written by Daniel Piper
One of the great lies of the enemy is that living a blameless, holy and righteous lifestyle before the Lord God is a task too high of a magnitude for mankind to accomplish.
“You shall be blameless before the Lord your God.” – Deuteronomy 18:13 ESV
“since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy”. – 1 Peter 1:16 ESV
“You shall be holy to me, for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.” – Leviticus 20:26 ESV
The enemy wants to keep us chained, pummeled and ashamed, making us believe we cannot achieve a righteous standing before the Lord.
The truth is that the pathway to righteousness and holiness has been created by the Son of God.
It’s not through human knowledge. It’s not through adding on extra Christian activities. It’s not through being a community volunteer. It’s not through being a decent husband or father. Becoming holy and blameless is only through death and resurrection. Being holy, blameless or righteous is only achieved by imitating Jesus Christ – everyday.
“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.” Ephesians 5:1 ESV
“Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Matthew 16:24 ESV
God turns up the heat on His children for one reason: to bring them close into the heart of the Holy Trinity.
The reason many people reject becoming remade into a holy way of life is that it hurts – it is a painful experience. Anyone who dares to draw near to the Father in Heaven will get burned. I don’t mean this jokingly. It’s true. The Lord God is a consuming fire.
“Know therefore today that he who goes over before you as a consuming fire is the Lord your God.” Deuteronomy 9:3
“for our God is a consuming fire.” Hebrews 12:29 ESV
Anyone who longs to dedicate their life to the Son of God is entering into the land of holy fire. God must burn off the behaviors, attitudes and thoughts in our life that don’t belong in His presence.
It’s painful. It hurts. The process exposes all of our flaws, fears, weaknesses and sins. What we gain on the other side is becoming a glowing, radiant light shining for Jesus Christ. This world means nothing to you and I when Christ has become our sole identify and source of value.
God turns up the heat on His children for one reason: to test their faith and determine if their true desire is to draw close into the heart of the Holy Trinity. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit crave to bring you and I back into the garden of Eden. However, you must go through a re-making (or renewal) process to get into the heart of the Trinity.
If you didn’t know, you must be remade into the image of Christ to have an intimate relationship with your Heavenly Father.
“It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?” Hebrews 12:7 ESV
“he will be saved but only as through fire… God’s temple is holy and you are that temple.” 1 Corinthians 3:15-17 ESV
If you’re experiencing the discipline and discomfort of the Lord that is a good thing! This means the Father is calling you into a deeper relationship with the Great I Am.
Many men who truly believe in Jesus Christ as their personal Savior struggle to allow the cross of Christ to radically impact them because of fear or resistance of entering into the furnace of the Lord. It’s painful exposing secrets, making changes, and giving up control. What you gain from feeling the pain is walking into the presence of Almighty God. If you didn’t know, you must be remade into the image of Christ to have an intimate relationship with your Heavenly Father.
As long as we’re not going 100% all-in with Jesus Christ, we will not experience the fullness of God in our daily life.
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female.” Genesis 1:27 ESV
“Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.” 1 Corinthians 15:49 ESV
“he (The Father) chose us in him (Jesus) before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” Ephesians 1:4 ESV
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6 ESV
God wants all of you, so you can have access to all of God.
This is exactly where the enemy distracts, distorts and demeans our personal relationship with Christ.
The enemy doesn’t want you believing that an intimate relationship with the Great I Am is possible by accusing you of fears, failures, secrets and sin. Shame, fear, accusations, distractions and isolation are all attacks by the enemy of God.
God the Father wants you in a perfect, unified relationship with him. The enemy of God is working overtime like a roaring lion to break and sever the intimate relationship with your Creator and Savior.
You will never be made into the image of Christ as long as you’re not exposing some of the “dark rooms” in your mind and heart. God wants all of you, so you can have all of Him. I’ll repeat that! God wants all of you, so you can have access to all of God. As long as we’re not going 100% all-in with Jesus Christ, we will not experience the fullness of God in our daily life. That’s where the enemy works. He doesn’t want you and I going all in.
