In ancient times, the bodies of newborn babies were rubbed down with salt to ward off any infection they could have easily gotten. The salt made the skin of their bodies smooth. How does salt benefit our spiritual man? The answer is the action of prayer. Just like babies, we are made clean through ceremonial washing and the applying of salt onto our skin. As His sheep, our Creator daily cleanses us with the spiritual salt to preserve us for the glory of His kingdom.
God will not answer our prayers if we have an evil desire to pray selfishly. Why won’t they be answered, you may ask? The main factor of God not answering prayer is the simple fact that God wants the very best for us. This is why we should repent of every sin we have committed when we pray. We must prepare our spirit and heart to commune with Jesus Christ, our Father. Therefore, the importance of prayer cannot be stressed enough. Our prayer must be lined up with the Word for the salt to remain within us. Matthew teaches us a crucial lesson about the importance of retaining our spiritual salt. Matthew 5:13 states, “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.”
Let us strive in our prayer life to make them (our prayers) beneficial to God, so they may be our finest choice of burnt offering. Let us wait upon Him patiently to answer our prayers. He has graciously sprinkled salt into our lives. Therefore, when we pray, let our prayers be sprinkled with salt and not rashness. Otherwise, if we pray empty prayers, the spiritual salt that covers our lives will cease. Then, we can actually get to the point in our walk with Christ Jesus that our desire to seek Him will be of no priority.
Our first desire should be to seek out the “true love” in our prayer life, which should be God the Father. Our first choice offering is being open and honest with our Father in heaven. When we come to a point in our lives when we are not honest with God, we sometimes lie to ourselves and pretend not to hide things from God. We may be good at hiding and holding things back from humankind, but, no matter what the difficulty is in our personal lives, we need to give it all to Him so we do not shortchange ourselves spiritually. It will take us longer to approach a mature level in our spiritual lives, and the pleasant aroma that God desires in us will erode if we keep up the spiritual immaturity.
Jehovah wants us to become spiritually smooth in our prayer life. As we become spiritually smooth (with no sins to bind us), our prayer life will become pleasing to Him. Jesus Christ wants to chip off the things in our lives that have become idols to us. These idols prevent us from getting close to Him and detour us from the Scriptures. The salt that God sprinkles within us is the only way we can be truly set free and be refined in the furnace.
Romans 8:5 states, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.”The Scriptures make the fact transparent that we cannot live in the flesh and still try to do the things of God. We cannot, as believers in Christ, have a divided heart. Either our prayer life will be autonomous, or it is going to remain God-centered. He should be the center of our lives. At the same time, we should remain pure in heart and soul, mind and body, and spirit. Sin has the physicality effect in our bodies, and we are born into it. It damages us relationally in our level of maturity with Christ, and God’s word teaches us that our sin makes us unholy and unfit for Him.
Genesis 4:7 says, “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.” As Christians, we need to resist sin with the armor of God that He has given us and all that we are spiritually. An example of this is the woman mentioned in Matthew 9:20. She had earnestly prayed for 12 years to be healed of hemorrhages. God was very faithful and merciful to heal her, answering her long-awaited prayer. We can learn so much from this woman spiritually. She did not waver, but laid down her body as a sacrifice. This was done not in a literal fashion, but in a spiritual fashion. She sacrificed her body through prayer. The woman pushed her way through a crowd to see Jesus the Christ and to hear Him speak and to be healed by Him. Finally, her prayers were answered through the faithfulness and mercy of Jesus Christ. As she touched the edges of His tzitzit (fringes), she became the sweet aroma of sacrifice that is pleasing to God.
You see that the armor of God protects every area of our body. When a person went into battle in the ancient days, they would dress in armor gear that would protect every inch of their body. The ancient Scripture protects every spiritual area in us. In Ephesians 6:13, Paul wrote, “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.” Jehovah has given us a double thickness in our spiritual armor. He has given us the armor of God, which is His Word, and the salt that He sprinkles over our lives is to protect and to preserve the spiritual man. While we continue to fight our spiritual battles, there is one more point I would like to make. It is that we are protected by His salt covenant and by His promises that are found in His Word.
Written by Michael Jones
SALT COVENANT Part 2
As believers, we should realize the spiritual error when we do not truly follow the Messiah with our whole heart. In turn, it will affect the salt that we have in our spiritual man, and our sin will slowly erode the spiritual salt we already have.
