Surviving the Anointing: Learning to Effectively Experience and Walk in God's Power by David Ravenhill

Author:David Ravenhill
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Body, Pastoral Resources, Christian Church, Christian Ministry, Spirituality, Clergy - Religious Life, Clergy - Corrupt Practices, Christian Life, Christianity, Religion, Clergy, Mind & Spirit, General, Spiritual Growth, Pentecostal & Charismatic
ISBN: 9780768424430
Publisher: Destiny Image Publishers
Published: 2007-05-31T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

Purity

Of itself purity is not power, but it clears the way.

—T. Henry Howard

The detached life is the result of an intensely narrow moral purity, not of a narrow mind. The mental view of Jesus Christ was as big as God's view, consequently He went anywhere—to marriage feasts, into the social life of His time, because His morality was absolutely pure; and that is what God wants of us.

—Oswald Chambers

In this chapter we want to look at the absolute necessity of Purity. This is a "non- negotiable." In the introduction I mentioned that there are 1,500 ministers a month falling. The primary reason is sexual uncleanness of some type. We now have, according to the latest statistics, somewhere in the realm of 25 million web sites devoted exclusively to pornography—25 million! Talk about spiritual land mines. Every time you log onto the Internet you're within a mouse click of one of the most deadly devices the devil has ever concocted. Just one brief glance is enough to snag you and propel you into a life of bondage and heartache. Porn is the devil's "superglue"; just one touch and you can't break free from it. The statistics alone are proof of that.

Several years ago I was holding some meetings in the Midwestern United States. The senior pastor was also the overseer for his region, which happened to be a part of a Pentecostal denomination. As we were sharing together he remarked that they currently had a need for 19 pastors to replace 19 who had fallen due to some type of sexual sin.

According to a survey by Promise Keepers, 65 percent of the men surveyed said they struggled with some form of sexual addiction—65 percent! Unlike any other generation in history we are being bombarded with sexual slime from every direction. It's almost impossible to pick up a book or magazine or turn on the radio or television without seeing or hearing some type of sexually explicit material been shown, written, or talked about. The enemy has taken this very beautiful, precious, and holy area intended by God for the pleasure of a husband and wife and has twisted, distorted, and violated it.

There may be some women reading this and thinking to themselves, "I know that's a major problem that men have." You may be surprised to hear that according to a recent Oprah Winfrey show, Americans spend around $57 billion a year on pornography— some $20 billion in child pornography alone. It's one of the largest industries in the world. But what was the most revealing: "The largest consumers of pornography in America are women and not men." Women become deeply involved in romance novels; they follow all the "soaps" on the afternoon television shows. Oprah classifies that (and I would too) as pornography.

Every one of us has to face this unrelenting attack. Therefore we have to know how to guard our lives. I was recently talking to a mailman who had some 1,100 stops on his daily route. He

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