Recently, I have begun using my FSA account for medical purchases. I have learned that it does not matter how appropriate my transactions may be under the IRS guidelines, they still want detailed proof that I did not use my money on something other than a legitimate medical expense.
This is not the only time the IRS has challenged me on the use of my own money. In 2013, I received a letter from the IRS challenging my use of funds from an HSA account as far back as 2011. They indicated that I owed about a $1000, plus interest. So I was faced with the prospect of paying the government money for a legitimate use of my own money, even though I had not done anything wrong.
In both these situations, I was protected by providing documented proof that whatever debts the IRS claimed I had incurred, I did not actually owe. The proof, in both cases, was the provision of a receipt: a document that provides a trail showing charges for an expense and the payment rendered in exchange for that expense.
Recently, a passage of scripture was brought to my attention that raised for me a very big question. In Hebrews 2:14 we are told, “…that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death.” This scripture is describing the death of Jesus Christ and the impact it has on our spiritual adversary, the devil. The question that was raised for me was simply, “How does the blood and sacrifice of Jesus render our enemy powerless?”
To answer that question, I was whisked along on a detailed explanation on courtroom mechanics.
Much like my encounter with the IRS, God operates out of a structured and disciplined paradigm. You might believe that God operates however He pleases, and to an extent we could argue that He does. But what we often miss in our thinking this way is that it very much pleases God to act in a very orderly fashion.
An example of this is illustrated for us in Daniel 6 through the ordeal of King Darius in giving a statute that no one may make a petition to any god but the King for thirty days. When it came to the King’s attention that his statute had ensnared his favored commissioner, Daniel, King Darius was very upset. However, there was nothing that he could do, because once the statue was given, it was his authority that gave the statue authority. If the King issued a new statue to undermine the first, then the King would be pitting his authority against his authority–so which would win out: his authority to institute the statute or his authority to end the statute?
The same is true of God.
Which is what our accuser, the Devil, relies upon. While Satan has learned that he can never exploit God like the satraps did King Darius, he knows he can still ensnare the rest of us in the laws that God has already established.
That is why Satan did not tempt Eve to kill Adam rather than eating the fruit. Death comes only as a consequence of breaking the law, which means even if it had been possible to conspire Eve to murder her husband, it could not have succeeded until God condemned it under the Law. So Satan focused on the Law given to Adam: Thou shalt not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Until we understand the dynamic at play in God’s law, we can never understand the need for a receipt.
Our enemy has the power of death only over those who retain a debt on God’s books pertaining to His broken Law.
Similarly, when you abuse your FSA account, you lack a receipt showing a legitimate medical expense. When the authority of the IRS comes to bear against you it makes no difference whether you believe in the IRS, acknowledge the IRS, or even agree with the IRS. The IRS believes in you and has ways of finding you and when it does, you will be made to pay your debt in full. Plus interest.
Unless of course you already have a receipt showing that your debt has been paid.
This is how God rendered powerless him who had the power of death. The power of death includes far more than simply killing someone. The power of death is the power to pull a man towards death. Our enemy cannot actually kill you directly. Instead, the devil conspires bad behavior into people. He sows jealousy to make a man murderous towards his spouse. He sows addiction to make a driver distracted while driving a vehicle that when improperly steered can result in the loss of life and limb. He sows lies and distrust that destroy relationships. He plants doubt and skepticism that turn us away from God and church.
He does these things to destroy us spiritually, emotionally and physically to bring us to death spiritually, emotionally and physically.
For those who are not Christians, and choose not to become Christians, there is nothing you can do about it. You have made your choice to be subjected to his authority in this lifetime at a greater cost of showing up in God’s final courtroom bearing the debt you have incurred on your own shoulders. You have no hope of paying back what you owe by your “good living.” The Jews have already proven this by their own failure to keep the law before God.
But for those of us who are Christians we now have the means to put a stop to the power of death in our lives. The problem for those that do not see this at work all boils down to a failure to hold onto your receipt.
