As we are being prepared by the Holy Spirit to possess our inheritance, we are exhorted by God, “Sanctify yourselves today, for tomorrow I shall do wonders among you” (Joshua 3:5). This purification is a prelude to the immunities that God has for us. When we prepare our hearts, we receive protection as we go into spiritual battles. If we do not prepare ourselves beforehand, what we think is of minor consequence now will turn out to be of major importance later.
Achan went through Israel’s time of heart-searching and preparation too, yet he became an occasion of defeat after the battle of Jericho (Joshua 7). It does not take much dedication to walk in the wilderness and pick up manna in the morning; in fact, anyone who is hungry enough is glad to go out and gather it. But a deeper kind of dedication is needed to walk in the victories of the Lord.
In days of depression or during times of war, many people pray. It is said that there are no atheists in foxholes. On the other hand, a period of prosperity often results in great apostasy. It is one thing to accept God in days of troubles; it is quite another to be able to stand during the days of blessing and prosperity. God does not want to destroy you with His blessings, and that is probably why you do not receive more blessings than you do. Perhaps you are praying for God to give you a million dollars, without realizing that receiving a million dollars might be the most destructive thing that could ever happen to you. We believe that God’s remnant is going to share the wealth of the nations (Isaiah 61:6). He will lay money in their hands. God is bringing forth businesses for the Kingdom. He will bring great blessings and great prosperity. But it cannot come to God’s people just for the purpose of blessing them. They must be a functional instrument in the hand of the Lord, and this takes dedication and purification.
You may not know how you would react under such circumstances, but you can prepare your heart now. If this does not seem important to you, keep in mind that the people who are walking with God now will be brought to greater tests through the blessing and the fulfillment of the promises than they will through judgment and tribulation conditions in the world. The Body of Christ is being conditioned for the days that are coming. Recognize that and look up, knowing that your redemption is drawing near (Luke 21:28). Be prepared to be an instrument of God to speak the gospel of the Kingdom unto all the world for a witness. Be prepared for the blessings and the authority that must be released.
A certain persistence will lead you into the dedication to purity. God is emphasizing two necessary factors: the purity of your walk with Him and the persistence of your faith. First, you should understand the purity that God is requiring of you. Jesus said, “Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold” (Matthew 24:12). The very prevalence of sin will have a way of reaching your spirit if you are not careful. In a measure, at least, you could become tolerant of the sin that God hates and for which He is ready to judge the world.
You should rescue your brother from sin, but you should also hate even the garment that is spotted by the flesh (Jude 23). Avoid defilement in every way. Do not allow it. Paul wrote, “If a brother falls, you who are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness. But consider yourself, lest you also be tempted” (Galatians 6:1). Be careful that the rebellion or bitterness that is in your brother’s spirit does not reach through to you. In trying to help him, do not become so tolerant and sympathetic toward him in his need that you end up being sympathetic with the rebellion that could destroy him. As a result you, too, could find yourself becoming defiled and contaminated. Realize the deadliness of sin and iniquity. Because iniquity abounds, because it is so prevalent and common, the love of many will wax cold.
Genesis 19 says that Lot’s soul was grieved day by day with the unrighteous acts of Sodom, but that still was not enough. He had become so prosperous and so tolerant that before he escaped out of Sodom, much that was dear to him was destroyed. His sons-in-law thought that he was just a fool mocking them. His wife never really did get out of Sodom. Her heart was so wrapped up in Sodom that she looked back and turned into a pillar of salt. Lot’s two daughters were afraid that they would miss fulfillment in life, and so in a cave they made their father drunk, seduced him, and by incest produced sons whose descendants later had to be destroyed (II Chronicles 20:22–23). What a tragic end for Lot, just because he had been content to live in Sodom. Even though he thought he had the right attitude toward Sodom, he did not realize that his tolerance for it would become destructive to his entire family.
We are living in the days which Luke 17:26–28 describes: “As it was in the days of Noah and in the days of Lot, so will it be then.” Face the fact that one of the deadliest things that can happen to your spirit is that you become tolerant of the age around you. Do not allow in yourself a sophisticated tolerance for sin, which will allow you to look upon sin in your brother or your sister without having a horror grip your heart when you realize what is happening to them. Young people especially must be warned to turn away from the iniquity of this world and to have a deep hatred for sin.
Have a love for the sinner, and realize that hatred for sin and love for the sinner are not incompatible. You can love him only if you hate the sin. God would not love you if He were tolerant of your sin and allowed you to be a creation that would self-destruct as it went on in its own rebellion and disobedience. God must hate the sin that is in you, or He could not really love you. There has to be within your heart the ability to say, “O God, I love You with all my heart, and I love my brother. But with everything that is within my heart, I hate the sin that gives me an openness to Satan’s hindrances which block and frustrate my life. I hate anything within me that is tolerant of the abounding iniquity, even if it does nothing else but cause my love for You to grow cold.”
