“8 Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, does not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it?
9 And when she has found it, she calls her friends and her neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost.
10 Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Luke 15:8-10
Sadly, there are many Believers who refuse to rejoice with the Lord over that which was lost being found because while that piece of silver was lost it got a little dirty…a little tarnished and warped. Nevermind the joy of it being found and it’s position now being where it should, the self righteous and religious refuse to rejoice until it has been spit shined and whipped back into shape.
The rejection of the tarnished silver piece by the religious does not cause the tarnish to go away. Only the one who possesses the lost piece can cleanse the dross and remove the waste. Only He can put it through the fire that cleanses, not the mourners who have deemed as still unclean.
The Blood of Christ Jesus is for whosoever will believe, no matter our condition in life. To doubt the power of His Saving Grace to utterly expel that which is not of Him, is to miserably fail at understanding the condition of our own selves when we were cleansed by His Blood. Jesus Christ cleanses us because He loves us, He does not love us because we are cleansed when He found us.
At Salvation our position in Christ is justified. We are placed into the atoning Death of Jesus, baptized into His Death (Romans 6:3-5) where the penalty of sin was paid and the power of sin broken.
However, at Salvation, our condition is not yet perfected. We are Born Again, a new creature in Christ Jesus, and the change begins on the inside. This is the circumcision of the heart made without hands as the believing sinner looks unto Jesus as the Source and His Cross as the means for their Salvation and Saint CONTINUES looking unto Jesus as the Source and His Cross the means for their Sanctification. This is the ministry of the Holy Spirit made possible by the Cross of Christ. Fighting that good fight of faith in Jesus Christ and Him crucified, the only fight the Believer is commissioned to fight, gives the Holy Spirit latitude to superintend the work of God in our hearts and produce fruit unto Him. No questionnaires needed. No special classes needed. Simple faith in the Cross of Christ to mold us into the person God created us to be…the one made after HIS image and for HIS purpose, not our own.
When that tarnished piece of silver is found, every Born Again Believer needs to be rejoicing with the Lord; rejoicing that His lost child has come home; rejoicing that the one in ninety nine has been found and not sitting under the gourd as Jonah pouting that the Lord has blessed them for their repentance.
“37 Then said he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; 38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.” Matthew 9:37-38
I’ve got news for all of those who refuse to rejoice with the Lord when the sinner come to repentance; those who want to apply their religious rules and regulations to the children who are wanting to come to Him in Truth and in spirit, the harvest is great and the Lord is raising up a standard; He is raising up a people who are coming declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified to a lost world and a dying church. There will be many who remain on the fence. The older brothers who will mourn their returning to their first love, Jesus Christ and resent the blessings He pours out over them as they too begin to walk in the Grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ and Him crucified for daily living for God. Those who are now stuck in the miry clay of religion will be snatched from satan’s grip and placed on higher ground as the Holy Spirit draws them to holiness and righteousness because the Cross of Christ is being lifted up as THE STANDARD…the plumbline by which all other gospels are laid waste.
There is a move of God on the horizon. There is a cloud the size of a man’s hand. I hear the bones rattling. Get ready church… get ready.
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up:” John 3:14
-Donna Clark Warren
Living in The Spirit 