The Holy Spirit is your pure heart for bringing the life and ministry of Jesus into your life and ministry.

James 4:1 (NIV) What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?

We are looking at a journey from a heart that is filled with the desires of your body to a heart that has been cleansed and purified by God. All our conflicts are caused by desires we have within our body. We find ourselves fighting and quarreling with others because we want something they have, they want something we have, we are having to share something we don't want to share, or we are trying to get something someone else is also trying to get. The important question is, what does God want in the matter.

James 4:2-3 (NIV) You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

As mature Christians and ministers, we can find ways to justify desires from our body. After we have prayed and asked God for something and He says no, we can go after it in other ways. It can require us doing things that the Bible speaks against; but, if we can explain why this HAS to be God's will for us, then we often feel justified in using worldly methods for going after it. When we get the object we went after, we still don't have what we want. We thought the thing we went after would bring us joy, happiness, satisfaction, feelings of accomplishment, and peace. But it didn't.

James 4:4-5 (NIV) You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the Spirit He caused to live in us envies intensely?

We have been united in marriage to Jesus (Romans 7:1-4). If we develop a relationship with the world, we become adulterous. If we make the world and its systems a part of our life, it becomes our source. Our marriage relationship with Jesus has made Him our source. When we try to mix sources, we have brought spiritual adultery into our lives. If we want something bad enough, it can drive us into trying to mix sources. If we want God's will being done in our life, then we can take it or leave it. It will all depend on whether or not God wants us to have it.

When we take all the things we want and lay them before God, He can help us get to the place where we are NEUTRAL about things we used to want with intensity. Our battle isn't with what we want; it is with the intensity of our want.

Even if we want something God wants us to have, if we want it bad enough to go after it should God say no, then it is bad for us. The object is within God's will; but our attitude is outside God's will. God wants us to want His will in all matters. So, we have to lay everything before Him and let Him deal with our desire.

James 4:7-9 (NIV) Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.

This is where we put God's Kingdom and His righteousness as our first priority (Matthew 6:33). The way to do that is to spend time with God submitting to His will until our will reaches neutral.

Once we can feel our desires move from intensity toward the physical things of this world to a desire to be totally pleasing to God, we are ready to resist the devil and his influence over our desires. From there it is relationship building time with God. We now want God's complete will in our life and are ready to forget the physical issues and just spend time fellowshipping with God.

We allow Him to help us wash our hands of all impurities and purify our heart from all desires that would resist God's will. We spend time allowing Him to show us how wrong and bad these demanding attitudes have been. We accept feelings of mourning and intense crying out for forgiveness and deliverance.

He will show us why we have wanted some things at all costs. He will help us see how much damage these things would have done to us. He will reveal how much He loves us and wants the very best for us.

James 4:10 (NIV) Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.

Now your heart is pure before God. There is nothing you want more than God and His plan for your life. The desires of your body, the pull of the world, and the temptations of the devil have all been put in proper perspective. You are back in a humble relationship with your loving heavenly Father. It is then that He is able to supply all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

Phil 4:19 (NIV) And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.