November 11. Acts ch 15-17
SPIRITUAL ENVIRONMENTAL SANITATION (2)
““When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.””
Luke 11:24-26 NASB1995
GOOD DAY. Yesterday, we talked about cleansing our inner man from the debris of evil intents and thoughts in any way and at any time that we recognise them in our lives. Jesus gave the completion of spiritual cleansing exercise in this second exhortation. In the natural realm, when we do away with the unneeded goods or garbage in our houses, we replace them with new and useful goods. It works the same way in the spiritual realm. Each time you recognise a wicked intent or thought and you drive it away, you must replace it with a godly equivalent. There can be no vacuum. Failure to do this means the thought, motive or spirit that you sent out will go and look for another seven to come back to its former house if it finds nowhere to enter and rest.
WHAT ARE THE GOOD TREASURES?
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23 NASB1995
The fruit of the Spirit should be the intent of the heart. You need to pause and check if what you are desiring will promote such fruit in your heart and the lives of others around you. This consciousness of not just your own good but the good of others around you and even the environment in general is what gives and maintains a clean heart. You can only have a clean spirit by the Spirit of God because a clean heart is the fruit of the Spirit of God. For a clean heart, you must consciously invite the Spirit of God to live in your heart and feed your heart with the word of God. Jesus said “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” John 6:63 NASB1995 A clean heart is a heart regularly refreshed with the word of God. A heart refreshed by the works of the flesh which are contained in the part one of this writing leads to death. I invite you to a life of daily checking and cleansing debris that want to make our hearts dirty.
PRAY: Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.
Psalms 139:23-24 NASB1995