What Cleaves to Your Feet?
We like seasons of the holiday spirit, but when tragedies happen or trials and tribulations occur, such as having a heart attack or stroke, those holiday memories suddenly change. COVID is one of those life challenges that suddenly created changes around the world. We couldn’t just make plans for holidays as we had in the past. Getting food and supplies was difficult. Making travel arrangements, keeping six feet apart, wearing masks and gloves, did you have the vaccine? All these issues became a new norm of living, and we didn’t know if we would ever go back to the way things had been.
How are you handling life when sudden changes occur making it challenging to go back to the way life used to be? Often in these moments people become spiritual taping into their prayer life and relationship with God in the way they know. They may know Jesus as a Savior, but is He a healer, provider, and lover of our soul when sickness, lost job, or a broken relationship traumatizes our presence?
This is where relationship with God begin to stir within us. What have we heard? What have we been taught? What is truth?
Religions teach a pathway to get to God, but not necessarily a relationship with God that is relevant for the situation presently before us. There is more focus on how to clean up the past to get to a better future, but what to do for the present to encounter a shift change in the present can be difficult.
If a religion acknowledges that God is omni-present, He is in all and everywhere, then much of their doctrines and teachings become challenged. Religions have no problem agreeing that God is omni-present, however, they are quick to separate themselves if it looks like they are agreeing with “new-age” spirituality.
“When I know that the world around me is both the hiding place and the revelation of God, and it's at the same time. It's not this and then this. Both are right here right now.” (The Universal Christ, Richard Rohr).
“ About noon the next day as they came near Joppa, Peter was going up to the roof[a] to pray. “He was hungry and wanted to eat, but while the food was being prepared, he had a vision. He saw heaven opened and something coming down that looked like a big sheet being lowered to earth by its four corners. In it were all kinds of animals, reptiles, and birds. Then a voice said to Peter, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.”4 But Peter said, “No, Lord! I have never eaten food that is unholy or unclean.”5 But the voice said to him again, “God has made these things clean, so don’t call them ‘unholy’!” This happened three times, and at once the sheet was taken back to heaven”. (Acts 10:9-16 NCV).
Peter was told by God to no longer make a significant distinction between the natural and the supernatural, between holy and the profane. A Divine voice makes this clear to Peter in these passages of Scripture by saying it three times. God’s presence desires connection and communion, not separation or division. Jesus came with a ministry of reconciliation of all.
“Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18-19).
When the tension to defend one side or the other in a situation, ask the question where LOVE is, where is God that both the tensions are there for a reason, for, for a higher calling of what God is doing? In the tension is the opportunity for Presence which is inclusive of the ALL of God. Not just the Spirit, but the heart, the mind, the body, and the soul of each person.
The Presence of God is always reciprocal, or it is not Presence. The word cleaves came to my thoughts as I meditated on Jesus’ words in Luke 22:19, “He took bread, and gave thanks, and broke it, and gave unto them, saying, this is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.”
Only Presence-Christ can know Christ. When Jesus spoke these words, “this is my body,” I believe He was speaking about more than the bread right in front of Him, but also a message that was inclusive to the whole universe of history and time. Everything that is physical and spiritual, seen and unseen.
The word “cleave” is first spoken by Adam in Genesis 2:24. In Hebrew it means to literally be joined together in oneness (h1692). Adam then continued identifying woman as “wife” using the same Hebrew word (h802) for both woman and wife. Jesus quotes what Adam in Matthew 19:5, “For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh.”
Jesus is identifying why He came into this world. This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He came for His Bride, Wife, Woman -womb man, joined as one body in Christ. Jesus reconciled both male and female into one body called Christ by the cross and resurrection (Ephesians 2:16). He died once and for all. His finished work of the cross and resurrection is not based on whether everyone believes. From God’s perspective, there is nothing more for Jesus to come back to finish for the Kingdom of God to be manifested in the earth. The keys to the Kingdom are in the hands of those that know they are one with Christ Jesus today as bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh.
