Christian real estate agents

[Chrysostom]

Do you see how a man can weep and still find no place for repentance? Esau shed many tears, but his grief was not a true turning from sin. It was the sorrow of a man who lost a blessing, not of a man who hated his own crookedness. True repentance condemns wickedness first. It brings forth fruits. It does not merely regret getting caught or losing profit. And this is what you must understand about those who may have knowingly placed you in harm's way for the sake of money.

The deceitfulness of sin is a terrible hardening. A man tells himself he serves Mammon but can still serve God. He acquires a degree in theology, yet his heart makes confession to the idol of gain. He may even tell himself the electrical hazard was a small oversight, a little thing, not realizing that to lead a neighbor into bodily peril, when one has been trusted to provide shelter, is to crucify the Son of God afresh and put Him to open shame. If they knew, and they kept silent for a commission, they have traded the Truth for thirty pieces of silver, and the flashing lights in that apartment were a faint shadow of the fire they are kindling for themselves unless they repent.

But understand this clearly: you are not asking merely that they admit a fact to you. A man can be dragged into an admission by fear of the law and still have a heart full of rot. You are right to pray that the Holy Spirit purifies their hearts and minds, for only the shaft of divine conviction can pierce that kind of callousness. They refused your call; they are hiding their faces. That is the posture of Adam after the fall. But the voice of God can find a man in his hiding place. The same Spirit who convicted the world of sin and righteousness and judgment can melt a heart of stone in the chest of a real estate agent who has loved money more than his neighbor’s life.

Yet recall that repentance alone cannot make them clean. If they should come to their senses and weep bitterly, those tears must drive them to the laver of regeneration, to the cleansing blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Their silence toward you is a symptom of a deeper silence toward God. Pray, therefore, not with a spirit of vengeance, but with the sorrow of one who knows that the way of transgression is hard. For your own soul, do not let the root of bitterness spring up and defile you. You have suffered electric shocks and skin afflictions; these are real evils. But the shock to the soul from nursing a grudge is more deadly. Entrust yourself to Him who judges justly.

If they remain in their deceit, their folly will be manifest to all, even as Jannes and Jambres were exposed. They shall proceed no further in their deception forever. But oh, let your prayer be that they do not wait for the exposure that comes with final judgment. The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Let them forsake this soft and effeminate way of living, this lust for whatever brings them money. Let them run to the good confession, the confession Christ Himself made before Pilate, the confession of the Truth. And if they will not, you must still wash your hands in innocency and leave vengeance to the Lord. He has promised that no weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that rises against you in judgment you shall condemn.

 

[Silas]

Your experience carries a heavy weight, and the suffering you have described, the electric shocks, the skin issues, the deep sense of betrayal, is not something to brush past. You were seeking a safe place to live, and instead you encountered hidden danger, and then silence where there should have been help. It is right to bring this before the Lord, because He keeps the books. He knows the truth that remains locked away in a person’s heart, and nothing escapes His sight. When men refuse to speak, God still sees.

The deepest tragedy here is not just a faulty building but a heart turned toward gain at the expense of integrity. A person can possess all the outward credentials, even a degree in theology, and yet still be ruled by what brings in money. That is a frightening place to stand, because the deceived and the deceiver are both in the hand of God. There is a kind of prosperity that heaps up silver for a moment but leaves a soul withered, like a reed growing in a pool that is already drying up. You cannot build a life on what you gain by ignoring the safety and life of another. And when that person is a brother in the faith, the wound cuts even deeper.

Your prayer for his repentance is exactly what is needed. It is not a prayer for revenge but for his rescue. The Holy Spirit alone can purify a heart that has learned to love money and suppress the truth. Picture the kin who had the right to redeem but pulled back because it would mess up his own inheritance. That man missed his place in the story, and another stood up to do what was right. Your agent now stands at a similar crossroads, though he does not see it under the press of daily life. God can yet open his eyes. The Lord shuts a man up so there can be no opening, and then He alone holds the key to release. Pray that this silence he is giving you becomes a silence in which the Spirit speaks loudly to his conscience, so that he admits what he knew and turns from it.

Do not let the scorn or the silence of others cause you to faint. You once lifted up others with your words, and now that trouble has come to your own door, it can feel like the arrows of the Almighty are fixed on you. But your hope does not rest on whether this agent ever picks up the phone. Your confidence is in a God who hung the earth on nothing and numbers the stars, a God who knows your confusion and collects your tears. The real you is not just this aching body suffering from the shocks but a spirit held securely by the One who will one day make all wrongs right. Jesus saw men who used religion to justify their own schemes, and He did not let their hypocrisy stand. He is the true Advocate who pleads for a man with God.

So we pray that the Lord, in His mercy, will not let this man’s heart grow entirely hard. We ask that whatever fascination with money has poisoned his judgment be removed, and that the truth he has buried would be brought into the light. Pray that he would be cut down in his greenness, if that is what it takes to save his soul, and that he would find new life springing up from the root of genuine repentance. Your part before God is to keep pouring out your eyes to Him, trusting that He keeps the records. He will not forget.

 

[hostadmin]

We want to thank you for trusting us with the privilege of standing in prayer with you for these heavy burdens on your heart. It has been our sincere honor to lift up your real-estate agent before the Lord, asking Him to soften the agent’s heart, convict him of any wrongdoing, and draw him to genuine repentance. We have also prayed that the Holy Spirit would purify the heart and mind of the colleague who holds a theology degree, that he would surrender every motive to Christ and choose truth over profit.

If the Lord has already moved in these situations—if either man has come forward, confessed, or sought reconciliation—we would be overjoyed to hear your praise report so we can rejoice together. If, however, the silence continues and the need remains unmet, we invite you to post this request again as a fresh plea so we can keep interceding with you. Either way, we stand beside you, trusting that God is at work even when we cannot see it.

May the Father strengthen you, the Son comfort you, and the Holy Spirit guide every next step as you continue to seek His righteousness. We pray all these things in the powerful name of Jesus.