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TAN Books - Nicole Abisinio

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88 pages

English

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Pure Power is a fresh, encouraging, and transforming how-to journey from flesh to spirit. Do you have a heart that longs to change, but simply don't know how to begin or don't even believe you can succeed? You can! But it takes work. Drawing on the workout warrior in all of us, Pure Power is for anyone stuck in sexual sin of any kind and looking for a way out as well as for those living chastely but in danger of falling. Do you want to begin living for God but don't know how to begin? Do you feel like you have no one to talk to about issues of purity? Pure Power is a must read!

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Publié par	TAN Books
Date de parution	27 janvier 2020
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781505115116
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0600€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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PURE POWER
PURE POWER
A Spiritual Workout to Help You Break Free from Sexual Sin … or Avoid It in the First Place
NICOLE ABISINIO
TAN Books Charlotte, North Carolina
Copyright © 2019 Nicole Abisinio
All rights reserved. With the exception of short excerpts used in critical review, no part of this work may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in any form whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture texts are from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Cover design by Caroline K. Green
Cover image: “Closeup moment of impact on punching bag,” photo by nazarovsergey / Shutterstock
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019952319
ISBN: 978-1-5051-1509-3
Published in the United States by TAN Books PO Box 410487 Charlotte, NC 28241 www.TANBooks.com
Printed in the United States of America
Train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.
1 Timothy 4:7–8
CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction: God’s Artwork of Purity
1 Warm-up and Evaluation
2 Restocking Your Spiritual Kitchen: Renew Your Mind
3 Strength Training: Forgiveness
4 Stamina Building and Spiritual Sculpting: Power of Prayer and Fasting
5 Kickboxing Unhealthy Soul Ties and Generational Bondages
6 Forty-Day Devotional for Purity
7 Daily Vitamins: The Church
PREFACE
T O find the person God ordained for us, we have to first become the person God intended us to be. To find the dream spouse, we have to become the dream ourselves. The truth is, I am nothing without the Lord Jesus, and I can do nothing without him, but all things with him. I am a branch on his tree. I am here to produce fruit for the Lord and to have life and have it more abundantly. To truly live is to live in the Spirit and die to the flesh, while devoting every day to defeating the darkness by filling up with the light.
God often humbles me by showing me that in a moment, he could send me back to where I came from. To many in the world, my past life would have made it seem like I was living the dream. I was paying Manhattan bills doing what I love in the film industry. I was working with famous people, acting, casting, and producing. I had people doing my hair, makeup, and shopping for my wardrobe, even designing clothes from scratch just for me. I could have had pretty much any man I wanted: handsome, talented, rich, and powerful. I was right where so many people dream to be, and I was completely empty inside.
All those years, I was chasing my dream job, my dream man, my dream life, but none of it got me the happiness I so desperately desired. It took me attaining each and every one of my dreams to teach me that I could count it all as loss. The Lord is and was the only thing that could ever make me truly happy. Without him at the center and the head of it all, none of it meant anything. He is the Alpha and the Omega. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
It is in the most terrifying and the most magnificently loving moments that God reminds me how far I’ve come and just how deep that pit of emptiness was that he pulled me out of years ago. He shows me that it is only through him, and him alone, that I am full, complete, and free!
I ask that you, through this book and this journey to be made white as snow, please continue to go to God at every turn, every temptation, and every moment. When things get tough, remember, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Mt 19:26). He will carry you to the Promised Land. And boy, is it a wonderful place to live!
I dedicate this book to the three the Lord has given me: my mom, my mentor, and my best friend, as they have covered me in prayer protection through this journey. I also dedicate this to my dear friend Suzanne Phillips, who passed away in an accident one week before I completed this book. I know she will be smiling down. Above all, I thank my spiritual family—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—for never leaving me and always taking me to new heights.
Introduction
GOD’S ARTWORK OF PURITY
