THE POOR YOU SHALL HAVE WITH YOU ALWAYS:
Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, there came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat. But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, “To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much and given to the poor.” When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, “Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. For ye have the poor always with you; but me (in this flesh) ye have not always. Matthew 26: 6-11 (parenthesis mine) flip the script admin.
Having the poor always with us carries far more weight than material poverty and financial poverty. All over the globe there are those of them who are spiritually impoverished. World events mentions them often, newspapers and magazines draws attentions to them daily. News media and radio personalities talk about the spiritually poor often.
One of the saddest things in the arena of the church is the concept that the more you possess materially the more it shows your closeness to God or the blessings of God upon your life. This isn’t true my friends. There are many people who have greater than abundance and are very much separated from the Lord. Some have riches and others have wealth and they are separated from the Lord. In fact, for some it is because of their wealth and riches that they will not even come to Jesus. They feel they have no need of the Lord. “What can he do for me?” some ask. “Look at what I have.” Through this way of thinking we can see a poverty greater than that of the beggar on the street.
While standing at the sink doing dishes recently and conversing with the Holy Spirit He said to me: “If you have two dresses then you have tasted abundance because all you really need is one raiment to cover the body, one pair of shoes to cover the feet, one cloak for the winter and one hat for the head, one pair of gloves for the hands. But one raiment calls for more work. It obligates you to a deeper commitment and consumes just a bit more of your time. One raiment calls for discipline of the which many choose not to yield to” He continued to say; “If every believer would clean out their closets and the closets of the entire house you will find there to be clothing enough to clothe the entire globe and have baskets left over” He that has an ear to hear; let him hear. “With two fish and five loaves of bread Jesus fed a multitude and there were baskets left over. In one account of the gospels, it records there being 12 baskets left after over five thousand had eaten and were full.” Matthew 14:15-21
So, the answer to material and financial poverty is clean out your closet. But what about the spiritual poverty that is all around us? What do we do about it?
It is sad that many of us will fill our earthly closets with more than enough while the spiritual closet many times has less than enough to give away. Many of us are dedicated to the shopping sprees that clutters our homes but are not dedicated to the shopping sprees that will fill our inner man with riches that can be shared with the spiritually impoverished. Many of us have no drink to give to the spiritually thirsty and no food to give to those who inwardly hunger. Many of us have no raiment in our closet to clothe those who are spiritually naked and no extra shoes to cover the feet of them who walk with bare feet in places of darkness. Most of the times we will with the rest of the world, talk about their wicked deeds and shake our heads and give exceedingly great lip service. Many times, we don’t even have in our closets the will to bend our knees to pray. In this case the spiritually poor is more righteous than we are because the spiritually poor knows he has not and is lacking whereas many of us have and are lacking but are very much unaware.
So, as we can see; having the poor with us always covers more ground than having the materially and financially impoverished. We have the spiritually poor which are those of them without Christ and inclusive in the poor with us are those of us who name the name of Christ but are spiritually bankrupt and/or have a spiritual deficiency. Many of our spiritual closets are junked up with things we have bought and purchased that shouldn’t even be in there. Many of these things are the things that have cruised us to the place of being spiritually poor. Many of these things are they which causes us not to be able to meet the needs of the spiritually poor among us.
Dear friends I hear the call of the Spirit of Christ to the church to “Clean out our closets and come to Him with no money to buy and eat; to buy wine and milk without money and without price. “Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” Isaiah 55: 1-3
In other words, the Spirit of the Lord says to come to Him that He may fill our closets with plenty so that we may be able to give to the spiritually poor among us. Come and become fattened not flattened but fattened with life to clothe a dying people among you. Come so that you can pull out of your closets raiment to clothe the naked.
We leave this thought to you from the Lord Jesus as was given to the Laodicean Church:
Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see.
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Revelation 3: 17-19
Flip the Scripts Admin.