Has holiness become a dirty word in our churches?

[Gideons300]

It is a fair question I think. When was the last time you heard a sermon on holiness.... not His but on OUR call to live holy lives? In our lifetime, we have seen the gospel, the one that is a two edged sword, have one edge dulled to the point that it has no use whatsoever.

Yes, the gospel is wonderful. Yes, God loves us and forgives us if we sin and turn from it with a broken heart, seeking forgiveness and deliverance from its grip. But the gospel has two sides..... the goodness AND the severity of God. We are all.... every single one of us, called to be holy as He is holy. We are to know how to possess our vessels in sanctification and honor. We are told to bring every thought bowed to the obedience of Christ. We are warned to keep our bodies under. We are told that continued sin can harden our hearts and that if we remain in our cotton candy gospel state, where sin is never warned about, great danger lurks. Modern Christians are told that exhortation, rebuke, correction and instruction in righteousness are not only not needed, but that this is judging, and being sin conscious.

Do we not see what has happened? Satan has entered our midst, in among us, influencing what we hear from our pulpits, convincing us that he cannot hurt us, and that continuing in willful sin is ok because Jesus loves us so much that He has made keeping our hearts pure, and being aware of his tactics is giving place to the devil.

Mat our God awaken to righteousness and prick our very dulled consciences to see what is happening. He even warned us that in the last days men would not endure sound doctrine but heap to themselves teachers scratching their ears with "pleasant things". Do we realize that time is now?

But why did this happen? Simple. The church.... our preachers and teachers have led us into pasture that bloats us so that we feel full. It tastes good but is bitter to our stomachs. We are like kids wanting candy rather than food to actually grow on.

Ultimately, it is because we do not know HOW to be holy, to defeat debilitating sins in our lives, to get free from the spirit of the world. So after much struggle and guilt as new believers when we were first saved, with no victory in sight and no joy because our consciences are hounding us, we stop reading the verses about holiness and overcoming the enemy, for we are told we are just sinners saved by grace. We are told to not be sin conscious, to remain ignorant of the devil's devices for to talk about them is getting our eyes off of grace.

No, dear brothers and sisters. Here is real grace. It's purpose in our lives is to teach us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we are to live soberly, righteously and justly in this present evil age. But we have had no ears to hear. We are too busy with our happiness with no time for our holiness.

And why has all this occurred? How has the enemy entered right into our midst and brought the church low? It is because no one is telling us HOW to walk holy all day, every day. When was the last time you heard a sermon at church warning us about willful sin and then telling us how to prevent it.

Here is what we hear. Go to church. Check. Read your Bibles Ummmm, little bitty check. Pray. Whew. Almost no check. We are facing an enemy with thousands of years of experience in how to trip us up, yet we think that of we can ignore him, and not talk about sin and its dangers, this will somehow strip him of his ability to cause us harm. We think holiness is in truth an unobtainable goal, that defeating besetting Sins is truly impossible, so we wrap ourselves in scriptures that soothe us, that tell us all is well not matter what we do, and play like somehow all is according to God's will.

We are wrong. But praise God, He is even now awakening us to righteousness and more importantly, telling us HOW to walk in real victory. A change is coming. Religious, powerless, candy coated Christianity is about to be transformed into life changing, joy-filled, soul winning Christianity, and we will see it with our own eyes. Hunger is the first step. What are you hungry for. More of Jesus? More of a life pleasing to Him, no matter the cost? If so, buckle your seatbelts. Tears may come at night, but trust me, real joy is on its way and our lives are about to take a dramatic turn upwards.

Live, bones, live.

Blessings, Gideon

 

[Hieronymus]

If you want to be called holy, you should join a religion that tells you so.
Meanwhile we can all see daily we're not holy at all.

 

[Extraneous]

People don't even know what holiness is anymore. Holiness is to separate our self from the world. Politics and patriotism have no place in Gods kingdom. His kingdom is not of this world and politics only make us act like the world instead of followers of Christ. Its all working of the flesh, not spirit. Our teachers are blind and have not taught us correctly. Woe unto us.

 

[Hieronymus]

More woe unto false teachers...

 

[hislegacy]

Gids! good to see you again. How goes the quest?

