Jennifer Kennedy Dean - Clothed with Power: A Six-Week Journey to Freedom, Power, and Peace

Clothed with Power takes the reverence and relevance of the Old Testament and marries it to the New Testament. In a brilliant unveiling of the priestly garments, Jennifer illustrates the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives and how He clothes us with power from on high. With all its splendor, each priestly garment had significancethe same significance God uses today to spill passion and purpose over our lives.

GARI MEACHAM, best-selling author of Spirit Hunger

and founder of Truly Fed Ministries.

Oh, the irony of sending a book about being clothed to someone who loves to shop for clothes. But Jennifer Kennedy Dean does not take us shopping through the Scriptures to find material that will fade or become a midnight snack for moths. Instead, she digs deeplybut understandablyinto what it means to be clothed with power, as Jesus promised we would be. Could be. This study will show you how. And you wont need a credit card to purchase. Joy! Joy! I love this book!

EVA MARIE EVERSON, director, Florida Christian Writers Conference

OTHER NEW HOPE BOOKS BY JENNIFER KENNEDY DEAN

Power in the Name of Jesus

Power in the Blood of Christ

Live a Praying Life! Open Your Life to Gods Power and Provision

Live a Praying Life: Open Your Life to Gods Power and Provision Bible StudyTenth Anniversary Edition

Live a Praying Life: Open Your Life to Gods Power and Provision DVD Leader KitTenth Anniversary Edition

Live a Praying Life: A Daily Look at Gods Power and Provision Journal

Altard: Experience the Power of Resurrection

Life Unhindered! Five Keys to Walking in Freedom

Secrets Jesus Shared: Kingdom Insights Revealed Through the Parables

Secrets Jesus Shared DVD Kit: Kingdom Insights Revealed Through the Parables

The Power of Small: Think Small to Live Large

Pursuing the Christ: Prayers for Christmastime

Hearts Cry: Principles of Prayer

CLOTHED WITH

POWER

JENNIFER KENNEDY DEAN

CLOTHED WITH

POWER

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA

New Hope Publishers
P.O. Box 12065
Birmingham, AL 35202-2065
NewHopeDigital.com
New Hope Publishers is a division of WMU.

2013 by Jennifer Kennedy Dean
All rights reserved. First printing 2013.
Printed in the United States of America.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the prior written permission of the publisher.

Used by permission: High Priest graphic. Copyrighted material, Rose Publishing, Inc./Aspire Press.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013941183

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 Biblica.. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (KJV) are taken from The Holy Bible, King James Version.

Scripture quotations marked (NASB) are taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

ISBN-10: 1-59669-373-8
ISBN-13: 978-1-59669-373-9

Cover designer: Michel L
Interior designer: Glynese Northam

N134114 0713 4M1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

I love the Old Testament. It is the Scripture Jesus used. When He taught and preached, He wasnt making up new truth. He was expositing the Scripture. His phrases and metaphors came from being steeped in Scripture. He didnt feel the need to break new ground. He brought light and understanding from the eternal Word of God, the Holy Scripturesthat which you and I refer to as the Old Testament.

The New Testament portion of our Bibles was written by men who were teaching the Old Testament Scriptures and showing the riches stored in the secret places of the Word. They had marinated in the Scripture from their earliest childhood and did not feel their Scripture to be incomplete or in need of some added material. They thought and taught and preached from the Old Testament.

I believe our New Testament to be the inspired Word of God. I believe it to have the same authority as the Word of God that the Old Testament has. Dont get me wrong. I think, though, that many of us have considered the Old Testament to be some outdated document that has little meaning in our lives.

Instead, our Old Testament is the ground of the New Testament. The New Testament is commentary on the Old Testament. When we try to separate the two, we rob ourselves of some of the wealth and beauty of the whole Word of God.

Some believe that the Holy Spirit is a promise of New Testament origin, missing the grand eternal promise that arches across the generations from beginning to end.

I learned long ago that when God inserts detail and minutiae into the Scripturesomething with which the Old Testament is repleteHe is not just meeting a word count, or filling space. Those details have purpose and meaning for us. Meaning that matters.

For some years I have been fascinated with the priests garments of the Old Testament, contemplating the ornate design and the ceremony of investiture when the first priests were clothed. This is all carefully described in Scripture. I have been asking the Lord for insight into this pageantry and grandeur.

CLOTHED WITH POWER

Keep in mind that Jesus was not making up new phrases and sayings, but rather He was pulling from His tradition and training the same way we do. When He used the phrase clothed with power from on high to describe the coming of the Spirit, it occurred to me that the priests were the only group that were clothed with garments of heavenly design.

True, God gave instructions about different types of clothing. But only the priests were clothed by another. Moses clothed them. Piece by piece the garments were put on the priests by Moses. They were clothed.

Each of the garments was made according to a design given by God, and made by skilled workmen who were supplied with special anointing for the task. These garments were from on high.

When the garments covered the man, he became a priest. These garments endued him with a glory and honor that was not his intrinsically. Clothed in the garments, he had power and privilege to carry out what God had assigned to him.

Everything about the garments, I came to believe, illustrates the Holy Spirits coming into our lives and clothing us with power from on high.

Several of my fascinations merged: the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives, the way to live synced to His heart and walking in His power, and the details of the priests garments from the Old Testament. I hope you have as much fun studying Clothed with Power as I had researching, ruminating, and writing.

WEEK ONE