In unity, Satan and his Demons (fallen angels) are trying to destroy God’s children who have a personal relationship with our Creator. The evil one hates the very fact that we worship Jesus Christ, and give glory unto Him, and Satan is very jealous of God’s splendor. Lucifer wishes our very worship were directed to him. John 10:10 says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” Jesus told us through His word that He has given us authority over the Demonic realm. If Jesus has given us this type of authority then we should realize this is part of the “armor of God” Paul speaks about.
Jehovah will not leave us without His authority for us to exercise and use. His armor will never leave us wanting and spiritually naked. He is faithful enough to keep us equipped with His Word. By studying and praying each day we are clothed with the armor of God. With it, comes His wisdom and knowledge of how the enemy operates. In turn, it also shows us how God operates.
As long as we are in communion with Jesus Christ, the prayers we pray are a salt offering, which is a sweet aroma for God. Our every word, our every thought, which comes from the heart, is a salt sacrifice that we should give to Jesus our Lord when praying.
As you see, our Creator will preserve our spiritual nature through the act of salt. We draw nearer to Him because of the refining process that works within us. Through our prayers, our sins are blended together with the salt of God. What does this mean to us as Christians? In time, the salt He graciously sprinkles over us will begin to purify us. Before we go further, it is important for us to know the facts about “living in sin” and being “born into sin.” There is a clear distinction between the two. When a person defies God and purposely lives in his or her sin, it is known as habitual sin. Thus, they are “living in sin.” A person may be bound by their sin and cannot be set free from it until they give it over to the Creator’s hand. Adversely, everyone here on earth is “born into sin.” As Christians, we may not have a physical bondage with a certain sin. However, the fact is that we were born into sin. We are in need of Jesus’ sacrificial blood that He once shed on the tree in order for us to have forgiveness of sin.
When we are getting our lives back in order with Jesus Christ, the spiritual salt starts immediate healing in our spiritual man. We begin to shift from the worldly system of Satan, and we begin to transition our lives into the hands of Jesus. Through time, our sin will not have the power over our flesh. The salt pulverizes our sin so our prayer life can be free from any restraint.
If we continue to stray from Him, as Cain did, with self-centered prayers and impure motives, we should be prepared that God will not honor our prayers. Cain had given God a less-than-worthy offering to Him and he purposely short-changed Him of the offering by not giving his best to his God.
Written by Michael Jones
In unity, Satan and his Demons (fallen angels) are trying to destroy God’s children who have a personal relationship with our Creator. The evil one hates the very fact that we worship Jesus Christ, and give glory unto Him, and Satan is very jealous of God’s splendor. Lucifer wishes our very worship were directed to him. John 10:10 says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” Jesus told us through His word that He has given us authority over the Demonic realm. If Jesus has given us this type of authority then we should realize this is part of the “armor of God” Paul speaks about.
Jehovah will not leave us without His authority for us to exercise and use. His armor will never leave us wanting and spiritually naked. He is faithful enough to keep us equipped with His Word. By studying and praying each day we are clothed with the armor of God. With it, comes His wisdom and knowledge of how the enemy operates. In turn, it also shows us how God operates.
As long as we are in communion with Jesus Christ, the prayers we pray are a salt offering, which is a sweet aroma for God. Our every word, our every thought, which comes from the heart, is a salt sacrifice that we should give to Jesus our Lord when praying.
As you see, our Creator will preserve our spiritual nature through the act of salt. We draw nearer to Him because of the refining process that works within us. Through our prayers, our sins are blended together with the salt of God. What does this mean to us as Christians? In time, the salt He graciously sprinkles over us will begin to purify us. Before we go further, it is important for us to know the facts about “living in sin” and being “born into sin.” There is a clear distinction between the two. When a person defies God and purposely lives in his or her sin, it is known as habitual sin. Thus, they are “living in sin.” A person may be bound by their sin and cannot be set free from it until they give it over to the Creator’s hand. Adversely, everyone here on earth is “born into sin.” As Christians, we may not have a physical bondage with a certain sin. However, the fact is that we were born into sin. We are in need of Jesus’ sacrificial blood that He once shed on the tree in order for us to have forgiveness of sin.
When we are getting our lives back in order with Jesus Christ, the spiritual salt starts immediate healing in our spiritual man. We begin to shift from the worldly system of Satan, and we begin to transition our lives into the hands of Jesus. Through time, our sin will not have the power over our flesh. The salt pulverizes our sin so our prayer life can be free from any restraint.
