HOLINESS, RIGHTEOUSNESS....Precious qualities you can obtain Easily!




Introduction

From the scriptures, anything holy is dedicated to the service of God's kingdom, and this is why the High Priest and the Prophets of old were people separated from worldliness (Not the world) and dedicated to serving and doing the will of the Almighty God. So, holiness is worked-out daily until it becomes a lifestyle.


The caption "Love not the world" becomes a command to help you focus on God and do His will.  This is true because the world has its own ways of thinking and doing thing which is always contrary to the ways of God.  The world is carnal, while God is a Spirit and His worshipers should worship Him in spirit and truth. 

Holiness
In holy living, you see yourself as a vessel of honour unto the Lord, to serve and worship Him on His own terms and not the way you like.  There is a great danger in worshipping God in our own way - Remember what happened to the two sons of Aaron who offered a strange sacrifice unto the Lord, they died on the spot.

Though we were conceived in iniquity, we can nevertheless walk in holiness by His grace.  Every attempt to live right and holy must take its root from Jesus Christ. We must also continue to abide in Him for our righteous and holy living to endure and become a lifestyle.  No one can live holy by his power.

Believers are expected to examine their lives in the light of God's word, renewing their minds and cleansing themselves of every filthiness of the flesh and spirit. Holiness is from inside-out - From the purity of heart and body, godly communication and appearance, love for God and His business, etc. 

How much of His word are you obeying and how has your life changed, since you became born again? Holiness will eventually affect your desires and your way of life, because of the way you see things in the light of the word of God.  Gradually, you will start avoiding things that can lead you to sin, discussions, jokes and other stories that do not edify the spirit.  It takes a while to get there, but gradually and surely, your spirit will embrace the change you want to see. Holiness is important for all Christians who want to enjoy eternity in Christ.


Righteousness

Righteousness can be described as a state of holiness, uprightness, pureness and blamelessness. A person that is righteous is expected to be pure in heart, full of love for God and man, blameless in his relationship with his neighbours and full of good works – works and help rendered to people without expecting anything from them in return, but hoping and believing in God, the Rewarder.

A person that is righteous is expected to live and walk without fear, who is not seeking after vanity – things that do not satisfy, and who will not turn God’s grace and glory to shame.  A man or woman that hates pride and sin, he abhors iniquity, and evil works and flees from every appearance of sin.

Righteousness is a gift from God, meaning you cannot be righteous by your own efforts alone and you cannot make yourself righteous, only the grace of God can make you live a blameless and pleasing life.  Righteousness is a gift resulting from what Christ did at the cross.   When the Spirit of God enters you, righteousness also entered you.  What is left for you and me is the grace to work-out-our salvation?  

Sin - That hinders both righteousness and holiness

All unrighteousness is sin. Whatever is not right is wrong. Sin brings reproach. Erodes honour and bring low. Sin is at the root of affliction, disease, and death. (Ezek.18:20)

Sin has three dimensions:
a) It is deceptive (Heb 3:13)
b) It offers temporal pleasure (Heb. 11:25)
c) It is destructive (Prov. 11:3)

Sin is not anybody's friend; it is an enemy that brings shame and destruction. When Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, he was stripped naked (Gen. 3:20)

Crookedness could bring temporal gains, it is a barrier to honour, let it go from your life. Unfaithfulness, cheating and taking advantage of people are corruption you should depart from, else you will see corruption. Prov. 11:3

Depart from Egypt (worldliness), meddle not with sin so that you do not become entangled with it and end up in shame. Despise not the Word of God, depart from iniquity - repeatedly going back to a particular sin, else you provoke God to anger and you are destroyed.

Living Holy

Jesus lived in holiness - He separated himself from the things of this world unto God in prayer and supplication, presented His body blameless to the father;  He spoke and did only what he heard from the Father and by so doing he pleased God and fulfilled his destiny on earth - doing the will of the Father and completing it. 

All believers are expected to walk in holiness and by so doing, have power and favour with God.  No wonder many children of God have never tasted the goodness and power of God.  “You shall decree a thing and it shall be established unto you... is strange to them”, yet everything that heaven has assigned us to do can only be successfully accomplished in a state of holiness.

Holiness makes us crave for life in the Spirit and to walk in Spirit and not fulfil the lust of the flesh.  That we give our life to the Holy Ghost and be filled by Him.  When we walk in the Spirit, the Holy Spirit brings every thought of vanity and lust that the enemy will post to your heart to captivity.

Holiness requires that we keep the right company, and speak edifying words.    If you move around with the wrong people, one day, you will start doing those things they do - for evil communication corrupts good manners. If your friends lie and steal, very soon you will see yourself doing exactly the same things you condemned.

Holiness is a command of our Lord - Mark 12:30  “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 

Why Holiness:

Holiness is a commandment, not advice.  For without holiness, no eyes shall see the Lord.  Eternity in heaven is the goal of salvation.  Holiness starts from the heart and flows outwards to affect our body, appearance and communication and actions. 

Holiness, when it flows down to the body, makes you value yourself as you should, and give you the wisdom to carry your body in dignity - In holiness, you learn to glorify God with your body. 

