Outward Cleanness, Inner Emptiness: The Importance of the Inner Transformation

Today's post is inspired by a few key scriptures from the gospel of Luke, and will serve as both a message and an introduction to my upcoming book, Wilderness: The Place Between Bondage and Promise.

"Now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but your inward part is full of greed and wickedness...Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like graves which are not seen, and the men who walk over them are not aware of them." Luke 11:39 + 44

As we know, Jesus often speaks in parables. In this address to the Pharisees, Jesus employs the tactic by comparing them to the very dishes they seek to clean before eating. The Pharisees adhered to strict cleanliness rituals, especially around consumption of food and drink. If they ate on an unclean plate or with unclean hands, then the idea is the uncleanliness would travel inside them. They viewed righteousness and cleanliness as based on the adherence to specific rules and rituals, which was the very thing Jesus came to free us from. They rejected the need for an inner transformation. They rejected Jesus and His teachings. Jesus, in response, said they were already unclean on the inside, already dead--they just didn't realize it yet.

"When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, "I will return to my house from which I came." And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first." Luke 11:24-26

Throughout the gospel of Luke, we see Jesus cast out many demons. And yes, demons still exist today. They are Satan's instruments of destruction, and they seek to reside in the human heart. They seek a vessel, a home. Without one, they are forced to return to the abyss.

We see this in Luke 8:31-33 "And they begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss. Now a herd of many swine was feeding there on the mountain. So they begged Him that He would permit them to enter them. And He permitted them. Then the demons went out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the lake and drowned."

When your heart is not filled with the Holy Spirit, it does not matter how holy you look on the outside (the house that is swept and put in order), you are empty, and emptiness will be filled by something.

But why seven spirits more wicked than he? Because when we think we're healed, when we think we're holy, when we think we're untouchable, we are all the more vulnerable to attack. Without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we are like addicts returning to our vice, thinking we'll be alright. But, more often than not, re-exposure to darkness leaves us worse off than before.

"...blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!" Luke 11:28

They key to inner transformation, to make your heart a home for the Holy Spirit rather than wickedness, is God's word. Read it. Meditate on it. Study it. Ask God to reveal His truths to you. This is part of the reason Jesus speaks in parables. Not everyone who hears the word of God will truly understand it. It is written and spoken in such a way that your heart must be primed to receive the truth. This is why no matter how many sermons the Pharisees heard, they did not accept Christ.

"The lamp of your body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light. But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness. Therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness." Luke 11:34-35

We, as believers, know that there is an internal battle of the spirit and the flesh that is persistent. We strengthen our spirit by reading God's word, but as we strengthen our spirit, it's also important not to feed our flesh. Now, I've written about this before or perhaps just spoken on it. There are misunderstandings when it comes to the flesh and what it means to deny our flesh.

We as humans are not innately corrupt, but we are easily corruptible. God seeks to restore us to the glory we were created to exemplify. We were created to be His children, to have dominion over the earth, to exemplify His goodness here on earth, to love Him, be loved by Him, and to love others like He loves us. We were and are His greatest creation. Sin entering the world has not changed God's intention for man, His love for man, or man's purpose.

When we deny our flesh, it's not about denying our humanity, our good, God-given desires. It's not about punishing ourselves and never doing anything we want. That's where this teaching goes off the rails. Denying the flesh is about denying the darkness inside us, denying the spirits seeking to tempt us, denying the lies Satan tries to sell us as truth. We do this in two ways. One, rooting ourselves in God's word and surrending to His will/ His Holy Spirit. Two, starving darkness, which means avoiding temptation.

In Luke 11:34-35, we see that our hearts aren't the only thing we need to guard. We also must guard our eyes.

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Wilderness: The Place Between Bondage and Promise

The idea for this book, my first Christian non-fiction book, came to me while writing for this very blog. I truly feel that God revealed the title to me and the purpose of this book, which is ultimately to encourage others in their wilderness season: the time between being saved and being fulfilled by Christ.

Like the Israelites, our time in the wilderness is a time when we are tested, when we do not yet know God, when we face a ton of uncertainty, discomfort, and discouragement. It's a season where God seeks to undo the wounds from our past, the bondage Satan had us shackled in, and restore us to the abundance He created us to walk in. But when we don't realize this, when we don't see the wilderness as a necessary process of restoration and redemption, we may give up in our struggle and return to bondage, like the Israelites sought to.

I am so excited to share this book with you, which also includes pieces of my testimony. I can't give you a pub date. I'm letting God lead my writing, my timeline, and my pathway to publication. What I can say is, the wilderness is essential. The inner transformation is essential.

This week, I pray you make your heart a home for the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that defeats all other spirits and restore us to the beings that God created us to be.