Does God Needs A Abstinence From Sexual Uncleanness To Go Deeper In To God's Revelation Of His Glory?
Question : Does God needs a abstinence from sexual uncleanness to go deeper in to God's revelation of His Glory? Does in this age of grace, God considers masturbation, pornography, fornication and adultery as seriously as in the olden days of external holiness of the Old Testament period?
Answer : Greetings to you in Jesus wonderful name! Our God is a God of all glory which comes from Him and that which should go back to Him (Php 4:20; 1 Cor 10:31). To experience the Glory of God, we need to line up to God's holiness. His word says, "Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord." (Heb 12:14). In other words, God Word is saying that without holiness no one can see the divine supernatural activities of God in their lives or through their lives on earth towards others. Holiness and glory of God's revelation go together always proportionally, without the one we cannot experience the other (Rev 4:6-7, 8, 9-10, 11).
We see that God's people of Israel and now the Church were chosen by God to experience God's glory and live for the Glory of His name as a testimony to the whole world (Exo 34:16, 10-17; Num 14:13-16; 19:5-6). If as God's people we want to experience more and more of His glory unlike the heathen who lives for himself, then we must be holy just as our God who saved and called us to live for Him is holy (Lev 11:44; 1 Peter 1:16). Only birds of like feathers flock together.
Mainly sexual immorality and its lifestyle makes God to judge the heathen with a curse and at the same time holiness and abstinence from it makes God turn to us who are believers to bless us (1 Cor 10:6, 7, 8, 9, 10-11, 12). The God of the Old Testament has not changed one bit in the New Testament (Mal 3:6, 7; Num 23:19-21, 23; Heb 13:8), but rather the God who made people realize that He demands holiness for walking in His blessing has given us all the grace to walk in that holiness in the New Testament times through Jesus. Law demands, Grace provides.
If Satan cannot reach the people of God through fear, the next best alternative that he will try to bring God's judgment upon His people is to induce and tempt them in to sexual promiscuousness and immorality (Rev 2:14, 20; Num 25:1-3; 2 Peter 2:15; Jude 1:11; Num 31:8; Jos 13:22), which is the only way he will be able to afflict God's people. The first lion that roars from the outside cannot make God's people fearful, but the second lion that roars within the sin nature of man is more dangerous than the first one, because this second one killed the Israelite's and great heroes of faith like Samson (Num 24:24; 1 Pet 5:8; 2:11).
God told that he rejected the inhabitants of the land of Canaan to choose the people of Israel because the heathens defiled themselves by involving in the following uncleanness that God described in the law of Moses, and therefore God abhorred them to throw them out of the land of Canaan and instead give it to the Israelite's to inherit it (Lev 18:24-27; 20:22-23),
The Defiling Practices of the Old Testament that were prohibited by God was,
a. Having intercourse with Lev 18:1-18, 20:10-12,17-21,
I. A blood or close relative
II. A member of the same family whether polygamous or monogamous
III. A mother in-law or a daughter in-law
IV. A menstrual woman (Lev.18:19, 20:18).
V. And others as prescribed in (Lev 18:1-18, 20:10-12,17-21).
b. Homosexuality: A man knowing a man (Lev 18:22, 20:13).
c. Lesbianism: A woman knowing a woman (Lev 18:22, 20:13).
d. Adultery: A married man/woman knowing someone other than their spouse (Lev 18:20, 20:10).
e. Bestiality: A human going unto a beast (Lev 18:23, 20:15-16).
f. Idol worship: Engaging in acts that exalts or glorifies an idol rather than God; this is seen as an act of prostitution or whoredom to God (Lev.18:21, 20:2-6).
Let us examine one of the laws, God gave to the Israelite's concerning ceremonial cleanliness and uncleanliness pertaining to genital discharge [i.e. masturbation aims at stimulation of sexual organs for pleasure/orgasm that involves genital discharge].
God gave these further instructions to the Israelite: Any man who has a genital discharge is ceremonially unclean because of it. [This defilement applies whether the discharge continues or if stopped up. In either case the man is unclean]. “In this way, you will keep the people of Israel separate from things that will defile them, so they will not die as a result of defiling them, so they will not die as a result of defiling my Tabernacle that is right there among them. These are the instructions for dealing with a woman during her monthly menstrual period; for dealing with anyone, man or woman, who has a discharge of any kind; and dealing with a man who has had intercourse with a woman during her period.” (Lev 15:2,31-33, TNLT).
