The Purified Bride: Are You Defiled?

Are you allowing the Word to wash you clean daily? Are you being used for good or evil? What do your actions say about you? Are they holy and pleasing to the Lord Jesus?

Let's walk you into all Truth today in this episode of Reflective Spaces Ministry. 

Today is the day you see the Truth and are set free. He who the Son sets free is free indeed! 

Are we, as a church (bride), ready to receive our groom (Jesus)? Have we indeed demonstrated a Spirit-Led life? What do our actions speak? 

Let's dive into Scripture today, Mark 7 out of the NIV and KJV Life Application Study Bible Versions, for a dose of Truth sprinkled with mercy, love, compassion, and a reality that we all sin and fall short of the Glory of the Lord. 

Do our words bind, curse, oppress, restrict, forbid, or limit? Do our words lose, unbind, untie, free, release, or bless?

Are we speaking curses or blessings over our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ? 

How do we find our way to the Light of Truth in a world darkened by agendas, motives, deception, and negativity? 

Will you be on the right side of history? Will you be ready as a bride, full of oil in your lamp, when our groom comes for His church?

Follow Tammy Toney-Butler along in this message as she dives into God's Word and delivers His Truth through prophetic insight, experiential knowledge, and more as a mere sinner, dirty yet delivered and set free by the Light and love of Christ.

Join Tammy on the Reflective Hour Podcast and YouTube channel for healing support. https://reflectivehourwithtammytoneybutler.buzzsprout.com/

You can purchase her book on Amazon Kindle, "When you know, that you know, that you know there is a God." 

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Check out the ministry website at www.reflectivespacesministry.com

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About Tammy: https://www.reflectivespacesministry.com/about

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Tammy is available to teach and empower women and men as they journey to wholeness through the Light and Love of Christ.

