Holiness and Purity

“When the saint ceases to seek after holiness, purity, righteousness, truth; when he ceases to pray, stops reading the Word and gives way to carnal appetites, then it is that Satan comes.”  ~ Smith Wigglesworth

Thinking about holiness, and how Smith Wigglesworth would convict people by his presence.  How he read the word of God and only the word constantly. How the Holy Spirit was able to just flow through him effortlessly and because so, people were changed instantly.

Then, I think about the Church, and how I long for holiness in His Bride. God said for us to be holy as He is holy. one reason I think He said that is because if we were a body that was holy, then when people came in churches, or places where we worshiped, they would be convicted, repent and changed. I think the Holy Spirit would really want to hang out there too, and He would be free to flow through every person; just like our blood flows through our body effortlessly. It says that one puts a thousand to flight, and that 2, ten thousand. There would be such power to over evil in a pure holy unity.

The Church has become polluted and there is so much wrong in the body, but it seems, people just shrug their shoulders and think “what can we do?” For starters, we can commit to God to be holy unto him, to follow his word, and church leaders can begin to be proactive in confronting sin and error in the body, dealing with it like the Bible says.

In our society it seems that discipline or submission, and confronting people, are dirty words, unloving or heaven forbid “religious”. No one wants that label. But then when an apple is rotten it will spoil the others. Sometimes even in our physical body, we can get an infection or cancer, in a certain part and they will have to amputate it to keep the rest of the body from being infected and potentially die. Jesus said He is coming back for a Bride without spot and blemish.

Yet, there are people in the Church living a lifestyle that is sinful and they want to call themselves a Christian. Even though the Bible clearly says when you love God, you will obey his word, not because you have to, but because you love him so much you want to!

Sometimes there are wounds or other things that may cause us to continue to sin, but it grieves our heart and we try to deal with it. I’m not talking about that kind of thing, I’m talking about blatant sinning, without any remorse and with no conviction that you are trampling underfoot the very Lamb of God that shed his blood for you.

I just think it’s time to purify the Church, because no one is going to get clean, in a bathtub full of dirty water, and the body will get poisoned drinking water that is polluted.

I met a young man this weekend, only nine years old. He was the grandson of the people that invited me to paint. He was so precious, he convicted me by the purity in heart. He was so excited to carry my suitcase to the room I was staying, he was so eager to help me bring my stuff into the Church, and he was the first one to come up to me while I was painting and tell me that it looked really good…
And he did that over and over through the night!

He told me that he feels called to Ministry and he already has a plan…he wanted an amplified bible like his grandpa’s and they had just bought it for him. I got to here him read his first scripture from it the night I painted  !!!!!

Yes, purity and holiness have the power to convict and change others!!

Be a person that makes a difference!

Spiritual Incest?

I wonder…
if we
REALLY ARE
the family of God,
as the bible calls us…
you know, children of the same Father,
together as one,
in the Household of God,
Brothers, Sisters, Mothers, Fathers…

AND Paul says the MEN in the family are called to be
responsible as leaders over others,
and are given this instruction:

“Treat younger men as brothers,
older women as mothers,
and younger women as sisters,
with ABSOLUTE purity.”

So, I wonder…
if a single christian man flirts sexually,
or makes out with
a single sister in the Lord,
WITH no commitment to
or without any intentions of
ever marrying them…
then…
tell me…
is that considered
a form of spiritual incest?

If someone is married,
and doing these same things with a woman,
other than his wife,
wouldn’t that be considered adultery?

We have to hate the ways of the world…
and we have to be different…holy like God.

When we think of incest,
in the natural,
it makes us sick.
We hate it, right?
We can’t even comprehend it.
How could a father or brother do that to a daughter or sister…?

But, I see it all the time in the body of Christ…
and no one talks about it. No one ever addresses it.

