As human beings, we all want to feel connected. The problem is that we try to connect to people and things that are corruptible. Notice I said “connect” and not “associate.” There is a difference. What I am talking about here is connecting as your source.
The Word of God tells us that “knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (I Peter 1:18). Notice God tells us that even gold and silver are corruptible! This means that anything on this earth, including the earth itself, will pass away and is corruptible-- even our own bodies. 1 Corinthians 15:42 testifies that we will have new bodies, incorruptible bodies, when we are resurrected.
God has put a longing in our hearts to connect with Him. If we do not connect with Him, the desire is still there, and then the devil comes along (because we are not connected to the Vine), and perverts this God-given desire to connect. Thus we try, in desperate futility, to connect to things and people that are corruptible and do us more harm than good!
You know what I am talking about my brothers and sisters. We have all been there: connecting to the wrong people; therefore, establishing very bad, unhealthy, and ungodly friendships and relationships. Or we try to connect to things in an unhealthy way — money, jobs, clothing, food, pets, houses, et cetera.
There is a verse in Proverbs (Proverbs 26:11) that laments “like a dog who returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.” This verse is saying that just as a dog goes back and licks up the vomit — the very thing that made it sick in the first place; so do people who are not connected to Jesus Christ, the Vine.
If our minds are not renewed in Christ, we will go back to the same unhealthy people or people-type, or the same attitudes, values, and mentalities that made us sick in the first place. How many times we hear our sisters saying: “I don’t know why I keep dating men who are alcoholics”, or “I don’t know why I keep dating men who beat me. It just must be who I am attracted to.” Or our brothers billowing “I don’t know why I keep going back to that thing which keeps getting me locked up.” No, no, no, precious son and daughter of the Most High King! These are lies from the pit of hell! Send them back! Don’t even open that package of poop! Send it back unopened and marked “return to sender!”
The devil will try to keep you returning to that vomit, but God wants to redeem you from everything that makes you sick. Your loving Father desires to redeem you from unhealthy relationships, unhealthy lifestyles, unhealthy values, unhealthy thought patterns, unhealthy mindsets. Let Him do it for you this day.
A while ago, I made the decision to no longer have relationships out of the flesh. That means I needed to break off many relationships that were solely based in the flesh, and many soul ties. My relationships now, are grounded in the Spirit of God, and are spirit-to-spirit. This doesn’t mean we don’t interact with people. But we interact with people from our spirit which is connected to Holy Spirit and not out of our flesh.
1 Corinthians 15:53 declares “the corruptible must put on the incorruptible.” So how do we do put on the incorruptible? When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are washed in His incorruptible blood that is without blemish and without spot. And then we connect and stay connected to Jesus, as He is our Vine, our Source, and our very Life.
The Greek word for “vine” as used here is “halon” (hal-ohn) which is a threshing floor (Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance). A threshing floor is a place of old, where farmers would separate the wheat from the chaff.
The wheat is what they wanted, as the chaff was useless; so they would set up these threshing floors and use a tool to separate the wheat from the chaff, then the wind would blow away the chaff as it was much lighter than the wheat.
Jesus is referring to Himself here as a threshing floor, because once you are connected to Him, He will separate out of you, every thing: every wrong attitude, every wrong mentality, every wrong feeling, everything that is not of Him and not good for you. He will cause to blow away every thing that has contaminated you and causes you to go back to that which has made you sick. The son of Righteousness will separate these things from you and command His winds of virtue to carry them away and cast them into the sea of forgetfulness forever!
Beloved, God is calling on you this day to forsake the corruptible and connect to the incorruptible. He is calling you out of those things and those relationships which are making you sick. God is a good God. Your Father is a loving father, and He desires to make you well and make you whole. Will you let him nurse you back to health today? It is the longing of your Father’s heart.
Father, thank you that you are the Vine and we are the branches. Thank you that we are redeemed, and we overcome by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of our Testimony which is Jesus Christ (Revelation 12:11). Father, we ask you right now to wash away and separate from us, everything in us that is not of you. We want to be connected to you- Our Hope, Our Source, Our very Life. For you are the Way, The Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). Thank you that you hear us and that you answer us. Thank you that we are connected to you. For you are The Incorruptible. And because we wear you and are in you, we too are made incorruptible. We love you, we thank you, and we call these things done according to your perfect Will, plan, and purpose. In Jesus Name, thank you for what you have done in us on this day. Amen and Amen.
Take Action! Challenge your thinking! Choose to be connected to Jesus — the One True Vine. Choose to connect to and put on the incorruptible, and forsake the corruptible things in your life. Drink from the rivers of Living Water. Make it a habit to confess the Word of God over you and your life every day. And continue fighting the good fight of staying connected to the Father; for God, your Pure Power Source, has already given you the victory!
May God Bless you and keep you always.
With warmest regards,
And, in service of The Most High King,
Matthew
Matthew.Gargano@HMDMinistries.com
www.HMDMinistries.com
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