Carla A Stephens hold an Associates degree in art from the Art Institute of Atlanta and graduated from the World Changers Church International (WCCI) School of Ministry in 1996 under the direction of Pastors Creflo and Taffi Dollar.
For this is the will of God, that you should be consecrated (separated and set apart for pure and holy living): that you should abstain and shrink from all sexual vice, that each one of you should know how to possess (control, manage) his own body in consecration (purity, separated from things profane) and honor, for God has not called us to impurity but to consecration [to dedicate ourselves to the most thorough purity]. (1 Thess. 4:3- 4,7 AMP)
"Virginity: Teach your kids it's not a dirty word." I'll never forget this billboard brightly painted in red. It was like an oasis in the desert as I drove along the highway, seeing so many ads arbitrarily linking physical pleasure with different products.
Piquing customers' sexual appetite seems to be the standard mode of operation in popular media today. The highest-ranking movies, television programs, and music send messages that contradict biblical values by portraying virginity as an old-fashioned concept.
Sadly, many around us seem to share this view on sexuality. Women who choose to remain virgins are considered "frigid" or "prudish." Unfortunately, to many the idea of saving sex for marriage is no longer desirable or realistic.
Virginity is, indeed, an old concept. In fact, it dates back to biblical times. God, the Creator Himself, who knows what is best for His creation, presented the concept of virginity to us. We didn't come up with the idea of abstaining from sex before marriage. God did it for our protection and to keep us in union with Him.
Why, then, does it appear that virginity is a faux pas in our popular culture? The problem lies in the fact that most people think virginity only involves the physical body. However, this is not at all the case.
The apostle Paul told us in Romans 12:1 that keeping ourselves pure is our "spiritual act of worship" (NIV). Therefore, when one remains sexually pure, her body and spirit join together as one unit to worship God. Her physical act affects her spiritual act.
The acts of the human body will always affect the acts of the human spirit, and vice versa. Look at what happens, for instance, when a person accepts Jesus Christ as her personal Savior and becomes born again. Her body is automatically transformed into the temple, or house, of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19).
Contrary to what many people may think, the Holy Spirit does not live in a building or on a distant planet. Neither is He some "thing." The Holy Spirit is a person—the third Person of the Trinity—who lives inside of us in order to teach, guide, and direct us (John 16:13).
He's the "hunch" or "feeling" we get when we know we're doing something wrong. In fact, the Holy Spirit helps us live pleasing lives before God.
Bought With a Price In light of this fact, it is important that you realize you do not own your body anymore. You gave up your rights when you became born again. Paul reminds us of this in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 "...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."
Jesus paid a high price to buy us back from the curse of sin and death (Gal. 3:13). When we accept Him as Lord and Savior, we are saying, "Jesus, I give up my right to control my life. Your blood paid the price for my sin, and I promise to serve, worship, and submit my will to You forever."
In other words, we cannot ignore God's ownership of us and do whatever we want to His house.
A Spiritual Alarm Think of it this way. Suppose you buy a house worth millions of dollars. You spend years negotiating the price, inspecting the property, and getting the money together. Finally the day arrives when you can move in. Over the next several weeks you paint, clean, and decorate your new home until you get it just the way you want it. You even have a security system installed for extra protection.
Every night you turn on the alarm, even though you live in a safe neighborhood and no one has ever broken into your home. However, one night you decide not to turn on the alarm because you'll only be gone for a few hours. You return a little while later to find your home vandalized and all your valuables taken.
Would you kick yourself for not turning on that alarm? I would!
This is not unlike what happens when you become a believer and the Holy Spirit makes His home in you. In the years before you met Jesus, you may have been gossiping, lying stealing, cheating, having sex outside of marriage, drinking—in short, living the life of a sinner.
Yet, even though you were unaware of it, God had been carefully orchestrating your salvation—sending His messengers your way, telling others to intercede on your behalf—so that eventually the day would come when you would accept Christ and the Holy Spirit would move in to live in your heart.
For a while you had your spiritual alarm set. In other words, you were alert to the voice of the Holy Spirit because you read the Word, prayed, resisted temptation, controlled your thoughts, and obeyed God wholeheartedly out of your newly discovered love for Jesus.
However, the time came when you got tired of abstaining from worldly things, and you turned off your alarm. Before you realized what had happened, you allowed God's house to be vandalized. In other words, you gave in to temptation and sinned, and the treasure of your virginity was stolen.
Contrary to what people may tell you, God's idea of virginity is not to keep you from having fun. God is not some "cosmic killjoy" ready to zap us when it looks like we might be having a good time.
Not at all! His greatest desire is for us to have life abundantly (John 10:10). God's purpose is not to steal our pleasure by making us cling to an outdated and undesirable thing called virginity.
Rather, virginity is His precious gift to us to be protected at all costs. When you hold on to your gift of virginity, it signifies that you have been set apart, consecrated, for God and the person He's created for you to marry.
It means that you have given thought to the future, weighed all of your options, and chosen to set yourself apart unto God.
Because you are consecrated unto God, He sees you in a special way. It can be loosely compared to the way you think about that favorite shirt in your closet. In your mind you have set that item aside from all the others because you think it's special.
No one else can wear it but you. That's similar to the way God sees you. He thinks you are special - so much so that He sent His only Son to die for you in order to buy you back from the thief who tried to steal you from Him (John 3:16). He has made you His very own.
First Peter 2:9-10 says that you are "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people...now the people of God...."
You have been specifically chosen by God Himself to enter into a relationship with Him, and any sin in your life jeopardizes the strength of that relationship. That's why maintaining your virginity in all areas—spirit, soul, and body—is so important.
Even if you are no longer a virgin, you will discover that all things can be made new with God. It is never too late to discover the tokens of virginity and to discover a new passion for purity.
Source: A Passion for Purity by Carla Stephens Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers
Carla A Stephens hold an Associates degree in art from the Art Institute of Atlanta and graduated from the World Changers Church International (WCCI) School of Ministry in 1996 under the direction of Pastors Creflo and Taffi Dollar.