A Spiritual Aspect to the Deleavening Process

I receive many questions this time of year about the deleavening process.  How do I do it?  Why do we do it?  Where does the leavening go; where do we put it?  Why does God have us do this?  Is there only one way to do it?  Let us discuss the answers to these questions.

It all begins with some scripture from the Word of God...

Ex 12:19-20
19 Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land. 20 Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.

Ex 13:7
7 Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days; and there shall no leavened bread be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters.

This putting out of the leaven is a physical action [a living metaphor or model] that denotes a spiritual process.  That process is the putting of sin out of our lives.  Notice scriptures from the New Testament showing this to be truth.

1 Cor 5:7-8
7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Gal 5:9
9 A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

Therefore, the practice or ritual of putting out leaven teaches us about the spiritual concept of putting sin out of our lives.  Eating the unleavened bread is a physical picture showing the spiritual concept of putting Christ into us.  Sin out and Christ in.

The Deleavening Process is Unique to the Individual Believer!

The church and ministry can and will give you sermons and sermonettes on the concepts [physical and spiritual] and guidelines on how to go about the process of getting the leaven out.  You will hear that there should be no leaven or leavened products found on your property, in your homes, your cars, your out buildings, or your desk or locker at work.  Throwing these things into the trash is not enough, the trash containing the leaven you have collected needs to be off your property.

Having said that, however, the actual measures and procedures you take are a deeply spiritual matter.  This is you putting sin out of your life.  The church and ministry can give you guidelines and even offer suggestions as to getting a year's worth of bread and cracker crumbs out of your sofa, but the final procedures and to what degree you go about it in this process are yours.  The only judge is Christ.

My encouragement to you is to always think of and meditate on the spiritual aspects of putting sin out of your life as you go about the physical process of looking for the leaven in your home and car and the other places mentioned above.  Doing this will give you the energy, urgency and the creativity in how you go about implementing the unique procedures you "invent" as you go through the process.  I am not looking for bread crumbs; I am looking for sin.  It is the same as when Jesus talks about the unleavened bread and says think of me when you eat it, for this is my body (Luke 22:19).

It is More About Process than Leaven

Leavening is the object, the item we are looking for when we deleaven.  Leavening pictures sin.  However, the commands to deleaven our homes and the primary principle of the Days of Unleavened Bread is not about the leaven.  It is about the process of deleavening---putting the sin out.  I was once asked if a firstfruit had to deleaven his home if he knew for a fact there was no leavening in the home.  The answer may surprise you.

Imagine for a moment that one week prior to the Days of Unleavened that you purchase a brand new home.  In addition, as you moved in, you bring in all new furniture and clothes and no food in the home has any leavening.  You would deleaven this home with the same diligence and fervency you would for a home you had been living in for twenty years and where you ate bread and cakes all year long.  The fact the new home inherently has no leaven present does not preclude you from the process.  The deleavening process is NOT about you getting leaven out of your physical house but sin out of your spiritual house.  Therefore, regardless of your circumstances, give that process all the fervency you can.  You are demonstrating physically what you are doing spiritually everyday of your life.

The Days of Unleavened Bread are a week long and have a Holy Day at each end.  This week represents your entire life.  The first Holy Day is a memorial of the first day you entered the Salvation Process, made possible by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, as our Passover.  The seven days represent your life in the process.  The second Holy Day is a celebration of your making it all the way through the Salvation Process either dying in the faith or standing as a firstfruit at the return of Christ.  The Days of Unleavened Bread picture your life of putting out of sin as part of the Salvation Process.  Therefore it is easy to conclude that we should be deleavening our homes and property throughout the entire Days of Unleavened.  The focus is on the deleavening process...getting the sin out.