Accountability is a spiritual discipline just as important as prayer or fasting—but far more neglected. Pay attention, Agent Hunt: Completion of your Mission Possible demands the consistent practice of honest transparency and real accountability!

I define accountability as the practice of meeting daily/weekly with trusted brothers or sisters to give a detailed account of your spiritual walk—the good and the bad—for that day or week. There’s no such thing as a disciple without the discipline of iron sharpening iron in the community of a band of brothers/sisters working together to grow in Christ. Accountability is perhaps the simplest of all spiritual disciplines to learn and practice, and yet how often have you received any practical teaching on living the accountable life? Has your pastor ever preached or modeled accountability for you?

I’ve been to seminary twice, so you can imagine the amount of time I spent in class, and yet I don’t remember a single discussion on the subject of accountability during 7 years of schooling. I had to start my own accountability group while in seminary. I’d been randomly placed in a group with 4 other students, a seminary support group as it were. As I soon found out, 4 out of 5 of the students, including myself, struggled with sexual purity. And I’m reasonably certain the 5th student was lying about his struggles.

Future pastors in training, and yet already sexually addicted—do you think we needed to be in accountability?! How insane to teach preaching, doctrine, and Greek to a group of addicts in training, and yet never lift the slightest finger to address the oh-so-important heart issues of sexual purity, honesty, and basic spiritual maturity! Every Christian should practice accountability—but those in leadership positions most of all!

There’s no way I can overstate the importance of accountability to the addict in recovery.

Rule of Recovery #4: Daily/Weekly Check-Ins for Life!
Addiction recovery and long-term maintenance of your recovery will require rigorous, intentional, and consistent accountability for the rest of your life.

True accountability is the natural enemy of Immorality, Immaturity, Idolatry, and especially Denial. Consistent use of the weekly Checklist in your group is kryptonite to the cult of one that lies at the heart of every addiction.

In the next few blog posts I’ll prove to you the Biblical importance of giving an account of yourself, and why you must do this in a small group setting. We’ll discuss the key aspects of real accountability. Finally, I’ll provide you with a simple but life-changing weapon: The Pureheart Checklist. This way, you can immediately put into practice what you learn in this chapter. Speaking as someone who has practiced rigorous accountability for over 30 years, I have much to teach you about this important spiritual discipline.

Give a Good Account Now, Give a Good Account Then!

Well done, good and faithful servant. The 6 most important words you and I may ever hear…

Allow me to point out one critical fact: This is a conditional phrase. In fact, it’s a very conditional phrase. On Judgment Day, every Christian must give an account of how they spent their life on earth. Eternal reward or punishment is based on this accounting. We may hear those 6 words of eternal significance—or these 7: Depart from Me, I never knew you…

This is plain, Biblical teaching. Paul writes: So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God (Romans 14:12). Peter says: But they will have to give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead (1 Peter 4:5). The writer of Hebrews warns us: No creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account (4:13, ESV). In the Parables of the Talents/Minas and the Foolish Virgins, Jesus teaches us that every Christian will be rewarded and/or punished based on the results of this final accounting. Indeed, Revelation teaches us that books will be opened—not just the Book of Life. Presumably these are the books that record all our deeds, good and bad, and even every careless word we’ve ever uttered.

Despite the wealth of passages that focus on this Great Accounting in the Sky, in my experience, most Christians live in some kind of strange spiritual denial. Even though many live lukewarm, perverted, and idolatrous lives, somehow—there’s that word again—somehow on Judgment Day, God will wave His magic wand and make it all better. Then again, maybe not:

Each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire,
and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss,
though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
1 Corinthians 3:12-15, ESV

So much for that theory. It’s obvious from Scripture we must all give an account, but it’s in the practical preparation for this accounting that many Christians seem to lose their way. Judgment Day seems far away and far from relevant in the busyness and pressure of ordinary life. So it’s easy to live in denial. Compare this denial to your savings account (or lack thereof). Set aside so much money each month, as every financial planner will tell you, and your savings combined with a good interest rate will compound over the long haul and turn into a lot of money. We all know this, and yet how many of us do it? Whether it’s savings or spiritualty, the average Joe or Jane Christian is too busy trying to survive the Now to worry about the Then.

Here’s the good news: Living for the Then is all about establishing the right habits Now. How do you establish habits now that prepare you for Judgment Day? Practice the spiritual discipline of consistent accountability!

Your Brother in the Battle,
Timothy

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Excerpt taken from Pureheart Ministry’s Basic Training! Stage 1: Operation Purity

Copyright ©2023 Timothy Davis