Holiness Isn’t a Bad Word

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life (Romans 6:22 NIV)

The moment we give our lives to Jesus, we are set free from sin and become slaves of God.

We get to serve the kindest and most generous King—the One who is high above anything in the entire universe because He made it all. We serve Him and obey Him, not because of legalities but because we are madly in love with Him. Those who give their lives over to holiness have found that this is the only way of truly knowing Jesus and walking in His ways. The benefit of a life free of sin is holiness, and the result of holiness is eternal life with Him in heaven. We want to be free from sin and we want to spend eternity with Him. Therefore, we must answer the call and honor of being set apart as holy sons and daughters.

Holiness Isn’t a Bad Word

For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life (1 Thessalonians 4:7 NIV).

The word holy doesn’t really rile a whole lot of people up with excitement. I feel it’s been abused and misunderstood many times by the church. Many people see it as a list of rules that we have to follow in order to accomplish the checklist of holiness. Then when they fail, it feels horrible and shameful and completely unattainable. Y’all, I wouldn’t want to be a part of that either. Holiness can only be found through relationship with the man Jesus.

In my journey with Him, holiness has come over time. I used to walk in sin, and now I walk with the Holy Spirit. This isn’t a three-step program. It would be easy to make it that. If we don’t have a revelation of His love for us, it’s hard to be in relationship with Him. It’s easy to worship, pray, and read the word. None of that will “make you holy.” When you get to know the character and nature of a person, you grow in trust and love for them.

It’s the same way with God. If we worship, read the word, and pray as a law or checklist of items to do because we are Christian, we are missing the point. God wants you to encounter Him while you do these things. There is a passion and hunger that comes when you discover the actual person of God. There are revelations and awe-inspiring moments that will come in the places when your heart is burning before His throne. Holiness becomes a desire because it comes from such a deep place of love for Him that you don’t want to do anything that isn’t holy. Selah.

I grew up in a church, not a household, hearing “once a sinner always a sinner.” There are many churches out there today that are sin-focused. That didn’t make sense to me at a young age. I knew deep down that wasn’t true because that would defeat the purpose of Jesus showing us how we can live. I grew up knowing God but not always knowing how to follow Him. Even so, I tried to become free by focusing on the sinful nature of depression, self-hatred, other people’s mistakes, and gluttony. It got worse. Deep down I knew it was not the Lord’s will for me to be walking in such darkness, but I read my Bible as law instead of love and did not hand Him these dark places. There came a time in my 20s when I really handed Jesus the darkness. I invited Him in as a friend and Lord because I was tired of experiencing the same thing over and over and over again. That changed everything for me.

How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word (Psalm 119:9 ESV).

The word of God teaches us how to keep the way pure and our hearts pure. When I began to read the word with the Holy Spirit and only take what He said about me as truth, I became a very skilled spiritual volleyball spiker. If a poopy thought came to me, I would spike it down and replace it with His word because I was getting filled with the word of God. Over time I got delivered, and now those things are not part of my battlefield. They are part of my history with God, but they have allowed me to become holy in thought and action. I share this because beholding Him and trusting Him has helped me grow and mature into one who desires, loves, and finds true liberty in living a life set apart with Him.

Holiness Protects You

And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray (Isaiah 35:8 ESV).

The highway of holiness is for the warriors who seek Jesus and destroy the works of the devil. This highway is protected and the unclean and ferocious beasts cannot walk on it, as mentioned in Isaiah 35. This highway is for all who live in the way of our God. When you dive into this passage, it says in verse 10: “They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away” (NIV).

Coming from a daughter who was delivered from depression, I would have to agree that holiness brings immense joy. I would also like to mention that I have been off of this highway, and I was getting taken out by the poopy ways of the enemy. The highway of holiness has liberated me from darkness and allowed me to be acutely aware of the presence of God in my everyday life.

It is essential to protect every side of our senses and every gate we have in order to stay on this highway. Evil cannot live with holiness. There can be no mixture here. After all, it is a choice to live this way with God or not. That choice alone is the kindness of our God. He did not want us to be puppets; He wanted us to experience His love from such a real place that we would choose to return that love to Him. It is a beautiful exchange.

Not for the Mundane

Many times I have heard people say that we cannot live like Jesus. No one can live up to those standards. I could never agree with that statement. After all, that contradicts the scriptures and the whole purpose of why Jesus came—to show us what is possible with God on earth. He commanded us to be holy as He is holy. Check it out:

But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:15-16 ESV).

