LIFESTYLES ......That make it Easy for you to Live Holy this End-Time!

LIFESTYLES THAT HELP HOLINESS

1. Rise above Sin

2. Develop a lifestyle of Purity

3. Develop your heart to reject sin

4. Keep good company

5. Be a man or woman of Prayer

6. Walk in divine Wisdom

7. Walk in the Spirit

8. Walk in faith

9. Walk in Love

Introduction

Holiness and walking in Holiness does not just happen, there are lifestyles that make it happen and sustainable.  No matter how much you love the Lord, once you take your eyes off the Lord, the person will fall into error.

Holiness is putting on the 'New man' created in the image of God according to Ephesians 4:24, but no matter how holy you maybe, if you continue to visit beer parlours and clubs, very soon you will join them there.  The reason is that you are sowing to the flesh.  You are allowing the old man in you to dictate what you are doing, and as long as you sow to the flesh, instead of sowing to the Spirit, you will reap corruption.

Remember the promise God made in Joel 2:28 is for those that are serving Him.  The promise to pour out His Spirit upon all people and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dream and your young men shall see vision is actually for those living on the path of righteousness because, though the Lord is liberal to pour His Spirit upon all flesh, the Holy Spirit can only fall on clean vessels.

This is why Apostle Paul admonished us in  2 Cor 7:1 saying "Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God".  Holiness is a decision of your will.  You know the Word and you also know the things you are doing that needs to stop.  You alone know what needs to be cleansed in your life, so when you decide to please God in your conduct, you take steps to stop those things that are fruitless and displeasing to God.  Holiness is by choice, it is what you choose to do with your life.  It is your conduct that agrees with the Word of God.  It is choosing what to say and do, where to go and nor to go.  It is choosing what to do in the secret and open that will make your vessel holy and worthy before the Lord.  

The purpose of this write-up is to examine some of the essential qualities and lifestyles that will help you overcome sin and live in victory. The lifestyle that will help you to maintain holiness and walk in it effortlessly.  I must mention here that, we cannot please the Lord without the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit, so when a person decided to be holy and pleasing to God, such a person should hand-over his or her life to the Holy Spirit, and the rest will be possible.

Rise above sin

In the first instance, to walk in holiness, you must reject sin in your spirit and be separated from sin with all your heart. You must rise above the motions of sin and operate the spiritual level where you can discern subtle temptation and deceptions of the devil.  You must be able to discern when your flesh is rising unnecessarily when the enemy is trying to deceive you with 'sweet nothing, and tempting your faith, or your greed etc.

The motions of sin offer you temporary pleasure or relief from a fleshly desire, after which you may regret your action.  Sin is the number one enemy of holiness.  Sin is a setback and an eater of years.  Many people who fornicate in their office at every opportunity, instead of praying for the company to advance forward are usually stagnated in one position or sacked after a while.  Fornication is a setback.

Sin is a destroyer of destiny.  It is not your friend, neither a promoter of destiny.  Many people who stole from their master, while serving are stranded today because their master caused them and the business they will establish in the future for stealing from them.  Such a curse requires repentance and restitution to come out...but pride will not allow them to go back to their former master and confess to their stealing, restore what they stole and ask for forgiveness.  Sin destroys destiny.

Sin brings shame and demotion to a man.  Once I witnessed the dismissal of two young employees of a bank for committing fornication during training.  The randy boy and his friend stole away into the toilet during training to have pleasure.  Unfortunately, the Human Resources Manager went to the ladies to refresh and took note of the unusual noise she heard.  She waited for them to finish and immediately they came out of the toilet, she demanded their bank ID cards and send them home. Employment terminated, hope for steady and reasonable income dashed...demotion and shame!

You must rise above sin because, in Christ, the grace to overcome sin is available.

Develop a Lifestyle of Purity

A lifestyle of purity is possible.  You should tell yourself you will not think or meditate on evil.  You will not desire to see corruption, that is anything that can corrupt your mind, for instance, seeing naked pictures and hearing sexual stories and jokes. You have to develop your mind, ear and eyes to be sensitive to things that corrupt like stories of how to cheat people in business, how to tell 'smart' lies, how to deceive women, what lies will make a man or woman fall for you and so on.

Develop your heart to reject sin

When you hate sin, you must also hate satanic alternatives.  For you to stand your ground against sin, you must be hard-working, trusting in God and content with what you have, while working out what you desire.

You can condition your mind to reject short-cuts to greatness.  Develop a conscience that will not lie or deceive anyone.  A conscience that becomes angry at stories of evil exploits whether it is business or in illicit trade etc.  When your conscience is clear, you will be able to act quickly in rejecting sinful ideas.  A man you met on Facebook is inviting you to Abuja from your state with a promise to help you travel abroad.  He sent you transport fare and N50,000 Naira cash.  Do you need a fortune teller to know the man has an evil intention, either to send you on Prostitution trip abroad or to use you for money ritual.  If your conscience is well developed, you will reject silly requests.