Do you know that God wants to make His glorious home inside of you!!??
“Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” John 14:23 ESV
“and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:19 ESV
It is widely said: “we are wounded in relationships, therefore we must find healing in relationships”. It’s only in a deep and honest relationship with God and others that we experience His divine healing.
“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”” Mark 12:30-31 ESV
“Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment.” Proverbs 18:1 ESV
The Father is molding and reshaping you and I into the image of His Son. It’s the only way to restore the garden of Eden.
To experience this intimate, holy relationship, you must expose every sinful corner of your heart to the Lord, to your loved ones and to trusted followers of Jesus.
“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” James 5:16 ESV
No hiding. No secrets. No control. Giving it all up. You must trust God and believe that He is going to hold you in the palm of His hand while you’re moving through the holy fire. The Father is molding and reshaping you and I into the image of His Son. It’s the only way to restore the garden of Eden.
The Father only has an intimate relationship with those who are in His Son. The Great I Am has intimacy with no one else.
“he (The Father) predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” Ephesians 1:5, 9-10 ESV
“Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” 1 John 5:12 ESV
The Father desires to restore an intimate relationship with you through the Holy Spirit and the blood of His Son, Jesus.
The only way to be in relationship with the Holy Trinity is to be in the Son of God. I don’t mean just believe the Son of God with head knowledge. You must love Jesus with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. You must deny yourself, pick up your cross (meaning lay down your life for the sake of Christ) and follow Christ. You must obey all His commandments. Obedience is love and love is obedience.
““If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” John 14:15 ESV
God (the Holy Trinity) isn’t chasing after his creation for you and I to say a quick salvation prayer and get on with our lives. The Father desires to restore an intimate relationship with you through the Holy Spirit and the blood of His Son, Jesus.
You and I must be willing to surrender everything to God, one day at a time, for this intimate relationship to grow and prosper.
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:1-2 ESV
We must lay down on the altar of sacrifice for the Creator to perform a second surgery. The first surgery was the miracle of creating you and I. But God has lost you and I to sin and death. The seed of Adam is hopeless and dead.
“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” Proverbs 14:12 ESV
God’s creation was stolen and chained to death by the enemy…
The Creator must perform a new, second surgery by killing off the original man and transforming you and I into a new man – the image of Christ.
“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” Romans 5:12 ESV
I know it’s hard to understand but we’re literally born chained down to sin and death. The Creator must perform a new, second surgery by killing off the original man and transforming you and I into a new man – the image of Christ.
“Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”” John 3:3 ESV
“According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” 1 Peter 1:3 ESV
A divine second surgery is the only way to become rescued into holiness and righteousness. You and I can do nothing to become loosened by grip of the enemy. All of the seeds of Adam are sons of the enemy and held in his tight grip.
Jesus Christ personally killed the seed of Adam and rose up a new seed (or identity) for humanity to follow.
“You are of your father the devil… Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”” John 8:44, 47 ESV
“Do you not know… you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?” Romans 6:16 ESV
The important question is: Do you radically love Jesus? Do you fully understand why Jesus did what he did?
Those who love and understand why Jesus, the Son of God, went on a divine rescue mission, will completely drown themself in the love of God. You will understand there is literally no hope, no life, no peace, no joy, no truth, no satisfaction outside of Jesus Christ.
“For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace” Romans 8:6 ESV
“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” Acts 4:12 ESV
…there is literally no hope, no life, no peace, no joy, no truth, no satisfaction outside of Jesus Christ.
Jesus alone trail blazed the righteous, holy way…
Why did Jesus Christ do this? Because the gospel is a rescue mission. Jesus paved the only way for the seeds of Adam to return to the garden of Eden – to return into complete and total intimacy with God the Father.
