PREPARING
FOR RAPTURE, PART 12, COMPLETE HOLINESS
TEXT:
1 Thessalonians 5:23
1 Thessalonians 5:23
23 And the very
God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I
pray God your whole spirit and soul
and body be preserved blameless unto the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Introduction
Holiness, though as very important and
unwaivable requirement from God for any man to see Him as it is, still, has
continued to be trivialized and mocked by many Christians and preachers alike.
In part one of this teaching, I stated in
the introduction that while many Christians believe that holiness is somewhat
an unrealistic and unattainable standard set by God for man, yet, others
believe that no conscious effort is to be taken to live a holy life apart from
just confessing Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour.
Another group of Christians, by far most
articulating and influential than the first two mentioned above, on their own,
believe that holiness is just a matter of heart and that it has nothing to do
with what you do with your body, or what you wear on your body. Their line of
argument was based on God’s conversation with Prophet Samuel concerning whom
the prophet should anoint as king over Israel. See 1 Samuel 16:7.
While Prophet Samuel was considering the
physical posture and appearance of the candidates to be anointed as king as the
major yardstick to use in selecting a king, God rebuked Samuel and made him to
know that it is the condition of the hearts that He (God) uses as the major yardstick
in selecting a king and not the physical appearance.
But since God told Samuel that He sees the
heart, does it mean that the body of a believer does not matter to Him anymore
when it comes to the issue of holiness? Does it mean we can dress the way we
want, attach what we want to our hairs, draw the tattoos that we want, fix the
eyelashes and false fingernails that we want and so on? The answer is ‘No’.
While the first part of this teaching
emphasized the gross importance of the heart in the matters of holiness and
holy living, this second part tries to discard the dangerous heresy that God is
not interested in the body of believers and how they dress by pointing out
clearly that holiness, indeed, cannot be complete without also taking the issue
of outward appearance very serious.
Why Your Body is Important to God
God is not just interested in your heart
alone as some Christians will have you believe. God is equally interested in
your body as your heart. The following points will try to underscore the gross
importance God places on the body of Christians.
-1. A person can be cast to hell because of the activities of
his body.
8 Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them
off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to
enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet
to be cast into everlasting fire.
9 And if thine
eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it
is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell
fire.
The scripture above makes us to know that
the activities of a person’s hands, foots and eyes can make a person go to
hell. Other parts of the body like tongues can also lead a person to hell.
-2. The body is needed to express what is in the heart.
Mathew 12:3434
34 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good
things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
The scripture says a lot. For instance, a
woman that dresses like an harlot does so, simply because the attire is the
type of clothe her heart had desired to wear. No person can give what he does
not have.
-3. The Holy Spirit lives inside of our body.
19 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?
If the body of a believer is indeed the
temple of the Holy Ghost, it means that the believer does not have liberty to
dress or adorn the body with anything that is abominable or not befitting to The
Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is holy and the body He occupies must also be
holy.
-4. Believer’s body can be rendered as a
living sacrifice unto God.
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.
This scripture charges us to render our
bodies as living sacrifices unto God but with a caution that such body must be
holy before God can accept it as sacrifice.
-5. Believers’ bodies are members of Christ.
1 Corinthians 6:15
15 Know ye not that your
bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ,
and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
These are few reasons that show that God is
interested in our bodies as much as He is interested in our hearts.
Complete Sanctification Versus Partial Sanctification
Let us refer to our text above, 1
Thessalonians 5:23.
1 Thessalonians 5:23
23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
In this text, Apostle Paul prayed that God
should sanctify us wholly and preserve us blameless till the Lord, Jesus Christ
comes back at rapture. To be wholly sanctified is to be completely or totally
sanctified. Apostle Paul, in the statement that followed, however, explained
that to be sanctified wholly is to be preserved blameless in the spirit, soul
and body.
This blameless
preservation of the spirit, soul and body is what is meant by complete sanctification/holiness.
It then follows that any sanctification/holiness
that does not encompass the spirit,
the soul and the body is a partial
sanctification and will not suffice any man to make the rapture.
We can immediately see that concentrating
on sanctification of the heart (spirit and soul) alone while disregarding
bodily blamelessness amount to incomplete sanctification. Both the cleanliness
of heart and body are required for us to make rapture.
Sanctification/blamelessness of the body
1 Thessalonians 5:23
23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray
God your whole spirit
and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
Again, if we logically considered our text,
1 Thessalonians 5:23, above, the following equivalence can be made.
-a. sanctification
= blamelessness
-b. whole sanctification (complete or total
sanctification) = blamelessness of the spirit + sanctification of the soul +
sanctification of the body.
In part one of these teachings, the center
point was the sanctification of the heart – the symbol of both spirit and soul.
However, for a believer to have complete sanctification, he needs to be
sanctified or blamelessness not just in the heart alone but also in the body as
well.
For us to know how to make our body
blameless, let us first see what the bible means by blamelessness and then we
can apply it to our body. Let us consider the scriptures below.
Luke 1:5-6
5 There was in the days of Herod,
the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia:
and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was
Elisabeth.
6 And
they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments
and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
2 Peter 3:14 1
4 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye
look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without
spot, and blameless
The two scriptures, above, combined
together defines blamelessness as;
-1. righteousness before God
-2. walking in the commandments of God (see
also John 14:15)
-3. walking in the ordinances of God
-4. being without spot
Based on the points above, a believer can
be said to be blameless or sanctified in the body when
-1. The clothes he/she wears is determined by
the commandments of God.