Holiness in your body means that the body will also be holy and free from all fornication and every form of sexual defilement, so you will have a pure heart before God

It requires daily self-examination to make sure there is no guile, envy, malice, unforgiveness, bitterness, anger etc that will open the door for the devil to oppress.

Holiness is required to maintain your deliverance and possess your possessions. Receiving deliverance without holiness is an effort in futility because the person will soon return to the same sin that put him in that bondage. Without holiness, the benefits of deliverance will be lost - Obadiah 17.

PRACTICAL HOLINESS

Holiness is the life of God.  Holiness is living the life of Christ - the life of obedience to the Word of God and doing the Will of His Father.  God is holy and demands holiness from His children because it is in a state of holy living that God is glorified. 

It is in a holy state that a man’s life will shines before men and bring glory to God; it is in a holy state that His will can be done.  Holiness requires that we train our minds, eyes, and ears to yield to Jesus Christ and follow after Him, just as our bodies should.  Holiness requires that we die completely to ourselves.  Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Matthew 16:24).

Holiness is worked out daily.  It is like sanctification, you sanctify yourself daily by examining yourself and your ways.  You brush your teeth every day until you die.  If you brush it today, you will still brush it tomorrow and any day you fail to brush your teeth, your mouth begins to smell. 

Holiness is lived out daily in the things we do, the choices we make in a relationship, business, etc. The beauty and enjoyment of a holy life is that it can always be improved upon. We can live in all the light that shines upon us from the word of God today, but tomorrow we find them shining a little brighter and fuller light so that we shall have to live a little more holy than we are today.  

Holiness requires that Christ dwells in us by the Word and the Spirit. The indwelling of Christ in us is soon tested when we are smitten upon the right cheek when we are evil-spoken of, misrepresented, misunderstood, neglected, despised, and forsaken.  

2. What is righteousness

Righteousness is one of the nature of God and a study on righteousness is a visit to the Father, who alone is righteous, to learn of Him. 

Our God is righteous, Jesus Christ is righteous, the Holy Spirit is righteous, the Holy angels and the entire heaven is an abode of righteousness, and that was why in Luke 1:73-75, God took an oath before our father of faith – Abraham to deliver us from our enemies that we might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives.

He commanded us to be righteous as He, our God is righteous and the bible said in Isaiah 51:1 that those that follow God and those that seek Him are righteous.  The righteous are incredibly obedient to God's word and highly disciplined people.  Though simple and looking physically weak in some cases, they are hard men and women when it comes to the instructions in the word of God.

God is righteous that no evil or unrighteousness is found around Him.  Not only is He righteous, but He is the only righteous God and His judgment is righteous, and He will judge the world in righteousness.

Seeking Kingdom righteousness?

A righteous man or woman is one that deliberately  and "diligently keeps the commandments of the LORD His God, and His testimonies and His statutes which He has commanded"

A righteous man/woman diligently seeks to do things that please God.  He makes deliberate efforts to keep the commands of the Lord and obey His voice.  He loves the Lord, and purposes in his heart to please Him.  A righteous man is a lover of righteousness and he hates evil

A righteous is a man or woman that has the grace of God to abide in the tabernacle of the Lord always, who walks uprightly and speaks the truth in his heart.  He/she does not take up a reproach against his neighbour or do them any harm and in whose eyes a vile person is not honoured or celebrated, rather he celebrates people that fear the Lord.

A righteous person does not gossip or backbite with his/their tongue, neither does he conspire or lie against the innocent.  A righteous man keeps his word and maintains his integrity at all times.

A righteous man or woman is a friend of God who has the grace to live holy with a pure heart, who does not lift up his heart unto vanity to seek things that do not edify and he does not deceive anyone.  He presents things honestly and truly to people.

A righteous man or woman fears God and seeks Him continually and trusts in Him. These are some of the reasons why he is as bold as a lion.  The righteous studies and delights himself in the word of God and does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful – mockers are not his friends.

The righteous is that man that falls severally, but will always get up and keep matching on.  He knows that victory belongs to those that keep looking at the goal, those that persevere and despite the hardship, they are moved, they keep believing and trusting in God.  And putting behind their challenges, they hold on to the promise of eternal life in Christ, they will get up and keep running.

A righteous man or woman is one that receives the grace to be free from sin or dead to sin.  The motions of sin do not move him anymore.  They have crucified their flesh and their spirit is constantly alive.  They are prayerful, kind and patient.  They are merciful and easily forgive offences.

God Raises the Righteous

We see in Isaiah 45 that it is God that raises the righteous for a special assignment in the fulfilment of His will on earth, and everyone righteous is preserved and reserved for God’s use. God raises people who are humble in heart and spirit, sheep and not goats to do His bidding.

The Lord speaking in Isaiah 44:28 described Cyrus as a shepherd, who shall perform all His pleasure. He continued to say that He raised him up in righteousness and He will direct his ways; he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward. - Isaiah 45:13

When it comes to fulfilling his assignment, God again promised to hold his hands and subdue nations before him; and to lose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates, and the gates shall not be shut and so many other promises to ensure that he fulfils God’s will successfully.

Finally, a righteous man/woman confesses Christ in word and action.  They are rich in goodness – helping the needy, and poor, visiting the poor and those in Prison and praying for them.  Beloved, we can all operate in the above-listed grace.  



FIRE...








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