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Humanity has always used clothing to represent their identity. Whether you realize it or not, you tend to judge people somewhat by the clothes that they wear. Usually you can tell what their hobbies are oriented toward by looking at their style of dress. You can usually tell their primary line of work by people's dress because a businessman will tend to have more suits and a contractor will tend to dress more casual. Teenagers, especially, seem to use clothes as an expression of their individuality and one sight-seeing trip to the mall will reveal the many facets of what this generation calls "style." I had a cousin who was always on the cutting edge of fashion. In the 1980s that meant parachute pants, pink hair and metal-studded, leather clothing. Her attitude tended to reflect her clothing. All of you have a general idea of her disposition just from one description of what she wore!

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The meaning of clothing today is nothing compared to what it was in Biblical times. In those days, great care was taking for their clothing to match their identity, because to people of that day, your clothes represented who you were. One could easily identify a shepherd by their dress (if you were blind, you could tell the shepherds by smell as well!). Certain occupations had certain articles of clothing that were worn. There were many types of robes, breeches which are similar to our modern day trousers, and many different wraps and accessories, all with their unique style and meaning.

The most important piece of all of the clothing of that day, was the mantle or cloak. It was an outer coat that was worn over the other garments or robes. More than any other piece of clothing, the outer cloak signified the identity of the wearer. It was usually a one piece garment with front and back pieces with a hole for the neck of the wearer in the middle. It was usually made of heavy fabric and often decorated or dyed in various colors. It was so durable, that in at least two scriptures, we can find where the Hebrew children used their cloak to hold and carry the harvest from the fields to home! At night, the Jew would take off his cloak and use it as a blanket to keep him warm as he slept. That is why in the Mosaic Law that if someone owed you money, you were forbidden to take their outer coat from them as payment. No matter how much in debt or enslaved a person was, they were allowed to keep their dignity and their outer coat. Often a person taking out a loan would give the lender his coat as a sign that he would repay the loan later that day! To a Jewish person, they realized the importance of the outer cloak and so a person giving up his cloak was enough assurance that the person would indeed repay the loan. If for some reason the person who had given his cloak to the lender could not come up with the money by the end of the day, then the lender was to return the cloak to the person by sundown so that they would be able to sleep securely. The cloak was very important in those days.

The outer cloak then represented a person's identity and personality. It represented his ability to harvest. It represented the person's ability to survive and exist. It represented his complete being, and represented his moral character. It was the Jewish equivalent of someone "giving their word" or, to us today, signing on the dotted line. A person was epitomized by their cloak.

Can I just stop here and say that this still applies in the Spirit to us today? When sin came into this world, Adam and Eve immediately realized that they were naked and tried to clothe themselves with fig trees. But God came and killed an innocent lamb and used it to properly clothe them. Sin leaves us naked and vulnerable! And the world tries to tell you that you can make your own cloak. You can be your own man and trust in yourself to get by in this world. You can clothe your spiritual nakedness by your own means. The lies of this world are that you don't need anything or anybody else to make it in this world, but you can form your own identity, form your own cloak by yourself. But I am here to tell you that sewing fig leaves together by your own power cannot properly equip you to make it in this world. Only a cloak provided by the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, will properly clothe you in the Spirit! You cannot make it to heaven on your own devices, you cannot even make it in everyday life on your own. You need the Lamb of God and His precious covering. Jesus said:

Jesus was saying that He had come and taken away people's excuse for spiritual nakedness! There is no reason to struggle through your life on your own! The world at that time had rejected Jesus Christ and Jesus said now "they have no cloke for their sin!" There is no longer any excuse for having to struggle through sin and it's deathly effects! You can be free from sin, by the power of the blood of the Lamb! You can be warm and covered with a robe of righteousness! In Revelation chapter 7, the people that made it to heaven were wearing white robes of righteousness that had been washed in the blood of the Lamb! What you cannot do on your own, the blood of Jesus can do for you! You need Jesus and his cloke of righteousness!

But to put on the robes that God had made for them, Adam and Eve had to give up the fig leaves! They had to give up their own attempts to form their identity. They had to give up their own attempts to be self-reliant and stable. When compared to the life abundantly that Jesus gives, the cloak of sin is but withered fig leaves! Jesus has a robe of righteousness for you! It will get you all of the way to heaven! It is an invitation to the marriage supper of the Lamb! But in order to be clothed with the cloak of His mercy, you've got to be willing to surrender the fig-leaf cloak of sin! The question God is still asking even thousands of years after the Garden of Eden, is "are you willing to surrender your cloak?! Are you tired of trying to make it on your own!? Why don't you try Jesus' way of life?! Jesus said:

The Proverbs resound with the same advice for living:

God has a magnificent life for you to live! He has a cloak of righteousness that far beats your life of sin, but you must stop trying to form your own way! Give up the fig-tree cloak of sin! Give up leaning to your own understanding! Try trusting the Lord completely! Try being baptized in His name and receiving His precious Holy Spirit! See if the white robe of righteousness is not a better fit than the cloak of sin!

