“I seek a generation. I seek a generation with clean hands and pure hearts, not hiding their sin but coming before me and confessing all to me. In me there is forgiveness. In me there is forgiveness. Come and be made clean. I cannot bless that which is not clean. And those of you who have kept yourselves pure and who look to me I will bless—I am blessing! I see you and I know who you are. I know your name. I have called you. You are mine! You walk with me and I am delighted in you as I was my Son! Listen, continue to listen to Him. Continue.”
A Word from the Spirit on Holy Living
An over-riding theme to this entire word is holiness; the need to live a life separated from this world and consecrated to the Lord.
Notice all that the Spirit says regarding this:
• I am a God who is pure in His holiness. I seek a people, I seek a people that I might be glorified in them, in their lives.
• Oh, I say, it breaks my heart—there are many who call themselves by my name and their hearts are far from me and they practice filthiness in secret. I say to you that you will not enter in on that day, for I will not have known you! I say, come to me and cleanse yourselves and be holy even as I am holy! For that is what I call you to.
• My voice is clear, my voice is pure, my voice speaks the truth and I say, come and cleanse yourself in my fountain! Come and cleanse yourself and be made clean! For it is a highway of holiness and only the pure and holy can travel on it!
• I’m calling a people who will be called by my name and who will be holy even as I am holy. A people clothed in my righteousness by my blood—a people who obey me, a people who love me. You say you love me, but you are not obedient to my commandments! I say, love me! Love me! Hunger after me and thirst after me that you might know me! That you would rejoice in my holiness! That your greatest pleasure would be to worship me in the beauty of my holiness….I’m calling a people who will be holy. I am calling a people who will be holy. The world will not be won, the world will not be won by your filth. That’s not what they need. They need me. They need to know my holiness. They need to be as John when he fell down as a dead man! They need to see me like that. There needs to be a fear.
• I say that dark times are coming, and dark times are upon you! But I am calling a church who will rise up in holiness, a church who will rise up in my strength!
• I seek a generation. I seek a generation with clean hands and pure hearts, not hiding their sin but coming before me and confessing all to me. In me there is forgiveness. In me there is forgiveness. Come and be made clean. I cannot bless that which is not clean.
Understanding Holiness
An excellent and very practical resource (with an accompanying study guide) to understanding holiness is The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges. Here are two quotes that continually help me in my quest to be “holy as He is holy” (1 Peter 1:15, 16).
Bridges begins with a definition to holiness:
“Perhaps the best way of understanding the concept of holiness is to note how writers of the New Testament used the word. In 1 Thessalonians 4: 3-7, Paul used the term in contrast to a life of immorality and impurity. Peter used it in contrast to living according to the evil desires we had when we lived outside of Christ (1 Peter 1: 14-16). John contrasted one who is holy with those who do wrong and are vile (Revelation 22: 11). To live a holy life, then, is to live a life in conformity to the moral precepts of the Bible and in contrast to the sinful ways of the world” (page 3).
And then challenges us with three searching questions as the prerequisite to living a holy life:
“…take time to settle these issues in your heart, right now. Will you begin to look at sin as an offense against a holy God, instead of as a personal defeat only? Will you begin to take personal responsibility for your sin, realizing that as you do, you must depend on the grace of God? And will you decide to obey God in all areas of life, however insignificant the issue may be?” (page 8).
The Foundation to Holy Living
Even as I understand the New Testament writers’ definitions and embrace Bridges’ searching questions, there is one sentence in today’s Direct Word excerpt that is the foundation to living holy:
“Come and be made clean.”
Any Scriptural insight and positive responses to those searching questions must propel a humbling of myself before the Lord with godly sorrow for my sin.
Oh, to echo the words of the leper who fell at Jesus’ feet, “If You are willing, You can make me clean” (Mark 1:40).
Indeed, now as it was then, Jesus is willing. But the question is, am I?
