This is really a message about Holiness. What I share are notes from my journals on the topic… and I really feel that I am not to elaborate on each line, but let the Spirit teach you, from what you read. Take this chapter slowly, and as you read, there will be pauses, as the Spirit clarifies to you personally what He is saying through me. And, if something I say doesn’t jive immediately in your thoughts or heart, just please continue reading, for I’m trusting that the Spirit will bring you understanding.
I believe we need to understand holiness to be made holy.
Here goes:
Holiness can be interpreted as being “Wholly His.”
It’s not by my “trying to be” holy, that I am made holy.
It’s by “opening myself up” for The Holy One to dwell In Me.
It’s the Spirit of God’s Presence that “makes me holy!”
is my measure OF HOLINESS.
The more “in tune” and “obedient” to the Spirit of God within me, that I am, the more Holy I will be.
In the Old Testament, it was God’s Presence that sanctified the temple…yet people were on the outer courts, inner courts, or holy of holies. These represent degrees of holiness within our own selves. Will we approach the outer court only? … or will we realize the inner court is available to us.
God determines how much of us He Has, and how much of himself he will allow to “draw near” to us.
It’s worshipping and welcoming Him INTO OUR every INNER ROOMS that brings us HIS HOLINESS as He comes to abide in that area.
You and I need to begin to live in this consciousness of ACCEPTANCE.
“We have limited our heart’s acceptance with the Lord… allowing attainments or condemnations to limit us.”
It’s how much OF US do Christ and God abide in – AND how much OF THEM abides in us.
God was in Christ, Christ was in God. As Believers, we are in Christ and Christ is in Us.
“How much of us” does He abide in?
We prepare for the Divine Indwelling (i.e. God in us) through the abiding of Jesus in our lives. God is in Christ and He is in God. Christ is in us, and we are in Christ.
To be holy, we must become as a bride who separates from the world and from her family and from her friends to cling unto her spouse.
We, as believers, are to separate ourselves unto Christ, to cling onto Him for the rest of our lives.
This separation UNTO THE LORD is needed, to bring forth Holiness.
“Be Mine”, says the Lord.
Blood is what “separated” Israel for their departure from Egypt. Their faith caused them to “apply the blood to their doorposts”.
So too, the blood of the Lord Jesus, separates us…so that we can come out of Egypt (the World) and cling unto the Lord… being led into a new life and a new future!
Then, Moses actually speaks of the people’s separation unto God, and God’s reply, in Exodus 33:16-17.
“For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is it not in that thou goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.”
And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou has spoken: for thou has found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.”
As in marriage, the love of groom, to bride, separates her FROM her parents, her home, her “world” unto himself – from purest love and deepest commitment… So too, I separate YOU UNTO MYSELF – to BE MINE. To be made holy, as I am Holy. To be ONE.
You grasp this, and joy will remain. I promise!!!
As intercourse is you in me and I in you… so too, it is with “our union” – we become ONE.
Why would I desire to hurt, abuse, or torment one I was separating unto myself?
Friends, it is our awareness of God’s presence, making us, and keeping us, His very own, that works the true separateness from the world and its spirit. It also separates us from ourselves and our own will unto the doing of the Lord’s Will.
As this separation is accepted, and valued, and persevered in by us, the holiness of God begins to operate within us. He enters in and takes possession of us…just as in intercourse. It’s that intimate. We even undergo a separation FROM SELF! For we become One Spirit with the Lord.
“But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.”
“For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.”
Yet, it’s so much more Oneness with God!
He fills body, soul, and spirit!
You have heard the phrase: Holy Holy Holy!
They work together AS ONE… always!
They do not work independently of one another!
Through Christ, in the Spirit, we speak TO THE FATHER!
This Holy Triune GOD – doesn’t only inhabit eternity and dwell in the high and holy place, but he dwells in His Children who have “opened themselves up” for Him to abide within them. This takes a humble, contrite heart on our part. Ones who see their own poverty of spirit and need For Him.
