Greetings again my Brethren. This month we will begin to look at divine cleansing and how it relates to Isaiah’s and our call to ministry. Make no mistake my friend God will not use someone He has not cleansed. Not someone who has cleansed themselves, we cannot cleanse ourselves, God must be the one who cleanse us. He is the one that does the calling so He is the one who knows how and to what extent we must be cleansed. Do we have to be purified and cleansed to the last degree? Yes, but God does the cleansing. God knows our frame, God knows our thoughts and heart condition, and He is patience and faithful to work on us as we hold the dire in us to be worked on. The second we lose the desire to allow God to work on us and cleanse us that very second we stop in our progress towards His call. It is like having a desire to know all truth. Knowing all truth is not as important as having a desire to know all truth. Or loving everyone is not as important as having a desire to love everyone. We can never know all truth and love everyone, but if we have a desire to know and love then it is possible for us to grow in areas of loving people and knowing all truths. And for this happen we must be cleansed. In Isaiah we read how God cleansed Brother Isaiah, “Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. 6 Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from offthealtar: 7 And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.” (Isaiah 6:5-7) Let us look at two areas in this divine cleansing. The first is a revelation of self. In verse five we read where Isaiah saw his heart condition, “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. Isaiah could have this revelation of self because He saw the LORD high and lifted up. Any time we really see the LORD it automatically reflects as a mirror our lack and worthlessness. Our true nature is exposed for what it is as compared to God’s nature and character requiring us to be changed into the glory we can behold. Not all of God’s glory, but into only the glory of God we can hold in good conscious and in right mind. See God will devastate us if not we love ourselves too much. Unless we have such a revelation we will never be useful to God. Remember only the broken are useful to God. The second area in this cleansing process in our call is a sense of unworthiness. What do we value? My friend we will not see the King and His glory if we see value in us. Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.: (Matthew 5:3) Now Jesus did not say, “Blessed are the rich in spirit” oh no he said “poor in spirit.” The words “poor in spirit” is translated spiritually bankrupt. Those that see no value in themselves. Why are they blessed? Because they see no value in themselves and they can see the value in the LORD and the benefits of serving Him instead of themselves. What a refreshing breath of air to meet someone who see no value in themselves. The church is full of self promoters, arrogance. power seekers, ambitious, relationship built on money, influence, and manipulation. I look back over the years and see many of my “pastor friends” especially from Africa who allowed me to come and minister in their church or churches (now their people call them Bishop or Prophet) so that they could establish a relationship where money could flow one way. Instead of a relationships built on the divine principles of God whereby each gives and receives what God has given them (a real divine transfer), rather a relationship of a taker and when done taking the usefulness of the relationship is over unless I would go out of my way and do something the taker needs or wants. I have seen this play out again and again especially in Africa. Sadly the taker thinks they are entitled to what they can get, they see value in themselves and the kingdom they are building on earth for themselves and maybe God so they go after money and influence at all cost, even the cost of seeing themselves unworthy before God. My friend the more we allow God to cleanse us the more useful we will be to God.
Next month we will continue to look at the two other qualifications: the need of cleansing and a cleansed state. Please take a good study and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to your heart. And listen closely my friend do you hear Him call now?