Paul ties the Old and New Testaments together with this message to the church of Ephesus:
“I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ” (Ephesians 4:1-7).
In Luke 10:5-9. Jesus gave a commission, or a command, to his disciples. He said, “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house. When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.”
When Jesus says, “Eat what is offered to you,” He is not talking about natural food and drink. How often have we thought, “Does this mean that if you don't eat pork, but they serve pork, out of respect and kindness eat the pork being a good guest so offense doesn’t enter the house?”
That is showing good neighborly etiquette, but Jesus is teaching spiritual, not just good manners. I believe he's talking about something else.
Think about these words spiritually. “Eat what is set before you.” What has been set before me spiritually? The food that Jesus is talking about is either words of the Kingdom of God or words of the world. “Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (John 6:32-34). This bread is not literally bread.
Most of the words we share with one another are words of the world. It may be issues taking place -physical, mental, spiritual – personally or someone we know. It may be a divorce, death, sickness, financial crisis, rejection, identity crisis, relationship issues, COVID, an economic, homeless, suicidal, depression, and even war issues. So many things take place in the world and in our own space while we are in the flesh. We can turn off all communication devices – TV, computers, cell phones - to try to bring peace to our world, but we will find the unseen realm of magnetic electrical energy still has a strong dominance no matter where we go. All of creation around the world try to work together to hit the “reset” button for Life energy to rule.
In conversation and presence, what is before you someone is offering? Is it the spiritual food of the world or the Kingdom of God? We're not talking about natural wine, pork, beef, or just vegetables being served to you.
You’re excited to see someone as you put forth the energy and time to go meet them or visit them in their home. Within five minutes after the “Hello…good to see you,” the conversation starts to take on a weighty presence of world issues they are dealing with. You listen at first with compassion, but then you find yourself drawn into a realm of positive or negative energies with the conversation. This is the game changer…the hook of the enemy of God that shifts your presence of Divine energy to be the manifestation of Christ in this place, to being another human with issues. In Luke 10, Jesus first tells His disciples to speak “PEACE” to the place you are entering, so that the presence of Christ who is PEACE is unveiled to the familiar spirits of the world issues. Where LIGHT is, darkness can’t stay. If there is the presence of Christ in the house, the place, the city the presence of Christ – PEACE- will rest on them. If Christ is not in that place PEACE will come back to you for you to leave and brush off the dust – the world issues that will try to cleave to your feet – your next place you are to go.
This is how healing takes place to those who are sick and oppressed. Believers in Christ have been complacent for too long. We say, “I will pray for you, or gosh, I feel so bad for you.”
Jesus wants us to get in the dirt with them, see them as bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh. When we do that, it's a whole different ballgame. Then say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you, but whatever city you enter, and they do not receive, you go out into its streets and say, even the dust of your city, which cleaves to your feet. The path that you are walking on, we wipe off in protest this. Yet, be sure of this that the kingdom of God has come near” (Luke 10:9-11).
“I say to you, it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom then for that city. Woe to you Chorazin woe to you Bethsaida for if the miracles had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago sitting in sackcloth and ashes, but it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment then for you, and you Capernaum will not be exalted to heaven. Will you? You will be brought down to Hayes. The one who listens to you listens to me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects the one who sent me” (Luke 10:12-16).
Do we realize Jesus is cursing three cities here? That is powerful. In the Bible, the curse is when God hands people over to the consequences of seizing blessing on their own terms. It is a curse because, instead of abundance and life, we end up with scarcity, isolation, and death. The cursing that takes place in Luke 10 is because of the intensity of what religion was doing in the mind and hearts of the people.
When the disciples were sent out, they were receiving the familiar spirits of what was handed to them in sickness and diseases physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. They were receiving the arrows of darkness being released by the words of those in the house. As those arrows - those words - were projected towards the disciples, the disciples were clothed with Divine presence of PEACE, Light, and Love that they clothed themselves when they said PEACE when entering the house. The dark arrows couldn’t penetrate Divine Presence the disciples were clothed in. The Light of Christ was released in the presence of the familiar spirits. The Kingdom of God was there.
