Testifying with an Unclean Spirit

Judah has been unfaithful, and an abomination is done

 in Israel and in Jerusalem,

for Judah has defiled the sanctuary of Jehovah which He loved,

and he has married the daughter of a foreign god.

Jehovah will cut off from the tents of Jacob the man who does this and then

gets up and testifies and makes an offering to Jehovah of Hosts.

Malachi 2:11–12

Through the cleansing of the blood of the Lamb of God, we overcome the world through our testimonies.  Your testimony is unique and precious to the Lord—and very valuable to the saints of God!  Guard it from the pollutions of the world.  The Israelites in Judah polluted their testimony by allowing the influence of foreign spirits into their lives.  They still worshipped God; they still stood up and testified of His greatness, but their testimony was tainted with the spirit of the world.  What struck me this morning when I read this verse is that God did not consider that error to be merely a mistake.  In His eyes, it was an abomination.

That being the case, how much more, in this holy New Covenant, must it be an abomination to Him if His people testify to the greatness of Jesus when their spirits have been polluted with worldliness?  James exhorted those among God’s people who dared do this, “If you have bitter envy and strife in your heart, do not glory in spite of it and, so, lie against the truth.  This wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic” (Jas. 3:14–15).  To join in worship with holy souls, to stand and testify before God’s holy people when your heart is not pure in His sight is a serious offense.  That is how Satan lived while he was in heaven, and his judgment was to be cast out of God’s presence forever.

The wise admonition of the author of Hebrews is for us today as much as it was for the saints of his time.  Please take it to heart:

Hebrews 10

28. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy, by two or three witnesses.

29. Of how much worse punishment, do you think, will he be worthy who has trampled under foot the Son of God, has regarded as a common thing the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has done outrage to the Spirit of grace?

30. For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.”  And again, “The Lord will judge His people.”

31. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.