Spiritual Clothing

The efforts wrought of God on the behalf of fallen mankind have always been to clothe him and deliver him from the shame of his sin.  Man can be clothed by God when baptized in the name of Jesus… he actually puts on Jesus and is clothed with the righteousness of Christ.  Adam and Eve found themselves exiles from the Garden of Eden, yet God did not send them forth without first clothing them with the skins of a substitutional sacrifice. 

The desire of God to cover man’s sin and shame is more than evident in the scripture.  The Ark of the Covenant had a covering of mercy, man in the church has a covering of Christ, woman in the church has a covering of her husband, and the saints have robes of righteousness.  God has no desire to expose our nakedness to public scrutiny or even to the private condemnation of our own consciences.  He does want us to see when we are naked, but only for the express purpose of him providing a covering for us.  We must confess before we can be covered, but we cannot confess what we have not seen in ourselves.  While God desires for us to prostrate ourselves in repentance, he does not want to see us grovel for the mercy he wants to pour upon us.  It is his pleasure to forgive so that he can take our sin and shame and cast it far from us and clothe us with his garments of grace.

Satan, our enemy, is quite opposite in his desire toward us.  He, working in cooperation with his worldly system, is the Goliath of our walk with God.  Intimidation, humiliation and frustration are the result of his tactics.  By fear he intimidates, by believable lies he humiliates, and by confusion he frustrates.  The last thing the enemy wants is for the child of God to get a realistic, honest, appropriate view of who they are.  It is the desire of Satan to strip God’s people of all things that are true about themselves… especially those things that are meant to cover us from shame.  “The blood of Christ cleanses us from all unrighteousness”. 

The devil (literally: accuser) has accused the brethren day and night until man is so bombarded with the sin and shame of his state that he can no longer even lift his head high enough to gaze into the mirror of the word of God.  The gaze revealing a reality of compassion, forgiveness and restoration is not allowed because we cast our eyes downward in shame.  Therefore, we miss seeing the gift that has been provided for us through a substitutionary sacrifice.  The sacrifice of Calvary has endued us with a covering that vanquishes shame, but the devil wants to strip that knowledge and experience away from us.  He desires us to be beaten down… shameful, sinful, and banished from our rightful existence… the existence provided for by the crucified Christ. 

The effectiveness of this demonic plague is evidenced on every hand.  We are as we see ourselves… that is we have a propensity to become what we think about ourselves.  Spirits of the other side, the evil side, lie to us with thoughts and they lie to us with feelings.  Not every though is true and not every feeling correct.  These are the things that Satan uses to convince us that we are not what God said we are… images of the living God.  Satan has concocted a lying image of each of us and the more we believe that image the more we become that image.  God did not create murderers, adulterers, child abusers, child molesters, liars, thieves, and the like… lying feelings and lying thoughts have perverted the image of God in man into something shameful… something sinful.  We have become a race of sick, selfish satisfiers of satanic desire because we were not aware of the truth.  Psalms 82 declares the need for a different, true perspective of our own image as well as the image of the fallen race; “I have said, ye are gods; and all of you are children of the Most High.”  The Psalmist continues, “But ye shall die like men and fall like one of the princes.”  The problem with Saul and the army of Israel is that they did not possess a proper image of themselves or of their God.

The truth is we need to discern that the giant bellowing from across the valley is a liar and a loser.  He will do nothing against you until you listen to him and believe... believe the lie that he is propagating about YOU!  Oh, but he is effective, don’t think he isn’t.  He had an entire army believing… not in the strength of a giant, but in the weakness of themselves.  Selves who were created in the image of the mighty God!  You are created in the image of the “mighty one”, why do you believe the lie of the fallen one?  Someone needs to build you up!