The word “harbor” means to give shelter or protection to someone or something. Anything that we harbor for long eventually starts to affect everything else around us. For a moment; imagine a person whom you have given shelter in your house. As you start living with the person; their behavior, attitude and all that they do will affect you. The change that will take place inside of you in the house will turn to be your character and behavior as you move out.
Scripture says that “What truly contaminates a person is not what he puts into his body, but what comes out. That’s what makes a person defiled.” – Mark 7:15
The purpose of everything that comes to steal, kill and destroy is to contaminate the original design of God for you. God made you in his image (Genesis 1:26). It means that he made you pure and righteous.
Have you harbored anything from the past season?
The life is a roller coaster ride. We all go through the different seasons of our life. Some seasons will be pleasant while others we want to erase from our memory. Sometimes seasons and people leave impact in our life. The impact is good until it is positive but if it contaminates our original design, we need to deal with wisdom and understanding.
Just examine your heart and allow God to bring into light everything that is in darkness. Is it an offense, betrayal, hurt, pain, lies, people’s opinion, unforgiveness, anger, self-pity, sadness, bitterness, sorrow, malice behavior, doubts, fear, unhealthy patterns or anything else that you have harbored and now it has badly impacted your behavior or character?
The longer you shelter it, more it will contaminate you and will not allow you to grow. Imagine a vessel that was once pure and clean; now is being used continuously but is not cleaned at daily basis. Eventually the vessel will be so unclean that it will be really difficult to clean that vessel. In the same way, we need to renew our hearts and minds with the word of God daily. We need to allow Word of God to act as living water and detergent to clean us from inside out.
An uncleaned vessel can’t hold the pure and precious things as it will contaminate the things that are poured in it and also affect the growth and prosperity of everything around it.
Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.
2 Timothy 2:21
God has to clean you:
Everything that is of God’s kingdom is pure and precious and he has to clean you in order to bless you with his inheritance. Sometimes the process of cleaning can be hard if there is lot of corrosiveness (hurt/pain/offense/bitterness/rejection etc.) due to last seasons or the people who walked in and out. In order to clean a vessel that has been corrosive for long, one has to use different types of materials and processes. The processes of our life are for cleaning our hearts and mind so that we can be completely aligned to God’s word and prepared to be used for his glory.
In the same way that gold and silver are refined by fire,
the Lord purifies your heart by the tests and trials of life.
Proverbs 17:3
Harbor the Holy Spirit:
Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Can you shelter two opposite people in the same house? The consequences of this will be strife and one will always be put down. One might die or move out and other will flourish under the roof. Your character is determined by what you harbor. No one can harbor hate and love at the same time. You can bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit only if you allow Holy Spirit to rule over you and work in and through you.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23
Yank out anything that is not from God with the help of the Holy Spirit so that you can be restored to the original design of God and prepared to hold everything that God wants to bless you with.
Prayer: Dear heavenly father, I pray that you examine my life, create in me a clean heart and renew a steadfast spirit within me. In Jesus name, Amen
Maybe you are reading this and never knew about the Lord who is a compassionate and loving father who discipline and cleanses us; want to give your life to him; Read this prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, I ask you to come into my heart and forgive my sins. I receive you as my savior who died and was resurrected for me. Come and do what you want to do in my life. I surrender my heart, mind, and soul to you. In Jesus name, Amen.
“May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (Heb. 13:20-21)
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