Ask the Lord to give you a hatred for sin and a true, wholesome love for righteousness that exceeds all else. Believe God to deliver you from any tendency to be a hypocritical, self-righteous pharisee who prays, “God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men” (Luke 18:11). You are just like every other man, except for the grace of God. Therefore, hate sin and ask the Lord to deliver you from it. Even if you are walking right before God, that still is no credit to you, for God gave you the righteousness. Do not boast of it; walk humbly before the Lord and love that righteousness. There are two things which God says you are to seek first: the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33). When you do this, everything else has a way of being added to you; everything else is brought into focus for you and becomes attainable. But nothing is attainable until the priority of the Kingdom and the priority of righteousness stand uppermost in your life.
To accomplish that, God has been laying one directive before those who seek first the Kingdom, and that is to be persistent. Be persistent! All day long the Lord’s remembrancers must never keep silent. You who remind the Lord, take no rest for yourselves; and give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Isaiah 62:6b–7. Let there be an importunity within you that makes you a persistent pest where God is concerned. God cannot stand up against persistence, and He cannot be pleased without faith (Hebrews 11:6). So make yours a persistent faith.
God cannot withstand persistence. He has taught us to pray like the widow who repeatedly came to the judge and cried, “Avenge me of my adversary!” According to this parable of Jesus in Luke 18, the Father would tend to react in the same way that this judge reacted at first. He would allow things to run their course and come to an ultimate conclusion by the natural and spiritual laws of the universe. Eventually, at the great white throne, the man who had cheated this widow out of her money would receive what was coming to him. But the widow was not content with that; she wanted her money returned to her right away. Her persistence interfered with the normal process of justice.
Some men’s sins go before them to judgment, and the sins of others follow after (I Timothy 5:24). In other words, the judgments of God are not necessarily confined to a certain period. Most men try to do what they can to bury their sins, hoping that they will not catch up with them. But sooner or later they will. The widow was saying to the judge, in effect, “I am not content to see things run their normal course. I know that by God’s law, whatever one sows, he will reap, and the soul that sins will surely die. But I am not content with that. I want you to go after this fellow who has taken my money and see that he gives it back to me!”
The judge said that he did not fear God or man. God is trying to tell you through this parable that, in the final analysis, it is often not your relationship to God or His love for you that will bring a quick answer; it is your persistence. The judge said, “I do not fear God or man, but this woman will wear me out unless I avenge her speedily; so I will take care of it quickly.”
Persistence brings a quick answer, an interference with the normal processes of justice and judgment and righteousness in the earth. We must call upon the Lord persistently, because we must see the time cut short for the elect’s sake (Mark 13:20). We must see our destiny speeded up. We cannot allow this present age to go its natural course, lest the purposes of Satan be accomplished in the earth. We must persist and move into the intercession that sees God’s will really happen now.
God is a God of eternity and He moves slowly, but He moves thoroughly. It is true that the mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine. What we must do is speed up the whole process a little, and get it moving faster. We can do it by the diligence of our spirits to enter into the intercession and prayer. Let us seek after two necessary ingredients: first, the purity, so that God’s working in our lives does not disintegrate because of an inner corruption; second, the persistence. God will honor our faith. We cannot please Him unless we believe Him. There is no way of pleasing God without faith, and that faith must be persistently applied and persistently expressed, day by day. Let us give Him no rest until He establishes Jerusalem as a praise in the earth.
For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not keep quiet, until her righteousness goes forth like brightness, and her salvation like a torch that is burning. And the nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory; and you will be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord will designate. You will also be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; all day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind the Lord, take no rest for yourselves; and give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. And they will call them, “The holy people, the redeemed of the Lord”; and you will be called, “Sought out, a city not forsaken.” Isaiah 62:1–3, 6, 7, 12.
Is the Holy Spirit calling you to a deeper dedication? Refuse any tolerance toward sin. Desire instead a deep addiction to grace, so that you never consider a brother without having faith and love for him. There cannot be a love of righteousness unless a corresponding horror toward sin grips your heart. You may need a deep revelation of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, a revelation of how sinful sin really is. You cannot be tolerant or unconcerned about problems and sins in your brothers and sisters in the Body. It is not enough merely to hope that they will work out their problems.
Earnestly desire to think the way God thinks. Be determined to hate what He hates, to love what He loves, to think as He thinks, to want what He wants, and to move with God.
If you are always seeking God just so that you come up to zero, you usually are not cocky; but you can become cocky when God’s blessing is upon you. That position can be the most dangerous of all. It is impossible to fall off a valley, but people can easily fall off mountains. It is in the place of blessing that you find yourself asking God to help you not to become arrogant. Paul said that he learned how to be content, how to be abased and to abound, how to have nothing and to have plenty (Philippians 4:11–12). It takes a certain knowledge to be able to come to the place where you are dedicated not only to walk through the valley, but also to carefully scale the heights and possess the mountains that the Lord has set before you.
When you read the history of the kings of Israel and of Judah, you see that many of them sought God at first; but once they were established, they turned away from the Lord. They could handle the problems, but they could not handle the blessings. Their hearts were not wholly set on the Lord.
God’s people are getting ready for some real blessings in the Lord, and we dare not be arrogant or cocky. At no time must our circumstances discourage us, lest we die in the wilderness of unbelief. Yet at no time must our way be so prosperous that we forget the Lord who brought us forth. As we walk humbly before the Lord, we will walk in the blessings; and they will not destroy us.