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The outer cloak came to mean more than just the identity of a person, however. It also came to represent a person's allegiance and loyalty! It represented surrender and submission to authority.

In II Kings chapter 9 the king of Israel was Ahab and his evil queen Jezebel; God had decided that it was time for a change in the leadership of the nation. We find the story of the prophet Elisha commanded of God to go and anoint a man named Jehu to be the new king of Israel. When Jehu came out from being anointed king, we find that his servants wanted to know what had happened:

As soon as the servants heard that Jehu was king, they took off their outer cloaks and placed them on the stairs under his feet for him to walk upon them and blew with trumpets. Their placing the cloaks under his feet was a symbol that they were submitting to his authority as king of Israel and "placing everything under his feet." They were saying that they would be loyal and surrendered to him as their king!

It is no coincidence, that when Jesus decided to go into Jerusalem the last time before His crucifixion the same thing happened. Jesus sent ahead some disciples and they brought a colt, a donkey for Him to ride. For a king to enter a city on a horse meant that he was coming in war. If he rode a donkey, it meant that he was coming in peace. Jesus wanted to let everybody know that He was coming to bring Peace on the earth and not to make war with the Romans.

The scriptures say that some of the disciples took off their garments and placed them upon the colt for Jesus to sit upon. The others began to "spread their clothes in the way" for the donkey carrying Jesus to walk upon them. Now these men were not standing naked in public. They did not remove their robes. What did they throw down? ... their outer cloaks! The most prized thing that they had! They were telling Jesus that they were completely submitted to Him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords! They were doing so in worship!

Let me say that we must be willing to worship Jesus Christ with everything we have! Jesus said that the Father was seeking for people to worship Him in "spirit and in truth." Jesus wants people that will worship Him while being completely submitted to Him in every area. You can worship God and yet still have certain "strong areas" in which you are self-reliant and are not submitted to Him. But the kind of praise that God loves; the kind of worship that He craves and even seeks is when someone will take everything that is most precious to us, our identity, our strengths, our faults, our personalities, our abilities, and everything else that makes us who we are, and lay it under His feet! God responds to a surrender of everything!

The scriptures say that they continued this "as he went." That means that the journey to Jerusalem was a continual process of picking up their cloaks and laying them down again ... picking up their coats and laying them down again!

We all have strengths and God has given us many different cloaks and anointings. There is nothing wrong with taking pride in your abilities and being confident in the talents and abilities that God has given you! He has given you a cloak for a purpose! BUT we must never allow ourselves to think that we can make it without Him! We must never allow ourselves to glory in His presence and think that one good thing came from our own ability or talent!

We, too, are on a journey to a Jerusalem, but it's the New Jerusalem! Our journey should be a process of picking up our cloaks and laying the down again at His feet! You need to use your abilities and anointings that God has given you, but you also need to continually lay them at His feet! You need to repeatedly take your strengths and submit them to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! And that submission shows in a Christian's life most obviously in their outward worship! We must not just go through the motions, but worship Jesus Christ with everything that we have, throwing our cloaks under His feet!

The scriptures concerning the triumphal entry into Jerusalem in Matthew gives us some extra information:

Nothing moves a city and brings them to asking about Jesus like disciples who are willing to throw their cloaks at His feet! Disciples who are willing to submit every area of their life to God! Do you want revival in your life? Do you want to see the active hand of God working in your family? Surrender everything that you are to Him! Take your cloak of righteousness and talents and abilities and place them in His trust! God wants you to be successful and productive, but He is also asking you this question? Will you surrender your cloak? Will you surrender everything to praise and lift up the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!?! I want to spend my trip to Jerusalem constantly laying my cloak at His feet and waving a praise offering to Him!

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The outer cloak also came to represent something else beside a person's submission and identity. It came to represent God's special calling for a person's life. It came to represent a person's anointing that was given by God. When God chose a man to be the High Priest who would be the one who would go into the presence of God, a special outer cloak called an "ephod" was made for him to wear. The "ephod" symbolized that he was the High Priest and the one to make atonement for the people. God would talk to the High Priest IF he was wearing the ephod. God would speak to him through a little pocket on the shoulder of the priest's outer garment called the "Urim and Thummim" (Exodus 28:30). {Urim means "light" and Thummim means "perfection" or "maturity.} All of the other priests that helped into the temple, were given a special white linen outer cloak to wear and it symbolized that they were men of God and had a special anointing and calling upon their life. When Hannah gave her son, Samuel, to the Lord and he lived with Eli the High Priest to learn how to minister to the Lord, the scriptures say that every year, she sewed a "little coat" and brought it to Samuel to wear. That "little coat" was a child-sized, white linen, priest's cloak and symbolized Samuel's special calling and anointing of God. In Israel, you could even visually pick out those who claimed to be a prophet, because the emblem of the prophet was an outer cloak made of wool with the soft side facing outward.

