Love, Apostle Kanya