Be Dressed and Ready, with your lights burning – Our Garments in the unseen world

The bible talks a lot about our garments, you’ll find more if you do a bible search for words like  gird, apparel, raiment, array, robed, cloaked, covering, dressed, clothed and the words “put on”.

The garments aren’t the physical clothes we wear every day, but a supernatural, invisible or spiritual clothing that the Lord can see- and other spiritual beings as well as we see in Zechariah 3 when Joshua the high priest is before the angel of the Lord. We are told Joshua was standing in filthy clothing and among him were the angel of the Lord, satan, the Lord was there because He spoke and others were ordered to give Joshua new clothes. Satan was causing some problems , resisting him, the bible says. We can guess that satan thought he had leeway to get involved because of the filthiness of Joshua. The Lord rebuked Satan and said to those who stood before him ” Take away the filthy garments (on Joshua)”  and to Joshua he said ” I have caused your iniquity to pass from out and I will clothe you with a change of raiment” So they clothed Joshua with garments , and put a turban on his head  all this while the angel of the Lord stood by.

Romans 13 tells us to cast off our works of darkness and  put on the armor of light

Scripture about spiritual garments:

1. We are to clothe ourselves with God’s word
2. We are to put on the Lord Jesus Christ Rom 13:14 (The night is almost gone, the day of salvation will soon be here, so remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes and put on the shining armor of right living… clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ)
3. Clothe ourselves with humility 1 Peter 5:5
4. He took off my sackcloth and gird me with gladness Ps 30:11
5. Be dressed and ready with your light burning Luke 12:35
6. Put on the armor of light Romans 13:12
7. Mortal will put on immortality 1 Cor 15:54
8. Righteousness covered me like a robe, I wore justice like a Turban Job 29:14
9. Solomon prayed ” May your priests be clothed with Salvation” 1 chron6:41
10. He girds me for strength for the battle 2 Sam 22, Ps 18:39
11. Clothed with strength and dignity Pr 31:25
12. “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.” Isaiah 61:10
13. seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him Col 3:9-10
14. Let my adversaries be clothed in shame and covered with confusion as a mantle Ps109:29
15. Let those who hate thee be covered in shame Ps 35:26,Job8, Ps 102:29
16. As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment, so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones. Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually Ps 109:18
17. Blessed is He who stays awake and keeps their garments, lest he walk naked and ashamed. R16:15
18. Eph 6- Put on the Full armor of God
19. 2 Cor 5:15 Be clothed, and do not be found naked

 

The Lord is robed in honor, majesty, honesty, truth, strength. He is dressed in a robe of light.He bound up the waters in his garment Ps 106, Psalm 93, Ps 104,Pr 30:4

Physical garments

• Gen 3 They were naked in the garden, when their eyes were open , they sewed fig leaves together and after the Lord spoke to them, He made them coats of skin.
• Joseph’ garment given to him by Jacob, and Joseph giving his brothers garments
• Angels described as wearing white robes John 20:12
• Priest white linen
• Scribe wore white linen
• Priests robed in godliness Ps 132:9
• Ruth was told to put on her best garments before going to Boaz
• Esther spent months preparing and selecting clothing before seeing the king

I love this verse, I believe this is to Jesus, you have to read the full chapter to see : When you go to war, your people will serve you willingly, you are arrayed in Holy garments and your strength will be renewed each day like the morning dew. ( I need my strength renewed like that)

Consider the Parable in Matthew 22 when Jesus tells us about the wedding guest that came to the great feast the Lord God had prepared “ And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.  Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen. (if you don’t know the story, read the chapter)

I always wondered about this verse, was the man poor? why wasn’t he wearing the right clothes? why was the Lord so angry at this? why was he given such a harsh eternal judgment? It wasn’t until I prepared my daughter’s wedding recently that I saw this verse differently. A lot goes into a wedding, I was doing something every single day for months to prepare for this massive event. I carefully considered each person, I wanted it to be a day to honor my daughter and a day every person would enjoy. A lot of time, energy, effort, money went into planning this. The days before the wedding, and perhaps my stress level was high, I remember thinking- if anyone shows up looking unkept- like they didn’t want to be there , or a someone comes in wearing a white dress to disrespect my daughter – I was going to take them down- horrible, I know, but I prepared this for my guests and to honor my daughter. Each person arriving also represented me and my family. If my brother showed up unshowered from a fishing trip with flip flops and shirt full of holes, and probably and ungodly message on the shirt, well that would say he really didn’t care. (He didn’t do that) I wouldn’t take him down, but if a girl showed up in a white long lace dress, I would have taken her down. Yes, sorry to disappoint my readers, truth be told. You can’t really judge me, because the Lord took his guest and threw him out into outer darkness…..

