“Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.” Acts 10:34-35
God was breaking mindsets in Peter. In his time, the gospel started out in his mind to be for the Jews but God had to break this respecter of person mentality because God accepts anyone that fears Him and works righteousness. Anybody that cries out unto the Lord Jesus. There's no respecter of persons with God. That means God will accept any man or woman that cries out to Him - black, white, Spanish, European, anyone that is a human being. It does not matter their background or where they came from. God does not look at this as far as who He will save or use. He looks at a man's heart. He's not looking at a man's flesh or ability or inability. He's not even looking for their righteousness because He says our righteousness is filthy rags. He wants to give us His righteousness. And that's why He's looking for complete surrender to Him! He can use a deaf man, a blind man, a child, a lame man. Whoever He wants to use He will use. Even a donkey was used to speak for Him! So, should we not hear the word of God because it came from a donkey?
It doesn't matter who God is working through to speak His word. All that matters is, is it God speaking? I don't want to hear what man has to say but I do want to hear what God has to say through man! It's never about the vessel, it's about what's coming out of the vessel. We pay honor where honor is due and our honor is to the Word of God and to the Anointing. If God wants us to honor someone by the Spirit for their obedience or is honoring a gifting, that's different, but when we honor someone out of man-pleasing, being a respecter of persons, for our own gain, then this is sin! Partiality is sin, favoritism, treating people based on your particular likeness or fondness for someone, comparing people to one another, and treating them differently based on your biased opinion, or even treating people based on how much money they have is all sin! No, we should treat all the same, give all the same judgment, and never compromise the truth based on our audience. We have an audience of One! And that One is God and we are only trying to please Him. People that are looking for honor will not find it, but those who honor Him will be honored by Him. Religion honors people according to who they are in the flesh; the Kingdom honors the gifts. Our gifts will make room for us, but if we, on the receiving end don't make room for them, we are being a respecter of persons. Even many in the church are respecters of the gifts! Only making room for the gifting that they like!
Some are only wanting the pastoral gift or the gift of prophecy because they only want encouragement. We need those giftings but we cannot be founded on them only. There are apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, helps, governments, and many more, and we must be founded on them all, not picking and choosing what or who we will receive but having this mind that if it comes from God, I will eat it. If it comes from His mouth, I will receive it. Doesn't matter where or who it comes from, rebuke, correction or exhortation, or what gifting it comes from, it's mine if it's His! All that we have is His! The revelations, the knowledge, the oracles, the teachings - they are not ours; they are His! So who are we to say like it says in 1 Corinthians 3:4, “One saith I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos?” This is carnal, beloved, and look at verse 5 here: “Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?” Then it goes on to say how one plants and one waters but both are one! One body, One Spirit, One mind, One accord. It’s the same Spirit that operates the gifts. So, if it's the same Spirit that operates all the gifts, then why are you showing partiality?
Why are you playing Respecter of the Gifts or Respecter of Persons if everything that is good and holy comes from heaven and is God's! Oh well, I like this prophet but not that prophet? I like this pastor but not that pastor? Who cares! Are they from God? Are they His mouthpiece? Are they speaking with the anointing that breaks the yoke? Stop playing respecter of persons and put away childish things that you would not miss the Lord, neither would you be like Ahab that only wanted to hear soothsayers disguised as prophets!
If you are doing this, you are only receiving parts of God, and this is why you don't have His fullness. You say you have the head and because of this, you believe you have all that you need, but you are mistaken because His fullness is His full body. The Body of Christ! Christ being the Head and we being every other part of the Body, fitly joined together. You cannot have His fullness without the rest of the parts! We are to assemble together, not like the world assembles in assemblies. Yet an assembling of His body parts coming together and being connected one to another and fitly compacted together. Not just showing up to a building but being one in Spirit and in Truth, each part participating as the mind of Christ sends its signal the unction for each part to function and we all move as one body, by one Spirit, through one mind!
This is why we must be no respecter of persons because if we have this operating, the whole body cannot be glorified. This is why the Bible talks about giving honor to the body part which we think to be less honorable so that every body part may have its place and may be used as an instrument for the Lord and that each may do its part to benefit the whole body! The toe is just as important as the arm. We cannot even deny the part that we think to be the least or else we are denying His fullness. We want all of Him. This is why it is not wise to compare ourselves amongst ourselves because it’s the body comparing itself to the body. How can ONE body be divided against itself!
We must know no man after the flesh. Many preachers and even hearers will only partner with you or hear from you if you have a big ministry or a big following. And if you only get two likes on social media, people that play respecter of persons will know you by the flesh, know you by observation, thinking that you are not speaking from God just because you don't have a lot of people listening. Well, most of the Old Testament prophets spoke from God and were rejected by the majority. Test the spirits and discern their source. Don't discern them based on the success of their platform! Not after appearance, not after accolades, not after their past, but we must know them by what comes out of them. It does not matter if you have been an on-fire Christian for 30 years. If you're in the flesh, you’re in the flesh. If you’re not speaking from God anymore and you’re soothsaying speaking from another spirit, we shall not give ear! Just because someone was used by God before, does not mean they are being used by God anymore. We have to know people by The Voice! Not their voice! But The Voice. The same voice that cried out in the wilderness, the same voice that spoke the earth into existence! We have to know the voice, the voice of One. Every messenger of God is not a voice but they are speaking from One Voice! This is why we must not know men by the flesh because if we’re looking at the outward or any external standard, we can miss the voice! Someone who was in the flesh yesterday could be speaking by The Voice today! Someone might have some issues and some flaws and some struggles but who are we to tell God who He can speak through or work through? Do not know men by their past, do not know men by where they came from, but know them by the Voice of One, the Voice of God that comes out of them!
Even the Jews rejected God Himself when Jesus came on the scene because they did not know the voice! They saw a man that they thought came from Nazareth. What good can come out of Nazareth? They were already knowing Him after the flesh, already looking at the appearance, the external standards, already playing respecter of persons even though He was born in Bethlehem. Yet they could not recognize Him because they could not recognize God. Even Jesus said to them, “I receive not honor from men, but I know you, that ye have not love for God in you.” They didn't even realize they were rejecting God because they wanted God to be and look like how they wanted Him to look because they had their own form of God in their mind. They say they loved God but they had another God in their mind. That's what we even do today. We take parts of Jesus, parts of the Word, and we make up our own Jesus, our own word. We must have all of Him. We cannot only honor parts of the Word because it's what we like to hear. We need all of it, the full counsel of truth. Many love Him only in part and that's why many pick the messengers they will listen to because they want the messengers that won't preach the things that offend their way of thinking. We need men that offend our carnal mindsets and give us the heavenly precepts.
This is exactly what is going on in the religious system, preaching according to persons in the room because we don't want to lose their tithe and offering money, their influence, their rank, or their status. Don't want to lose the crowd. Oh, you were preaching truth when there were a few, but when the crowd came, you compromised because you fell in love with the crowd, the popularity, and the attention. And now your respecting persons, man-pleasing everyone! Once you man-please someone, you always have to man please them or you will see their flesh come out once you stop. It's better to never start! We can never be compromised messengers. Neither can we be compromised by playing respecters of messengers because we like how someone ministers or we like that they are younger or older or have more followers on social media! We have a particular liking for their flesh. Who cares? Shut your eyes and open your ears to hear what thus saith the Spirit of God! If it's the Anointing, if it's the Oil, if it's the Fire, it's God, and you better listen because if you reject it, you’re not just rejecting the messenger anymore, you're rejecting God Himself.
By. Joe Pinto
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