 

[Gideons300]

Gids! good to see you again. How goes the quest?

Hi SP. The quest is always there. Unbelief goes away like water eroding rock. The key is to keep the water dripping. But I am praying for a bigger faucet, LOL.

I hope all is well with you.

Blessings,

Gids

 

[jiminpa]

My problem is that most of the holiness teaching that I've heard is the opposite of holiness. It's been about man-made distractions from true holiness. It's been about telling God what He can and cannot approve, and if God dare call someone to something that is not man-approved, refusing God's call in favor of the "holy" life.

But I know that that is not what you teach. You teach a contrite heart and receiving the grace to walk our faith.

 

[Gideons300]

My problem is that most of the holiness teaching that I've heard is the opposite of holiness. It's been about man-made distractions from true holiness. It's been about telling God what He can and cannot approve, and if God dare call someone to something that is not man-approved, refusing God's call in favor of the "holy" life.

But I know that that is not what you teach. You teach a contrite heart and receiving the grace to walk our faith.

Jim, so good to see you, my friend. You are absolutely correct. Man's interpretation of holiness always seems to end up being "touch not, taste not, handle not", doesn't it? Instead of it being freedom..... trust that we will not gravitate back to fleshly levels, man's holiness ends up fearful we will be infected with evil should we get too close, so it ends up a list of rules so we do not slip.

Isn't it amazing that Jesus could fellowship with sinners and elevate them up rather then let them pull Him down? I love what Paul said:

"Blessed is the man whose heart does not condemn him in the things that he allowed him."

The Pharisees were aghast that Jesus would spend time with prostitutes and tax collectors. This proved to them that he was an imposter. But they were looking at holiness with eyes of those in the flesh, and that is why we too have such a misconception about holiness today. Think about it. If Jesus came today and instead of showing up at our mega-church with the world class worship and instead sat down with homeless under the bridge, would we understand, or get offended? See what I mean?

So what exactly IS holiness? Holiness is simply being fully yielded to God, trusting that He has made us pure and that He can keep us from falling, can keep us pure, even when we are surrounded by things that normally pollute. Now that is freedom,amen?

So how does one walk in real holiness? As long as we are still walking in our old nature, we will fail. We must be found walking.....abiding..... not visiting, nor having an "experience", but walking in our new nature.

Jesus has told us to make our tree good. We cannot bring forth holy fruits, aka real Christianity, as long as we are doing so in our old nature. We end up bringing forth both bad and good fruit, and it simply cannot be. But in these last days, God is restoring back to us the truth, the truth that we have stumbled over through unbelief. We are new....right now, but it has never profited us, because we are still under the tutor. You see, we have never put on....and kept on....and fought our good fight of faith IN our new nature. Until we both KNOW that our old nature died AND put it on by faith, we will be head knowledge Christians, carnal Christians, and never taste real freedom. But when we finally have such hunger to walk pleasing to God, to be close to Him 24/7, that we surrender to Him in faith and obedience and actually reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive unto Him, the hard seed of faith,small as it may be, incased in a flesh we will never improve, begins to sprout. Then the adventure begins...

Many of His children are still trying to be good enough to deserve being people with new natures. We simply do not see that ALL we do, both good and bad, is fleshly. Sadly, many others have sunk back in Laodecian unbelief, thinking holiness an impossibility in this life, because we confuse it with "perfection", so let's just relax and enjoy our "positional holiness" (while we continue to sin, of course). So we as believers vacillate between legalism and a greasy grace that is not grace at all. Holiness is the sliver of light between the two, and faith is the only thing that can thread that needle.

And praise God, He is even now opening our eyes to the truth...deep in hearts of hungry Christians everywhere, and there is a growing desire for far more than 90 minutes sitting in a pew, polite smiles,and then back into the world. We are about to discover the meaning of "In Him, we live and move and have our being."

We are about to have our feet planted on the highway OF holiness. We are about to discover Free Indeed.

It is so good to see you again.

Be blessed,

Gids

 

[ml5363]

It is a fair question I think. When was the last time you heard a sermon on holiness.... not His but on OUR call to live holy lives? In our lifetime, we have seen the gospel, the one that is a two edged sword, have one edge dulled to the point that it has no use whatsoever.

