One of the most remarkable statements in God’s Word is found in Acts 13:
ACTS 13:22 And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.
Despite all of the shortcomings of King David, God considered him as a man after His own heart. There could be many reasons for this, but the one that stands out is that David kept short accounts with God.
When King David sinned, he was quick to repent, and he always continued in his pursuit of God. King David always pursued the heart and ways of God; he sought to understand how God saw things and fell in line with God’s view of things. He wanted to be like God in how he judged the people and in how he lived among the people he governed. His heart is revealed in his prayer in Psalm 139:
PSALMS 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: 24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
The word everlasting is the Hebrew word olam, which means the eternal realm of God’s Kingdom.
He prayed for God to search his heart and to lead him in the ways of God’s Everlasting Kingdom. He wanted to live his life like those in eternity, those in God’s Kingdom in heaven. He wanted to be like his Father God.
If David had lived in this age which you and I live in, the church age, David would not have survived; the church would have crucified and ostracized him. I am not seeking to gloss over the sins and shortcomings of David; however, we must learn to see others as God sees them.
God sees us not as we are, but as we are becoming. One of the problems we mortals have is learning to forget. Our perspective of a person is often colored by what we remember about that person, especially if we remember their failings.
I find it quite remarkable that God cannot remember our sins. Once we confess our sins, the record of it is removed from God’s records in heaven and also from His memory.
PSALMS 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
HEBREWS 10:17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
JEREMIAH 31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
This forgetfulness of God is necessary for Him to see us as being redeemed people; He is not influenced in any way towards us by the remembrance of our sins.
When we get to heaven, we will find that there is no memory of sin.
There is nothing negative in heaven, there are no evil thoughts, and after the initial judgment or the giving of an account of our lives to the Lord which determines our eternal place and positions in eternity, there is no regret or remembrance of failure.
We will look at everyone in heaven with no memory of their shortcomings. The only exception to this is the record of those lives recorded in the Scriptures, and even then, we will look at these records such as the sins of King David in such a way that will only bring rejoicing to our hearts because of the love and grace of God.
Jesus told us to pray,”Thy kingdom come in earth as it is in heaven.” I have often heard this verse quoted in the context of healing – for instance, there is no sickness in heaven, therefore it is God’s will that there be no sickness on earth. I have no problem with this, except that this is only one aspect of the Kingdom of Heaven. There is no backbiting in heaven, no wrong attitudes, no memory of sin!
We will always remember the wrong someone inflicted upon us as long as we don’t forgive them. To forgive is to forget, and Love covers a multitude of sins. We are explicitly told in the Scriptures to forget certain things:
ISAIAH 43:18 Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.
In counseling men and women whose partners have died not knowing the Lord who think they will be sad and heartbroken about this forever, need to be aware that this is not the case. They will not remember those things when they get to heaven; those things will be erased eternally from their memory; no sadness or sorrow can exist in heaven.
Joseph went through many really hard things: his brothers sold him into slavery and he was imprisoned based on false testimony.
But there came a time when Joseph truly forgave his brothers. Joseph did not wait to see his brothers before he forgave them; he probably thought that he would never see them again, but he had forgiven them before he was reunited with them.
GENESIS 41:51 And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house.
This is a remarkable thing; this experience was so real to Joseph that he named his first son in honor of it.
The name Manasseh means cause to forget. This experience was so real to him that his first-born son was named caused me to forget. If you truly forgive, God can cause you to forget.
Many of you need a Manasseh experience. We really should aspire to be like our Father God and forget the sins and shortcomings of others.
When we become aware of other peoples’ sins, and can affect how we see them.
We need a Manasseh experience just like Joseph had. The LORD, CAN CAUSE US TO FORGET. We can look at these people in the eye and have no memory of their sins. We need to truly forgive everyone from our heart and then ask God to erase the memory of their shortcomings and if we are truly sincere, He will do it, erasing the memory of these things from our minds so that we can view others with a pure heart.
1 JOHN 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
We live in a world that is awash with pollution. While we are aware of physical pollution accumulating on earth, most are not aware of the danger of spiritual pollution.
The prophet Isaiah spoke of great darkness covering the earth in these last days. This, of course, is not physical darkness – it is spiritual.
