WHAT ARE YOU YOKED TO?

Brethren God was not done,apart from mixed fabrics and mixed seeds ,. He also got into plowing 🤣 

But wanaisraeli pia had it rough ;

Deuteronomy 22:10

You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.

Plowing is not just turning soil in and out , it is also carefully weeding out what doesn't need to be in the field while evenly preparing the land for sowing.

 

God was not just interested in having the land plowed but also how it was done ,what animals they used to prepare the land .

An ox and a donkey can be yoked together. Both are strong. Both can pull. But they are not of the same kind and that difference matters more than the task at hand.

 Their strides are different. Their strengths are also unequal. Their responses to pressure are not the same. So what happens when you yoke them? 

One animal suffers,one animal compromises its being and the very ground that is supposed to receive good seed comes out uneven 

Plowing needs to be done yes, but it matters how it is done ,to even out the land ..

Ephesians 5 introduces a bride sanctified and cleansed with the washing of water by the Word ready to be presented without spot or wrinkle , Spots and wrinkles would be an indicator that there was uneven cleaning , and that's not how Christ wants His bride.

Christ wants His bride conformed to His image .

His warning against use of two animals which are not of the same kind was because of the mismatched nature ,the compromise that would have to tag along and the inconsistentcy which the land would be left in.

Writing to the Corinthians Paul warns them of this;

2 Corinthians 6:14

Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? 

Before using this scripture for marriage and relationships, consider your union with Christ , do you yoke His tools and those of the enemy , because that will ultimately produce a very uneven ground , which will not be fit for the seed of the Word and conformity to His image will be stained and strained.

God is not asking you to stop plowing but to stay cautious of what you are yoked to because the condition of the ground depends on it .

DailyWell -Peace ✨

DISPOSE YOUR NEEDLE

Yesterday I was here talking about God warning Israel not to mix seeds lest they corrupt their vineyards .

Today let's look at the fabrics too because this is where I am sure I'd have been rejected 🤣🤣 I can't wear silk alone ,how? 

Deuteronomy 22:11

You shall not wear a garment of different sorts, such as wool and linen mixed together.

He didn't say don't wear he just said your garment must be of the same kind

Why perhaps? 

Well ,  initially Adam and wifey were naked and unashamed?

 Clothes didn't have meaning,but upon eating the fruit ,they realised they needed to cover up so they made figs to cover themselves.

Fig leaves dry easily , crack and fall ,it was an emblem of their works ,effort which was not sustainable .

Then God slaughters an animal to make them skin which was better as a their covering though it cost an animal it's life.

Fast forward to the tabernacle,tphe priestly and Levitical garments were not fashion , they were function. God specified every detail 

He didn't want anyone wearing anything without his precise instruction.

Garments speak of covering,they speak of righteousness .

Garments cover our nakedness,our shame .

God didn't originally give Adam and Eve clothes,because they didn't need them , Adam was a son of God . His nature was righteousness.

Then sin came, and introduced a mixture of garment ,humanity wore a garment stained with sin and had to use effort, Sacrifices upon sacrifices,ritual upon ritual to cover up.

Isaiah considers and describes our best 'stitchings' and calls it filthy rags. Not rags,filthy ones ,there's a difference.

A different garment was introduced by sin . A garment so heavy it took a lamb being slain to get us a different one.

God is presently saying;

Galatians 3:26-27

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

You've been reclothed .

Don't take your own righteousness and stitch it along Christs' ,dispose your needle 😃 your fit is perfect .

THE VINEYARD

I have days I really thank God I wasn't around in the days of Moses because aaah — I was not going to make it. 🥺🥺 

Because why is God saying we shouldn't wear mixed fabrics? 

Why was God interested in farming logistics and seed regulations? 

 Deuteronomy 22:9

You shall not sow your vineyard with different kinds of seed, lest the yield of the seed which you have sown and the fruit of your vineyard be defiled. (Deuteronomy 22:9)

Corruption of the vineyard would only happen when a different seed is introduced and in turn that would defile the fruit.

Because the thing with a seed is it subjects itself to death so that it can birth more than itself.. And that is exactly how a corrupt seed begins to circulate. 