Yes, the gospel is wonderful. Yes, God loves us and forgives us if we sin and turn from it with a broken heart, seeking forgiveness and deliverance from its grip. But the gospel has two sides..... the goodness AND the severity of God. We are all.... every single one of us, called to be holy as He is holy. We are to know how to possess our vessels in sanctification and honor. We are told to bring every thought bowed to the obedience of Christ. We are warned to keep our bodies under. We are told that continued sin can harden our hearts and that if we remain in our cotton candy gospel state, where sin is never warned about, great danger lurks. Modern Christians are told that exhortation, rebuke, correction and instruction in righteousness are not only not needed, but that this is judging, and being sin conscious.

Do we not see what has happened? Satan has entered our midst, in among us, influencing what we hear from our pulpits, convincing us that he cannot hurt us, and that continuing in willful sin is ok because Jesus loves us so much that He has made keeping our hearts pure, and being aware of his tactics is giving place to the devil.

Mat our God awaken to righteousness and prick our very dulled consciences to see what is happening. He even warned us that in the last days men would not endure sound doctrine but heap to themselves teachers scratching their ears with "pleasant things". Do we realize that time is now?

But why did this happen? Simple. The church.... our preachers and teachers have led us into pasture that bloats us so that we feel full. It tastes good but is bitter to our stomachs. We are like kids wanting candy rather than food to actually grow on.

Ultimately, it is because we do not know HOW to be holy, to defeat debilitating sins in our lives, to get free from the spirit of the world. So after much struggle and guilt as new believers when we were first saved, with no victory in sight and no joy because our consciences are hounding us, we stop reading the verses about holiness and overcoming the enemy, for we are told we are just sinners saved by grace. We are told to not be sin conscious, to remain ignorant of the devil's devices for to talk about them is getting our eyes off of grace.

No, dear brothers and sisters. Here is real grace. It's purpose in our lives is to teach us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we are to live soberly, righteously and justly in this present evil age. But we have had no ears to hear. We are too busy with our happiness with no time for our holiness.

And why has all this occurred? How has the enemy entered right into our midst and brought the church low? It is because no one is telling us HOW to walk holy all day, every day. When was the last time you heard a sermon at church warning us about willful sin and then telling us how to prevent it.

Here is what we hear. Go to church. Check. Read your Bibles Ummmm, little bitty check. Pray. Whew. Almost no check. We are facing an enemy with thousands of years of experience in how to trip us up, yet we think that of we can ignore him, and not talk about sin and its dangers, this will somehow strip him of his ability to cause us harm. We think holiness is in truth an unobtainable goal, that defeating besetting Sins is truly impossible, so we wrap ourselves in scriptures that soothe us, that tell us all is well not matter what we do, and play like somehow all is according to God's will.

We are wrong. But praise God, He is even now awakening us to righteousness and more importantly, telling us HOW to walk in real victory. A change is coming. Religious, powerless, candy coated Christianity is about to be transformed into life changing, joy-filled, soul winning Christianity, and we will see it with our own eyes. Hunger is the first step. What are you hungry for. More of Jesus? More of a life pleasing to Him, no matter the cost? If so, buckle your seatbelts. Tears may come at night, but trust me, real joy is on its way and our lives are about to take a dramatic turn upwards.

Live, bones, live.

Blessings, Gideon

Thankfully the I

 

[SpiritPsalmist]

If you want to be called holy, you should join a religion that tells you so.
Meanwhile we can all see daily we're not holy at all.

I think that was his point.

 

[Gideons300]

I think that was his point.

God told us that as a man thinkers in his heart, so is he. If we see ourselves as just sinners saved by grace, then those same old results will follow. As well, Satan will take that unlocked back door to remind us, accuse us and tempt us. And when he is met with agreement with his assessment of our true nature, sin will follow, guaranteed.

But what if he is met with resistance? What if he sees a shield of faith that says "Yes, devil, I WAS all those things, but that man is dead. He does not live here any more. I am a new creature, and sin has no authority over me any longer. Your arrows cannot pierce my shield, and praise the Lord forever, I DO take the way of escape.... every time.... when you come to tempt me to stray."

