Spiritual Vision Through Personal Purity (1)

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God —Matthew 5:8

Purity is not innocence— it is much more than that. Purity is the result of continued spiritual harmony with God. We have to grow in purity. Our life with God may be right and our inner purity unblemished, yet occasionally our outer life may become spotted and stained. God intentionally does not protect us from this possibility, because this is the way we recognize the necessity of maintaining our spiritual vision through personal purity. If the outer level of our spiritual life with God is impaired to the slightest degree, we must put everything else aside until we make it right. Remember that spiritual vision depends on our character— it is “the pure in heart ” who “see God.”

God makes us pure by an act of His sovereign grace, but we still have something that we must carefully watch. It is through our bodily life coming in contact with other people and other points of view that we tend to become tarnished. Not only must our “inner sanctuary” be kept right with God, but also the “outer courts” must be brought into perfect harmony with the purity God gives us through His grace. Our spiritual vision and understanding is immediately blurred when our “outer court” is stained. If we want to maintain personal intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ, it will mean refusing to do or even think certain things. And some things that are acceptable for others will become unacceptable for us.

A practical help in keeping your personal purity unblemished in your relations with other people is to begin to see them as God does. Say to yourself, “That man or that woman is perfect in Christ Jesus! That friend or that relative is perfect in Christ Jesus!”

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藉著個人清潔而得之異象

清心的人有福了，因為他們必得見神。 （太五8）

清心不單是無暇無庛，它的含意比這個更廣。清心是與神在靈裡持久同心所產生得結果，所以我們需要在清心上不斷得長進。我們與神的關係可能​​正確，裡面的親信也沒有玷污；但是外面生命的花朵，卻可能收到玷污。神並沒有排除這樣的可能性，為要叫我們知道要保持異象，就必須持守個人的清潔。我們在神面前生命的花朵，若有絲毫的玷污損傷，就必須放下一切，把它弄好。要記住異像是依傍著品格的－－清心的人必得見神。

神用至高無上的恩典叫我們聖潔，但我們也要謹慎持守。我們這個身體會接觸別人或其他思想，故很容易沾染污穢。不但裡面的聖所要與神有正常的關係，就是外院，也必須與神賜給我們的聖潔，完全一致。外院一玷污，屬靈的悟性就隨即模糊了。要與主耶穌保持交通，就是說有一些事物不要去做，不要去想，更有些合法的事不要去摸。與人的關係上要不損個人的聖潔，有一個可行的方法，就是對自己說：那男人、那女人，在耶穌基督裡是完全的！那個朋友，那個親戚，在耶穌基督裡是安全的。

祈禱◆為著我快要陷入平庸的生活中，我是何等的沮喪和驚駭！主啊，幫助我過著純潔、有力和只愛慕著你的生活。