In the above verses we see that, if God was so concerned about purity in the Old Testament that he knew that stimulation of sexual organs for pleasure/orgasm that involves genital discharge will define the body and mind of the person who has been involved in it that he pronounced that man/woman who is involved in such act as unclean to the extent that even a genital discharge of natural cause (e.g. nocturnal emission, menstruation, ovulation, etc...) makes one unclean outside coitus [i.e. sexual intercourse] and entering the Tabernacle with this uncleanliness worth ones death, is God not serious about the purity of mind and body which has become the temple of God in the New Testament to be kept pure (1 Cor 7:5, 6; 1 Cor 6:17-20; 2 Cor 6:16)? O Lord have mercy upon us!
Again my question is, if a genital discharge of natural origin connotes the above points, how would genital discharge of unnatural cause such as masturbation is more notable and serious in the sight of God? From the above, masturbation is an act of uncleanliness. Though masturbation wasn’t explicitly described in the law yet we can see the clear implication of it, and because this kind of uncleanliness required a sin and a burnt offering; we can also deduce that it is a sin unto the Lord (Lev 15:13-15, 29-30).
Thank God for the blood of Jesus which now has covered all our sins and still more cleanses our sins to make us approach the throne of God directly from within us with boldness and confidence because of a clean conscience. While the blood of bulls and goats just covered the sins of the Israelite's and made them approach God with fear and trembling for their mistakes, the blood of Jesus gives us a crystal clear conscience to approach God always at all times with boldness and confidence without fear or trembling (Heb 9:13, 14; 1 John 1:7, 9; Heb 10:1, 2, 3-4, 11, 13, 14, 19-20, 22, 23-24, 25).
Grievous punishments were given for these above immorally sexual acts ranging from being cut off from the Jewish nation, to being put to death which are in themselves beyond exemption from the sanctuary or human interaction. In the same way God has told in the New Testament if someone is a believer and is involved in sexual sins, he Himself will chastise them to correct them so that they might not be condemned with the world, sometimes if a believer keeps resisting the chastening hand of the Lord consistently, it might even end in death so that their soul might be saved for eternity (Matt 18:15-17; 1 Cor 7:15; 5:1, 5, 9, 12-13; 11:30-31, 32; Heb 12:4-5, 6-7, 8, 10; 13:4). When we willingly endure the chastening hand of the Lord, we become partaker of His holiness and it starts to yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those of us who has been trained by it, so that we become profited with God's blessing now and for eternity ahead (Heb 12:17)!
Every act of the flesh manifests from the uncleanliness of the heart (Matt 15:18, Mark 7:20, 22; Gal 5:19-21).So we need to keep our heart with all diligence from getting defiled by allowing the mind to rule over the heart, because out of heart will come out all the issues of life (Gal 5:17; Prov 4:23). In other words, God understands our weaknesses and therefore cleanses us when we fall (1 John 1:7). But we need to continue to serve the law of God with our mind, so that when we trip in to the flesh to serve momentarily the law of sin, immediately God will lift us up out of that momentary fall or slip to make us walk again in the law of God written in our heart (Rom 7:25; Psa 37:23-24; Heb 10:15, 16-17).
Jesus Christ emphasized on moral duty of conscience than to practicing ceremonial cleanliness externally (Matt 23:23). In other words, Jesus expected the priest and the levite to help the half-dead man on the road than to be concerned about getting unclean externally and ceremonially, which actually a Samaritan man with out ceremonial external law fulfilled it because the law of God was written in his heart (Luke 10:30-37; Rom 2:14-15). The Spirit will always override the flesh and give a righteous standing before God when we follow the conscience within by keeping the heart clean before God and fellow humans (Luke 18:9-12, 13-14). The flesh profiteth nothing but only brings death, but the Spirit gives life and life more abundantly (John 6:63).
Out Father God in heaven is calling out to us His children and also through our Fathers in the Lord to come out of the unclean places where we had been defiled in our past life, "17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." (2 Cor 6:17-18).
"Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved saints and fellow brethren, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." (2 Cor 7:1).
We are to flee/run when we get to this place of testing in our spiritual lives, do not make the mistake of trying or testing any act of uncleanliness because a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump (1 Cor 5:6; 2 Tim 2:22). All the spiritual wars that happen in dreams of discharge or a habit of pornography, masturbation, etc...that makes us wake up from our spiritual sleep feeling filthy in this stage are predominantly directed at our minds (Eph 5:14), because once our mind is conquered by uncleanliness as Believer, our spirits are suppressed and the flesh is exalted, we become carnal and die (1 Thess 5:5, 6, 4, 6-7). Not that we die to go to hell, but we die to the abundant life and purpose of God, and if we do not repent from this state we may end up dying without any meaning in this life and gaining no reward for it in the after life when we go to heaven as we are saved already by Jesus' life which is a gift of God given to us personally because of His goodness towards us (Rom 5:10; 1 Cor 3:14-15; Eph 2:8-9).
