Tag: holiness

The Battle Between Our Flesh and Our New Spirit

Romans 6:4
We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

So what is this new life that we may live? As we struggle to attain a new sanctified life in Christ, we all come to know and experience that the promise for holiness is activated in our spirit, but is hampered by the weakness that remains in our flesh.

In the flesh, we are in a constant struggle to try to attain the holiness that we know has been set aside for us. The struggle is ongoing as we react to our call to holiness and attempt to adjust the way we live as new men and women in Christ. All along, we realize that we have been given the power to walk away from our old sin nature, but our flesh and our new spirit are in a battle. The flesh wants to keep us in the world. The Spirit wants to lead us on our path to sanctification. We find that there is no peace if we try to live in both worlds.

Knowing our weaknesses all too well, in His perfect mercy and loving kindness, Our Father in heaven set aside a Helper for us to manage through our daily struggles. He gave us a Counselor to help us overcome the calling of our flesh and the world. We were given the Holy Spirit to guide us and strengthen us and we were given God’s promise that He will perfect His strength in our weakness. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Cor 12:9

Let us call on the promise of Our Father in heaven. Let us rejoice in knowing that His grace is fully and perfectly sufficient to overcome our weaknesses. Let us strive to live new lives that are not conflicted by the world.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your perfect plan and provision for us to overcome our sin natures. We praise the name of Jesus for sacrificing His life so that we can have victory over sin. We bless the name of the Holy Spirit who comes alongside us to guide us and strengthen us. We pray, Lord, that You will show us how to end our struggle to balance our lives. May the Holy Spirit assist us and give us the strength to walk away from the world and commit everything in our lives to Jesus Christ, Our Savior. We ask all these things in in the name of our strength and our provision, Jesus Christ.

Jesus Died to Work a Great Change in Us

Romans 5:10
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

God is holy, holy, holy. Sin cannot exist in His presence. To have any type of sin remaining means eternal separation from the Father in heaven. Thus, every person in heaven must be without sin. There cannot be even the slightest stain. Every person in heaven will be holy.

Jesus gave up His life for the atonement of all sin. He died to save us from the penalty of our sin. He died to work a great change in us. He died so that we might be acceptable in the presence of His Father in heaven.

The Good News of the Gospel is that God provided the way for our complete cleansing through the death of His Son, Jesus, on the Cross. It is the shed blood of Jesus that washes us clean and allows us to stand before the Father white as snow forever. Our Heavenly Father required nothing from us except to accept Jesus as Our Savior. Jesus did all that was required for us to stand before Almighty God. Everything that was required was finished on the Cross.

Let us give thanks to Our Redeemer King who gave up His life on earth so that we might have eternal life. Let us live in the fullness of the reconciliation that He provided for us with Our Heavenly Father. Let us seek the Holy Spirit to help us live worthy and holy lives here on earth as we prepare for our eternal holiness.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for allowing us to have eternal access to Your heavenly kingdom. We praise You. We love You. We bless Your name. We rejoice in knowing that we will worship You forever. We pray that the Holy Spirit will reveal to us everything in our lives that is displeasing to You. We ask for the grace to walk the perfect path of sanctification that You have set aside for us through the sacrifice of Your Son. May we live in the fullness of the One who gave His life for us. May we surrender daily to our Blessed Hope and Assurance, Jesus Christ.

Unshakeable Confidence in the Victory

Psalm 145:21
My mouth will speak the praise of the LORD, and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.

We are stirred up in our hearts to praise God. We praise Him because of His power and His glory. We praise Him for His holiness and His love expressed through the redemptive work of His Son, Jesus.

Our Lord, Jesus, is the fullness of the love and forgiveness that we have been so graciously provided by Our Father in Heaven. Let our every breath be filled for praise for the Father and the Son. May our lives be living testimonies of the Son of God who has come to dwell within us.

