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Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully (Psalm 24:3-4).
LORD, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill? He who walks uprightly, and works righteous- ness, and speaks the truth in his heart (Psalm 15:1-2).
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favor you have with God, and angels gape in wonder at your status in God’s presence. And it’s all because you have embraced His call to holiness! You have purified your heart, cleansed your hands, sprinkled your conscience with His blood, and have made yourself ready with white robes of righteous deeds.
The Lord has said, “He who walks in a perfect way, he shall serve me” (Psalm 101:6). This is not referring to sinless perfection, but rather to a blameless lifestyle that is not subject to reproach or criticism by those who live closest to you. The reward of this
Secrets of the Secret Place
consecration is the exhilarating intimacy of standing continually in His presence. This pursuit of holiness is not a burden but rather a profound privilege. Happy holiness is one of the quiet secrets of the kingdom—a purity of heart that opens the pathway to the greatest heights of communion with God.
Holiness is not an inherent quality we carry; it is a derived quality that we take on. Holiness has but one source, the Holy One. Holiness has to do with proximity to the throne. The seraphim are called “holy ones,” not because of who they are but because of where they are. They are “holy ones” because they live in the immediate presence of the Holy One! I am holy only to the extent that I abide in His holy presence.
I used to define holiness more by what we don’t do, but now I define it more by what we do do. Holiness is found in drawing near to the holy flame of the Trinity. There, anything unholy is burned like stubble, and all that is holy is enflamed and made hotter.
“For the LORD God is a sun” (Psalm 84:11). As my Sun, the Lord is my light, my warmth, the one around whom my life re- volves, and He is the one who brings forth fruit from the garden of my life. His Spirit waters my life, His word nourishes my life, and His face is the power that causes the fruit of my garden to grow. As a planet revolves around the sun, I want my life to revolve around Christ. I want to be a planet, not a comet that swings by every 300 hundred years only to return to the darkness. And I don’t want to be a Pluto, hanging out on the furthest fringe. I want to be close—blazing with the same holy fire that radiates from His face.
To understand holiness, we need to look at the first time the Spirit is called “Holy Spirit” in the Bible. From the very begin- ning, the third person of the Trinity was called “the Spirit of God” (Genesis 1:2). He was never revealed as Holy Spirit until a most unfortunate incident in the life of a remarkable man. David was heavily anointed of the Spirit, and as a prophetic psalmist he lived in the dimension of the Spirit. (He wrote both Psalm 24 and Psalm 15, quoted at the beginning of this chapter.) But David took a hard fall into sin. He committed adultery with his neighbor’s wife and then killed his neighbor. Gripped with fear, he then launched a
The Secret of Holiness
big coverup campaign to hide his sin. But during his season of denial, something terrible happened to him—the Spirit of God lifted off his life. He was accustomed to having songs of the Spirit flow from within, but the flow stopped. His prayer life became trite and unfulfilling. He knew something was terribly wrong. Then, along came Nathan the prophet who pointedly told David of his sin. When David repented, he acknowledged he had missed the presence of God’s Spirit which had become so precious and so fulfilling to him. Yearning for a return to the former intimacy with God, David pled, “Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11). This was the desperate cry of a man who learned from personal experi- ence that the Spirit of God, above all else, is holy. He dwells only with those whose hearts are directed toward holiness. Holy men live in the presence of the Holy Spirit. Once you’ve known this intimacy, you realize that nothing is worth losing it!
Holiness is much more than simply clean living. Holiness is a life lived before the throne of God. The Scripture says of John the Baptist that “Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just and holy man” (Mark 6:20). John was not simply just (clean). He was much more than that; he was also holy. He was set apart to God, carrying the presence of God, a man of heaven living on earth. John lived in the presence of God—which is why Jesus called him “the burning and shining lamp” (John 5:35). Just and holy men cause kings to fear. They’re not just pure; they also burn with the flame that emanates from their fiery abode around the throne.
Holiness is to prayer as fire is to gasoline. When a holy man or woman prays, explosive things happen. We don’t pursue holiness for the sake of power, we pursue holiness for the sake of love. But those who pursue holiness out of affection for Jesus become very influential in the courts of heaven. James 5:16 links holiness and prayer: “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” Things change on earth when a holy man or woman, with
a cultivated secret life in God, prays with passion and urgency to the Lord he or she has come to know and love.
God is so committed to bringing us into this holiness that He is willing to do “whatever it takes” to get us there. The Bible
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points out that the main purpose of God’s chastening in our lives is primarily “that we may be partakers of His holiness” (Hebrews 12:10). If we will respond properly to His disciplines, they will inevitably lead us via the pathway of repentance to true holiness. When the chastening first comes, it feels like God is trying to kill us. But if we will persevere in love, crucifixion and burial is followed by resurrection!
I want to close this chapter with this powerful truth: Holi- ness produces resurrection. As certainly as chastening produces infirmity and brokenness, holiness produces resurrection, deliv- erance, and healing.
It says that the Lord Jesus was “declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4). In other words, it was Christ’s holi- ness that precipitated His resurrection. This truth was prophesied in David, “For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption” (Psalm 16:10). That verse applies initially to David, who was chastened by God almost to the point of death, but then was resurrected because of his holiness. But this is actually the Holy Spirit speaking of Christ Jesus, who did not see corruption. Jesus’ body experienced rigor mortis, but it never experienced corruption because He rose before decay set in. It was true of David and of Christ, and it’s also true of you!
You can’t keep holiness buried forever. Even if you feel dead and buried under the weight of God’s disciplining hand, devote your- self to His holy presence. Regardless of your shattered dreams and deferred hopes, live in the secret place of the Most High. It is the secret of your redemption. As you love Him from your grave, you are setting powerful spiritual forces into motion. Joseph was buried in prison, but because of his holiness they couldn’t keep him buried forever. The longer you try to keep a holy man buried, the more force must be exerted to keep him there; and the more force that’s exerted to keep him buried, the higher his resurrection will eventually be. Keep Joseph buried too long, and he’ll rise to the heights of the palace.
The grave could hold the Holy One only until the beginning
The Secret of Holiness
of the third day. Death’s grip gave way, and Holiness rose to the highest place:
Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:9-11).
Practice the holiness of His presence, O weary saint. It’s in- evitable— holiness will rise again!
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