True love for God means obeying his commands, and his commands don’t weigh us down as heavy burdens.

1 John 5:3 The Passion Translation

Holiness is wholeness.

It is both liberating and empowering, not constricting or confining.

The more we appreciate the finished work Jesus did for us through the cross, the more we understand the beauty of holiness. It is not about achieving and maintaining an external standard of behaviour and performance. Rather, holiness is about living and building our lives on the firm foundation of God’s perfect love and forgiveness. A holy life is marked by a true sense of who we are and how we are fitted in Christ’s righteousness to enjoy a life with God.

We cannot live a holy life in our strength—it is supernaturally endued to us by the Holy Spirit. Like a car that rests on the fuel supply into the engine to move around, we rest on the Spirit to work in us to bear the fruit of Christian character. Once in Christ, we already have the fruit of the Spirit inside us—and we need to cooperate with His Spirit to develop and mature in all of them. This comes through intimacy with God and identifying with what God says about us and letting Him align our thinking and behaviour with our new identity.

God supplies to us what He demands from us.

Holiness involves a lifestyle and habit of obedience. Obeying God is not about following a set of rules in order to be a holy person. God has already made you holy and righteous in Christ, and by inviting you to live a holy life through the power of the Holy Spirit, God is enabling you to manifest into spiritual wholeness and wellness.

Obeying is imitating Christ’s full obedience and commitment to God. It is through our focus on Christ that we choose to obey His commandments. Not out of obligation but out of the revelation of our identity and inheritance in Christ.

Spiritual orphans cannot obey and often refuse to obey because they have no idea of who God is. On the other hand, sons and daughters are keen to obey and act with the knowledge that God’s work done in God’s way gets God’s results and rewards.