Saturday, December 30, 2017

The Threshing Process


UV 2869/10000 The Threshing Process
Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their gain unto the LORD, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.
Micah 4 v 13
Believers are referred to in scripture as “daughters” and as daughters of Zion in keeping with the view of the church as the bride of Christ. As we submit to Christ, even as a neck stays attached and submits to the head while supporting it, the Lord will greatly increase us in strength, power, hope, energy, dynamism, courage, enthusiasm, joy. He will make us victorious and invincible before all the powers of this world and all the invisible powers of darkness.
In Jesus, we exchange not only our sins for His purity by grace but we exchange our weaknesses of flesh and mind and spirit with His immense strengths. The horns of the enemy will be cut off by His great power. It will be as if we have developed horns of iron and as if our feet are made of brass. These images are equestrian and it implies horse power. The Lord will increase us in our inner strength and power, many times more than that of an average human so that we will not only be able to resist and overcome the temptations of our own flesh, the vanities of our own minds and the seductive pleasures, treasures and temptations of the world. He will enable us to thresh the big mountains- or the huge challenges facing humanity as a species and each of us as individuals. We will gain an eternal perspective from which these immense issues will be cut to size and some problems that seem like ‘hills’ at present would just disappear like dust in blowing wind. We will tear down strongholds of darkness, everything that exalts itself against the glory of the Lord or evil operating in this world. We will build the kingdom of light, the kingdom of God or Zion. We will be like an effective threshing instrument in the hands of the Lord
For all this to happen, we need to “arise and thresh”. This is a metaphor borrowed from agriculture. We need to take responsibility. We need to take the initiative. As our days are, so is our strength. Hence, as long as the DayStar Jesus shines in and for the Kingdom of God, we need to put to the best use of our time, talent, treasure and temperament. We need to prepare for harvest. We need to harvest the blessings of the Lord. We need to harvest the promises of the Lord. We need to labour for the harvest. “Arise” means we should wake up from our slumber and move out of our dormant state. We need to go to the field allotted to us, the domain of our control or influence and “thresh” or vigorously shake with faith and the crop or grain will fall to the ground for us to glean, collect, use, consume. Whatever we do is dedicated to ascribe more praise, glory and thanks giving to the Lord. All our gain or blessings are both obtained with the help of the Lord, belongs to Him and is dedicated to Him. All the pain we have endured is part of the threshing process which is life. When we endure pain, we should realize the Lord is not thrashing us but only threshing us or separating what is precious in His sight from what is not, the grain from the chaff. So we ought not to chafe.
Prateep V Philip

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