It is impossible to be loyal to others, to the Body, and to the vision, if we are not loyal to God and to His Word. The number one thing is about character and not performance! Everybody gets the right attitude when they are in front of others, or they are careful about what they say and do. This is just false character. God has a camera on us 24/7, and the character He looks for is integrity within our hearts, not for the act of being kind when we are still very angry and offended from the inside, not for looking good when it is showtime. We are good at putting our game face on, but eventually, what is hidden inside will manifest on the outside because iniquity is like leaven!
When called to lead, and when we don’t want to, we kick against the pricks (Acts 9:5). Integrity is the opposite of iniquity. I am saying all of this to set the foundation! Remember, we all are leaders at some level...Like Saul and David! These two had high positions and titles, but only one had a heart after God; both sinners, both faulty, both lustful at times, both anointed, and both failed at what they did time and time again. But one feared God, one had a heart after Him, one could not bear to live out of the presence of God, and one gave His life to a constant repenting and constant lifestyle of worship to God.
Leaders go against the normal. They are obsessed with pleasing God above man! Then they become offensive! They are not trying to get people to follow them but to follow the Holy Spirit and the Word of God! They want others to hear God! They don’t want to be your priest! They want you to follow the high priest. They love seeing others grow! It drives them nuts when Christians are following another spirit and not the Holy Spirit! They can’t rest because of that. Sheep that are not hungry annoy them because they are seeking the kingdom of God. They love seeing others encountering God! They are not jealous or want to be the top dog but want to see His kingdom come and God’s will be done. They lay down their lives for the sheep, for God’s vision, and for the Word to come to pass.
Those who lead themselves do not follow the Holy Spirit! They just want leaders to bless their plans. They try to convince others that they are hearing God or that God said this and that! But that’s not a sign of a leader; that’s the sign of an independent spirit! Basically, we become independent because of pride because we are afraid of people judging us, but maybe we have some hidden iniquity in us. We can become just like Saul when we are worried about what others think about us or how we feel. God’s leaders go by His voice.
“A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter. Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety” (Proverbs 11:13-14). True leaders seek counsel from others and from many. They are not elites or super priests but servants of all.
Our biggest obstacle is because of hidden iniquity. Do you know the easiest way to be deceived? Self-righteousness, Self-reliance, Self-justification, Self-focused, Self-ambition, Self-sufficient, and Self-exaltation. People use many excuses to justify their actions because of their surroundings, but according to Jesus that is not the kingdom of God because the kingdom of God is purity within! Iniquity is hidden sin! So, we can’t justify ourselves because of the situation we are in. We ask God to lead us out by the power, by the counsel, and by our humility! Leaders seek God and not a way to give a reason why they do what they do.
Let’s talk about self-focus. Your life, your kingdom, your livelihood! People say God gives and takes away. How about Him taking away what is bad of the old self to give Himself, His peace, and His life? Self-ambition is seeking your own dream! If you have ambition towards the kingdom of God, that is great, but ambition towards your own kingdom is bad because you start losing the kingdom of God. A good example is Saul concerning self-exaltation. Saul thought he was obeying God, but he was losing God! He lost the kingdom! He looked righteous, but he had iniquity inside his heart. He was dead on the inside but was still thinking he could get what God had for him through his own way and his own understanding. He was a leader but a bad leader! He dressed well, never made a mistake, and was just perfect in the eyes of people, but God saw him. David saw him. When we begin to give counsel to our own self, we start being tormented. The author in Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Do not lean on your own understanding;” basically, this is the ingredients of great leadership: leaning on the Body, on the Spirit, and on the Word. No other way to lead, if you are not a follower. Real leaders seek counsel from others! “Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end.” Proverbs 19:20
I am not my own safety. We are not our own safety. We need to have God for us because if He is for us, we know that He is with us. If we stop being for God, God cannot be our safe place! We need to be confident in what we hear from God. There Is no confusion in the counsel of others and of many. There is only confusion and witchcraft when we resist the Truth and follow our own way. It is these things we do in secret, and God starts exposing them in public. Just like Ananias and Sapphira trying to show off in front of people when the Spirit exposed that they were lying to the Holy Spirit. Whatever you do now, you will reap later! So be wise, have wisdom, follow His ways, don’t follow your way. Follow the leader, as the leader follows Christ. If the leader is not following Christ, you better stop following him.
