Wholeness: Make A Move

When I first started this series, I had maybe three or four posts in mind. Nearly one year and 50+ posts later here I am finally wrapping up; or am I? Every time I think I get close to the end, more ideas would suddenly be there. Whether this is the last official post or not, I'm sure the concept will come up again. It's just that important. But, somehow it seems right to wrap up just after Christmas since the Messiah is the gateway to new beginnings.

There has been a surprising amount of posts that deal with the why not just the how. Then again, the how is irrelevant if we refuse to move forward just because we can't see past our preconceived notions about the why. I honestly believe false assumptions of many varieties are a big obstacle to true discipleship and spiritual growth. Not to mention that how often involves facing things we just assume avoid when specifically addressing this subject. Wholeness can only happen as inner wounds are healed after all, and those inner wounds are indeed the primary obstacle to genuine righteousness. As Isaiah 61 reveals the Messiah came to proclaim good news to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners. I'm sure the language is as figurative as it is literal too, Jesus was always just as concerned with our spiritual well-being as our physical one. The poor in spirit are held captive by more than just physical chains after all. So Jesus didn't just come to "should" us to death with a systematic definition of righteousness without actually equipping us with the means to live up to that standard as the legalists do.

I have also seen other teachers around me delving into some of the same outlying ideas as I have. What better confirmation that the spirit is moving, and seeking a remnant among the mediocre masses.

Let me leave you with this. Back in the 19th Century emerged "The Holiness movement" an ideal that centered around entire sanctification, and perfection. Yet, here in the 21st century, this notion of perfection is often viewed as impossible, even in the denominations that sprang from this movement. If we acknowledge only one dimension of holiness, it is quite impossible. It's like raising the walls on a house before pouring a concrete foundation. The house is inevitably going to be weak, and prone to damage and rot. This seems to fit the state of the church universal right now I'm sad to say.

Maybe it's time to call for a new holiness movement. One that embraces all three dimensions of holiness, and doesn't try to skip over the transformation process it takes to become genuinely righteous. Or just tries to apply a merely cosmetic surface faith. True full spectrum holiness is what we truly need for a genuine revival that will delight and inspire the lost again. This is clearly what this broken world so desperately needs right now. I suggest you start with yourself and face the brokenness in your heart that makes you captive to the ways of darkness. So you can find true wholeness in a way that makes people take notice and say to themselves “I want what they have.”

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Wholeness: Abide

As I begin to wrap up this series, let me make one thing perfectly clear, if I haven’t quite done that already. It is very easy to get the goal of holiness mixed up with the means and exercises it takes to become holy. Consider these words of Jesus and what they reveal about the result versus the means.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prune so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.-John 15:1-10

We do not mature as disciples by forcing growth. Instead, the fruitful Christian life is the natural result of focusing on Jesus in a sincere way, and being mindful of his inevitable "pruning" in our lives. (James 1:2-12) Just as we cannot force trees to produce fruit overnight, we cannot coerce holiness by enforcing a definition by the strength of the flesh. (1st Corinthians 3:6-7) Our main goal in discipleship is to abide in Christ or dwell with Jesus to use simpler terms. By actively seeking Christ, we find the path to wholeness. By enduring the path to wholeness, we eventually arrive at the path to righteousness. As we walk the path of Righteousness, the path of purpose in God's kingdom which we are set apart is revealed. Thus, the cycle of three-dimensional holiness is engaged. Are you truly walking with Jesus, or just observing from afar?

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But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. -Matthew 6:33

When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” -Matthew 19:25-26

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. -Philippians 4:12-14 (written from prison FYI)

Wholeness: Cyclical

The other day I was reminded of why I am putting so much effort into this series when I saw an Instagram post that said something like “Christianity isn’t about joy, prosperity, or fulfillment, but holiness.” If this person truly understood the full scope and cyclical nature of holiness he would realize that holiness is spiritual prosperity, and that leads to joy and fulfillment as we find our place in God’s kingdom. Such a bleak perception of the gospel. A perception rooted more in human understanding and pride than righteousness. Which only delights and inspires those who want to claim religious superiority over others, not help the lost as we were set apart for.

