KEEP YOURSELF PURE
“Give honour to marriage, and remain faithful to one another in marriage. GOD WILL SURELY JUDGE PEOPLE WHO ARE IMMORAL AND THOSE WHO COMMIT ADULTERY.”
Hebrews 13:4 (NLT)
• Through the above Bible passage, we could see that marriage should be honourable, and those who live an immoral life would be judge by God.
- To be immoral is when someone is not following the accepted Bible standards of sexual behaviour.
- Believers who have married should be faithful to their spouses (Proverbs 5:15-20).
- And those who are singles should keep themselves for the Lord: “For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. FOR I HAVE BETROTHED YOU TO ONE HUSBAND, THAT I MAY PRESENT YOU AS A CHASTE VIRGIN TO CHRIST" (2 Corinthians 11:12).
"For you are bought at a price; THEREFORE GLORIFY GOD IN YOUR BODY AND IN YOUR SPIRIT, which are God's."
1 Corinthians 6:20 (NKJV)
• When you become a born-again Christian, you have become Jesus’ property: “For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. THEREFORE, WHETHER WE LIVE OR DIE, WE ARE THE LORD'S (Romans 14:8).
“and He died for all, THAT THOSE WHO LIVE SHOULD LIVE NO LONGER FOR THEMSELVES, BUT FOR HIM WHO DIED FOR THEM AND ROSE AGAIN.”
2 Corinthians 5:15 (NKJV)
- Jesus becomes your owner in the new birth (1 Peter 4:1,2; Galatians 2:20).
- Your flesh should not be allowed to dominate you anymore, but the Spirit of God on the inside of you should empower your spirit to rule over or dominate your flesh (Romans 6:11,12,16; 8:12,13).
“BUT I DISCIPLINE MY BODY AND BRING IT INTO SUBJECTION, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”
1 Corinthians 9:27 (NKJV)
- Your body or flesh being of the adamic nature would still want you to continue with the way you have been living before you gave your life to Christ—human flesh relishes sin (Romans 5:12,19; 7:20).
AND some of those whom you were committing sins together would also want you to continue with them (1 Peter 4:3,4). - Desires for sin are of the flesh, but believers do not have to fulfil the lust of the flesh (Galatians 5:16; James 1:14).
- God has given us His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to dwell on the inside of us and to help us as we live our Christian life in the world—to live above sin (John 14:16-18,26).
- “So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
- BUT YOU ARE NOT IN THE FLESH BUT IN THE SPIRIT, IF INDEED THE SPIRIT OF GOD DWELLS IN YOU. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
- And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.”
Romans 8:8-10 (NKJV)
- You allow the Holy Spirit on the inside of your spirit, inward man, to lead, guide and direct you through your spirit who is regenerated.
• If someone is born-again, it is the spirit, the inward man of the person that is regenerated or redeemed; the body or flesh and the mind of such are not regenerated or redeemed yet (Romans 8:23; James 1:21).
“Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, EAGERLY WAITING FOR THE ADOPTION, THE REDEMPTION OF OUR BODY.”
Romans 8:23 (NKJV)
“Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, AND RECEIVE WITH MEEKNESS THE IMPLANTED WORD, WHICH IS ABLE TO SAVE YOUR SOULS [minds].”
James 1:21 (NKJV)
- Every believer has a responsibility to work on their flesh and minds in order to bring them into subjection to their spirit who is regenerated.
- They should present their bodies as a living sacrifice and renew their minds through the Word of God (Romans 12:1,2).
- What you think in your mind is what your flesh acted out, thus you have a responsibility to always renew your mind with the Word of God—that your body may act in line with the Word of God.
- When your thoughts are changed, your responses or reactions to things in life generally would change.
- After you have given your life to the Lord Jesus Christ that He may lead you in all you do, the work on the renewing of your mind is of paramount importance, for you to live a successful Christian life.
- When you renewed your mind through the Word of God, your thinking changes, and that affects or influences your attitudes or behaviour outwardly.
- The change that took place on the inside of you, in your mind, would show, be seen outwardly through how you reacted to things.
• Take note of these:
- Renew your mind through the daily reading and studying of the Word of God.
TRANSFORMATION of a person is done in the mind, and that could only happen through the feeding or renewing of the mind with the Word of God.
THE more you read, study and listen to the Word of God, the better and purer your thinking becomes.
THE system of the world, things around us in the world that we see and hear daily are contrary to the principles of God’s kingdom enumerated in the Bible—and these things we see and hear daily are the things that polluted our minds and thoughts.
YOU need to feed on the Word of God daily to counter these obnoxious and dirty things that you see and hear everyday and everytime.
THUS, give attention to the teachings of the Bible and apply them to your life—by practicing the Word, that is, the teaching you heard or read (Joshua 1:8; 2 Timothy 3:16,17).
• The Word of God enables you to subdue the desires of the flesh.
WHEN you have your mind saturated or preoccupied with the Word of God, and a negative thought comes into your mind, you easily detect it, because the thought would be contrary to what you had in your mind.
BESIDES, the thought would not be in line of your thoughts.
THE thought would be contrary to your pattern of thinking—thus you easily detect out.
- Whatever thought that comes your mind which is contrary to the Bible is either suggested by the flesh or a demon (Ephesians 2:3; 1 Timothy 4:1).
- You do not give to your flesh whatever it demands for (Romans 8:5-8).
- Deal with your flesh, subdue it—put it to death, and refuse to grant whatever it desires (Colossians 3:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:3-7).
- When your mind is taken over by the WORD of God, your flesh can easily be tamed or controlled.
• Develop a strong fellowship or communion with the Holy Spirit.
- Pray more in the language of the Spirit and engage in conversational prayers with the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 14:2,4; Jude 20).
- Let His presence be real to you, for it is real, and converse or dialogue with Him as if you are seeing Him in the physical—He desires such a relationship and fellowship.
- When you build a strong fellowship with the Holy Spirit, coupled with a mind saturated with the Word of God, your flesh would easily be subdued—the craving of the flesh would be mortified.
• If your are married be satisfy with your spouse (Proverbs 5:18-20).
- “Let your fountain be blessed, AND REJOICE WITH THE WIFE OF YOUR YOUTH.
- As a loving deer and a graceful doe, Let her breasts satisfy you at all times; AND ALWAYS BE ENRAPTURED WITH HER LOVE.
- For why should you, my son, be enraptured by an immoral woman, And be embraced in the arms of a seductress?”
Proverbs 5:18-20 (NKJV)
- And every eligible single should take a step to marry, instead of fooling around (1 Corinthians 7:1,2).
• Note: when you committed a sin of immorality, sexual sin, you give an occasion to the devil in your life.
- Immoral sin is a grievous sin, and it puts the perpetrator into bondages.
- You are bound with a person you have had carnal affairs with: “Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her. For “the two,” He says, “shall become one flesh” ” (1 Corinthians 6:16).
- If you had an affair with someone who is demonized or loyal to the devil, you become one with such and they have an access to your life because you have become one flesh.
- A number of people have been initiated through sexual sin.
INITIATIONS into some secret organizations or occultic groups are done through sexual intercourse. - The demons operating in the life of a demonized person you have had an affair with can have an access into your life easily.
- “Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.
- Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
- For you were bought at a price; THEREFORE GLORIFY GOD IN YOUR BODY AND IN YOUR SPIRIT, WHICH ARE GOD’S.”
1 Corinthians 6:18-20 (NKJV)
• Keep yourself pure!
• You will not fail in Jesus’ name.
Peace!