Holiness might be considered a strange topic by many in our culture today. At the very least it’s almost a forgotten topic. Christians likes to talk about blessings and having our prayers answered by God, but not many would like to touch on the topic of practical holiness as it infringed upon their daily lives too much to be comfortable. It may sometimes be touched upon on a highly ethereal level but not taken seriously by many. The reason lies in the fact that many aren’t living holy lives and have very little to say to others about holiness. Yet we need to realize that holiness is in fact a prerequite or the basis for having our prayers answered. Hebrews 12:14 says, “... be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.” Since we cannot even get an audience with God if we are unholy, it is futile to seek to have our prayers answered as it would be falling as if on deaf ears. Furthermore, we have verses such as Psalm 66:18 which says, “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened,” and “…your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear” (Isa. 59:2). We will not have powerful, effective prayer lives until we are serious about living a life of holiness. It is abundantly clear from these veses and many others that God does not normally answer the prayers of those who are not walking in holiness.

I would like to say at the outset that I fully recognized and am not in any way against the messages/teachings on grace and freedom in the spirit. It is indeed very essential for us to live not by law but by grace. However, when those absolutely essential doctrines are taught without the balancing view of God’s holiness and the intended holiness of the believer, we swing way out of balance. As most of you know by now that I always like to emphasize the need for balance especially in spiritual matters. For it is the imbalance teachings and practices that brings about unhealthy Christian lives and even foster unnecessary conflicts and divisions among Christians. In worse cases, imbalance in many teachings have given birth to many cultic groups. Therefore it also behooves us to take the balanced approach to the teachings on the freedom of walking by the spirit and the practical holiness, which can easily and subtly be neglected.

Let’s lay it out very plainly. God not only commands us to be holy, but He has provided the all-sufficient grace for us to attain to His holiness and thereby leaving us without excuse. We cannot blame our society or culture or up-bringing if we failed to live up to the standard of God's holiness. This is by no means taking the Word of God as a law and striving to fulfill that law by our self-effort. That would be foolhardy, for we know that we simply cannot attain to God's holy standard in ourselves. Having said that, we need to realize that if we are indeed living by the spirit or by the freedom of the grace in Christ, we will never in anyway be led into a decision or action that conflict with the the written Word of God, because our God is the unchanging God: He is the same yesterday, today and forever. God's Word too is unchanging as it is consistent with His character, for this reason Mark 13:31 “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my Word shall not pass away.” This speaks of the immutability of God's Word. Psalms 119:89, Isaiah 40:8, 1Peter 1:25 and many more verses affirm this fact. Thus, the written Word of God is refered to among the Bible teachers and scholars as the “Constant Word.” we can say with full certainty that the spoken Word of God through the Spirit(or sometimes called the “Instant Word”) shall NEVER conflict with the Constant Word of God!

What then does the Constant Word of God say in regards to holiness? The following are a few verses for us to consider:

“Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God” (2 Cor 7:1).

“…for it is written: Be holy, because I am holy” (1 Pet 1:16).

“Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives” (2 Peter 3:11).

“For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life” (1 Thes 4:7).

Also, most, if not all, reliable Bible preachers and teachers(including Watchman Nee) would agree that since the word for holy in Greek literally means to be separated or set apart... Holiness is simply to be set apart from the world, from sin, self, and from anything that is common. Therefore, 2 Corinthians 6:17-18 says, “Wherefore come our from their midst and be separated, says the Lord, do not touch what is unclean and I will receive you; and I will be a Father to you.and you shall be My sons and daughters.” What is the context in which this Word of practical holiness was spoken? Reading verses 14-16 just prior to verse 17 in the same chapter makes it incontrovertibly clear that it is spoken in the context of God commanding His people not to be yoked together with unbelievers in marriage. This needs to be clearly pointed out because it is perplexing to hear some young Christians who are considering marriage would even say that they have prayed about a marriage relationship with an unbeliever and that they seemed to have the stamp of agreement from the Spirit for them to proceed. Since we know and have established that the Instant speaking of the Lord will never conflict with His written Word, we can exhort with absolute certainty that this kind of speaking of being unequally yoked together with unbelievers could not possibly be from the Lord. Due to the fact that many dear young Christians are struggling with this area, this needs to be pointed out as a practical matter of holiness that we need to live by at the very least.

