HEALTHY SOUL + CLEAN HEART

II John 2 – I pray that you would prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers.

Ps. 51:10 – Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

A. A Dream: Temple(s) of God with Sanctuary; hallways of daily life; basement of soul

1. What makes your body unhealthy/healthy? (wrong foods, lack of exercise, germs, lack of rest…)

2. What makes your heart unhealthy/healthy? (defiled – Mk. 7:20-23 – these things make one no different than the unredeemed world.)

3. What makes your soul unhealthy/healthy and prospering? (Job 10:1 – weariness, complaint, bitterness – wrong focus. Wounds, bruising – Job 24:12; heaviness melts – Ps. 119:28…)

B. Love God with all heart, soul, mind – Mt. 22:37-40 (Two commandments; the first affects the second)

1. What’s the difference in these three?

a) Heart = kardia is often described as the seat of your physical life and center of your spiritual life.

b) Soul = psyche is the seat of our feelings, desires, affection, and aversions and is the vitality of how you go about the job of living your life. (Hebrew equivalent: nephesh is the seat of one’s appetites, emotions, passions, and the activity of one’s will; therefore, your character.)

c) Mind = dianoia = deep thought; faculty of mind and its disposition involving its exercise and imagination and understanding. This is the mindset of an individual or way of thinking, be it good or bad or a mixture.

2. What goes wrong in our soul affects the purity of our heart. – Mt. 22:39; I Jn. 2:6-11

a) Our relationships reflect our ability to love, first ourselves, then others

• Jesus’ stories are anecdotes for our soul’s health, examples of Truth in action or not.

• The Fruits of the Spirit are an antidote that counter poisonous or noxious effects of life.

b) Pro. 26:24-26 – process of undealt with hate/hurtful thoughts towards another, ie. (sane) To be against; (miseo) to detest; to love less than others.

• Seven abominations (disgusting thoughts/behaviors):

(1) Deceit – a sense of fraud, crafty or false subtly

(2) Wickedness – displeasure, distressful and afflictive in thought and speech.

(3) Ensnarement –

(4) Stone – two-fold; for building (a mindset) and defense; or for slinging at something/someone.

(5) Lies – speaking untruth or wrongfully speaking

(6) Affliction – crushes or injures and oppresses another

(7) Flattery – false or insincere commendations or complements that brings ruin, ie overthrows or causes stumbling; to cast aside, push down, oucast.

C. Examine Yourself – I Cor. 11:28; II Cor. 13:5-6

1. Invite the Holy Spirit to search you (Ps. 139) and go with Him in that search!

2. Apply truth and wisdom.

Ps. 51: 6-7 – Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

a) Practical wisdom example: evil thoughts (hurtful thoughts towards another): examine your feelings and thoughts and deal with them.

b) Truth: apply scripture: how have I prayed blessing over that person? How have I spoken well of that person to someone else? Have I asked the Lord for His perception of him/her?

D. Purge – (dictionary) to clean by separating and carrying off whatever is impure; clear of sediment; clear of guilt, from moral or ceremonial defilement; or of accusation (legally)

1. Example: forgiveness – can be done by an act of your will; can be purged completely by an act of transformation of heart/soul.

2. Ask the Holy Spirit to lead you into Truth – (Jn. 16:13)

3. Ps. 19:7 – The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. | The instruction of the Lord is completely healthful, turning back the soul’s vitality; the witness of the Lord is permanently supportive, making wise the silly/easily seduced.

4. Our responsibility is to find an anecdote in scripture for what our soul is experiencing. Then do it!

5. God doesn’t necessarily want to delete the experiences of our soul, but to redeem them, make them a blessing to us so that we can truly say, “it was good for me to have been afflicted (could say examined) so that I might learn Your statutes.” Ps. 119:71

a) God’s truth goads us into right thinking, attitudes, and actions.

b) He pours out His grace to help us in our time of need.

c) We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us in our times of need and inability.

d) The Holy Spirit guides us away from our natural motives and into Christ’s love-based motives.