Just Say No!

Our fallen world caters to the flesh. However, Jesus Christ came down from heaven to earth to salvage our souls! While focusing on internal corruption is important, we must also make sure that external influences aren’t covering us with a film of filth.

Disney star, Joshua Bassett, who starred in “High School Musical: The Series” found the Lord's light and denounced his past's ways. While high on drugs, Bassett experienced a very disturbing hallucination, showing him “hundreds of thousands of demons…mocking me and laughing at me and torturing me.” What we mentally and physically consume seeks to drive us down a dark path.

In Alexander Pagani’s latest book, The Secrets to Maintaining Your Deliverance, he gives us a great guide on why you need to guard your spirit: “Guarding your spirit is the most important thing you can do as a Christian. The Bible has many things to say about the human spirit. First, if it is wounded, it dries up one’s bones (Prov. 17:22). In other words, when your spirit is affected in a negative way, the issue goes deep inside and causes instability in your life. It feels like the world is weighing you down, just like when those who have physically weak bones can’t carry a heavy load because the pressure is too much. When our spirits are wounded, we lose the will to fight. Not only that, but the Scripture says a person who can’t control his or her spirit is like a city without walls (Prov. 25:28)—meaning one’s defenses are low and any intruder can come in. This is why you must maintain the strength of your spirit.

Because 1 Thessalonians 5:23 tells us God intends to preserve our spirits as blameless, we can rest on His promise to do so. However, we must also co-labor with Him in that process, making it our business to not allow our spirits to become filthy. I use the word filthy because it implies an external issue, in contrast with corruption or contamination, which denotes an internal problem. Because the believer’s spirit is one with the Holy Spirit, and the present work of the Spirit of truth continually sanctifies us, our spirits remain intact due to our oneness in Christ.

Note: This is why true Christians can never be demon-possessed. Their spirits have been born again and regenerated through the power of the Holy Spirit, due to their repentance and faith in Christ. Believers are one with Christ, and no demon can ever cross that border. Hallelujah!

Yet the following verse implies that although a believer’s spirit is untouchable at its core, it can still be made filthy:

Because we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit. And let us work toward complete holiness because we fear God.

—2 Corinthians 7:1, NLT

This seems to reflect what Jesus said to Peter in John 13 while washing His disciples’ feet. At first, Peter protested, but when Jesus reminded him that cleansing was necessary to follow Him, Peter urged Jesus to wash his whole body, not just his feet. That’s when Jesus said to him, ‘Those who are clean don’t need to take baths; they just need to wash their feet. I have already cleansed you through the Word, so only your feet need to be washed.’ (See John 13:10.)

I truly believe Paul had this statement from Jesus in mind when he wrote to the Corinthian church. In 2 Corinthians 4:16, Paul said that our ‘inward man [the human spirit] is being renewed day by day’ (NKJV). This renewal is accomplished by being washed through the cleansing of the Word (Eph. 5:26). Numerous other scriptures give us great hope that we have the heavenly resources to cleanse ourselves.

So, how can we begin to clean ourselves from the filth this world deposits on us during our daily contending with sin, our flesh, and the devil? We must make it our business to consciously glorify God with our spirits. The text below says we are to glorify God not just with our bodies, although many pastors tend to focus only on that, week after week, in their sermons. Glorifying God involves more than just behavior modification; it’s also spirit sanctification.

For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which is God’s.

—1 Corinthians 6:20

When believers choose not to fall for the evil one’s traps, which would cause their spirits to dishonor God, their spirits are glorifying God. In another instance, the apostle Peter instructed us to ‘sanctify the Lord God in your hearts’ (1 Pet. 3:15). The word heart here can be synonymous with the word spirit. God won’t sanctify our spirits for us; we must choose to do it ourselves by internally saying no to the things the Holy Spirit warns us to stay away from. He will sound the alarm in our consciences—in our spirits—to leave a place, to turn away from temptation, to run from sin, and never look back, lest we taint ourselves with the filthiness of the world. The Book of Isaiah tells us a little more about this external filthiness:

—Isaiah 28:8

Paul told the Corinthian church they couldn’t eat at both the table of the Lord and the table of demons (1 Cor. 10:21). Just as your spirit is nourished when you spend time in prayer, fasting, and reading the Word, the opposite is true. If you are feasting at the table of carnality, the flesh, and sin, your spirit (though it is still intact because Christ is living on the inside) is getting more vexed and filthy on the outside, just like Lot was vexed by the sinfulness in the city of Sodom (2 Pet. 2:7–8). Heaven wants you to focus on glorifying God not only in your daily walk but also with your spirit. As the Holy Spirit is monitoring our every thought, I’m sure He is grieved when believers open their spirits to demonic influence and attachment, because that can cause clean spirits to become filthy. For this reason, the Holy Spirit will give you an internal indicator of when things are starting to affect your spirit. You may begin to experience an uneasy feeling deep inside your spirit that brings conviction to your heart. 

Pray to the Father that you never lose the convicting voice of the Holy Spirit, for without it, you will lose your ability to know what is truly grieving Him. This is why David prayed in Psalm 51, ‘Don’t take your Holy Spirit from me’ (v. 11). The best way to not lose the voice of the Holy Spirit is to always take heed and pay attention when your spirit is grieved and telling you to stay away from something.”

For more information on Alexander Pagani’s newest book,
The Secrets to Maintaining Your Deliverance, visit MyCharismaShop.com