Jesus Christ personally killed the seed of Adam and rose up a new seed (or identity) for humanity to follow. That new seed is Jesus Christ! He literally is the only way for redemption into present fellowship with the Holy Spirit and our Father and Creator, the Great I Am.
Jesus Christ will not ask you and I to do something that He hasn’t already done. I will repeat that! Jesus Christ will not ask you to walk down a road that He hasn’t already walked.
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV
Jesus paved the only way for humanity to be rescued into righteousness and holiness. You and I must lay down our life on the altar of fire. Die to self. Allow God to prune off and burn off the ungodly behaviors that shouldn’t be a part of our new identity in Christ Jesus.
You and I must step into the Great I Am’s presence by surrendering our life as a living sacrifice. This truly is the only reasonable method to step into the Lord’s presence.
It is war! The flesh and the Holy Spirit are arch enemies. The flesh and the desires of the flesh, literally must die for the Holy Spirit to become alive in a man.
“And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” Galatians 5:24 ESV
See most of us don’t understand the power or presence of the Holy Spirit because we haven’t entered into the realm where the Spirit lives. As long as you’re living fleshly, you will never experience the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
“Walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” Galatians 5:16-17 ESV
The love of Jesus must shatter your willingness to continue living for self.
Let’s be honest. Many Christian’s, including myself, are guilty of believing in Jesus Christ but living according to the flesh. You and I must step into the Great I Am’s presence by surrendering our life as a living sacrifice. This truly is the only reasonable method to step into the Lord’s presence.
The second important question is: Do you want the Lord’s presence now or are you waiting until Heaven?
Jesus Christ paved the way and showed the example of stepping into the Father’s presence.
God will test the human soul and mind to see how much of His Spirit can enter into your present daily life.
God will test you and I to see if we are ready to be freed from sin, lust and pride. Or are we unwilling with a hardened heart? Pride is one of the most hated sins by God. Because pride is a living belief that says: “I don’t need to surrender everything to Christ. I don’t need to be completely re-made into a new man.”
The love of Jesus must shatter your willingness to continue living for self. I will repeat that! The love of Jesus must drown and kill your pride…. When I study the cross, I understand that my life is actually not mine to live. My life was rescued from death through the mystery of the gospel of Jesus. My life, and your life, was truly bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus. Jesus Christ is our Creator, our redeemer, our best friend and our God who personally rescued us from chains and bondage.
Are you ready to give Christ everything? He gave everything to rescue you!
So when the One person holding the keys is ready to set me free from bondage – Who am I to have pride and say: “no Lord I’m not ready to surrender everything and be totally set free.”
Are you ready to give Christ everything? He gave everything to rescue you!
He gave his very life. And Jesus asks us to do the same.
“I am crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me…” Galatians 2:20 ESV
When a man lays down and gives up everything on the altar of God is when holiness and righteousness reign in his heart. The seed of Adam is burned into ashes and the seed of Christ springs forth a new life!
Holiness and righteousness is a relationship!
That man has been bought by the blood and now this man is owned by the blood. He’s a new man. The seed of Adam is dead. The seed of Christ is alive.
And now the garden of Eden is restored. That’s holiness!! That’s righteousness!! Holiness and righteousness is a relationship! I will repeat! Holiness and righteousness is a relationship!
“For you are a people holy to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” Deuteronomy 14:2 ESV
This divine relationship is absolutely achievable. God the Father and the Son, Jesus, will not give you and I commandments that are unachievable. That’s cruel and unusual punishment.
The Holy Trinity gives us commandments to make us into new men. You have to be willing to be remade into a new man.
Vulnerability and transparency are the first step to holiness.
P.S. You ever wonder why Adam and Eve were created naked? It’s because God wanted such an intimate relationship with His creation! The Creator wanted His creation to expose everything before Him. No holding back. That’s how you and I take the first step in a life of holiness and righteousness. Expose every fear, flaw, wound, heartache and sin before the Lord and your loved ones. That’s how we can restore the Garden. Vulnerability and transparency are the first step to holiness.