The Sixth Step of Spiritual Ascension: Inner Purity

Beloved, I am glad to share with you today on the sixth step of spiritual ascension, which is inner purity. This inner purity is the proof of more noble attitudes that lead to the divine vision. First, in the direct moral sense, is “holy” all that belongs to the realm of divinity, and which is thereby set apart, separated from the whole profane world. Then, sacred objects, sacred beings have something intangible and formidable; and whoever wishes to approach it must fulfill certain conditions, submit to certain steps of purification.

Thus, the first reaction of the conscience in front of divine holiness is that of the dread of man before a radically superior Power. It is a sacred fear, a religious fear, which is not a manifestation of the feeling of fear, but is a stir, implying on the part of the man who feels it a feeling of the absolute. It is clearer that the Bible informs us that it’s before the holiness of God that Abraham is moved during his repeated prayer for Sodom when he declares :”Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes,”(Genesis 18.27).

In the same way, Moses was divided between the attraction and the fear on the mountain of Sinai: “I will approach to see what is this great vision … Do not approach, take off your shoes from your feet, because the earth on which you stand is a holy land “. And God invites us to do nothing that is contrary to his dignity; he will be faithful to justice revealed by his law and his promises. Here is the source of the consolation of the believer, who salutes in the Holy of Israel a God-Savior.

Having said the above, we understand better what the Lord Jesus says in Matthew 5.8: ” Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” The heart is, according to Scripture, the organ of moral life . To be pure of heart, it is, as opposed to external works, to be free from all defilement, all falsehood, all injustice, all malice in this inner center of thoughts and feelings. Such is not the moral state of the natural man. Similarly, we read in Matthew 15:19: “For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.”

This long enumeration of sins that come out of the hearts of those concerned will teach them later on the moral nature and the corruption of man. Note that all these words in the plural bring out the overabundance of evil in the world, fortunately the good of God is even more than superabundant.

When Jesus says that the good man draws good from this inner treasure, he assumes that his regeneration has taken place.

How Jesus achieves this purity, this’s what will be revealed later, when the Savior will have accomplished his work of redemption, and we read it in 1 Corinthians 6 : 1 : ” If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord’s people? “

It is evident, and we have seen, that every promise perfectly corresponding to the disposition described in each of these beatitudes is held because he promises nothing without being able to accomplish it; therefore, those who are pure in heart are happy because they will see God. That’s to say, they will live here below in his communion, and will contemplate it one day immediately in the supreme beauty of his perfections, an inexhaustible source of happiness of heaven. Here are some related verses : 1 Corinthians 13.12: ” For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. ” 1 John 3.2: “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. ” Revelation 22.3-4: “No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.  “2 Corinthians 3: 18:” And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. “

And other verses such as : Exodus 33.20: “But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”; John 1:18: ” No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.” 1 Timothy 6:16: ” who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.”

1.  PURITY OF HEART, selected references:

1 Timothy 1.5: ” The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” It should be remembered that Apostle Paul left Timothy to Ephesus so that he may oppose certain false teachers who, clinging to fables, provoke vain disputes in the Church, and strengthen souls in the divine dispensation. So the purpose of the gospel is to produce charity and a good conscience; those who turn away from it lose themselves in vain reasonings, not even hearing what they affirm with so much assurance.

 Psalms 24.3-4 ” Who may ascend the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? 4 The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god.”  That’s why the pure man in his actions and his intentions alone is worthy to live near him. That’s also why the enlightened Israelites, who were aware of the smallness of their country, in the face of the idolatrous world, had to have a firm faith to persist in believing that the Lord was the master of the whole earth.

1 Timothy 5.22: “Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, and do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure.”

1 Peter 1:22: “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.”

Progress in the Christian life : 

Stripping away all contrary to charity, desire, like new-born ones, the pure milk of the Word, in order to grow in salvation, if you have experienced the goodness of the Lord.

1 Peter 1.22 -23 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.”

In the previous verses, the Apostle expressed the thought that we are children of the heavenly Father. He concludes that we must love each other like brothers.

Thus the purification of the soul, the seat of affections, the destruction of all its selfish and impure inclinations, takes place only by practical obedience to the divine truth received in the heart. And it’s this which alone makes possible a true brotherly love, and to love according to God we must love in God, because only He makes us capable of loving one another ardently, of a love which perseveres in its intensity. And because the iniquity will be multiplied, charity of the greatest number will be cooled.

