Personal Challenge #5: Forgiven, Healed, Unburdened, Purified, Restored (Part 1)

The next few sections have a focus on healing from sexual sin. Please ask God to lead you in which portions to spend time on, and which portions to skip.

Forgiven, Healed, Purified

“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” James 5:16

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

“As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” Psalm 103:12

“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5

Washed, Cleansed, Renewed, Restored

“But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” 1 Cor 6:11b

 This is where purity collides with holiness. This concept of consecration and sanctification is meaty and challenging to grasp! The Greek word is hagiazo and the Hebrew is qadash which mean:

  • To separate from profane things and to wholly dedicate to God, to purify; to cleanse externally
  • To be holy, set apart as sacred
  • To purify: cleanse externally, freed from the guilt of sin by atonement, purified internally by the renewing of the soul. *

I was once “one flesh” with those I had sex with. But Jesus’ blood made a way to separate what was once joined through sexual sin.

We were buried with Christ through baptism into death, raised with Christ to live a new life, and set free from sin (no longer one flesh with exes, but united with the Lord and one with Him in Spirit).

“The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit. 1 Cor 6:13b-17

“All of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.” Romans 6:3-7

1. Pray with your Purity Challenge sister. Are there any people you became one flesh with? (Jesus also says that looking at a person lustfully commits adultery with them in their heart (Matthew 5:28). Name each person and forgive them and repent for sinning against their bodies too. If you can’t remember each person, ask God to show you, and if you can’t remember, God knows! Trust Him to include any and all people in this prayer. These intimate bonds that were formed through sexual sin, died with Christ in His death. You are free and are one flesh with them no longer.

My body does not belong to any ex. My body does not belong to me! I was bought with a price; I am no longer my own. I am set apart, consecrated as a temple of the Holy Spirit!

“Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” 1 Cor 6:18-20

“Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness.” Romans 6:19

I had realized that some of my body parts had been sexualized in environments of lust – a sexual comment made, a “taking” of that body part, or I had offered that body part to the person. I realized that some of those lustful comments had lingered into the present, where when I saw that body part, I remembered the person who had made a sexual comment about it. In a sense, that body part still had a brand from that person. My body had been united to those people.

So I consecrated my body to God in a very counter-cultural symbolic act. For every part of my body that had been sexualized by comment or touch; that was once ‘owned’ by someone else when we became one, I touched every part and said, this ____ is Yours, God. It is not my own. I give this to you and honor you with my body. I then touched my face and said, “my beauty is not my own. I was bought with a price. My face and my beauty belong to You. I choose to honor You with my face and my beauty.* *

2. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Oh, this mysterious verse took me years to start understanding! Is the Holy Spirit leading you to a symbolic act of consecrating your body?

Testimony: “Soul Ties” (6:42)

*https://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/hagiazo.html; https://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/hebrew/nas/qadash.html
**This theme continues in Personal Challenge #9