As Christians, we cannot avoid intermingling with the spiritual darkness around us. During a normal day in this world, we pick up some of the spiritual grime around us; this cannot be avoided. Sex and seduction scream from billboards and TV all day long, occult practices are now common in the world we live in and wash over us in shopping malls and bookstores.
Then, there are our daily shortcomings that tend to accumulate. The Apostle John wrote about the need for daily washing and cleansing. He said that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. However, he went on to say that if we confess our sins, the Lord Jesus is faithful to cleanse us.
John also said that this daily cleansing is necessary for us to continue to walk in the light with the Lord. John also wrote about Jesus washing the feet of His disciples (Jn 13).
The Jewish custom in the days of Jesus dictated that after a day going about normal business, it was necessary to wash one’s feet and especially the feet of guests who were visiting another person’s home.
Peter protested when Jesus tried to wash Peter’s feet. Jesus responded by saying:
JOHN 13:8 Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me”
Peter then responded Lord wash my feet, hands, and head. Jesus said this is not necessary: JOHN 13:10 10. Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.
Jesus said that he who has been washed, talking about our salvation and cleansing from sin, need not be washed again except for one’s feet. Our feet are the part of us that touches this earth. Just being in this world brings us into contact with the spiritual pollution of this world and requires a DAILY WASHING.
This daily washing is necessary for us to continue to walk in the light and fellowship with Jesus. If we neglect to do this, we get a build-up of spiritual pollution in our life which puts a veil between us and the Lord, dulling our spiritual senses.
The tabernacle of Moses was God’s dwelling place; it was God’s home on earth. There, in Holiest of All, He dwelt between the cherubim in Shekinah Glory. Before the High Priest could enter, he first stood before a huge container of water called the laver. He had to take the water and wash in it. This was Keeping Short Accounts with God more than a ritual cleansing – he was preparing to enter God’s presence and his heart had to be pure – he had to be clean. This was a life and death issue (see Ex 30:17-21).
Self-examination before God was crucial. Finally, when he knew and experienced the cleansing that this ritual represents, he stood tall and entered God’s presence.
King David knew of this process when he said:
Psalms 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: 24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
We, like that priest, must come before the Lord daily to be washed for us to walk in the light and fellowship with Him. Don’t let the spiritual grime build up in your life.
If we want to walk with angels and experience the realm of God’s kingdom, we need clean hands and a pure heart:
PSALMS 24:3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? 4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
Then you can experience
PSALMS 24:9 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
There is an interesting portion of Scripture in Zechariah chapter 3:
ZECHARIAH 3:3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel. 4 And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.
This cleansing of Joshua the priest was required to take him to the next level.
ZECHARIAH 3:6 And the angel of the LORD protested unto Joshua, saying, 7. Thus saith the LORD of hosts; If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by.
After this cleansing, the Angel of the Lord said to Joshua: “If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge I will give you places to walk among those that stand by.”
The question is – who was standing by? If you carefully look at Zechariah 2:1-2, you will see that a man stood by as well as an angel. See also Zechariah 3:4.
Joshua was given a place or an open door to walk with saints and angels in heaven. However, Joshua first had to be clean and have a change of clothing.
There is a certain level of purity that is required for you and me to walk in this realm. Angels are absolutely pure and for us to walk with them, it requires a certain level of purity for them to be our MANIFEST companions.
If we emanate purity, we can walk with them. If we are to have a daily walk with the Lord, we need a change of clothing – purity is required. The prophet Zephaniah spoke of this:
ZEPHANIAH 1:8 And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORD’S sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king’s children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel.
There is a notion in some circles of the church today that to reach the people of this world we need to be relevant to them and their culture, especially in how we dress. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Apostle Paul wrote:
ROMANS 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
The word conformed means to be pressed into the same mold. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world.
We pray, “Let it be on earth as it is in heaven.” Have you seen how they dress in heaven? The point is that what you are on the inside will inevitably translate to what you are on the outside, everything inside eventually shows on the outside.
If you are an undisciplined person on the inside, it will show externally. How you feel about yourself internally will show on the outside.
God is looking for purity of heart; we are to be clothed in righteousness in order to walk in the realm of God’s Kingdom while on earth.
Many of the clothing styles today represent a culture that is steeped in rebellion and uncleanness. The pure in heart will represent the qualities of the Kingdom of God.
We need to keep short accounts with God. Daily washing is necessary to stay clean and in a place of intimacy and fellowship with the Lord.