Ten Steps for Spiritual Cleansing

1. Get alone in a quiet place with paper, pen, and your Bible.

2. Quiet your heart before God - put away all distractions and worries until you are finally quiet before God (this may take some time!).

3. Pray to God and thank Him for bringing you to this place in your life where you desire to be cleansed before Him and His holiness. Commit yourself to God and ask for the courage to not run away from the deep work that He wants to do in your life.

4. Ask the Holy Spirit, "please reveal to me the specific sins in my life - even the ones I may have forgotten - which lie between You and me. In Jesus name, amen."

5. List everything the Holy Spirit reveals to you. Don't give into the temptation to skip some of the harder ones. Give this some time, expect some struggle. When you have completed your list, number them in the order of how difficult they will be for you to confess and make necessary restitution.

6. Anticipate the personal struggle you will face, as you have not been willing to face these issues and confess them before the Lord until this point.

7. Confess your sins one at a time before the Lord, beginning with the hardest first. "Lord, I confess to You that I committed the sin of _____________. Please forgive me for this sin and thoroughly cleanse me from it." Go through your list one by one until you are finished.

8. Expect to have to humble yourself to at least one other person as you seek to make all things right in your life. Take the hardest first and personally visit with that person. If that's not possible, telephone, if that's not possible, write a letter. Always take the upper road and do more than what would be expected of you in order to satisfy the Lord and the offended person.

9. Write "DONE!" across your sheet of paper after you have "confessed, made restoration, forgiven, and received God's cleansing!" Then burn your sheet as an act of assurance of the Lord's total and complete forgiveness.

10. Thank the Lord when you have completed your list. Praise Him for His forgiveness and thank Him for His cleansing.


(taken from the book Personal Holiness in Time of Temptation by Bruce Wilkinson, p. 112)