But don’t seek a leader that follows your belly. Those who can’t see are following the ones who can’t see! The blind lead the blind. If you become blind you need to repent. Hidden iniquity will make you blind and deaf.
“We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.” Psalm 55:14
“Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.” Psalm 73:24
These scriptures are written because it is possible. David, as a king, did not think it was a weak thing to seek counsel from God and another man. God is not looking for leaders who think they know everything and are above everybody else, but those who have a meek spirit! David still had a posture of seeking counsel! David sinned and started to be blind, not the way God was seeing him, and he sent a prophet to show him and to open his eyes (2 Samuel 12), and God showed him he was the one! Iniquity causes us to be self-righteous, self-ambitious, self-dependent, self-seeking, self-focused, self-reliant, self-exalting, and self-sufficient! Basically, sin leads us to pride! Let transparency be our friend. Let us be clothed in glory, not fig leaves. Let us not be ashamed of needing God, needing others, and needing to be delivered.
“Because they rebelled against the words of God and contemned the counsel of the most High” (Psalm 107:11). So many people want what they want, and they can’t even hear God’s voice anymore. God is always trying to teach us to depend on the counsel of others! God shows us things to show our hearts! But because you never sought the counsel of others, you kept that dream or that vision as a “thus saith the Lord.” Because of that, God’s promises will be put on hold until you learn to humble yourself and seek counsel. The gifts without revelation become divination. Some people have a gift that is not yet submitted to the counsel of many! Don’t follow your own counsel! God does not only give us a vision, but the spirit of counsel, might, and the Body of Christ! When you have faith in your own self, it means you still want to have control, just like the Jezebel spirit! This is an anti-Christ spirit because we are to rely on the Holy Spirit, on the body, and on the Word! We uncover ourselves when we compare ourselves (2 Corinthians 10:12-16). This is not the good uncovering. It is the protection of the mantle, the Holy Spirit covering, not religious control but oil and anointing.
“And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” Matthew 24:4-13
A real leader owns their offenses! Owns their own iniquity! If you don’t, you will be deceiving yourself! They know the way of holiness! When you lose loyalty to Jesus first, you start losing loyalty to the Body and to the Holy Spirit! This is real leadership! Iniquity shall abound, it says in this passage…BUT He that endures unto the end, the same shall be saved! All of these things come against them, but they endure. They shall be saved. These are real leaders!
Iniquity is a type of sin that includes a conscious decision to hurt someone else or rebel against God’s law, a corruption of God’s good creation that manifests in human relationships and choices. Any behavior or thought that goes against what is ordained by God is basically a hidden sin. God sees it, knows it, and the spirit of rebellion is made manifest. Others see as well, but you start thinking you are not being exposed. But God’s Word says in Ephesians 5:11-14 that whatever we do in secret, in the dark, or whatever is hidden, shall be manifested in the light!
When there is iniquity in our hearts, bitterness starts manifesting. Whatever is on the inside starts showing from the outside. You cannot stop it; it takes over. It may not come out when you are surrounded by people you love or when you are surrounded by the person you are sinning against and offended with, but when you are confronted by the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, it will come out. That is why we are here, so we can see what is waxing cold and get back to fervent love! Whatever is inside of us will manifest sooner or later! Satan is possessing those who are harvesting iniquity, and now that harvest is manifesting, and we are taken by surprise! This is why obeying the Word is crucial, even more so in these last days. Forgive immediately; if offended, deal with it immediately! These are traps for iniquity. These are spots in your love feast. There are cancerous tumors in the Body of Christ. It must be removed quickly, or they will grow in the person. Satan will have power to deceive them.
There is another way to monitor it: not by what we do for God, but by joy, peace, and righteousness. If you are not happy in obeying, there is iniquity! Our happiness is never from the outside. You will be happy only for a moment if there is iniquity within!
The devil will steal all from you! You will lose peace and direction and forget who you are. You will try to find peace in people, places, and things instead of within. You will try to change your surroundings because of pride because you are not repenting and letting God remove the iniquity out of your heart! Because iniquity has abounded, your love has grown cold! Love has died out; love is not manifesting; the cross has become so heavy; this Christian life starts stinking, all because of iniquity. Because now that we know the truth, grace is not pouring out anymore like it used to! You start eating from your own field! Any behavior or thought that goes against the Word of God is iniquity! The same spirit of rebellion that comes on children can be inside adults, leaders in the Body of Christ, and leaders in a family! We must have a holy dependency on the Holy Spirit. Do not try to find our own confirmation, but let it come by our fruit production.
