Are you afraid or feel unworthy to come before God? Your body needs cleansing.
It is by drinking from God for salvation (1 Cor. 12:13) that we all become sons or a daughter of God (Rom 8:15). We ARE royalty and ARE priests in God’s kingdom and who are to reign with Christ (Rev 5:9-10). As priests, we are to come to the throne of God with confidence (Heb 4:16). We are to stand before the Lord, minister to Him, and be His ministers (2 Chron. 29:11).
Yet even confidently believing all of this, it can be terrifying to be intimately close to God for some. When John wrote to “little children,” he was speaking to Christians, “Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming” (1 John 2:28).
Did you see that? Because of the holiness and the greatness of God, there will be Christians who will feel shame and want to “shrink away” at the second coming of Christ!
How can we, as the bride of Christ, make ourselves ready?
What is the cause of our fear and feeling so unworthy? Why do we sometimes want to get dirty again after being close to the Lord?
Beyond praying to receive Christ for forgiveness of sins, we must also live a holy life. We must be holy because God is holy.
For holy living, you only need to put on the armor of Light so you can abide in Christ (John 15:4) and avoid the lusts of the flesh (Rom. 13:12, 14). But in my own life, those verses weren’t descriptive enough to be practical. I had to understand the bigger picture before I could apply those verses. I also had to solve the problem of shame when exposed to the holiness of God inside an open heaven around me.
Holy living is vital, but there are five parts, and all of them must be tied together, or they aren’t effective. Before I tell you the five things, I also need to tell you that much of your thinking patterns will need to change before you can live this way. Of course, God’s best is for us to make these changes in steps and with joy. But suppose something happens in the world that forces us to turn to God suddenly. In that case, learning to depend on the nearness of God can be so different from what is normal that it can be terrifying and emotionally painful. The Heart Training is designed to help you teach your heart in ways that help you learn all five parts together instead of one part at a time. Please don’t wait to go forward with these changes, as they are vital for helping you do your part in filling the earth with His glory.
Central to holy living is that God designed us with emotional needs that drive our good and bad behavior until our needs can be filled. Depending on earthly and human sources or ourselves is painful and uncertain. Depending on God as what fills your emotional needs can be a powerful motivator for wanting closeness to God.
You must know this about God. He considers it idolatry when we depend on substitutes apart from Him to fill our emotional needs. It is idolatry because He wants to be the ONE God whose nearness is our basis for confidence, security, and worth.
Sadly, not many Christians understand well enough to explain how to depend on God as what fills our emotional needs. So, let me break it down for you. Of the five parts needed for holy living, the first two change what we depend on to meet our emotional needs. Parts three through five involve learning to experience God as a shield that protects us from evil and what you must do to maintain that protection. When you combine all five parts, filling your emotional needs and staying protected become the motivation for staying open to the radiance around God and receiving His presence so you can abide in Him. When your abiding falters and demons bother you with temptation, it also becomes easy to experience the cleansing of God in ways that wash all that is unholy off of you and out of the atmosphere around you. Let me give more detail.
The first part needed for holy living is that you must direct your heart away from thinking patterns bent on idolatrous ways of finding confidence, security, and worth through what you get from worldly glory, rebellious power, and sin. The second part of holy living is that you must direct your heart into the place of believing and enjoying the nearness of God’s glory and power around you as what satisfies you (Ps. 63:1-2, 5)and makes you confident, secure, and worthy (Phil. 3:3). The 3rd part of holy living is where you direct your heart into believing the scriptures so you can humble your pride and become childlike enough to trust God is washing your physical body, your conscience, and the atmosphere around you holy as His presence and kingdom come down upon and all around you here. The fourth part is that you must learn to keep receiving from God and REST with the presence of God and His kingdom around you without reaching out from inside you toward lust or toward some other way of filling an emotional need (Ps 44:20,21; Pro 25:28).
The fifth part of holy living is that of directing your heart into the place of faith about being protected by the nearness of God and His kingdom so that you can enjoy His burning and crushing the demons trying to tempt you with sin, by what you receive from God in the process of putting on the armor and abiding in Him.
Consider Scriptures About How God Washes Away Our Shame
When Isaiah saw the Lord, he felt so unworthy he said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips…” (Isa 6:5). To solve the problem God had an angelic being touch Isaiah’s lips.
When Moses saw the burning bush, the Bible says God made the dirt holy. Then God had Moses take his shoes off so that the holy dirt could touch Moses and make him holy also (Exo 3:2-5).
The principle here is that holiness is imparted to our physical body when our holy God touches our skin with His presence. But understanding how this works requires explanation.
God says to all of us, “By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy” (Lev 10:3). He also says, “Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy…” (Lev 11:44). Consecration means that we must separate ourselves from evil and to the Lord. Heart Training is a tool for consecration. But, being made holy is something we must rely on God to do.