This word is a spiritual circumcision of heart. God intends that there be a godly sorrow within you that works repentance not to be ashamed of (II Corinthians 7:10). There must never be a tolerance in your mind toward sin. Do not excuse it in yourself or in anyone else. Do not sit on a judgment throne to judge someone else. Do not be a nitpicker and criticize your brother. Love one another, and love righteousness. Love the Body of Christ, and love the Lord with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength. That means turning away from evil and abhorring it, as you cleave to the Lord with all your heart. Believe for that to happen; and if it is a painful experience, so let it be. Within your heart you must feel intensely the way God feels about sin. When He puts the knife to it, there is no anesthetic.
Do you have the courage to name your problems to the Lord—the little pet sins that you tend to excuse? Lot pleaded, “Lord, can’t we turn aside to Zoar? It is just a little town.” In his heart Lot was saying, “To walk with God is too difficult. I don’t want to be like Abraham, just wandering around with God leading me. I want to have some social life. I have to relate to the world. It is just a little town. There will not be much sin. I must have a little fellowship.” God permitted Lot to enter Zoar, but Lot finally feared to stay there and went up to the mountain (Genesis 19:17–30).
Do you have the courage to name what is wrong with you? Do you know what is wrong? Do you excuse it? No excuses will justify it. You cannot really get release until you want release. Perhaps you are thinking, “But this little habit is not too bad; I don’t know why people pick on it anyway.” Get rid of the problem; hate it. If your problem is smoking cigarettes, write fifty reasons why you should not smoke. If that is what God is putting His finger on in your life, you will find the reasons; God will whisper in your ear, and you may be writing for hours. Or, as the head of the house, you may be led to write fifty reasons why you should not get angry and lose your temper. Then again, maybe you need to write fifty reasons why you should not pamper the lusts of the flesh.
Be honest with the Lord on this matter of impurity. Zero in on it so that you can be released from it. Right now start thinking the way God thinks about every offense against His will. Do not be so introspective, however, that you lose the vision of what you want. Behind this heart-searching is a desire to please the Lord; it is not a pharisaic attempt to shine up your appearance before the world so that you look proper. Behind this is a desire to be without spot or wrinkle or any such thing (Ephesians 5:27), to be among those who wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb and are ready for the Lord’s coming, ready to walk with Him (Revelation 7:14). Loose yourself from every acceptance and every tolerance of impurity.
The Word says, “Beware, lest a little root of bitterness spring up, and thereby many be defiled” (Hebrews 12:15). A root of bitterness can move like a tidal wave through a church. The only way to stop it is through a wholehearted repentance by everyone that says, “This thing stops right here! There will be no defilement among us. No defilement will be able to enter within our walls!” We cannot regulate the whole world in its abounding iniquity, but we can have defenses in the local churches, in order to be the Church that God wants, holy, without blemish before the Lord.
Learning these truths is like receiving the antibiotics of the Spirit, the prescription that kills the infection. Diseases start out small, but soon they can take over the whole man, and even result in his death. James 1:15 says that when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin; and sin, when it is accomplished, brings forth death. That is the way you can die spiritually, and that is the way a movement that began in God can die. Do not give way to it, not even in thought. Pray from your heart as David did, “Lord, lead me in the way everlasting. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight. Lord, try me. Let me walk in righteousness, that no rebellion be found within me, but only perfect submission unto the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Claim the righteousness of Christ, and be just as determined to reject any defilement within the Body of Christ. Satan has devised inroads in the past, but God is bringing an end to all of them. Walking with God is not a matter of measuring sin, but of being honest in seeking after God. Let there be no cover-up. Religious people may come along and say, “Look, I see this sin and that sin.” Maybe they are right. But most of them are sweeping their own dirt under the carpet, and that is their problem.
The calling of God’s end-time apostles and prophets is to lead God’s people in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. As long as God gives you breath, contend for righteousness, that you may be found in Him, not having a righteousness which is of yourself, but the righteousness which is by faith (Philippians 3:9).
Be willing and open in your heart to Christ’s authority to cleanse sin. I John 1:9 gives the divine promise that if you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive you and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Claim that promise; invoke it upon yourself today. Confess your sin, and believe for its complete uprooting; believe also for a new level of God’s anointing to come upon God’s family.
Do not stop seeking righteousness until the Holy Spirit has finished His work within you. He moves over your heart to loose you. Unless you break through to God, you will be miserable, week after week, month after month. Determine in God to meet what He is trying to do in you. You had better lay yourself open before the Lord right now and say, “Here I am, Lord. Whatever You want in my life I will accept, and make no excuses. Only give me an intense desire to do Your will.”
The holy purifying blood of Jesus Christ that we reverence, that precious blood of the Lamb of God, is our cleansing. We invoke His cleansing blood. We confess and bow before Him as our Lord and our Savior, as our Master, as the head of the Body, as the only One who must be thoroughly and completely satisfied with our walk before Him and our relationship to Him.