Heart of Dating is so ecstatic to welcome Mo Isom as a guest on this week’s episode!

Mo Isom is the New York Times Bestselling author of Wreck My Life: Journeying from Broken to Bold and the author of Sex, Jesus, and the Conversations the Church Forgot. She is a nationally sought after speaker, a popular faith-based blogger and a zealous voice rising up for her generation.

Over the past several years, she has spoken—within the U.S. and internationally—to over 400 different conferences, organizations, corporations, churches, teams and schools. She has reached people worldwide with messages of hope, transformation and timely, Holy Spirit-led revelation, seeing thousands commit their lives to following Christ.
Mo lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband, Jeremiah Aiken, and their daughters, Auden and Asher (with their third growing blessing set to arrive in May of 2019!)

Kait and Mo have deep conversations in this episode about identity in Christ and on what purity truly is.

Can you share a little bit about what led you to write your book Sex, Jesus, and The Conversations The Church Forgot?

• First book Wreck My Life was more of her testimony and how she came to her faith in Christ, however she realized that the sexual aspect of her story needed to be tackled in more detail.
• “God truly uses our messy stuff for His glory”.
• The body of Christ needs to have these conversations about sex, purity, and boundaries.
• Mo Isom talks about how writing the book helps put into perspective how the enemy has negatively warped the topic of sex.
• There has been a failure in talking about intimacy in a God-fearing way in today’s culture.

Why do you think we struggle so much with sex and physical boundaries within Christian dating?

• Christians hav not been taught about it the correct way.
• There is a fractured church culture on this topic and a very unhealthy world culture.
• The media has warped the topic and it leaves Christians to fend for themselves.
• All of us are sexual beings, and it’s important to understand that in a healthy way.
• We have to not only understand the guidelines to sex and boundaries but the WHY behind why God guides us to these guidelines.
• There are so many influences that are guiding us, and eventually we begin to let our bodies and urges take over since there is so much confusion on this topic.
• God wants to work on the condition of the purity of our hearts. Actions are fed by the heart!

Why does God command us to WAIT?

• Sex is God’s invention! He created us and He created sex and it’s a gift from Him within a marriage.
• Sex is an act of worship between a husband and wife and a weapon against the enemy in its proper context!
• We can't compartmentalize something that God has truly made as an entangling of souls. It’s a unifying tool that binds two into one flesh.
• Sometimes the church misses celebrating the beauty of sex within the right context.
• When we begin to realize that it’s a holy gift with purpose, it gives us the responsibility to take care of it. We are able to understand the WHY we feel a certain way and understand our sexual urges.
• The command is rooting deeply in our identity and our worth… when we understand that, we being to understand why God commands us to use sex in its purpose.
• “When you feed the flesh, your flesh will rule, when you feed the spirit, your spirit will rule”

How can we more healthily approach the purity culture?

• Purity is the great call of a believer.
• Purity isn’t what the world sees on the outside but what God does on the inside of us.
• The word or idea of purity has been misused. Virginity is what has been put on the pedestal, however purity is deeper than mere virginity.
• Digging into the word of God, you’ll find there’s immense grace that God has.
• “Purity is not just behavior modification, it’s heart transformation”
• We need to embrace God first to embrace purity in a new way and be able to encourage others in purity as well.
• Purity can be revealed in INTENTION.
• Culture has minimized intimacy to such a carnal experience. There’s a difference between pleasure and intimacy.

What is your final nugget of dating advice?

• “Put your phone away! Put your phone down!”
• We need to connect in quality time with one another.

Other Resources:

Follow Mo on Instagram HERE

Get Mo's book HERE on AMAZON

Access Mo's Website HERE