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Essential Benefits of Spiritual Detox:
Cleansing the Impure Heart -
Many times, when we think about purity it is related to sexual purity, however God’s Word has much to say about purity in regard to our heart, mind and soul.“The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether” Psalm 19:9 (NKJV). God calls us to live a life that is holy and free from an evil and wicked ways. Moral purity should be our ultimate goal as we pursue to live in a way that honors God and remembers the sacrifice of Jesus. We must understand that the direction is for sinners to draw near to God. In repenting and believing in Christ he must turn from the practices of sin.“Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work” 2 Timothy 2:21 (NKJV). However, the gospel does not ascribe any real righteousness to a person who only repents outwardly without faith. Therefore, the heart must also be cleansed by receiving Christ through faith, making a soul righteous and justified before God. By cleansing the hands and the heart through faith a person will no longer be double-minded but will become a Christian. “Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry” Colossians 3:5 (NKJV). He can deliver you from any such Satanic power. You must be separated on all lines if you are going to have faith. The Holy Ghost will give us this gift of discerning of spirits if we desire it so that we may perceive by revelation this evil power which comes in to destroy. We can reach out and get this unction of the Spirit that will reveal these things unto us.“Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God” Matthew 5:8 (NKJV). The condition of your heart is going to determine the condition of your life, this is why it’s essential to learn how to guard your heart, just like you guard your mind and soul from impure evil forces that will try to keep it contaminated from accomplishing your divine purpose. You must also guard it with all your strength, while being led by the Holy Spirit. As not to allow any evil in and permit it to cause any fear, unbelief, bitterness, confusion, worry because if there are bitter or unforgiven things in your heart, then there will be bitterness in your life that will keep you from living on purpose.
Steps to Cleanse the Impure Heart:
1. Begin with the Core Problem –
“The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, Searching all the inner depths of his heart” Proverbs 20:27 (NKJV).
We must begin at the core of the problem of our heart and that is by shedding the Word of God into the areas of darkness of your hearts. When we are born again believers and have accepting Jesus as our Savior that is one step closer to having true salvation, we must always complete the final step by allowing Him to become our Lord, who is the very source of our life, without Him, a believer cannot blossom into their greater purpose in life. Now, it’s time to open the windows and doors of our heart and let Christ be the gardener and guardian. Ask the Lord to shed light into our heart to see if we have permitted anger, bitterness, hostility, pride, or unforgiveness to rule us. David reminds us that God does not delight so much in the outward signs of repentance (which included making a sacrifice), but the sacrifices that come from a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart—These, O God, You will not despise” Psalm 51:17 (NKJV). This doesn’t mean shame and condemnation that the enemy wants to pile on us, but a godly grief and sorrow.
2. Check for Unholiness –
“Blessed is the man, Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree, Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper” Psalm 1:1–3 (NKJV). It is helpful to understand that your sinful nature is not the same thing as your heart. Your sinful nature is capable of producing an unlimited amount of evil desires, but with your free will as a believer in Jesus, you get to decide which desires to dwell on and which ones to resist. The more we embrace good desires and righteous choices with our heart and mind, the more those bad desires decrease in frequency and intensity. One of the many problems with sin is that it has the power to corrupt our motives. When that happens, we as Christians can actually start to become“double–minded.” This occurs when some of our intentions remain pure, while other motives within us have become impure. The Bible does not say “follow your heart”, however, it says the heart is deceitful of all things. ““The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings” Jeremiah 17:9–10 (NKJV). There might be some things, decisions and action your heart urges you to do that will lead you to hurts, disappointments and eventual destruction in life. No, but it does say to follow Jesus.
3. Check for Secret Sins –
“Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You” Psalm 119:11 (NKJV).
God can see things about you that no one else can see. Deep things. Hidden things. You know, those inner thoughts and desires that your family and friends have no idea are even floating around in your heart. Our Lord taught repeatedly that sin bottled up on the inside, concealed from everyone else's view, carries the very same guilt as sin that manifests itself in the worst forms of ungodly behavior. Those who hate others are as guilty as those who act out their hatred; and those who indulge in private lusts are as culpable as wanton adulterers. When strongholds and secret sins sneaky within our lives, they will entangle our Christian lives and influence others to walk after an impure nature. God is doing far more than exposing the sin of His children. He is showing again how deceitful and desperately sick the human heart is apart from Christ and reminding us that we have such evil blood still coursing in our veins, so prone to be “hardened by the deceitfulness of sin”. “But exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” Hebrews 3:13 (NKJV). And for those who will hear it, God is offering us total forgiveness and freedom. He has sent his Son into the world precisely to liberate us from our sick hearts and sin’s slavery, no matter how lurid and shameful. There is an escape; there is a safe place. But the time is urgent and short. God can turn a day of reckoning into a day of amnesty. The Lord is calling us to godly sorrow and repentance. ““Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”” Hebrews 3:15 (NKJV). These subtle sins that we have compromised by ignoring the conviction of the Holy Spirit and by being inactive.
4. Allow God to Prune Your Heart –
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me” Psalm 51:10 (NKJV).
None of us has ever been “pruned” literally, so we lack a physical frame of reference for the spiritual process. Pruning removes the dead wood that can breed disease and insects and makes the vine lighter and more attractive. God does this for us. In conversion, He removes from us our guilt and condemnation. In time, He cuts away the habits that bind us. “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul” 1 Peter 2:11 (NKJV). That goes to the level of the heart, after his sins of murder and adultery, King David needed a new heart. But he knew that he was not capable of providing it for himself. The word “create” is hugely significant. It reveals the fact that David knew he was powerless to fix his heart. It was too messed up. God is looking at that place inside you where your mind is constantly weighing various options. This means He is looking at more than just your behavior. Gradually, He trims our excesses and teaches us moderation. “Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand” Philippians 4:5(NKJV). He is looking at why you do what you do. Bad desires lead to bad motives when the will acts on an evil desire rather than resisting it by God’s grace. And bad motives will always increase bad desires. Only God can decrease them. Only God can replace them. Only God can forgive them. And He does that through the blood of His Son as we trust in Christ alone to forgive us. Our heart can be easily broken and shattered by the wrong set of people for the rest of our lives if we are not careful by setting up wise boundaries. A believer has been made perfect before God through an external righteousness charged in a court against him. This has effectively opened up a living way as a result of God drawing near to us in Messiah. Therefore, rather than recognizing that we might be enemies and that God might be ‘opposing us’ and that we should therefore mourn and be humbled, we have already been humbled and already do mourn, therefore the key words in our approach are to be with boldness and a “full assurance of faith”. We are to boldly approach the throne knowing we are accepted and 100% righteous through grace. The contrast between a sinners approach to a God of judgment and a child’s approach to Father that has adopted him, is very different in deed.