Conclusion

2 days ago
5 min read

In conclusion of this week’s receiving, let us return to the question which was asked at the end of yesterday’s offering. What is the condition of our hands and heart? This question was occasioned from this picture And all the women whose hearts stirred with wisdom spun yarn of goats’ hair. Exodus 35: 26. The spinning of women who made garments, came from hearts that were Spirit-fed and hands which were Spirit-led.

You were then led to consider your role in regard to your clothing and to consider your heavenly Father’s role in regard to your clothing. God has promised us His righteousness and justness. He is our Redeemer, our God in flesh, Messiah, Jesus, who has already done all the skilled, specialised work needed. He has victoriously and unequivocally, completely satisfied us. All we have to do is accept our Lord’s promise of righteousness and justness, as faith allows us to hear Him, even in this word.

While I was in the time of receiving these promises from our Lord, about the futility and frankly speaking, uselessness of worrying about clothing, I was looking at a documentary of very poor people, living way up in the mountains in some extremely remote places. While viewing the plights of some desperately impoverished people, there were many views of the mountains and forested areas. Those were the places where they went to harvest wild fruit, vegetables, edible herbs and plants and even building materials, like bamboo and other kinds of wood for constructions. I told you that, to say that whoever was taking the videos, was never weary in showing the luscious vegetation.

I marvelled even more, and was made to focus on the wild flowers and how they not just grew, but how their beauty stood out in God’s earth garden. The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. This text, So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, which was with us all week, suddenly became wider and bigger, taller and deeper, taking on fuller spiritual wings and causing me to receive even more of our Lord’s promises and what He can do and is doing for all who will simply take Him at His word. Share and marvel with me at what is a fact about those field blooms.

Though many of you may have seen such scenes and perhaps live in places where this is visible, will you receive what is known in your heart, mind, soul and strength? They have been intentionally presented in this way to have us stop, consider and receive.

None of those field lilies commanded special, unique space. They grew in the same place as other plants. They were among thorns, briars, grasses and other plants, all jostling for room in the one earth given to all by their heavenly Father. Yet not one of them ever had to toil a day for itself, to make space to grow. They grew and bloomed, all with untouched and unmatched splendour.

None of the field lilies complained of being stopped or hindered from being beautifully clothed, by vines that ran across them, ugly weeds at their right and left or even taller trees that tried to hide them. They grew and blossomed profusely, without any of their beauty being compromised in any way by their surroundings.

None of the field lilies compared itself to another. This is what I mean. There were views which showed fruit trees with lovely, healthy-looking fruit, with attractively inviting colours. Nevertheless, when the clusters of lilies were shown, although they were not edible, they were so stunningly marvellous and immaculately vibrant and impeccably dressed, one had to stare in awe of their beauty.

None of the field lilies counted itself as more fortunate or less fortunate than the other. This really was driven home in me, after being shown healthy clusters of lilies in different parts of the deep forest, then to be shown one lone lily all by itself, with vines all around it and over it. As I began to feel sad about that one lone lily, I heard this. Look at its dress. Is it not a lily? Is it not arrayed in splendour like all the other clusters? I saw how, not even choking vines could remove the God-given clothing of that lily.

We are God’s lilies, arrayed with clothes from His toiling and His spinning, to bloom wherever we have been planted. One sure lesson which has been indelibly etched on my mind and heart is that regardless of my surroundings and irrespective of what vines may come to crowd me, as long as our heavenly Father has me clothed and keeps me clothed in Him, I will show only His beauty, His splendour and His glory.

I ask you, is this not a Blood Promise? Has not Jesus’ toiling and spinning, His victorious and pleasing work on the Cross, clothed us in His righteousness? Ponder long, deep, wide and high. We, carnal, human beings, being dressed in holy apparel? Haven’t we, once made perfectly ugly and corrupt by sin’s toiling and spinning, now made beautiful by the spinning and toiling of our Saviour? Why then do we worry about clothing?

Consider the field lilies! Their Heavenly Father clothes them.

Consider Jesus the Lily! His Heavenly Father clothed Him.

Consider yourself, O lily of God! Your Heavenly Father clothes you.

You are clothed in righteousness, not by your toiling or spinning for Jesus, but by your taking the toiling and spinning of Jesus. Trust this Blood Promise of His.

So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, and yet I say to you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Matthew 6: 28 – 29. Then the promise is as clear as daylight. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Matthew 6: 30.

The promise is present, God’s Word is His bond. Jesus is our undeniable clothing. May all that we do and offer our Lord, be in accordance with His already given works.