FROM MY FATHERS’ TABLE

‘LIVING BREAD’

  Defilement

            A word that is left out of so many churches today, but is so badly needed to be heard and preached on; is defilement. It simply means: making the pure impure. In these last days, the church of Jesus Christ, needs to stand so much stronger on purity within the Christian heart and soul. The culture is demanding that all who do not agree with their beliefs are racist, un-loving, weird and a host of other adjectives, many times violent in their description. But the true believer must never bend to the culture, just to avoid conflict. Our power lies in the righteousness of Christ and His blood to strengthen and give us the power to overcome the world.

            Beloved, it is the enemies desire to see you bend and defile yourself with the world and its sinful ways. He is after your defilement in the areas of your conscience, your fellowship with God, and your flesh.

            Abraham and Sarah serve as a clear example of the plot of Satan to defile God’s servant who was to bring forth the promised son, Isaac, in whose line, the Son of God would come. In Genesis 20, we read of the time in which, just before Sarah conceived and brought forth Isaac, they were traveling toward the south country and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur and put down their tent stakes in Gerar.

            Now Gerar was the land of the Philistines, who were not a God-fearing nation, but lived a very sinful and wicked lifestyle. Sarah was very beautiful even in her middle eighties, and Abimelech the king of Gerar took her into his harem of wives. Before he could defile her, God came to him in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife.” Genesis 20:3. Abimelech had not come near her yet and he said, “Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation? Said he not unto me, She is my sister? And she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this” Genesis 20:4,5.

           What Abimelech said was very true, Abraham and Sarah had devised a plan to protect their people and wealth as they entered Caanan land as God had called them. It was true that they were both from the same father, but not the same mother. There was no lie there, but the fault lied in the fact that Abraham could not trust the Lord for protection, even after he had met with the God of the universe already. He was being led by the Lord into the land of promise, but found it difficult to face enemies on mere promises. Enemies outweighed promises, does that sound familiar to your heart?

          God’s word from Genesis to Revelation, is one beautiful story of love and redemption. Full of promises, many that have already been fulfilled by Jesus and the Father. Yet the “born again” believer has a difficult time when faced with the pressure of the world, the flesh, and the devil to stand strong in the face of persecution, threats of every kind and controversy. Satan knows this and is always walking about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (see 1 Peter 5:8). His agenda is to defile the Son of God in you and bring you down to a lower level of Christianity than is promised in the word of God.

            Here is one of his schemes: (stop praying consistently, “no prayer, he will lay a snare”). Another famous one is: (read the word only when you have time, after all you are so busy and so tired when you finish your day. No Superfood, the word of God, no strength and power to resist evil, the snare is there, ready to catch and defile you with sin.)

            In chapter 20 the plot was to defile Sarah, in chapter 21 the first verse reads: “And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him” Genesis 21:1,2. Satan had a plot, but God had the plan; Abraham and Sarah had to follow the word of the Lord and believe.

            What has the Lord promised you, are you holding fast to it, or have you forgotten it completely and allowed defilement to come in? Go to the Lord and repent, get back to your first love, Jesus, and follow Him in faith, not doubt and unbelief. Any coward can turn their back on Jesus, but it takes a true believer to not listen to Abimelech, but follow the word and not fear when the Philistines are all around you.

            He is waiting for you to return to Him and do His will and wait upon the Lord for your strength and courage to follow Him all the way to the Celestial City called Heaven. Amen.

Pastor Sue Lynch