“I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God.  For He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of His righteousness…” – Isaiah 61:10, NIV.

Three weeks ago, I had an unusual dream. I was with Apostle Grace Lubega at a place where many Old Testament and New Testament men of God were gathered.

I saw one particular old prophet who was clothed in a certain robe.

So I told Apostle Lubega that it was the kind of garment that I wanted too.

However, he replied that such a garment was currently out of stock but that it would be made for me, if it’s what I wanted. That’s how the dream ended.

We all want to be clothed, don’t we?  Oftentimes our dress code can be our identity.

You may be able to tell one’s profession or occupation by how one is dressed.

In the Bible, the Hebrew word for ‘clothed’ first appears in Genesis 3:21: “To Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skin, and clothed them.”

This was after Adam and Eve had disobeyed God and covered themselves with fig-leaves (Genesis 3:7).

As always, did God provide something much better for man than what man could do for himself.

Religion is not sufficient to clothe ourselves with; we need the divine covering that comes from God.

That’s what Job meant when he said in Job 29:14: “I put on righteousness, and it clothed me …”

The word used here denotes a traveling ‘cloak’ for protection against bad weather, something akin to the loose garment that Karimojong men put around their body today.

Indeed, in the Old Testament, a cloak was used by God’s prophets, as a token of their contempt of worldly splendor.

In this wayward generation, may the Church follow Christ’s counsel to the Laodicean Church to pay the price for “white clothes to wear, so we can cover our shameful nakedness.”

In Jude 23, the description of “the garment spotted by the flesh” is a metaphor for being defiled or polluted by fleshly lusts.

In Revelation 3:18, Jesus counseled the “naked” Laodicean Church to procure from Him “white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness.”

That was a shadow of the Old Testament nation of Israel, which testified; “I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God.

For He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of His righteousness…” (Isaiah 61:10, NIV).

In a different context, Jesus metaphorically described the disciples’ anticipated infilling by the Holy Spirit as being “clothed with power from on high.” (Luke 23:49, NIV).

Also, those who were “baptized into Christ have clothed themselves with Christ.” (Galatians 3:27).

That implies that those without Christ are ‘unclothed’ in God’s sight.

The apostle Paul used the idea of being ‘clothed’ figuratively when he admonished the Colossian believers to “put off your old self” and to “put on the new self” (Ephesians 4:22,23).

The point he was making here was that we know that Christ is on the inside you; now adorn yourself with Him so we see it on the outside.

What do God and people see? Can they identify us by our ‘dress code’?

Are we ‘naked’ or “clothed” with the new self who is adorned in the garments of righteousness and salvation?

Are we clothed in Christ and with the Holy Spirit’s power from on high?

In this wayward generation, may the Church follow Christ’s counsel to the Laodicean Church to pay the price for “white clothes to wear, so we can cover our shameful nakedness.”

Prayer:

Almighty God, may my soul always rejoice in You for You have clothed me with garments of salvation and a robe of Your righteousness. Help me to bring many to get the same, in the Name of Jesus, Amen!