Are you dead (Part Three)

In the previous message we started looking at what is it in us that should die?

The next thing that should die is our pride. If we look carefully at our lives we will find a lot of pride. Maybe you will see what I am getting at by answering the following questions.

·         Do you get agitated when someone underestimates your ability, understanding, intelligence etc?

·         Do you get envious of someone whose gift appears to be better than yours?

·         Do you get jealous when people appear to adore or enjoy someone else's ministry gifting or style?

·         Do you jealously hold onto the power that you have obtained over time?

·         When your faults or errors are pointed out, do you retaliate - even if only in your heart and thoughts?

·         Are you acting in self defence when you feel threatened regarding your power, popularity or position of influence?

·         How dependent are you on the Lord? Do you consult Him in everything you do, because if we don’t, we tell the Lord in essence we can do it ourselves and don't need Him - pride?

·         Do you try to control – even the works of the Spirit?

·         When you pray publicly or minister, do you catch yourself thinking whether you impress God or listeners?

I think you get the gist of what I am saying. “The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted,” (Matthew 23:11-12). I think the reason why we do not see the kind of power that Jesus and the apostles used to see is because pride stands in the way. Most of us want to be seen. When a move of God happens somewhere else, we often want it as well. Why would that be? What is the motive behind our desire?

Jesus' focus was completely on His Father (John 8:27-29) and the disciples' focus similarly on Jesus via the Holy Spirit (John 15:5). We say all the right stuff, but what do we think? Are you like the apostles who gave their lives for the Kingdom's sake, or are you like Ananias and Sapphira who lost their lives lying to the Holy Spirit in order to impress others to maintain their pride.

Jesus humiliated Himself to the lowest possible level and the result was that He was exalted to the highest possible level. Even in this high position He still humbles Himself by pleading on our behalf before the Father.

How low are you prepared to go or is pride standing in the way? Do you think if pride stood in their way the apostles would have been so recklessly obedient. Paul used to be a man of stature (Acts 23:6), yet he did not think twice to obey to the point of a life as described in 2 Corinthians 11:22-29. How do you think a man of his position felt about being flogged, thrown into jail, and chased out of town by hooligans? If you were in his position, would your pride not have retaliated?

Take Jesus - how many times do we see Him defending Himself? Who was He and where did He come from? If He had any pride, how would He have reacted to the way He was treated? If you were in His shoes, how would you have dealt with it?

And Peter? He had a good deal of pride that Jesus had to deal with, but when the Holy Spirit took over it all changed. Maybe this is the secret. Who controls us - our pride or the Holy Spirit?

If pride is altogether dead and we have no self centred motives left, we are about ready to move in the same power Jesus did. Miracles and healings are not the only manifestations of power - any evidence of God's power backing His servants is a manifestation of the humble being exalted. I am thinking of teaching, serving and witnessing that result in salvation and faith.

The letter kills, but the Spirit brings life (2 Corinthians 3:4-6). A word uttered or a deed done in pride is void of power, even though it is from the Word of God, whereas the latter done in humility in the Spirit works change.

Just after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Acts, Peter simply witnessed without signs and miracles and well researched words and 3000 got saved in an instant. What happened? After the recent events and his experience with the Lord Jesus Peter was humble enough to have the right motive for his actions – the will of God. With him out of the way the Holy Spirit had the stage to show God off. They same happened throughout the book of Acts with all the believers.

Who do you show off? Remember there is no point in only answering with words. What is in your heart?

Lord, please reveal my pride so I can humble myself completely.

Are you dead? (Part Two)

In order to understand the phrases dying to your carnal self and hating your life, we need to define them. You hate your life when you hate the fact that the busyness of your current life and the demands of your selfish nature stands in your way to obey the Lord’s every command and be as fruitful as possible. Dying to self is to do something about it and remove these from your life so you have more to give to the Lord.

What is it in us that need to die?

