Internal Purification

Internal Purification.
Light For Life December 2005

We can have all the skills in the world but God is not just after skills. There are people in so many areas and in so many arenas’ of the corporate world, the church world, the nations that have fantastic skills but skills are only just one aspect aren't they? We can have all the skills we need and God will use us, but then as we grow He will require more of us and bring us to a place of refining – which is the internal purification that we all need, not one person more than others – all sin is sin to God, and whatever it is it can limit us and block His blessings in some way, so we cant allow it to stay there once He has shown it to us.

Recently I was at a meeting where I was listening to a man speak on leadership, his message was very good, one of his points was about excellence in ministry and he talked about 5 essential skills that we need to have as leaders. The skills he spoke of were prayer, vision, communication, administration and people skills – all very important in order to do what He has planned for us to do. As I sat there I looked at this list of skills and said to God ‘Lord, I know I have these skills why have things not worked out the way I thought?' It was then God started to speak to me, and it was quite profound. God said to me in the most beautiful gentle and fatherly way ‘Yes you do have these skills but its not just about the skills its about internal purification’. You can have all these skills in good measure, and God does want to utilize these, but high on His list is making us more like Jesus – purifying us, so we can reflect Him in a purer way to the people we speak to, to use us for His glory even more, to free us, to take us to the next level so He can reveal the next plan that we must undertake and the list goes on. He refines His creation and we are His creation and His workmanship.

I already knew this answer when I asked Him about myself, He had already shown me this along the last 12 months of my journey, but what He was about to show me was something very significant to all of us. It's easy when you tell someone something like this for them to say ‘Well yes, God does want to deal with you!!!!, etc etc blah blah blah…!!!!’ (can your hear my attitude there.. shame shame!) but the thing is that if the cry of our hearts is to be more like Him, to honour Him, to serve Him then this is what is going to happen in our life – no one is exempt, it is part and parcel and somewhere down the track, if it is not already happening in your life, God will slowly get more nitty gritty and show you more and more what needs to come into His order, we are all accountable.

Anyway, when He spoke this to me, it was a confirmation, I felt encouraged because at times I had doubted that I did have what God wanted and I almost cried at the gentle, non condescending way He spoke it to me. Yes, it was about internal purification. If you are on this journey you will know what I am talking about and when God reveals stuff, flaws and weaknesses in your life you will not rebel, you will not run (although you may halt momentarily) but you will gird up yourself, pull yourself together and purposefully keep walking ahead one step at a time and you will get through.

When you are first a Christian, or come to that place of seeing areas in your life that need to change, at first the adjustments are fairly easy to make – things will quite easily get cut out of your life – it might be simple things like ‘little white lies’, or swearing, to something like being convicted of gossiping. But, as you go down the road in your walk the things that are revealed from our hearts and lives are things that have probably been a part of who we are through our whole life now, and it can be quite a surprise when we see the areas for what they are and then through God’s grace begin to seek change.

At the beginning of 2005 God showed me in the bible about His Holy temple and how it says that we are His temple – our bodies are the temple and He lives in us - His home. As in any building we see around us with one thing and another they do get broken, worn and weather beaten, things break, sometimes the foundations are not quite right and cracks might appear and they need work done on them. Well, God as the owner/builder of us, His home, will carry out the necessary work at the right time in us. As well as this, as we are His home, His ‘temple’ we should be Holy and set apart for Him to serve Him. And so it is that if we are close to Him and hearing His voice He will be rebuilding us.

Amazingly enough this is precisely what He showed me. It was that very night that I heard that message at church that He continued to speak to me. I went home and sat down to read my daily bible reading, not something I specifically looked up but what I was meant to read for that day. The heading of the chapter was ‘Abominations in the Temple’ Ezekiel Chapter 8-12. As I read through it this was just what God had spoken to me – in this passage God had taken Ezekiel in a vision and was showing him how all the people from the priests (in the temple) down to the average man on the street secretly had idols in their lives and were going against His laws. On the outside they looked good and were doing all the right things but secretly behind closed doors they all had their idols and He dealt with them severely – beginning at His sanctuary, which if you think about it is in our hearts. Our heart is where things can be hidden and no one really sees, but God sees all, completely loving us all the while and when the time is right He shows us. He doesn't deal with everything at once or we would not cope but at the right time it comes to our attention.

Interestingly in this bible passage, there were people with areas in their lives of sin, but He told the angel that they were to spare the ones who sighed and cried over all the abominations that are done within it. And so it is with us, if we ‘sigh and cry’ over these areas in our lives God’s grace is made available and we work through them. Later it said in Chapter 11 that ‘But as for those whose hearts follow the desire for their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their deeds on their own heads’ says the Lord God’, in our terms it is called consequences. So in this passage God revealed the uncovered sins etc, He sends the angels to deal with the sin, except for the ones whose hearts sighed and cried over the sin, then as this was all dealt with, cleansed and purified, His glory and His presence could fill the temple.

And so it is with us, as our hearts and lives are dealt with His glory can fill us and then spill out of us to the world and those around us. The benefits are not just for us or for God, our lives are cleansed we feel better about ourselves, God is glorified and people can start to see a better picture of Him, we can have a better relationship with Him and those around us are blessed as we may no longer get angry so easily, we aren't gripped by fear, we are more patient and more forgiving and that is just naming a few.So maybe if you relate to what I am saying here then what you are experiencing is internal purification. I encourage you to lean into God, stay close to Him, even if what He is asking seems hard – start by being willing and He will enable you. It may not all be easy but the place God will bring you to will be so freeing, and as you move through it you will understand why He did it. Let His glory fill your temple and spill out to bring the peace you enjoy to the world around you, to your world!

Love
Cam

Word For Life

Internal
Existing or situated within the limits or surface of something, situated near the inside of the body, relating to, or occurring within the confines of an organized structure (as a club, company, or state), relating or belonging to or existing within the mind.Inner, Located, acting, or effective within the body.

Purification
The act or an instance of cleansing or purifying. Cleaning by getting rid of impurities. The act of purging of sin or guilt; "purification through repentance".

Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost :
What an astonishing saying is this! As truly as the living God dwelt in the Mosaic tabernacle, and in the temple of Solomon, so truly does the Holy Ghost dwell in the souls of genuine Christians; and as the temple and all its utensils were holy, separated from all common and profane uses, and dedicated alone to the service of God, so the bodies of genuine Christians are holy, and all their members should be employed in the service of God alone.

The whole man is the temple; the soul is the inmost shrine; the understanding and heart, the holy place; and the body, the porch and exterior of the edifice. Chastity is the guardian of the temple to prevent anything unclean entering which might provoke the indwelling God to abandon it as defiled. None but God can claim a temple; here the Holy Ghost is assigned one; therefore the Holy Ghost is God.

The Word

1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Do you not know that your body is the temple (the very sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you, Whom you have received [as a Gift] from God? You are not your own,
You were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for, made His own]. So then, honour God and bring glory to Him in your body.