1.  SEEING GOD

The verses below clearly speak about it: Genesis 32.30 “So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”  

Exodus 24.10 ” and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky.”

Judges 13.21-22 “When the angel of the LORD did not show himself again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized that it was the angel of the LORD. “We are doomed to die!” he said to his wife. “We have seen God!”

Job 42.5 “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.”

Psalms 141.8 “But my eyes are fixed on you, Sovereign LORD; in you I take refuge—do not give me over to death.”

Exodus 6.5 ” Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.”

Ex 33.17 “And the LORD said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”

John 14.9 “Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”

It is with sadness that Jesus reproaches his disciple for not having known him, despite all the experiences that he had been able to make with him for so long. So he affectionately calls him by his name: Philippe, to invite him to reflect on the request he had just made to him.

Christian often tends to look far beyond what is within his reach. Does it not come from the double personality that goes back to Jacob whose mother Rebecca has put her hand in a garment of skin that would make him look like Esau while the voice is Jacob? We should have one personality.

So whoever saw Jesus saw the Father, God who is holiness and love, and whose perfect Savior was on earth. This great revelation is consistent with all the teachings of the New Testament as in John 1:18; John 12.45; Colossians 1.15; and Hebrews 1.3.

Yet, to purify oneself from sin inwardly results from two important and indissociable prerequisites. First, the need to purify oneself. This is what the Bible tells us in Matthew 23: 25-28: “25 Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. 27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”

This reinforces us more about what we say about the double personalities of certain people. This series of teaching will gradually reduce this tendency, by the grace of our God.

And then, from God’s promise to cleanse us : Jeremiah 33.8: “I will cleanse them from all the sin they have committed against me and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against me.”

Ezekiel 36.25, 33 “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 33 “ ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: On the day I cleanse you from all your sins, I will resettle your towns, and the ruins will be rebuilt.”

The purification process is divided into four points:

a) the believer must make the request: Psalms 51: 3-9 ” For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. 5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. 6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place. 7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity”. 

1 John 1.9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”  

b) it is done in our heart: Psalms 24: 4-5: “4 The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god. 5 They will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God their Savior.”

Mark 7: 18-23: ” “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? 19 For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.) 20 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” 

c) it occurs through the death of Christ : Hebrews 9.14: ” How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God.” Hebrews 10.19-22: ” Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”  

1 John 1.7: ” But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”

d) it is done through the Word of God: Ephesians 5.25-27: ” Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”

 But what are the effects of purification ?

a) holiness: 2 Cor. 7.1 ” Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.” The defilements of the flesh and the spirit are generally those of the outside and those of the inside.

b) Purity: 1 John 3.2-3 ” Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.”

c) love: 1 Peter 1.22 ” Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.”

From all of the foregoing, it follows that the good man draws good from this inner treasure of brotherly love, emphasizes the need to purify his heart, and that occurs through the death of Christ ; this includes the regeneration of his spirit. God is love, holy and redouble and wants us to be holy. That is why holiness, purity and love will be the immediate effects of purification. May the glorious Holy Spirit strengthen you all and sustain your efforts on purification so that by becoming pure you may see God the Father Almighty. Our prayers are with you.

PRAYER OF ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS ​​CHRIST AS LORD AND PERSONAL SAVIOR

I now invite anyone who wants to become a new creation by walking in the truth, to pray with me as follows :

Lord Jesus, I have long walked in the lusts of the world ignoring your love for humans. I acknowledge that I have sinned against you and ask forgiveness for all my sins, because today I have decided to give you my life by taking you as my Lord and personal Savior. I acknowledge that you died on the cross of Calvary and that you rose from the dead for me.

I am now saved and born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lead me each day to eternal life you give to all who obey your Word. Reveal to me and strengthen my heart and my faith so that your light may shine in my life right now.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for accepting me in your divine family so that I too can contemplate the wonders of your kingdom.

I will now choose a nearby waterpoint to baptize myself by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

To you all worship, power, and glory, now and forever and ever. Amen!

I would be glad to respond to your questions and comments as necessary, before sharing with you next week on the seventh step of the spiritual ascension : conciliation or ability to provide peace.

May the Almighty God bless you in abundance.

David Feze, Servant of the Lord Almighty.