Holiness and Power

Greetings,
Misunderstandings abound when someone mentions the word "holiness". The picture I used to get in my mind when someone mentioned the word was that of an elderly woman with her hair stacked about 3 feet into the air and dressed in sackcloth and ashes. But I have since come to realize that Holiness isn't the way we dress or don't dress...

Romans 1:1-7a says: "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection...through whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints..."

Jesus, the Son of the Living God, the Savior of the world, revealed the power of God during His earth walk. But the greatest revelation of the power of God was when God raised Jesus by the Glory of God (Romans 6:4; Ephesians 1:19,20), by the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Holiness. Power and holiness ARE connected even though Peter asked the crowd if they really thought that the lame man in Acts 3 was healed by Peter's holiness. It isn't our holiness, per se, but it is related to how the Son of God can manifest Himself through us to the world.

"Holy" and "Saint" come from the same Greek work "hagios". Paul said to the Romans who are "beloved of God, called to be saints..." or, called to be holy. Peter said the same thing when he wrote, "because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:16). One aspect of holiness is what God does, through Christ, for and in us. Christ is our holiness. We have no ability to approach God or have any kind of relationship with God apart from Christ. Yet another aspect is where we, by our choice, separate, sanctify, dedicate our life to Him. We love what He loves and despise what He despises. It's this kind of holiness that makes way for the Spirit of Holiness to manifest the resurrected power of the Son of God. It's not OUR holiness, but our yieldedness to His. Jesus did extraordinary things while on earth, yet Paul mentions the resurrection as the way to measure just how powerful God is. And yet the resurrection wasn't possible without Jesus being COMPLETELY sold out to the plans and purposes of His Father. He HUMBLED Himself and became obedient, even to the point of going to the cross...wherefore God has HIGHLY exalted Him and has given Him a Name ABOVE EVERY NAME...Hallelujah!

Holiness and separation is NOT an old-fashioned idea. It is intricately part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Hebrews 12:14 - Pursue peace with all men, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord...
Hebrews 1:9 -(speaking of Jesus) You loved righteousness and despised lawlessness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions. Notice, because Jesus loved the things God loved and despised what God despised, He was anointed above any and all! Shouldn't that give us a clue as to how to see more of God manifest in and through the Body of Christ TODAY?

Saints (holy, sanctified), let us pursue that which Christ Jesus died to give us; a powerful, holy, glorious walk and relationship with Father God. The world will then stand up and take notice!

Pastor Jan