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While surveying the mountain I noticed a couple of ledges that were very beautiful but also very difficult to get to. One of those ledges was called Purity. The presence of the Lord was very strong on this ledge and there was the ability to operate at a great level of authority because you were so close to the Lord. Only those who lived in purity could stand on this ledge.
At first I thought to myself that if I just set my will toward getting to this ledge it would work, so I reminded myself everyday not to get caught in those little sins that were always catching me. The sins of the flesh are obvious; murmuring, complaining, lust, pornography, gossip, anger, envy, greed, fornication, and homosexuality are just some of them. The problem was that the more I reminded myself not to do something, the more they had my focus and attention and I ended up doing the very things I didn’t want to do. I learned that whatever you focus on, you become, so by telling myself everyday not to do something, the more I reminded myself that this was part of my life and I ended up doing it. This was not going to work.
I decided to memorize scripture; surely this would help me climb this cliff. Every part of God’s word was used as an anchor and I was going to scale this wall right up the cliff. It worked for a little while, but I noticed that it only worked while I was looking at the anchor points and as soon as I looked in another direction, it was out of my mind and I would get tangled up in all the ropes and end up being totally bound up. I thought to myself that this seems to be impossible to operate in this world and do all the things we have to do and still have the word of god in the forefront of your mind. Following the Lord was suppose to be filled with life, this technique was only getting me bound up and sad, so where is God in all this? The letter of the law kills and we are bound, but the spirit brings life. Trying to be pure by following the letter of the law was not going to work either.
I must admit that I felt I little like the Roadrunner’s Wilde Coyote trying everything in the book to scale this cliff and nothing works.
Whenever we have a habitual sin in our life, it’s normally there because of two things;
The good news is that God has a solution for both of these problems.
To address the first problem, God has given us the Armor of God. Eph 6:12 Our battle if not against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities in high places. 2 Cor 10:4 .. take captive every thought making it obedient to our Lord. The strongholds in our thinking need to be replaced with a different way of thinking. In other words, totally thrown out the old, and don’t even think about wrong doing. So how are we suppose to not think about the things that we want to think about due to the unholy desires in our hearts. It seemed to be an impossible request. Somehow our desires need to change and our desire for God needs to be greater than our desire for sin. In pondering on how to do this I was walking up and down the paths on the mountain almost giving up all hope that I would ever get to this ledge of purity. While I was on the path, the Holy Spirit said, “Turn right”, this surprised me as I was not asking God to speak to me. It made no sense to turn right as this area of the path was a completely dark and you could not see a thing. In obedience, I turned right and started walking into the darkness, to my surprise there was a path that led right up to the cliff. I would of never of known about this path if it were not for the Holy Spirit telling me where to turn. This was my answer, replace the wrong thinking with asking the Holy Spirit what to do and being obedient to Him. My whole focus and thought pattern changed. Life turned into an adventure where the Holy Spirit and I could walk together and handle the issues of life as they came up.
The second problem stopping me from getting to this ledge was unholy desires in my heart. We are creatures of desire and our desires are stronger than any other power in the universe. I came before the Lord and cried out, God I need some help. I have hooks in my heart that the enemy is using to drag me away from you. To this he offered the divine exchange, so I gave Him my unholy desires and asked Him to take them. He took them out of my heart and gave me peace in return. It brings happy tears to my eyes as Jesus did it all. All I had to do was come to the end of myself and ask Him to remove them and He did. After the hooks came out I found myself floating on the mountain paths and experiencing a freedom that I didn’t want to give up. So I asked the Holy Spirit which way to turn and He brought me to the ledge of purity. I could now float up to the ledge of purity, but it wasn’t through my own efforts. Who would of thought of that? The activity in my mind is more centered on the adventure that the Holy Spirit can bring every day. I wake up in the morning and ask God, What are we going to do today? Yes, I still have battles in my mind, and by no means will anyone be freed from this battle until we enter perfection, but Jesus knew what he was getting into. He knows that this is a process. When we fail, we get back up and start walking with Him again. The great news is that Jesus already won the war. If we don’t give up, we win.
In regards to being sinless, only the blood of Jesus makes us spotless so the cross is the only way to the ledge of Purity. To stand on this ledge, we use faith and the word of God. Roman 8:1 there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. When the enemy is accusing me I hold up the shield and continually quote this verse until he goes away. Trying to be holy will never cause us to reach a place of purity. God is more concerned with the motives in our heart. To this we offer this answer, Ps 40:8 I delight to do your will O Lord. It’s a place of life and great joy. The Joy of the Lord is your strength and as I continue to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit my joy and strength continue to rise.
In speaking about the Joy of the Lord, as we start making wise decisions, and chose to follow the Spirit instead of the flesh, the joy of the Lord will continue to increase. The opposite is also true, if you give into the flesh, the joy of the Lord disappears. God is trying to show us how to make good decisions. Ne 8:10 the joy of the Lord is my strength. This is true. Every time you chose to deny the flesh and be obedient to the Holy Spirit the joy meter goes up.