Through Moses, God told the Old Testament priests, “…consecrate the altar, and the altar shall be most holy” (Exo. 40:10). So when the priests did their part to consecrate the altar, then God came and did His part actually to make it holy. God says, “…the veil…the altar…My sanctuaries…I am the Lord who sanctifies them” (Lev 21:23).
Sanctification is the process of becoming holy. Four times in the Bible, God tells us, “I am the Lord who sanctifies you” (Exo 31:13; Lev 20:8; Lev 21:8; Lev 22:32).
But how does God make us holy? The priests consecrated these things, and God did the part of actually making them holy by touching them with His presence; “For seven days you shall make atonement for the altar and consecrate it; then the altar shall be most holy, and whatever touches the altar shall be holy” (Exo. 29:37).
When considering these things practically, we consecrate ourselves from idolatry and sin by declaring to our heart reasons to love the emotional benefit of God’s nearness instead of what we gain from sin or pride. As our childlike dependence on God increases, we naturally find it easier to open up to God and His radiance so we can receive His presence, and by this, God is free to do His part by touching us with His presence to make us holy. When we do our part in directing our heart to receive God’s kingdom and presence so we can abide in Him, God is able to make us holy by His washing us while He is coming near (Heb. 10:19-22). When you set your heart to enjoy the greatness of God and His radiant glory as what makes you holy instead of the earthly glory you find from pride, you become one who is declaring, “My soul will make its boast in the LORD; The humble will hear it and rejoice” (Psa. 34:2).
By salvation, the holiness of God’s Spirit comes into us and touches us inside; “…so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). The problem is that spiritual evil is in the air around us (Eph. 2:2). So when we aren’t abiding with the holiness of God around us, sometimes for reasons we aren’t always aware of, evil in the air touches our physical skin, and we feel spiritually dirty. Feeling spiritually dirty can be true even after salvation, even when the eternal inner part of us is still going to Heaven after we die.
Breaking through to higher levels of experiencing God requires that it becomes easy for us to receive the cleansing presence of God for our body. And because God is good, doing this works well. But because “…we…receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Gal 3:14). To protect yourself from evil in the air and from temptation (Rom. 13:12-14), you must be in faith and open to receiving the continual shine of God upon you so you can abide in Him. The joy and childlike love you naturally have for feeling secure is powerful for motivating you to want to stay in God’s presence.
You must teach your heart to treasure that “the LORD God is a sun and shield; / The LORD gives grace and glory…” (Ps. 84:11). So, like the sun, you must be in faith that the Holy Spirit of God is coming to you by the glory of the radiance that shines from all around Him so He can shield you from the evil in the air.
Abiding IN Christ solves the problem of shame before God because His holy presence surrounds your physical body and touches your skin; “…God is Light…” (1 John 1:5), and we can “walk in the Light,” that we can trust the Light of His holiness is touching our skin, and “…the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us…” (1 John 1:7). “…the body is…for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body” (1 Cor. 6:13).
We are “…sanctified by the Holy Spirit” (Rom 15:16), touching us, inside and out (see also 1 Thess. 5:23), for salvation and practical holy living after salvation.
Regarding our salvation, God says that “…you were washed…you were sanctified…in the Spirit of our God” (1 Co 6:11). And Paul wrote about us about holiness for our physical body after salvation, “…may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame…” (1 Thess. 5:23). The principle is that when the priests consecrated the altar, God sanctified it; “…the altar shall be most holy, and whatever touches the altar shall be holy” (Exo 29:37). After salvation God sanctifies our physical body as we walk by faith in the Light and the holiness of God upon us.
We are “…sanctified by faith in Him” (Acts 26:18), but that faith must be active! Because “…we…receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” (Gal 3:14); and “…he who comes to God must believe…that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” (Heb. 11:6) God says, “…I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols” (Ezek. 36:25). But note again that because we receive through faith, we must be applying active faith that believes He is coming and washing us! Your job will be to teach your heart to believe the radiance of God is upon you and that you are abiding inside Him because of it.
Use Heart Training to make joyful declarations of repentance and build our faith. Determine that you will listen to your declarations and change your thinking patterns so you can enjoy depending on God more fully. The benefits of abiding in the presence of God are profoundly practical for everyday living.
Use the declarations with boldness so it can become real for you to “…put on the armor of light…and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts” (Rom. 13:12,14). And, “…God is Light…if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 Jo 1:5,7).
Use the Heart Training to lead your heart into treasuring that the cleansing power of God’s holiness coming down upon you is powerful for burning and crushing demons trying to tempt you. The Heart Training will help you with the five parts to holiness, and through this, you can avoid being like other Christians who feel shame at the second coming of Christ (1 John 2:28). Last of all, “Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb 12:14).