However, if the familiar spirits are dominating and controlling the house – the temple of the person speaking, and there is no place for PEACE to rest, then the disciples left and shook off the dust – the conversation – as they journeyed to their next destination.
As believers in Christ – mature sons and daughters of God – we are supposed to believe by the faith of God that all humanity is one body in Christ Jesus - bone of His bone, and flesh of His flesh. The word “cleaves” first mentioned in Genesis 2:24 tells us, “For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother and he shall cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
This is the assignment that Paul talks about in Ephesians 5:25-33, “Husbands love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain, wrinkle, or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, a husband ought to love his wife as his own body. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of His body. “For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love your wife as you love yourself, and the wife must respect her husband.”
When Jesus Christ died on the cross, we also died. And when He arose from the dead, we arose with Him. That means we are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh (Romans 6).
When we consider the coming of the Lord as a futuristic coming, we are agreeing with the two thieves that hung on crosses on the right and left side of Jesus. The thief of the historical past speaking, “if you are the son of God, then do this,” and the thief of the future that says, “remember me the unworthy one.” Jesus says today is that day that both of you, the tension of the negative, and the tension of the futuristic positive - this whole tension of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil has death on it. This is the tree Jesus was crucified on, not because of the flesh of humanity, but the spirit of death that is known by its fruit of good or evil instead of Life, light, and love.
The cross is the Tree God told Adam not to eat the fruit of or else he would surely die (Genesis 2:17). Die of what? Adam didn’t suddenly die as we define death – leaving our natural body. The death that took place in Adam was the anointing of the Holy Spirit given to him when he was created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:27). Death entered when he ate of the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge given to him by the womb-man voice within him. The Tree of Life was right there in the garden also for Adam to eat from which God offered, but he chose to listen to his “womb-man” voice.
The Tree of Life is Christ in you! When God says, “I will heal you of all your wounds and all your affliction” (Jeremiah 30:17), the “I” is Christ. Christ will heal you of all your wounds and all your affliction. Well, where is Christ? Most believers I’ve met are waiting for Christ to come out of the sky or knock at their front door.
Christ is in you. When you know that Christ is in you, because He cleaves, He has joined himself with His bride as His body, every part of His resurrected person is in us today in our human flesh. Christ body is not just a human body, but a Divine human body that is walking and talking as He is on this earth (1 John 4:17). There is only one new man call Christ because of the finished work of the cross, grave, and resurrection.
“For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Ephesians 2:14-18).
The question we should ask before God is “who does He want to be in me at this time? Help me to consider that the purpose or situation is an opportunity for His glory to shine through me for the Kingdom of God on the earth. Within each of us are the beautiful facets of our DNA called LIGHT, LIFE, and LOVE. When LIGHT splits we have the colors of the rainbow of the light manifesting our Divine essence we carry. Each of the colors of the rainbow carry a frequency sound for healing. As we discern with the single eye of God speaking PEACE, the radiance of Christ glory is manifested into other people and their hidden treasures of Divine identity have an opportunity to be released. The omnipresence of God is right here within each of us. What does that look like?
If the resurrection of Christ is a someday thing, then we're missing blessings of Christ right now. We wait for a someday crossover leaving our natural body for a someday when we join our loved ones on the other side. However, when we recognize that the veil has been rented, and that the unseen and the scene are now two parts of the one body of Christ while in our natural body, then those on the other side, the cloud witnesses are yearning for us to decree: The Kingdom of God is Near.
The end of the faith chapter in Hebrews 11:39-40 tells us, “All, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.”
They, without us, cannot be made perfect. This is the ALL of Christ through out all of history, past, present, and future – Eternity Now!
What are the three cities that were spiritually on a level for Jesus to curse saying. “I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for that city” (Luke 10:12)?