Be Ye Holy

The terms holy, holiness, be ye holy, are all terms that we should be familiar with. The dictionary definition of holy means ….Belonging to or coming from God; hallowed, con-secrated or set apart to a sacred use; set apart unto God. It is a rather simple definition that is much more difficult to interpret.

We are told in I Peter 1:16 ….Be ye holy; for I am holy. God says that He is holy and as a result we are to be holy, or we are to be like Him. To be holy then means to be like God, to be set apart for his purposes, and to be conformed to the image of God. To be holy means to speak like God, think like God, act like God, to be like God. That, after all, was part of God’s original intent in the creation of man. When God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul, Genesis 2:7, God’s intent was that man would be made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26), which included being holy.

When God spoke to my wife and I about starting our ministry, I asked Him to confirm it in His Word. I felt that it was unusual that someone would be called to the ministry at my age (I had just turned fifty) and I said to the Lord that usually people were called when they were much younger than I. He spoke to me out of Numbers 4:1-4: And The Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, take the sum of the sons Kohath from among the sons of Levi, after their families, by the house of their fathers, From thirty years old and upward even until fifty years old, all that enter into the host, to do the work in the tabernacle of the congregation. This shall be the service of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation, about the most holy things. I understood that our calling was to minister about the most holy things. We were not to pursue all of the various things that the local churches had become because we were called to minister of the most holy things. Much later, He spoke to me out of 1 Cor 9:13. Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? And they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar? Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. In other words, you will be eating what you are preaching. You are going to live by what you preach. Survival or prosperity will be based upon how accurate you are with the interpretation of the Word of God and the preaching or communication of it. We came to understand that being holy was the key to how we received from the Word of God, and that how we measured holiness was the key to how God measured abundance to us.

In 1 Peter 1:15, 16 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. The word conversation means more than just your speech, it means your manner of living. We are commanded to be holy, or set apart unto God, for God. It is done by decision. No one becomes holy by accident or accidentally stumbles into holiness. You must make a decision to be holy, and it needs to be an irrevocable decision. You must purpose in your heart to be holy or there is no way it will happen. The natural forces in operation in this world that has the nature of sin in it will not promote holiness, but will draw you away. Unless you have purposed to be holy with an irrevocable decision, those forces will eventually wear your defenses down and the weapons of your warfare will be ineffective because you did not make that irrevocable decision to be holy.

Romans 12:1 I Beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. The decision to be holy is ours. It is paired with “ acceptable unto God, “ which means that to be unholy is not acceptable unto God. There is nothing extraordinary in this, it is our reasonable service. We are expected to do it. You cannot be holy and be conformed to this world. We are responsible to transform our minds by the process of renewing it. We renew it to the Word of God, to the thoughts of God, to the mind of God by study and meditation on the Word of God, and by the decision to believe God, to seek God and to know God.

1 Cor 6:19, 20 What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. The Lord God bought us with a precious price, the blood of Jesus, and now inhabits our spirit. Our spirit lives in our body, so our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. We are com- manded, yes commanded to glorify God in our bodies, souls and spirits. Once again it is our reasonable service.

Haggai 2:11–14 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Ask now the priests concerning the law, saying, If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy? And the priests answered and said, No. Then said Haggai, if one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, it shall be unclean. Then answered Haggai, and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith the Lord; and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean.

Holiness is not infectious. Something does not become holy just because it was touched with something holy. On the other hand, unholiness is infectious. Things become holy by decision or by a specific act to make them holy, but holy things will become unholy just by association. What God was saying in this passage is that the people were not holy so everything they touched was unholy. Haggai 1:6 the people were sowing but they were not harvesting very much, and the harvest they had was insufficient. God was not in the harvest. In fact, in vs. 9 they were believing for much but God himself was making sure that it was insufficient, because the people were unholy and their ways were unholy. The root was unclean so everything they touched was unclean. The Lord was admonishing them to consider their ways. They were going to have to decide to be holy, to honor God with all they did. When they considered and changed their ways, God could move supernaturally for them. Haggai 2:19 Is the seed yet in the barn? Yea, as yet the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree, hath not brought forth: from this day on I will bless you. God was saying that if you will consider your ways and make a decision to be holy in all you do, I can supernaturally touch everything you do. If you are willing to change, then just make sure you have all your seed in the ground and I can touch it all. God is giving us the key to the supernatural. When we make the irrevocable decision to be holy and to make all that we do holy, He will make sure we see the supernatural take place.

Isaiah 45:1-3 Thus Saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel. There are things God has hidden back in the Earth for his anointed people, and things he has reserved for his anointed ones. When you have made the irrevocable decision to be holy, to walk in holiness and to make holiness the badge of who you are and all you do, God has no problem revealing to you the locations of the treasures of darkness and the hidden riches in secret places. On the other hand, if a person has not made the decision to be holy, everything they touch will be unholy and God will not reveal to them the treasures and secrets that he has hidden back for us. This is the key to the supernatural abundance of God and the last days supernatural wealth transfer. Everyone who is saved is not going to participate in the last day transfer, it will be only those who have considered their ways, who have made the irrevocable decision to be holy, and whom God can trust with the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places.

Holiness and being holy is not optional for the believer. We are commanded to be holy as He is holy. As with all other spiritual virtues, there is no possible way we can do it by ourselves. We make an irrevocable decision to move in that direction, we begin to move and the Holy Spirit takes over. The Holy Spirit performs the work in us, we just have to make the decision to allow Him to do it and do our part to begin the work. He will take over.

Make your declaration today. Say out loud, and from your heart, releasing your faith as you say it: Lord God, today I make an irrevocable decision to be holy, to talk holy, to act holy and to be holy in all that I say and do. Thank you for your Holy Spirit empowering me and acting in me to bring it to pass. I will be holy.