Our life needs to die. “What do you mean my life? What am I worth dead?” you may ask. If you live YOUR life, you live it as you like for yourself. You make decisions according to your desires, your passions, your lusts, your comfort and securities. This is what needs to die. So what does such a life look like? In looking at it we assume you are a Christian and could build your life around any of the following:

a.    You have a comfortable (in many cases a very luxurious) home, an impressive career, a number of pleasurable activities, inclusive of the cars you drive, the sports you play and the social life you live. Christianity is an essential status you had to acquire and you make sure that your giving and your presence at church circles are not passed unnoticed.

b.    For some who were not so fortunate in life to have the opportunity to acquire loads of money, the basis of their Christianity is actually very similar than described above. The way around the lack of money is being one-eyed king in the land of the blind. You make sure you impress those around you with a lifestyle and a presence that are just a little more impressive that those of others. Quite often power, such as in serving in many committees, forms part of the package.

c.    For a third type of Christian comfort is the name of the game. You do your Christian duty by paying your tithe and sooth your conscience by attending church regularly, attending home cell and so on. You just do not want to be asked to be involved in any more, since it may interfere with your sports idolatry or social life.

d.   Some Christians are ambitious and climb the ladder of success in sport and career, tagging Christianity along because they really would not like to wind up in hell.

The Lord Jesus said in Mathew 7:21-23 under the chapter heading “True and False Disciples”, that many will tell Him they have done all these wonderful things in His name and for Him, but He told them He does not know them. Why is this? It is actually quite simple – those who do not die to themselves and hate their own lives, only tag Christianity along with their self-centred lives, which they love more than the author of this Christianity. They never go to the trouble getting to know Jesus through studying His Word and obeying what He tells them to do and therefore, when they approach Him on the day of judgement, He seriously cannot recall that He ever met them, because they never had a relationship with Him.

How much do you know about the Lord? Do you know which of your actions He likes and dislikes? Do you know what His exact will for your life is and what He wants you to do to get there? What is it that stands in your way to get to know Him better and find out what He desires for you?

In human relationships, such as with your spouse, partner or boss, you know what to pursue with the person involved in the relationship and what to avoid. As you get to know your boss, you know what not to do and what to do to avoid his displeasure. The same applies to your spouse.

Why would it be different with the Lord of hosts? If the Lord Jesus and the angels had to step lightly to stay in favour with Father God, why would it be different for us? A general lie that is preached these days is that the Lord’s love is unconditional? If it had been so, why did He deal so severely with certain people, including those of the New Testament? Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11) come to mind. Why did He not just give them a fair chance to come to their senses and repent? If He loved them unconditionally, why did He act so severely?

God seeks holiness and obedience? He probably made an example of Ananias and Sapphira as a message to the Christians in the ages to come. If He had to act so severely with all Christians lying to the Holy Spirit, many more would have died. Maybe this is the reason why certain Christians died prematurely. Only God knows, but since the passage about Ananias and Sapphira concludes with these words; “Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events”, should we not fear God enough not to act like them.

As I studied the book of Acts and came to the account of Ananias and Sapphira, I felt the Lord said to me the church is polluted with Ananiases and Sapphiras. How often have you deceived people with your spiritual motives, creating an untrue impression of yourself or what you do in order to impress those who matter? God is not to be fooled around with. He may be merciful right now, but there are lots of evidence in the Bible that we will answer one day for our actions and motives. Can the Lord say of you as He said of Job: “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?” (Job 2:3)

Lord, you need me to be wholly available to help in the harvest. Help me to hate and die to those things in my life that keeps me from getting there.

To be continued.

Are you dead?

“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

“⁵For if we have been united with Him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with Him in a resurrection like His. For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

“⁸Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over Him. The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God.

“In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace,” (Romans 6:1-14).

Have you ever struggled with the things you do that you do not want to do as Paul mentioned in Romans 7:14-24? How many times have you decided not to criticise, or not to retaliate, or not to defend yourself, or not to be nasty with your body language, or not to return to your pet sin or idol? Maybe you have decided to live more for Jesus and less for your material desires, but struggle to sacrifice your time for the sake of those that need you because you cling to your comfortable lifestyle.

The problem is that we set up our lives to be in control and therefore, however hard we try to live without sin, including the sin of making our own decisions, we do not succeed. I have desired to live outright for the Lord - under His control and in obedience - for a long time now, and since I have set out in the attempt to master it, I have received real understanding of where Paul was at as recorded in Romans 7:14-24. It is especially difficult to control the feelings, thoughts and the tongue toward those with whom I have relationship challenges and in relationships where pride tends to rise.

