Gems of Knowledge

Today’s One Year Bible Verses: Leviticus 15:1-16:28, Mark 7:1-23, Psalm 40:11-17, Proverbs 10:13-14

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What Flows From You?

A reflection on Leviticus 15:1–15 & Mark 7:15 (NLT)

“It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.” — Mark 7:15 (NLT)

Leviticus 15 is not a chapter most people usually linger in. It’s uncomfortable, even gross. It speaks of bodily discharge — of things flowing from a person that made them ceremonially unclean. It feels uncomfortable, clinical, and far removed from us today.

So why would God want it in the Bible? How does it help us now?

Hopefully, by now we know God was always trying to teach Israel something deeper. Just like Jesus used parables to understand, we can look at the Old Testament as a sort of parable for spiritual life – something that applies to us today.

So what does Leviticus 15 show us? It is about what flows out of the body – He is teaching us to pay attention to what flows from us.

Under the Law, if a discharge continued, it affected everything. A bed became unclean. A chair became unclean. Anything touched carried the contamination.

It spread.

And centuries later, Jesus lifted the veil on what Leviticus had been whispering all along.

“It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.” (Mark 7:15, NLT)

The issue is not what enters you. The issue is what flows out of you. Because flow reveals source. Does it produce contamination or does it carry seeds of life?

When pressure rises — when you’re tired, offended, afraid, overlooked — what seeps out?

Is it anger?
Sharp words?
Fear?
Criticism?
Anxiety?

Or is it gentleness?
Trust?
Peace?
Restraint?

You can manage behavior for a moment, but you cannot fake consistent flow.

What lives in the well will eventually surface.

In Jesus’ day, religious leaders focused on external washing. They believed cleansing hands meant cleansing the person.

But you can scrub your skin and still carry bitterness.
You can polish your image and still harbor pride.
You can control your words in public and spill poison in private.

Leviticus required washing after discharge, but Jesus reveals something greater – the cleansing must happen at the source.

The problem is not merely the reaction. The problem is the heart feeding it.

And then we meet a woman who had lived inside Leviticus 15 for twelve years, the woman with a blood issue, anything she touched became unclean. Can you image? for 12 years she was outcast, secluded, rejected as unclean. No-one could even come near her. She carried the stigma of constant flow.

Isolation.
Shame.
Separation.

But when she pressed through the crowd and touched Jesus, something astonishing happened.

The flow stopped!

He did not become defiled. He did not step back. He healed the source.

That is the difference between ritual and redemption, religion and relationship.

Under the Law, impurity spreads outward.

Under Christ, purity spreads outward.

He does not merely regulate our behavior, He restores our wells. He makes us clean from the inside out making water that was once bitter into sweet water people enjoy drinking.

So the question is not, “Are you managing your actions?”

The question is: What is flowing from your heart?

Because what flows from you reveals what fills you.

And Jesus still heals the source. 💎

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Action (5 Minutes with God)

Today, don’t focus on managing behavior. Instead, take 5 minutes to be with God and ask Him to show you what is on the inside. Ask Him:

• “Lord, search my heart and tell me what You see – what do You want to show me about this today?”
  • Journal what He whispers to you by His Holy Spirit.
• Then ask, “Lord, What do You want me to do?”
  • Journal what He reveals – then do it!

Let Him examine you well. Let Him heal what keeps flowing that shouldn’t.

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Prayer

Lord Jesus,

You see what flows from my heart. Nothing is hidden from You. Where there is bitterness, cleanse it. Where there is fear, steady it. Where there is pride, humble it. Where there is insecurity, anchor it in truth. I don’t want to manage appearances — I want transformation at the source. Heal the well within me. Let Your Spirit purify what flows from my heart so that what spills out of me brings life instead of harm. You do not merely regulate — You restore. Search me. Cleanse me. Heal the source, Lord. I pray in Your name, amen.

To read more 5 Minutes with God devotionals click here.