PURITY & POWER
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People are attracted to power…power tools, power engines, power lifting; positions of power - CEOs, presidents, preachers… Power is often associated with control, force and influence. However, in the Kingdom of God, power is associated with meekness, humility and purity.
Meekness can be defined as power under control, to hold back and wait on God. Humility can be defined as is power laid low, yielding and sitting up under the weight of the will of another.
But, purity is freedom from contamination or immorality. It isn’t apparent that purity is somehow related to power. However, without purity, power can become diluted and rejected. We all know of someone in authority who may have used their power well, but were found impure in some major area of life and their testimony become “powerless.”
From athletes to presidents, when one’s purity is not maintained as well as their power is exercised, their personal influence falters. This is so much more true for followers of Christ, men and women who are representing God’s power and purity.
When those who don’t know Jesus see the purity produced in Christians by the Spirit, as a loving and forgiving people, they witness the holy nature and character of God - a God who is living and present among His people.
This witness of purity exposes and convicts the unbeliever of their own impure and sinful nature.
Moreover, when unbelievers see such loving Christians engage the world with the Good News accompanied by the Spirit’s miraculous power to heal and deliver, they behold the reality of God’s existence and His ultimate authority over all things.
This combination of purity and power sets the stage for a true and accurate witness to the Kingdom. Therefore, it is imperative for Christians, being led by the Spirit, to walk in purity and power and thus be living witnesses - ambassadors - of our God and Kingdom.
As Spirit-born children of God, our old sinful nature has been put to death, being mortally wounded (Fee, 137). We are now “a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new [and pure] has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Jesus [said], “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (Jn 3:5). Thus, we are indeed new creatures, human and divine, Spirit-humans as it were. Henceforth, we must live our lives according to our new Godly natures and put off the old, dead nature with its tendencies toward sin (Ephesians 3:22-24).
Paul tells us that this is done by living by the Spirit. “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh...But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace…” (Gal 5:16,22). Holy Spirit-led Christians then are marked by lives of love, service and forgiveness toward each other and unbelievers.
Though still encased in sin-corrupted, earthly bodies, the Spirit-born lives within are to shine forth and manifest Godly character before the eyes of others.
This is how we become living witnesses to the Spirit’s work to cleanse and regenerate once condemned sinners into saved saints whose new lives of purity testify of the goodly character of God to a dark a dying world.
Such a witness will move the unbeliever to either conviction of sin with desire for salvation and new life or to resist the goodness of God and remain under condemnation, desiring darkness and uncleanness rather than light and purity.
Recall John 3:19-21, “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
Allow me to bear witness how God has produced this Kingdom love and community in my own family.
The Spirit led my wife, Melody, and I to adopt our young adult daughter, Maria, when our bio-daughter, Jael, was just 6 months old. Over time, the Holy Spirit taught and empowered us to love Maria through all her mess: rejection issues, atrocious foster experiences, fear, distrust, bent up anger, low self-esteem, etc..
Driving us to become more dependent on Jesus, God brought us to new depths of love, sacrifice, and forgiveness for this young lady. Maria herself was being purified by God to repent from hidden sin and pride, as well as to forgive her past offenders.
Through the difficulties we faced, the needs to love and forgive and love again, Jesus was making us all more into His image as humble, patient, enduring, and kind brother and sisters toward each other.
There were sweet times and there were disastrous times; however, eventually, Maria experienced great deliverance from demonic liars and strongholds and began to truly receive love from us and others.
We enjoyed true, Spirit-inspired, Kingdom-family love. Glory to God! By God’s grace, we could “bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2).
Through these years, many witnessed and were challenged by this kind of purifying love that God was putting us through. Why would he do this to us? Why not leave Maria alone? Why dig all deep into her issues and stir up mess? Why “burden” this young family this way?
Answer: to display the loving, caring, power of God to purify and make whole the hearts of broken men and women, and make for Himself a holy and pure Kingdom family.
My family is no better than any other family. However, I pray and hope that what God did, and is still doing in us, can serve as an example of what His Spirit can do in anyone who would yield and say yes - save me from judgement, deliver me from satan, cleanse me from old sinful habits, and make me a part of your holy Kingdom family, however that may look for us!
I believe if more Christians could catch this vision of God’s heart for a Kingdom family on earth, unbelievers would truly see the pure church, the holy people of God. They would see and come to the love, peace and joy of God, or they would see and reject Him utterly, hating Him and us who love him.
Are we willing to let the Spirit bear witness of the purity and power of God through us, our families and churches?
-CD FABIEN
@cdfabien
Bibliography
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