Since I am in serious pursuit of holiness and to be right with God, I fasted and prayed about this and the Lord said to me: “You’re not dead.” Suddenly it struck me – a dead man cannot retaliate, be proud, be critical, be full of material lusts or be selfish. A dead man can be slapped, kicked, criticised, be shouted at, and so on, but he will not respond. If I am dead in myself, but alive in Christ, I look at myself from inside of Christ and tell my flesh: ‘I am alive and will act like Christ would, but you are dead’. I then asked the Lord how do I die to sin and self.

“Ask me to teach you,” He said. Now, please think carefully before you ask this off the Lord, but if you do, expect to be challenged and for things to happen in your life that will help your carnal nature to move out of the way. I am looking forward to the result though. Maybe you can witness below if you had death-to-the-flesh experiences. If you as a kernel of grain die, you will produce much fruit.

“Jesus replied, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honour the one who serves me,’” (John 12:23-26).

If your life, in other words your lifestyle, desires and behaviour, stand in the way of the Lord accomplishing His desires for you, you need to lose (hate) your (current) life (John 12:25) so you can take up His life (Romans 6:8-10).

Father, teach me to die so I could live only for You and bear much fruit.

Don’t Sin

We have concluded our series on holiness and, although my heart yearns to write endlessly, my time is temporarily occupied by a development we are busy with. Therefore I have decided to leave our study on the epistle of John for a while and just regularly place a golden nugget or some of my previous articles until such time as I am in a position to write regularly again. Do not forget to like my Facebook page at Word Bytes for then you have regular access to some more teaching.

“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it,” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

I do not know what temptations you have struggled with before or currently have a hard time with. I know though, that I am tempted quite often to sin in a certain area. When temptation comes it usually works like this: Initially I resist it, but as the lies from Satan and the self-justification of my sinful nature increases, I sometimes give in to the pressure, my flesh enjoys it for a while, after which regret kicks in and condemnation follows. This is probably what Paul referred to when He wrote about the thorn in his flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7-9).

It is easy to justify ourselves with the fact that we are weak, as an excuse to enjoy the sins that are common to man.

In church we, however, had a simple message the other day about the above passage in 1 Corinthians 10:13, which triggered the following thought in me:

The Lord promised He will give a way out of a temptation. If we therefore surrender to sin, we do not bear with the temptation supported by His power, but basically slap Him in His face so to speak, for we then show Him we did not want His way of escape, but rather desired to sin.

We read in Hebrews 12:4: “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.”

Say for instance you have parked your car on a sloped road facing a cliff. You get out having a look at the view, when your child releases the handbrake and the car starts rolling. You have just swum in some nearby pools and are barefoot. You run closer and throw your weight against the car which causes your bare feet to drag across the rough surface of the road until the no skin is left and blood flows. Are you going to let go of the car because your feet are bleeding and let it drop down the cliff with your child it? No, you are going to resist its momentum until you succeed.

Sin is like that car - a killer! It kills your godly potential, you success as a ministering Christian, the souls of those you influence and those you do not reach because of your sin of disobedience.

Sin is not only doing wrong things. It is any form of disobedience. “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin,” (James 4:17).

Are you resisting sin to the point of shedding your blood? Do you rely on the Lord for His way of escape?

Lord, you are purifying your church. Please include me.

Be Holy (Part Six)

Good day

We have been discussing the sanctification process, in other words becoming holy, from Philippians 2:12-16a for quite a few weeks now.

So what would the end result be that the Lord would like to see in us?

Philippians 2:15-16a tells us: “Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life...”

From the passage above, which is the last section of the passage we have been discussing over the last number of messages, I have picked out a few key words describing what the Lord wants to see in us: blameless, harmless and without fault. The context within which this kind of life is to be lived is within a crooked and perverse generation – in other words completely different from the world. We would all agree that we live in a crooked and perverse generation, would we not?

The problem we have today – and they maybe even had those years, which is why Paul brought this up, is that Christians often blend in too well with this crooked and perverse generation, and most do not consider that what they do as wrong. We often justify ourselves with the fact that we are weak, or that all things are permissible (1 Corinthians 6:12), or that we are free in Christ. In all areas of life people fear to be different and then follow the crowd and in the process compromise a lot of individuality and happiness.