Transcript

Good morning. Welcome to Reflective Spaces Ministry. I'm Tammy Toney-Butler. Thank you for joining us this morning. God has a word for you today. A word for his church, the purified bride. And the question that he has for you is, are you defiled? So let's dive in today to see his truth, his words, his message for his church. Oh, Holy Spirit, come. Have your way in this time that we have together. May they see you and not me. May they hear you and not me. May they be washed by the cleansing of the word of God. May they be guided into all truth by the Spirit of the living God, the Holy Spirit at work in and through us. As we gather together today, as we commune in your holy presence, as we sit at your table, as we sit at your feet, as we worship you, Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus. I'll be reading to you today a download that I received, words from the Holy Spirit to guide us in the direction of true north, the way that we shall walk, the words that we speak, our actions and deeds so that we can ensure we are truly purified, holy, consecrated, ready for our room because he's coming. He's coming for his church. Will you be ready? Is there oil in your lamp? Let's dive in. The word that I received and I want to enlighten you with is the word, a great shaking is coming to my people. Ready them for my return. Open their hearts to hear the truth and let it restore them. Few see, few hear. They see what the world wants them to see. They hear through the world's ears or worldly ears. They turn off the sound of the truth. Deceit is easier for them to digest. Instead of feasting on the bread of life, they dine on the false truth spoken from the gods they worship. The god with the little g of this world has corrupted their thinking, infiltrated their minds and controls their thoughts. They are defiled from within and out of their hearts flow hate, discord, disunity, and curses to their fellow brethren. Are we not all one with Christ, one in spirit and truth? Then how can you destroy what I build, defile and destroy instead of purifying and building up? Confusion come from me? Does hate come from me? How dare you call unclean what I have washed clean by my blood to shed on Calvary? Have you forgotten my warning in Mark seven for my people? Refresh your memory. Open your hearts to receive the truth before it's too late. And your defilement leads to your death, spiritual death, spiritual famine. Choose what you dwell on, what you worship, what you digest. Eat of the word of God. Eat and dine, commune with God. Build a relationship. Drink of his well of living water, never to thirst again. Refuse to partner with the world and the world systems. Refuse to watch TV, social media clips, or listen to music that defiles the soul, your mind, will, and emotions. Control your flesh. Bring every thought into submission and obedient to Christ. Mature in Him and find the abundant life you seek in true freedom. You have a choice. What will you choose? Careful. He's coming for his bride. Choose wisely. Choose wisely. And now I'm going to be reading Mark seven. And at first I'm going to read it out of the New Living Translation. And here we go. Jesus teaches about inner purity, March, I'm sorry, Mark seven. One day, some Pharisees and teachers of religious law arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus. They noticed that some of his disciples failed to follow the Jewish ritual of hand washing before eating. The Jews, especially the Pharisees, do not eat until they have poured water over their cupped hands, as required by their ancient traditions. Similarly, they don't eat anything from the market until they immerse their hands in water. This is but one of many traditions they have clung to, such as their ceremonial washing of cups, pitchers, and kettles. So the Pharisees and teachers of religious law asked him, why don't your disciples follow our age old tradition? They eat without first performing the hand washing ceremony. Jesus replied, you hypocrites. Isaiah was right when he prophesies about you. For he wrote, these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God. For you ignore God's law and substitute your own tradition. then he said you skillfully sidestep god's law in order to hold on to your own tradition for instance moses gave you this law from god honor your father and mother and anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death but you say it is all right for people to say to their parents sorry I can't help you for I have Vow to give to God what I would have given to you. In this way, you let them disregard their needy parents. And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others. Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. All you listen, he said, and try to understand. It's not what goes into your body that defiles you. you are defiled but what by what comes from your heart then jesus went into a house to get away from the crowd and his disciples asked him what he meant by the parable he had just used don't you understand either he asked can't you see that the food you put into your body cannot defile you Food doesn't go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer. By saying this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God's eyes. And that's in parentheses. And then he added, it is what comes from inside that defiles you. For from within, out of a person's heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these vile things come from within. They are what defile you. And now the Holy Spirit wants me to continue reading, but this time I'm going to be reading out of the Life Application Study Bible, the King James Version. And we're going to read Mark seven, the same passages of scripture. Jesus teaches about inner purity. Then came together unto him the Pharisees and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem. And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say with unwashing hands, they found fault. So defiled means unclean, not washed. For the Pharisees and all the Jews, except they wash their hands off, eat not, holding the traditions of the elders. So see, it goes back to say they found fault. So ask yourself, are you on a fault finding mission? Are you judging others based on the law and not the love of Lord Jesus, the work that he did on the cross? He gave his life for us. We've been washed clean. Do we see it? Do we perceive it? Behold, I do a new thing. Do you perceive it? And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not, and many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups and pots, brazen vessels, and of tables. Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashing hands? He answered and said unto them, Well hath Isaias prophesied for you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. What do your actions say? Do they show empty words? Or do your actions line up with the words spoken from your lips? And he said unto them, the death. But ye say, if a man shall say to his father or mother, if it is Corban, then it is to say, a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother, making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered, and many such things do ye. And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, hearken unto me, every one of you and understand there is nothing from without a man that entering into him can defile him. But the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable. And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him, because it entereth not into his heart? but into the belly and goeth out into the draught purging all meal meats. And he said, that which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. Do your words defile you? Do your actions defile you? For from within, out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness, all things evil. All these evil things come from within and defile the man. What are you consuming? What table are you dining at? Are you letting the things of this world defile you? What is the posture of your heart? Christ is coming for a purified bride. Are you ready or are you defiled? Are you ready or are you defiled? Now let's look a little bit at the commentary And let's start back over here with the commentary or the study notes about this passage of Scripture. Again, reading out of the Life Application Study Bible, the King James Version. And we're talking about Mark seven. The religious leaders sent some investigators from their headquarters in Jerusalem to check up on Jesus. They didn't like what they found. However, because Jesus scolded them for keeping the law in order to look holy instead of to honor God. Are we honoring God with our actions or are we merely following law, religious traditions? The