Righteousness vs. Condemnation, Girding the loins of the mind and the priests head set.
What the preists symbolized for us by putting on their wordrobe represents for us what we do in the spirit of our mind. The head set is guarding the mind with correct thinking. This is the same as Nehemiahs building the wall first. This was to protect the temple and we are the temple of God. This is our sanctification. Let nothing that defiles get in.
Righteousness is the absence of condemnation. Righteousness is right standing with God. Paul said “there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus who walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit.” The condemnation we are talking about is not condemnation from God so much as it is the self inflicted condemnation of the conscience. Condemnation is the main emotion and motivator in the mind that is taken into the cycle of addictions. This is what fuels the addictive cycle. This is the soul who is separate from God. The soul is the place where only God can fit. It is empty and wanting to be filled. They feel the pain of this emptiness and need to be anesthetized and therefore they are giving into all sorts of addictions, be they legal or illegal. Religious duties are likewise addictive without reward. It is the continual confessions at church on Sundays being an addictive cycle that never fills. The pain never goes away. Christ said “He who drinks of Me shall never thirst” and we are filled.
It says in the book of Hebrews that all the blood of the bulls and goats only indicated that there was sin, but that Jesus Christ took sin away to perfect forever those who are coming to him. And “the conscience once purged would have no more conscientisness of sin”. And “blessed is the man in whom the Lord accounts no sin, blessed is the man whose lawless deeds are covered up”. This is us who receive this. He is the great High Priest for this purpose. He is the only link between God and man of a broken relationship caused by transgressions and departures from the living God.
We see condemnation first with cane who said “my punishment is more than I can bear.” His countenance was fallen and was sick with scripture saying “if you do well it will be well with you but sin is like a demon crouching at your door whose desire is for you, to rule over you, but you must master it.” People who do not do well by making their own definition of what well is, strive to compete and fight and struggle and lie and cheat at their core. This only increases self condemnation. It makes the struggle of addiction harder.
The tools that control people with a guilty conscience are condemnation, fear and intimidation. Any such relationship that uses fear and intimidation is designed only to control you by fear. Fortunate for us we can cleanse a fear-based conscience by the gospel. We can be renewed in the mind by the word. Even as scripture says that “we being delivered from the hands of our enemies and all that hate us are able to live all the days of our lives without fear before God in true holiness and righteousness”. Didn’t the Apostle John say “he who fears has not been made perfect in love because fear involves torment”.
It is as we learn to walk with the Lord where there is no condemnation we see the enemy of fear coming. We learn that fear itself is much bigger than the thing that we feared. Like Jacobs fear of Esau. Upon the confrontation Jacob said “in your face I have seen the face of God”. And as the disciples showed in the boat that was rocking back and forth that immediately they receiving the Lord into the boat, the boat was immediately where they wanted to be. “In Christ”. This is our answer to the Rocky storms that fear brings in our life. This is the peace of God “the peace I give you not as the world gives give I to you”.
The fear of the unknown is perhaps the biggest monster in our lives from the kid who’s afraid to get out of bed in the middle of the night because of the monsters under the bed, to those who wonder what their end will be, who will feed them, and who will take care of them. We all fear these things but as the Lord told Abraham I am your Shield your exceedingly great reward. If we learn to apply this and walk in it, our enemies become our meat. It is our spiritual food for growth. Condemnation is a motivation by fear. This is the emotion of the fallen mind.
We are instructed to “take on the shield of Faith which is able to quench all the fiery darts of the enemy”, not just some. We see this over and over in scripture. We see David sling stones at Goliath and hitting him right between the eyes. We can do the same thing. We speak a word of Truth. “We Believe therefore we speak” as spoken by David and Paul quoted. And the thing that we say becomes our new reality. Like Him who said “let there be light” and there was light”. This is the way we show ourselves offspring of the Father. The Works of the father in us. We are His. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ so there should be no fear motivating factors. The peace of God has spoken saying “My peace I give you not as the world gives therefore let your heart not be troubled or afraid.” If we are allowing condemnation to rule in our hearts, we are taken captive by the enemy to do his bidding. He is the accuser, and accusation produces condemnation in a mind that has not been purged by the blood of the lamb.
So we respond to condemnation with word. That is our tool of faith for those in the faith, for those who have had their conscience purged by the Word as directed by the Spirit. This is for us who represent “The Kingdom of God at hand “. Selah