Would you put bleach or poison in your food? How about putting acid in your shampoo or skin lotion? Why not?We take precautions and are careful with what we put in or on our physical bodies. This seems so obvious to us. So what about our soul and spirit, should we be careful to protect them as well?
No matter how careful we are our physical body will eventually perish, but our spirit is eternal and will last forever. Should you risk damage to your spirit?
Where do you think our spirit resides?
Satan wants to get to our hearts and poison our spirit. So how do you think he gains access to your heart? Let’s look at the first sin of man for a clue.
In Genesis 3 Satan lied to Eve and said about eating the fruit “You will not surely die”. Then Eve saw that the fruit was pleasant to the eyes. So Satan gets to us through our ears with words or music and our eyes with the written word and images.
A few weeks back I posted something called “Even The Strongest Can Fall”. In it we found that Samson chose women by how they looked and not by their character. We see in Judges 16:16-19. That Delilah pestered him daily with her words until he finally broke down and told her the secret that lead to God’s spirit leaving him and his defeat. So Samson did not protect his eyes and his ears.
In that story Samson became comfortable with sin and made compromises in his life and he rationalized away the danger.
What in your life are you making compromise with and becoming comfortable with when it comes to guarding your eyes and ears?
What kind of TV shows or movies do you watch? What type of music do you listen to? What web sites do you visit or magazines do you read? Do you hang out with people that plant the wrong thoughts in your ears? All of the things you let in will affect you in one way or another. Scary movies can plant a spirit of fear in you, pornagraphy a spirit of lust, and some things will introduce a spirit of anger. These things with time can the affect your spirit.
Your heart is to be a temple to the Holy Spirit!
1Corinthians 3:16, Do you know you are the temple of God and the spirit of God dwells in you? Ephesians 3:17,that Christ may dwell in your heart.
So is your heart a place where Jesus would feel at home? Or do you need to do some house cleaning?
Would you listen to the same music with Jesus in the room? Would you choose the same movies or TV shows if he was going to watch them with you? Would you visit the same web sites if he was looking over your shoulder?
The Holy Spirit won’t be comfotable in a house that is not pure. That’s why Jesus said in Matthew 5:8 “Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God.” If we want the Holy Spirit to be with us, we need to give him a good place to stay and dwell.
Why should we want the Holy Spirit to dwell in us? 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 says that the Holy Spirit gives us gifts of knowledge, wisdom, faith, prophecy, discernment of spirits, healing gifts, and more.
So how do we protect our hearts and make it a place God feels at home?
Step one, is we need to pray because this protects our heart. Philippians 4:6, 7, Let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God . . . . . . . will guard your hearts and minds.
Step two, we need to be reading the Bible because this grows your heart. Psalm 119:32, I will run the course of Your commandments, for You shall enlarge my heart. This is like home improvement for the Holy Spirit!
Step three, we must guard our eyes and ears from impure things.
Proverbs 27:20, Hell and destruction are never full, so the eyes of a man are never satisfied.
Proverbs 4:23, Keep your heart with all diligence for of it springs the lessons of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth and put perverse lips far from you. Let your eyes look straight ahead. The straight path is God’s righteous one.
Don’t let things in to your eyes and ears that will poison your heart (affect your spirit) and make it a place where the Holy Spirit won’t feel at home.
There is this old Japanese proverb involving the three monkeys.
The three wise monkeys are a pictorial maxim. Together they embody the proverbial principle to "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil". The three monkeys are Mizaru, covering his eyes, who sees no evil; Kikazaru, covering his ears, who hears no evil; and Iwazaru, covering his mouth, who speaks no evil. Sometimes there is a fourth monkey depicted with the three others; the last one, Shizaru, symbolizes the principle of "do no evil". For me if you guard what goes in (don't let evil in)then you are less likely to have evil speach and action come out of you.
SEE NO EVIL HEAR NO EVIL.
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