By TIMOTHY L. MELTON
Cherokee Pentecostal Holiness Church
(Transcribed by Myra D. Colgate)
Read Isaiah 61: verses 3, 2, 1 and 4
His Garment of Praise, which He gives to each believer, is best to use against any spirit of heaviness. We are reminded it’s for “The Lord to be Glorified.” In speaking of that spirit, we’ve been talking about becoming Trees of Righteousness for the Glory of Heaven. However, now one must also see and understand there are some places where we all go to learn what might also be required. A person will need to learn how to put on a garment of praise for that spirit of heaviness in a designated place. In our lives, a person sometimes must go through that place in order to be successful while also remaining calm and able to stay on the actual path one must soon finish traveling. It’s what we all must do.
Does everyone need me to tell them what is best to use in turning things around? This one thing I know is that quitting is never the easy or the right option to choose in life. There are some experiences in life we must go through, as becomes necessary. One that is the most needed is to put on the garment of praise for any afflicting spirit of heaviness.
We’ve all had “heavy” times in our lives. The best thing I can tell each person, when one cannot see how to bring oneself out of a situation, and can see no way out, there is one thing I do know, it is to seek His best answer.
For instance, I’d lost a job. The Lord gave me another one, and with it, I was making $3.00 more per hour. That was a lot of money in those days of the late 1990’s. I knew people who were making barely $3.00 per hour and God had just given me that as a raise!
At the same time, I must tell people I had also wrecked a car, and yet, at the same time, a whole family got saved, and then, because at that time, the father’s whole life had also fallen apart. However, when these people look back at what God was able to do with all these situations, I want everyone to realize that’s when the whole mess of situations was simply managed by God and them all ‘flew away.’ How? One may ask.
The family in the other car, their child had hit his head. It must have looked bad to the first responders since they took off and flew him to another city. However, by the time they got there, the injury had been healed already by God. I do know this is what happened because the child was my nephew. I saw it with my own eyes, and I also got to be there.
How many realize one cannot go ‘there’ unless they know where one is supposed to be going, already? I certainly couldn’t, but God did! We are to put on the garment of praise, when it looks terrible, or looks bad, like one isn’t going to make it. Praise Him! Somebody ought to just start dancing, declaring of the Lord, “He is Faithful.” The Lord has said to everyone, in His Word, “we can trust Him!” I know He’s going to bring me out.
I know people don’t know why I’m dancing. I’m not dancing to be seen, I’m dancing because it’s going to be alright. God has got the whole thing!
What if a person’s having a bad day? I’ve found it can help if one finds another person who’s having a worse day. Start ministering to others, the Spirit of God’s there, and suddenly that spirit of heaviness is gone.
Everyone should know God already has a Plan, the Plan has already been finished even before He started and set it in motion. How many know we could use some tailors in this place, who know how to make some Garments of Praise? How to use the Oil of Joy for anything that’s causing a time of mourning? Things can happen that no one can explain, and no one can put into words when something is very devastating.
But there’s a God in Heaven Who knows how to start applying the Oil, He starts limbering a person up and can make things work like never before.
I see people all over Cherokee and other cities ‘living with’ their mourning, depression, fears and sadness. As the Oil is applied it, begins to flow and wash it all out of us. We should begin to thank God for His Plan.
