Leviticus 19:2 – “… You shall be holy, for I, Yahweh your God, am holy.”

As I prayed, read, and meditated on the Word, almost immediately, I read something that challenged my heart: Leviticus 19:2. This was not a suggestion but a command.  I had several questions that I know I will be contemplating for days to come.

• Can we simply decide to be holy?
• What is being holy?
• What does it look like?
• How do we become holy?

I will not attempt to exegete those questions except to say, “GOD Is Holy!”

As I continued reading, I read 1 Corinthians, and these questions began to unfold for me. The beginning of Revelation, in seed form, began to be planted in my consciousness. [Emphasis mine in the following passages.]

1 Corinthians 1:2 – “For you HAVE BEEN made pure, set apart IN the Anointed One, Jesus…”

1 Corinthians 1:4 – “…He HAS GIVEN you such free and open access to His grace THROUGH your union with Jesus, the Messiah.”

1 Corinthians 1:17 – “For I trust in the ALL-SUFFICIENT Cross of Christ alone.”

1 Corinthians 2:30 – “And NOW He IS our God-given wisdom, our virtue, our holiness, and our redemption.” HE IS, and because He is, we are!

1 Corinthians 3:9 – “…you ARE God’s Cultivated Garden, the house He is building.”

1 Corinthians 5 speaks of inappropriate tolerance of sin, calling it superior grace.

1 Corinthians 5:6 – “Boasting over your tolerance of sin is inappropriate. Don’t you understand that even a small compromise with sin permeates the entire fellowship, just as a little leaven permeates a batch of dough?”

God’s heart is always reconciliation and restoration. God hates gossip, backbiting, bitterness, and perversion. God hates sin! God is love and desires that we love with His love. We must never forget that God is loving, merciful, just, and holy.

Romans 11:22 – “So fix your gaze on the simultaneous kindness and strict justice of God.”

If we are to become all He desires and has provided, we must move beyond being dominated by the mindset of the flesh (1 Cor. 3:1-3).

We can manifest the reality that we are and are becoming “God’s Cultivated Garden.”

1 Corinthians 3:22- 23 – “… everything belongs to you (us). 23 AND NOW you are joined to the Messiah, who is joined to God.”

Who we are is not necessarily our current manifestation. In being holy, we experience the process of ridding ourselves of the weights and hindrances of fleshly thinking and living and embracing God’s character. Being holy is not an impossible dream but a place of relationship with Him who is holy.   We are in Him, and as He lives His life through us, we Become!

You are more than you have become!  Become more than you are now manifesting.  He is in you, with you, and through you.  The life you NOW live in the flesh, you live by the faith of the Son of God. Christ in you is your Hope!

Today is your day to embrace the fullness of Who God says you are and allow the Holy Spirit to bring that into reality in your life!   God Bless!

Joshua 24:31 – “And Israel served Yahweh all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, who knew all the work of Yahweh which He had done for Israel.”

Judges 2:7 – “And the people served Yahweh all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, who saw all the great work of Yahweh which He had done for Israel.”

As I read, prayed, pondered, and meditated today, I was reminded of an inescapable truth: a personal relationship with God is required.  The same is revealed and repeated at the close of the Book of Joshua and the beginning of Judges.

In Joshua 24:31 and Judges 2:7, we read that Israel served God as long as Joshua and the elders who had seen God’s works lived. When the eyewitnesses died, faith and faithfulness died, too.  Judges 2:19 tells us that when the judges died, Israel became even more corrupt.  A personal relationship is the key to faithfulness and victory.   

In Mark 13:5, Jesus said, “Be careful that no man deceive you…”   Without a deep, abiding personal relationship with God, we are easy targets for deception. Deception caters to the flesh, the person’s desires, the need for ease, and the absolving of responsibility.   

When we know God personally and intimately, we readily recognize the Real, the imitation, and the counterfeit.   Christianity is not easy Unless we live (Christ in us and in Oneness with Him), abiding in the vine.  Too often, Christians live theoretical lives, not lives of practical application of God’s principles and promises.

We believe the Bible is God’s Word but find it challenging to make it practicable in everyday life.   We believe in salvation, but even that is futuristic.   We live with doubt and uncertainty because we do not know God intimately and personally.  We know about Him, but His Promises are theoretical, futuristic, or for super saints.

If we know Him intimately, we know He Does Not Lie!  We live in union with the impossible being possible All the Time!   We cannot depend on what someone else saw, heard, or experienced.  It is Individual and Personal!

He invites us to an in-depth personal relationship.   Make Him most essential and refuse to doubt.  He is I AM! His life is your life.   Be the one who keeps faith alive for others so they can keep faith alive after you.   Christ is IN us, and we are ONE with Him.  Let us live like He is truthful because He is!

Victory is your hope today!  You are IN Him, and He is IN you, enabling you to live above the Impossible!   Enjoy the victory He has invited you to live in!

Matthew 12:34 – “But you who are known as the Pharisees are rotten to the core like venomous snakes. How can your words be good if you are rotten within? For what has been stored up in your hearts will be heard in the overflow of your words!” 

What a day!  This is the day the Lord has made, and we have a multitude of reasons to rejoice and be glad.  The old song, “Count Your Many Blessings,” is ringing in my heart, and when I come to the part, “Name them one by one,” I realize the impossibility of that challenge.