The Apostle Paul continues in 2 Corinthians 7:1 that we are, “perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.” To perfect holiness means to labor on it or to work it out to its full perfection. The motive Paul gives for doing this is out of reverence for God. Being holy is wanting to be like our heavenly Father. There’s no greater compliment to a father, than when a son or daughter wants to be like him. We give our heavenly Father pleasure as we long for and live by His holy Life to conform to God's standard of holiness…to be like our Heavenly Father.

Regardless of our prayer skills and experiences or the lack thereof, we will not become a mighty people of prayer until we begin to develop a passion to be holy even as the Lord is(1Pet 1:16). I believe that the Scriptures we have just looked at show us the way to live a life of holiness. The key to our holiness is nothing less than the holiness of God Himself. We are to be holy…because He is holy! Let us consider a few more passages of what the Scriptures say of God's holiness:

“Who among the gods is like you, O Lord? Who is like you--majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?” (Exo 15:11)

“And they were calling to one another: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isa 6:3).

“Who will not fear you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed” (Rev15:4).

Holy… set apart… called-out... different… perfect…. that’s the God we worship.

The key to our holiness is to remember that we worship a Holy God. And He has called us to be holy, as He is holy. How can that be? How is it even possible that we sinful creatures can even aspire to holiness?

Firstly, it’s a matter of family's trait. It is our Father’s nature to be holy. And we Christians have been born again into God’s family – made partakers of the divine nature(2Pet 1:4). His genetic structure for holiness has been given to us because of the Lord Jesus' imparting His Life into us at our regeneration. The Holy Spirit also came to dwell within us. We still have much of the sin nature within us, but there is also a new nature….a new genetic code if you will….a code of holiness that comes straight from our heavenly Father. Holiness then, becomes a possibility and should be our daily moment by moment reality.

The problem arises when we leave it here at the level of theological truth. If we’re not careful we can end up believing that our holiness consists only of the imputed sanctification that comes from Christ's finished work on the cross and in His resurrection, ascension, and enthronement. This objective level of sanctification alone can lead one to live a loose life of sin, because after all…we’re forgiven in Christ Jesus and made righteous through His death and resurrection.

This however, is not where God leaves us…a holiness that is not an experiencial holiness at all. Instead you find in Scripture the truth that holiness can never be accomplished by any of us by our sheer arduous effort. Jesus’ death is absolutely essential for us to experience the new birth and for Christ to be made our positional sanctification(1Cor 1:30)…and it is His sanctification life that is now at work in us through our cooperation to bring about our dispositional sanctification. God’s Word is clear that He expects us to perfect the dispositional holiness until we are fully conformed to the image of Christ(Rom 8:29).The writer of Hebrews also writes in Hebrews 12:14, “Make every effort…to be holy.”

Without our Lord Jesus, there is no possibility of holiness for us. With Jesus, we have been born again into the family of God and God’s holiness has been placed within us. Now we strive with everything within us to live out that life of holiness as we keep our eyes on our Holy God. Peter said it this way in 1 Peter 3:10-12: “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it.” And then Peter turns to answered prayer: “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

Back to the question: how do we live holy lives? Secondly, it is by making the Word of God our foundation. We live by what it says and at the same time receive the supply of the Spirit and life(Jn 6:63) from it to live accordingly. John 17:17 says, “Sanctified them through Your truth; Your Word is truth.” In other words, God's Holy Word is used by the Holy Spirit as a tool/instrument to bring about the dispositional sanctification within us that God desired.

God wants His people to pray. But the prayers that He listens come from the lips of a holy people….a people set apart and dedicated to God in a very practical way by paying the price to perfect the dispositional sanctification in our daily living.