To meet with God, the Israelite's were required to abstain from rightful intercourse which would bring a semen emission to defile them from appearing before God, then how would you estimate one who meets God face to face from within their heart in the New Testament should keep themselves from defilement (1 Cor 3:17; Exo 19:9-16)? Having committed sexual uncleanliness in the form of pornography [i.e. defilement of the spirit which are thoughts of uncleanness], masturbation, adultery, fornication [i.e. defilement of the flesh in which the orgasm happen with semen ejaculation that defiles the body], etc...will prevent us from accessing greater heights of God’s glory. If abstinence was required of the Israelite's because they were to meet with God in a great manifestation of His glory (2 Cor 3:7), how much more we need abstinence from immorality of the mind and the body and sexual purity in our lives to experience the more powerful and glorious ministry of the Spirit which makes us to constantly grow from faith to faith (Rom 1:17), grace to grace (John 1;16, 17) and glory to glory (2 Cor 3:18, 17, 8).
Some people of God who are involved in sin in our generation, lethargically want to say that God forgives and forgets and so He is not that serious about the sins you do.
Here is what Paul the apostle says to those people who think in that way, "For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another." (Gal 5:13) and again he says to such people in 1 Cor 6:12-14, Living Bible, " 12 I can do anything I want to if Christ has not said no, but some of these things aren't good for me. Even if I am allowed to do them, I'll refuse to if I think they might get such a grip on me that I can't easily stop when I want to. 13 For instance, take the matter of eating. God has given us an appetite for food and stomachs to digest it. But that doesn't mean we should eat more than we need. Don't think of eating as important because someday God will do away with both stomachs and food. But sexual sin is never right: our bodies were not made for that but for the Lord, and the Lord wants to fill our bodies with himself. 14 And God is going to raise our bodies from the dead by his power just as he raised up the Lord Jesus Christ."
In other words, the very purpose God has called us and have saved us is to show forth His resurrection power to rise up in us, with us and upon us in His glory, so that we might mightily glorify Him in all things. We should always remember that our bodies were not made for sexual sins but for the Lord, and the Lord wants to fill our bodies with himself. GLORY TO GOD!
Much Blessings....
Answer : Greetings to you in Jesus wonderful name! Our God is a God of all glory which comes from Him and that which should go back to Him (Php 4:20; 1 Cor 10:31). To experience the Glory of God, we need to line up to God's holiness. His word says, "Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord." (Heb 12:14). In other words, God Word is saying that without holiness no one can see the divine supernatural activities of God in their lives or through their lives on earth towards others. Holiness and glory of God's revelation go together always proportionally, without the one we cannot experience the other (Rev 4:6-7, 8, 9-10, 11).
We see that God's people of Israel and now the Church were chosen by God to experience God's glory and live for the Glory of His name as a testimony to the whole world (Exo 34:16, 10-17; Num 14:13-16; 19:5-6). If as God's people we want to experience more and more of His glory unlike the heathen who lives for himself, then we must be holy just as our God who saved and called us to live for Him is holy (Lev 11:44; 1 Peter 1:16). Only birds of like feathers flock together.
Mainly sexual immorality and its lifestyle makes God to judge the heathen with a curse and at the same time holiness and abstinence from it makes God turn to us who are believers to bless us (1 Cor 10:6, 7, 8, 9, 10-11, 12). The God of the Old Testament has not changed one bit in the New Testament (Mal 3:6, 7; Num 23:19-21, 23; Heb 13:8), but rather the God who made people realize that He demands holiness for walking in His blessing has given us all the grace to walk in that holiness in the New Testament times through Jesus. Law demands, Grace provides.
If Satan cannot reach the people of God through fear, the next best alternative that he will try to bring God's judgment upon His people is to induce and tempt them in to sexual promiscuousness and immorality (Rev 2:14, 20; Num 25:1-3; 2 Peter 2:15; Jude 1:11; Num 31:8; Jos 13:22), which is the only way he will be able to afflict God's people. The first lion that roars from the outside cannot make God's people fearful, but the second lion that roars within the sin nature of man is more dangerous than the first one, because this second one killed the Israelite's and great heroes of faith like Samson (Num 24:24; 1 Pet 5:8; 2:11).
