We had an awesome service yesterday as our missionary, Pat Mahar shared stories about Athens and how God is moving on the hearts of so many refuges. One story in particular got my attention and although I probably won’t get the details right, hopefully you’ll get where the Spirit took me upon hearing the story.

This was about a man who had been in prison and the power of another to release him. The man who gained his release was an Orthodox, very young, probably in the beginning stages of ministry, who upon simply putting on the priestly robe and entering the prison, demanded release for the captive and they let him out.

Right then and there, the Holy Spirit began to show me the authority we have when we put on our robe of righteousness. Isaiah 61:10-11 NKJV says, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, For as the earth brings forth its bud, as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, So the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”

Each time we put on the robe of our righteousness, it gives us authority to go into the earth and bring freedom to those bound by chains of addiction and slavery to sin. Every day we rise early to meet with our God, to get instructions for our day, we clothe ourselves with strength and beauty so that the world around us can be free. Just one word from us brings healing. Yes, just as John and Peter grabbed the hand of the cripple and said, “In the name of Jesus, rise up and walk!” sickness must respond to our voice as well. 

Why isn’t this happening for us? Perhaps we don’t understand the value of our robe and the power it evokes. Perhaps we don’t know who we represent and the power He has to back us up. We are so used to going about doing our own thing, saying whatever we want to say, we forget that we are not our own, we’ve been bought with the highest price.  Robe up, children of Righteousness! Put on the knowledge of who you represent and do it well. Romans 8:19 says that the earth “eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.” There are dead men walking about the earth that need to know the hope of their calling. This is the day and the hour that we need to know who we are and whose we are.