Prayer for Today
Father, I worship you and give YOUR Name the praise. For you alone are worthy of all the praise. I invite you to step in this place and take control. I submit to Your will, Your Word and Way. Holy Spirit direct my steps and guide me on my way. What is it that I can do for You, the Body of Christ and the Kingdom today.
Father teach us to know our worth. We are the salt because you called us to be the salt. Help us not lose our saltiness for it is our acceptable service to You and the discipleship You have appointed to every one of us who are called by Your Name.
Today's Key to Walking in the Spirit
Questions: Are you salted? Have you prepared to present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God?
One of the greatest things about walking in the spirit is the level of revelation that is availed. Revelation of who you are and what you are created to do. The things of spirit cannot be handled or understood unless you will put the flesh on the altar daily. You cannot bring the mere mind to the table of God and expect to sup with Him. We are going have to learn how to present our body as living sacrifice holy and pleasing to God this our true and proper worship. (Romans 12:1 NIV) The key to walking in the spirit is to avail oneself to the covenant of salt (Christ), be holy (separated for the Master's use) and please God (read Proverbs 16). Be salted.
Thought for Today
Here in this blog, Jasmin's Praying and Walking in the Spirit, I don't want to be just blogging, writing and speaking willy nilly. If God's not speaking than I really have nothing to say here. I have others blogs where I express myself on a variety of intellectual levels. The previous blog post I spoke regarding Matthew 5:13-16 as Jesus told us we are the salt and the light. But, do we know why he said it and what it means? Today's walking in the spirit key is "Be Salted." Let me explain how to be salted and why we who follow Christ need to do this.
I tell you salt is needed and it is valuable. There are thirty-odd references to salt in the English translation of the Bible. Those references are found in the Books of the Law (Genesis, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), the Books of Judges, Joshua, and Ezra, the Books of Wisdom (Psalm, Prayer of Manasseh, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Wisdom of Solomon, and Wisdom of Sirach, the Books of Prophet (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel) and the New Testament Matthew, Mark, Luke, Colossian and James.
There are 14,000 uses for salt known to man. These are a few of the basic characteristics of salt:
- needed mineral,
- essential element of diet (human, animal and plants),
- it is the most effective and widely used (food) preservative [even used in Egyptian mummy preserving],
- it used industrially, and medicinally, it is a taste enhancer,
- it is used as a symbol of wisdom and knowledge in many cultures,
- salt was used as a currency in many cultures (Ezra 4:14),
- salt was used in sacrifices (Leviticus 2:13)
- Salt spiritually represents an unbreakable bond between us and God.
Though salt has natural properties it also has spiritual properties that are important to the believer and non believer.
For the believer, we are called the salt (the seasoning, preserver, and cure) of the earth (the realm we are to subdue and have dominion). As we offer our bodies a living sacrifice the offering must be salted.Christ is covenant of salt [2 Chronicles 13:5] (Kingdom established forever), He is an everlasting covenant, and bond that cannot be broken. If we. who are called by His name, have not been crucified, and raised with Him we are speaking lies. If we who are called by His name do not pick up our cross and follow Him we are not His disciples. Because we have been made heirs we are part of the covenant of salt that God gave David. So were are the salt by virtue of salvation.
Leviticus 2:13 reads: "And every offering of your grain offering you shall season with salt; you shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your grain offering. With all your offerings you shall offer salt.
2 Chronicles 13:5 reads: "Don’t you know that the LORD, the God of Israel, has given the kingship of Israel to David and his descendants forever by a covenant of salt?"
Salt cannot be ingest alone. You cannot eat salt without measure. If you use too little, it has no effect. Likewise if you use too much it is useless. As we are the salt of the earth it is important to know how much we need to use. It is also vitally important we know where to use it. Salt is not meant for everything. In some instances salt brings about desolation and barrenness.
Ezekiel 47:3-12 reads:
"As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in—a river that no one could cross. He asked me, “Son of man, do you see this?”
"Then he led me back to the bank of the river. When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh. Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live. Fishermen will stand along the shore; from En Gedi to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets. The fish will be of many kinds—like the fish of the Mediterranean Sea. But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt. Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.”
There was point in water Ezekiel could not go. As matter of fact Ezekiel says, "no one could cross." The salt according to scripture went to specific part and then it salty water became fresh water. Note: the fresh (living) produced more life and healing. Christ, the covenant salt, became fresh (living) water for us.
John 4:7-15 NIV reads
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans). Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
It was not by happenstance that Jesus demonstrated how salt became living water in Samaria (among a people Jews did not associate). It is no coincidence that her impurities are washed out and she stands convicted by the Word of Truth. Her deliverance, the clarity of spirit and worship begin to show up as she receive the Living Water. What follows after is produce (life and healing). Life produce life.
When the Samaritan Woman, evangelizes, she is salt. She became the salt of the earth. She brings the cure, and the preservative. The woman's life was evident as was her transformation. The entire region believed and followed her to Jesus because of her testimony. But, at point they said, they believe because they experience the living water for themselves.
John 4:39-42 NIV reads:
Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers.They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
This is discipleship. It is not enough that we are saved, go to church and hear the Word. We are called to be the salt. We must bring the cure, be the preservative and in order to do that we have to become a living sacrifice that has been salted by the Christ, the covenant of salt and we must drink from the well that does not run dry.
My final thought regarding the salt is our speech must be seasoned. Colossians 4:6 NIV reads, "Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone." The key word is everyone. We need to know how to answer EVERYONE.
Grace & Peace.
