As I took a matter before The LORD, I heard in my spirit, “Until your obedience is complete!” (I knew this was a reference from 2 Corinthians 10:6)

An invitation to walk with me through a process

I had just gone through a seemly small mishap that had inconvenienced someone whom I hold in high regard.

My action was hurried, and careless, and brought about a breech in protocol. Even though I was truly sorry, and had asked forgiveness, a lingering “uncomfortableness” was still present in my soul.

Upon taking this to The LORD for deeper inspection, The LORD let me know that this was actually something that I needed to look at a little closer; there was a “way of being” that needed to be purified inside of me.

Early in the morning before worship, I brought my heart fully to The LORD, looked up in my “inner vision screen”, as is my custom, and there before me was The LORD Jesus speaking to my heart- thoughts, “It is much better that I AM before you My Child — and not your sin!”

Oh! and with this thought I was brought to Psalm 51 where in the process of repentance and coming absolutely clean before The LORD, David says in verse 3,

“My sin is ever before me”… and he cries out to The LORD.

Now this matter of mine was not a huge transgression, nor willful sin, however the “apparent size” of the matter is of little consequence in “legal terms” in the spiritual realm.

Sin is sin and allows a “tag or hold” of the enemy, while separating us from our communion with God.

This matter needed to be dealt with in The LORD’s way and according to His terms.

Psalm 51 is an important scaffolding for the process of repentance before The LORD . I encourage you to meditate upon it and then form it in a prayer before The LORD.

A Prayer of Repentance

“Have mercy upon me, O God,
According to Your lovingkindness;
According to the multitude of Your tender mercies,
Blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin.
For I acknowledge my transgressions,
And my sin is always before me.
Against You, You only, have I sinned,
And done this evil in Your sight—
That You may be found just when You speak,
And blameless when You judge.…

Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts,
And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.” Psalm 51:1-4, 6 (NKJV)

Full and Complete Repentance before The LORD

In these situations where we recognize that there has been a trespass against another, we have a choice as to how we will proceed in our own heart before The LORD, and also how we will regard a matter with the other person.

How we handle a matter is indicative of our true alignment to The LORD’s heart.

The LORD says, “With every temptation comes a heavenly provision for you, but you must choose rightly!” (See 1 Corinthians 10:13)

This process of repentance and asking forgiveness is not a comfortable process in the least. It is painful to take our “flesh nature” to the Cross of Christ and allow it to be crucified.

Self-justification immediately wants to raise its head and argue the righteous process down. In order for Christ to reign fully and completely in me …. the flesh MUST die.

Each time the Holy Spirit points to an error or wrong way of being in us, we have an opportunity to choose righteousness, or mixture.

To turn and respond in loving humility, and honor to The LORD, responding without covering, hiding or justifying the wrong brings us back into restoration.

However in the covering of the wrong we bring in a veil over our soul that separates us from closeness with The LORD, and allows the enemy access to our soul.

We long to be close to The LORD … to hear His heart … and so He wants to give us this place…

As Father tells us in Luke 12:32b — “It is His good pleasure to give us the Kingdom”…

But we require an awareness and commitment to the serious call to righteousness in every area of our lives, and an understanding of what blocks communion with our LORD.

As Isaiah 59:2 tells us it is sin that separates us from a Holy God.

We must agree with God and call sin, “sin”, and not allow a single seed of willful or negligent error to be justified.

Each one of us are being summoned into The LORD’s higher purposes for our lives…

Are we willing to be refined for these purposes in Him, and come entirely under the gaze of The LORD?

How will we yield these hidden areas?

These are questions that we must seriously grapple with in integrity. The LORD knows all…The LORD sees all…

Rather, let our lives lovingly express truth [in all things, speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly].

Enfolded in love, let us grow up in every way and in all things into Him Who is the Head, [even] Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One). (Ephesians 4:15 AMPC)

Draw near to The LORD in humility

The scripture gives us examples of servants in process, flaws and all, learning to respond to The LORD, making choices of integrity, allowing Him to form their character in righteousness.

Even though David struggled through such a grievous sin, he truly recognized the condition of his soul and came in full repentance to The LORD without any self-justification.

Father forgave David and restored him. In Psalm 17 and later in Psalm 32 David gives us another blueprint for going before The LORD.

He submits his inner thinking processes to Father in Psalm 17:3, “You have tested me in the night seasons…”

Daniel was just a young teen when his world fell apart and he was taken captive to an enemy land with only a handful of his friends.

Still through it all he cultivated a strong character in The LORD and was consistently found as a faithful and trustworthy servant; he was neither negligent nor corrupt… (see Daniel 6:4)

Even though you may find yourself “in the wrong”, come… as a much loved-child of the most High God, willing to be fully repentant.

Open your heart and thoughts to The LORD. He will receive you and cleanse you fully from your sin.

He will free you, and clothe you in His very own righteousness, and then give you eye-salve to truly “see”.

Don’t be afraid of making the necessary repair. “Swallow your pride”, asking The LORD to remove any hold of pride, and falsehood.

Also in the process, let Him remove every thought of shame and condemnation.

Allow His Blood to cleanse you, and His righteousness cover your nakedness.

“I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.” Revelation 3:18 NKJV.

Ask: “Holy Spirit, will you come now with your loving and truthful gaze?

Place your finger on any area of sin that separates me from the full Light and Love of Christ.”

As this process of yielding to the inner cleansing, and conforming to righteousness becomes a consistent pattern in your life, you will find the nature of Christ forming steadily within you.

More and more you will see and experience the realities of The Kingdom and His manifest presence evident in your life.

For His Word in Matthew 5:9 says, “the pure in heart will see God… (also “sense and feel” the evidence of His presence.)

