Blog In Audio:
Greetings;
Yesterday we had our first return to church as ALife community after several months of meeting in homes. It was great to see people I haven’t seen face-to-face in a while. It was wonderful to have real live worship and people in the room. Pastors Jonathan and Danie did a great job delivering the word and we had some wonderful ministry time at the close of the service.
I have been addressing the need to keep our focus on what God is doing in the season and not to be distracted by the crisis management process of the world. This is the way of the world, but it not meant to be the way of the church. We are not called to respond to the enemy, we are called to force the enemy to respond to us. God’s grace gives us the power to reign in life.
As I stated last week, God is bringing about unity and we must not be distracted by division. God is calling us to a be who we are for a greater corporate testimony as the body of Christ. It is not about what we get in life, but the life that comes into the world because of us. Brotherly love is an empowerment of God’s grace and it is not merely a discipline of the flesh. It is a testimony of God’s Spirit of Knowing working in our midst.
We can expect to see Jesus standing in the midst of the church in the testimony of the Spirit of Knowing, a testimony of intimacy and love. In this present season He is standing in our midst as the One who is holy and true. Holiness is not some religious performance or religious character. It is an attribute of purity, morality, and a full connection to life. The word implies being sacred, but we most often equate being sacred to being religious. I believe that God’s true religion is an attribute of giving life at all times to those who need life. It isn’t an attribute of getting, but one of giving. God is holy because He doesn’t need anything, but is the One who gives life, breath, and all things. This is His ability because this is His substance. Because God is holy, He can make life-giving decisions even for those who are not holy. He is pure and nothing can cause Him to not be pure. God wants us to be pure and for nothing to cause us not to be pure. I believe this is to be authentic. The fruit of holiness is good conduct and virtuous works. It is void of envy, self-seeking, and any manner of hypocrisy. I believe godly wisdom is a testimony of holiness and worldly wisdom is based upon an unholy attitude, motive, and action spawned from a bitter heart.
James 3:13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. 15 This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. 16 For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. 17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. 18 Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
King David experienced the holiness of God and the holiness of God was able to transform the character of David. In the flesh David was not holy, but his willing pursuit of God in His holiness changed the character, nature, way, power, and authority of David’s life.
Revelation 3:7 “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, “These things says He who is holy, He who is true, ‘He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens”…
As we see information explode in the environments of the world, we must look for intimacy with Christ and one another as the people of God. It is only by embracing being a giver of life that we can become holy and true. We must pursue an intimate connection with the One who gives life so we can also give life to others. When the environments of the world seem to explode with wickedness, it is time for us to look for and embrace being holy. This is not embracing some religious piety. It is being authentic to being connected to God who is life and being a giver of life at all times. I like to think of being holy as like being wholly who we are meant to be. It is a place of security in who we are in Christ to be the life of Christ in all things. Being holy and true will open the legitimate doors of our lives and close the illegitimate ones.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
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