Embracing Genuine Holiness Beyond Appearances—A Journey of Faith and Inner Transformation

Holiness is more than just an outward display; it's a profound inner journey that can transform lives. Have you ever wondered what true holiness looks like beyond appearances? Join me as I recount personal stories from the heart of the holiness movement and reflect on how holiness transcends cultural boundaries. Through personal experiences and scriptural insight, we face the challenges of embracing true holiness and the discomfort that comes with speaking hard truths. This episode uncovers the essence of holiness, urging us to appreciate its beauty and significance in aligning our lives with spiritual principles.

Explore the expansive reach of the holiness movement, from the American West to cultures worldwide, examining how it often loses its essence by focusing too much on the external. We reflect on the importance of fostering an inward relationship with God that truly guides our actions and faith. By highlighting the pitfalls of churches overstepping into the role of the Holy Spirit, we urge listeners to prioritize genuine spirituality, humility, and love. Through gratitude and reflection, we encourage everyone to consider their personal spiritual journey and its impact on the church community, particularly as we set examples for the young like Sally and John. Let's commit to letting our love and inner holiness shine brightly.

Chapters

• 0:15 Holiness and Self-Reflection
• 9:17 Understanding True Holiness
• 23:46 Living a Holy Life in Action

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:15

hey, welcome to the welcome to the show is your host, jd. You're listening to the 421 show. Hey, go to our website, check it out hor421showbuzzsproutcom for all your latest content and information. Remember to tune in to Bible Talk once a week with Sister Deb and she is also airing on our local radio station, wuic 88.1 Christian Radio Station, and you can listen to that show every Sunday at 5 pm. You can also find Bible talk and much, much more on the four 21 show podcast on Google, apple, spotify, whatever platform you may listen on. If you'd like to contact sister Deb, you can email her at Osborne Debra K at gmailcom. If you'd like to contact Sister Deb, you can email her at osborne-debra-k at gmailcom. If you'd like to support the show, you can support it through PayPal slash HOR421 or HOR421showbuzzsproutcom. All shows are recorded live, no post editing recorded at the 421 studio. For contact information for all your studio needs, you can email at hor 421 ministries at gmailcom. Phone number is 239-849-1502.

Speaker 1: 1:37

Praise the lord. Glory to god. God is good. Yes, he is. Folks, I am glad to be here. I am by myself in the studio. I don't have no help but the lord jesus christ, the holy spirit. I thank god for everything that he has done. God is good. I can't tell you, I can't brag on lord enough what he has done for me and everything that he is he has done for me. I I really can't, you know. And God is good. God is good, yes, he is.

Speaker 1: 2:09

Folks, let's see what I want to talk about to you today. You know, I guess you could say it is a little controversial topic. You know, in the church, especially here in the mountains of Kentucky, you know, because there is a movement in what we call the holiness movement and and and I'll be telling you, I'll be first one tell you there are some really good people in that movement. It's like any movement, you know, whatever church it may be. You know, whatever move it may be, they're good and there's bad and uh and. But what I want to talk to you guys about you know, like I said, it's it's a little hard. You know, my own mother followed the holiness movement. Even myself, you know I chose to follow this. You know I have many friends in this. You know awesome men and women of God I hold dearly, with confidence, in Christ and I mean I say that with confidence, I do and I go to them for advice because they're very knowledgeable in the word.

Speaker 1: 3:14

But, like I said, I do feel this is one of the subjects the church don't want to talk about. You know, to dive deep down into the, you know the meaning of holiness. Holiness will show your true nature, really show you who you are. You know, just in the last few weeks, god has shown me a lot about myself in this study, stuff that I didn't know about. You know, and I'm not going to sit here and tell you I claim to know it all. I'm not going to sit here and tell you I claim to know it all. I'm not going to tell you that you know, I, I I'm not going to pretend, I'm not going to pretend to know it all. And and um, give you a bunch of hogwash. I can only give you what the spirit has taught me and, um, how I overcame and how I saw.

Speaker 1: 4:03

You know, even now I struggle with the thoughts of holiness, because holiness revealed a lot about who I was. It's, it's more and I'll say this throughout the show that it's more than just the outer appearance and the inner appearance. You know, holiness, you know I want to speak to you with love and not with resentment or hate. You know that will only call, that'll only cause confusion. And God's not the author of confusion, you know. The confusion is our enemy, it's Satan and all his little minions, you know.

Speaker 1: 4:41

That's, you know and you know's a scripture in matthew 10, 34, and, and it came to me as I was, you know, studying this is when, you know, because I, I struggled, you know, about telling this to you guys. You know, because this can cause a lot of people like you know, the back off. He don't know what he's talking about or, you know, I I think he's lying. You know, yada, yada, yada. But you know, think not that I come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace but a sword, for I have come to set a man in variance against his father and the daughter against his mother and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. That's Matthew 10, 34. And as I was, you know, and that's the scripture it keeps coming to me, you know that. You know, lord, I was like Lord. I don't want to do this, you know, I don't want to talk about this, I don't want to make anybody mad, but in one hand, I do want to tell you the truth. You know, because it's the truth that sets us free.