Probably the most famous of outer cloaks that represented a special anointing and calling was the coat given to Joseph by Jacob. It was called the "coat of many colors" and symbolized that Joseph would one day rule over his brothers. The combination of this great coat and the dreams that Joseph was having is what caused his brothers to be jealous of Joseph and sell him into slavery and fake his death for their father.

That outer cloak then also represents God's special calling and anointing for our life! Did you know that your life with God does not end with a one time spiritual experience, but that God has a special anointing that God wants to give only you? God told the prophet Jeremiah:

If God had a plan and anointing for Jeremiah before he was even born, and God is no respecter of persons, then that tells me that before you ever came out of your mother's womb, God had a plan for you! Don't tell me that God cannot use you or that God does not have a great anointing and power available to you! He's been planning to give them to you since before you were born. Too many people go through life without ever becoming sensitive for the things of God. Without ever "hunger and thirsting" after righteousness, and so they never put on the cloak of anointing and purpose that God has for them! They live their life a spiritual waste, not realizing that God has something greater for them than just reading about what other people did for Him! You've got to be willing to put the cloak of anointing on! Like Joseph, you've got to be willing to put it on and tell your dreams boldly, not listening to the dissenters and voices of persecution! How many people take off the cloak of anointing or never put it on because they are scared of what others who knew them "before" will say! You did not create the cloak! It was the grace and mercy of God that has given you a special cloak of anointing!

Listen to me: God never gives a calling without also providing the mantle of authority to fulfill that calling. If God has called you to do something, whether it be to reach your family, teach a Bible Study, be a prayer warrior, or preach the Gospel, He will also provide the cloak of anointing to enable you to do what He has called you to do! Disappointment comes when we try to do things under our own power without slipping into the cloak!

When God took the children of Israel out of Egypt, He promised them that they could make the journey through the wilderness to the Promised Land! But they first had to take the covenant on Mount Sinai. Why did they have to first receive the Law and be sprinkled with blood? Because they had to slip on the new cloak of anointing before the journey through the wilderness! God began to do a miraculous work.

Manna, a wafer-like bread began to fall from the sky each morning except for the Sabbath day. Their shoes never wore out or were out grown, and THEIR CLOTHING (INCLUDING THEIR CLOAK) NEVER WORE OUT for 40 years! God had given them a new mantle! But these miracles did not start until they had taken the covenant of Law. God was showing His favor and special anointing of Israel by protecting them in the wilderness and giving them cloaks that would not wear out. If God has called you to do something, then He will provide the way for it to be done!

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I will now move on to my final point. When the children of Israel, still wearing the same cloak and clothes that they had for 40 years and yet they looked as good as new, finally got to the edge of the Promised Land, and they were about to go in and take the land. The night before they crossed the Jordan river into Canaan's land the manna stopped! The cloaks and clothes and shoes lost their durability and became as normal clothes. Why? Because God had an even better place for them! And for them to enter into the promised place that God had for them, the children of Israel had to be willing to surrender their cloaks! The very thing that they had begun to trust in and their new identity in God, they also had to be willing to surrender to Him!

Can I tell you that I know that I am preaching to people who are learning to walk in the fresh anointings that God has given you! You are learning to walk as a new creature and walk in this glorious light! You are maturing in God and reaching new spiritual plateaus, and even your worldly friends and co-workers can tell that you have slipped into a new mantle; a new cloak of spiritual power!

But if we are not careful, we can begin to trust in the cloak of anointing more than our relationship with God. We can trust our ability to be sensitive to the Holy Ghost and feel God's presence when we come to church, that we stop praying and fasting like we should. We stop trying to grow in other areas of our life. "As long as I can still feel God's mighty power, and as long as I can see that God is using me, then there is no need to grow in other areas of my life" we say. If we are not careful we can become comfortable in our new cloak of anointing and not desire for our lives to move into the "promised place." God has even more for us! But you cannot enter into the next level until you learn to willingly take your newfound cloak of anointing and surrender it completely to God! Keep allowing God to change every area of your life! If we ever reach a place where we are not dependent upon Jesus Christ in every area of our life, then no matter what our level of anointing we stop growing!

How can a preacher fall into sin? Because they did not surrender their cloak of anointing to God! How can a long time saint of God who has tasted of the goodness of His Spirit ever turn and walk away? By growing comfortable in their mantle of blessing and justifying sin and a lack of growth in other areas of their life.

