Our pastor told a story years ago that has been on my mind lately:
There was a young lady complaining to her Godly grandmother about how she didn’t feel like she was getting anything out of reading her Bible. Her grandma had been encouraging the young lady to develop a daily habit of reading the Word. The young lady told her grandma that she even didn’t understand most of what she was reading and the stuff she did understand were just the same old Bible stories that she had heard all of her life. Her grandma didn’t answer her immediately. A few moments passed and it seemed that the grandma must not have been listening to the young woman’s plight because out of the blue, the grandma said, “Dear, would you please dump out that dead plant in that basket right there and take that basket down to the creek and bring me back some water?
The young lady dearly adored her grandma and wanted to please her. So she dumped out the dead plant with its dirt and started down to the creek bank with the dirty basket. As soon as she dipped the basket down into the water and drew back up a full basket, immediately, all the water begin to pour out the basket’s cracks. By the time she returned back to the porch, almost all the water had leaked out. She said, “Grandma, I did what you asked but this is a basket. All the water leaked out the holes. The grandma, undeterred, once again, asked her to do it once more and again, the same results. The granddaughter was growing weary of this meaningless task. Yet, the grandma requested that she do it one last time. Just because she loved her grandma, the young lady complied once more, all the way thinking her grandma was losing her mind to ask her to keep doing such an useless chore. As she presented the empty but soaked basket once again to her grandma, her grandma begin to explain. “You see, dear, you thought me having you bring back baskets of water was useless because the water kept leaking out, but it wasn’t useless. Look at the inside of this basket now! It was dirty and full of soil. Now, it is clean. That is how it often is with God’s Word. Bible Reading may seem useless to our carnal flesh, like we aren’t getting anything out of it. We may not seem to fully understand what we even reading at times, yet, what we often overlook is that His Word is like that water that will cleanse out the dirt and impurities in our lives. We may be like that basket and a lot of the water seems to “leak out” (or we don’t seem to retain much to the naked eye) but it is doing exactly what God intended for it to do—something down deep inside our souls!! Never forget, dear, God’s Word is the BEST cleansing agent out there!! Even when you don’t feel like it is doing much, it is making you clean!!
That story has stuck with me for years, but more recently, as we have been trying so hard to feed the spirit and to crucify this flesh, I have come to find this story to be oh so true in my own home. As I have mentioned in previous posts, the Lord has been working on our home so much in the last several months. We have started to try to feed the Spirit more by creating an atmosphere for the Lord to dwell.
We weren’t doing anything wrong or bad before, but we had simply allowed our focus to drift off the Lord being our sole priority. We had become entangled with just the cares of life along with just everyday distractions. We still were doing our duty— We read, we prayed, we were faithful to church, we tithed—we did all those things yet, there was something missing!!
Gradually, the Lord began to deal with my heart about what I was feeding— ( I wrote a post about that if you are interested in reading that)
I realized I was catering to my flesh and its wants. I wanted to have liberty again in the Spirit and I wanted to feel the Lord’s presence. I began to do some hard evaluation of my own life and how I was spending my time. I realized I was only giving God just a tiny part of me. I had become so caught up with just “stuff”… Nothing sin or inherently wrong… yet, it was robbing me of my time, my energy, and my spirituality, my joy, my peace, and so on…
Once I realized the problem lay squarely in my lap, I began to repent of my laziness and my lackadaisical approach in my spiritual life. I had been feeding the flesh and catering to carnality, all the while, wondering why my spirit felt so dry and starved! 🤦🏼♀️
I began to dig deep into the Word. I began to study the Word. I played the audio Bible every day with my kids during devotions or sometimes while I was just cooking or cleaning. I began to listen to old preaching tapes and CDs on a daily basis or I tuned in to listen many other holiness churches’ services or special meetings through Mixlr. If I wasn’t doing that, I was listening to holiness singing (yes, I found out there is a drastic difference in the atmosphere between Holiness music and “so called” regular gospel music found on the radio and such —Holiness music is anointed, backed by the singers’ own personal, spiritual, Pentecostal experiences, and it is usually full of Gospel truths! While a lot of newer, secular-gospel music/songs simply are written about what we want to hear in our flesh. More often than not, the focus of these newer style of “gospel” songs isn’t on Jesus at all or even some foundational truth of the Word but rather, the focus is solely on us or our struggles. )
I began to just immerse myself in the cleansing “water” of the Word constantly as I went about my daily tasks. As time went on, it began to saturate my old, hard, dried-out, carnal heart…
At first, I’m not gonna lie, it was a struggle. I had to make myself do it. The results were not immediate. I was like that granddaughter—I felt like all the water kept leaking out of my spiritual basket. I would dip down into the water and get a basketful, only to have it seep out before I even got back up. But I didn’t quit, even when I didn’t feel like it was working. I just kept persevering—only to find that the cleansing power of His Word was indeed at work in my life, even when I didn’t see it at the time.
I began to realize the only thing that matters in this life is what we are doing with Christ. We are Christians before we are anything else. So often, we (especially us ladies who have a zillion and one hats that we must wear each day!!) just add devotions (and working on our spiritual life) as yet another task on our never ending to-do list. It is not that we don’t desire to have a close relationship with the Lord! No! Of course not!! Most of us readily would agree that we would LOVE to have that intimate relationship with Him!
But often, we simply forget to make HIM priority in our lives. That means He HAS comes before our kids, our husbands, our homes, our work, our ministry, (or whatever hat you may be currently wearing). Don't allow the Devil to make feel guilty or bad about this! Putting a high priority on your own personal walk with God and blocking out some special time for just you and Jesus doesn’t make you a bad mom or wife! It is how God intended for it to be!! I understand with babies and smaller kids this may be much more difficult and may require some creativity and flexibility, but let me assure you, it is so worth it!! You will be a better mom and a better wife if you can get in HIS presence!! Your kids will greatly benefit by growing up watching Mommy’s example of walking with the Lord!!