Let us praise God out of the faith that He has built in us through His Holy Spirit. Let us praise God with the love and delight that He has placed in our hearts. Let us praise God as we are comforted by His goodness, His grace and His holiness. Let us praise God with the joy of the expectation of life in His eternal kingdom. Let us praise God with the unshakeable confidence that the victory is ours through God’s greatest gift to us, His Son, Jesus. Let us bless the name of His Son forever. Let us praise God for He is worthy.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we exalt Your name above all others for You are worthy. We pray Father that You open our eyes so that we may see Your glory in the tiny things in life as well as the large things. We lift our voices up in high praise for Your precious Lamb, Jesus. We bless His name and proclaim His holiness and His righteousness. We give thanks for His presence in our lives. May our every breath praise Him as we come know just how dear He is to us. We ask all these things in the name of the One whose steadfast love never ceases, Jesus Christ.

Overcoming the Evil that Surrounds Us

Psalm 120:5
Woe to me, that I sojourn in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar!

It is believed that David did not actually travel to Mesech or Kedar, nor did he live among their people. Mesech was often mentioned with Tubal, Gog and Magog. The people of these lands were regarded as barbarians. The Kedarenes were a people who lived in tents, moving from land to land looking for new pastures. It is believed that David was using mention of these people to paint a picture of the types of his own people that he was living with. His intention was to highlight the danger of becoming engaged in a society that is known to be ignorant, idolatrous and barbaric.

David’s warning is one that we should pay attention to. We have to be especially attentive when we are being severely challenged by our circumstances. We must learn to guard against being both short sighted and wrong sighted. We must be extremely careful not to make our dwelling place in a lost world, looking toward that world for answers instead of seeking the favor of Our Lord. We must exert a level of supernatural attentiveness. If we do not, we will end up making many decisions in the darkness instead of in the light.

Why would we ever turn to the darkness of the world instead of the Light of the World, Jesus Christ? It is not because the knowledge of the fullness of living in the light is not known to us. It is because we are spending so much more time in the world than we are in the arms of Our Savior.

Let us turn away from all the darkness that the world is offering. Let us choose instead to run to Our Lord and seek the treasures of the eternal light that He is holding for us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing us with escape from the darkness that this world offers us. We rejoice in knowing that we have the favor of Our Savior, Jesus Christ. We cry out to You, Our Lord, for Your peace and Your holiness. We pray that You will strengthen us to overcome the evil that surrounds us. We ask that Your Holy Spirit guide us in setting aside time to spend with our blessed Savior. May we become vessels of light to the world around us as we surrender to the Light of the World. We ask all these things in the name of our refuge from the world, Jesus Christ.

Manifesting the Holiness of Christ in Our Lives

1 Peter 1:16
Since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

Holiness is the desire and duty of every Christian. Recognizing that sustained holiness is beyond our grasp because of our sin nature, we must be mindful that it is still remains our responsibility as followers of Jesus Christ to reflect His holiness in our lives. We must seek holiness in all of our endeavors under all circumstances. We should reflect our holiness as we engage with all people.

Of course, this level of holiness is not reachable through our own efforts. We must trust in the grace of God for His holiness to be reflected in our lives. We must turn to the Holy Spirit for strength so that we can manifest the holiness that God has given us through the presence of His Son in our lives.

We shall be holy. It is a promise from Our Savior. We just will not be absolutely holy at any time in our life on earth. Absolute holiness is the final product for the disciples of Jesus Christ. We will become absolutely holy when we go to meet Our Lord for all eternity.

Let us prepare ourselves to live in the fullness of the manifest holiness of the One who dwells within us. Let us strive to have the world see us as holy.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the atonement that You have provided through Your Son which allows us to be holy, as You are holy. We rejoice in knowing that we are in perfect union with You when we are abiding in Your Son. We ask, Father, that the Holy Spirit will help us to be on guard against the sins to which we are inclined. We pray that Your countenance shine upon us and Your grace be with us always so that we may turn away from evil and obey Your will in all areas of our lives. May the world see the holiness of Your Son in our lives. We ask all these things in the name of Your Holy One, Jesus Christ.

Carrying the Living Fount of Love

Luke 1:35
And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.