One issue that came to mind is for example film piracy. I know Christians that have a lovely Christian witness when it comes to words, but who download pirated films from the Internet by the hundreds. When I brought to their attention that it is stealing, my words were shrugged off and I was made felt that I am old fashioned. Needless to say they did not give the error of their ways a second thought – to them nothing was wrong with it. Some behaviour is intentionally corrupt, such as this example, but other behaviour is circumstantial, such as speeding because I am late. This can be changed through better planning, and the excuse that I am late would not change the fact that I still are open for blame, which affect my Christian witness as well as my relationship with the Lord and His blessing, since I disobey His commandments (John 14:21-23).

 We so easily justify our actions, but God's standard is clearly set in the Bible - “be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), “become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault,” (Philippians 2:15) and so on. Then we ask why the Lord does not seem to answer our prayers.

Shall we jog our memories a bit and answer the following questions honestly to ourselves:

1. What is it in your life and behaviour that prevent you from being blameless?
2. Put differently; what in your behaviour can the world accuse you of/blame you for, in which you are none different from them, especially those hidden sins that nobody but you and the Lord know about.
3. How often do you harm others, whether it be emotionally by your words or attitude, financially by taking money that should not belong to you (even if you harm the government of big organisations, or the church) or spiritually by not sharing with them the love and gift of Jesus.
4. How many faults do you justify yourself for, in other words you know your should work at your weakness(es), but you accept it as okay, since you feel nobody is to judge you for it, even if this weakness harms others.

“For narrow is the gate and difficult is the way that leads to life, and there are a few who find it, (Matthew 7:14).” There is not much space for anything but you and the Lord on this road and the Bible states there are only a few that will find this way. So how then about the millions of people calling themselves Christians? “ For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables, (2 Timothy 4:3-4).” “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21)

Dear friends, we have no time or space for a double life – a life that is divided between the Lord's desires for our life and our desires, which usually are those of Mammon, the god of money and materialism. “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24)

Today I want to put all of us before the same challenge than Elijah did Israel in 1 Kings 18:21: “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” To Israel Baal represented the Lord’s enemy, so does mammon and self to us.

I think it is important to go into your inner room, to search you heart and ask how far are you short of being blameless, harmless and without fault in terms of God's standards as compared to the world's standards, for you are responsible for those “among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life,” (Philippians 2:16a). In other words, what does the world see – your sinful nature or the word of life you hold on to?

Holy Spirit, I want to be blameless, harmless and without fault, shining as a light in the world, holding fast the word of life. Please guide me.

Be Holy (Part Five)

Good day

In the last message we discussed one reason why we want to be holy – so we can see God and have a relationship with Him in His presence.

Philippians 2:12-16: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Do all things without complaining and disputing (these are the things the Lord prompts us to do in order to change), that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life...”

Now that we know why we are working out our salvation as per the passage above, we are going to look at how we are to do it. We find the answer in the next verse: “... for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” How do we understand this then? We are told to work, but in the very next verse we are told that it is God doing the work. Are we then back to passive Christianity where we live as we like, believing that God will change us at His leisure, only to discover years later that nothing has changed?

This is a team effort. The next sentence in the passage above tells us to “do all things without complaining and disputing.” I have added a sentence in there that you have read a few times by now. When we accept Jesus and are born again, our spirit is saved from damnation and renewed, but we have a lot of carnal behaviour that need to be dealt with. The Holy Spirit then starts working at the purification process of our soul and Satan starts counteracting this work. Our flesh (sinful nature or carnal man) kicks back in rebellion, and the spiritual man supposedly works with the Holy Spirit at renewing ourselves. This whole process takes place in our mind and is based on decisions which are executed by actions. Romans 12:1-2 summarises it well: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service (we are encouraged to present ourselves so God so He could work in us both to will and to do for His good pleasure – Philippians 2 above). And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” 

We see from a number of passages that our relationship with the Lord is compared to that of the potter to the clay, for example in Isaiah 64:8: “But now, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our potter;
And all we are the work of Your hand.”

At the day of our salvation, the Potter has bought this lump of clay and therefore delivered it from getting lost into purposelessness. Then He starts working at it to change it into something useful. The problem with human clay or a living sacrifice is that we have our own will. The Potter cannot just form us at His good pleasure - He has to work with us. We have to work along with Him. He will for example see some impatience that needs to be removed and will then create circumstances to test our patience so we can see what we are like. Unless we are in relationship with the Holy Spirit we will sense the test, but will not respond to it appropriately, because we have not heard the Holy Spirit telling us where He is going with our life.