God told that he rejected the inhabitants of the land of Canaan to choose the people of Israel because the heathens defiled themselves by involving in the following uncleanness that God described in the law of Moses, and therefore God abhorred them to throw them out of the land of Canaan and instead give it to the Israelite's to inherit it (Lev 18:24-27; 20:22-23),
The Defiling Practices of the Old Testament that were prohibited by God was,
a. Having intercourse with Lev 18:1-18, 20:10-12,17-21,
I. A blood or close relative
II. A member of the same family whether polygamous or monogamous
III. A mother in-law or a daughter in-law
IV. A menstrual woman (Lev.18:19, 20:18).
V. And others as prescribed in (Lev 18:1-18, 20:10-12,17-21).
b. Homosexuality: A man knowing a man (Lev 18:22, 20:13).
c. Lesbianism: A woman knowing a woman (Lev 18:22, 20:13).
d. Adultery: A married man/woman knowing someone other than their spouse (Lev 18:20, 20:10).
e. Bestiality: A human going unto a beast (Lev 18:23, 20:15-16).
f. Idol worship: Engaging in acts that exalts or glorifies an idol rather than God; this is seen as an act of prostitution or whoredom to God (Lev.18:21, 20:2-6).
Let us examine one of the laws, God gave to the Israelite's concerning ceremonial cleanliness and uncleanliness pertaining to genital discharge [i.e. masturbation aims at stimulation of sexual organs for pleasure/orgasm that involves genital discharge].
God gave these further instructions to the Israelite: Any man who has a genital discharge is ceremonially unclean because of it. [This defilement applies whether the discharge continues or if stopped up. In either case the man is unclean]. “In this way, you will keep the people of Israel separate from things that will defile them, so they will not die as a result of defiling them, so they will not die as a result of defiling my Tabernacle that is right there among them. These are the instructions for dealing with a woman during her monthly menstrual period; for dealing with anyone, man or woman, who has a discharge of any kind; and dealing with a man who has had intercourse with a woman during her period.” (Lev 15:2,31-33, TNLT).
In the above verses we see that, if God was so concerned about purity in the Old Testament that he knew that stimulation of sexual organs for pleasure/orgasm that involves genital discharge will define the body and mind of the person who has been involved in it that he pronounced that man/woman who is involved in such act as unclean to the extent that even a genital discharge of natural cause (e.g. nocturnal emission, menstruation, ovulation, etc...) makes one unclean outside coitus [i.e. sexual intercourse] and entering the Tabernacle with this uncleanliness worth ones death, is God not serious about the purity of mind and body which has become the temple of God in the New Testament to be kept pure (1 Cor 7:5, 6; 1 Cor 6:17-20; 2 Cor 6:16)? O Lord have mercy upon us!
Again my question is, if a genital discharge of natural origin connotes the above points, how would genital discharge of unnatural cause such as masturbation is more notable and serious in the sight of God? From the above, masturbation is an act of uncleanliness. Though masturbation wasn’t explicitly described in the law yet we can see the clear implication of it, and because this kind of uncleanliness required a sin and a burnt offering; we can also deduce that it is a sin unto the Lord (Lev 15:13-15, 29-30).
Thank God for the blood of Jesus which now has covered all our sins and still more cleanses our sins to make us approach the throne of God directly from within us with boldness and confidence because of a clean conscience. While the blood of bulls and goats just covered the sins of the Israelite's and made them approach God with fear and trembling for their mistakes, the blood of Jesus gives us a crystal clear conscience to approach God always at all times with boldness and confidence without fear or trembling (Heb 9:13, 14; 1 John 1:7, 9; Heb 10:1, 2, 3-4, 11, 13, 14, 19-20, 22, 23-24, 25).
Grievous punishments were given for these above immorally sexual acts ranging from being cut off from the Jewish nation, to being put to death which are in themselves beyond exemption from the sanctuary or human interaction. In the same way God has told in the New Testament if someone is a believer and is involved in sexual sins, he Himself will chastise them to correct them so that they might not be condemned with the world, sometimes if a believer keeps resisting the chastening hand of the Lord consistently, it might even end in death so that their soul might be saved for eternity (Matt 18:15-17; 1 Cor 7:15; 5:1, 5, 9, 12-13; 11:30-31, 32; Heb 12:4-5, 6-7, 8, 10; 13:4). When we willingly endure the chastening hand of the Lord, we become partaker of His holiness and it starts to yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those of us who has been trained by it, so that we become profited with God's blessing now and for eternity ahead (Heb 12:17)!