 

The Lord is dressed in a ROBE OF LIGHT -GARMENTS OF DAZZLING WHITE- LIGHT, LIKE LIGHTNING

 

• In Luke 9:29, Jesus’ face was transformed and his garments became radiant, looking up the word in greek : like lightning, dazzling white
• Psalm 104:1-2 O Lord our God, you are dressed in a robe of Light
• He put on garments of vengence and zeal as a cloak. Righteousness was his breastplate, the helmet of salvation on His head. Is 59:17
• And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever. Daniel 12:3
• Woman clothed with the sun Rev 12:1
• Those who come out of the great tribulation and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb Rev 7:14  (g3021 white- same as description of Jesus when he became radiant like lighting in Mark)
•  And Cornelius said, Four days ago I was fasting until this hour; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and, behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing, And said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God. Acts 10:30 ( g 3021, only other time this word is used for white, is in Mark 9 describing the Jesus on mt of transfiguration- dazzling white light)
• Remember Moses! He was so bright he had to cover his face among the people
• Rev 19:7-8 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints: in greek white is : shining, brilliant, white, gorgeous (G2986)

A dream and vision of brilliant light garments ; a few years ago, early in the morning, I was waking up out of a very different dream. It seemed there had been an innumerable amount of time and hours spent searching through my entire life- an exhaustive study- you could say of me. Things were being taken out of my life- every bad thing I had ever done and said, along with every wrong or bad thing that had happened to me.  All of this was being taken out of me and put in a canister that was being held by an angel. There was much- intense study- searching back to my early childhood. I stood there as my life was being cleaned out – as if they were going in my heart/spirit and cleaning everything out. I was waking up and the dream still continued as I was awake – watching it all play out before my eyes. They had gone back to my toddler days- every hurt was being taken out of me, things I didn’t even realize were there. Times when I had sinned, hurt others, moments of sadness, times when others hurt me. They didn’t stop until every wrong, every hurt, every evil was gone. It was amazing to think that even as a small child, there were things that I didn’t even know were there. They were taking out all the times I had been hurt or hard times I had suffered- even back to my toddler and childhood days. It was amazing.. This was no short event, it seemed to go on forever, but as I watched, and I was awake fully now, I could see a bright light around and on me, I could see myself standing up with my arms out as my life was searched and cleaned out.(At this point I am fully awake and watching this)  I looked at the canister and it was almost full and I turned to see myself, I looked- and in amazement I had turned into this brilliant shining white light. My arms, my clothes were like a bright white shining light. I could see myself on a brilliant white step and there I was- a brilliant shining white light. I was changed and transformed. I wonder if this is what will happen when the Lord changes us when He returns again! It was amazing.

These garments, unseen to us, fascinate me. I know these scripture are more than words or more than an illustration, they are real. We know we will be given a white robe, will this robe be a brilliant light? How awesome to think of this day, a day with no more tears, no more fears, no more sickness, no death, no pain, no more sorrow and this day is being prepared for you!

I have so much more to share! There is so much more on garments, I’ve barely touched the surface. I hope you have found this as exciting and thought provoking as I have! If you want to study more, there is so much more in Revelation and throughout scripture- the 24 elders before the throne, the army that comes back arrayed in white robes with the Lord Jesus Christ, angel clothed with a cloud and face was like the sun, cloak of Elijah, Robe dipped in blood, white robes given to those under the altar who were slain for the word of God,  the 7 angels who came out of the temple in pure white linen, uncountable number of people before the throne clothed in white robes, robes of the high priest, Church of Sardis who had not defiled their garments and will walk with Jesus in white, the church of Laodicea instructed to buy white raiment from the Lord

 

Besides our physical garments, we have spiritual garments both here on earth and new ones to be given to us. Consider your garments- are they clean and covered with God’s word, humility, righteousness,dignity, the Lord Jesus, and truth? or are they soiled by our dark deeds, what we say, our motives, what we allow ourselves to do and see?  Be dressed and ready with your light burning or the master of the house will throw you into outer darkness. You won’t hear that in church. Wake up. (and Phil 4:8 your thoughts)