Just as the Blessed Virgin Mary had the Son of God placed in her womb when the Holy Spirit came upon her, the Son of God is placed within each of us by the power of the Holy Spirit when we receive Jesus as Our Savior. Just as Mary carried Jesus Christ alive in her body, we carry Jesus as a living fount of holiness, righteousness, loving kindness, mercy and forgiveness. All that He is and all the powers of the universe have been formed within us.

If we had any natural resource of such incredible value within us, would we ever allow our attentions to be diverted from this precious resource? Would we ever hesitate to share the fruits of our resource with the world around us? Would we ever put aside for even a moment the thought of the magnificent power that we held?

Let us not overlook the power that dwells within us. Let us recognize and proclaim Christ Jesus. Let us strive to have His nature within us be as real and as fruitful as the seed received by the Virgin Mary.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for sending Your Son to be the fruit of the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We bless the name of Jesus as we rejoice in His presence within us. We pray, Father, that we will never set Jesus aside. We ask that the Holy Spirit aid us in allowing Jesus to pour His life into ours every single moment that we live and breath. May we clamor for His attention. May our holy communion with Our Savior lead others to be drawn to Him. We ask all these things in the name of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

Heirs to the Kingdom of God

Matthew 5:20
For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

No man can make himself pure enough to enter heaven by obeying the laws. The Pharisees created laws upon laws that were supposedly put in place to prepare them for their way to heaven. Jesus put to rest the folly in their thinking. Jesus taught that there was no possibility for anyone to enter heaven without accepting Him as Savior.

It is also revealed to us in the Holy Word that no one can stand before the eternal light and consummate holiness of Almighty God with the slightest taint of sin. Thus there is the need for us to accept Our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is He, and He alone, that washes us clean of our sin. It is His shed blood that makes us worthy to stand before the Most Holy, Almighty God of the Universe. It is the Son of God that secures our eternal destination in heaven.

As babes in Christ, we joyfully celebrate our eternal gift as heirs to the kingdom of God. But our joy is quickly challenged when we realize that we must still deal with the sin nature within us. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, we become cognizant of how wretched we are in our carnal nature. We also come to the place we recognize that we are incapable of overcoming our wretchedness on our own. But we must not let this steal our joy. In fact, we should experience an even greater joy as the Holy Spirit teaches us just how essential our decision was to accept Jesus Christ as Our Savior.

Let us not lose our joy as we struggle with our carnal nature. Let us remain in the joy that we experienced as new babes in Christ. Let us rejoice in knowing that we will stand before Almighty God with the assurance in Christ that the Father in heaven will only see our holiness.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for making it possible for us to stand in Your presence one day. We praise You for making The Word flesh so that we could be inheritors of the only bloodline without sin. We rejoice in knowing that one day our holiness will be complete as we shed our earthly bodies and take on the pure, supernatural bodies that You have set aside for us. We pray, Lord, that the Holy Spirit guide us and strengthen us as we learn to shed the corruption of our flesh here on earth in preparation for the time that we go to our full glory with You in heaven. We ask all these things in the name of the Son of the Most High God, Jesus Christ.

The Power of the Holy Spirit in Our Lives

1 Corinthians 1:30
God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin.

Without Jesus Christ in our lives, we are depraved and corrupt. With the regenerating grace of God through His Son, Jesus, we are benefactors of the redemptive process. We are freed from sin and made pure and holy in the eyes of Almighty God. Through this salvation process, we receive all the fullness of the treasures of heaven so that we are fit for the service to which we have been eternally called.

Are we willing for God to make holiness as real in us as it is in His Son, Jesus? The sanctification process begins at the instant that we humbly receive Jesus Christ as Our Redeemer. The sanctification process flourishes as we deny ourselves and rely entirely on Jesus to release His holiness in our lives. The sanctification process is a continuous journey until the day we stand before the Lord in the fullness of our completed holiness.

Sanctification is impossible in our flesh alone. It is only possible with the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit in full operation in our lives. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we access all the perfection and holiness that is Jesus Christ. As long as we remain surrendered to Our Savior and seek the ongoing work of His Holy Spirit in our lives, we will live a life of holiness on this earth. It will not be uninterrupted holiness like we will experience in our glorified bodies, but it will be steady and it will be pleasing to the One who is calling us to our eternal place of glory.

