Isaiah 1:12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?

When you get a summons to court it is for one reason only, someone is in trouble. It might be you or someone you know. You are either going to be accused or asked to testify. That is pretty much it. No one comes to court because it’s a pleasant thing to do.

Psalm 100:4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

Not so with the courts of heaven from the opening verses of Isaiah. I ask because of this one phrase, “who has required this”. In the courts of an earthly king we are not granted an audience with the king without a summons to court. The king summons you. You don’t get to just walk on in.

By what authority do you enter God’s courts?

Colossians 3:1-4 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

I’m already there.

Our authority comes from being in Christ. It is not so much a coming and going as versed in Job 1 where the angels come and go from heaven to earth. They are not in Christ. We hold a unique role in His Kingdom, dual citizenship. While we walk this earth on our sojourn, we carry the rights of citizenship to our city, state, nation. Being in Christ we are citizens of that heavenly realm. We have rights because by faith we are in Christ. We can and do come and go freely without a summons.

Are you a Kingdom citizen in Christ?

Deuteronomy 19:15 One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.

The word snitch has gained a bad reputation because the accuser was once involved in a criminal enterprise. Going to the police is not the same thing as going to a priest. In this please understand our priest is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.

This one witness was he a friend? If so, why did he not help his friend who was caught up in a sin? If we try to help a friend in his struggle, have we taken the issue before our heavenly priest and sought His counsel in this matter? We are free to do so without fear of being called a snitch. Our Lord knows all there is about these matters, after all He is the one that bore those sins and took them to the Cross.

Galatians 6:2 Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

I ask myself if I am involved in my friends lives enough to do this or do I heed the warning to the point that I have become ineffective.

Galatians 6:1 Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.

I do believe we need to be careful and that is why I consider taking these things to the Lord first, so that I am not just one witness.