This actually says to be holy in all of your conduct. In 2 Corinthians it says to make every effort to be holy. Which means this road is not for the mundane, y’all. No, it is not for those who are looking for that giant red easy button either. It requires a rewiring of conduct and lifestyle. It requires us falling so madly in love with God and understanding how we can put trust in Him to be able to lay all of the fleshly desires at His throne of mercy and grace. When you become holy, you choose to die to all of the lusts of the flesh in order to live the life of eternal joy. This is a daily choice we all have and the fruit of it is knowing Jesus more and walking in His ways.

Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14 NIV).

“Make every effort” really stands out to me in Hebrews 12:14. Effort in good ole Merriam-Webster’s dictionary means “conscious exertion of power: hard work.” That means it takes our own hard work to live in peace with others and to be holy. There are moments when I have had to work really hard to live in peace with people who accused me or criticized me. The fruit of it was peace (shocker), and it was another moment on the timeline that helped me grow and mature. When I say “work really hard” I don’t mean strive. I mean, instead of leaning on myself in my flesh, I submitted what I thought I should do for what God has called me to do. Sometimes, it takes more work to respond with God than to react in our flesh. Often, that requires obedience to what His word says until it becomes a natural instinct. Obedience is a beautiful thing to the Lord. It means we are doing what we know is holy rather than what our flesh and feelings desire in that moment.

Without holiness, we won’t see the Lord. That is a pretty huge statement. I am willing to lay any dream or desire down if it would have kept me from seeing God. It is so easy to get distracted with all of the billboards of culture and life in this world. Many are very enticing, screaming to fulfill all lusts, and that comes as no surprise because so was satan. I mean, lucifer’s beauty led him to pride, and if we are not rooted in righteousness we can get sucked into this ourselves. Holiness is displaying the beauty of our heavenly Father for all of eternity and seeing Him in every part of our journey.

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God (2 Corinthians 7:1 ESV).

When I look at how much my life has changed because of the leadership of the Holy Spirit, I know that I myself could not have protected my body and spirit from defilement. Jamie Lyn didn’t flex her way into holiness. The blood of Jamie Lyn didn’t wipe away her sins—no, only Jesus did. I know that because of my relationship with the Holy One and protecting my time internally and outwardly, He has made me holy. He has shown me what to cleanse myself of, and He even did it in a moment, in the encounter I shared with you in the first chapter. I literally cannot do what I used to do when it comes to drinking alcohol, watching certain shows or movies, speaking poorly about others, or listening to others speak poorly about them. He has shown me how to stay cleansed even in my mind because of His perfect fear—loving what He loves and hating what He hates. God hates the things that keep us from being close to Him and knowing Him. He desires us to be free and holy.

In my weakness, I can boast because He has made me holy. I have fallen so deeply in love with the Holy Spirit that I cannot imagine grieving Him. I have had moments when I knew I grieved Him. Moments when I did not listen to the tug of His voice. Now, I have tasted and seen and know that He is worth all of the sacrifices of a culture that does not reflect Him, to live in His reverent and holy fear.

Radical Holiness

What is holiness like for our generation? We are most definitely stepping into an hour where persecution is getting much heavier for those who stand and walk in true holiness. This invitation to live this way will cost you everything you have, but it will reveal the truth that everything we need will be found in Jesus. The world is deceptive. Our flesh is deceptive. Christ is not deceptive. We have the honor of following Him. He said it would not be easy, but you won’t be apart from Jesus, and that is the ultimate gift of life fulfilled.

The difficult journey ahead and narrow road with God will become a delight of instruction, correction, and growth. Persecution and accusation will push us closer to the Lord, not further away. The enemy will have to watch as God Himself promotes the mighty men and women of God into high places for tearing down false idols in the land and for staying purely open to God alone. Tearing down idols in different spheres of influence will require wisdom, understanding, and an anchoring in Jesus alone.

Jesus was mocked, He was beaten, He was the most innocent and pure man who has ever lived and we will begin to take part in the suffering of living a set apart life. As unromantic as this sounds, there is something about laying on the floor weeping in the prayer room for the hearts of those who have persecuted you to know Jesus and be holy. There is something about humbling your heart before God and asking Him if there is truth behind the accusations because if there is, you don’t want anything in you that keeps you from being pure. There is something about taking part in the suffering that Jesus experienced when He walked this beautiful earth for every single one of us, even those being mean.

