Cleansed Through The Word
Jesus said in John 15:3 Now you are clean, cleansed through the word which I have spoken unto you.
Prior to this scripture, Jesus was talking about the Holy Spirit bringing to remembrance everything Jesus had told His disciples. Likewise, the Holy Spirit will bring to our remembrance those things we have seen and heard of the Word, that we may be clean, stay clean. Jesus said that He was leaving us with His peace (We talked about His peace earlier.) We learned that when we have His peace, we do not let our hearts be troubled or agitated or disturbed. We do not become fearful.
He went on to say that satan was coming after Him and satan had no claim over Him; nothing in Jesus belonged to satan and satan had no power over Him.
Then Jesus said that He did only what the Father told Him to do and that He, Jesus, was the true vine and His Father was the husbandman or vinedresser. The next statement Jesus made has been so misinterpreted by the religious world. He said that every branch in Him that bore fruit, the Father purged, cleansed, pruned so that it could bear more and richer fruit. Many people have taught it this way: See, that means that God sends trials and tests to prune us and get rid of all the junk in us. Well, Jesus knew that men would try to misinterpret this passage, so in the very next verse, He says that you are cleansed, pruned, purged BY THE WORD.
Why is it that we want to be cleansed by the Word? It is for the very thing that Jesus said about Himself: Satan comes and he finds nothing in me that belongs to him; he has no power over me. What gives satan power over us? Fear, doubt, unbelief, worry, anxiety, care, fretting, etc. Those are the things that the word of God will cleanse us of and prune away from us. What are the things that so easily beset you today? Get in the Word of God and stay there until that unnecessary branch is pruned away.
In Ephesians 5:25, 26 and 27 Paul writes of Jesus: He loved the Church (that’s us) and gave Himself up for her so that He might sanctify her (set her apart for Himself) having cleansed her by the washing of the water of the Word. Why? So that He might present us, His Church, to Himself as a church full of the glory, without spot or wrinkle or blemish, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. Once again we see here that the cleansing is by the Word of God.
We want to free of anything, any hooks that satan might find in us to snare us and trap us into his ways of fruitlessness, fear, depression, sickness, poverty, lack and utter misery (which is really his aim toward God’s people).
It all comes back to the Word, doesn’t it—every time! And the Word produces faith, which keeps us close with our Heavenly Father and produces His results. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Rom. 10:17). Anything that is not of faith is sin (Rom. 14:23). Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Why? We who come to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. (Heb. 11:6) Once again, I remind you of Prov. 4:20-23. We are to pay attention to God’s Word, keeping it before our eyes and going in our ears and in the middle of our hearts for it is our very life. And then we must once again remind ourselves. Faith works by love. Faith without love is nothing, merely a chattering of words and a useless exercise. Faith without works is dead. What is the works we are talking about? Love!!!!!!!! (Gal.5:6) In Christ Jesus, the only thing that counts for anything is faith which is working through God’s love. Faith is expressed through God’s love. Faith gets its energy from God’s love. Faith becomes active, is activated through God’s love.
As we are cleansed through God’s Word of those things that are hindrances to faith and to love, let us stand fast, then, in the liberty that God has provided us, to give us freedom from the ensnarements of satan, his entrapments and yokes of bondage to fear. (Gal. 5:1) And then when he comes to overtake us, he finds nothing in us that he can hook.
Prior to this scripture, Jesus was talking about the Holy Spirit bringing to remembrance everything Jesus had told His disciples. Likewise, the Holy Spirit will bring to our remembrance those things we have seen and heard of the Word, that we may be clean, stay clean. Jesus said that He was leaving us with His peace (We talked about His peace earlier.) We learned that when we have His peace, we do not let our hearts be troubled or agitated or disturbed. We do not become fearful.
He went on to say that satan was coming after Him and satan had no claim over Him; nothing in Jesus belonged to satan and satan had no power over Him.
Then Jesus said that He did only what the Father told Him to do and that He, Jesus, was the true vine and His Father was the husbandman or vinedresser. The next statement Jesus made has been so misinterpreted by the religious world. He said that every branch in Him that bore fruit, the Father purged, cleansed, pruned so that it could bear more and richer fruit. Many people have taught it this way: See, that means that God sends trials and tests to prune us and get rid of all the junk in us. Well, Jesus knew that men would try to misinterpret this passage, so in the very next verse, He says that you are cleansed, pruned, purged BY THE WORD.
Why is it that we want to be cleansed by the Word? It is for the very thing that Jesus said about Himself: Satan comes and he finds nothing in me that belongs to him; he has no power over me. What gives satan power over us? Fear, doubt, unbelief, worry, anxiety, care, fretting, etc. Those are the things that the word of God will cleanse us of and prune away from us. What are the things that so easily beset you today? Get in the Word of God and stay there until that unnecessary branch is pruned away.
In Ephesians 5:25, 26 and 27 Paul writes of Jesus: He loved the Church (that’s us) and gave Himself up for her so that He might sanctify her (set her apart for Himself) having cleansed her by the washing of the water of the Word. Why? So that He might present us, His Church, to Himself as a church full of the glory, without spot or wrinkle or blemish, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. Once again we see here that the cleansing is by the Word of God.
We want to free of anything, any hooks that satan might find in us to snare us and trap us into his ways of fruitlessness, fear, depression, sickness, poverty, lack and utter misery (which is really his aim toward God’s people).
It all comes back to the Word, doesn’t it—every time! And the Word produces faith, which keeps us close with our Heavenly Father and produces His results. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Rom. 10:17). Anything that is not of faith is sin (Rom. 14:23). Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Why? We who come to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. (Heb. 11:6) Once again, I remind you of Prov. 4:20-23. We are to pay attention to God’s Word, keeping it before our eyes and going in our ears and in the middle of our hearts for it is our very life. And then we must once again remind ourselves. Faith works by love. Faith without love is nothing, merely a chattering of words and a useless exercise. Faith without works is dead. What is the works we are talking about? Love!!!!!!!! (Gal.5:6) In Christ Jesus, the only thing that counts for anything is faith which is working through God’s love. Faith is expressed through God’s love. Faith gets its energy from God’s love. Faith becomes active, is activated through God’s love.
As we are cleansed through God’s Word of those things that are hindrances to faith and to love, let us stand fast, then, in the liberty that God has provided us, to give us freedom from the ensnarements of satan, his entrapments and yokes of bondage to fear. (Gal. 5:1) And then when he comes to overtake us, he finds nothing in us that he can hook.
posted by Rev. Kialeen Potterton @ 7:42 AM
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