Keep good company

The company you keep will sooner than later begin to influence you. The bible says evil communication corrupt good manners.  If you keep the company of Prostitutes as a girl and say you can't do what they are doing, its just a matter of time.  When a big problem comes to you, your first option of escape will be prostitution.  Instead of praying and listening to what the Lord will say concerning the problem, you will seek the help of your friends and they will take you to the club and you may never recover.

If you want to live right, then you must relate to the right people and do the right things.  If you want to grow in the faith, you should seek God-fearing brothers and sisters to relate with.  Run from bad company, they will corrupt you.  The moment your mind is corrupt, you can see white and call it black.  It means you can no longer judge things right - holiness and the Spirit of God will be far from that person.

Be a Man or Woman of Prayer

Prayer is an important privilege of children of God.  Prayer brings down the power of God to save and deliver.  You are on earth and your Heavenly Father is in heaven.  It is with prayer that you communicate with Him.  There is a need for prayer for every child of God.  God says we should ask what we want from Him in prayer and He would supply it, so if you are not praying and asking, you will end up in lack.

Jesus demonstrated the need for prayer and how it should be done...without season, every day.  Those who are not praying are depending on Satan literately, but in their mind, they think they are using their wisdom. There is nothing like that.  You are either controlled by God or the devil.

Through prayer, we counter the arrows and evil decrees of the enemy and destroy afflictions targeted against us.  The curses that agents of Satan rain on believers are countered through prayer and they remain nullified.  A prayerless Christian is a powerless believer and agents of Satan would afflict such one, God forbid.

Walk-in Divine Wisdom

In the life of most successful men and women of God, you will see divine wisdom at work in the things they do and the statement they make.  Divine wisdom is talking about the Spirit of discernment and excellent Spirit. God hates foolishness and foolish men, He abhors.  Nothing foolish is permeated in the presence of the All-wise God.

So, holy and righteous brethren must walk in divine wisdom, discern things fast and take the right actions.  They also know when to speak and what exactly to speak.

Walk in the Spirit

The Holy Spirit is our helper of destiny, our guide and teacher.  It's impossible to walk in the Spirit without the Holy Spirit.  Walking in the Spirit is being led by the Spirit of God and you do so by being sensitive to the Holy Ghost as a person.  You acknowledge His person, help and support upon your life.

You will have to yield to the Spirit in all thing and seek His guidance and direction always, and never grieve Him. When the Holy Spirit is leading you in battle, you cannot lose a fight because He tells you where the enemy is hiding and what to do.

You cannot enjoy your Christian experience without the help of the Holy Spirit.  You may never be free from sin or mature in the faith without the help of the Holy Spirit.

Walk-in Faith

Walking in faith is a must for the righteous, otherwise, he is stranded.  The bible warned the righteous to live by faith, so his faith must never fail.  A holy and righteous man that does not know how to walk in faith will be a laughing stock.

It means he will not be able to pray for the sick, overturn the works of darkness against him and certainly, he would not be able to decree a thing that will be established for him.  That holy man cannot call forth things which be not as though they be.  On this earth, he would probably end up a very poor man.

Walk-in Love

God is Love and walking in love, though difficult in the beginning eventually becomes a way of life for heaven-bound believers.  What is walking in love, doing to others, what you want them to do to you, showing the love of God to others?  Sharing the good things the Lord bless you with those that have nothing.  Walking in love means many things to many people, even in the bible.  However, it takes a wonderful new meaning when you can decide to be nice to someone that had done evil to you in the past.

You know that we are flesh, and sometimes the enemy you are contending with is not far from you.  Don't know about Europe and America, but in Nigeria and maybe Africa, your likely enemies are people around you, the devil has decided to use to stop you.  They must be close to you as friends, relatives and neighbours.  So, when you rise from a tough challenge and decide to help the man or woman who was instrumental to your troubles, you are simply working in love and saying to him and others, my lie and all that I have is hidden in Christ.

Walking in Holiness

Holiness is a lifestyle that is developed and lived by those who love the Lord and want to end their pilgrim journey well.  There is real joy in being the son of God, there is also joy in deciding to live a separated life, away from sin and pleasures and evil of this world.  You will experience peace like never before and if you have developed your faith, you can easily explode into the supernatural.  Holiness is one of the keys that unlock the supernatural, the second key is Faith.

Holiness can open a village boy to the dimension of the prophetic and he begins to experience, see and hears those things that only the beloved hear from the Lord.  Every believer who loves the Lord must desire and pursue holiness in all they do.  Holy living is a life that pleases the Lord and whosoever decided to live holy will experience His presence and power.  You will never be alone again, neither will you go anywhere alone or engage in spiritual battles alone.  His presence will make a difference in your life and experience, and Jesus will become real in your life.