We cower and our hearts melt because we know us, know our past failures, know our weaknesses, and we think that to do so, to say we are free, to stand fast in the faith 24/7, we must be stronger, we must be superhuman in fact. We never consider that it is our very testimony that we are overcomers, coupled with the blood of the lamb that allows us to grow, to be changed, to overcome strongholds Satan has established .in our lives.

It is time His saints believe what God has said about us.....and make them weapons of war. Satan will not go willingly. He must be driven out. This is the good fight of faith that we have been told about. But it is not with our efforts and diligence that will do it. It is our finally believing the words of our Lord about who we really are, and that will only happen when we finally see that staying where we are, one foot in the flesh, one in the spirit is dangerous and rapidly disappearing ground. The valley of decision looms, and ultimately, it is who we believe, the accuser of the brethren or our amazing God that will determine our final destination.

It is time we made our tree good. Our job is not to be fruotful. That is HIS work. Think about it. Men in the world seem to be having no problem becoming more and more evil, amen? I look forward to the day that His saints awake to righteousness and cry out for the faith to believe our God when He tells us that our shield of faith WILL work, that sin no longer has dominion over us, that we are not in the flesh at all but are new creatures, and owe our fleshly nature nothing.

It is coming. God has promised it. And when it comes, we will finally understand what it it to be in agreement with our God, and find the things we once thought impossible, taming our fleshly nature, is not only possible, but the surest and safest place imaginable. It is the rest we are all promised. It is time we fight to enter that rest. All we have to do is to be hungry for it, and to believe that God can do in us, what we can never do....make us holy.....and keep us there! Amazing God!

Blessings SP. Good to see you again.

Gideon

 

[Alithis]

More woe unto false teachers...

you perhaps prefer to support false teachers instead ?

 

[Alithis]

Thankfully the I

one who adds false titles to the quotes of people's names to make an ambiguous point attacking a person rather then addressing the topic ... should not expect to go unnoticed in the pursuit of such behaviour

state clearly what it is you have to say .passive aggressive one liners are cheap and easy

 

[ml5363]

one who adds false titles to the quotes of people's names to make an ambiguous point attacking a person rather then addressing the topic ... should not expect to go unnoticed in the pursuit of such behaviour

state clearly what it is you have to say .passive aggressive one liners are cheap and easy

So not gonna bother
My tablet doest crazy things with my post ss...dont even remember what I commented on...have a nice day

 

[Alithis]

So not gonna bother
My tablet doest crazy things with my post ss...dont even remember what I commented on...have a nice day

then just say so..lol " your tablet rewired your post... " .. happens if i post on my phone too .. totally understand now ..thanks

 

[Llewelyn]

Gideon,

Would you please explain how you would observe holiness? Holiness means "set apart" rather than a behavioural list but without some guidelines can become rather ambiguous undefined. If I am to set myself apart, what would that look like?

You see, regarding holiness and the preaching of old the intention has often been misunderstood. It was never intended to be a "law" but a guide as to what you should see. Therefore "Christians don't drink alcohol" was not intended to be condemnatory but encouragement to forsake the world. You may wish to argue to the contrary but you won't convince me because Jesus delivered me from the power of alcohol and a lifetime of dependency on it. I am extremely thankful to him. I was not an alcoholic but alcohol was my medication. Today I am healed in Jesus name and have had no further need of it. I am 56 next month and was healed more than 55 years ago. Who needs the stuff anyway? It has no spiritual value.

 

[Llewelyn]

then just say so..lol " your tablet rewired your post... " .. happens if i post on my phone too .. totally understand now ..thanks

Don't forget how these ads make your post stumble. I find I have to read very carefully or half what I have typed is not even there.

 

[Alithis]

Gideon,

Would you please explain how you would observe holiness? Holiness means "set apart" rather than a behavioural list but without some guidelines can become rather ambiguous undefined. If I am to set myself apart, what would that look like?

