<p>5:4 <i>While it remained, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your power?<em>- </em></i>When they sold their property, the Holy Spirit&rsquo;s comment in Acts 5:4 was that the money was &ldquo;their own&rdquo; and &ldquo;under their own power&rdquo; Gk. <em>exousia</em>. They could have chosen to give all or part of that money to God. It was theirs and not God&rsquo;s, the implication was. This is a startling insight. What wealth we have has been genuinely entrusted to us by the Lord, and in that sense it is indeed &lsquo;ours&rsquo;, under our power. Yet we are to realize that of course as those under the sphere of God&rsquo;s rulership / Kingdom, we are under <em>His</em> &lsquo;exousia&rsquo;. Absolutely <em>all</em> power of <em>exousia</em> in any part of Heaven or earth has now been given to the Lord Jesus (Mt. 28:18; Jn. 17:2; Col. 2:10). And yet He has given &ldquo;authority&rdquo; or <em>exousia</em> to us His servants, and will judge us on His return as to how we have used this (Mk. 13:34; Jn. 1:12). We need to make this connection- that although He has delegated to us wealth, and placed it under our power or <em>exousia</em>, if we are truly part of His Kingdom, we are to give back the <em>exousia</em> or power / authority over our wealth to Him.</p><p><i>How is it you have <em>conceived this thing in your heart</em></i>- Acts 5:3 provides an example of the connection between the Devil and our sins. Peter says to Ananias: &ldquo;Why has Satan filled your heart?&rdquo;. Then in verse 4 Peter says &ldquo;Why have you <em>conceived this thing in your heart?</em>&rdquo;. Conceiving something bad within our heart is the same as Satan filling our heart. If we ourselves conceive something, e.g. a sinful plan, then it begins <em>inside us</em>. Note that when Peter speaks of how Ananias has &ldquo;conceived this thing in your heart&rdquo; he&rsquo;s alluding to the LXX of Esther 7:5, where the wicked Haman is described as one &ldquo;whose heart hath filled him&rdquo; to abuse God&rsquo;s people (see RV). Note in passing that the LXX of Esther 7:4 speaks of Haman as <em>ho diabolos</em> with the definite article &ndash; a mere man is called &ldquo;the Satan&rdquo;. It&rsquo;s been suggested that &lsquo;Satan filling the heart&rsquo; was a common phrase used in the first century to excuse human sin; and Peter is deconstructing it by using the phrase and then defining more precisely what it refers to &ndash; conceiving sin in our heart, our own heart filling itself with sin. But about &quot;conceived&quot;, see on 5:2 <em>Laid it.</em></p><p><em>You have not lied to men, but to God</em>- He had, of course, lied to men. We must read in an ellipsis here: 'You have not so much lied to men, but also to God'.</p>