Like my experience with my FSA, you have a legitimate basis to expect the power of the curse (due to breaking the law) to be voided out by everything Jesus Christ accomplished through the cross. But if you failed to hold onto your receipt when the accuser comes knocking on your door and pointing out your failures and sins, then what you have done is to accept his records over God’s.
The end result is you end up seeing the debt you owed paid twice. The first time the debt was paid, was through Jesus Christ. God the Father was so pleased with his sacrifice that He paid Jesus Christ back with resurrection. His coming back to life is proof that the debt was fully and completely paid off. But when we believe our accuser’s accusation, we allow our sufferings to cut a second check for the amount we owe under condemnation to cover our debt through sickness, loss and poverty. And like the crooked auditor that he is, Satan does not take these blessings to pay God back for your debt (because he knows the debt has already been paid). No, he takes them for himself. You get robbed. The good things God wants to pour out on your life get taken from you because you failed to recognize the authority of the receipt.
Because of the transaction that has taken place at the cross, the debt of our sins has been paid for in exchange for the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. His body was broken to satisfy the curse required for all those who have a sin debt before God. His blood was shed to exchange our own unrighteousness with his righteousness. Our remembering this through the communion wine and bread is to set our focus on the fact that this transaction has taken place–until his return. But it is our profession to our accuser of the resurrection of Jesus Christ that is the documented proof of God’s satisfaction with the state of our debts having been completely wiped clean. And if you fail to pull out your receipt to remind your accuser that God was so satisfied with Jesus turning your negative balance positive such that Christ was raised to life on the third day, then you are just allowing highway robbery to take place.
You do not need to fight your accuser on this issue. You do not need to fast. You do not need to hold a prayer vigil. You do not need to take it up with management and ask God to do something about it. You do not need to have luck or your pastor’s prayers. You do not need to do right to earn right standing before God. You do not need to sin less. You do not need to attend church more. You simply need to hold out your receipt to your accuser and stand your ground.
Do not budge. Do not waver. And do not flinch. Simply repeat that Jesus Christ has settled your debt at the cross and his resurrection proves your account balance is good. Therefore, you may not be cursed, thus you may not come under death’s oppressive power.
Here is what happens spiritually when you just do this little thing.
The whole scuffle taking place, where your accuser is challenging the legitimate blessings in your life, will eventually cause a commotion. Commotion draws attention. Eventually, the manager has to come over. This is not a situation that your accuser wants to take place, because he already knows your account is settled; he simply wants to spook you out of believing in the legitimacy of your receipt. He wants to take your focus off of what Jesus finished at the cross and put it somewhere else just long enough that you put the receipt away and make your problem, your trouble, your difficulty, the death taking place in your life about something other than the payment already rendered.
Because when you do that he has won. Your receipt is back in your pocket. When management does come over and you fail to provide it as proof, then to all parties involved the accuser’s application of the curse to your life is justified in your mind since you are no longer standing in faith to your receipt having any merit.
But if you hold on–when God shows up on the scene–if the devil is truly foolish enough to hold out that long, he already knows the outcome. He knows what God will do. God will take the receipt from your outstretched hand, look it over, and then address Satan saying, “This account was already paid off with the blood of my son. Your accusation is without merit, and your execution of the power of death in this life is without justification. You must pay back all that you have taken plus one-fifth of what you owe.”
That is when miracles happen. That is the moment of your breakthrough.
The other possibility is that your accuser gives up and turns away. This will happen only when he realizes that past battles with you have always ended as before: with you pulling out your receipt and standing your ground.
But if your accuser has cursed you with sickness, disease, loss, poverty, wounds, and suffering, do not let him off the hook. Stand your ground. Hold out your receipt. Do not drop it. Eventually, God will step in to manage the situation and he will honor the receipt of Jesus Christ.
So don’t be so quick in forgetting what Jesus did for you; hold onto your receipt.