God Wants to Give Us a New Garment

This is the word God gave me during worship on 12/19/10.  I didn’t share it then, but pressed into God for greater explanation/revelation during the week, and I shared this on 12/26/10:

God wants to give us a new GARMENT; but first we must remove the OLD GARMENT.

As I prayed and sought God for greater revelation and clarification, this is what I received:

Garments can represent several things:

1) Covering
2) Authority
3) Glory
4) Identity
    a) The way others see us; the way we see ourselves.
    b) Blind Bartimaeus - Mark 10:46-52
In ancient times, your garment/mantle revealed everything about you.

Mark 10:46-52 (Red is my emphasis):

46(Then they came to Jericho And as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the road.
 47When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"
 48Many were sternly telling him to be quiet, but he kept crying out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"
 49And Jesus stopped and said, "Call him here." So they called the blind man, saying to him, "Take courage, stand up! He is calling for you."
 50Throwing aside his cloak, he jumped up and came to Jesus.
 51And answering him, Jesus said, "What do you want Me to do for you?" And the blind man said to Him, "Rabboni, I want to regain my sight!"
 52And Jesus said to him, "Go; your faith has made you well." Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him on the road.

Points:
1) Bartimaeus cried out to Jesus, and kept crying out.
2) When Jesus called for him, Bartimaeus threw aside his cloak/garment (representing his identity as a blind man because he used it to spread out to beg and receive alms) BEFORE he had received anything from Jesus.  He threw it aside in FAITH.
3) Bartimaeus cried out to Jesus, got His attention, threw aside his old identity by faith, then Jesus asked him what he wanted, and Bartimaeus then specifically stated what he wanted from Jesus.
4) We have been crying out to Jesus, calling to Him, asking Him to come, asking Him to intervene in our situation(s), but we must throw aside the old garment by faith.  Now Jesus is asking us specifically, “What is it that you want?” We have His attention, now we need to stop crying out, and we need to be able to specifically articulate to him what we are asking Him to do.


BEFORE WE CAN RECEIVE A NEW GARMENT, WE MUST REMOVE THE OLD GARMENT:

Remove the garment:

1) Like Blind Bartimaeus, it requires FAITH.  We let go of the old BEFORE we receive the new.
2) Remove the way we see ourselves; our gifts; how we function in our gifts
3) Remove all of the layers - sometimes we’ve just layered on the new over the old; after wearing a garment for a very long time, even the garments God has given us can become very heavy (the picture that came to mind was how mattresses become very heavy over time because the dead skin that sloughs off over time and becomes embedded in the mattress making it very heavy).  God wants to give us something NEW.
4) Become spiritually naked; vulnerable; allow God to clothe us with a new garment.

Implications:

1) Personally
2) Local Church
       a) Worship
       b) Prophetic
       c) Other ministries
3) “The Church” as a body of Christ