Getting Rid of the Leaven

Carolyn, my SS teacher taught on the Jewish tradition at passover to get rid of the Leaven. Which led to alot of soul searching and prayer.
There has been much upheaval in my life the last 7 weeks, ( it doesn't feel like it has been less that 2 months... it seems like this has been forever... wonder what that means..) and ANYONE who knows me at all knows I do not like CHANGED!!! but God had been speaking to me in His still small voice about getting Craig's stuff out of my home. You see.. he had space not only in my life, my heart,-but my home. He had drawers with his stuff here. clothes that he kept here- taking up room in the dresser. I had the gifts he had given me even as late as this Christmas all over the house-- where it hit me every day like the sucker punch that it is. I had a nightstand full of his letters, I had every gift he had ever given me, I had the workbooks from our marriage seminars and counseling sessions-- all right next to where I laid my head every evening. I had my 'wedding closet' ( as my friends so aptly put it) full of things to run away to my wedding all ready to go-- right down to the undies and jewelry)--
I know-- ISSUES right... !!! Yes- there are issues there-- but they were CAUSED by the lies and promises someone kept making to me... right up until his last visit on 2/11/2009. I so am ready to lay this life down and press on to the one that my Father has for me and my son!!
But- I still have some work to do--- some lessons to learn.... some deep wounds to heal. But I DO know that it is time to GET RID OF THE LEAVEN! And God showed me that this passover season was HIS time that HE designated for me to remove that stuff from my home!



Purging Leaven From the House (Bedikat HaMetz)
God gave a ceremony of searching and removing leaven from the house prior to the festival of Unleavened Bread in preparation for the festival. In Hebrew, this ceremony is called Bedikat HaMetz, which means "the search for leaven" The ceremony is as follows:
The preparation for searching and removing the leaven (Bedikat HaMetz) from the house actually begins before Passover (Pesach). First, the wife thoroughly cleans the house to remove all leaven (HaMetz) from it. In the Bible, leaven (HaMetz) is symbolic of sin.
Spiritual Application (Halacha). Spiritually, the believers in the Messiah Yeshua are the house of G-d (Hebrews 3:6; 1 Peter 2:5; 1 Timothy 3:15; Ephesians 2:19). Leaven (sin) is to be cleaned out of our house, which is our body (1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 6:19-20; 2 Corinthians 6:15-18).
In cleaning the house, the wife is instructed to purposely leave ten small pieces of leaven (bread) in the house. Then the father takes the children, along with a candle, a wooden spoon, a feather, and a piece of linen cloth, and searches through the house for the ten pieces of leaven. By nightfall on the day before Passover (Pesach), a final and comprehensive search is performed. At this time, the house is completely dark except for the candles. Once the father finds the leaven (bread), he sets the candle down by the leaven and lays the wooden spoon beside the leaven. Then he uses the feather to sweep the leaven onto the spoon. Without touching the leaven, he takes the feather, spoon, and leaven, wraps them in a linen cloth, and casts them out of the door of the house. The next morning (the fourteenth of Nisan), he goes into the synagogue and puts the linen cloth and its contents into a fire to be burned.
Spiritual Application (Halacha). Spiritually, we are to cleanse the leaven (sin) from our houses (lives) by allowing the Holy Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh) to reveal to us, through the knowledge of Yeshua and the Scriptures, the sin that is in our lives. It is only through G-d's Word that we are able to identify sin in our lives as it is written in Psalm (Tehillim) 119:105, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." So the spiritual understanding of the candle is that it represents the Word of G-d. The feather represents the Holy Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh). Even though we have the Word of G-d, we need the Spirit of G-d (Ruach HaKodesh) to illuminate the entire Bible to us, including the Torah and the Tanach (1 Corinthians 2:11-14).
Messianic Fulfillment. The spoon represents the tree that Yeshua died upon (Deuteronomy [Devarim 21:22-23). The leaven (HaMetz) (sin) was swept on the spoon (the tree) as part of the ceremony. Likewise, our sin was swept or cast upon Yeshua (2 Corinthians 5:21) when Yeshua died upon the tree. The leaven (Yeshua upon the tree) was then wrapped in linen and Yeshua was cast out of His house (His body) and went to hell, which is a place of burning (Luke 16:19-24). Thus He fulfilled the part of the ceremony where the father takes the linen cloth and its contents and casts it into the fire to be burned.