Let us strive to be holy as Our Savior is holy. Let us learn to rely entirely on the indwelling Holy Spirit as we battle our tormenting flesh and the attacks of the enemy. Let us show the world around us our freedom from sin that they may be drawn to Our Redeemer.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for taking us from the corruption of our old man into a condition of holiness in our new man in Christ. We worship You and bless Your name from the fount of holiness that Our Savior has created within us. We pray that we will receive the grace that we need to remain steadfast on our journey of sanctification. We seek to have our journey become a living testimony to those who you have placed in our lives. We pray for the wisdom and the courage to share our sanctification story with the flock that you have given us. We ask all these things in the name of the Holy One of God, Jesus Christ.

Standing with Jesus Christ

Isaiah 35:8
And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it.

Each day’s news and headlines confirm that from a spiritual perspective the earth is a den of iniquity, a vast barren desert. It is a rare case indeed when holiness can be found in the news. Looking forward, the content of the news is not likely to improve but to get worse and more hopeless. The social and political systems of mankind are offering nothing that will change things. As time moves forward, the barren desert is converting to a total wasteland through the ongoing deterioration of the morals of mankind.

There is a way of escape, however. There is a pathway that offers hope for anyone and everyone who takes it. The way out of the barren desert is through Jesus Christ, Our Redeemer. He is the way, the truth and the life. Because Jesus took His place on the Cross as part of the Father’s will for His life, we as the redeemed children of God can stand up and find victory in the most difficult of circumstances.

Although our flesh will fight us, by the Word and Spirit of Christ, we that are spiritually blinded by the world can be enlightened. We that are spiritually deaf to the calls of God can be made to hear them readily. We that are struggling in service can be made active and joyfully productive. We that find it difficult to speak of God or to God can have our lips opened to bring forth His praise. We that find it hard to love one another can have our hearts filled with the perfect, loving forgiveness of Our Father in heaven. Most importantly, we that stand alone against the world can find victory in all things of this earth, no matter how trying, if we all stand together in Jesus Christ.

Let us seek the way of holiness that is found in Jesus Christ. Let us learn to live in the light of Christ even though the world around us lives in darkness. Let us become beacons of His light.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing the way, the truth and the life that is in Jesus Christ. We thank You for loving us first, so that we may love You and abide in Your will for our lives. We pray that You enlighten us and strengthen us so that we may see and follow the way that You have set aside for us as individuals and as a worldwide community. May Your grace be upon us so that we may be living founts of Your love and holiness to be shared with the world around us. May the world be changed as we all stand together united with Our Savior. We ask all these things in the name of Our Refuge from the Storm, Jesus Christ.

Completely Exposed and Convicted by the Holy Spirit

Isaiah 6:5
And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

When we go into the presence of God, anything that is not pleasing to Him will come to mind. We cannot get by with a general sense of sinfulness. The Holy Spirit will not rest until we have been convicted of all of our sin, down to smallest transgression.

When Isaiah came upon the vision of the Lord and saw His holiness, Isaiah immediately proclaimed that he was a man of unclean lips. Isaiah knew that he would not be able to serve the Lord without cleansing himself from the sin that he had been shown.

God will work the same way with each of us. Through His Holy Spirit, He will convict us of every single point of iniquity in our lives. Then He will lead us to deeper revelation of the things in our lives that are simply displeasing to Him. The process will continue until we are properly prepared to serve Him.

Let us make time to sit in the presence of Almighty God. Let us surrender to His light so that our darkness will be revealed. Let us repent of the darkness in our lives and choose to walk in the light.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the restlessness that the Holy Spirit brings upon us when we are walking in darkness. We thank You for the absolute focus that You put on our sins, making it impossible for us to take on a vague sense of the sinfulness in our lives. We pray the Holy Spirit will bring our every iniquity into the light so that we may repent and move forward in obedience to Your calling on our lives. We ask all these things in the name of the Perfecter of Our Faith, Jesus Christ.