Iniquity results in covetousness. We are always comparing ourselves by ourselves. “For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. But we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you” (2 Corinthians 10:12-13). When you are filled with self-righteousness, you become your own God. You measure your own self by your own self! We need to measure ourselves by the measure of the rule that God has distributed to us all! If you want to compare yourself, compare yourself to the Word of God or to Jesus because that will keep you humble!
Works of iniquity are not just what you do but the position of the inner man when we are doing what we are called to! “Yes, you still did it in My name, but you are not doing it IN MY SPIRIT,” says Jesus. “And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:23). We must take accountability for our own hearts, or we will start judging their hearts but not ours. Repentance towards God starts pulling out the iniquity inside. We are to be leaders over our own house - that is the first leadership role, this temple called our body! Many are learning more and more, but they are not growing or becoming like Him. To know Him is to become as He is. But we can learn and learn and never come to the knowledge of the Truth (2 Timothy 3:7).
When you apply the Word, you are applying God in your lives! If you don’t apply it, you will be just a good learner, but you are supposed to be a good applier! If you apply, iniquity will never get it! When He tells you to repent, you repent; when He tells you to forgive, you forgive; when He tells you to cast down, you cast down…. But no…you keep doing things by observation,
“I don’t feel it; I am not ready….” Our burden is heavy and hard, but His is not! But the devil will tell you, “You are feeling this way because of what God told you to do…” No, that is a lie!
You are feeling this way because of the iniquity in your heart! Because we are holding onto our heavy burdens, not giving them to Him because we don’t really trust Him. Head knowledge and application from the heart are two different things: one produces pride, and one produces life and godliness.
“Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.” 2 Timothy 3:7-8
“Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass.” James 1:21-23
Don’t be just a listener! Don’t be just a learner! Do not be deceived. Just because you are learning does not mean that you are knowing HIM! You must be an applier, a doer of the word! Or you will be just following the man you see in a mirror! Be a doer! The result of knowing Him is joy, peace, and righteousness! “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” Jeremiah 29:11
We need to be in agreement with His plans and His ways. We need to receive His counsel and apply His counsel! We need to be grateful, have a grateful heart, and be faithful to His Word and to His people! We can’t be depending on our own self or counsel our own self, justifying our self. We cannot lead our own selves by our own counsel. We need to take counsel from the Holy Spirit, His Word, and one another! So, we can be wise in His eyes and not in our own eyes! Even when our flesh gets stirred up, we need to be aware of it because the fire can burn that up. But if we allow iniquity to stay, the love of God will grow cold, and we will start being critical and judge others instead of judging our own self! This is the best leader! If iniquity is in our heart, there will be no joy, no peace, no gratefulness or loyalty! Some of our own trials are created by our own selves, created by our own iniquity, by our own leading!
Father, we lean on Your way and will apply it in our lives, in our jobs, and in our relationships with one another, so iniquity and hidden things will be plucked out of us so love can abide more and more! It will abound in us, and when you send us to the nations, we will see an amazing move of the Spirit because of the fruit that is coming out!
We don’t need our own counsel. We don’t need our own dream. We need the Spirit and the Word that is backing the counsel of His mouth! We will listen to it! The situation we get ourselves in is because we have not laid hold to the Body of Christ, to the Spirit of God; instead, we held to a multitude of iniquity! This is the foundation that protects us. When we have iniquity in our hearts, we start judging our leaders and brothers because we don’t want to be exposed and make ourselves known. If you are not making yourself known, Jesus is not made known! Try to hide yourself, and Christ will hide from you! There is nothing to hide anymore! You are a body, and when you get in the shower, you are naked; but when you see yourself naked, you go and get fig leaves! You are just worried about how you look, and then you stop your deliverance! Then you go to your bedroom, and there is a mirror! You can’t run from yourself! The only thing that can really see you is the eyes of the Spirit! And they are seeing you!
Father, let it be signs of the power that changes us! We repent and ask you to purify our hearts because if there is hidden iniquity, we will end up producing the work of iniquity! We don’t want to hear you saying to us: “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” We want to grow in gratefulness and loyalty to You, to Your Spirit, to Your Word, and to the Body of Christ. This is what a real Christ-like leader looks like…
Shane W Roessiger
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