Restoration and Holiness

Some Christians are not aware of or even interested in holiness, while others want it so much they almost want to call down fire from heaven on people. Real holiness is nothing more or less than Christ living in and through His body. If you are a member of His body, then you are called to have Christ formed within you. When Christ is formed within you, you will be holy as God is holy in your attitudes and conduct. When you see others whose attitudes and conduct are unholy, your heart will grieve because of your love and compassion, and you will want to give your life to bring Christ to them. The only fire you will want to fall on them is the fire of the Holy Spirit.

The longing of my heart is to see the restoration, revival, and awakening of the Church, the bride of Christ. You may be thinking, “You speak often about the restoration of the Church, but what does that mean? What does the Church need to be restored to?”

Among other things, restoration means returning to our first love—Jesus Christ—and His Word. It means repenting of our indifference toward God and others, and our sloth in doing the first works—prayer and intimate time with the Lord and His Word. It means remembering the costly grace that Jesus freely gave and returning to a passionate commitment of love toward God and those whom He loves. It means rightly dividing God’s Word in a way that we are sanctified by its truth and set apart to the Lord for His purposes and to carry on His work. It means being one with God and each other. When this kind of restoration takes place in the Church, we are well on our way to true revival and awakening. I strongly encourage an in depth study of Jesus’ messages to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, as well as studying the habits and character of the early church in the Acts of the Apostles.

There will not be restoration, revival, and awakening within the Church without holiness. There will not be holiness without godly sorrow that leads to repentance (2 Cor. 7:10). Holiness is motivated by love and comes about as self dies and Christ is formed within. John 3:30: “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Some people preach holiness and then leave people trying to obtain it by works, either consciously or subconsciously. Others preach love but do not preach holiness. The pendulum swings from cheap grace to harsh judgment and/or legalistic holiness. We must beware and teach others to beware of extremes, both fleshly and satanic.

Christians must be discerning of those in the Church who use the correct Scriptures and key words—such as remnant, restoration, and holiness—but who don't have our Lord's heart. They may not be deceitful in their intent, but they may be zealous beyond their maturity in the things of the Lord. The Holy Spirit must Captain the ship. He is the only one who will get the Church on course and keep her on course. [Note that the emphasis of this statement is on the truth that we must get on course before we can be kept on course. For more about this, read the message “Humility, Truth, and Unity” found on our website.]

The Holy Spirit works through the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers written about in Ephesians 4:11, but it is difficult today to find those ministers who are spiritually balanced and mature, both in character and truth. They do exist, but they are usually unknown and in obscurity because they will not compromise for the sake of prominence and notoriety. The devil likes it that way! More often, we find ministers who have some truth of God but lack the character of Christ, or others who have character but are lacking in the truth. When I speak of having truth, I am speaking of the whole counsel of God without the addition of man’s leaven. Truth sanctifies, but man’s leaven contaminates. These things are changing, but it will take time.

We need people who will have ears to hear and eyes to see as a result of walking in the Spirit. There are times when it is appropriate to have a season of prayer and fasting, but we need mature disciples who have prayer and fasting as an ongoing part of their life in Christ Jesus. This is a necessity, in addition to the continual study of the entire Bible. When this takes place and is led by the Lord, restoration, revival, and awakening are not far away. We are looking for awakening that does not fizzle out after a period of time but builds momentum until Jesus returns, even if it has to pass from generation to generation.

There are many Christians who know that God has called them, but they are frustrated. They keep looking for something to satisfy their longing, be it another church, movement, writer, or a speaker of the prophetic. I have an answer, but it will not make the flesh happy. Rather than looking for an exciting church or one that lets you release your ministry, ask God to give you biblical revelation of His kingdom and His Church. Ask Him to reveal a true prophet of the Lord to you, and when you find him, use your gifts to help accomplish what God wants done. Then your ministry will bear lasting fruit.

The work of God that is needed is bigger than any of us and requires sacrifice. It is more than finding and settling into a particular local church and becoming an active member. It is more than being on staff! It can include that, but it is much more. Thousands upon thousands of Christians are part of active churches that are not being or accomplishing what Jesus intended when He said that He would build His Church. We are so used to thinking of Church as various modern-day churches model it. As I encouraged above, we must go back to the Word to find the true pattern and then pay the price to follow that pattern. It will take restoration, and it will require holiness, but it will pay eternal dividends.

I am asking you to apply what I am saying to yourself first before applying it to others. We must have hearts to Hear truth and then humble ourselves to be doers of truth. Can you imagine that some people would not help Moses, Jeremiah, David, Paul, John, Peter, and even Jesus because they had been offended by their hard sayings? It did happen. Can you imagine the blessings they missed? We must bow our knees in humility and then cry out to God for His will to be done. When that happens, we will work with whom He chooses and not with those we choose. Within that kind of submission and dying to self is holiness that will bring restoration, revival, and great awakening. When we become a part of accomplishing what God needs accomplished we will find true joy and fulfillment.