You see, regarding holiness and the preaching of old the intention has often been misunderstood. It was never intended to be a "law" but a guide as to what you should see. Therefore "Christians don't drink alcohol" was not intended to be condemnatory but encouragement to forsake the world. You may wish to argue to the contrary but you won't convince me because Jesus delivered me from the power of alcohol and a lifetime of dependency on it. I am extremely thankful to him. I was not an alcoholic but alcohol was my medication. Today I am healed in Jesus name and have had no further need of it. I am 56 next month and was healed more than 55 years ago. Who needs the stuff anyway? It has no spiritual value.

that doesnt go againt anything Gideon is saying at all .
and holiness .. being set apart .. is also being set apart to God in every area of life and "behaviour is an area of life " -a priest in the temple was set apart for the work of the temple ..in that st apart state there was a standard of behaviour that had to be maintained .. so it is with us .

we are to "walk worthy " of the righteousness he has graciously clothed us in.. not go and live life purposefully dirtying them

as zechariah prophesied ...
-That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,
In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life-. luke 1. he does not set us free that we might continue in sin -for a person who continues in the practice of sin is not free from it but a slave to it and is not being saved but is ,in their sin ,perishing .

 

[Alithis]

Don't forget how these ads make your post stumble. I find I have to read very carefully or half what I have typed is not even there.

on a Pc i use adblock.. so i dont see the ads . i do get annoying cf pop ups telling im using adblock(as if i didn't know haha ) and to BUY a membership to stop the ads .. but if they want me to stop using adblock then they need to better govern the ads ..i consider ads for palm reading on christian site to be no less then demonic ..i dont want to see them ..so i use ADblock

 

[Gideons300]

Gideon,

Would you please explain how you would observe holiness? Holiness means "set apart" rather than a behavioural list but without some guidelines can become rather ambiguous undefined. If I am to set myself apart, what would that look like?

You see, regarding holiness and the preaching of old the intention has often been misunderstood. It was never intended to be a "law" but a guide as to what you should see. Therefore "Christians don't drink alcohol" was not intended to be condemnatory but encouragement to forsake the world. You may wish to argue to the contrary but you won't convince me because Jesus delivered me from the power of alcohol and a lifetime of dependency on it. I am extremely thankful to him. I was not an alcoholic but alcohol was my medication. Today I am healed in Jesus name and have had no further need of it. I am 56 next month and was healed more than 55 years ago. Who needs the stuff anyway? It has no spiritual value.

Sister, that is a good question, and a fair one. As I said, holiness is not a list of do's and don'ts. So how do we observe it? I would suspect the first way is that one will see what God tells us about abiding in Him. He says that if we are truly abiding as He intended, we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. So the first thing is that we will walk without our hearts condemning us, with the things that once were arrows piercing us, now being quenched by our shields of faith. That alone is mind blowing to feel zero condemnation.

Walking with the flesh reckoned dead, and sin defeated not by our strenuous efforts, but by faith in the truth that we... our old nature... really did die when Christ died, is not the end of our road, as we have been taught. It is not the elusive goal no one can ever arrive at, but we must try to hit. It is not the highway TO holiness, but the highway OF holiness.

I pray you permit me to take a minute to share my own story, for it will hopefully explain to you where I am coming from. I accepted the Lord and was baptized in the Spirit in 1971 at age 22. At that time, I was a inappropriate content addict. Fast forward 38 years. 38 years of my flesh still raging, my inappropriate contentography addiction raging even stronger with the advent of the computer age, my own heart condemning myself, ready to walk away from God because I was so longing to walk pure before God, and yet with me so failing in my quest. I was the poster child for Romans 7. I longed for the free indeed Jesus promised. I was a million miles from it. And like Paul was, I was a wretched man in my eyes.

Thirty eight years of wrestling for the victory I knew Christ had promised me. I fasted. I prayed. I pastored. I memorized. I rebuked the enemy. I fought with all that is within me to find the holiness I so desperately longed for. I had turned over so many new leaves that my tree was as barren as an oak in winter. I had no more leaves to turn over, no new "lessons" to learn that would change me. I had nothing.....and needed everything. I had finally arrived at the place I had NO strength, and knew it. And you know what God tells us happens when we arrive at that sacred place. It is time for Eagles wings.

Then it happened. One night, on my knees, out of hope, I told the Lord I was done. I could not walk the walk He desired for me. I was ready to walk away, having resigned myself to the fact I must not be in the elect. It was then that our God manifestly appeared to me. No face. Light. Blinding light and a voice reverberating through eternity. Here is what He said:

"For this my son, I am well pleased with you."

