Purify your hearts, you double-minded.

The external activities of our God anointed hands (our body) and we have made our body do spiritual things have started to purify our heart. Little by little we have started to fall in love with God and the things of God. Where at first we had to almost force ourselves to pray, read the Bible and Christian literature, listen to Christian music, go to church, and share with the lost; we have started to enjoy the things of God. We use to mix the things of God with questionable TV programs, conflicting radio information, flesh entertaining literature, questionable internet surfing, and music of world philosophies that taught us opposing views on how to live life. Now our mind is gradually becoming focused singularly on God and His teachings. When we first started out on this journey, it felt like we would never be delivered from the deep desires we had for sinful pleasure, worldly entertainment, and satanic influences. It seemed like they were just too powerful to resist. But, as time went on, we found ourselves actually hating those things. More and more we found ourselves really enjoying the things of God.

We are now going to work on the process of purifying our heart. The issue is a spiritual condition called "double mindedness." It is a condition that involves our belonging to two worlds or systems.

This time it isn't God's world and Satan's world. This time it is God's world and our world. The place we live, eat, sleep, buy food and clothing, and go to work. It doesn't involve sin. Just normal life stuff.

In Step Three, we are going to be looking at "legal" but not important activities and desires.

1 Cor 6:12 (NIV) "Everything is permissible for me"--but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"--but I will not be mastered by anything.

We will get to a place where sin isn't the big issue anymore. We aren't being stripped of our time, money, and effort by being busy with sinning. We are instead losing time, effort, and money with things that are not beneficial. They aren't serving an eternal purpose. Satan would prefer to knock us out by getting us to sin. But, if that can't happen, he certainly doesn't want us having any time to do anything important for God. And what is even more important than how Satan feels about these things is how God feels about them. God wants this time for what He has in mind. He has very special plans for our lives.