Speaker 1: 5:44

You know, ask yourself what is holiness? You know, to me, holiness is more than just our outer appearance. It's also our inner appearance. Holiness is repentance. What is repentance? It's the change our inner and outer appearance. They both go hand in hand. And holiness is a very beautiful thing, both for men and women. We are to follow holiness.

Speaker 1: 6:17

I do believe holiness has gotten lost in the translation of our own definition. You know James 4, 17,. Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, what's it say? To him, it is a sin. You know, we perceive that we know it all, but in truth we don't. When we repent, we start a process of change. God starts our inner man. Change God starts our inner man. This changes the mindset, a way of thinking, and in decision making. This involves putting the past right, which may include acknowledging wrong, expressing regrets, committing to change and asking for forgiveness. When we change our inner man, our outer man will start showing the fruits of God. Then, the grounds that God's seeds fall upon they have to be good ground, because if they're not, then it's just going to rot away. The vines are going to take it up, the birds are going to eat it, the water is going to wash it away.

Speaker 1: 7:25

Our biggest fault that I've witnessed in man, you know not excluding myself is we don't want change or we don't want someone telling us we have to change. You know, most of the time, 99% of the time, the first words that come out of man's mouth is you know, judgment, oh, we shouldn't judge. No, no, no. Well, that ain't what the Bible says, you know, and um, I've sinned, I've wrongly judged. I've had it come back on me as well. You know, I, I've I mean, god, slapped me right in the face, about knocked all my teeth out. You know, and it's, it's the truth. You know, we I think every christian gets to that point. I, I mean, if you don't, then hey, my hat's off to you, brother and sister, because I tell you what. I've been there. You know, I'd rather have someone tell me the truth than burn. It's the truth that sets man free. You know, when we don't want that truth, you know what that does. It allows that Jezebel spirit to rise up in us, that spirit of rebellion, controlling vanity, et cetera. Let us put down the laws of man and rise up with the laws of God, we are choking ourselves and our brothers and sisters. We are to love, we are to take off the grave clothes of our brothers and sisters. What's that mean? We are to help them. We're not to bombard them with the laws of man. We are one body with many members. Taking off the grave clothes of our brothers and sisters is helping, it's not putting down.

Speaker 1: 9:17

The holiness movement is just not in the backwoods of Kentucky, it's not just in these mountains. I've witnessed this movement in many cultures. You know people that know me personally know that I grew up out West and, uh, I've witnessed a lot of cultures. You know, just not in the cultures in the United States, but overseas cultures. You know, in these movements there there are many forms of holiness. They're just not the. They're not the true meeting of holiness. Their outer looks good but their inner is not. You know, and I'm I'm not speaking against the Hispanic culture, but I've seen anything close to the, to the movement here in in the mountains of Kentucky. The Hispanic culture has got it down pat. Uh, very loving people, some of the best people you know and I've ever met in my life. You know I grew up around them all my whole life but they, uh, they took up on that Holy you know that, uh, that holiness movement, and they kind of took it like we've got it here in the mountains of Kentucky.

Speaker 1: 10:28

The apostolic movement, the Catholic movement, these are just a few, just a form of holiness. They're not the true meaning of holiness. Each of the churches has some type of order they follow in clothing, religious rituals. The churches have some type of order they follow in clothing, religious rituals. They are wrong only if it goes against the order of god. We must put on, we must put the creator before all this and do it with love. If you are a history buff, you know the Jewish people had many religious practices to remind them what God had brought them through. No, this is why religious practices fail. Over the years, the people forget why they are doing them, and this is what this is what the holiness movement is experiencing right now.

Speaker 1: 11:23

Honestly, can you say that you remember why you're doing what you do? Are you remembering why you don't wear the jewelry, you don't drink the coffee, you don't wear the long sleeves, you keep your hair long? You might know a few scriptures, but do you know the true meaning of holiness? First of all, are you doing it with love, because if you're doing it with love, and then you're doing the greatest commandment of them all, and if you're not, then you're doing it in vain. You'll stand before God and God says that has nothing. I don't know nothing, I never seen you, I never knew you. And I promise you, I don't want to stand before god. I want, I want god to look at me and tell me I seen you, james, I seen your struggles, I seen your hardships, I see you try, you know, and so on and so on. And you know, and, and I I'll be the first one to tell you guys I'm reading off my notes because I have quite a few pages here and I wanted it to be as thorough as I possibly can.

Speaker 1: 12:30

But I want to be as truthful. I want to be truthful and we have to honor God on the inside as well as the outside, worshiping God in spirit and in truth. That is holiness in everything that we do. You know, and what this type of movement is dealing with and I mentioned it a little bit ago is it's dealing with the spirit of Jezebel, it's controlling, it's vanity, it's greed, it's forwardness, it's selfishness. You know, the list goes on and on and on and whatever. You know the Jezebel spirit's dragging behind it, it goes with it. I mean you can't help it. You do one thing you committed them all. I don't care how goody tissues you are and how long you've been in church, you commit one sin. You've committed them all.