It also took me back to a previous series Complexity where I address the atheist claim that religion is inadequate to answer life’s complex questions. If we oversimplify holiness and only address it as a standard of righteousness, we need only define and enforce the standard. Which is indeed inadequate to truly counter mankind’s fallen nature at its root. This is also how things like love, forgiveness, and grace get neglected. Leaving the gospel incomplete and too simple to address life’s difficulties. Without grace and what goes with it, Christianity really is no different than any other simplistic pagan belief. The question is, why are so many trying to make Christianity more like the other beliefs of the world?

So let me lay out the cycle of holiness for you so you know what I mean by spiritual prosperity. We need to first find wholeness to live the righteous life since it’s our brokenness, that derails our ability to live the way of righteousness. As we walk the path of righteousness, our purpose for which we are set apart comes into greater focus as the spirit guides us. (Psychologists have found that those who seek a meaningful life are much happier than those who seek happiness for happiness' sake do. Not all psychologists appreciate these findings, especially those following the unproven theories of Abraham Maslow. Yet the evidence doesn’t lie, living out your philanthropic purpose does indeed lead to more fulfillment than self-centeredness does.) As this cycle is engaged we are in a better position to maintain our wholeness. Maintaining our wholeness means we are in a good position to maintain our righteousness. If we continue to maintain our righteousness, we can put more energy into what we were set apart for, and actually expand God’s kingdom as a result.

It takes three elements to produce this cycle. Try to leave anything out, you will stagnate. Or worse yet find yourself in a self-destructive cycle, causing you to believe that there is no room for, joy, prosperity, or fulfillment in your one-dimensional overly simplistic faith. Which has only driven people away from the church in droves. You often hear people say we need to break self-destructive cycles. But perhaps what we really need to do is replace it with a holy one.

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The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. -Psalm 19:8

Blessed are those who have regard for the weak; the Lord delivers them in times of trouble.-Psalm 41:1

We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.” - Acts 5:32

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. -John 16:13

Wholeness: Unconditioal?

We live in a world that often equates unconditional love with unconditional acceptance. While it may sound great on the surface, it really does potentially open us up to some traumatic things if we make the concept as all-inclusive as the terminology demands. For example, if a person finds out that their spouse is being unfaithful to them, they may still love them unconditionally. However, few would expect them to accept the ongoing betrayal. If a person's spouse is being physically abusive to them, they may still love them unconditionally despite that. Again, unconditional love should not require that they accept the violent treatment without question. If someone is convicted of a terrible crime, they may have parents who still love them unconditionally. This does not mean that the parents have to accept or rationalize their child's crime. If we discover our child is being molested by a family member, we should under no circumstances accept that at all let alone unconditionally.

In the same way, God loves you unconditionally, yet he doesn't necessarily accept everything you do. In the end, because of his love for you, he wants you to be whole again. That means he can't accept anything that is hampering you spiritually, just as a mortal parent will not accept their child's shortsighted, selfish, and immature choices. Granted, our mortal parents can often project their fears and insecurities onto their children when wrangling their kids choices. So mistakes are often made. Meaning we can sometimes project those negative experiences onto God. However, God isn't prone to such shortcomings, so we should always take his discipline seriously, and recognize it as beneficial.

Unconditional love is simply not basing it on performance. Meaning it is not only offered to those who we deem worthy since the lost need loving guidance the most. Being unconditional also means not withdrawing love because of a failure, but rather helping people through the trial. If anything, attaching such conditions to our love has probably left us longing for this unconditional acceptance that has tainted our love.

I hope this puts things into greater perspective. That this notion of blind acceptance often stems from an attitude of expecting the world to change to meet you where you are just so you don't have to change yourself. An attitude of wanting to avoid the growing pains of maturity. An attitude of fear that keeps us from facing the brokenness in our spirit. Such attitudes often stand in the way of real personal progress, and ultimately wholeness. Without wholeness, we cannot achieve complete holiness, and without holiness, we fall short of true spiritual prosperity. The lack of understanding of this point can lead us to find relief in toxic relationships that expect us to accept things that ultimately only damages our wholeness even more. The people who truly love you would never expect you to accept that.

