To receive the uncommon favour that God has promised this year, you must position yourself for it. Here is the truth: The greatest “uncommon favour” is ‘Heaven at last.’ But to make heaven, you must walk in holiness on this earth, because holiness qualifies you for Heaven. So today we want to look at this major requirement for Heaven - “HOLINESS?”
In your day-to-day dealings, you are to seek peace with all people, but not at the expense of holiness.
Concerning peace with all people God said: “If it is possible, as much as it depends on you, live peaceably with all men (people)” (Rom. 12:18, NKJV).
There are times when all efforts toward peace fail. However, the Christian is to make sure that he is not the one at fault when peace breaks down.
Look at what God said to Abram: When Abram was ninety nine years old, the LORD appeared to him, and said unto him, “I am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be thou perfect” (Gen. 17:1).
What is the meaning of the word “perfect?” That word “perfect” means “holy.”
There are two types of holiness: (1) Fake or false holiness, and (2) True holiness. Ephesians 4:24 says, “And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and TRUE holiness.”
The fact that there is true holiness implies that there is also false holiness.
What is fake holiness? Fake holiness is dressing and talking like a Christian, but behaving like the devil. You dress and talk like a Christian but you do things that contradict the Word of God (Gal. 5:19-21). Jesus told us how we can recognize fake holiness (Matt. 7:20-22).
What then is true holiness? 1. True holiness, according to Oxford dictionary, is being spiritually perfect or pure, unstained by sin.
2. True holiness means being undefiled (Ps. 119:1). It means that nothing has corrupted your life or record since you got Born Again.
3. True holiness is being totally free from spots, wrinkles or blemishes (Eph. 5:26-27).
4. True Holiness means a total absence of sin in your life. In Ecclesiastes 9:8 God said, “Let thy garments be always white…”
5. The state of having clean hands and a pure heart. Who shall enter Heaven and see God? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart (Ps. 24:3-4).
When you are talking about true holiness, you are looking at the condition of the heart. God desires a pure heart.
“Man looketh at the outward appearance but God looketh at the heart” (1 Sam 16:17).
In Jeremiah 17:9-10 God said, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? 10 I the Lord search the heart, I try (test) the reins (mind), even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.”
2 Chronicles 16:9 says, “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him….”
6. True Holiness means a state of blamelessness. “That ye may be blameless (innocent, without fault) and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world…” (Phil. 2:15-16).
7. True Holiness means Godliness. “Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness” (Tit. 1:1).
What is Godliness? Godliness is saying no to everything that is contrary to the Word of God.
8. True holiness means purity. Purity means that there is no bitterness, no lust, no anger, no malice, no pride, no deception, no sin in your heart. Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8).
9. True holiness means Honesty. You are transparently honest in all that you do. What does it mean to be honest? To be honest means that you are not disposed to cheating or defrauding; not deceptive or fraudulent. God demands that you provide for honesty in all that you do (2 Cor. 8:20-22).
Question? Brother, sister, you have built a mansion and you are driving a Jeep; how did you achieve that when your monthly salary is 20,000 Naira?
10. True holiness means truthfulness. God desires the truth in your inward parts (Ps. 51:6).
11. True holiness means perfection. “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:48).
12. Realize that it is God the Father that makes you holy (Lev. 21:8). All who believe in Jesus Christ are made holy.
How does God the Father make us holy? He makes us holy by teaching us His truth. In John 17:17 Jesus prayed saying, “Make them pure and holy by teaching them Your Words of truth” (NLT). “Now ye are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you” (Jn. 15:3).
Here is the truth: At the point of the New Birth, God the Father makes you holy by forgiving you all your sins, washing them away with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, and giving you His Holy Spirit to dwell in your spirit-man. The Holy Spirit in your spirit-man is therefore, the One that imparts holiness to your spirit man. At this moment, God the Father sees you as though you had never ever sinned.
But while He sees you as holy, you should realize that you have not perfected holiness yet. Every Christian is therefore, expected to maintain that holiness by working out his/her salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12). You are therefore, expected to still strive each day to be more like Jesus – totally holy by saying no to sin.
“Christ is the one who made us acceptable to God (the Father). He made us pure and holy” (1 Cor. 1:30, NLT).
13. The very moment you got saved, God the Father brought you into a state of holiness not by what you did, but by what Jesus did for us, cleansing you from sin through His forgiveness. “According as God the Father hath chosen us in Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love” (Eph. 1:4)
14. True holiness can be explained this way: When one becomes Born Again, he is made righteous and holy by God the Father Himself. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For God the Father made Jesus Christ Who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (in Christ).”
What really happens? When you become Born-Again, God the Father clothes you gorgeously with a sparkling white robe of righteousness, a robe not stained, spotted or wrinkled in anyway. Job 29:14 says, “I put on righteousness; it clothed me.”
Whenever that garment of righteousness is without spot or wrinkle, you are said to “be holy.” Therefore, a holy person is one whose garment of righteousness has no spot, stain, wrinkle, or blemish.
Every Born Again believer is expected to perfect holiness in his life. “…let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of (1) the flesh and (2) spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1).
What does it mean to perfect holiness? Perfecting holiness (or the maintenance of holiness) is the result of doing righteousness.
“…He who practices righteousness [does things God’s way] is righteous, just as He is righteous (1 Jn. 3:7).
How can you ensure that your garment of righteousness remains unspotted? You can maintain your garment of righteousness by doing things according to the Word of God. This is the doing of righteousness.
Conclusion: Every aspect of your life will come alive as you position yourself for God’s favour by walking in holiness.
Watch out for the next edition of Good News from the Pulpit!
Your friend: I. I. MADUBUNYI (Senior Pastor) 14.02.2021
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