To avoid the corruption, God says let the vineyard stay pure. Sow one kind of seed. No mixture.

Then Jesus comes and says the Word is the seed, He is the Vine Dresser, and my friend, your heart is the vineyard.

The seed of the Word must remain purely in it. Because if you mix the Word with something else, what you birth is a defiled fruit.

It is only the entrance of the Word that produces light.

Now here is the detail that quietly undid me. The vineyard doesn't choose its seed. The owner does. 🤦🏽‍♀️ to tell me that the guarding of my heart with all diligence is not the vineyard defending itself ,it is the owner deciding what gets entry. 

Stay away from being unequally yoked with that which will birth corruption.

Look at the church in Thyatira in Revelation 2:19 ,they are not called corrupt because their deeds were bad ,in fact they are commended for their works, love, service, and endurance .But on the other side, they also tolerated Jezebel , permitted her to teach and lure the servants of God into sexual immorality and eating food sacrificed to idols. 

They kept the Word and also gave jezebel a seat at their table .

That is something quieter and far more dangerous. This is addition. The vineyard still looked active. The fruit was still coming. But a different seed had been planted alongside the right one, and it was circulating.

Compromise is not abandonment. It is addition.

Guarding the heart will then look like preventing philosophies, ideologies,doctrines of demons, the voice of a stranger from making entry because what enters will eventually bear fruit. And you will eat of it.

But here is where grace arrives.

To thyatira He says repent, return the vineyard to the owners original intent.

Tend the garden by removing what I didn't permit .

The Vine Dresser has not left the vineyard,but he wants the right kind of seed in it .

He prunes. He cleanses. Where mixture happened

The Word that once ruled can re-establish its purity. 

Grace is not only for the barren fields. It is for the compromised ones too.

DailyWell — Peace✨

THE RACE

I was maybe 9years old when our teacher told us about Dr. Ben Carson while holding a copy of his book 'Gifted Hands '

The boy from Detroit who was called the dumbest in his class. The boy who endured, who pushed, who became one of the most celebrated neurosurgeons in history. The doctor who separated conjoined twins when the whole medical world said it could not be done.

I remember sitting in that classroom in absolute awe and all I was entrenched in was the beauty of becoming a neurosurgeon to help other conjoined twins in the future😃and give them a chance in life to live separately.😃

Then,as I grew up I kept learning that I cannot stand the sight of blood 🤣wounds or even basic injection, I slowly began realising the medical field is not a 'race I want to run' but there's a race set before me that I must run with endurance.

Hebrews 12:1

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

The writer of Hebrews opens this verse with a therefore meaning everything that follows is built on everything that came before. Chapter 11 has just introduced us to the hall of faith. Men and women who believed God in impossible circumstances and whose lives became testimonies.

Their stories are the 'crowd' of those who've gone ahead and their endurance is the 'witness'

And the invitation is this 'let their lives embolden you to finish yours'.

But here is what I also want you to notice;

The crowd is not running for you your race .

The witnesses watch. They inspire. They testify. But the stripping , that is yours.

 The running , that is yours.

 The endurance , that is yours. Ben Carson's story moved me deeply. It still does. But his race was not my race. No matter how inspiring it was.

The verse mentions weights separately from sin. A weight is not always something wicked. Sometimes ,a weight could simply be the wrong race. An expectation you inherited. A dream that belongs to someone else's life. A lane you stepped into because it looked glamourus from the outside not because God placed you in it.

Running someone else's race will exhaust you,it's weighty.

Not because you are weak. But because you were not built for it.

The grace to endure is only available on the road God set for you. You will not find staying power in a borrowed assignment. You will find pressure, performance anxiety, and burnout and you will wonder why God feels distant when really you are just running in the wrong direction.

The crowd of witnesses is not cheering you toward their finish lines. They are cheering you toward yours.

Ben Carson ran his race with everything he had,and I am here, writing to you — not in an operating theatre🤣 but at this Daily Well .

Friend ,find your race. Strip everything that will weigh you down ,run with Endurance. Stay in your lane, undistracted, focused, unbothered by the glamour of lanes that were never yours.

The race God set for you is for you.. run faithfully.

DailyWell-Peace ✨