LIVING SINGLE IN CHRIST

[God's Anointed Angel]

A sister asked the question, "How do you hold on living single as
a Christian?"
First I would like to share the simple fact that I am and have been
doing just that for a very long time. It can be done. Here is my
PERSONAL testimony.
I had to TRULY grab a hold of and understand that the word of God
says,
"Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then
take the members of Christ, and make them members of an harlot? God
forbid."
"What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body?
for two saith he, shall be one flesh."
"But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but
he that committeth fornication SINNETH AGAINST HIS OWN BODY.
What? 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 you spirit, which are God's." (I Corinthians 6:15-20, King
James Version)
These verses taught me how to love myself more which in return taught
me HOW to LOVE God more. It was and is the desire of my heart to
please, and honor God. Therefore, I honor my body as I honor the
house
of prayer because I understand that my BODY is the TEMPLE in which
God's Holy Spirit dwells.

I Corinthians 7:34
"There is a difference also between a wife and a virgin. The
unmarried
woman careth for the THINGS of the Lord, that she may be holy both in
body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of
the world, how she may PLEASE her HUSBAND."
This verse helps me, because I understood and still do understand
that
once I give myself to a man, I become more concerned about what
pleases HIM instead of what pleases God. When we as women lay with a
man, we submit ourselves unto him. It is not just our bodies that we
relinquish; we surrender our very spirits unto him. Because we are
the
weaker vessel, we gain a soul tie to that man. This is why it is so
hard for a woman who is being abused to just get up and leave that
situation. She is joined to that man in her spirit.
When God called me back unto Him in 2002, I was engaged in a
relationship. One day the man told me that he could not see me
without
being with me because he had ALREADY known me in that manner. I had
to
come to a place whereas I was strong enough in my spirit to tell him,
"I love you, but I love God more." Once I did, I did not have to
concern myself with that particular struggle anymore. He helped me
out
by ending the relationship. All of the talk about, "If we were
married," came to a sudden end. I chose to love God enough that I
took
time to get to know us both better. My relationship with God is
treasured above any other relationship that I could ever have. God
cut
so many people out of my life until it FELT as if I was all alone at
one point. I know that I wasn't, because it enabled me to learn how
to
know His voice. It wasn't until Moses was all alone on the backside
of
Mt. Sinai that he was able to hear God talking to him. Understand
that God wil comfort you, keep you, and give you a NEW song in your
heart DAILY if you trust, and seek Him. He is taking me from a lamb
in Christ to a sheep. I can see me maturing in Him, although, I yet
see myself as a babe.
God has to replace ALL of those people in our lives who don't mean us
any good anyway. However, we must FIRST allow Him to get rid of ALL
of
those people, even from our very spirits. We cannot value what we
cannot see, and past experiences sometimes will corrupt the way that
we see the present.


I pray that something I have shared will be of some help to you.
MLIJC (Much Love In Jesus Christ),
God's Anointed
Missionary Ann Banks