My 94 year old father recently had a dream in which his
grandson said to him, “Grandpa, if you want to go deeper in prayer, ask Jesus
to wash your feet.” What did this mean? Didn’t washing feet in the church mean
service to one another? I began pondering
this statement and asking the Holy Spirit to explain it to me.
This is what he said, “Jesus is serving you.”
I was shocked. Aren’t I supposed
to serve Him?
“No,” Holy Spirit said, “He
is serving you by making you holy.”
I
remembered that Jesus had told the disciples, “You are already clean because of
the Word I have spoken to you.” (John
15:2) And 1 Peter 1:2 states that the Holy
Spirit sanctifies us unto obedience. It
is clear from scripture that we cannot make ourselves holy or pure.
When Jesus washed the disciples’ feet Peter resisted until
Jesus said, “Unless I wash you, you have no part [or share] with me.” (Jn 13:8) Jesus went on to reassure the disciples that
they were clean and that a washed body only needed to have its feet
washed. Obviously this was meant to be
an analogy as opposed to a physical ritual.
Although our bodies are precious to God, He is less concerned with dirty
feet as He is with worldly contamination that sticks to the edges of our
souls.
So how does He wash our metaphorical feet? Ever so gently he shines the spotlight on our
hearts to expose any darkness. Sometimes
He is already removing the worldliness without us being fully aware of the
process. I remember as a young mom how I
began to feel somewhat uncomfortable with the large number of novels that I
would borrow from the local library. It
was an insatiable need to have at least 10 – 15 books on hand in case I had time to read. Pondering the source of this sudden
discomfort I gradually began reducing the number of books that I borrowed. Over time the novels I used to love became
less appealing and my reading priorities shifted to the Bible and spiritual
books. This change in preference gave me
a much stronger foundation for raising my children who began arriving soon
after. Now I can clearly see that the
Holy Spirit was gently sanctifying my reading preference and cleansing me with
edifying materials. He was washing my
feet.
Even though I wanted to be a powerful prayer warrior,
sanctification did not mean that I was ready to immediately jump into deeper
intercession and anointed ministry. It
simply meant that I was in training. I
loved the Lord with a simple heart but that love still had a lot of growing to
do. My heart had to learn how to receive
the Father’s love so that it could be enlarged.
I had to learn to be able to hear the Holy Spirit and to recognize His
anointing. I had to let go of my agendas
in prayer and simply come to Jesus with adoration and worship. And always, the
Word had to inform and confirm my experiences.
Slowly I have learned to trust Jesus to keep me pure. Having the mind of Christ means that His ways
are continually flowing through me and cleansing me from my ways. I have found greater fellowship with Jesus,
the Holy Spirit and the Father, and this brings me much joy. I expect that my prayers are becoming more
anointed and powerful although it is not always given to us to see the ‘fruit
of our labors’. I simply come to Jesus
with a heart of love whenever I am praying for someone and rest in His ability
to interpret my groans and utterances.