If we continue to stray from Him, as Cain did, with self-centered prayers and impure motives, we should be prepared that God will not honor our prayers. Cain had given God a less-than-worthy offering to Him and he purposely short-changed Him of the offering by not giving his best to his God.
Written by Michael Jones
SALT COVENANT Part 1
In the Grecian world, about the fourth century, the word “church” was understood as an “assembly.” Jesus has called the Christians and Messianic Jews. He has called us out of the secular world. Adonai has called us out from this world and into His glory. He calls for us to be kept separate from the worldly systems, which belong to Satan. In John 17:14-18, Jesus said, “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.”
From these Scriptures above, God has mandated us to continually remain apart from the world so we can be that righteous offering that is pleasing unto Him. God knows how destructive it would be if His believers were to become part of the secular world. He knows we would eventually become hardened under our sin, and in this situation, we would not hear His voice when He calls for us.
Let’s go to the story of Job. Job was a righteous man and a patriarch. As a family man, he served in his household as a priest. Everyday he would pray and consecrate his children every morning. While praying for his children, a spiritual application was presented here.
There is spiritual salt that comes from God when we pray. As in Job’s case, this salt helped him keep in tune when God spoke to him. It certainly preserved his spiritual state. Additionally, when we keep serving Jehovah and the more we pray to Him, the more the spiritual salt keeps us Holy and keeps us apart from the profane.
In the Bible, you will not find any formulas in how to pray, nor are there any shortcuts in prayer. There aren’t even any rituals we need to assimilate. We can pray standing, kneeling, or prostrate on the ground. We can pray in a bowed position, facing north, south, east, or west.
Let us remember to keep our prayers fruitful so it can bear many fruits in us. If we have prayers that we pray which are empty and selfish, our prayers will lose the salt that will preserve us spiritually between ourselves and God.
As believers, how do we retain the spiritual salt, which will help us? The answer can be found in Galatians 5:16-17. “Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want.”
When we desire to do the things of Jesus Christ and to “walk in the spirit,” then we will not be praying or acting out of His will selfishly (for our own benefit and our own autonomous means). We should continually seek the word of God, and then we will know His purpose for our lives. We need to know the Messiah our Redeemer on a more personal and spiritual level.
We have a moral duty to keep the spiritual salt maintained in our lives. How do we do this? By cultivating our spiritual life everyday through prayer and reading the Word of God. Thus, our prayers will be a sweet aroma, pleasing unto Him.
By Michael Jones
From these Scriptures above, God has mandated us to continually remain apart from the world so we can be that righteous offering that is pleasing unto Him. God knows how destructive it would be if His believers were to become part of the secular world. He knows we would eventually become hardened under our sin, and in this situation, we would not hear His voice when He calls for us.
Let’s go to the story of Job. Job was a righteous man and a patriarch. As a family man, he served in his household as a priest. Everyday he would pray and consecrate his children every morning. While praying for his children, a spiritual application was presented here.
There is spiritual salt that comes from God when we pray. As in Job’s case, this salt helped him keep in tune when God spoke to him. It certainly preserved his spiritual state. Additionally, when we keep serving Jehovah and the more we pray to Him, the more the spiritual salt keeps us Holy and keeps us apart from the profane.
In the Bible, you will not find any formulas in how to pray, nor are there any shortcuts in prayer. There aren’t even any rituals we need to assimilate. We can pray standing, kneeling, or prostrate on the ground. We can pray in a bowed position, facing north, south, east, or west.
Let us remember to keep our prayers fruitful so it can bear many fruits in us. If we have prayers that we pray which are empty and selfish, our prayers will lose the salt that will preserve us spiritually between ourselves and God.
As believers, how do we retain the spiritual salt, which will help us? The answer can be found in Galatians 5:16-17. “Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want.”
When we desire to do the things of Jesus Christ and to “walk in the spirit,” then we will not be praying or acting out of His will selfishly (for our own benefit and our own autonomous means). We should continually seek the word of God, and then we will know His purpose for our lives. We need to know the Messiah our Redeemer on a more personal and spiritual level.
We have a moral duty to keep the spiritual salt maintained in our lives. How do we do this? By cultivating our spiritual life everyday through prayer and reading the Word of God. Thus, our prayers will be a sweet aroma, pleasing unto Him.
By Michael Jones
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