From Loss to Prophetic Fulfillment
Chuck D. Pierce Newsletters - Prophetic Insight

found at http://www.charismamag.com/index.php/prophetic-insight/20264-from-loss-to-prophetic-fulfillment

Many of you have heard my family's testimony of overcoming barrenness. The Lord sovereignly healed my wife, Pam, in 1984. She immediately became pregnant, and pregnant again. However, we knew that the faith promise we had received in 1980 of having twins had never been fulfilled by the Lord.
In 1987, after adopting two children and having two natural children, Pam again became pregnant. However, this time we noticed that she was getting larger more quickly than she had with the first two pregnancies. We learned that this was because she indeed was carrying twins! What God had promised was now in motion.
Pam carried the babies to term, and on February 6, 1988, she gave birth to two beautiful identical twin boys, whom we named Jesse David and Jacob Levi. God's promise had been fulfilled!
But something was wrong in their new little bodies. One baby had a serious heart problem, and the other had a serious liver problem. Within one week of their birth, both of our new sons died.
I watched as they were born, and I held them as they died. The grief and mourning were almost overwhelming. The promise of these twins had been the reason that we could believe the barrenness in our lives would be broken, and now, just as it was being fulfilled, that promise had died.
How were we to react? We knew the Lord well enough to know that He was faithful. Actually, what we believed He had promised us had in fact manifested. Had we done something wrong? Were we to keep trusting? Just how were our emotions to be acting?
I was going back and forth between Dallas (visiting the hospital where the twins were being treated) and Denton (where Pam was in the hospital recovering from a C-section). How were we each allowing the Lord to deal with us? How would we process this together? Would we keep progressing?
When the second of our twins died, we had an outdoor memorial service for him. During that service, Pam stood up and sang a beautiful song out over the field where they were interred. It was an incredible moment.
One week after the death of the second baby, a friend called and said she had a real problem with the fact that God had allowed the boys' deaths. She was also having a problem with how Pam was dealing with this trauma—with seemingly unshakable faith.
One of the most impacting things I have ever heard anyone say came from my wife's mouth that day. Pam told our friend, "If there's one thing I've learned in my life, it's that the quicker I submit to the hand of God, the quicker I can resist the devil. I have chosen to submit to God's hand in this circumstance. And in submitting to the hand of God, He will give me the ability to overcome the enemy so that the double portion that has been robbed will be returned."
The Lord was speaking through my wonderful wife. Those words went deep into my spirit, and I have carried them since that time.
Here's how this applies to you: Even when you don't understand what has happened in your life, in the midst of your loss and resulting grief, you need to learn to submit quickly to God's greater plan for your life.
When we submit, we stand under. The concept of submitting is the act of allowing the wing of His goodness and grace to spread over us and shelter us from the accusatory thoughts of the enemy, the fray of the world and the condemnation of our own mistakes. If we always submit our lives to God, then we can resist the roadblocks in our destined path.
Truly, Pam and I eventually learned from this situation that loss has great benefit when we submit. We must allow God to work our situations for good and respond to His love no matter how difficult our circumstances may be.
Pam and I both were able to recognize that even in this trauma of the loss of two children, God was working out a higher-level promise of restoration on our behalf. Loss can produce a great acknowledgement of God within us if we submit to His hand.
Those incredibly hard things that we go through will truly become some sort of blessing in the hand of the Lord and will produce a greater prophetic fulfillment in our lives. Yes, a sad, bad, unbearable time can become a joy-filled moment when we place that moment in the hand of God and give Him thanks for the moment.
Time then takes a turn. The harsh memory of pain from the loss of expected joy can now be redeemed. That situation can become a transforming work of grace that can be seen in you for a lifetime.



Thank you God for the friends you have placed in my life to guide and affirm me. Thank you for loving me enough to ALWAYS be there for me! Thank you for never giving up on me and helping me to see that YOUR ways are not my ways--- but YOUR ways are the best for me. Thank you for loving me enough to send your son to die on the cross for me so that today I can claim a victory in you! Thank you for helping me identify the leaven in my life and giving the strength to get rid of it!!!

My prayer is that this RESURRECTION SUNDAY is not only remembrance of the rolling away of the stone for our risen SAVIOR, but TRANSFORMATION of a new life for me and Chase as we begin a journey that will take us to new and better places!