Hebrews 12:14 —14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
Today we have so many topics we hear preached on but one, holiness. We just did a weekend in this area and for many it was an eye opener. We are just not as holy as we think we are. The Bible says to follow holiness which without no man will see God. A current generation is desiring to see God. The word “See” means with the actual eye. It is the word we get optometrist from. And following means to purse, run after, to press into.
For the most part we view holiness by definition. Holy means to be set part, consecrated etc. It is a process we enter into at salvation. But holiness means the process has come to a point of existence or is completed. The main reason we seem to be stuck in consecration or sanctification is because we remain at the cross instead of desiring to go to the throne. The cross is more than salvation and freedom from sin. If that was the totality of what it represents then we are hopeless indeed. The cross is the beginning of living a holy life to become holiness before God. The cross focuses on us and the throne on Him. For the most part we want to continue in sin or in what we know to be unclean or profane, knowing there is a provision of forgiveness, mercy and grace. The cross starts a process of becoming clean before God. As were the throne is a present tense cleansed.
So the question is why are we not moving from cross to throne, from a process of being holy to a process of holiness. There e is a very simple reason. When we see holy and holiness in scripture we also see other words along side, unclean and profane. We immediately jump to the simple conclusion we know what is unclean, or profane and thus we know what holiness is. It is the opposites of these. But the definition of these words carries far more weight. You see what has happened is we have taken holy things and polluted them. We have made holy things common and thus made them unholy. We do not have reference for God, His spirit, His word, His worship, His leaders etc. We have grown accustomed to things and we no longer hold them as valuable. The words unclean also means to take away honor were honor was once given. It means to take away the purity of something and make it COMMMON!
Even the cross has become common place. Salvation has become simple and all-inclusive instead of exclusive. We have 2 main types of meetings as believers, cross and spirit. Cross being son, self and overcoming problems and sin. Spirit being gifts, manifestations and teaching. We do not have “Father God” type meetings. (Fathers loves – Toronto is cross meetings) I am talking about the holiness of God, awe-struck, sovereign presence, breath of God type meetings. We love to hang in cross and spirit meetings because nothing is really required out of us. We don’t have to live a disciplined life to participate. But Father meetings requires only the holy approach. We have seen revivals and moves of God around the cross and spirit but not fully around the Father. The awakening that is coming will encompass all three and bring the fullness of Holiness.
The most defining thing of why we no longer see holiness, is things that should be holy are treated as common. We believe meetings and gatherings will just be “common” so we don’t attend. We believe there is no value in attending, or if we do go we don’t really participate whole heartedly. Our conversations are unholy in Gatherings as we talk not about kingdom but what is common. Our actions, our thoughts, drift into worldly things Even that which should be holy we treat as common, such as communion, preaching, worship. When we look upon the world we have no standard of holiness, so we view the world differently and define what is unclean not by Biblical terminology but by cultural acceptable terminology. As Leonard Ravenhill put it, “it is no longer adultery, it is having an affair. It is no longer fornication; it is sex outside of marriage. We have taken the sting out of sin”. Sin has become to familiar with and common as well. We no longer call things in the world unholy or unclean. We open the door to all to come and join in with a meeting that is supposed to be Holy and we wonder why God is not showing up.
We need to search our hearts and see the places we have made God common. Where have we not showed honor and thus allowed unholiness or that which is unclean to come in. Leaders preach a message on holiness and see what God will do as you restore things back to being uncommon and clean again.
Greg Crawford 