Radical holiness will come when we realize that nothing we own on this earth matters compared to His great love. Nothing of true value can be taken from us because the greatest treasure we have on earth is Christ and eternal life with Him. There will be radical giving of homes, finances, time, resources, love, service and more that we get to pour out to those in need. There will be multiplication in our lives because of the way we steward what He has given us. Holy men and women will be seen in the streets of our nations with amazing innovations, wise ideas and solutions to the greatest problems. God invites us to be led by Him every single day and respond to His voice alone.

He lets us decide and choose which life we want to live. All in or all out. Because y’all know what He says about being lukewarm—He’s going to spit them out. I don’t want to be spit out by God. I have been lukewarm and it was miserable. Repentance brought me back to Him. Obedience kept me near Him even when I didn’t feel like it. That obedience later turned to a relationship of love, admiration, and devotion to Him alone. My prayer is that the man Jesus will empower and inspire you to dive all in on this adventure.

I don’t want to get to heaven and say, “Jesus, look what I did for You! I had three television shows and I said Your name every episode. I built a business that funded other dreams people had for You and I traveled the world telling people about You!” and then hear the Lord say, “But, Jamie, you didn’t know Me. I wanted to do all of this with you.” No. No. No. I want to get to heaven and hear Him say, “Well done, my good and faithful Jamie Lyn. I loved being creative and spending time with you.” This journey of building with God will require relationship with Him and a daily walk of dying to our fleshly desires and living for the desires that are found in His heart.

Remember, as you look back at the encounter I had with the Lord—He took everything out of me that was not holy and replaced it with a perfect heart. He wants to do the same for all of us. All we need to do is water our heart with His Spirit and feed it with His word. Every action we take moving forward will come from this place.

Holy Disruptors

Some of the greatest reformers of history came in to disrupt the momentum that culture was riding that wasn’t good. There are cycles that are turning and turning, and in order for light to invade the dark cycles it will require someone who is willing to come in and disrupt it. There are two different types of reformers who will keep showing up in history. There are those who make a positive change like Jesus and there are those who do not, like Hitler. However, what they do transforms an entire people group, city, state, nation, or our globe.

You won’t always be liked and loved by people if you are truly being led by the Holy Spirit and speaking up about things that are important to Him. That’s when holiness kicks in and allows you to handle it like the ultimate champion of heaven.

“You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.” —Rosa Parks

In a day of segregation, Rosa Parks was sitting on a bus and something came over her and she realized in a moment that she was going to take a stand by remaining seated right where she was. She even said, “I only knew that, as I was being arrested, that it was the very last time that I would ever ride in humiliation of this kind.” There were other disruptors who also spoke up in action who came before her on the bus such as Bayard Rustin, Irene Morgan, Lillie Mae Bradford, and Sarah Louise Keys. Things have changed because they empowered thousands more to stand against this injustice, and it allowed veils to be removed from the eyes of people who couldn’t see how dark things were. Rosa also fought on the front line with Martin Luther King, Jr. and others to continue to reform the gaps she saw in society. In this Holy Revolution, we cannot allow ourselves to have veils over our eyes that allow injustices to continue.

“You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again that you did not know.” —William Wilberforce

William Wilberforce was in parliament and became a born-again Christian. When this happened, the lifelong reformer in him began to rise up. He fought for years to obliterate slavery in the British Empire. Three days before he died, he found out it was passed in parliament and 100 more people were evangelical Christians in parliament! He did much more than this, but imagine fighting to end slavery among men who normalized such a thing. He gathered all the resources he had to fight to end such a deep and dark injustice. What could God be calling you to fight for in our generation?

The areas you are called to disrupt and reform will not always be easy. It will require endurance to keep pushing through and seeking God for wisdom on how to partner with Him in His victory. He is with you and He will fight for you. All we need is to be willing to stand in our convictions that are holy and not allow the world to influence us in ways that keep us from accomplishing the work God has set before us.

These people fought long and hard as influencers in their day and did much more than these two examples. Many in our generation will be influencers in all different spheres. You may be called to disrupt the world with movements of worship, prayer, business, fashion, arts, entertainment, media, education, medicine, family, revival, social justice, government, and more. Whether the world knows our name or not in these battles ahead, we must learn to live a life set apart so that when we step into these places we do it with pure radiance and no compromise.

Prayer for Holiness

Jesus, thank You for Your leadership. Spirit of God, I ask for You to make me more aware of the nudges of conviction so that I can lay down everything that keeps me from knowing You more. Would You stir desire in me, Holy One, to be holy as You are holy? Would You help me walk courageously toward You and with You? I repent for every time You have tried to get my attention and I have ignored You to please my flesh. I want to be led by You, Jesus. I desire to lay down everything in my life that keeps me from walking in holiness with You. Thank You for Your love. Amen.