In the natural, when there is incest,
which is a horrendous abuse of power,
it causes confusion for the woman.
Power used correctly is ‘taking responsibility’.
Power abused by a parent or sibling,
is a double irresponsibility.
Not only is an incestuous relative betraying the child’s trust
and taking advantage of her vulnerability and dependence – that is betrayal enough.
But also he is placing on her an impossible burden.
How can she ‘tell on a family member’ without betraying her own sense of loyalty
and her need for her relative’s protection’?
The very people to whom she would run as protectors,
if she were assaulted by some other man,
has become the very people from whom she must run.
Small wonder that the internal conflict
produces deep and lasting emotional damage like self-hatred, shame, guilt….

Heaven forbid, if the family members end up having children together…
they will most likely be severely impaired mentally.
How much more so in the Family of God? What fruit is this type of relationship producing in the body of Christ?

Just like in the world,
it is a selfish attempt of a man
to satisfy his desires
by using and abusing his authority over those he is called to cover,
over sisters and mothers.
Some of the men even use the grace gifts given to them by God for ministry,
as the VERY same influence they use to draw women to themselves.

They appear to be safe,
because they seem to love God.
They know the word, but do they follow what it says, the whole counsel of God?
Because, if a man truly loves God, he will be obedient, and
he will honor and protect the women in the family of God, in absolute purity.
His mothers and sisters.
He will have a fear of God concerning this.
He will love those that are weaker than himself,
more than himself. He will lay down his life for others.

But it is not just the men that bear the responsibility.

I also see “christian” women,
that post photos of themselves on social media like Facebook
of themselves in bikinis,
laying on couches,
flirting with “brothers”…
seducing and inappropriate.
But, still teaching the bible…?

One of them I saw recently,
in a video she made, teaching on “Denial”…
honestly, I had to laugh…
because her breasts were hanging out of her shirt.
No man was listening to what she was saying…
and no woman would take her seriously.
She was a lesson in herself, because she was really in some serious denial.

See..women like that are also abusing their power as a woman,
using the sensual beauty God gave them for their husbands…
to draw men to themselves.

It is insecurity and a need for control manifesting.
Same spirits, very similar to a Jezebel and Ahab type situation.
A victim and a perpetrator. In these situations,
you can always look for these things that will be motivating the abuse.
Control, insecurity, seduction, selfishness, pride, lust, anger and hatred…

It needs to stop. We, as the family of God, need to repent…we need to be safe places for one another.

if you are a victim, or playing one, you need to repent and ask God to forgive you for giving your power away. Choose to love and honor who you are in Christ, by surrounding yourself with people that will love you in truth,
and not try to seduce or use you.

If you are a man or woman committing incest with family members,
seducing them for your own benefit…abusing your authority…
then you need to humble yourself, repent and ask God for mercy to change.

“If anyone causes one of these little ones–those who believe in me–to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea.

You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.

Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

1 Thessalonians 4
Amplified Bible (AMP)
4 Furthermore, [a]brethren, we beg and admonish you in [virtue of our union with] the Lord Jesus, that [you follow the instructions which] you learned from us about how you ought to walk so as to please and gratify God, as indeed you are doing, [and] that you do so even more and more abundantly [attaining yet greater perfection in living this life].
2 For you know what charges and precepts we gave you [[b]on the authority and by the inspiration of] the Lord Jesus.
3 For this is the will of God, that you should be consecrated (separated and set apart for pure and holy living): that you should abstain and shrink from all sexual vice,
4 That each one of you should know how to [c]possess (control, manage) his own [d]body in consecration (purity, separated from things profane) and honor,
5 Not [to be used] in the passion of lust like the heathen, who are ignorant of the true God and have no knowledge of His will,
6 That no man transgress and overreach his brother and defraud him in this matter or defraud his brother in business. For the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we have already warned you solemnly and [e]told you plainly.
7 For God has not called us to impurity but to consecration [to dedicate ourselves to the most thorough purity].
8 Therefore whoever disregards (sets aside and rejects this) disregards not man but God, Whose [very] Spirit [Whom] He gives to you is holy (chaste, pure).
9 But concerning brotherly love [for all other Christians], you have no need to have anyone write you, for you yourselves have been [personally] taught by God to love one another.