In Study Four - The Purification Courses, Jesus will be helping you look at wrong, bad, and evil things you have already allowed to enter into your life. This has to do with four aspects of the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter five:

• Mat 5:3 (NIV) Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.


• Mat 5:4 (NIV) Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.


• Mat 5:5 (NIV) Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.


• Mat 5:6 (NIV) Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

The reason wrong, bad, and evil things get into our lives is because we allow them in. Once they get in, it is a whole different procedure for getting them out. Mat 12:34-35 (NIV) You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. This isn’t good news! We all need a good house cleaning so we can get rid of all those things stored in our brain, our mind, and our heart.

In Matthew 12:34-35, Jesus is telling you that you are living on the basis of all those things stored in your brain, mind, and heart. If there is anything that is wrong, bad, or evil in there, it is flowing out of your mouth; it won’t stay in no matter how hard you try. The good news is, Jesus has some power attitudes that will empower you to get purified. These power-attitudes don’t purify you; but, they open the doors for you to BE purified. Since you have a God-given free will, you will need these power-attitudes to help you BE WILLING to be purified.

This is an attitude where Jesus empowers you to be open to His teaching and truth. It is having a teachable spirit; but, it is only open to Jesus’ truth. Without this power-attitude, you will lack the ability to be receptive to everything Jesus is trying to teach you. There will be some areas of your life where you will NOT be willing to allow something wrong, bad, or evil to be given up. If you lack this power-attitude, Jesus won’t be able to lead you into comeplete purification.

As the power-attitude of being poor in spirit opens you up to Jesus’ truth, you will see wrong, bad, and evil things inside you. At this point, you can experience resistance to giving that spiritual problem up. You can feel regret, intense guilt, shame, embarrassment, condemnation, fear, helplessness, hopelessness, and all kinds of human emotions. You can resist Jesus by trying to explain why you did it, you can try to justify it, you can try to ignore it, and you can go to your friends and see if they will help you feel good about it.

If you open your heart and mind to Jesus, He will give you His power-attitude of mourning. You will feel a powerful sadness that will allow you to repent of these things and be sorry that you did and said those things. You will tell Jesus that you are sorry, repent (make a U-turn), renounce it (give it up), and release it (let it go). Each thing Jesus helps you discover will be given this treatment until your heart and mind are healed from all their damage. You will find many things that are feeding your problems with spirituality.

You have been taught by the world to have self-confidence, believe in yourself, have self-esteem, and to be self-centered. This has put you in the center of all you are and all you do. As you come to Jesus for His salvation, justification, and help, you analyze, test, evaluate, and scrutinize everything Jesus and the Bible tell you. You start out believing that you are the judge of all that is best for you. You will think that you love yourself the most, and are the top person for having your best interests in mind. But, Jesus has all knowledge, foreknowledge of the future, understanding and wisdom; you don’t.

There are so many things you don’t know; so, when you make a decision as to what you should do, you make it while lacking vital information. But, if you are meek, you will allow Jesus to be the final authority in your life. Meekness will help you so respect Jesus that you will wait until He puts His stamp of approval on all your decisions. It will help you realize that He loves you more than you love yourself. It will help you see that HE is best qualified for having your best interests in mind. You will trust Him over your own opinions because you will see that He is better qualified to help you make your decisions.

There are wonderful, exciting, joyous, and dynamic things in God’s world. You have been digging around in the trash heap of the world trying to find good things. Jesus is taking you into the riches of His glorious blessings and provisions. He is giving you a supply of things to look through that are extremely valuable, beautiful, beneficial, powerful, and miraculous. Righteousness is the name God has given all the good things He has accepted into Himself and His way of life. Phil 4:19 (NIV) And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

The reason you have selected the things you have allowed to come into your life is because they were the best you could find. As you looked over the trash heap of all your worldly options, you felt these things were the best of the worst. Now that you have all of God’s provisions available to you, you can raise your standards to a supernatural, God-sized, miraculous, and wonderful level. The things of the world are no longer all you have available. As you give up and are purified from the wrong, bad, and evil things, you will be able to immediately replace them with beautiful, exciting, blessed, miraculous, and supernatural things of God.