You will be surprised (just like that granddaughter in the illustration) at just how much audibly hearing God’s Word and listening to good Holiness preaching on a regular basis will cleanse your thinking from the filthiness of the flesh!! (Remember, This old carnal mind receiveth not the things of God for they are spiritually discerned)….By allowing God’s Word to saturate your mind and meditating on His Word and His precepts daily, God actually will change your perspective and your outlook on life. Gone will be the critical, discouraged and negative spirit—replaced by a positive, joyful, and faith-filled outlook! In a world filled with heartache, pain, strife and contention, We can allow God to use our everyday lives as testimonies of His Power and how He can change people’s lives! We can’t do by our own righteousness, though…. It must come through and by Him alone!! We must “put on” His righteousness!!
The Bible tells us in Isaiah 64:6—
But we are all as an unclean thing,
and all our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags;
We sometimes deceive our own selves into believing that our own righteousness or our own goodness is enough but the Word tells us that our righteousness (in ourselves alone) is just like filthy rags. We aren’t clean at all in God’s sight ! We must be cleansed by His Word!!
The world we live in today is plumb full of dirt—sin, unbelief, fear and evil. If we aren’t careful, every time we pick up a newspaper or read our news app on our phones, we are constantly bombarded with the evil and wickedness around us. Even in our everyday conversation with people, especially those who aren’t saved, negativity tries to rub off on us. The enemy also uses wrong or bad thoughts that will try to come into our minds as well. He will try to discourage us and make us feel unworthy or not good enough.
How do we purify and cleanse ourselves from the dirt we contact from the world?
Again— with the Word! God’s Word is the best cleansing agent.
Jesus said to His disciples, “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you,”—as seen in our opening scripture.
This is one of the reasons it’s so important that you are faithful to a good Holiness church, where the Word is consistently taught. Listening to the Word and apply it to your life as it is brought forth by the man of God will cleanse your soul. Even when you study the Word through your daily devotions, you’re being cleansed by God; when you pray, He is at work!
there’s cleansing taking place in your heart.
Give yourself wholly to be a student of the Word. Fall in love with it to where it becomes it becomes your lifeline!! Job was at that point in his life when he spake in Job 23:12— Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. That sounds like a man who realized his hope didn’t lay in his riches, his reputation, his family, or his own health but His only hope was in the relationship he possessed with God!! He knew that was the only true thing in life that really mattered!
The Apostle Paul admonished in Colossians 3:16: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”
The Word of God will remove unrighteousness from a person’s heart and will replace it with righteousness. It wipes out fear and replaces it with faith. It replaces a negative, critical spirit with a positive and joyful spirit.
While you may not see drastic results at first, I encourage you to actively try this! Immerse yourselves in the things of God and in the Word of God! Gradually, just like the creek water did to that dirty, soiled plant basket, the Word of God and the things of God will cleanse you from the inside out! Your thinking will change. Your perspective will change. Your outlook will change! Your heart will become more tender and receptive to the things of God!! Then one day, you will look back and be like “Wow! What great things the Lord has done in my life!”
Allow His spirit to refresh you and renew your spirit! He can made your dry desert of a prayer life flourish again!!
Isaiah 41:17-20 - When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. [18] I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. [19] I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together: [20] That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.
Are you tired of being dry? Are you tired of being empty? —Of just going through the motions? Are you thirsty for His presence, His anointing, and His touch in your life??
John 7:37-38….If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. [38] He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
May I present to you the solution to overcoming a spiritual drought?
•Surround yourself with God’s Word each day
—Read the Bible daily - no exceptions! It is imperative that we have a daily devotion to His Word! We must read His word to truly “know” Him!! The Bible is packed full of promises, commandments, good advice, encouragement, and many other “nuggets” of truth, but all those things are useless to us if we don’t ever pick up the Bible to read/discover them!
—Listen to the Audio Bible (there are many free audio KJV Bible apps) when you are cleaning your house, making dinner, getting ready etc.
Just audibly hearing the Word spoken has a profound effect on your heart if you are sincerely seeking the Lord!
*Study the Word. God honors people who will dig deep into His Word and study to understand and really “know” His Word!
Listen to good, Godly, Holiness preaching daily
There are tons of Holiness churches that have Mixlr and record their services so you can go back and listen to the messages
(Besides Mixlr, there are other ways to hear the Word of the Lord preached—holinesspreachingonline.org is a great resource, preaching tapes/CDs, some Holiness churches even have Youtube live streamed services or Facebook live services (if you use social media platforms) Just use whatever resources you have at your disposal to submerge yourself under the influence of Godly instruction and anointing )
Keep Holiness music playing to create a peaceful atmosphere….
Which brings me to the next point,
Nothing can take the place of personal devotion and the in person assembly of believers. Despite this pandemic, we desperately need each other!! We are stronger together! The enemy has tried to isolate us and separate us from the brethren because he knows his time is short…the Lord is about to come!! He is working like he has never worked before —trying to deceive the saints. It is much easier to pick off Christoan one by one. He likes to gets us alone and isolated from anyone who can help us. He will have us thinking the one that can help us is trying to hurt us. We must be wiser than that! We NEED each other! God knows what works best. He strongly encouraged the New Testament church to be “one body fitly joined together”—Let’s link arms and Stand together in this last day!!
Let the cleansing power of the Word do it’s work in your life today!!
From my heart to yours,
-Tiphanie❤️
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