Aug
16
The other day at lunch several of us were talking about church, God, etc… and ourwishing for more – for something that did not exist in our lives the way we want it to. The stuff I have been blogging about the last couple of days.We want God – the Holy Spirit to be very apparent in our lives and as such letting us minister to others. One of the keys mentioned that we need is personal holiness. Just writing it down – it sounds so Religious. Well, either way, I was trying to decide if that is something we really need and exactly how that would work.
Obviously we need at least a lttle of this. It is pretty clear that we can’t just go around doing anything we want and still expect to be blessed by God. On the other hand, doing our absolute best to not do anything we think God would not approve of sounds more like a religious exercise than spiritual holiness.
Notice that I just changed the term from personal holiness to spiritual holiness. Trying to achieve personal holiness on our own is very religious and not spiritual at all. It is akin to trying to work your way into heaven by being good – some people may be impressed, but God is not fooled at all. So it would seem that we can’t do it all by ourself – then God is going to have to help us if this is going to work.
Well, if we need “personal” or spiritual holiness to be able to have the Holy Spirit active in our lives – but, we need the Holy Spirit to be able to achieve this holiness then we have hit a condition that is impossible to get to if only the spirit is involved.
And this is where I have a little issue with some current Christian teaching. There seems to be a train of thought that says basically; to paraphrase – sit down, shut up and let God. The teaching sometimes goes beyond “I can’t do it on my own” to “I can’t do it at all – God will have to.” While I am on this rabbit trail there seem to be a lot of P&W songs saying something along the lines of “I can’t do anything without You” Sure you can – God made us perfectly capable of doing many things on our own – so far I seem to have breathing, walking, eating, sleeping and several other things down that I can handle myself. How would you feel as a parent if your kids kept insisting that there was nothing they could not do without parental help – you would definitely wonder where tou went wrong. God wants us to look to Him for help when needed and where we can’t take care of it ourselves.
To get back to where I was – though we can’t achieve spiritual holiness on our own, we do have to be involved in the process. The Holy Spirit won’t make us do anything we don’t want to do, it will show us what changes need to be made and help us to make them.
Sin can’t live where the Spirit of God lives. Most people know about how the High Priest how to be ceromonially cleansed of sin before he could come into the Holy of Holies and if he failed to do so he could be instantly struck dead. On the other hand, when the Babylonians carried the Jews into captivity they freely entered all temple areas and carried off the temple vessels without any harm coming to them. The difference is that the High Priest was actually coming into the presence of God and by the time the Babylonians came – God’s presence was not there anymore.
Likewise, when we allow the Holy Spirit to come into our lives, he will show us what needs cleansing and help in the cleansing. The more that we allow the Spirit in, the less sin will be tolerated. Sins we may have once enjoyed will be cleansed and looked on with disgust as we achieve more and more spiritual holiness.
We need spiritual holiness, but we can’t wait for it to have the Holy Spirit active. We will get it when we fill ourselves with the Spirit because we and the Spirit won’t allow anything less. And when we fill, there is more there to overflow in ministry to others.
Steve
Many years ago I had been out with a friend. It was late when I took her home and I noticed that I was almost out of gas. Like I said, it was late and I didn't want to stop, so I asked God to get me home. I was about a mile or less from my house when the car started jerking. I "happened" to be right in front of a store (closed), but was able to pull in the parking lot, right up to the phone, and the car died. I went to the phone to call my mother and put a dime (a dime!…that tells you how long ago that was) and the phone wouldn't take it. I called the operator and explained my situation and she put my call through to my mother.While I was waiting on her I was in the car and in a great mood. I was talking to God and just rattling on, when He gently interrupted me. This was not audible, but it might as well have been because it was so clear.He said, "Sherri." I said, "yes?" He said, "You had a $10 dollar bill in your pocketbook, you should have stopped and gotten gas. If you hadn't had any money I would have gotten you home on less than what you had. Now, you do what you can on your own, and I will take care of the rest."Needless to say I was blown away. My mother picked me up and we went to get some gas. I wound up paying no more than I would have if I had just stopped on the way home. The phone wouldn't even take my dime. That is a night I will never forget.
What a great story Sherri, and such a good example of how we can't just sit back and wait for God to do it all. We ARE tools, and HAVE tools for a reason, having usefulness and purposes of our own. God will back up and guide us, but we are all to do our part and be busy about working for the kingdom.
you should start tagging us in these notes so we'll know when you post 'em!:D don't have time to read this now, I will later.