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Warriors Arise: June 29, 2023

Matthew 3:11-12 (NKJV) I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

John is not painting a pleasant or desirable picture. It is a fire and brimstone message. He is passionate for people to understand God, the Father, is real. He is someone each person can relate with. He is urging them to look for the One God is sending, the One who will baptize them with the Holy Spirit and fire. He wants them to receive what the One God is sending. Repentance is the first step but it isn't the only step.

We have to take the next step. Many of us are saved. Jesus Christ is our Savior and Lord. We have confessed our sin, received forgiveness, and invited Jesus into our lives. If you were to see a picture of someone winnowing the chaff you would see the wheat stalks being beaten and crushed.

Several yers ago, I took our children to the Iowa Living History Farms. We came to an 1800 homestead. I woman had a pole in her hand and attached to the end was a wooden cylinder about 6 inches in diameter. She hoisting it over her shoulders and coming down hard on stalks of grain that had been laid out upon a large cloth. Over and over again she raised the stick with the wooden cylinder and smacked the wheat stalks. She paused to pull the stalks off and resumed. She was not gently threshing the wheat. She didn't want it to become powder yet, but she did want the chaff to come off. She could see how much further she had to pound based on the color of what she saw. The seed and the chaff are two different colors. The seed is heavy and would remain on the cloth while the chaff would catch the wind and become airborne. Winnowing wheat is an intense and difficult job. However, it is incredibly important. It is necessary especially if you want to plant and have a harvest the next season. But what about getting rid of the old, the chaff? In verse 12, "His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire," I recognize John is prophesying to the day when God will judge the world and all that are in it. Some will remain in heaven while others will be condemned to hell based on their rejection of the offer to be a part of His family. However, this verse compels me to look a little deeper.

The point of winnowing wheat is so the chaff, the outer shell that covers the seed, is removed. The hard cover needs to be removed so the kernel can be used. The kernel can be a seed to plant or it can be crushed to flour and made into food to nourish the body. We haven't arrived at our purpose when we grow atop the wheat stalk. We arrive at our purpose when we have developed into a kernel. Then God decides if we are used as a seed to produce more wheat, more seeds or if we are to become flour and feed others.

Once you and I have grown into the stalk producing the seeds, then comes the harvest. I do not know if I am ever ready for the winnowing but it is a necessity in order to reproduce or to have Christ in me be given as the Breath of Life for another to nourished spiritually. I do not care for the winnowing, but it is necessary for my life and for the lives of those who come after me. When the winnowing comes, I pray I am ready to release the chaff, the hard protective shell. It was good for a time, so the bugs couldn't get to the kernel. It was good to protect me from the weather. I wouldn't be scorched by the sun or get moldy by the rains. I do not have to protect myself, because God protects me. His desire for You and I to become what He needs, seed or flour, is far greater than our own. We may see the winnowing picture and want to bypass it, but to become what God has for us means we must allow the winnowing in our life to take place.

Father, winnowing is a hard picture to receive. I know it is necessary to become everything You desire for me to be. I want the chaff to be removed. I want to see what needs to be removed in my life and let go of it. I do not need to protect myself from You. I do not need to protect myself at all. You are my protection. You are the One who keeps the bugs from eating the nourishment of what is inside of me. You are the One who keeps the sun from scortching me. You are the One who keeps the rain from causing me to rot. I trust You. I will not fight against having the chaff removed. I will lay before the wooden cylinder and trust You to remove what is keeping me from reproducing as a healthy seed to plant. You will remove what is keeping me from being prepared as flour. I will trust You to prepare me for what You have for me next in Jesus' name amen.

A Warrior in the Lord’s Army,

Veridee Joy Hand

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