Holy living proceeds from the heart that love the Lord. You live because you are persuaded that's the way God wants you to live. You are living holy because you know who you are in the Lord, and the truth that you are not to be conformed to the world.  You are living holy because you know there are two ways to go, the narrow and the broad ways, and the choice is yours to make. You are living holy because you know that holiness is the Will of God for you. 

You don’t live a holy life to get God to love you—He already loves you! You don’t live holy to get saved or to get God to move in your favour...NO! You live holy because you want to be like your Master, Jesus Christ, who was holy and blameless all His days on earth, and the Father gave Him a name above every other name.  So, how can you live a holy life? 

1. When you disconnect from the world, 
2. flee from every appearance of evil.
3. When you shut your eyes from seeing evil - Naked pictures, and videos
4. Study the Word of God and meditate on it daily
5. When you pray for yourself and other people daily
6. When you stop your hands from holding evil and your legs from evil places
7. When you serve the Lord in spirit and truth.


1. Disconnect From the World.  The world and the things of this world can be very attractive to the flesh.  The riches and the recognition that success brings, the wonderful food and drinks of all kinds that are available in the world is a strong attraction to millions of people, even believers.  Many people are lucky, not to be exposed to these things, because of its grip on people.  The pleasures of life can hold people captive and make it difficult for them to serve God. This is why the bible warned us in Rom 12:2, not to be conformed to this world, but be renewed by the Word of God.

There should be a definite line drawn between us and the world. That means that in the way we think, see things and the choices we make and actions we take, there should be a difference.  We should think like Jesus, see things the same way He would see them.  I have known some people that allows anything around them in order to please people, such a lifestyle will take you no where in Christ. We should look like Jesus, and as He that called us is holy, we should be holy.

To be set apart means we’re not living like the world, not thinking like the world, and not engaging in sin like the world. We are also not competing with them.  This is important because, I see a lot of our sisters competing with the world in fashion, trying to be dress like their worldly colleagues and neighbours.  This is not necessary.  We are not competing with the world, because their style is not our style.  like their Instead, we’re separated from the world and walking with God in His ways.

To achieve any meaningful separation from the world, we should be prepared to study the word of God more times.  Be ready to forfeit many things.  We should forget about watching secular television, listening to secular music, and hanging out with unbelievers.  In this world, sexual sin, violence, foul language and drunkenness are celebrated, while morality and Christian values are laughed at. So, be ready to receive mockery and name-calling.  Some people close to you will see you as a fool, uncivilized etc for the decision to separate yourself from the world.  But we must never be unequally yoked with the world.

You should also be ready to lose many of your friends in the course of your journey.  Once your difference becomes clear, many of your old friends will detach from you.  Your thinking and talking are no longer the same, and they will leave.  If you are not prepared, the challenges could be so heavy on you.  This is because, in addition to losing friends, you will still face persecution from the closest of friends and relatives.  The Almighty God Himself, knew ahead of time that living a separated life would involve persecution.  Jesus says:  “The world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world” - John 17:14. But remember, great blessings and honor come to those who are persecuted for His sake - Matthew 5:10.  

2. Flee from Evil.  The best way to avoid temptation is to rid yourself of greed and lust.  Take your eyes off evil things. no matter how attractive they may look.  If you keep admiring every woman you see on the street or office, you will soon start lusting for them.  If you keep remembering the smoothness of some wine and alcoholic drinks you drank before you became save, you will soon start buying them again.  The bible says “Flee the evil desires.” –2 Timothy 2:22 (NIV)

Having evil desires is as bad as sin itself because it will surely lead the person to sin.  It is hard to resist temptation when your heart is meditating evil.  We have a choice, too. “Let us cleanse ourselves” -2 Corinthians 7:1. We’re temples of the Holy Ghost—indwelt by the Spirit of God.  To be tempted is not sin, and that cannot be prevented on earth.  Temptations will come, the devil choosing your weakest areas to tempt you, but it is yielding to the temptation that is a sin.

The temptation from the opposite sex and money remains the strongest of all temptations, and many Christians make up their minds never to fall to any of these temptations, and with the help of the Holy Ghost, it is possible to maintain such a vow. 

3. Obey the Word of God - If you are living separated to God, disconnected from darkness, you will stand out and be distinguished. Many people are born again, but they never disconnect from their old lives. They never spend enough time hearing from God, reading the Word for themselves, praying, or learning how to listen to the Holy Spirit.  Many are born again, but they have not developed their spirit man to any meaningful levels, so they remain baby Christians after many years in the church. 


FIRE...