God is serious about sin!

“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork (or fan) is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.” Luke 3:16-17

This quote from John the Baptist refers to Jesus and the work of His Holy Spirit. He is holding a winnowing fork in His hand and this fork will separate the good grain from the chaff. The good grain will be placed in a barn and the chaff will burn up with an unquenchable fire.

This is about salvation and the separation of the righteous from the wicked or evil. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the only way to God.

The deeper significance is the work the Spirit of God does in believers. God penetrates your heart and soul with the piercing of His Spirit to identify your sin and remove it from your life.

He has given believers the keys to the kingdom of God to bind evil and loosen goodness functioning in the manner of the winnowing fork.

What you bind on earth through prayer, intercession, and executing the counsel and judgment of God will be bound in Heaven. No sin will travel to Heaven.

What you loosen on earth through offering salvation to others, performing merciful acts, and sharing the love of God will have everlasting results and travel to Heaven.

Sin cannot live with God! You must seek the blood of Jesus to forgive you for your sins and ask His Spirit to clean out your house and make you acceptable to Him.

The act of the cross provides a propitiation (appeasement or atonement) to God for your sins. This is the only method to be reconciled with God!