The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. -Psalm 103:8-12

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One of the ways the rejection sensitive says I love you. While the concept of rejection sensitivity is easy enough to understand, their behavior is not. While they are capable of being warm and caring when the relationship they are in feels secure. They can turn quite hostile and controlling when they do not feel secure. The irony of this is that they often destroy the very thing they are trying to preserve. While they expect you to accept them unconditionally, they will not offer you the same.

Wholeness: Becoming

In my Heart of Worship video, I said that holiness is something that you become, not just something that you do. This is a critical detail in the creed of Christianity. Not understanding this distinction is at the center of so many common errors in our discipleship, as well as failures as a church. So I think we should have a closer look at this detail.

If holiness were simply a matter of what we did then our motivations wouldn't matter at all. Yet, scripture is clear that where our heart is at does matter. Yet, if we believe that sincerity is unimportant in the actions of others. It can lead us to force submission. We do see people in the church trying to force righteous actions continually. We see it in everything from on an individual level, to petitioning the government to make laws to force holy behavior. Obviously, their approach indicates that they believe if you force a person's behavior to be right, then they will be by default in the right. Despite that their heart is not in it, that's it's not sincere, that the change is more about being bullied into it, than pleasing God. Such things definitely do not please God, only shortsighted people. (Matthew 15:17-20, Mark 7:6)

Looking at holiness as an action instead of an inner change often leads us to only look at the surface of people, as well as their sin. This leads us to rank righteousness by visibility, and mere appearances. Leading us to make the biggest deal about what is the most noticeable, but giving little consideration of what takes effort to discern. The problem with basing righteousness on appearances is that it is easily faked. Manipulative people know this if only more church people understood this. Look at any church that treats holiness merely as only something you do, instead of becoming. You will likely find more than a few well-dressed fakes. (John 7:24, 1st Samuel 16:7)

Living by the appearance model of holiness tends to make us act very judgmental. Those that only look at the surface will never consider the brokenness behind the sin. Trying to change the actions of others without dealing with the brokenness behind them is like trying to fix a person with two broken legs by pushing them out of their wheelchair. It is unhelpful and just plain cruel. Yet, we are essentially just pushing people over and attempting to take away their emotional crutches by judging them for their actions. That is not how a true disciple should operate. Jesus was so very clear about this one, yet it's an often neglected teaching. If we better understood three-dimensional holiness, we would be better equipped to not violate this truth, because we would realize that holiness is really something you become and not just do. (Matthew 7)

This leads to my final point. The fact that righteousness is but one aspect of holiness, and wholeness is another, really brings this concept home. It illustrates that acting righteous is connected to becoming whole. Yet it's no wonder that all the impatient, unkind, rude, critical, unloving, and judgmental teachers try to bypass the concept of wholeness by only addressing our behavior and appearances. Yet, we wonder why the church is lacking in power and influence. Well, I don't wonder at all. Mere surface righteousness won't really delight and inspire anyone. It won't change or transform anyone either. So nobody is becoming truly holy that way, the best we can hope for is whitewashed righteousness. At worst people are only going to resent the church and everything we stand for, which is happening with alarming frequency. Consider this passage.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. -Matthew 23:25-26

Notice the wording. It doesn't just say start with the inside, then move to the outside. It says clean the inside, and the outside is clean by default. Unlike the reverse order that people tend to gravitate to that leaves the job incomplete. So if you treat holiness only as something you do, you will naturally neglect the wholeness part of it. Then, your cup is likely still full of hidden brokenness and sin. So I challenge you to take a long hard look at what's in your vessel. It may just explain why you are so unloving, critical, and judgmental of the lost. If you dealt with your own faults, then you might actually know how to address the specks from the eyes of the lost in a Christ-like way.

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