prophet Isaiah, Isaiah, accused the religious leaders of his day for doing the same. In Isaiah, twenty nine, thirteen, Jesus used Isaiah's words to accuse these men. Mark explained these Jewish rituals because he was writing to a non-Jewish audience. Before each meal, devout Jews performed a short ceremony washing their hands and arms in a specific way. The disciples did not have dirty hands, but they avoided this traditional cleansing. The Pharisees thought this ceremony cleansed them from any contact they might have had with anything considered unclean. Jesus said they were wrong in thinking they were acceptable to God because they were clean on the outside. It's not our outward appearance. It's our inward appearance. Christ looks at the heart. We are to look at the hearts of people. We are to show them the heart and love and mercy and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, our Redeemer, our Helper. Christians become like Pharisees when they worry that contact with unbelievers may leave them tainted, avoiding worldly places where sinners hang out or rejecting books or speakers whose ideals do not conform to theirs. Some Christians and some Pharisees have a lot in common. Both would try to stop Jesus from working in certain places or talking to certain people. Jesus wants us to go out into the world and make contact. Jesus didn't intend for us to withdraw, purify ourselves, and never reach out. We are to be holy, purified vessels, cleansed from all defilement with a purified heart. But we are to go into the world and show them the love of Jesus, the heart of Jesus. We are to show the light and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, his redemptive restorative power to a dark world. Jesus came for sinners, not for the religious elite that think they are so holy and that their actions because they are following religious traditions. instead of a true relationship with the Lord Jesus, coming into submission by way of His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of truth that guides us. Obedience is better than sacrifice. Obedience is better than sacrifice because it speaks of surrender. and trust. Do you trust God? Are you fully surrendered to His will for your life and not your own? Or are you trying to control things and be the God of your own life instead of letting Lord Jesus guide you by way of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth? Hypocrisy is pretending to be something you are not and have no intention of being. Jesus called the Pharisees hypocrites because they worship God for the wrong reasons. Their worship was not motivated by love, but by a desire to attain profit, to appear holy, and to increase their status. We become hypocrites when we pay more attention to reputation than to character, carefully follow certain religious practices while allowing our hearts to remain distant from God, and emphasize our virtues but others' sins. The Pharisees had added hundreds of their own rules and regulations to God's holy laws, and then they tried to force people to follow them. These men claimed to know God's will in every detail of life. There are still religious leaders today who add rules and regulations to God's word, causing much confusion among believers. It is idolatry to claim that your interpretation of God's word is as important as God's word itself. It is especially dangerous to set up non-biblical standards for others to follow. Instead, look to Christ for guidance about your own behavior and let him lead others in the details of their lives. Worry about the posture of your heart. instead of judging another, instead of judging another. We mature at different levels in Christ. Some are on milk while others are on meat. Your purposeful path may be different than mine. God may be speaking to me by way of his Holy Spirit. And as I obey him, I'm going in a different direction than you think I need to go. But remember, we are to follow Lord Jesus and his will, not man, not men. Ultimately, you are responsible for your choice, for what you take in, what's guiding you. And are you being guided by the Holy Spirit? Because remember, we're at war. There's a war waging in the heavenlies. We are an army for God. We are being led by our general. We have to submit and surrender and come under his lordship, his leadership, because we are one body unified under the head, which is Christ. Maybe I'm the arm, maybe I'm the leg, but we are to be one, moving in tandem with him. taking him, carrying him as a vessel of purity and truth, as a purified temple unto the Lord, wherever he needs to go. We're merely the vessel that he's using. We need to ensure that it's purified, holy, and without defilement so that we aren't spreading a false gospel. and leading people astray, because we will be held accountable on the day that the Lord comes and judges his people. Will you be ready? Will you be ready? Jesus wasn't against all tradition, but he was against those who made their traditions as important, if not more important than God's word. Good traditions shine a spotlight on God's word, move us to obedient service and help our hearts sing. They explain and reinforce the teachings of God. God's word should always be the focus and tradition a means of bringing that word alive. Celebrate your traditions with the prayer that Christ would be exalted. Change your traditions if they become more important than God's word. The Pharisees used God as an excuse to avoid helping their families. They thought it was more important to put money into the temple treasury than to help their needy parents. Although God's law specifically says to honor fathers and mothers and to care for those in need. Are we caring for those in need? Are we storing up wealth for the moths to get, for thieves to steal? We should give money and time to God, but we must never use God as an excuse to neglect our responsibilities. Helping those in need is one of the most important things to honor God. As they interpreted the dietary laws, the Jews believed they could be clean before God because of what they would not eat. Jesus pointed out that sin begins in the attitudes and intentions of the inner person. He did not degrade the law, but he paved the way for the change made clear in Acts ten, nine to twenty nine. When God removed the culture restrictions regarding food while being concerned about what we put into our bodies is a good, healthy practice. Very few people are as stringent about what they put into their minds through reading or watching television. Jesus was more concerned about mindset and thought processes than about food laws. Do you worry about what foods you eat would put quote junk food in your mind? An evil action begins with a single thought. Allowing our minds to dwell on lust, envy, hate, or revenge will lead to sin. Don't defile yourself by focusing on evil. Instead, follow Paul's advice in Philippians four, eight, and think about what is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and a good reason. court. And remember, Jesus' ministry was to all people, first to Jews, but also to Gentiles. Let's remember that mindset is everything. Mindset is everything. Do not allow yourselves to be defiled. Wash yourself by the cleansing of God's word. Remember our last teaching on Reading Psalm nineteen. Ephesians five twenty six. Reading Ephesians three daily. Remember, wash yourself with the word. Keep yourself pure and free from defilement. Repent daily. Turn and follow the Lord Jesus. It is very important this season. In the dark times that are coming, that you follow the spirit of truth. He will protect you. He will shelter you. He will guide you. He will nourish you. He will keep you. He will empower you. He will teach you. He will reveal his truth to you. Are you ready for his coming? For his birth? Will you be purified or defiled? Examine today the posture of your heart and ask yourself those questions that I've asked you today, that he's asked you. Lord Jesus, guide them into all truth. Holy Spirit, protect them and keep them. Help them to have spiritual eyes to see and ears to hear and give them the strength to withstand the world's systems, and follow you, Lord Jesus, into all truth, guided by you and you alone, as we are your holy, purified bride waiting for its birth. That's all he has for you today on this episode, this teaching, this message from Reflective Spaces Ministry. I'm Tammy Toney-Butler. God bless you. God keep you and strengthen you this day and every day. Thank you. Remember, he loves you and I love you. Go in peace this day. Strengthen with fresh oil in your lamp. Overflowing with living water and pouring into the dry wells. your brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, forever and ever together. Amen. Amen.