When you ask how they are, some say, “I’m blessed.”  I applaud that if that is more than a cliché that makes them sound and feel pious.  If it is simply a phrase, they have grown accustomed to saying without thought and meaning, that is different.  Our words have meaning, but the words that get into and come from the heart have power! 

Words from the heart possess a transformative and creative power!  While we are not God, the Living God, the Creator of All Things, when His Words reside in our hearts and flow out in faith, the Power of God supports it with all the might of Heaven. 

Jesus said that we are to abide IN Him, and His words are to abide IN us.  One translation renders the words of Jesus, “Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.”  The overflow, I like that!  What fills our hearts is expressed in our words and actions.  Where our treasure is there, our heart is also.  The heart is the seat of who we are, and what we are is expressed from it. 

I’ve heard people say, “Oops, that slipped out.”  NOPE!  It may not have been what you intended, and you let it slip past your guard, but it was there in the heart and came to the surface in your words. It is crucial to protect our hearts and allow the Holy Spirit to guide our speech, enabling us to speak as God does and act as Jesus did and does. 

• My prayer today is for the LORD to instill in us a pure heart (cleansed in the Blood of Jesus and sanctified with His Grace).
• To renew in us a resolute, fully devoted, 100% surrendered spirit. 
• To teach us to abide in His presence always, walking in the Spirit.
• To fill us daily with His Holy Spirit and guide us to listen to His voice and follow His lead.
• To restore in us the overflowing, unmatched Joy of Salvation and to help us maintain a willing heart, mind, soul, and spirit at all times.

From this state, we can and will instruct sinners in His ways and witness their conversion to Him. From this state, we will reap the Harvest!  We will embody and represent Him!   We seek Him and His Kingdom!  Amen!’

Have a fantastic day, and rejoice in the LORD!

Numbers 9:15-16 – “Now on the day that the tabernacle was erected the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony, and in the evening it was like the appearance of fire over the tabernacle until morning. ¹⁶ So it was continuously; the cloud would cover it by day, and the appearance of fire by night.“

Rejoice and be glad, for the Lord has come and is waiting to guard, guide, and bless you. Today is your day to enjoy God’s greatness and His Incredible Provisions!

As I read, prayed, and pondered the Word this morning, the overwhelming sense of need and desire for God’s covering, anointing, and guidance filled my entire being.

In the wilderness, Israel learned the first principles of this truth. God’s cloud of covering settled over the tabernacle as they erected it. It appeared as a cloud during the day and a blazing fire of protection at night. They never moved UNTIL the cloud moved. That should always be our pattern: “Follow the Cloud.”

The Cloud (covering, anointing, guidance) will enable us to live in this world but not become absorbed with it. We become influences rather than those influenced. We become agents of change, not those being changed or conformed to it. We are enabled to live with “undivided hearts.”

Testing comes to everyone, with no exceptions. But, if we have God’s covering, anointed by His Grace and Glory, and led by His Spirit (cloud) testing, it benefits us, making us stronger and wiser.

I love this rendering of 1 Corinthians 10:13 – “We all experience times of testing, which is normal for every human being. But God will be faithful to you. He will screen and filter the severity, nature, and timing of every test or trial you face so that you can bear it. And each test is an opportunity to trust Him more, for along with every trial, God has provided for you a way of escape that will bring out of it victoriously.”

God, through Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, has provided us with covering, anointing, and guidance. What we must learn to do is embrace the cloud and follow the cloud every moment of every day of our lives.

Obedience to His guidance leads us into His Place of Promise! Victory is only an act of obedience away!

1 Kings 3:5 – “In Gibeon, Yahweh appeared to Solomon in a dream at night; and God said, “Ask what I should give to you.”

As I read, prayed, and pondered the Word of God (written & spoken) a truth caught my thinking and is now capturing my heart.

Solomon’s response to God’s question or statement in 1 Kings 3 is revelatory and instructional. God said, “Ask that which I should give you.”  Imagine that open door from God.  You tell Me (God) what you want.  What would you ask for?   So often, we get the cart before the horse.  We seek money before ministry and plan what we will do when.  We seek position before the development of character.   We seek knowledge before pursuing the purpose. 

Solomon made a simple but revealing request.   It revealed the heart of a servant.   (v.9)– “Give me an understanding heart to judge, discernment to know the difference between good and evil.”   He saw his responsibility as immense, and his purpose was to serve. In serving, he would fulfill the purpose for his life. God gave him what he asked for and what he did not ask for.  God seldom entrusts riches, honor, and position before He develops the heart.   We force our way in, to our own ruin.

The example of Jesus at the Last Supper reveals the same.  Service is first.   But not just outward acts. It is from the heart.   It defines the person and purpose. (John 13).

God’s plan is for us to walk in fullness in every way.   Power, protection, provision, peace, and purpose are our destiny.   But those blessings will destroy us Unless we get the heart right first.  It is vital that we Seek First Kingdom and His Righteousness, Then – All These Things Come to Us!

The first thing is the heart!   The Lord has been impressing upon me the importance of knowing why we want what we want.    Hidden motives are deceptive and usually destructive!

Your promise is the Kingdom and abundant life.  First, the heart, then the rest.  First, the heart.