WHAT IS INIQUITY?
The mystery of iniquity has, for centuries, been shrouded in the veils of flawed understanding. Unfortunately, the mystery of iniquity has been ignored or redefined and neutered of its significance.
Before I understood the root meaning of “iniquity,” the words of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew puzzled and even frightened me. I wondered why He would respond the way He did to people who were doing good things in His Name, things that Jesus Himself was doing:
“Not everyone that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:21-23 KJV).
These people were doing great things, prophesying in the Name of the Lord, casting out devils, and performing wondrous works. These seem to be great deeds that should have pleased Jesus. And aren’t these the type of good deeds that many churches teach that Christians should be doing? Then why was Jesus so displeased with what they were doing? The eye-opening answer is found in understanding the foundational meaning of the word “iniquity.”
It is important to note that like many other words in the Bible, the word iniquity has multiple definitions depending on where its found within scripture. My purpose of this article is to focus on the definition of the word that Jesus used in the above biblical account.
From its New Testament Greek perspective, the word “iniquity” that Jesus used in this insightful verse is the word anomia. According to Strong’s Concordance, someone who practices “iniquity” is described as “someone who is in violation of a specific type of law, which results in him or her being unrighteous.”
This specific type of law that this definition refers to is described in the following key verses:
“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord; I will put My law into their inward part, and in their minds, I will write them” (Hebrews 10:16; Jeremiah 31:33).
The inward part that this verse is referring to is the kingdom of God within your mind, which is where law (truth) directly from the Spirit of God is experienced and described in the Psalms 51:6, which says: “Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part, You will make me to know wisdom.”
The word “law” in the above verse according to ancient Hebrew perspective is the word Torah, which is normally a reference to “the Written Word” (i.e. Scripture). Interestingly, from a definitive root word perspective, “law” in this verse is specifically defined as “teaching” that comes through an actual teacher; it describes the purpose of this type of teaching as “the direction and instruction that one is to take in life.”
The primary purposes of laws are to create and maintain order. One of the primary functions of the Spirit of God that is within you is to teach you laws to create and maintain order regarding every aspect of His predetermined will and purposes for your life so that you are aware of what they are, and instructed as to what steps are necessary in order to live them out.
“The steps of the righteous person are ordered by the Lord” (Ps. 37:23).
We see the significance of this process more clearly when we look at the Hebrew translation for the word anomia (iniquity) that Jesus used in Matthew 7:23, which is the Hebrew word aven. It is defined as “to use the power within the loins of the mind that is purposed to reproduce and create for vain or other improper purposes.”
This power that this definition is referring to is the ability of the human mind to access the mind of God in order to experience Truth, which is the language of God, purposed to teach you His predetermined will for every aspect of your life. This process can only be experienced via the kingdom of God that is within “the loins of [your] mind” (Lk. 17:21).
To work or practice (as some biblical translations refer to it as) iniquity is to not practice going “within the loins of our minds,” which is where the kingdom of God resides, in order to experience Truth from the “power” (the mind of God) and get the specific and detailed will of God for all aspects of your life. It is instead to allow your mind to be used or influenced by other sources through the covertness of Satan that results in a counterfeit or limited spiritual experience. This will result in assuming the will of God for your life instead of receiving this vital information on a daily basis from the Spirit of God Himself.
I became a believer 30 years ago. The past 10 years have been the best years of my life as far as personal spiritual growth and development is concerned.
My three greatest accomplishments within these past 10 years have been first, accepting the sobering reality that for most of my Christian life, I was assuming the will of God for my life similar to those in the above Matthew account due to the grip that iniquity had on my life though I was a Spirit-filled believer.
My second greatest accomplishment is that I learned to study the Bible like a Hebrew in order to understand the scriptures from definitive root-word perspectives. This form of study opened my eyes to clearly seeing how limited and in some cases how error-filled was the biblical and spiritual instruction that I was receiving from many of the fivefold ministers that I was exposed to.
My third greatest accomplishment was due to my newfound more accurate form of biblical study, I saw how Jesus, the ancient prophets and many others found throughout the bible used the scriptures in what Jesus described as a “key of knowledge” (Luke 11:52) form of instruction coupled with the mental discipline of meditation in order to experience the Kingdom of God within their souls in order to experience God directly.
As a result of these life-changing experiences, in 2009 I began the journey to write and self-publish three books. My first book “The Mystery of Iniquity Revealed” explores the biblical concept of iniquity, which is the root cause of why people fail to clearly hear and learn from God in the most intimate and detailed way.
My second book “The Mystery of Prayer Revealed” researches Jesus’ prayer-life and teachings on the biblical concept of prayer from the perspective of how to hear and learn from God through the avenue of prayer.
My third book “The Mystery of the Kingdom of Revealed” reveals how to experience the greatest spiritual learning that God has inherently placed within the soul of all humanity, which Jesus referred to as “the Kingdom of God” (Luke 17:21) that can only be truly experienced through the mental discipline and practice of meditation.