In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell in safety; and this is the name by which she will be called: the LORD is our righteousness.

Jeremiah 33:16

The message of holiness must flow out of the place of the Holy Spirit, or not at all.  The message may be preached from other places, but there is no life of righteousness outside of the flow of the Holy Spirit.  Only in the depths of Him is the message complete, is is whole, and is it pure.

There is a ditch, you see, on either side of the road.  There is a an error in not going far enough as well as going too far.  The difference between being “religious” in a controlling and hypocritical sense and that of being right is the Holy Spirit.

The place of “no compromise” must always come from that place of living by His Spirit.  This sums up the power and grace of God to overcome the world, not that we live by ourselves, but wholly by His Spirit.

This is the difference between living by ourselves and living by the Heavens.  Though those on the outside, and even ourselves at times, may not be able to tell the difference, the difference is very real and the the difference is huge.  This difference is the love of God.

When we preach holiness out of any other place, it will usually result in dry lifelessness.  When we don’t preach holiness at all, it results in carnality.  So, we preach holiness out of reverence for God.  We teach perfection as He is perfect–by the Spirit!  Spiritually, which manifests naturally; by His Spirit, which is Perfect.

Don’t try to be perfect, you’ll never be.  Try to follow Him perfectly, and there is no other way to be other than perfect!

This is the religious deception–that outward works can do anything at all.  To any honest heart, no works at all is so obviously not the answer God asks for.  Yet in trying, so many find themselves coming into works that in themselves do not lead themselves into godliness.  While great efforts are performed, and many things are done in the right Spirit in the midst of our efforts, our labors are still mixed.

According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

1 Corinthians 3:10-15

As Paul wrote, we can build with many things upon the foundation stone of Christ, but only that which is of gold, silver, and precious stones will endure through the fire.  Only the works born of God Himself, as Jesus did only those things that He saw His Father doing, are noteworthy.

We can be sure that so long as we follow and obey the words of the Lord, we do well, yet in each moment, at every second, the Lord has a will, and we must hear and obey.

We live by the Spirit, and it is those works done in the Spirit, by faith, that have any value at all.  It is only those works done in faith, whether we realize it is in faith, that God considers to be righteous.  Nothing more, nothing else.

Just as we believed on Christ and, having believed, we spoke in confession to call Him Lord, so the belief in Christ itself, the leaning and yielding completely is what produces the works of righteousness in our life.  The works do not make us righteous, but, as Jesus spoke and said that only those who do the works of the Father will enter heaven, it is the righteousness that comes from faith, through obedience and submission through that loving trust, that produces a lasting fruit, the endures forever.

It is the inward life by the Spirit that manifests outward.  As Paul wrote, He worked harder than all, though it was not him, but the Lord’s strength. within him.

Even he spoke first of his effort, and then recognizes it as the Lord’s energy and strength.  This is often how it is with us.  We discover that even the great labors with which we have worked with were really His great strength to begin with!  The efforts we exerted to overcome were really the work of Him within.

The efforts that were really born of that place in His Spirit were what made the difference, even as Christ said, make EVERY EFFORT to enter the narrow gate, for many will try, but few will  be able to (Luke 13:24, Hebrews 4:11).

When we labor to enter into that His Spirit, and live and keep in step with That Great Spirit who is God, we cease from our own efforts, and life, and become part of His.  It is only in this place that we are whole, and made alive again in His presence completely.

We must follow Him into the Holy of Holies, come into the fullness of tabernacleing with Him, and become One, even as His and His Father were one.  We must lose our life to find it, and follow Him into the realms of Heaven Beyond…