God wants you to be holy. He is holy and He made you in His image. He knew all along you couldn’t do it on your own. He sent His Son Jesus to pay the price of your sin. If you accept Christ as your Savior, then God has also sent His Holy Spirit to help you live a holy life.
“but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:15-16 NKJV).
Several years ago, I preached a message called “Be Holy.” At that time when I was preaching, I would seek out the best commentary that we can hope to learn from, the Holy Spirit. How much we need to believe Jesus when He told us the Holy Spirit will teach us.
Jesus promised us, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (John 14:26 NKJV).
Soon after this a dear friend was asking me about the subject of holiness. I condensed my original message down and emailed it to her. Below is the first page of several from this condensed version. I pray it would be a blessing to you.
We think if we will obey Him then He will love us. But Jesus loves us as we are. Obedience is the result of us loving Him, not the cause of Him loving us.
You don’t think you can. You’re right.
You think there’s no way. You’re wrong.
You cannot on your natural power accomplish anything supernatural.
The Lord Jesus told us, “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48 NKJV). If Jesus said to do it, He meant it. He always means what He says.
Darkness has no defense against light. The biggest darkness falls helpless before the smallest light. No matter the depth of your darkness, nor the duration, it takes but a single spark to change everything.
You can be holy. You can be set free from anything that makes you unholy. Every fiber in your flesh will tell you otherwise. Don’t listen to your flesh.
Know only He can do in you what you can never do.
When you reach the end of yourself, your inability to keep the law, you find Christ. The end of you is the beginning of Christ in you. You cannot earn righteousness, only receive His.
You need help to overcome. Self-control is a gift of the Holy Spirit because only the Holy Spirit can set you free from you.
The secret is that this does not happen by your strength, but by falling to your knees in surrender.
You cannot have a victory without a surrender.
Stop telling the Holy Spirit that He can’t change you, and start letting Him change you. Or just admit you really don’t want to.
Believe the words of Christ. He said you can do, so do. He did not come just to save you in your weakness, but to be the power in your weakness. Jesus said, “…you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…” (Acts 1:8).
Stop acting Christian and start living Christian. Don’t be people “…having a form of godliness but denying its power…” (2 Timothy 3:5).
“Do not quench the Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:19). You are not limited by what you can do, rather by what you allow Him to do through you. Believe like a believer.
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit inside you; I will take the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit inside you and cause you to live by my laws, respect my rulings and obey them” (Ezekiel 36:26-27 CJB). He causes you. New heart, the second heart, His heart in you, His desires in you.
The world’s idea of holiness is to do good and not to do bad. God’s holiness is so much higher! It is not what we do, but what we desire that determines our holiness. Wrong desires are merely indoor sins. Hidden cancer still destroys the body.
“Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). This is not about getting natural things. He will give you His desires into your heart. The gift is the desires of God Himself. When you want what He wants, then you desire rightly.
Surrendering is the path to victory.
You are not under an authority until you relinquish control. God is not over you until you are under Him.
His Word is only theoretical to you until you actually live it.
Many teach on grace apart from holiness, because they think grace replaces holiness. Grace does not replace holiness, but opens the way for you to become holy.
The Law does not save us from sin, but reveals sin.
You can’t study yourself to holiness because it is not learned but received.
Jesus did not just come to save you from your sin, but to give you power to overcome your sin.
You are called to be overcomers.
His blood saves you, covers you.
And that’s the end of the first part.
Blessings to you,
Paul Balius
One thought on “Be Holy”