Every act of the flesh manifests from the uncleanliness of the heart (Matt 15:18, Mark 7:20, 22; Gal 5:19-21).So we need to keep our heart with all diligence from getting defiled by allowing the mind to rule over the heart, because out of heart will come out all the issues of life (Gal 5:17; Prov 4:23). In other words, God understands our weaknesses and therefore cleanses us when we fall (1 John 1:7). But we need to continue to serve the law of God with our mind, so that when we trip in to the flesh to serve momentarily the law of sin, immediately God will lift us up out of that momentary fall or slip to make us walk again in the law of God written in our heart (Rom 7:25; Psa 37:23-24; Heb 10:15, 16-17).
Jesus Christ emphasized on moral duty of conscience than to practicing ceremonial cleanliness externally (Matt 23:23). In other words, Jesus expected the priest and the levite to help the half-dead man on the road than to be concerned about getting unclean externally and ceremonially, which actually a Samaritan man with out ceremonial external law fulfilled it because the law of God was written in his heart (Luke 10:30-37; Rom 2:14-15). The Spirit will always override the flesh and give a righteous standing before God when we follow the conscience within by keeping the heart clean before God and fellow humans (Luke 18:9-12, 13-14). The flesh profiteth nothing but only brings death, but the Spirit gives life and life more abundantly (John 6:63).
Out Father God in heaven is calling out to us His children and also through our Fathers in the Lord to come out of the unclean places where we had been defiled in our past life, "17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." (2 Cor 6:17-18).
"Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved saints and fellow brethren, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." (2 Cor 7:1).
We are to flee/run when we get to this place of testing in our spiritual lives, do not make the mistake of trying or testing any act of uncleanliness because a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump (1 Cor 5:6; 2 Tim 2:22). All the spiritual wars that happen in dreams of discharge or a habit of pornography, masturbation, etc...that makes us wake up from our spiritual sleep feeling filthy in this stage are predominantly directed at our minds (Eph 5:14), because once our mind is conquered by uncleanliness as Believer, our spirits are suppressed and the flesh is exalted, we become carnal and die (1 Thess 5:5, 6, 4, 6-7). Not that we die to go to hell, but we die to the abundant life and purpose of God, and if we do not repent from this state we may end up dying without any meaning in this life and gaining no reward for it in the after life when we go to heaven as we are saved already by Jesus' life which is a gift of God given to us personally because of His goodness towards us (Rom 5:10; 1 Cor 3:14-15; Eph 2:8-9).
To meet with God, the Israelite's were required to abstain from rightful intercourse which would bring a semen emission to defile them from appearing before God, then how would you estimate one who meets God face to face from within their heart in the New Testament should keep themselves from defilement (1 Cor 3:17; Exo 19:9-16)? Having committed sexual uncleanliness in the form of pornography [i.e. defilement of the spirit which are thoughts of uncleanness], masturbation, adultery, fornication [i.e. defilement of the flesh in which the orgasm happen with semen ejaculation that defiles the body], etc...will prevent us from accessing greater heights of God’s glory. If abstinence was required of the Israelite's because they were to meet with God in a great manifestation of His glory (2 Cor 3:7), how much more we need abstinence from immorality of the mind and the body and sexual purity in our lives to experience the more powerful and glorious ministry of the Spirit which makes us to constantly grow from faith to faith (Rom 1:17), grace to grace (John 1;16, 17) and glory to glory (2 Cor 3:18, 17, 8).
Some people of God who are involved in sin in our generation, lethargically want to say that God forgives and forgets and so He is not that serious about the sins you do.
Here is what Paul the apostle says to those people who think in that way, "For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another." (Gal 5:13) and again he says to such people in 1 Cor 6:12-14, Living Bible, " 12 I can do anything I want to if Christ has not said no, but some of these things aren't good for me. Even if I am allowed to do them, I'll refuse to if I think they might get such a grip on me that I can't easily stop when I want to. 13 For instance, take the matter of eating. God has given us an appetite for food and stomachs to digest it. But that doesn't mean we should eat more than we need. Don't think of eating as important because someday God will do away with both stomachs and food. But sexual sin is never right: our bodies were not made for that but for the Lord, and the Lord wants to fill our bodies with himself. 14 And God is going to raise our bodies from the dead by his power just as he raised up the Lord Jesus Christ."
In other words, the very purpose God has called us and have saved us is to show forth His resurrection power to rise up in us, with us and upon us in His glory, so that we might mightily glorify Him in all things. We should always remember that our bodies were not made for sexual sins but for the Lord, and the Lord wants to fill our bodies with himself. GLORY TO GOD!
Much Blessings....
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