Make The Exchange

Isa 61:3 3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.

I have worked as head dean at youth camps several years. It is one of those jobs that offers you insight into the world of  young people like no other.

You see a lot of different things. Some you want to forget!

One thing I will never forget is a young man that wore a black t-shirt and jeans. Not an uncommon thing, except that he wore them for four straight days! Yes. Four days. Almost all week. Think about it:

Softball.

Rain.

Sweat.

Church.

Four days.

By Thursday morning I had had enough of subtlety. (Hinting about showers.) I forbid him to leave the dorm without a shower and a change of clothes.

His mother probably thought that camp was the best place ever to send a kid. They even laundered and folded my sons clothes just like me.

You know what? That kid had a week’s worth of clothes that his mother had packed for him. He chose not to wear them. He also chose not to have friends. Not to have a cute little girl talking to him. He chose it that way.

2 Cor 3:17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty Ps 51:17 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. KJV

I am just going to tell you what I have felt all week long in the holy ghost. Its time for JWC to change her clothes!

 

We are stuck. And we stink. Before you get your feathers ruffled and your attitude pointed in the wrong direction let me clarify a few things.

We have become too professional at church. Music, worship, and even preaching has become liturgical and lethargic. We have allowed ourselves to settle into mediocrity.

I have come to challenge that attitude today. Its time to change!

It’s time to put on the garment of praise here!

The truest goal of our services must be for everyone to encounter the presence of God. For every soul to find the liberty that their soul craves and hungers for.

Worship is not an event. It’s not a period of the service. It is an “intangible” that is released when souls begin to proclaim the greatness of God and enter into his presence. It is a spiritual thing that goes much deeper than the veneer of music, songs and gestures.

God’s word informs us that he receives our worship because of its sincerity and the condition of our hearts.

He is not interested in four part harmony, or perfect pitch.

God is interested in people letting go of their desire to control the worship experience and their response to it, and let his presence meet and work in them in the way that only he can.

I read an interesting story a while back. An explorer in a remote area of Africa came upon an unusual scene. In a small clearing he found sticks of wood laid out as if for a fire, yet there was no evidence that anyone had ever actually stated a fire. Perplexed, he decided to try and find out who had laid out the wood so neatly.

After several hours of waiting, he was surprised to see a group of chimpanzees carrying more sticks into the clearing. They then took those sticks and laid them upon the pile in the pattern of a campfire.

The monkeys then sat down around the sticks just as men would sit at a campfire. It soon became obvious that the chimps were imitating the actions of men that they had observed before.

They had all of the necessary ingredients for a fire. They worked together and drug up wood.  They formed the pile to where the wood would burn evenly and thoroughly, but one thing was lacking. Fire.

If they had sat there and stared at those sticks for a week nothing would have burned. No fire.

2 Sam 6: 12 Now King David was told, “The LORD has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God.” So David went down and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing. 13 When those who were carrying the ark of the LORD had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. 14 David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might, 15 while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets.

Know what? If we aren’t careful we will do the same thing.

 

We can’t substitute anything for a work of the holy Ghost in us!

Church its time for us to get changed!

Where is our undignified worship? Where are the tears, our shouts, our heartfelt songs? Where are the runners? Where is the dancing, leaping and rejoicing?

What we need is some sweaty, wild, joy-filled worship to interrupt our air-conditioned, rehearsed world!

David had god in a box and he couldn’t contain himself. The ark is finally where it belongs!

Church! Its time to get rid of the spirit of heaviness! David robed himself in a linen ephod to better dance with. He took off his royal robes. They showed his importance. He wanted none of that. He just wanted God’s glory!

What are you wearing today? Your robes or something that you can worship God in!

 

Isaiah instructs us to exchange the spirit of heaviness for the garment of praise.

Some reasons that this is pertinent:

Spirit is speaking in regards to the breath being exhaled. In essence, the life flow of the individual. Your breath is your life signature.

Heaviness is derived from the following Hebrew words-

OT:3544 keheh (kay-heh’); from OT:3543; feeble, obscure:

KJV – somewhat dark, darkish, wax dim, heaviness, smoking.

 

OT:3543 kahah (kaw-haw’); a primitive root; to be weak, i.e. (figuratively) to despond (causatively, rebuke), or (of light, the eye) to grow dull:

KJV – darken, be dim, fail, faint, restrain, X utterly.

 

It could be said that the spirit of heaviness is a weak, fatigued gaze that has grown dim. It has forgotten what it was looking at.

At times our eyes become weary from looking at the sun or something bright. But that is not what this is speaking of. This is speaking in regards to the eyes becoming too dull to see clearly.

This happens after you have gone too long without rest. Too long without refreshing them. I wear contacts. If I leave them in too long without cleaning them or resting my eyes, my vision becomes blurred.

Could it be that a “heavy” church is one that has not sought the refreshing. (Acts 3)

The bible states that a vision-less people are the ones that perish.

Could it be that heavy spirits are being exhaled here? Is that why services remain flat? Is that why there are lifeless, despondent times in church? Yes.

Catherine Carol. Spontaneous groaner. Spontaneous exhales of misery. Let me tell you, she was not a joy to be around. If you needed bad news spread in 10 minutes or less…call Catherine. Woeful.

Then again…there are those that have the vision. Those that can see the beauty of what is before them. They are the ones that have made the exchange. The ones that have discovered that a day in his courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.

Ps 84:10 For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

Friday night at a hotel in Jackson Tn I was making small talk with the desk clerk. Where are you from? Jonesboro, AR. Oh no! I hate that place!

I spent the five worst years of my life there. Oh Really? Oops. Here comes the spill.

(Wreck, bad doc, lawyer etc.) everyone out to get her. Finally, I guess I am over it except that I have to pay 375 a month in RX bills.

I told her, you need to make an exchange. Huh? Get the garment of praise, that spirit of heaviness is killing you!

She looked at me like I was crazy and then said, you are right!

Esther chose what the king liked. Not what she liked. She put on the best in order to please him. Her pleas for a captive, doomed people were not on her lips. She just wanted his approval.

Gen 49.10 the Scepter shall not depart from Judah.

If you need access to the king…start praising him!