The children of Israel had to surrender their cloaks of anointing in order to gain access to the promised place that God had for them! When Joseph was parading around in his coat of many colors and having dreams, his brothers and fathers were not really submitted to him like God had promised. It was not until Joseph had surrendered the coat of many colors and had it covered with blood that he found himself second in command of Egypt and his brothers bowing in reverence! In order to see his dreams fulfilled, Joseph had to surrender his cloak!

We find the principle many times throughout scripture. Elijah was a mighty prophet and God still has plans for him so horses and a chariot of fire were sent down out of heaven to get him, but Elijah did not disappear into the heavenly places until he had surrendered his mantle! Elisha caught it and picked it up! The mighty Elijah had to surrender his cloak of anointing to get to the promised place of God!

We find that Peter still held on to his fishing cloak even after Jesus Christ had died and been resurrected! When Jesus appeared to the disciples at the end of the Gospel of John Peter had left ministry and gone back to fishing. But for him to be what God wanted him to be and preach the awesome revival at Pentecost, Peter had to surrender his cloak to Jesus Christ.

If any man of God ever had a mantle of anointing, it was Paul. But Paul became increasing aware throughout his ministry of his need for Jesus Christ! Before he died, in his last letter that he ever wrote, Paul asked Timothy to bring him his cloak:

I think that God allowed those words to be recorded in scripture for a purpose. Paul had surrendered his cloak in more ways than the physical. Paul had begun to realize that he wanted to surrender his cloak of flesh for a heavenly "clothing" and body:

Paul was more than willing to lay his life down and pass over to the other side. Why? He had learned the principle that if he would surrender his cloak of anointing, that God would have something better for him! That's why Paul as a great minister did not fall into sin or fail! He viewed his mighty cloak of anointing in the proper way: "I surrender it all to Jesus Christ!" How many of us get upset when our ministries or efforts in the kingdom of God do not turn out like we think that they should? We need to learn to view our mantle like Paul did his: it is completely surrendered to Jesus Christ! "Whatever you desire to do with me Lord, I will be content!"

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I close with this thought: If anyone's cloak of anointing and very essence of being deserves attention then Jesus Christ's does! Jesus was "God manifest in flesh." He was God taking on a "cloak of humanity" to come and pay the awful price of sin! It was the most powerful mantle that the world had ever or will ever see! God in flesh walking around His creation! The lady pushed through to touch the "hem of His garment" and she was healed. Afterwards many others copied her example by pushing through the crowds that thronged Jesus and reaching out to touch his outer cloak and being healed! This God/man, Jesus Christ, ministered with an anointing that the world could not believe!

I am thankful for the miracles and ministry of Jesus Christ, but that was not the purpose for which He came! As a man, with flesh and blood, He had a higher calling than to just heal the sick and raise the dead! Jesus had a date with a Cross where He would give His life and shed His blood to save a lost humanity! In our other text, we read about the crucifixion and what happened at the foot of the cross:

In those days the clothing of the crucified became the property of the four soldiers who performed the execution. As Jesus was hanging upon the cross, the soldiers took his robe and clothing and divided them up into four equal parts so that each soldier could have a piece. But when they got to his outer cloak! That mantle that represented his anointing and calling, they realized that it was to perfectly made to divide up and they gambled for who would have it!

I've pointed out this scripture to you to make this point! Jesus willingly gave up his cloak that day and allowed the soldiers to gamble it away. Could He have come down from the cross, healed Himself, and taken His mantle back from the soldiers and resumed His ministry? Yes, He could have, Jesus certainly had that power! But you and I would still be lost! For you and I who are Gentiles there would have been no hope of eternal life!

Why did Jesus stop His ministry? Why did He willingly surrender His cloak of ministry? Because He had a higher calling to achieve as the Lamb of God! And that cloak was only symbolic of the true surrendering that day! The Almighty God who had robed Himself in flesh, willingly surrendered His cloak of flesh on Calvary so that you and I mighty live!

Today, I do not know what level you are out in your walk with God. Maybe you are trying to clothe yourself with sin and have not been baptized in the name of Jesus and received the precious Holy Spirit. Maybe you have been born again, but you are struggling with surrendering your cloak of identity and fleshly will to God. Maybe you have been walking in a new anointing and mantle of power but are growing dependent upon the anointing rather than dependent upon God! Whatever the outward cloak represents in your life, God is asking you a question. Can you hear the question of God today? He is saying: "I willingly surrendered my cloak of flesh on Calvary so that you could have life abundantly, and now I am asking you to surrender your cloak of flesh to my purpose!" "Will you do it?" "Will you surrender your cloak?"