Issued 06.11.2007
Appreciate purity of heart
You keep yourself pure because you appreciate purity or because you hate to be dirty. Keeping your heart pure is not possible with your own strength neither with human cleaners.
Dirty or pure?When do you consider yourself dirty? Everybody has his own standards on dirtiness and
purity. This is true concerning the dirtiness of clothes and human body and much more with the dirtiness of heart.
The things that make your heart
dirty come from both outside and inside you. What you hear, see or feel can make your heart dirty and also what you think, say or do.
Because your bad thoughts have been food for your inner man, you have become a sinner. You are what you have thought.
Did the ears of your spirit
rejoice at a
dirty thought and did the mouth of your spirit eat fruit of pride? Did the eyes of your spirit admire a filthy sight and did the eyes of your soul fasten on greediness? Did the members of your spirit feast on an unclean feeling and did the hands of your spirit reach for dissolute selfishness?
Your bad thoughts are the dirt which tempts you to do evil things that are
condemned by your
conscience. The being produced by your bad thoughts is the
sin that lies in ambush at the door of your heart. Its desire is for you, and you cannot
rule over it, if your spirit is deadened by your
guilt. When you open your heart for bad thoughts sin occupies you so that you cannot make a difference between it and your
ego.
Although
sin has
killed you, clean thoughts can make your spirit alive again. If you have not awoken to desire clean thoughts, you cannot get a clear
conscience. If you don't want to face the
judgments of your conscience, you don't allow clean thoughts to settle down in you either.
Of what kind of dirt you, in your
opinion, should be cleansed? In this matter we usually follow the public standard. If you face someone who is more
pure than you, you realize yourself to be unclean. Jesus, the Son of God is pure! Compare yourself to Him. He who
loves God, adopts the opinion of Jesus about what is
dirty and what is pure.
God's words can wash you
pure. Let the ears of your spirit
rejoice at His pure thoughts and let the mouth of your spirit eat fruit of the
humbleness of Jesus. Let the eyes of your spirit admire the
revelation of God's
love on Golgotha and let your soul fasten on the
sacrifice of God. Long for the presence of Jesus and enjoy
peace given by His
grace and reach the hands of your spirit for His deeds.
When Jesus purifies you with His words, your
conscience will wake up from its dormancy. Then you will feel guilty and you begin to thirst after God's
grace. If you
confess your
sins to Jesus, His
atoning blood will touch your spirit and
purify your conscience. Then He also separates your spirit from the
ego of your bad thoughts with the
sword of His word and you become a new
creation, if you let Him do this circumcision of your heart! Starting from this moment your spirit has power to resist the thoughts of your old ego.
Do you appreciate the
purity of God? Maybe you are satisfied if you are
pure in the eyes of men, although you are unclean in the eyes of God. If you are going to get to Him, you have to be purified.
Pure heart and clear conscienceIf you feel that your
conscience doesn't accuse you, it doesn't mean that your heart would be
pure. If the thoughts and attitudes of your heart are after God's heart then your heart is pure. If you are satisfied with getting
forgiveness of your
sins and having a good conscience, you are in danger of falling again.
Don't only reach for a good
conscience and a
salvation from the
judgment of God, but ask for a change of your mind and for purging of your thoughts. The water of God's word changes your thoughts and attitudes. This means that you ask for yourself light of God's word that rebukes you.
If we live according to the thoughts of God then we live in light. If we live according to our
dirty thoughts we live in darkness. The
blood of Jesus cannot cleanse our
conscience in the darkness of our unclean thoughts.
"But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." 1Jo.1:7 If you don't watch over your thoughts, you will fall into the power of darkness. Let the stream of your consciousness follow Jesus. If the
Holy Spirit lives in you, you are able to watch yourself
just by His influence. When you notice that a dark thought tries to come into your consciousness, immediately
pray to Jesus to help you to reject it.
If you didn't watch, you fell into darkness and sinned. If the
Holy Spirit lives in you, He will grieve in you and wait for you to come soon away from the darkness to the light of God so that He could give you
forgiveness. However if you
love to be in the darkness, you will finally claim that you have done nothing wrong.
"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 1Jo.1:8 Power of the blood of JesusGod has
created for us a
conscience that demands
punishment for evil deeds. Therefore the
sacrifice of Jesus is needed so that we could be set free from our
guilt. Either you yourself
suffer or the
Lamb of God suffers your punishment. The conscience of many people doesn't accept a vicarious sacrifice and therefore they don't
believe in Bible's Jesus. This results from some
religious ceremony that has given their conscience a false
peace.
Those
religious acts are dead works. You can be released from their hold only after you have experienced the power of the
blood of Jesus.
"How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God!" Heb.9:14 You cannot serve the living God, if your
conscience has gained
peace by trusting on any other thing than the
sacrifice of Jesus and on the power of His
blood.
How can the power of the
blood of Jesus affect in your heart? Firstly you must be in the
faith of Jesus. To be able to experience the power of the blood of Jesus He must live in your heart by faith. If He is outside He cannot wash from the inside.
Secondly you must
confess your
sin just as the
truth is.
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1Jo.1:9 You must
confess your
sin to God with all your heart, in thoughts, in words and in deeds. Think about your deed deep in your heart, confessing your
evilness that gave birth to your bad deed. Don't speak to God only about your bad deeds, but abhor your bad thoughts and attitudes that have caused your deeds.
Repent your thoughts and accept your responsibility for your bad deeds. Prove by thinking and saying right that you want to change.
Many ask
forgiveness for their bad deeds only because they are afraid of the
punishment but they don't want to change their thoughts. God doesn't forgive you only because you asked. He
forgives you because you
repent your
evilness and you
confess your
sins.
By
confessing your
sins you ask for
forgiveness. By defending your sins you ask for
judgment. What you confess in the light of God's words that is washed away by the
blood of Jesus.
"Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus ... let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." Heb.10:19-22 If the body of our thoughts has been cleansed by the water of God's word and our
conscience has received the
atonement with the
blood of Jesus, we are able to enter the dazzling brightness of the face of God.
The Bible version used in references is NIV