Copyright 2010 Theresa Harvard Johnson
Luke 22:31-34 The Complete Jewish Bible says:
31 “Shim`on (Simon), Shim`on (Simon), listen! The Adversary demanded to have you people for himself, to sift you like wheat! 32 But I prayed for you, Shim`on (Simon), that your trust might not fail. And you, once you have turned back in repentance, strengthen your brothers!” 33 Shim`on (Simon) said to him, “Lord, I am prepared to go with you both to prison and to death!” 34 Yeshua replied, “I tell you, Kefa (Peter), the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know me.”
The call on our lives is a threat to the kingdom of darkness. The adversary knows that when we come to understand who we are in the Kingdom – His power is demolished. So he keeps temptation before us. He keeps distractions before us. He keeps all manner of familiar sin at our feet in hope that we will pick that sin up and carry it – leaving us professing Yahshua (our Lord Jesus Christ) but walking without power. As Yahshua said here, the adversary has demanded to have us in the midst of his tirade against God and to sift us like wheat…
In the spirit, the WHEAT SIFTING process is a deliberate, methodical, diabolical (extremely cruel and evil) strategy initiated by the adversary to separate the SONS OF GOD from the very PRESENCE of the Lord. You see, farmers will tell you that BEFORE wheat goes through the “sifting” process it has ALREADY BEEN separated from foreign grains, dirt, the chaff and then washed, dried and ground.
Isn’t that amazing! In other words, the “Wheat Making” processing has already taken place. Everything that is needed to “qualify the grain as wheat” is present. I hope you hear me! YOU ARE ALREADY WHEAT! YOU HAVE ALREADY BEEN SEPARATED! NOW THE REAL BATTLE BEGINS! Yahshuah wasn’t talking to a tare here. He was talking to Peter – one of his BELOVED disciples and apostles. Peter was clearly WHEAT. He had finished the hard part of the MAKING process.
Say to yourself today, “I AM WHEAT!”
The “Wheat Sifting” process comes AFTER the making. Its purpose is to separate the finer grains from the courser grains. In the spirit, we can look at this process as a shaking out or the setting apart of Father’s apostles, prophets, pastors, evangelists, teachers, bishops, elders, ministers of helps and the drilling down of specific administrations of ministry for a specific work. In the natural, the farmer uses this sifting process to identify which elements of the wheat will be used as flour, wheat germ, bran, or animal feed. All those grains that are separated are IMPORTANT, but each have a purpose to fulfill that is unique to its call.
It is a type of “grading process” for the farmers so-to-speak. THIS IS THE PLACE WHERE SATAN, THE ADVERSARY, ATTEMPTS TO ENTER in to the life of a mature believer and wreak havoc. He finds enjoyment and pleasure in perverting and corrupting the work of God. This is the place where the rubber hits the road as the old folk use to say because it is out of this GRADING PROCESS that true Sons of God grasp hold of their identities in Christ (Yahshua) and begin to walk in PURPOSE WITH POWER.
My God, I pray that you are following me by Holy Spirit. As Sons of God, we often look for the adversary to attack when we are most vulnerable – in that obvious baby stage or milk stage or in the midst of obvious sin or brokenness. Think about that for a moment. If blatant sin had appeared to Peter, He would have identified it immediately and moved from its path. I am a living witness that SIN DOES NOT ALWAYS COME LIKE THAT! The more mature we become in the Lord, the greater the adversary is in His methodical and diabolical attacks.
But Yahshuah (Jesus) wants us to be aware of how the adversary enters in among the MATURE, SEASONED Sons of God. So when he demanded that Peter, “LISTEN!” He was saying, “Take heed PETER… Satan is STILL AFTER YOU and his strategy is more cunning and diabolical than you could ever imagine…”
There are two main types of sifters or separators that traditional wheat farmers use. Please, people of God, listen by Holy Spirit.
The first type is a “sieve.” My grandmother had one of these, but hers was made out of a wire mesh. In the farming industry, sieves are flat trays with a screen or silk fabric on the bottom of the tray. The trays are rocked to move material through. Material enters on one end of the tray, finer material that passes though the screen or fabric is directed to one process and courser material that continues to the other end is sent to different process. Do you see this in the spirit?
You see, the adversary specializes in SIFTING THROUGH OUR FAMILIAR TEMPTATIONS. For the mature believer temptation will come LOOKING LIKE holiness and righteousness. The adversary knows he can’t get us with BLATANT sin, so he dresses it up in a heavenly manner. It has EVERYTHING YOU WANT ON IT! You follow that thing because it looks and sounds like God – not realizing you are being separating from the Body of Yahshua into the body of hell. He shakes and turns you until it is hard to recognize what is of God and what isn’t! You enter in one way, not realizing you WILL EXIT a wrong way.
The second type is called a “bolt.” On the website where I obtained this info, it is described as a horizontal cylinder with a screen or silk fabric lining. Material enters the interior of the cylinder at one end. The cylinder rotates and vibrates to move material through. The bolt separates the material that passes though the screen or fabric from the material that continues out the far end. You see, this diabolical strategy is centered around keeping the Sons of God constantly and consistently BUSY, MOVING, DOING, GOING… and like the previous sifter is lined with everything you desire in your heart – every hidden lust. It rotates and vibrates consistently to give the illusion of spiritual progression — ALL WHILE YOU ARE BEING SIFTED UNAWARE.
When His sifting is done – then you are packaged into that false you! I tell you, the adversary has a threshing floor ALSO. It’s that place of reshaping what God has already created through subtle tactics. We forget that! He takes what belongs to God and manipulates it for His own purposes. The wheat process begins ON THE THRESHING FLOOR of God. Any farmer will tell you that.
People of God, it’s time to wake up from our slumber and truly seek to be separated unto God – no matter who it is or how intense the pain. Get up from the THRESHING FLOOR of the adversary!
James 1:13-16 The Complete Jewish Bible says, “ 13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempteth no man: 14 but each man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed. 15 Then the lust, when it hath conceived, beareth sin: and the sin, when it is fullgrown, bringeth forth death. 16 Be not deceived, my beloved brethren.