The Holy Spirit may tell you: “We need to get rid of that impatience in your life, since I am love and can therefore not abide with impatience, which actually is lovelessness, since love is patient (1 Corinthians 13:4).” Can you imagine you getting impatient with those around you, or with God, in the throne room of heaven? If you are prepared to work with the Holy Spirit, He will allow circumstances to test your unacceptable behaviour, and it is up to you whether you are going to work with Him to get rid of that behaviour.

I have had a serious challenge the past couple of weeks. My love, in reaction to people’s behaviour, was tested. The way I responded left me less than proud of myself, and I came to the conclusion I had to deal with that lack of love in my heart. This is not going to come by itself, for the Holy Spirit is going to lead me in dealing with it, but I will have to make a decision as to how I will exercise love in future. During this difficult time Julia, my wife, was worth a pot of gold to me.

Sanctification (becoming holy) is a process that the Lord works in us with our permission and cooperation, and we need our Christian family to support us as we go along, and at the same time we need to support others.

Holy Spirit, please help me to follow your guidance.

Be Holy (Part Four)

Good day

Since we are working on this passage, I am leaving it on here for now, but today we are looking at another reason why we need to be holy.

Philippians 2:12-16: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Do all things without complaining and disputing (these are the things the Lord prompts us to do in order to change), that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life...”

We hear so much these days about the Lord being merciful and in complete control of our lives, creating the impression that we do not need to do anything apart from enjoying the Lord and singing praises to Him. If this is true, why would the above and many similar passages then be emphasized in the Word of God?

The Holy Spirit had these written in the Word because “without holiness no-one will see the Lord,” (Hebrews 12:14). This is interestingly enough written in the context of the passage on God’s discipline (Hebrews 12:4-13). You may decide for yourself whether you are prepared to submit to the Lord's discipline in order to be set aside for His plans for your life (becoming holy).

 

Why would we want to see the Lord and how would we see Him? This could be viewed from two perspectives – seeing the Lord one day in heaven and seeing Him whilst we are on earth. Only you as an individual can answer the question why you want to see the Lord. I have mentioned the following comparison before in my writings as a way to understand these things. I once reasoned with the Lord on the subject of the fairness of rewards to Christians. I told Him that surely Christians who sacrifice their entire life for His service could not receive the same privileges in heaven than those who accept Jesus and then live couch-potato-like, self-indulgent lives. I then saw a vision of old Jerusalem set amongst the surrounding villages. Inside the walls was the King's palace with its gardens and in the palace was the courtroom where the King abides.

I was then shown three passages:

1. Mark 16:16: He who believes and is baptised will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
2. John 3:3: Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” and in verse five  “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”
3. Hebrews 12:14: Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

I believe the Lord revealed to me that those who just believe in Jesus, but do not work on a relationship with Him, will go to heaven, but will live in the New Jerusalem outside of the King's palace. Those who were born again will see and enter the Kingdom of God, in other words will enter and live in the palace, but will not see the Lord; and those who sought holiness and an intimate relationship with the King of kings will see the Lord and fellowship with Him in His courtroom. In short, the kind of relationship we have with Him on earth, whether aloof or intimate, will just continue in heaven. Is this a good motivation to work at holiness and obedience as per Philippians 2:12-16?

When we grasp understanding of something, we usually use the expression: “I see”. In such a situation we do not really see something with our optical eyes, but do so with our eyes of understanding. This is the other way to see God - by Him revealing Himself to us. We then see Him with our spiritual eyes – not as a figure, but as a person in His way of thinking, His personality, His plans and motives, His character and His will with our lives. Jesus made a profound statement in John 14:21, which I think receives too little attention in the Christian fraternity: “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” Other translations use the words ‘reveal’ and ‘show’ in the place of the word manifest. In other words Jesus said He will make Himself visible to our spiritual eyes if we care enough to consider His instructions important enough to obey – thus setting ourselves aside for Him and being Holy.

We then read in verses 22-23 of John 14: “Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, 'Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?' Jesus answered and said to him, 'If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.'” Those living holy lives will be loved even more by Father God and therefore the relationship will be so intimate, such as in a family environment, that revelation will be automatic.

Would you like to see the Lord? Then separate yourself from the flesh and the world and obey Jesus’ instructions.

Lord, I want to be holy.