Weekly Encouragement

Set Apart Not Aside

By: Hannah S. Hunter

 Deuteronomy 14: 2(NLT) “You have been set apart as holy to the Lord your God, and he has chosen you from all the nations of the earth to be his own special treasure.”

This whole Covid catastrophe has brought a screeching halt to the globe at large. It feels as if the earth stopped spinning and we are suspended in an alter universe where abject terror permeates everything and everyone. Topped with violence and rabid hatred. Disintegration of every system we knew and hold dear.

Like after any perfect storm or huge explosion where the landscape is unrecognizable, we are trying to put our lives and destinies back together. Since our day planers are now in shambles, we get up most days trying to think what will I do today? Uncertainty abounds! Governments and supposed health care experts are dictating and mandating our self-decisions right out of existence.

Only hours and days in the quiet stillness of the secret place with the One who created us gives us any sense of stability. He not only is our Rock, but He set us high on the Rock out of the reach of destruction and holds us in the cleft of the Rock as the storm passes.

The students who are doing daily life with us all have college degrees and are using this gap year to serve and sit at the feet of the leaders here. Promises of missions and travel evaporated. Yet they are gleaning richest deep secrets from the throne of grace. They cannot be measured nor adequately verbalized.

My class time is sometimes just silence and soaking in worship quietly being carried to places of intimacy. Emotions may flow but visions come quickly. Wisdom is imparted and cannot be measured as easily as knowledge can.

Circumstances may seem to dictate to your mind you are set aside. Aside means to out of the way or in the theater it means for audience ears but not the other characters on stage. To the soul it denotes you are not needed or important. It carries a feeling of being forgotten or cast off as rejected because of inferior or unusable quality. Silence without His stillness and presence can fuel this feeling in the soul.

Precious students came to class and I could see weariness yet hope in their faces. I heard the Lord say, “They are set apart not aside.” I had just heard that in my own secret place with Him in the very early morning hours. Apart is at a distance from the main body or separated by a specific distance in time or space. It maybe a season or it may be a lifestyle depending on what He wired you for.

Holiness and fear of the Lord is sadly lacking in the body of Christ. This crisis needs to be seen as a mercy from Him to call us back to these two basic ingredients needed to fan the flames of awakening. We cannot lead people to salvation if we come with sloppy careless claims of salvation. He wants a people set apart. Revival fires flare up hot and bright but often blow over and only a smoldering ember remains when we realize He requires holiness and fear of who He is. Yet there is such a sweet intimacy and an everlasting love relationship and friendship when we embrace these. He takes us to the most exciting places and shares His deepest secrets with us. We get to view events from the under the wings of the Refuge.

We get to be His treasure. Any treasure is valued, guarded, and tenderly cared for. Investment and long-term care are afforded a treasure. It is meant to last for generations or forever. If we only understood the angels that are surrounding and moving with us. Or if we could see the great cloud of witnesses gathering and leaning into watch and hear what He has chosen for us to accomplish we would run swiftly. We would not waver or fall short. We would begin to see those who have faltered or opposed us vehemently through the eyes of heavens armies.

Straighten your shoulders, look up and declare we are NOT set aside but are set apart for such a time as this. We shall prevail and we shall hear, “well done good and faithful servant enter into rest.” How good to know we get to rest and rejoice all in the same breath. Shalom my brothers and sisters.”