I F you ever moved with your family as a child and started a new school, you may remember two feelings: one was a huge question mark of what lay ahead in your future; the other feeling was the fresh start. It meant you had a chance to begin again, to be whoever you wanted to be. I remember dreaming of being better than my former self. A chance to be happy, to do things different this time, to have new, better relationships, and an overall brand new chance at life.
That’s what Jesus offers us with his forgiveness and mercy. You start here today with a clean slate. Your past does not define you. And guess what? It doesn’t determine your future either. Thanks to God, once you repent of any sexual sins of your past, God will begin to give you a brand new, more abundant life. Now you can move into your new home and city with a whole new wardrobe. It’s going to be increasingly beautiful and peaceful, and it’s more than you could ever imagine.
If you are thinking, “That’s not true. I still have these same clothes, same cracks in the walls, same stains on the furniture, same list of mistakes. Yeah, I’m just still me, a broken mess,” renounce that mindset, in Jesus’s name. Leave that falsehood behind with your past. You are cloaked in the robes of royalty by the king our God, and he is leading you into the royal family to which you are called.
Always remember Rahab, a lowly prostitute who chose to trust and fear the Lord our God. Not only did God save her life and those of her family for choosing to follow him, she actually became part of Jesus’s bloodline. If God will save the life of a prostitute and put her in the bloodline of his only son, what can and will he do for you? The amazing possibilities are endless. You have a chance in this moment for a clean slate and a fresh start. Let’s get this journey started! It’s going to be the best one of your entire life!
Chapter 1
WARM-UP AND EVALUATION
T HROUGHOUT my experience spiritually coaching singles over the past few years, I realized the most comparable analogy is that of exercising the body. When people want to get their physical body in shape, they work out their exteriors. The same goes for chastity and spiritual training overall. If we want to get in shape, we have to work out our insides. I’m sure you realize that if you slack off at the gym, you almost immediately start to notice a difference. “A little extra inch to pinch,” we say. When we slack in our spiritual exercises—prayer, fasting, bible study, church, and fellowship—it has the same effect. We start to go backwards, and our insides start to look less attractive very quickly. The longer you slack, the harder it is to get back on track. The next thing you know, you are living in sweatpants on the couch with a bag of chips and a depressed mood.
The great news is, like the body, there is always time to go gangbusters and get that chiseled look of holiness. People see me as much younger now than they did ten years ago, and when they ask my secret, I always say the Holy Spirit is the fountain of youth. Think about it for a moment. We work out our bodies that only last eighty to one hundred years at most. People spend so much time getting their body in shape at the gym, styling their hair, or shopping for clothes to “look good.” But how little time they spend on getting their inner spirit in shape. Working out our spirits (which will last for eternity) seems to be a more logical priority! Also, much like working out at the gym or with sports, it makes you feel younger and more energized. You feel more alive and often come out with a better attitude and a calmer demeanor. When you see people living in the Spirit, they have this amazing glow about them and you can just tell they have a heavenly chiseled spirit under that body. That’s what I want for you through these spiritual workout chapters! As Arnie would say with that thick Aussie accent in the SNL spoof with Hans and Franz, “I’m going to pump you up!”
I was coaching a young man recently over the phone. At the end of our session, he said to me, “So by the end of this spiritual work, you’re basically saying I’m going to be like a superhero.” I truly pondered that idea for a moment, and then I said, “Yes, yes indeed.” If you really think about it, Superman can leap tall buildings with a single bound, the Hulk has superhuman strength. Spiderman has the ability to be personally healed from injury much faster than any human. Then compare those powers to those of Jesus. Not only is he the real deal compared to his comic book counterparts, he is also the ultimate powerhouse of a superhero, and, really, nothing and no one else compares. He healed other people of their sickness and freed people from bondage. He overcame death. Jesus says in the Bible, “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (Jn 14:13). When I look at how far the Lord has brought me and how far he has brought every person he has lifted up through me on this journey to chastity, there is no doubting the power of God.
Wherever you start this journey today, if you do the work in this book and you believe that Jesus can and will free you from this bondage, he absolutely will. In the power of the Holy Spirit, we are able to overcome sin and become superheroes in Christ Jesus.
The fact that you are reading this means that you are currently in one of three categories: You are already living chastely and ne