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Your body, my body, your friend’s body, and even your parents's bodies are the temple of God. Knowing and believing this, we shouldn’t make our body filthy and unfit for God to reside in.
And how can we do that?
By cleansing yourself from unclean things, practices, beliefs, and behaviours.
Some Christians complain and mutter about how they’ve been asking for the baptism of the Holy Spirit,yet no answer from God, no strange sensation or “butterflies in stomach” experience. Well, my friend, do you expect a landlord of a house to stay in the polluted house he trusted his tenant to guide and maintain? No(if I’m the one, the tenant would be kicked out of the house immediately sef). This is the same way God feels.
Remember, God says He doesn’t just release His Spirit to any temple, specially an unclean one; you have to try your best to cleanse yourself from evil,then when God sees your hardwork, He sends the Holy Spirit to help and guide you henceforth. I hope I clarified that?
Also, ‘self’ here isn’t your physical body that I can see, it’s your inner self- your spirit – that our Lord resides in.
That being said, these are the 7 things you need to start cleansing yourself from to be a worthy temple for the Holy Spirit to reside in, starting from TODAY:
1) AFFAIRS OF THIS LIFE
2 Timothy 2:4“No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted”(ESV)
Drinking, clubbing, partying, wordly festivals and unclean gatherings, secular entertainment, pleasures of this world to name a few.
The affairs of this life, also known as the enemy’s way of enticing you to his dungeon to remain as his slave.
Don’t associate yourself with any vain thing, don’t think, dream or act on any of them. If you want to be fit to be the residing temple of God’s Spirit, you might as well start cutting off all these habits from your daily routine and start saying NO.
NO to late night clubbing
NO to midnight partying
NO to excessive drinking to “cool anxiety”
NO to unclean and occultic gatherings/meetings in the name of “cultural festivals”
NO to listening to secular music that damages and infects your soul little by little
NO to secular news and movies that penetrate your thoughts and divert then from God
NO TO THE PLEASURES OT THIS WORLD!
Purge yourself from all these vain things. START SAYING NO NOW.
Say NO to the devil
Say NO to sin
2) BACKSLIDING
2 Timothy 2:12“if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us”(ESV)
Aren’t you tired of commiting to serve God today then backsliding the next day?
Aren’t you tired of accepting and confessing Jesus as your Lord and Savior on your knees, in your bedroom, then denying you even know His name in front of your influential and worldly friends?
Aren’t you exhausted of repeating the same mistake over and over again and don’t know why but it’s killing you inside and wounding your spiritual life?
Then don’t, don’t and stop!
The decision to serve God wholeheartedly is an individual and willful choice not a coercive one. God doesn’t force anyone to serve Him, nor does He encourage His children to force and even blackmail unbelievers to serve Him. God has given each person free will and the time to execute that is when we want to take the biggest decision of our life which is accepting Christ as our Lord and Savior.
If you knew you would keep on backsliding, over and over again, then why commit to serve God fully? I’m not saying if you backslide, you’re automatically a sinner and God will leave you….not at all. But we should work hard to always denounce the temptations from the devil and not give in.
By doing that we purify ourselves from that evil spirit of backsliding and when God sees that we’re truly putting in hardwork, saying No to the flesh, He then sends to us the Holy Spirit.
If you want the Holy Spirit’s help, start by helping yourself.Work on your heart first, then the Holy Spirit will do the rest.
3) UNBELIEF
2 Timothy 2:13“if we are faithless, he remains faithful”(ESV)
Unbelief is one of the biggest strongholds the devil uses to capture believers' mind; making one think God hates us and He’s left us, when He will never.
This is why we need to- no -we must cleanse ourselves from the spirit of doubts and unbelief.
The Lord cannot release His Spirit into a heart that isn’t even sure He exists or is hearing His children’s prayers. He can’t gift someone with this spirit when the person isn’t sure He will receive it and doesn’t have faith in the Lord.The Promise of the Holy Spirit is through faith:
“That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith”(Gal 3:14).
So, how can you receive the Holy Spirit with a heart of unbelief?
4) FALSE DOCTRINES THAT DESTROY FAITH
2 Timothy 2:14,18“Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers”(v.14)
“….who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some”(v.18)(ESV)
You know, there are some words when said, can tamper with one’s thoughts and even dreams. Same as the case of influential people; the celebrities, pastors, changemakers, and the likes….they have impact on lots of people,by what they do and say.