The Word is our map and Holy Spirit our guide.

The WAY is clearly marked — but we must choose how we will daily live. It is incumbent upon each one of us to become intimately familiar with the Word and sensitive to the leading of The Holy Spirit.

Then at each turn in life we will be able to respond in humility and truth, yielding fully to the Way of Christ.

As we yield to the process of refining … again and again …

it is then that we will be truly “ready vessels” unto the King …

Exchange your “garments of sin” for “His Robes of Righteousness”

An invitation to Pray:

Here I invite you to come to Father first, so that He may judge the sin and error, then stand in/ with The LORD Jesus, and finally submit to The Holy Spirit for His counsel, in gratitude, listening for His continued guidance, and leading.

Father, I humbly submit to the full process of repentance, asking for, and receiving your forgiveness, and your cleansing as I come in complete humility and openness before you submitting every way of my heart and thoughts to your scrutiny…

Look upon the Blood of Lamb Father. Place me in that Blood, in Jesus, and judge the sin and separate it out from me now as I come in full repentance before you.

Lord Jesus, Thank you that through your finished work on the Cross, and the perfect Blood that you shed for me, I am cleansed, and freed from the grip of this sin.

Now I ask that You would cleanse my “way”…. so that my ways would be fully conformed to Your ways, as I renew my mind in your Word.

Holy Spirit, have full reign to place Your searchlight to my heart and thoughts daily.

Point out any way in me that is contrary to the Kingdom of Light and lead me in the Eternal Way of Christ (see Psalm 139:23-24)

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties, and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:23-24.

Show me clearly where I have allowed the enemy to have a hold on my soul, by the agreements that I have made with negative types of patterns of thought, and behaviors:

Show me things past or current: judgments against others, resentment, anger, self-pity, bitterness, self-justification of wrong, idle words, careless ways, willfulness.. pride, self-righteousness and the like… (see Galatians 5:19-21 and Ephesians 4:16-32)

Purify me wholly and completely so that I am a vessel ready for your purposes through me.

Further in the process: Taking it to Father to judge the iniquitous pattern

This process can be very quick, and entirely freeing. We just need to press in until our soul and spirit feel the freedom and release of The LORD!

What happens though, if condemnation still seems present? Let me share a little more of my own inner workings with The LORD in this instance:

On day two, after beginning to write out the process, and still feeling voices of condemnation taunting me, I felt Holy Spirit clearly lead my spirit to take this matter directly to Father God.

Under His gaze all at once I realized that there was an iniquitous root. There was a pattern that had come down through my generations that actually held a grip on me, so that I had a bent towards a particular “way of being”.

I took it immediately to Father (refer to the prayer above) as I was getting ready to take Communion, and asked Father to judge this “iniquitous root”.

As I did this, I asked Father to see me in the covering of the Lamb, the pure, sinless Body of The LORD Jesus, exchanged for mine, His Blood purifying both my personal sin and error of ways, as well the iniquitous root that allowed this “bent” to operate.

In the spirit, I stood then humbly grateful and joyous before Jesus… seeing Him hand me garments, His righteousness garments, as my covering.

I then turned more inward to Holy Spirit and began a flow of inner dialogue and listening. My deepest prayer… to keep my heart ever sensitive to His gentle promptings and leadings.

Immediately I experienced FULL freedom. All the voices of condemnation stopped.

This is what is involved in what 2 Corinthians 10:4-6 refers to as “picking up our Heavenly weapons” and “completing our obedience” process in The LORD.

Almost simultaneously The LORD Jesus gave me insight for another case that had stumped me.

Why Lord, was this other particular fellow so bound in foolish lies?

I saw in a flash back vision in his generational line to “David Copperfield”^* type of days, where there were ancestors who were swindlers and cheats on the streets of what looked like dirty back streets of London.

Again, “iniquitous roots” from generations past held a legal grip on this individual’s life, and had created a bent in him towards certain sin patterns that were doubly entrapping him.

^*David Copperfield: character in the Charles Dickens novel (18th century England)

I’ll enclose an important short teaching clip from Ken Fish, of Orbis Ministries that will provide some important instruction for this, distinguishing between sin, transgression, and iniquity

Mechanics of the Spirit World: Sin, Transgression, Iniquity (Psalm 32) @23m

Ken Fish: Mechanics of the Spirit World – Sin, Transgression & Iniquity (Psalm 32:1-2)

“Until your obedience is complete”…

Further explanation:

From the passage in 2 Corinthians 10: 4-6 (emphasis in vs 6 )

Our battle against the enemy is essentially a “legal battle”, and so this spiritual concept is a very important to understand rightly.

For “this complete obedience” legally frees us from the tethers and chains of the enemy, providing us with both present and future authority to overcome the enemy for ourselves and on behalf of others.

In the Greek the words “we, ready, and punish” are not there.

“What it says in the Greek, in context, is “and will have vindication for every act of disobedience once your obedience is complete”

So by taking your thoughts captive and conforming to the thought processes of Christ you will have legal justification over your past disobedience.”

See also: “In 2 Corinthians 10:6, what does Paul mean by the phrase “when your obedience is fulfilled”?” at Biblical Hermeneutics.

*Refer to biblehub.com for further topical and word study of Greek and Hebrew

Scripture:

“Because you say, I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked — I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” ’ ” Revelation 3:17-22 NKJV.

 

~ Shelley M Ed

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Shelley M Ed/ LifeSetMinistries: Ordained Minister CMA/ working with Leaders and Ministry Houses: US/CAN/INT. Leadership development, counselling, and oversight.
“Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom…. Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning” Luke 12:32;35.

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