Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame, ( Revelation 16:15).
Who are the “they” in the last verse of 15? Why did the Spirit of the Lord say that He was coming as a thief? Hmmm…… Are “they” the accusers of the brethren?
When we have something precious in our lives, we stand guard at all times to keep it. Since this preciousness is important to our heart, we hold it close or make sure that it is kept safe…. We protect what we value. No one ever needs a watchman unless there might be an approaching enemy that wants to secretly enter and violate…. Why does the Lord always sound the alarm of storms on the horizon by His watchmen?
Blessed is he who watches or stands the guard to keep the precious from the vile as written in Jeremiah 15:19, Therefore thus says the Lord: If you return then I will bring you back; You shall stand before Me; if you take out the precious from the vile, you shall be as My mouth. Let them return to you, but you must not return to them.
What are the garments that the Lord tells us to keep? Are these of value to us? Do we even know what these garments are?
It is is written in Isaiah 61: 10, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, My soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
So if we guard and protect our salvation in God, what will that look like? How hungry and needful are we for Him and His benefits that He has bestowed on us. If we know of our need of Him, we will not take this grace in vain…. We will seek Him as our only One Thing, that we desire and search after…God always fills us and leaves us wanting more of Him… Always!
Praise God!
Well, if we are saved, what are we searching for? HIM. When we were living without repentance, we reaped what we sowed…. alot of trouble! But we gave alot of trouble too!
Well, we were separated from our God. We had little or no correct knowledge of Him. Since we were on the wrong team, we heard and believed the lies of Satan…. Satan ruled our life, which wasn’t hard because we were set out to live in a beastly manner! Yes, even you and I had the wrong mind set to do evil.
Now, we have come to the saving knowledge of the Lord…….Haven’t we? Are we not seeking to know our Heavenly Father……by the secrets that the Holy Spirit illuminates us within? I hope we do not just read the Word of God, but eat and devour the Living Word…. that the Word becomes us and is written in and on our hearts.
Are we of the mind of David and all the other saints of Christ? One thing I have desired of the Lord, that I will seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire of His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set my high upon a rock. And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me; therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord, ( Psalm 27:4-6).
Remember we read a couple of chapters before that the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened…… Will we be found there? The Tabernacle revealed is Jesus Christ- He is the Heavenly Man of whom we are to abide in….. He is the fulfillment of the law of God which were the tablets written in stone by Moses’ hand…… So where are we in this picture of the opened Tabernacle?
As Paul cried out in Philippians 3:7-11, But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead…..
All will be rewarded for the life we have lived on earth by our King…. Christ will be all and in all….. So what does that look like to you and me….. Well, we, the old creation, will not be. As we join in the prayer and desire of Paul, that we may be found in Him…
In our spirit, we were dead and now are alive to and in Christ….. our flesh, our outer cover is being changed from mortal to immortal. Our soul, well, we are being conformed or pressured or squeezed as we are made into the Heavenly Man’s image…. So we may be found in Him. This is the Spirit within us that puts us in hard spots, trials, adversity to the outward man so the strength will grow in our inner man…… We trust God and walk through these experiences so that the Testimony of Christ grows and grows until all that is left is…….
For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame- who set their mind on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed in His glorious body, according to the working which by He is able to subdue all things to Himself,( Philippians 3:18-21).
The other scenario of what is being released from the seven bowls of wrath unto the earth is a hard and destructive path that those have chosen that have rejected the Lord and His Salvation. The plagues that affected Egypt, will effect these also…. that refused to be clothed in the Salvation of God, Christ. We will be found clothed and crowned with God’s divine nature, Christ.
The cross will always be at work in the Lord’s followers. We die and live unto the knowledge of the life that Jesus Christ has died to redeem us to…..As the judgment falls on those whose name is not written in the Lamb’s book, we are hidden in Christ, the Tabernacle of God. We are the ones that He says about I make all things new in Revelation……
The word of God is made manifest and glorified in and by all of His creation. We choose our cooperation with the Spirit of God of what kind of vessel we are willing to be made into….We want to be the vessels of gold that are pliable and easy to be His new creation….. that we will be found in Him…. That He sees Himself in us and says—- Hey, I know you!
Justice is a wonderful thing to know and experience….. and Jesus Christ is waiting as we His saints wait for the day of the Lord…. as we wait, we watch and know that the life we live is precious unto the Lord Jesus Christ…. He holds each one of our tears in His bottle, I wonder how big that bottle is????…..
Also I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plummet; the hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place. Your covenant with death will be annulled and your agreement with Sheol will not stand; when the overflowing scourge passes through, then you will be trampled down with it. As often as it goes out it will take you; for morning by morning it will pass over, and by day and by night; it will be a terror just to understand the report, ( Isaiah 28:17-19).
Every work will be rewarded for all that walk the earth…. It is a great hope that we have to live for and keep focused on the Lord and His way.
If Jesus Christ came into our homes today…. Would we have to change anything as He comes through our door? ( Nothing is hidden from His sight!) I do not think the Lord will care if our house is spotless as much as our hearts—- His home. Would we stop all for Him and cherish the place to sit at His feet to hear what He has to say to us? Would our hearts leap for Him or betray us on what we had to change grudgingly because we know we need to hear Him, but our hearts are somewhere else? What do we hold precious in this life? Is it the stuff in the outside world or is it the Christ that is unseen in you and me, but very much in our midst? I wonder if our treatment of others would be any different if we really believed that Christ is in each of His followers?
He maybe knocking at the doors of the unbelievers, but according to the believers of Christ, He is in our homes now…. Do we live with His presence first? Are we excited about the new place in our God that we have….. Do we want to learn more than anything what that is for us? Are we pulling in faith for Him to tell and make it plain to us?
What we hold precious we will keep with all tenacity and what we desire we will go after like a thirsty person to water. Let us be found in Him at His day.
Give ear and hear My voice, listen and hear my speech. Does the plowman keep plowing all day to sow? Does he keep turning his soil and breaking the clods? When he as leveled its surface, does he not sow the black cummin and scatter the cummin, plant the wheat in rows, the barley in the appointed place, and the spell in its place?
For He instructs him in right judgment, His God teaches him, for the black cummin is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cartwheel rolled over the cummin; but the black cummin is beaten out with a stick. And the cummin with a rod. Bread flour must be ground; therefore he does not thresh it forever, break it with his cartwheel, or crush it with his horsemen. This also comes from the Lord of hosts, Who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance, ( Isaiah 28:23-29).
I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected. Then the Lord answered me and said: write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him, but the just shall live by faith, ( Habakkuk 2:1-4)
Selah!
