“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.” (Psalm 51:10-11)

“Who may ascend the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? Those who have clean hands and a pure heart…” (Psalm 24:3-4)

When mankind ate the apple in the garden, sin entered into the human race.  Sin is like a snare that holds a person captive until the hunter called death comes to take life away completely.  Sin leads to death.  It is because of sin that we die.

Jesus says in Matthew 5:8: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”  To have a pure heart then is opposite to having a sinful heart.  A sinful heart is a dirty heart filled with every foul wind of evil and hopelessness.  When I live under sin, I succumb to hatred, anger, rage, despair, anxiousness, lust, gossip and every other form of godlessness.  My intents are always evil and never good.

To walk in purity is not possible when we are not in Christ.  I remember that before I was in Christ, I was aware of my own sinfulness and evil, but I could not escape it.  Every time I tried to get myself free from the evil that bound me, it seemed that I would go deeper into sin.  My sins seemed to have a way of escalating and were never satisfied.  My sinful heart sinned more and more and the weight of it broke me.

I was not born to sin.  I was born to worship God.  The feeling of sin in a person’s heart is too much for them to bear.  A young person starts out with much hope of freedom but without Christ true freedom never arises, hopelessness enters in and they die from the weight of it in the end.

I am barely going to scratch the surface of the idea I am trying to create today, but there is a purity that comes from above that only comes upon man by a supernatural grace.  There is a fire that comes from heaven that burns in a man’s heart to set him free.

The gospel of Jesus is the key to purity.  When I receive Jesus into my heart, it opens the way for the fires of God to pour forth from the throne of God and over my life. True purity comes from above.  An angel came with a coal of fire and touched the mouth of Isaiah and he became clean. (Isaiah 6:6)

Purity, then, comes from the throne of God.  I need to be baptised in fire in order to walk with a pure heart.

When I seek the Lord with all my heart, soul and mind, He reveals Himself to me. Purity starts with a cry from the heart to see God.  Such a cry sets heaven in motion and God orders His fire to be poured out over man in such a way that true liberty and purity arises in his heart.

And the joy of that liberty is not something easy to explain, but rather you need to experience it.  I will say that when the baptism of Fire occurs and purity is gained, there is such lightness of heart.  You are no longer bound by guilt, but are free.  It is like your innocence is renewed and you walk with a lighter step upon the earth.

I pray that you will experience this fire today.  Call out to God and say, “Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me.”  And it is my experience He will do exactly that for you.