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A Cry For Holiness

By Bobbie Jean Merck    

            On October 13, 2006 I was seeking the Lord through prayer, the Word, and His presence.  Suddenly, I knew the presence of the Lord had entered the room and I began to weep.  It was as if I entered into His very heart and I knew He was crying out for manifested holiness in and among His people.

            The Holy Spirit of intercession was like volcanoes of fire erupting from my spirit.  God allowed me to experience the grief that He was suffering.  Also, to “stand in the gap” for His Church.

            I was in Snyder, Texas.  God’s work of power and glory prevailed that weekend.  In particular, testimonies of His miracles and healings and deliverances and eternal-life-changes continue to be told and great is the rejoicing.  No one had asked for these which followed on the Saturday night.   But the tremendous velocity of His wind blew the work of the enemy out and away from many people.  We had experienced the sovereign work of the Sovereign God.  We had a glimpse of His holiness and His glory.

            After much intercession that Friday I began to hear His message.   Oh! we want the glory and we cry out for His glory.  But God said, “Cry out for holiness first and for glory second.”  Glory will be present and prevail when holiness is manifested in and among His people.  He is indeed issuing a clarion, authoritative call to holy living to His people as the New Living Translation states in First Peter 1:13-16.

            “So think clearly and exercise self-control. Look forward to the special blessings that will come to you at the return of Jesus Christ. Obey God because you are his children. Don't slip back into your old ways of doing evil; you didn't know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God — who chose you to be his children — is holy. For he himself has said, ‘You must be holy because I am holy.’”

            How shall we live holy lives?  By the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is Qadesh-Ruach (Hebrew) which being interpreted is the Spirit of the Holy.  Therefore, the number one work of the Holy Spirit is the work of producing HOLINESS in the life of the born again Christian believer.

            No, we cannot and will not be holy apart from the Holy Spirit.  We were made holy by the Holy Spirit the instant we became a new creation in Christ Jesus.  And we will live holy lives only by the strength and the power of the Holy Spirit.  It is the spirit man, an inner life, within us that is mighty with the effectual working of the Holy Spirit.  The Old Testament reveals that external law is powerless and fruitless.

            “I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit” (Ephesians 3:16 NLT).

            Ephesians 3:16 was a vital part of Paul’s earnest prayers for the glorious Church at Ephesus.  Holiness is a work within by the Holy Spirit and we have to work His inward working out and into our soul and body and holy living.  Holiness is the result of being holy. 

Jesus Christ sent the Holy Spirit to be in us so our growth would be from within.  Do you understand?  The teaching of the Holy Spirit begins not in word or thought but in power — in the power of LIFE working secretly in us.  The Holy Spirit always acts as a life-giving principle.  When we receive His Words into us, they work the Truth into experience.  It is through the Word the Holy Spirit manifests His quickening power.

God is holy!  Charles H. Spurgeon in The Treasury of David says: “his name is holy, his character is holy, his law is holy, his government is holy, his influence is holy.”  Therefore, “Glory ye in his holy name…” (Psalms 105:3).

            The Greek word for our being holy is hagios.  Hagios defined is holy, set apart, sanctified, and consecrated.  It has a common root, hag with hagnos, chaste, pure.  Its fundamental ideas are separation, consecration, devotion to God, and sharing in God’s purity, and abstaining from earth’s defilements. (Excerpts taken from Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible, Spiros Zodhiates.)

            God’s cry and our cry for holiness, holy living, is accomplished by the Holy Spirit.  “‘Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts’” (Zechariah 4:6).  It is not our might or power, but we are to “… Be strong with the Lord’s mighty power” (Ephesians 6:10 NLT).  Someone said many years ago, “For the days are upon us when nothing will avail to break through the overwhelming power of the enemy except supernatural power.”

            The word of the Lord that was (and is) foremost in my thoughts were (and are), “Lord, who is sufficient for these things” (meaning ministry, the glory, holy living, etc.).  The answer: only the Spirit of God within us. Second Corinthians 3:5,6.

            Jesus Christ brings us to God and then God Himself gives us the new nature in such power of the Holy Spirit that He, God, works in us both to will and to do.  “For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him. In everything you do, stay away from complaining and arguing” (Philippians 2:13,14 NLT).

            Obedience is the heart of the way that we enter and remain in the Holiness of Holinesses which means God’s very presence.   You obey God and His Word and His will when you fear the Lord.  When you fear the Lord you will have wisdom which makes you wise and because you are wise you will understand how to apply the knowledge that you have to every circumstance of your life.  What is needed?  The fear of the Lord.

            “Fear of the LORD teaches a person to be wise; humility precedes honor” (Proverbs 15:33 NLT).

            But!  Without fear of the Lord, weakness of the flesh nature rules as Proverbs 16:6 warns us.   “Unfailing love and faithfulness cover sin; evil is avoided by fear of the LORD.” (NLT)

Can we remember to daily ask, “How can I or what can I do today that will glorify the Lord Jesus Christ?”  After all, the Holy Spirit lives within and among us to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ (John 16:14).

            Paul knew if First Corinthians 3:16 and 6:19, 20 were given the place God meant it to have, it would be the motive and the power to live a new and holy life.  “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?  What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?   For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's” (First Corinthians 3:16, 6:19,20).

            Meditate on this:

                        Jesus needed the Holy Spirit

                        Jesus was prepared for the Holy Spirit

                        Jesus yielded to the Holy Spirit

                        Jesus lived in the Holy Spirit

                        Jesus walked in the Holy Spirit

                        Jesus died, strong in the Holy Spirit

                        Jesus resurrected by the Holy Spirit

                        Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father-God by the Holy Spirit.

            How much more do we need the Holy Spirit!

            “Do not stifle the Holy Spirit” (First Thessalonians 5:19 NLT).

The Holy Spirit dwells and works in us the life and power of the glory in which Jesus Christ now dwells!!!  You will be amazed to find afresh and anew how often holiness and the glory are stated together in the Bible. 

            Remember: “It is God who saved us and chose us to live a holy life. He did this not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan long before the world began — to show his love and kindness to us through Christ Jesus” (Second Timothy 1:9 NLT).

            Let our prayer for one another be, “Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until that day when our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.  God, who calls you, is faithful; he will do this” (First Thessalonians 5:23,24 NLT).  Amen.

            John’s exhortation in First John 5:21 (NLT) is the way!  “Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God's place in your hearts.”

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