Focus: Spiritual Waste Disposal

Text: Neh.3:14

"But the DUNG GATE repaired Malchiah the son of Rechab, the ruler of part of Bethhaccerem; he built it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof."

One of the gates that Nehemiah repaired was the dung gate. It was the gate through which the residents disposed of the wastes of the city into the Hinnom Valley, the southern most part of Jerusalem. Jerusalem dwellers understood the importance of cleanliness and made sure that the city was kept clean, and the air, fresh, not polluted.

God designed a passage or gate through which waste products in our body can be excreted. It will cause us a great discomfort and harm to keep eating without having a way to excrete or dispose the waste products that are left after the process of metabolism.

I believe the church needs to restore her spiritual dung gate. We have normalized the abnormal for far too long. Evil is no longer seen as evil, but only as a level of individual spiritual growth. We hold on tightly to the fact that because no man is perfect, then we should tolerate each other's excesses, feign a blind eye, and lead a life of moral compromise. We make all sorts of excuses for our bad behavior and tolerate the intolerable. The Apostle Paul thinks otherwise. He says, "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2Cor.7:1). Jeremiah declares, "Her filthiness is in her skirts; she remembereth not her last end; therefore she came down wonderfully…" (Lam.1:9). 

We need to constantly trash everything that stands in the way of our relationship with Christ, whether good or bad, including toxic relationships. God says, "Therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel, and will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away DUNG, till it be all gone" (1Kgs.14:10). Certain people are considered by God as dungs, and should be put where they rightly belong - at the refuse dump.

We need dung gates in our lives, and having them shows how well we long for purity and holiness. We need to constantly sanitize our souls, rid ourselves of all defiling things, and sanctify our hearts to the Lord. Moral dirt or filth is not good for our spiritual health. It is imperative that we take all our trashes to the cross.

We need to dispose of our pride, bitterness of heart, unforgiveness, carnality, idols of the heart and mind, and all the works of the flesh.

We must learn to trash the bad for the good, the good for the better, and the better for the best. What men call good is an abomination to God. Jesus Christ says, "And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God" (Lk.16:15). Paul says of himself, "Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but DUNG, that I may win Christ" (Phil.3:8). Paul trashed things that were not bad in themselves, but because they stood in the way of his relationship with the Lord, he disposed of them. He valued them as dungs, and indeed as things to be trashed.

Examine your life and find the things to be trashed. We need day by day repentance, confession of sins and forsaking of them. The word of God is God's cleansing agent. It is essential that we maintain spiritual sanitation in our spiritual environment. The dung gate in Jerusalem served as the elimination point for all filthy stuffs. We need the same in our spiritual walk with God. Let us take out all kinds of moral rubbish. Let us hate iniquity and love righteousness. Let us jettison whatever the Spirit frowns at. Let us open our whole system to the light of the word and the heat of the Holy Spirit. If God tells you to let Ishmael go, don't argue with Him. If God says to you, 'Don't touch the accursed things of Babylon', then you have no choice but to obey. Don't be like Achan of Joshua's time. Let us purge ourselves of the old leaven and stay clean in God's sight. Let us practice continuously spiritual waste disposal and enjoy a healthy spiritual life with Jesus Christ. Amen!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter