How to Stay Pure

 

Let the Spirit help. Can’t lick a sinful thought or desire in you? Take cue from the scribe.  

One summer night he prayed, “Lord God, my smoking is killing me but I can’t lick it. Free me of this addiction. Tomorrow I will try to stop anew. If ever I puff a stick again, take away my life. I mean it.” 

The next day he woke up but did not reach for a stick. He sipped his coffee but did not reach for a stick. His brothers sat before him and puffed, but he did not reach for a stick. It was then that he realized what God had done for him: his addiction was removed, no more urge to smoke.

The incident happened in 1987. The scribe has not puffed a stick since.

Make a habit of living by God’s instructions. Y’shua asked His disciples, “My teaching, is it imparted to you for knowing or for doing?” (Gospel of Barnabas)

To God it is not what you know that counts but what you do. There is a vast difference between knowing the truth and doing the truth. No can be pure just by thinking about it.

¹⁶ All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷ so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 TIMOTHY 3

⁸ The Lord has told you what is good, and this is what He requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. MICAH 6

⁷ Train yourself to be godly… ¹² Set an example… in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. ¹³ …Devote yourself to the public reading of the Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. 1 TIMOTHY 4 

¹⁷ Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. JOHN 13

The great philosopher Aristotle said, “Perfection is won by training and habituation. We are what we repeatedly do. Perfection is not an act but a habit.”

²² Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. JAMES 1 

²⁷ Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel of the Messiah. PHILIPPIANS 1

¹⁶ Live as God’s [bond]slaves. 1 PETER 2 tev (A bondslave or bondservant is a freeman that voluntarily submits himself to become a slave or servant of God.)  

¹⁵ In your hearts set apart the Messiah as Lord. 1 PETER 3

⁵ Offer to God those things that please Him. 1 PETER 2 tlb

⁹ We make it our goal to please Him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 2 CORINTHIANS 5

⁶ In Messiah Y’shua the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. GALATIANS 5

⁵ Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; to goodness, knowledge; ⁶ and to knowledge; self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; ⁷ and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. ⁸ For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Y’shua the Messiah. ⁹ But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. 2 PETER 1

Do prayer and fasting regularly. Remember that, at this stage, you are now a combatant in a protracted war. Prayer and fasting will help you to stay focused and alert. The Son of Man did 40 days before dealing with Lucifer.

Fasting will mortify your flesh; prayer will fortify your soul. Fasting will lessen the burden of the soul; prayer will add power and authority to its arsenal. In Mark 9:29, when the apostles could not overcome the demon in a boy, Y’shua said, “This kind can come out only by prayer and fasting.”

Christians nowadays rarely submit to prayer and fasting. They shudder at the thought of experiencing hunger and thirst, fearful of hurting and dying. They also shun the “monotony” of being shut from the ways of the world, doing nothing else but praying and Scripture-reading. And yet it is precisely for reasons of detachment from the world and of attachment to God that prayer and fasting must be done.

Be careful of what you see and hear. The mind is like a sponge; it absorbs anything it comes in contact with. Filter the transmissions to your mind, for they determine largely what you desire. What is not presented to your physical senses cannot be sensed by them. Check your inclinations; let no sinful desires be developed in you. Deny opportunity to your sinful desires so that they may not be realized. Invoke the Most Holy Name and bind the demons that are prompting you to sin, and throw them to the fires of hell. A clear and specific program on this matter will be thoroughly discussed in Commandment No. 10.

Check yourself constantly for enemy stronghold.

⁴ When you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent. PSALM 4

Should you find any enemy stronghold in you, detoxify it at once. Do not wait until you get calloused and insensitive to it. Leave the demonic forces without any strap to rein you. Do not wait for Divine Justice to come and repay you for it.

⁵ Put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. ⁶ Because of these, the wrath of God is coming! ⁷ You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. ⁸ But now you must rid yourselves of all things such as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.  ¹² …As God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³ Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴ And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. COLOSSIANS 3

¹¹ Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. EPHESIANS 5 

King David diligently checked himself for enemy strongholds. He prayed several times a day for God to show him his hidden faults.

¹² How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from hidden faults. ¹³ Keep your servant from deliberate sins! Don’t let them control me. Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin. PSALM 19 nlt

³ Put me on trial, Lord, and cross-examine me. Test my motives and my heart… ⁹ Don’t let me suffer the fate of sinners. PSALM 26 nlt

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. ²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. PSALM 139

If you are not strong enough to resist temptation, keep a safe distance from it. Getting rid of enemy strongholds is no different to getting rid of an addiction; going to the source is not at all the cure. Chinese proverb says, “When the moth flies around the flame, it burns itself to death.”

