So (WOW!!!)

On PENTECOST 2024 (the evening of June 11 [beginning at 6pm], and all day into the evening of June 13 [ending at 6pm], which was the 2nd Pentecost that is observed by those in the diaspora [scattered]), my intent was to first consider the giving of the Torah, and then the receiving of the Holy Spirit. What I didn’t expect was find myself focusing on the Preparation (on the first day), and then to be redirected from Acts chapter 1 back to Exodus 19 where God told Israel to cleanse themselves and get ready to meet with HIM on the 3rd day.

Here are my notes from that study (I will share the video done at the end of this):

God told Moses to tell the Israelites something that I thought was weird. GOD said that they were to “wash their clothes”.

This was a big deal.

And it’s weird that I find myself writing about this now (once again redirected from what I was initially doing [gathering references as I work to complete the book Exposed Roots]).

I remember looking at Exodus 19:10, and asking my Tutor, “What does that mean?”

I didn’t know then what I know now which is that my being delayed in completing the book I’m working on was because more needed to be poured into me for this book.

So what brought me here today is that I was made to add a chapter to the book that clearly reveals that the bright light that exposes the evil deeds done in the darkness is the light of the Launderer whose soap cleanses. So I decided to do some research to see if there was any more said about the Launderer in the Word of God. Well, let me say that I was not disappointed.

In my drash [H. digging for a deeper understanding], I learned some new English and Hebrew words.

One of the English words that I learned was that there is a different spelling of the word soap – sope (an obsolete form of soap). The other is the word fuller which doesn’t just mean to wash or launder but to wash clothing in cold water with extra soap, extra rinse and extra spin of which the extra is Raba in Hebrew.

The English word “fuller” and the Hebrew word “Raba” stood out to me because when my washer broke, instead of getting a brand new set, I opted for a rebuilt top load. (My washer that broke was a front load.) I had NO IDEA that this was to be a lesson for me too. I didn’t understand then what I’m beginning to understand now which is that everything that happens all around us is a lesson.

(The Lord is trying to get our attention, but we don’t always hear and listen.)

The guy who sold us the washer recommended that I wash all of my laundry using the cold setting. (How I normally wash was the whites on HOT, the darks on COLD, and the brights on WARM. It’s what I learned from my mom who taught me as a child to wash clothing.) He said that I should use only the cold setting because the washer was being kept in the garage. He stated that it would put strain on the washer to heat up the water, causing the motor on it to go bad quicker.

(Yes, I believed him. I simply didn’t want the used washer that was rebuilt to go bad before we had a chance to get a brand new set. I was trying to prolong the inevitable, which is that a new set is needed, for as long as I possibly could. But, now that I think about it, what he told me doesn’t quite make sense. I think I might have quoted him wrong.) Anyway, when he said it, I understood,  and I just needed this washer to last until I get a new set that I’m really in no rush to get.

So, I have it set on cold and I don’t change the temperature setting, but I also have it set on extra rinse which means extra spin and yes I have to admit I use extra soap and I add Borax to the soap. Little did I realize that I was learning to be a “fuller.” I never anticipated this lesson at all, and I want to admit that I have absolutely no idea what the real benefit is to washing all colors in cold with “raba” (extra everything: soap, rinse, and spin).

Little did I know, until today, the symbolic meaning of the cleansing I was doing.

Now when I think back to my study during Pentecost 1 and 2, about cleansing our clothes, I now realize that my understanding of this was correct. They were and we are being told to cleanse ourselves, our heart.

What I didn’t know a few weeks ago when I first looked at this information was the Hebrew words:

• Kabas – clean clothing
• Harbeh – public and private or Inside / Out
• Raba – the extras (extra soap, extra rinse, extra spin or thorough)
• Taher – the washing of priests who serve the Lord, to render one pure. (This is so on point for my book Exposed Roots which addresses the falling of pillars in the church and in the community as a whole.)

The example given to help with the understanding of these words was that of King David (a pillar in government) who fell in such a way that it publicly damaged his reputation. (Y’all know what he did with Bathsheba.)

So he prays (sings) to be washed.

Psalm 51:2 New King James Version

² Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin.

#TremaineHawkins, as well as #TamelaMann sings it so beautiful when they sung “Change Me oh God” which is the plea to be washed, and then “A Wonderful Change has come over me” which is the after effect of having been made white as snow.

I found myself singing these songs over and over,
not because I was asking for the burning of the Refiner’s Fire. (Shoot, I experienced that yesterday when my air conditioner broke and my house registered 93 degrees before Father allowed it to be fixed. [And it doesn’t get past me that I was studying Malachi 3:2-3 the past couple of days lol.])

I was singing those beautiful songs because I understand now what David was saying and asking for. (And that is what led me to write here.)

You see, I know that people are singing Tamela Mann’s remake of Tremaine Hawkins’ song because it sounds good, and not because they understand the meaning of what is being sung.

If people truly understood that they were asking God, inviting God to do in their lives, to consume them, to burn them deep within, to cleanse them as with fire (aka the Refiner’s fire) to wash them (harbeh) publicly and privately, and to restore them from the impact and consequences of sin; if people truly understood that these songs is a public confession, would they sing it?

King David did something secretly that was openly exposed.

Luke 12:2-3 New King James Version

² For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. ³ Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.

This secret sin tarnished King David’s public reputation. So, when King David sung and prayed “Wash me thoroughly” (Psalm 51:2), he was asking for restoration publicly which meant that inwardly he needed to be cleansed too.

As King Jesus put it, you can’t put new wine into old wineskins.

Why? Because the outside is a reflection of what’s inside.

I guess that leads me to ask the same question that Jesus asked his disciples (the very question that planted me firmly into the process of counting the Omer during the feast of unleavened bread, now has me again examining myself)

“Who do people say I am?” (Because people like to talk)

“Who do you say I am?”

Why would I ask these questions of those who read me?

Because I cannot see myself.
But others can see me

And what others see is a true measure of who I really am.

As the Lord brings me through trials
And dross rises
It needs to be skimmed out

That is the purification process

The rising of dross
Is what is revealed on the outside
Of what has been inside

King Jesus helped us to identify these things when He said “out of the heart the mouth speaks”

Oooweee

So we need to listen to what others are speaking and we need to hear what we are saying to ourselves in our heart

And we need to be diligent to wash our clothing which means to cleanse our hearts so that our clothing can be clean.

We need to do this now because King Jesus is returning for a spot free bride.

So He is getting those of us who are submitting to the Refiner’s fire ready.

He is preparing us to be able to stand when He returns.

He is strengthening us to endure the extreme heat of the trial.

Why? Because it is the one who endures that will be saved.

So we need to learn to endure (Hebrews 10:36)

Oowee…

This is good.