“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me…. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit.”
—Psalm 51:10,12
Beloved, be of good cheer: though sin separates us from God (Isa. 59:2), Yeshua has gone before us to pave the way for us to experience our Father’s love and truth. Accepting that Yeshua’s death on the cross paid the penalty for our sin is often seen as a one time experience. But the key to moving into greater depths of the joy-filled, love relationship our Father desires to have with us is to discover a lifestyle of repentance.
The works of the flesh (sin) create a barrier that keeps us from experiencing the love and presence of Father God. The priests who served in the Old Testament temple knew well that the presence of our holy God would not manifest until the issue of sin was addressed at the altar of sacrifice. To experience the Holy Spirit in our mortal temples, we must apply this principle. As we humbly fall to our knees each day, repenting of the thoughts and actions we engage in without regard for our Creator, we’ll experience Yeshua’s blood washing away all that has kept us from truly knowing Father’s love and forgiveness.
Whenever we feel a heavy oppression upon us, the way out of this torment and into Father’s peaceful, loving presence is to acknowledge the darkness and plead the blood of Jesus over our souls to receive a revelation of Father’s forgiveness, love, and truth. Father desires to replace the sin, darkness, and oppression that plague our hearts with His healing love and presence.
To truly seal your heart with Father’s joy and good cheer, look up and overwhelm Satan’s lies by proclaiming God’s Word. Proclaim who you are in Messiah. (Use, for example, Romans 8, to declare that you are rescued from darkness, your flesh is crucified with Jesus, and you live according to the law of the Spirit of life.) Proclaim who God is to you and thank Him for what He has done.
The Lord is truly our shepherd and compass. Let’s lead a lifestyle of repentance, continually applying Yeshua’s blood over our hearts so we encounter and are transformed by Father’s love and truth.
Thank You, Yeshua, for Your blood that covers my sin and releases me into the presence of my loving Father. Continue to wash me and transform me so that I may experience my Comforter, the Holy Spirit, and walk with my Father in joy and good cheer.
Cynthia Schneider, From Passover to Pentecost (Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, 2021), Used by permission.