⁸ [God] has called you to freedom in the Messiah. But it takes only one wrong person among you to infect all the others. GALATIANS 5 tlb

³³ Do not be misled. Bad company corrupts good character. ³⁴ Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning. 1 CORINTHIANS 15  

Do your best to identify the human agents of Lucifer in your family, school, workplace, church and neighborhood. Also, watch out for demon-incarnates.

²² Avoid every kind of evil. 1 THESSALONIANS 5

¹¹ For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. ¹² It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives. TITUS 2

¹⁴ Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? ¹⁵ What harmony is there between the Messiah and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? ¹⁶ What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will live with them, and walk among them, and I will be their God. ¹⁷ Therefore, come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing and I will receive you. ¹⁸ I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. 2 CORINTHIANS 6

⁵¹ Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, I came to bring division. ⁵² From now on there will be five in the family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. LUKE 12

¹ Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. PSALM 1

King David, although he was strong enough to resist temptation, kept a safe distance from bad company.   

⁴ I do not spend time with liars or go along with hypocrites. ⁵ I hate the gatherings of those who do evil, and I refuse to join in with the wicked. ⁶ I wash my hands to declare my innocence. I come to Your altar, O Lord, ⁷ singing a song of thanksgiving and telling of all your wonders. ⁸ I love your Sanctuary, Lord, the place where your glorious presence dwells. PSALM 26 nlt

Seek help on how to deal with bad company.

¹⁷ Be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. 2 PETER 3

¹ Watch yourself or you also may be tempted. GALATIANS 6

Stay immersed in the Word. Also, read about the heroes of our faith.

Be extra-sensitive to the Voice that is soft and gentle amidst the noise and agitation of this world. It will communicate timely messages of motivation, encouragement, comfort, instruction and advice. They are meant to hold back your arms from doing wicked deeds and your feet from getting to evil posts… to hone your faith… to shield your mind from lies, slanders, intrigues and false teachings… to lift your heart from grief, bad reports, disappointments, frustrations, problems, fears and insecurities… Listen to them.

Bond with those who love God. David said, “As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight” (Psalm 16:3).

¹⁴ Consult with wise men. ECCLESIASTICUS 10

⁵ God is present in the company of the righteous. PSALM 14

²² Pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 2 TIMOTHY 2

¹² Imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. HEBREWS 6

¹² But constantly have recourse to a devout man, whom you know to be a keeper of the commandments, whose soul matches your own, and whom if you go wrong, will be sympathetic. ¹³ Finally, stick to the advice your own heart gives you; no one can be truer to you than that; ¹⁴ since a man’s soul often forewarns him better than seven watchmen perched on a watchtower. ¹⁵ And besides all this beg the Most High to guide your steps in the truth. ECCLESIASTICUS 37

Take advantage of church fellowships. Billy Graham wrote in The Journey:

Fellowship on a personal level isn’t a substitute for congregational fellowship. If you are in a church where Christ is preached and the Bible is taught, thank God for it, and take advantage of every opportunity it offers to nourish you spiritually. If you don’t have a church home (or you aren’t growing spiritually in your present church), ask God to lead you to the church He has for you. If you are a new believer or you don’t come from a church background, don’t be embarrassed if you don’t understand everything at first. People who love Christ won’t look down on you if you sit at the wrong time or can’t find the right page in the hymnal; they care for you and want to help you.

Trumpet Call

¹⁴ The Lord your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, so that He will not see anything indecent and turn away from you. DEUTERONOMY 23

²² [God] has reconciled you by the Messiah’s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation. COLOSSIANS 1

¹ As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. ² For He says, In the time of My favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you. 2 CORINTHIANS 6

Essentially Unleavened Bread is saying: “God redeemed us from the pledge so that the stains of sin in our souls might be washed and removed. Do not waste the Most Holy Sacrifice. Keep yourselves as Messiah Y’shua’s lambs—without blemish or defect in His sight.”

⁷ For our Pesach lamb, the Messiah, has been sacrificed. ⁸ So, let us celebrate the Seder not with leftover hametz, the hametz of wickedness and evil, but with the matzah of purity and truth. 1 CORINTHIANS 5 cjb

²⁵ The Messiah loved the Church and gave Himself up for her ²⁶ to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, ²⁷ and to present her to Himself as a radiant Church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. EPHESIANS 5

²⁷ Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 1 CORINTHIANS 11

²³ May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept [pure] blameless at the [Second] Coming of our Lord Y’shua the Messiah. 1 THESSALONIANS 5