You Aint Leaving Until You Change Your Clothes

Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

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.

4 And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.

5 And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers.

KJV

As a dean at youth camps you can see a lot of different things. One sight I will never forget is the young man that wore the same clothes for a week. Yes. A week. Softball. Rain. Sweat. No bath. A week. Finally I had to intervene. Young man, you are not leaving this dorm without a bath and fresh clothes. His mother probably thought that was the best camp ever…they even laundered and folded my sons clothes just like me.

Pasturing you see a lot of different things. One common thing…people that never grow and develop into the worshipers that god has called them to be. They are stuck. Same approach to every thing. Same attitude about everything.

It’s time to change!

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.

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.

Scepter shall not depart from Judah.