It’s Friday…Only Chance At Seeing God

What will happen when God pours out His Spirit on His people? Will He show Himself wise? Powerful? Loving? Probably so. But that’s not what God highlights in Ezekiel’s prophecy. The characteristic God will display through His people for all to see is His holiness.

“I will show Myself holy through them in the sight of many nations.”  (Ezekiel 39:27)

Holiness is one of those religious words that has been used so often that we all know the sort of concept it implies, but not actually what it means. For most of us, it conveys an idea of righteousness and purity, and while holiness involves such things, it isn’t defined by them. No, holiness means “other,” “set apart,” “different than.” God is “other” because of many reasons, including His righteousness and purity. But He is “other” for so many other reasons as well. He is beyond our imagination, infinitely higher than our thoughts, more awesomely powerful than we can conceive, and far more intensely loving than our deepest loves. God is “holy” because God is God, and there is none like Him.

It’s both amazing and sobering that God’s Spirit comes to show Himself holy through us. (He is after all the Holy Spirit). It’s amazing because of the privilege given to us to demonstrate to the world an “otherness” that the world does not know; and sobering because of how miserably we usually fail to demonstrate that “otherness.” The fact that in most statistical secular surveys, Christian behavior can hardly be distinguished from secular behavior is a slander of the “otherness” of God. His Spirit deeply desires to set us apart and so reveal who He is. Yet corporately, we are remarkably indistinguishable from the rest of the world.

Something is tragically wrong with that picture. What is the solution? Peter quoting Leviticus 11:44 sums it up well: “Just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written” ‘Be holy, because I Am holy.”’ (1 Peter 1:15-16). That’s our calling. That’s God’s purpose for us. And that’s the world’s Only Chance At Seeing God. So, let’s show Him off at all times and in every way.

Have a holy weekend. Make it better by worshiping The LORD with those who are not ashamed to be different than the rest of the world because they know their otherness makes them one with God, and they wouldn’t have it any other way.

All For Jesus – Nothing More, Nothing Less, Nothing Else.

“He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, The King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see, to Him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.” (1 Timothy 6:15b-16)