Put on the New Turban 2

^{Malachi 4:1-2}

¹ “For behold, the day is coming,
 Burning like an oven,
And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble.
And the day which is coming shall burn them up,”
Says the Lord of hosts,
“That will leave them neither root nor branch.
² But to you who fear My name
The Sun of Righteousness shall arise
With healing in His wings;
And you shall go out
 And grow fat like stall-fed calves. AMP

God has a dispensation of time and seasons for our development as He prepares us for our destined place in which we will fulfill His plan and purpose for our lives. In these seasons, He will allow us to go through circumstances designed to burn the wicked things out of us that have been imbedded in us by the world and its system. Like a candle wick that is twisted, braided, or knitted together so it can absorb the liquefied wax and carry it to the flame, so we have absorbed the ways of the world as mentioned in other posts by our cultures, traditions, and by people that have influenced our thinking, beliefs, and our behavior.

The Lord helps us come out of the worldly ways that have been twisted in our conscious and subconscious minds and have led us to think and believe in ways that are contrary to His will and the ways of His kingdom. These cannot be used where He is taking us to influence others as citizens of heaven. So in essence, the circumstances He allows us to go through are designed to untwist us from those ways of thinking, believing, and behaving as God burns our wicked (twisted) ways with His fire and washes us with His word to renew our minds to His will and to His ways. Our job is to continually go to Him to be washed and allow His fire to burn what cannot remain in us.

We don’t need to run from these trials designed to help us see Him as the only God there is and that make us more and more into His image and likeness. This way, we can love Him and love others as we learn to love ourselves because we have learned to also receive His love for us. There are two things that God judges and develops in us through these trials: our sole worship of Him and our love for others as we love ourselves. We get tested at every level for these two areas of our walk with God.

With this plumb line God measures where we are on the way to where we are going. He checks to see which other gods (idols) we have raised for ourselves and how we treat others in our minds, with our mouths, and with our actions. God is not mocked, whatsoever we sow we reap (Galatians 6:7), therefore,  it is important to yield ourselves to endure these trials and not pretend that because we love God and we know He loves us, we can make a mockery of His amazing grace for us to do the things He has called us to do.

Malachi 3:2-4 states, ² But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; ³ He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and He will purify the priests, the sons of Levi, and refine them like gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord offerings in righteousness. ⁴ Then will the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in ancient years. AMP

The scripture talks about the priests, the sons of Levi being the ones that would need to endure these trials in which the Lord burns the dross and the dirt that has kept them in heart-hardness, sin, and bondage. We are all called to be priests of the Lord. God ordained that since the time of the Israelites' exodus  from Egypt. Exodus 19:5-6 explains, ⁵ Now therefore, if you will obey My voice in truth and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own peculiar possession and treasure from among and above all peoples; for all the earth is Mine. ⁶ And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation [consecrated, set apart to the worship of God]. These are the words you shall speak to the Israelites. AMP

But the truth is that we cannot be set free without the help of the Son of Righteousness (Jesus) who comes to help us enjoy life in abundance as He heals us and restores us from the inside out. Also, as the Scripture reveals, because we are called to be holy and consecrated for the worship of the Lord, He removes the things in us that keep us from walking in holiness, so we can fulfill our priesthood of being set apart to walk in our status as peculiar possessions and treasures of the Lord among the people, and as citizens of heaven. Thus, it is important to remain steadfast, immovable, and enduring in these trials that will turn us into refined gold for the glory of the Lord (1 Corinthians 15:58). To Him alone be all the glory.

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Put on the New Turban 1

Zechariah 3:3-5

Joshua, standing before the angel, was dressed in dirty clothes. The angel spoke to his attendants, "Get him out of those filthy clothes," and then said to Joshua, "Look, I've stripped you of your sin and dressed you up in clean clothes.  "I spoke up and said, "How about a clean new turban for his head also?" And they did it—put a clean new turban on his head. Then they finished dressing him, with God's Angel looking on. The Message

When we confess that Jesus is our Lord and Savior and invite Him to take charge of every area of our lives, we have become new in our spiritual selves. We are “born again.” This second time we are born of the Spirit. The first time we were born of water as we came out of our mother’s womb (John 3:5), but our minds, our human spirits, our emotions, and our wills need to be renewed to the truth of the Word of God.

Just like Joshua the high priest was once filthy with sin as stated in the above passage, so are we when we enter the Kingdom of God. We are filthy with sinful behavior, mindsets, cultural and generational sin, the worship of other gods (idols), and traditions that caused us to adapt to the things of this world which do not glorify God. It takes being led by the Spirit of truth to guide us through the Word of God that cleanses us from the filth that has kept us in bondage to decay.

The Random House Dictionary defines decay in this way among others:  to decline in excellence, prosperity, health, etc.; deteriorate. These are good words to describe what happens to a life that is not lived under the direction of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ who died on the Cross for our sins and shed His blood, so we could be made righteous (standing in the right place with Him) when we believe in Him and what He did for us. His sacrifice gave us a great example of the sacrifice we are called to make so others can experience the abundant life Jesus died to give them.

But before we can accept the challenge of making a sacrifice for others, we need to renew our minds to the word of God that helps us walk in peace, prosperity and security (Jeremiah 33:6, 9 AMP). Ezekiel 36:25-27 says, “²⁵ Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness; and from all your idols will I cleanse you. ²⁶ A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷ And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall heed My ordinances and do them.

By reading God's word continually, worship and adore Him by singing songs that lift His name higher than any other name, and by choosing to live a life that pleases Him as we obey His command and statues for us, others can be drawn to Him through our example. This way we are yielding to God to cleanse us from everything that caused decay in our lives. Jesus died on the Cross to give us life in abundance, to the full, till it overflows (John 10:10 AMP). There is no decay when He reigns in our lives, but prosperity and health to our souls (3 John 1:2). This then reflects on the outside as well.

The Word of God causes us to renew our minds to the truth of what Jesus died to give us. Thus, when we allow the Lord to put the “turban of renewal” on our heads, we can learn to walk out of bondage and decay into an abundant life. As we learn to endure the process of having the old mindsets and beliefs replaced by the truth of God’s word, we can rest assured that the life Jesus died to give us will become more evident and His light will shine brighter each time in and through us like a cracked vessel that has yielded to be broken off the bad and ugly ways of this world that is influenced by the enemy of life, the devil, who came to steal, kill, and destroy.

 ^{Romans 12: 2 explains,}  Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you] AMP.

Seeking after the wisdom of God’s word for our lives and the lives of those around us just as we would search for treasure that is hidden in darkness (Isaiah 45:3), will cause us to continually be cleansed from those things and situations that we could not be free from on our own. This happens at every level of the process and His grace and mercy make it possible for us to walk in such freedom when we put Him first and yield to be led in the path of righteousness for His name’s sake (Psalm 23:3). This will certainly make God attractive in the sight of those who are hungry for such freedom as well. Then we can tell them what God has done for us because what we have in Him becomes enticing and alluring and draws them to Him as well. To Him alone be all the glory.

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