The Power of Holiness

A Holy People, Holy Bride

The people are chosen to become not a good people, but a holy people. There is a link between holiness and spiritual power. In some of the biggest revival movements of God holiness was one of the central themes of the movement.

Watchman Nee wrote: "Do you realize that we have the same life today that God has? It is for this reason that we can live a life of holiness, for it not our own life that has been changed, but the life of God that has been imparted to us."

Jesus told us in Matthew 11:28,

Our problem is that we want to be holy under our own power, it won't work, it's hard. For us to be more like Jesus, we must take upon His nature and that means as we decrease, He increases. The more that we deny ourselves, the more that Jesus is exalted. Simple enough, Kindergarten theology. True holiness that exhibits revival power can be very elusive however.

It is true that we must seek righteousness to be holy. That does not mean that we do it on our own, it means that we have made the decision to follow Christ and are willing to take upon His holy nature. This is the first step of faith but it does not mean that we go to a preacher that says, recite after me, and then leave the church thinking that our decision for Christ is enough. To put on Jesus takes more than faith; faith is just the beginning, it must produce love in action. We deny ourselves and that means turning from our former way of thinking and begin thinking like Jesus. We love each other. We do things differently that we used to. Our priorities have changed. Instead of ourselves being the center of the universe, we become God-centric.

For those of you already making progress in this area, it is real hard to tell you to put away what you love for the sake of obedience. The Lord is real in your life, He obviously deals with you in letting you know He is there and you have a heart for Him. Trust Him to lead you in the right direction. I also sin, I am need of repentance. So the message is to repent but it does not have to come from me, all you need is to read your Bible and know that this is the message for all of us. I need to repent, I needed to do it today. Yesterday too, but I waited until today to do it, that's not right, is it. One way that the Lord convicts me of sin is when I pray. My need for repentance must be dealt with or I cannot go on.

I share my example in the hopes that it helps you with yours. If there are problem areas in our lives and we recognize them and the Lord speaks to you, put away the sins that so easily beset us and get closer to the Lord. It may be step by step or all at once but make those conscious decisions to step out in faith and try to know God's will for you. Each step back makes the next step back that much easier. If you would like to have a real anointing on your life, it must be from a position of holiness and the knowledge that you cannot do it on your own and need God's help. It is this knowledge that has called many lives into spiritually anointed ministries.

As long as you allow yourself to be drawn away from holiness and toward your own lusts, it can be hard. The more that we allow Jesus to take control of our lives, the easier it becomes. This is maturity.

Positional holiness is our position in Christ as part of the body; practical holiness is in living out that position to stay holy or holiness put in practice.