Entry 10: Pure Heart - 10/17/22

The Greek meaning of the word Pure comes from the process of heating up metals. When a blacksmith would smelt metals, the false materials would float to the top then be scooped out by the smith until the only thing left was the pure metals. This is interesting because that means we do not have to BE pure but instead purity is a process. We must remove the negative things from our lives to become full and complete. Through extracting false things in our lives we become pure. This journal will explain the second half of pure heart week. Pure Heart week here at YWAM is a week where we do exactly what is written above. We go deep into our minds and extract what is not good. We replace those voids with truth so that we are not living in fear or lies. I will also talk about the support and community that has been so encouraging while I have been here. 

Golden Sunset View from Manini Beach

Unity

   On Wednesday of last week we started the tail end of Pure Heart week. The topic was masculinity and femininity. We talked about how men and women are created differently and how psychology also backs this up. Men are called to lay down their life for their women and family. True masculinity was displayed at its highest glory when Jesus died on the cross. He had all authority and power to make the pain stop and fly up into the heavens. Instead he laid his life down on the cross for us. In Genesis 2:7 it says "God formed man from dust". In class our teacher explained that this is why men have such a strong connection to earth and nature, because it is what they were formed from. In Genesis 2:22 It states "Then the Lord God made a women from the rib he had taken out of man". This is why women are so relational and connect well with others. Now I do not want to say women cannot love the earth and men do not like relationships, but those things are internally deep and natural depending on male and female.  Women want to feel and hear that they are loved; whereas, men want to feel that they are respected. In the middle of class we split up into boys and girls. The girls stayed in the classroom and received prayer and healing for previous wounds. During this time the men split into groups of 6. We were asked to confess and repent for any times we dishonored a women. At first I could not think of many times I dishonored a women because I was thinking on the surface level. Then the teacher said this includes every time you have watched pornography or lustfully looked at/thought of a women. Because when we do these things we are not using a women how God intended us to. Instead we make them into an object. My group of 6 became super vulnerable and we talked deep about our past's, we repented to each other and asked God for forgiveness. Now my view of women is so different and I see them in the full beauty that God created them for. We went back into the classroom and all the men linked arms and created a circle around the women who were in the middle. Us boys were praying over and blessing the women while they were washing each others feet to signify their purity and that they are whole and complete. It was such a beautiful and powerful experience to be apart of. What other group or organization brings people together the way Christ and his extravagant love does? Women forgiving previous men in their lives that hurt them and men blessing the women, so beautiful. After this was over the men stayed in the classroom receiving healing from previous girls that hurt them and the women repented for any time they dishonored or made a generalization of men. (FYI, the "classroom" is more so a giant wedding style tent and there are a total of 300 students in my class. Just for a visualization).  I feel God protected me from women at a young age. Because I had 3 sisters I usually did my best to treat women with respect and not use them. I never allowed a girl into my heart and never became too attached. I am happy with this because it causes less problems for my future wife and less baggage that I will bring into our marriage. 

   On Thursday we had our last Pure Heart class and it was about forgiveness. We are not called to forgive because it restores relationships or makes the person who did us wrong feel better. We are called to forgive because unforgiveness keeps the person who did you wrong in control. By not forgiving we create a stronghold for the enemy to use against us. Unforgiveness can cause us to have hatred in our heart or close off our heart from recieving love. Matthew 6:15 says " But if you do not forgive others of their sins, your father will not forgive your sins." Father as in God, when we enter the gates of heaven, I do not know about you but I sure hope God forgives me because I have been far from perfect in this world, but I have asked for forgiveness. To end class we were asked to write a detailed letter to people who have hurt us and the pain that their actions brought to us. Sometimes it is important to be real and acknowledge what someones actions did to you and how they affected you, but we should not hold unto them. After we wrote out our letters we were called to bring them to the front of the stage and rip them up, laying them down at a cross that was on the stage to signify us giving it to Christ. After I did this I felt amazing and could feel the chains of unforgiveness being broken. I had previously forgiven the people in my letter but after doing this I felt completely free from it. Pure Heart week taught me so much and I hope through my writing I could inspire you to dig deep into your own mind and possible lies or insecurities placed during traumatic experiences. Or Stop using men/women as an object for your entertainment. Or to forgive someone you thought you never could. Whatever it may be just understand it may hurt at first to extract but the healing that follows is so worth it. I had a revelation that perfectly explains this healing process in the form of an analogy that came to me during an RTC workout. In one portion of the workout we had to hang from a bar for as long as possible. It was hurting my hands so bad but I knew that the pain I was feeling was actually the formation of calluses and if I let it happen, over enough workouts my hands would not get blistered anymore because they have been conditioned to the friction. This is the exact same in us and our minds. When we open the blisters of our minds because we go deep into our core pain, then speak truth over the pain and allow God to fill it. We are slowly strengthening and conditioning our minds. We are producing perseverance, we must allow perseverance to finish its work in us so that we may be full and complete not lacking anything.

Community

   One of the reasons I came to YWAM was to be surrounded by strong believers and people who would encourage me and push me to be all that God has for me. During a Pure Heart class in a moment of prayer one of the leaders named Noah prophesied over me. He said he saw me going into the nations as a great leader and causing great changes through Christ. He said he felt I had Billy Graham type conviction in my words. This was incredibly Inspiring and gave me a burning excitement for outreach and what God has for me. It also made me think. If we want to talk with conviction so that we can help others and bring them to Christ. We must first walk in conviction. For it is said that they will know your heart by the fruit you produce. Meaning if I want to affect lives and allow God to change them through my work of conviction. Then I must listen and obey the conviction God initiates upon me. 

   An aspect I love about having 9 other roommates is there is always someone to talk to and converse with about anything but specifically God. Whenever I have questions I just ask them and they give me their perspective. This happens often but specifically happened yesterday with Tyler and I. Tyler is extremely smart and always sharpens me, he tends to always have great feedback to my questions. After we talked I felt inspired to write a poem that would resonate deeply with him. Tyler played basketball his while life and even 4 years of college ball. I wanted to create a poem that was unlike one I had ever written, so I chose to write a poem with the topic of basketball. If you want to read the poem it is called "3 Man Weave" tap link Poetry

   Last night during worship, we started the night by singing our own song. This means to just praise God in your own words from the true overflow of your soul. I said, "God, the harvest is ripe but the laborers are few. Send me out that I may hold the presence of 1000 because you shine through me. May I bring many to you through your perfect will". Then in the middle of worship 15 minutes later. Someone approached me and prayed over me. He said he kept seeing a vision. It was of me as a laborer, harvesting many for Christ. He said he can see that I have laid my life down and given it fully to Christ. He encouraged me to not be on the fence but continue going all in for the Nations. Not only was this crazy because the song I sung to myself 15 minutes prior. But also because I had the chance to work on a farm and during this time the farmer said I could work my way up to have a lot of responsibility of it. While working on this farm I felt God say “Cody, you will be a farmer of men”. The same way he told Peter he would be a fisher of men. I am so thankful for the opportunity I had on the farm, but this is why I left. To become what God has in store for me.

Support