“I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath (has) clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with robes of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and a bride adorneth herself with jewels.

For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in to spring forth, so the LORD will cause righteousness to spring forth before all nations.” Isaiah 61:10,11 

Last post we talked about natural springtime and the word of God and how spiritually the awakening of our souls is springtime for us.

A time of renewing, a time of refreshing, and new beginnings.

This passage compares the beauty that God gives us in the form of salvation and righteousness to the beautiful clothing and accessories worn by a husband and wife for their wedding ceremony.

That is some serious beauty and that is what he wants to give us spiritually.

We discussed all the snares and tricks the enemy uses to try to keep us from believing and trusting in God’s word, having patience and allowing it time to take root and blossom out hearts and souls.

We started with the passage instructing us to think on beautiful, things, holy things, good, pure, and perfect things.

Thoughts of happiness, joy, happy memories, the goodness of God, any thought that brings peace and happiness to your mind.

It works like flipping one switch to another.

With my particular calling, I have to be really careful with this myself because I am a messenger.

On one hand I have the job of feeding lambs with love of God to stay alert for dangers headed toward those lambs, warning them of things to watch for so they cannot be snared or led astray.

On the other hand, cite coming judgments against the wicked. Judgments that are in no way relevant to the lambs because they are not under those judgments.

It’s kinda like when you have a child and it’s headed for danger and you shout to prevent it from proceeding, but sometimes that startles the child, you then have to explain that you are not shouting at them, you are shouting at then danger.

This world is just wicked, and we are bombarded day and night with news, images, social media. All with such negative and grotesque, images, doctrines, hate, vulgarity, and stories that disturb us.,

Often the less we know the better off we really are, as the saying goes.

Once we are exposed, it troubles our minds which then troubles our hearts, it makes us lose hope, become discouraged, and steals the peace that God wants us to have.

Anything can become a strong hold, thoughts and fears that are so deeply rooted that they become as weeds in a garden, then try to spread and take over everything in their path and they must be pulled up by the root, so they never grow back.

The things that torment us are often simply thoughts and ideas that have crept in from outside sources and once we recognize them and replace them with the good things it loses all power.

2 Corinthians 10:4,5: ” (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds)

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” 

We have a mighty weapon, the word of God and using it we can root up every strong hold and destroy every thought that the enemy has tried to hold us captive by, these are the imaginations, often fear and worry about the future or things that have no bearing on today.

We use God’s word and compare every thought and scenario to what his word said concerning that.

Think of it this way, when dealing with fear of future abandonment you would remember that Jesus said that he would never leave us and will be with us until the end of the world.

Use his word to counteract the voice of doubt. For whatever trouble you, there is a scripture to alleviate that trouble.

As the scripture reminded us that we are in spiritual warfare.

Then beautiful things start to bloom in your mind, your spirit, and just like those beautiful flowers, it starts to show on the outside as it blooms, and that beauty spreads all around.

Isaiah 35:1:” The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for then, and the desert shall rejoice and bloom as the rose.” 

The wilderness is those hard times in life, when we feel alone and discouraged and unable to find our way.

The solitary places are the place of loneliness, grief, and feelings of isolation, and feeling that no one understands what we are going through.

But God makes even those places work for our good and at the end of it all, our spirits, minds, and hearts will bloom as a rose.

And not just any rose but a rose that has the ability to bloom in a parched desert.

Something beautiful born from something that had appeared lifeless, barren, and dead.

That is what God desires and that is what happens when his love is allowed to bloom in us.

Blessing & Peace to you for a wonderful day!

NBJ 2024/ Rev. N Brown Johnson