Yesterday was Easter Sunday. We had a really good message at church that actually built up to answer some questions I was asking God about just a few months ago. It seems everywhere I look, the subject of my true identity is right in my face. I have spent my whole life living based on what other people thought and how I thought others would perceive my choices. It’s so easy to say flippant things like, “Only God can judge me” or “I don’t care what everyone else thinks of me, I’m going to do what I want to do” or my favorite, “Haters gonna hate”. There may be an inkling to truth in all of those statements but the reality is that most of DO care what others think. There are so many of us who don’t know or understand their true identity. Our DNA. What we were made to be. Exactly what we possess. Can we be truly confident in who we are if we don’t really know who we are?
Deuteronomy 7:5 says, “This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their idols in the fire.” I want to stop right there and say that when I read this again today that it reminded me of how we are instructed to be IN the world but not OF the world. Romans 12:2 tells us not to be conformed (be similar in form or type; agree with) the world. The amplified says that we are not to be “fashioned after and adapted to its eternal, superficial customs”. While we are supposed to love people, we are not supposed to let them dictate or decide our choices. Simply put, our identity is not in other people. Let’s continue on to Deuteronomy 7:6 “For you are a PEOPLE HOLY to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has CHOSEN YOU out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.” (emphasis mine)
Think about what it means to be “holy” just a minute. Our Pastor gave some great context to this yesterday. The Holy of Holies was found in the Old Testament. The Bible tells us that there was a place of dwelling called a tabernacle. Inside this tabernacle there was an area called the Holy Place and in this Holy Place there was another room that was the Holy of Holies. The Holy Place and the Holy of Holies was separated from each other by a curtain or a veil. The Holy of Holies was so sacred that only special people could go in to it. Once a year, there was the Day of Atonement which was a day where no work could be done (like on the Sabbath), there was fasting, and it was a day of great repentance and mourning over the sins of the people. High priests were the only one who could have a direct link between the people and God, so on this day the high priests would offer animal sacrifices to cover the people’s sins. There was a lot of preparation done that day to insure the atonement went off without a hitch. It is said that if the high priest that was in the room the Holy of Holies wasn’t properly atoned before he went in, he would be struck down by the presence of the holiness of God. There was a rope tied around his leg and if he was struck down, other people would pull his body out from behind the veil. Talk about a lot of pressure at work!
The good news for us as Christians is that we believe that when Jesus died on the cross to atone our sins forever and rose back to life to display his power, that veil was torn forever. We no longer have to have animal sacrifices and we no longer have to have a Holy of Holies. We, us, our actual beings have now become the church…the tabernacle that houses the Holiness of God. Just because we no longer have the hoops and the rooms that dictate holiness or atonement doesn’t mean that His Holiness has also gone away. It is this Holiness that keeps Him from mixing with our sin. He is not a God who will allow Himself to be diluted by us, our choices, what identity we think we have at the moment, our sin, or anything else. His power in us is to be either full strength or not at all. As a parent, I often say “There is no junior Holy Spirit” to remind our home that the same power of the Holy Spirit that functions and operates in adults does the same in our kids too. But, how often do we adults try to walk around with a diluted, junior Holy Spirit?
When we realize that exact same power that resided in the Holy of Holies resides in us, will we not have a better understanding of who we are and what kind of power He has given us to live under? Knowing the extent of His Holiness has to be married in with our faith. When we can do this and walk in our Holy DNA, the atmosphere around us changes. Our circumstances change. People are healed. Raised from the dead. The world changes and the Kingdom of Heaven kisses the earth. All because you understand His Holiness and that it moved from the tabernacle in to YOU. What will change for you once you believe that you are the dwelling place of the Holiness of God?
Life Beyond the Noise 