Don’t walk in my mess

It is imperative that the church begin to deal with those things that are keeping back the glory of the Lord. Have you not wondered why many Third World countries are experiencing outpourings on a continuous basis and we here in the United States are not? There are several things I would like to deal with in this article.

Deuteronomy 23:9-14 explains some vital factors in this dilemma. God has a pattern for everything we need, a pattern buried deep in his word. In this Scripture he deals with the pattern for our purity during spiritual warfare.

Let's look at Deuteronomy 23:13-14:

Verse 13: "And thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon; and it shall be, when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and thou turn back and cover that which cometh from thee."

Verse 14: "For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy: that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee."

The word paddle means a shovel. Why would you need a shovel attached to your weapon? Living on the mission field for years, it was not uncommon to work in places where there were no bathroom facilities. When this situation was present, it was necessary to dig a hole to bury our body waste and cover the waste with dirt. That is, of course, in the natural but I would like to speak from a spiritual aspect.

We cannot expect the Lord to walk among us and release his glory while the church is releasing our spiritual waste such as bitterness, anger, hatred, prejudice, racism, unforgiveness, rebellion, religion, tradition of men, fornication, adultery, idolatry, uncleanness, gossip, backbiting, fear, disobedience - and the list goes on. These things are an example of spiritual waste that we need to carry a shovel so we can dig a hole and bury our own mess. The Lord will not be in the area of such waste. Therefore we need to create an atmosphere of holiness and cleanness if we expect a visitation of the Lord God.

One of the reasons that the church is not experiencing greater victory against the enemy is because of a lack of cleanness and a lack of holiness in our personal lives. We will never prevail against the enemy if our walk with God is out of line with the word of God.

One of the greatest reasons for a lack of the presence of God comes out of Proverbs 6:15-19. Here, we find the seven things God hates and considers them an abomination, which means he finds these seven things morally disgusting. He considers them as disgusting as being in an occult or participating in dishonest business dealings. He is also saying that if any if these seven things are operating in your life and you are creating a nasty atmosphere that will indeed hold back the presence of the Lord and will contaminate others as you spill your mess (spiritual waste) around your home, church and work place.

1. A proud look. Pride is the very seat of Satan and is the opposite of humility. (Proverbs 8:13)

2. A lying tongue. We may not go out as a Christian and rob someone, but how many believers cheat on their income taxes and think nothing of it? If you cheat, you lie. (Proverbs 12:19)

3. Hands that shed innocent blood. This means clean hands. If you gossip, slander and backbite, then your hands are not clean. (Psalms 24:3)

4. A heart that deviseth wicked imaginations. This means to having evil thoughts, intentions, purpose, plan, cunning works and artificial work (doing things with evil motives).

5. Feet swift in running to mischief. This means running to do evil, speak evil and becoming a garbage can for others to dump wicked words about other people and situations, slanderous information that is damaging to others.

6. A false witness that speaketh evil. Anyone that passes along information concerning others when you have not witnessed the information or actions of an other is in the eyes of God a false witness (Proverbs 6:19; Exodus 20:16).

7. He that soweth discord among brethren. (Proverbs 6:14; 6:19)

Remember, the Lord will not visit us in contamination, fifth and dirt. There is a cleansing that must take place prior to the glory being released.

If you care to comment you may do so at shar8jffrs3@aol.com, PO box 327, Lima, OH 45802, www.sharonjefferson.org.