Matthew 1:19-20 And her [promised] husband Joseph, being a just and upright man and not willing to expose her publicly and to shame and disgrace her, decided to repudiate and dismiss (divorce) her quietly and secretly. 20 But as he was thinking this over, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary [as] your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of (from, out of) the Holy Spirit.

A drunk husband snuck up the stairs quietly. He looked in the bathroom mirror and bandaged the bumps and bruises he’d received in a fight earlier that night. He then proceeded to climb into bed, smiling at the thought that he’d pulled one over on his wife. When morning came, he opened his eyes and there stood his wife. “You were drunk last night weren’t you!” “No, honey.” “Well, if you weren’t, then who put all the band-aids on the bathroom mirror?”

I was in a School of Life meeting with Brad McClendon who said something quite profound and astounding: The spirit of this world find’s fault. The Spirit of God seeks God – seeks life, and we are living in the wrong realm if all we see is the nakedness and sin of others. In Genesis 3:10-11 the Lord says something profound (as He always does): He said, I heard the sound of You [walking] in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.¹¹ And He said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat? Satan often tells us we are naked, less than, shameful, and unworthy. He seeks to expose and condemn us. He is the negative voice seeking to mimic the only Voice we should tune in to and turn to. When we look for what’s wrong, crooked, or dirty in others – that’s our focus – we are eating of satan’s fruit: experiential knowledge of good and evil. We use ourselves as the plumb line; the sum total of all that is good. We want to pull up the tares in others lives failing to realize that often we are tearing down the wheat growing right alongside of it. If all we are looking for are tares in other people – that’s all we will ever see in ourselves. But if we are looking for the Pearl of Great Price the tares will seem unimportant. We will end up spending time trying to get rid of the tares rather than spending time with the One Who sows the good seed.

But that which is “conceived by the Spirit” isn’t willing to expose, shame, and disgrace others. Having the Father’s heart we seek to clothe people’s nakedness. Joseph “covered” Mary of what the people of her village – family, friends, neighbors, strangers – called sin. Joseph married her. He was wed to the Spirit and the Word. His focus wasn’t on what people called sin. His focus wasn’t on telling Mary she was “naked”. He chose to eat the fruit of Life rejecting the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. As Peter tells us in 1 Peter 4:8, “love covers a multitude of sins“. Not that Mary had committed sin, and neither had the Godhead. Sin is all about missing the Mark – God’s Perfection. Often man misunderstands and misses God’s Perfect Love because of fear. Perfect Love drives out fear. Perfect Love sows good seed, and from it Jesus is birthed and manifested.

What kind of seed are you sowing? Is what’s conceived in you of the Spirit or of the spirit of this world?