“On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went upon the house to pray about the ninth hour: And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready (was preparing food) he fell into a trance.

And saw heaven opened, a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been ( looked like) a great sheet knit (bound) at the four corners, and let down to the earth: Wherein (inside) were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.

And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have NEVER eaten any thing that is COMMON or unclean.

And THE VOICE SPAKE UNTO HIM THE SECOND TIME, WHAT GOD HATH CLEANSED, THAT CALL THOU NOT COMMON. This was done THRICE (THREE TIMES): and  the vessel was received up again into heaven.” Acts 10:10-16

Now this was Jesus giving Peter a little wake up call, because Peter had misunderstood the work of the Gospel and thought it was only to the Jews and he kept all the laws concerning whom he should socialize with and his thoughts toward them. but Jesus wanted him to be clear that what HE CLEANSED WAS FAR FROM COMMON.

Kinda funny when you think about it, here Jesus is telling Peter, eat this and Peter wants to argue about it, with his reply, “No, No, not going to happen BECAUSE I have NEVER eaten such things! We’re kinda like that sometimes aren’t we? God sees us, the us HE CREATED, HIS CHILD, and ALL THE POTENTIAL of our life and we’re like “Not so, Lord” BECAUSE I ……… and we give Him all of OUR reasons why we are just common, no good rotten sinners saved by grace who could never live up to His plan for our life.

Once Peter understood his mission to go pray for one, that he would have considered as such, he then understood the vision.

ACTS 10:28,29: ” And he (Peter) said unto them, YE KNOW that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation: BUT GOD HATH SHEWED (SHOWN) ME THAT I SHOULD NOT CALL ANY MAN COMMON OR UNCLEAN. Therefore came I unto you without gainsaying (objection), as soon as I was sent for…….”

 This can be a two-way street. Sometimes we can have the wrong opinion of others that God has cleansed and ones that he wants to cleanse. Sometimes we can forget that ALL HIS CHILDREN ARE CREATED EQUAL. A good point for this is when the soldiers came to arrest Jesus in the garden and Peter lopped off one of the soldiers ear and Jesus put it back on.

 Now Jesus did warn Peter that if you live by the sword, you must die by the sword, but one other note, even though the soldier was there to take Jesus he was still God’s child. And if you have two children and one is acting like a jerk you still do not want ANY OF YOUR CHILDREN HARMED whether they are being jerks at the moment or not, you still love them.

He feels the same way about us, all the saved and YES those who are not saved, all the messed up people who don’t know who they are in Him YET. And if we are not careful in how we treat them, they may never know. Back to us, sometimes our worst enemy is our self. God saves, heals us and we can’t get past the mind-set of who we were. We keep seeing, the sin, the mistakes, and failures THAT HE ALREADY did away with. We have an identity crisis in the worst possible way.

So today, if you are wrestling either with people who never want you to forget who you were ( stay away from them and don’t play it) or you are having trouble believing who YOU ARE in Him. I want to talk to you!  Please know that we can never change our past, do not let anyone beat you up over it because they have one too! But the main thing is to accept and really accept that it is gone, it is over and the person you were before Christ NO LONGER EXISTS. Please do not destroy your present and future with thoughts that are NOT OF GOD, He does not do that to us. That is the enemy that keeps reminding you, and every time it happens quote verses, here is a good one:

ISAIAH 43:18 “Remember ye not the former things, NOR consider the things of old.”

Study His word and in prayer learn who you are in Him. One of the biggest hindrances to the work God wants to do in these last days is the reluctance to just be who we are in Him. We often feel that we have to dress like this or that, or be more like this one or that one. But the truth is, HE CREATED US EXACTLY THE WAY HE WANTED US!

We are to never be anyone else and if they love God they will accept you for you! Because He does, and we are all different, we have different callings, different gifts and our personalities are created to help us achieve those things He has set before us. He actually refers to us as a special treasure, set apart, and different.

So please never think you are common, you are any thing but! You are actually quite uncommon, and that means rare and precious to HIM! God doesn’t deal in common, He deals in foreknown, predestined, and preordained, before the foundations of the earth!

So no matter how low, and insignificant  YOU may be FEELING, YOU ARE VERY SPECIAL TO HIM! AND DON’T  BE CALLING HIS TREASURE COMMON!!!!   Sending you Love and much peace in your coming week!

Φλογίζω Σαλπιζω  Rev. N. Brown Johnson 2016