-2. He/She conducts his/her body in line
with the ordinances of God.
-3. His/Her body is without spot or
defilement.
Things that can defile the body
-1. Attires of harlot; Proverb 7:10
Proverb 7:10
10 And, behold, there met him a
woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of
heart.
Any clothe that, if a woman wears, can sexually
induce men easily and made them fall into lust is an attire of an harlot. These
include clothes that reveal or expose erotic body parts, or tightly reveal your
body shapes the way a swimming trunk does and so on. In fact, any clothes that
make other men see the parts of your body or see some obscene shapes of parts
of your body that are supposed to be the exclusive right of your husband may be
an attire of harlot.
-2. Tattoos; Leviticus 19:28
Leviticus 19:28
28 Ye
shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print marks upon you: I am the
LORD.
Children of God are not supposed to draw
tattoos. They are an abomination to God. If you cannot resist tattoos, do you
think you can resist the mark of the beast? Since we say we are the body of
Christ, we should let our bodies be without spots or wrinkles?
-3 Jewelries; these includes rings, earrings, nose rings, lips rings,
necklace and so on.
-4. Fornication;
1 Corinthians 6:18
18 Flee
fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that
committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
-5. Anything that destroys the body; these include but
are not limited to alcohol, cigarettes, hard drugs, bleaching of skin and the
rest.
-6. Anything that changes the truth of God for a lie; these
include but are not limited to artificial eye lashes, artificial nails, hair
weavons and so on.
-7. The use of charms and occult materials on the body.
-8. The use of anything that does not glorify God on the body;
1 Corinthians 10:31
31 Whether
therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
Sometimes, one of my friends, who was
working in a company that distributed beer drinks, gave me two shirts. The name
of a popular beer brand, that believes it is the ultimate, was printed on them.
We were wearing the clothes innocently. Then, one day, in a revelation, the
Lord told me that I was the one teaching people how to drink beer. My reaction
suggested that I disagreed. Then, He asked me to look at the shirt on my neck.
Behold! It was the beer shirt. Immediately, I became dumbfounded. I repented of
my sins and henceforth I turned those shirts into rags.
Today, Christian youths, especially in
Nigeria, are wearing something that looks like a muslim rosary on their hands,
even to church. I have asked many of them what the item was and used for. Their
typical answers are ‘we are just wearing it” Others may say ‘it is just for
fashion’.
These same items are worn by garage touts,
people of other religions, occultists and so on. How can a child of God be
wearing what is in vogue among unbelievers without knowing why they wear it or
what it is used for or even if it is biblical to do? We need to be cautious and
watchful.
Summary
The outward reveals the inward. Any
holiness that centers on the heart alone will not be complete and cannot be
enough to make you see the Lord at rapture.
When God wanted to visit the Israelite at
Mount Sinai, He told them to sanctify themselves and washed their clothes.
Exodus 19:10
10 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go
unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them
wash their clothes,
Exodus 19:10
14 And Moses went down from the mount
unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes.
It can be
inferred from the scriptures above that their sanctification would not be
complete unless they washed their clothes. So it is today. Any sanctification
that renders your body with wrinkles and spot is not complete.
Conclusion
Remember that You have been bought with a
price and you are not your own? You must now live to fulfill the wills of your
master, Who paid your ransome and not the wills of the world. Remember the Lord’s
prayer in Mathew 6:10
10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it
is in heaven.
And His will is that you be without spot
nor wrinkles and be preserved blameless in your spirit, soul and body till He
comes.
Actions
Are
you an elect of Christ? Are you truly saved? Are you on the narrow road? Do you
want to make the rapture/heaven? If your answers are yes, then,
• Make all efforts to heed the warnings of Jesus Christ.
• Make all efforts to heed the warnings of Jesus Christ.
•
Be watchful. Pay attention to what is happening around the World and see
whether they match what the scriptures say.
•
Be filled with the Holy Spirit and be in the Spirit all the time.
•
Fast, consecrate yourself, run away from sin and worldliness.
If your answers are NO, then you can repent
today. Accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour. Kindly sincerely and
faithfully pray the prayer of repentance below and make a determination never
to commit sin again.
Prayer Of Repentance
Lord, Jesus Christ, I am sorry
for all my sins. I confess them with my mouth and I ask for mercy. Please
forgive me and wash me in your blood. I accept you as my personal Lord and
Saviour. Write my name in the book of life. Give me power over sins and fill me
with your Spirit and Joy of Salvation. When rapture trumpet sounds, let me make
it. Thank you for saving me. In Jesus name, I pray.
Begin to read bible. Begin with the book of
John. Pray always. Fast regularly (you can begin with once in a week). Look for
a bible believing church where they teach repentance, holiness, salvation and
fellowship with them. Pray before you go. Always run away from SINS.
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Shalom.
To Make Rapture:
Confess your sins to JESUS CHRIST and ask Him
to save you.
Repent of your sins constantly on daily basis
and run away from sins.
Be filled with the Holy Spirit
Live in Holiness and Righteousness
Do all Restitutions
Be filled with the Holy Spirit
Live in Holiness and Righteousness
Do all Restitutions
Cut off all worldliness.
Forgive all people.
Pray and fast.
Consecrate and study the bible.
Watch.