As I AM HUMBLE, and HIS,
God ESTABLISHES HIS HOME WITHIN me.
But listen, he needs to expel from me all that is NOT OF HIM in order to fully occupy my soul!
As my soul sees this and “yields” and “obeys” and gives place to the Spirit’s working within, I am “being made holy” for the Holy One to have more “place”… i.e., more of me that He indwells in. It is His Indwelling Place that makes ME HOLY!
My soul comes to realize that there is nothing in itself that can be trusted in or hoped in.
My soul comes to realize that I must fill every broken place with HIM. I must “make room” for the Lord, so that “SELF” loses place, and He can make me Holy, by my becoming wholly HIS.
Now, interestingly, at the SAME EXACT TIME that my soul feels weakness, emptiness, or deep humiliation… God is coming in with power, filling, and the wonderful indwelling of his Spirit.
At the SAME EXACT TIME that I feel empty of self, He is filling me “with Himself”.
At the SAME EXACT TIME that I can have the deepest sense of nothingness and weakness, I can sense the Lord filling me with infinite riches and joy unspeakable as He fills my heart!
Lowliness is the place that becomes me. Holiness is giving God the place that becomes him… And therefore, lowliness and holiness work together to give us all THE GLORY OF GOD.
His promise to dwell in me is MY HOPE!
My self-rule is displaced on purpose and of my own free will, and God becomes my all in all!
And we are given a scripture that says this:
“…even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the Hope of Glory; whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.”
Realizing who I am and who HE IS… is True Humility. (I think that may be a quote from a Rick Joyner book I once read. Not sure, but it sure stuck with me.)
What a difference there is between who I am and who God is. It is humbling indeed to really grasp its truth. Surely, I cannot seem to wrap my head around the fact that He would have anything to do with me…
But that’s LOVE… and God is love. Amen?
Last year, I got creative and wrote a facebook post, that I indeed posted at the time. I found it in my computer and will share it in this book chapter as a witness. You will see just how the Spirit of God was working within me and teaching me about sanctification…and how we are as a bride separating ourselves unto God and Christ.
Yes, at first all my FB friends thought I was meaning a real separation, (the marital kind) and they were alarmed at my words, not realizing until the end, that I was speaking of a separating of myself unto Christ. (That was the fun of it, for me! It sure got them reading! LOL It messed with their minds, because it was “so shocking”. The analogy is indeed a good one. LOL)
Here is what I posted (smile):
Yes, I know…I’m totally “in love”! (smile)
Oh my, in all my excitement, did I failed to mention his name?
(“Separation” – written by Elizabeth Smith, May 25, 2023)
NOW, Here is my message to you:
Are you excited like me?…living within the divine romance?… living your love story?...being separated unto the Lord Jesus Christ? and away from the world with its lovers that use and abuse you?
OR are you finding yourself undergoing a different kind of separation?
Perhaps you will suddenly wake up to the fact that over the past few years deception has occurred and you are being separated from the Lord, while other lovers have come along, attaching you to sin, distractions, heartaches, attacks, and their chaotic world?
It can be that way when you are “intimate with the Lord” in both heart and actions. You can go through anything, as long as you are together! Right?!
Well, Christ wants that back! He’s wanting you to return to your first love: Him! He is waiting on you.
In fact, In Revelation 2:4, Jesus told the church of Ephesus, “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.”
If you sense a tug upon your own heart, and in the past you’ve known Jesus, it is not too late to return to your first love…in your affections, your focus, your love, your zeal for His Word, etc. Return to Christ.
The future contains hope and promises, not dread or fear.
So, this is an interesting set of questions that I encourage you to ponder:
Who are you “separating unto”?
And you have a choice in the matter.
Jesus gave his life because of his special love for “you” and a future with him can be trusted…so please choose this divine love story as your own.
Christ is The Bridegroom who will soon come for His Bride… men and women who has given their heart and life to Him from purest love, respect, and trust.
The Lord wants to separate you unto himself too…as a woman separates from her family and home to cling to her husband… but it takes your choice…you must say “YES!!”