To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.(KJV)
These folks are in zion,yet they seem are hemmed down, they are mourning. So God says “I am going to take away the mourning and this is how i am going to do it.
The first thing is to “give unto them beauty for ashes”, so "they are presently in ashes but I am going to replace that ashes with beauty."
Then the next thing i am going to do is to “replace their mourning with the oil of gladness”,
then i will replace their spirit of heaviness with the garment of praise.
So study the trend: Because the spirit of heaviness replaced the garments of praise, this made the oil of joy to stale, so they had no other choice than to sit in ashes.
So we now see how God’s children actually give room for the enemy.
In other words, God expects your garments of praise to keep your oil. When the garment of praise is replaced with the spirit of heaviness, the oil of joy in the person automatically goes stale, and physically you’d see the person’s life in ashes although the person is in zion, the city of the living God.
Garment Of Praise
The word “garment” as used in Isa 61:3 is “maa eh” and this means a wrap or mantle.
while the word praise is “tehillah” and this means “praise, adoration, or thanksgiving paid to God”, it also means, “praise demanded by qualities or deeds or attributes of God)
Merging both- the garment of praise is a wrap in praise and adoration to God. The qualities if God, pulls out praise from within.
So when they came out of the cocoon of praise and adoration to God, they replaced it with heaviness. How sad.
Practically speaking, how did this happen. They removed their focus from the omnipotence of God and placed it on the needs of that bodies or situations. When their gaze was on the father they gave him praise because they knew that, “he NEVER fails, he won’t start now!” as long as this was the attitude their joy never went stale. but as soon as they started looking at the situation, the praise to God started dwindling and the joy started going down.
Notice the bible says “Oil Of Joy” , their oil started going stale when they started considering the situation staring at them. And as soon as the joy was knocked off, they found themselves in ashes. So what is the word of God admonishing. Please keep your joy intact, you ask how do i do this? That’s simple don’t consider that situation, fix your gaze on the God that can fix that situation. Let praise and adoration to God fill your lips. Let it be the punctuation in your communication.
In zion, you’re in the garment of praise, don’t stale your oil of joy by “forgetting” that God parted the red sea, because if the devil can steal your joy then he can keep your goods.