Thereso, many people who have claimed to be servants of the Lord but are actually agents of the devil have even crept their way into the church, some as your favorite TV pastor/evangelist/apostle. Their teachings and doctrines have impact on lots of people including you, so, will you then be foolish or wise to guide your ears from these profane doctrines or not?
Their teachings not only destroys but manipulates your faith in God and our Lord warns us against yielding to their doctrines- for they are fruitless and destructive.
Controversy theories or whatever refurbished or high class grammatical name you want to call their facts and “truths”, stay away from all those…they are all lies but God and His word is the only truth.
Cleanse yourself from all these teachings and have the Bible as your one and only succour. IT IS THE ONLY TRUE TRUTH.
Test and try ever message you come across. Not all is from the Lord.
5) PROFANE AND VAIN BABBLINGS THAT LEAD TO UNGODLINESS
2 Timothy 2:16-17“But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus…”(ESV)
It says shun in the KJV---- to shun man’s to hate, despise, look down on or to detest. You can add all that together and let it be how how you view vain talks from now on, because that’s how God views them.
Instead of catching up on the latest celeb gist and gossip, why don’t you go talk about the Lord’s goodness with your brethren?
Profane and vain babblings----talks and gossip that won’t profit you anything.
Insulting and backbiting against your fellow neighbor is one of it. If you’re one who does that, then abstain from such and cleanse yourself from it.
Anytime you see people indulging in it, stay away and mind your own business. Don’t indulge in acts that won’t add value to your life, physically or spiritually, because they stain your spiritual garment. Instead take part in activities and be in acquaintance of people who work for the kingdom of the Lord.
Abstain from time-consuming and valueless discussions. If it doesn’t add anything to your life, don’t partake in it.
6) FALSE TEACHERS THAT OVERTHROW FAITH
2 Timothy 2:17-18“….and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some”(ESV)
“Johny’s pastor said that……..”
“I went to the Revelation Camp today and the senior apostle told us that……..”
“That well-known evangelist prophesied that……..”
If you’re that kind of Christian that bites and breathes off of every word your pastor or famous apostle says, you are not going far in this journey, sorry to say.
With the world approaching its end and going into its most chaotic, deceitful and heretic state,as prophesied in the Bible, false teachers have increased in huge numbers. Like I said in point 4, false teachings by false teachers are what decieve many Christians and overthrow their faith.
You shouldn’t be that kind of Christian who believes every nook and cranny your Sunday school teacher tells you. That’s why God tells us to always reconfirm what you learn in your church with the Bible---- don’t just swallow, chew and digest all into your spiritual consciousness. They are doing more harm to your faith than good.
You should stay away from such false teachers of the word and Purge yourself from their teachings.
Stay away from any Anti-christ like preachers/pastors. Pray for the Spirit’s discernment to spot a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
7) ALL INIQUITY AND DISHONOR
2 Timothy 2:19-20“But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.” Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable”(ESV)
Once you become a Christian, there are lot of things you have to forsake and do away with.
One of them is iniquity, another is honor.
Iniquity is anything filthy and sinful, and you should know a Christian is one who is righteous and abstains from all sins.
Also, if you don’t honour the Son, you don’t honour the Father. You have to honour both the Lord and Father to receive your blessings of vessels of gold and silver (20). Not only God, but also your parents (Ex 10:12), your ruler (1 Pet 2:7), your wife (1 Pet 3:7)(to husbands) and the Lord with substance (Pr 3:9, Jn 5:23).
These are all the sets of people, notable in the Bible, to give honour to.
IF YOU HAVE A SPIRIT FULL OF INIQUITIES AND DISHONOUR FOR EVERYONE AROUND YOU, TELL THE LORD TO SANCTIFY YOU NOW AND GIVE YOU A NEW AND CLEAN HEART TO HONOUR HIM, SERVE AND OBEY HIM FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE IN JESUS NAME.
Honour God the Father, Son and Spirit, your parents, teachers, government and everyone meant to give honour to. Also, abstain from any form of sin and always let your garment be white.
The bottom line: As the body is the temple of the Spirit (1 Cor 3:16), we should endeavor to make it fit a dwelling place for Him, and how can we do that? By abstaining and purging yourself from certain things which include; affairs of this life, backsliding, unbelief, false doctrines, profane babblings, false teachers and all iniquities & dishonour.
It is done with time and it’s very hard but when the Lord sees how much you work to fright against the flesh, He will send the Holy Spirit to you to guide you from there on.
I pray the Lord sees you through. AMEN.
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