Money by Rev Andrew Murray

trusting in its money, but honoring those most who have the grace
and the strength to be followers of Jesus Christ in His poverty.
Our third lesson is: The Holy Spirit testing the money. All the money
that is given, even in a time when the Holy Spirit is moving mightily,
is not given under His inspiration. But it is all given under his holy
supervision, and He will from time to time, to each heart that
honestly yields to Him, reveal what there may be wanting or wrong.
Listen: "Barnabas having a field, sold it, and brought the money. But
Ananias sold a possession and kept back part of the price, and
brought a certain part, and laid it at the the Apostles' feet." Ananias
brought his gift, and with his wife was smitten dead. What can have
made the gift such a crime? He was a deceitful giver. He kept back
part of the price.
He professed to give all, and did not. He gave with half a heart and
unwillingly, and yet would have the the credit of having given all. In
the Pentecostal Church the Holy Ghost was the author of the giving:
his sin was against the Holy Ghost. No wonder that it is twice
written: "great fear came upon the whole Church, and upon all who
heard it." If it is so easy to sin even in giving, if the Holy Spirit
watches and judges all our giving, we may well beware and fear.
And what was the sin? Simply this: he did not give all he professed.
This sin, not in its greatest form, but in its spirit and more subtle
manifestation s, is far more common than we think. Are there not
many who say they have given their all to God, and yet prove false to
it in the use of their money? Are there not many who say all their
money is their Lord's, and that they hold it as His stewards, to
dispose of it as He directs, and yet who, in the amount they spend on
God's work, as compared with that on themselves, and in
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