The Word of YHVH is not a pounding stick, it is the power of YHVH for life and godliness. Being in the world and not of it is not an easy task. Where is the balance? I know some would see what I am being told to do as disobedience, but I know better. It is putting down my flesh, which has been used in the past as justification to be unloving and self righteous because I was hurt and they “deserved” it and Yeshua wouldn’t let them get by with it. But I am not Yeshua, am I?
It is so hard to stay on the path and not fall into the ditches. We must be able to share in love from our hearts and not break fellowship with the saints. Discernment is the key. Oh, what a ragamuffin lot we are! What absolute grace pours from Abba to be able to tolerate the messes we are. I weep in appreciation at receiving what I do not deserve, of being loved out of such a pure and holy compassion that I can only hope to attain. I am only now just beginning to grasp just the tiniest bit of it. Shame engulfs me for my past arrogance and attitudes. These are the things that only Abba’s Spirit can reveal and empower me to lay down. WHY is it so hard? Because it requires utter immolation of those things and that feels like losing me, my very existence. And it is true. I, me, my HAS to die if what Abba created is to come forth.
He showed me such a powerful picture of the wheat and the chaff. The chaff, the outer layer that protects the wheat grain from disease and pests is the crust formed around us that protects us in a state of immaturity and vulnerableness. It is the self protection and all the self stuff that literally keeps us alive until Abba can thresh (meaning below) the mature grain and remove the crust of self without destroying the seed that can be used for its original intended purpose. Threshing loosens the chaff allowing it to be sloughed off and exposes the seed, which can now be used as food, stored for the future, or replanted to grow more wheat. If the threshing does not occur, the chaff can retain moisture that will foster mold and mildew that will eventually destroy the seed.
Thresh = to harvest seeds from grain by beating or crushing it.
. . . that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Eph 4:22-24
"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. John12:24