We have looked at how our God is righteous. Now we will look at His holiness. God is holy. We have songs that testify of the holiness of God but what does it mean when we say that God is Holy? Holy means set apart, separate, sacred or consecrated. So, what does that look like in the context of God? It means God is set apart or different from anything else around Him. We have not seen or experienced anything like Him. He is Holy. Exodus 15:11 says, “Who is like you among the gods, O Lord— glorious in holiness, awesome in splendor, performing great wonders?”
God is pure, morally blameless, faultless in every circumstance and unblemished. That is what makes Him separate and set apart. 1 Samuel 2:2 says, “No one is holy like the Lord! There is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.” Psalm 22:3 says, “Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.” The Hebrew word for “holy” is the Strongs H6918 which is “qâdôsh qâdôsh”.
What does God’s holiness mean for us? Well, because God is holy, He cannot be around sin. If you can imagine that sin has a smell kinda like bad body odour. We can’t smell it because we have become used to the smell but everyone else can. It’s the same with sin. We can’t smell it because we are used to it, but God can smell it and it’s just disgusting. So, what sin does is that it creates some distance between us and God. Just like bad BO creates some distance between you and the assailant. Unrepented sin or a lifestyle of sin will create distance between us and God. So, how do we shorten the distance?
The first step is found in 2 Chronicles 7:14-15 which says, “Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land. My eyes will be open and my ears attentive to every prayer made in this place.”
Secondly, this is what God tells us to do in Leviticus 19:2, He says, “Give the following instructions to the entire community of Israel. You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” It is the same word for “holy” in both instances. So the verse reads, “Give the following instructions to the entire community of Israel. You must be qâdôsh qâdôsh because I, the Lord your God, am qâdôsh qâdôsh.”
This is repeated in 1 Peter 1:15-16, “As God’s obedient children, never again shape your lives by the desires that you followed when you didn’t know better. Instead, shape your lives to become like the Holy One who called you. For Scripture says: “You are to be holy, because I am holy.””
God is calling us up higher, to a standard of holiness that we cannot achieve on our own. God is calling us to a life of holiness. Now this seems impossible! And it is impossible with Jesus and the Holy Spirit, but with God all things are possible. God asks us to be holy, but to be holy we need to be fully dependent on Him.
How do our lives become like the Holy One, Jesus? Romans 12:1-2 says, “Beloved friends, what should be our proper response to God’s marvelous mercies? To surrender yourselves to God to be his sacred, living sacrifices. And live in holiness, experiencing all that delights his heart. For this becomes your genuine expression of worship. Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes.”
God is holy, and He has this amazing ability to look at our lives and transform them to mirror His holiness. We just have to surrender. We cannot do it in our own strength. If we could then we would be God. We have to make a conscious decision to let God be God in our lives and for us to surrender to His process. As He washes us and purifies us and makes us holy, we draw closer and closer to Jesus. Isn’t that exciting! I want to be closer to Jesus and Holy Spirit can do what needs to be done to make that happen!
1 Peter 2:9 says, “But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.”
We serve a holy God. It is time that we begin to let God be God in our lives so we can live holy lives that attract people to God. Lives that reflect the goodness of God.
Love and blessings,
Melissa Tsingano.
Heavenly Whispers Blog 
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