*Matthew 5:3, "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."* (KJV)
In the first two parts we looked at the food aspect in our journey to demystify spiritual poverty. And we have seen that as much poverty insinuates deficiency of sufficient food, it also serves to raise your sensitivity of determining what is food and what is not.
Let us pause on food there and jump in *CLOTHING* with emphasis on *SPIRITUAL CLOTHING*.
Prophet Isaiah at the beginning of his ministry made a very profound prophesy, he said that a time will come when seven women will grab hold on one man, these seven women will tell the man, "We will feed ourselves", remember we have already discussed about food. They will also tell the man, "We will cloth ourselves", which is what we are discussing now. All these women will want is to be called by the name of the man or in other words to claim him as their husband (Isaiah 4:1).
The bible refers to us as the church, and calls the church the bride of Christ.
What is the church? Is it the architecture or the people in it?
Many people will jump and tell me that it is the people in it. But then why do we call some building churches? Why do you say, "I am going to church" and head to a certain building?
Well, the truth is that the church is both *an organisation and an organism*. An organisation is a system governed by structures, constitutions, rules and regulations. This is why you can say, "our church doesn't do that". When you are saying, "our church doesn't do that", you are not talking about an organism, you are talking about an organisation. It is the organisation that builds structures and architectures for worship and this is why we call such structures churches, because they are part of the organisation called church.
The church is also an organism. Those who did biology know what an organism is. In biology, an organism is any individual entity that exhibits the properties of life. It is a synonym for "life form".
And when we are talking about the church being the bride of Christ, we are not talking about an organisation governed by a constitution and that has to register with the government registrar to function, we are talking about an organism which is given life by the blood of Jesus Christ.
While there are many ways to interpret the prophesy of my friend and brother, prophet Isaiah, one way, which fits our discussion today is having people that cling to Jesus and want to claim Him as their groom. *But they are rich*, hence they don't want Jesus to feed them and they don't want Jesus to cloth them, they can do that with their own money. All they want is Jesus to allow them to be called His bride.
Before the fall of Man, man (which in this case represents male and female) was clothed in glory. This is why it was impossible for man to discover the other was naked.
But as Paul tells us, *man fell short of glory*, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Remember we said poverty depicts *falling short* of the basic needs in life, and clothing is a basic need in life. Therefore, when man fell short of glory, he fell short of a covering.
Then Jesus came to restore man to his former glory actually to an even greater glory than he had when in Eden.
But before man is clothed with a greater glory, he has to first manage with a makeshift clothing called *RIGHTEOUSNESS*. Righteousness is like wrapping yourself in a towel from shower, just before you put on some dry clean, ironed clothes.
I have heard this questions severally, "If really we go to the bathroom to clean up, why do we still have to wash the towel?"
It is one of the funny questions asked to make fun of the towel. But you have to keep your towel clean if you want it to wipe you clean. What would be the use of taking a bath, only to dry yourself with a dirty towel.
This is the same thing with righteousness. The bible says that, *"we are the righteousness of God "*. I have therefore heard some preachers saying that because of that and a few other statements in the bible, we do not need to repent. This is like saying, "I only use the towel when I am cleaned up, why should I wash the towel?"
Repentance is not necessary because you are not clean, it is necessary to ensure that what is covering you after you are clean is itself clean!
John the revelator, tells us in the book of revelation, that Jesus will only welcome home, those who washed clean their garments with the blood of the Lamb and those who kept their garment clean.
There are two things involved here, the washing clean and the KEEPING clean. The keeping clean is a continual process.
I once told you that, the bible calls our garments *"a white garment"*. And I said that one of the disadvantages of a white garment is how much cleaning they need and how often they take you back to the laundry process.
The darker a cloth is, the more you can were it without people noticing you have "recycled" it. But those who have white garments can only wear them at most once, before it shows it has been previously worn.
This tells you how often you should be repenting. Or why do you think the bible says that *God's mercies are new every morning?* It is because, every morning you need to wear righteousness that has been washed in His mercies all over again.
Capture this as I pen off and we continue tomorrow, *poor people don't have many clothes*.
And we are talking about spiritual poverty. Spiritually poor people only have one clothe, which they wash and dry overnight and re-wear it the following day. Selah.
Righteousness is white in color, and it is the only clothe you have, but if you wear it more than once without cleaning it in mercy, it will start to show of what a dirty girl you are... yes remember we are the bride?
This is why David says, "Night after night, I call your on name". Overnight vigils are awesome, they are great times to clean your garment. Some churches (Organisation) tell the church (organism) that praying at midnight is good because you fight demons, but I say praying at night is BETTER if you spend your time washing your white garment. When your garment is clean, you don't need to fight the devil, the word of the LORD, "Touch not my anointed, do my servant no harm", is already speaking against him. Because your one and only white garment of righteousness is sparkling white clean.
Let's pick up from here tomorrow.
Shalom and keep the faith.
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