Really?? Now, at my lowest, having longed to know that I was really pleasing my God, and now, exposed in all my sin to a Holy God, now He tells me I am pleasing Him? My head reeled.

Trust me, I did not say this out loud. When God appears to you, well, at least to me, one does not talk back. I was on my face, crying so hard I could barely catch my breath. Exhilarated. Terrified. Blown away. But He was not finished. He knew my question and the confusion that overwhelmed me. He continued:

"I knew all along that you could not walk the walk, but you did not YET know it,"

That night I knew it. . I had arrived at a sacred place that night. He had finally had to declare bankruptcy. I had NO confidence in my flesh. I had come to the place I had NO strength. If I was ever to walk as I was called to walk, I needed a new nature. My old one was useless.

He then asked me a question.

"In all your years of trying to please me by walking in holiness before me, did you ever do what I told you to do through my apostle Paul?

He did not wait for an answer. He gave it to me. It was in Romans 6. I had it memorized, for I knew the crux of our walking pleasing to Him was there, but what was it?

I had never reckoned myself dead to sin.

Oh, I had head knowledge of what transpired at Calvary, but never did I understand that having the new nature was not enough. You must put it on.

That was nine years ago. An amazing nine years. God's promises are our armor, but until we mix the blood of the lamb with the words of OUR testimony, Satan will continue to buffet us, for armor does is no good sitting in the corner gathering dust. It must become OUR armor. And once we do, and stop fighting FOR holiness but rather IN it, all changes. ALL.

Willful sin falls away. Joy replaces emptiness. Love replaces self serving. Purpose replaces our aimless existing. Fruits of the Spirit begin to grow in us, and of all people we ourselves are the most shocked and amazed. And guess what? One of them is self control! I had always tried using self control to become fruitful. I had it totally backwards.

Abiding became no longer an in and out, hot and cold, three steps forward, three steps back type of Christianity that once was my norm. Just as the Israelites found when they finally chose to believe their God as they entered the land of promise, every step I took was mine to possess. Galatians 2:20 was finally not just a scripture for an inspirational poster, but truth. It was no more the old me walking as best I could with God. It was Christ in me. Oneness.

I pray you do not take this as prideful bragging. I have far, far to go.By outward observance, perhaps no one would see me as holy. I do not glow. I do not walk 4" off the ground. I long to become more friitful today than I was yesterday. I am not a perfect apple in October, but praise God, God has made me a perfect apple for June.

So back to your excellent question. One of the main characteristics of holy character is not pride, but rather humility. When one puts on the Lord Jesus by faith, agreeing with God that their old nature is truly dead, one of the first things one becomes aware of is that in them dwells NO good thing. You see, flesh is impossible to clean up, tie up or teach new tricks. The one thing...the only thing one can do is put it off by an audacious act of faith. So I did.

Through my tears, I spoke. I spoke loud enough for God and all the angels to hear me. I spoke loud enough for the devil to hearts well. But praise God, mostly I spoke loid enough for my own ears to hear. Why? Faith comes by hearing the word of God, amen? I confessed that the old me, the one I had tried to improve for 38 years was dead. Not slowly, agonizingly dying. DEAD. I put it off like a filthy rag. I put on the new nature Christ had given by the same act of faith, and reckoned that sin's authority over me was finished. And guess what? It worked.

Do not get me wrong. Entering the rest that remains for the people of God is not "arriving".There is a whole land in front of us to possess. But I had finally stopped wrestling against flesh and blood. I no longer fought for the victory, but FROM it. I had finally entered my good fight of faith.

Sister, I pray my long narrative helps explain a little bit about that which I share with any who will listen. I am not special. In truth, I am the opposite.i was a sinner saved by grace. WAS. I am now an overcomer, made one by the God who wants to dwell in each one of us. I simply found light and life because I was so keenly aware that I was so desperately in need of it.

Holiness is simply God shining through each of His children in their unique way. There are no rules per se. But there is victory from the least to the greatest, and in that order.

Thank you for bearing with my long windedness.

Be greatly blessed,

Gideon