Speaker 1: 13:18

But you know the church is carrying on the traditions of the pharisees and the sadducees, the law of moses. You know christ came not to do away the Sadducees, the law of Moses. You know Christ came not to do away with the law but to fulfill the law. And again, holiness is more than the inward, than the outward, but they still go hand in hand. There's nothing wrong with living a humble lifestyle. The key is putting God first. It's doing it with love.

Speaker 1: 13:46

Humiliation is not humility. I think the church has got this backwards. Humiliation is tearing down, and to stay down, humility is also tearing down, but is also the lift up is to show you truly who you are. Proverbs 29, 23,. A man's pride shall bring him low, but honor shall uphold the humble in spirit. The light of holiness will shine only if we follow the commandments of God. If we follow God's commandments, the rest will fall in place. If we follow God's commandments, the rest will fall in place, from the way we walk, the way we talk, even our clothing, without any man telling us how to live. That is the Holy Spirit's job to do. And see, the church is trying to do the Holy Spirit's job and it's not Having the Spirit of God in us.

Speaker 1: 14:47

We know in ourselves what is right and what is wrong. We don't need nobody to tell us and it you know, and I could be, I'll tell you. I don't need a brother or sister come up and tell me that I'm wrong. And if they do tell me that I'm wrong, that's god warning me, but something getting ready to happen. I've been there and I've done that too.

Speaker 1: 15:06

Our flesh wants to override the right and the wrong that the gospel spirit teaches us. You know the church. I've dealt with it and God the first time that God really started to deal me. Deal with me about the church, you know, and all the stuff that's going on in the church and he and he, he wants me to constantly speak about. You know what we allowed our enemy to do to the church and and this is part of uh, what he's done to the church. You know, like Nehemiah, you know when he, when he looked up on the walls of the city, they was destroyed. Well, you know what? I'm? Looking up on the walls of the church, and this is what's going on in the church today. This is why we're having so much trouble in the church today because we can't get over ourselves, we can't get out of this vanity, we can't get out of this Jezebel spirit.

Speaker 1: 16:02

Man or woman, you carry in that spirit, I don't care. I don't care how manly you are. I mean, it is what it is. You know, true holiness is the love of God. Love is the greatest commandment of them all. I don't know how much I could say that it is the guidance of the Holy Spirit that tells us what to wear, where to go and what to say. Essentially, the Holy Spirit is the schoolmaster.

Speaker 1: 16:28

The church has forgotten this. There is nothing wrong with wanting to live as humble as one can. It really ain't? I commend whoever you are. You want to live and you want to walk around in a robe and you want to do all that and you want to live as humble as possible. I say do it, but don't condemn others, for they don't know. You know they don't, and then make sure you constantly remind them why you do what you do.

Speaker 1: 17:02

Because, see, over the years and over the time, the church gets perverted by the cares of this world and they'd have a tendency to forget the true meaning of why we do what we do. And in reason why we do what we do, why did God have the children of Israel set 12 stones to remember where he brought them from? That is holiness, you know. You know you take a. You take a 20 plus addict, 20 year plus addict, whatever the addiction might be, from drugs, the alcoholism, lust, greed, you know. But one thing remains the same sin starts somewhere. It's how deep you want to go in that sin, how willing, how far you want to go in that sin.

Speaker 1: 17:53

And the reason why I said that because that's why God convicts us there is places that I can't go, there is things that I can't do but John and Sally I can't go. There is things that I can't do but John and Sally they can do it. But the reason why I can't do it? Because Lord says, james, I don't want you to, because there's things in my life that I have touched, I have seen, I have done that I cannot undo. I have committed sin, I have done things and I have to live a certain way. It's the truth. You know, I can't.

Speaker 1: 18:34

If a brother and a sister, you know, look at me and they see how I live, and let's just say, for instance, we're talking about the holiness movement, they see me wearing the long sleeves. I am, uh, I'm walking down the street and I've got these long sleeves on, and my brother and sister, they see me and they say, man, it's hot outside, why is he wearing those long sleeves? Well, one day they catch me kind of rolling up my sleeves and they see all those tattoos and all those things, you know, devilish tattoos on me and all those and I'm not speaking against tattoos, don't get me wrong Don't go throw a hissy fit and that Jezebel spirit start rising up in you. But what I am trying to tell you is I feel convicted. Convicted of those. Now, I'm not personally saying I don't have tattoos, I don't like needles. Uh, I love the artwork, but what's this, say I. I get convicted over them.

Speaker 1: 19:35

Well, miss Sally over there, she don't have no tattoos. But little John does Well, he starts wearing them. John does well, he starts wearing them. You know, he starts wearing the long sleeves. She starts wearing the long sleeves and, uh, well, see, kind of backtrack a little bit. They come up and ask me, and you know as far as that. And I tell them you know why, god, you know I'm doing what I'm doing and and so on. And he's like I like that, I'll do that. Well, I say that's good, that there's nothing wrong with it. But all of a sudden they get married. Their kids see them doing it. Now, all of a sudden, it becomes a tradition and, before you know it, generation after generation has lost the true meaning of what holiness is. It is remembrance, it's repenting, bringing you through. It is a change, it is a rebirth of who you are on the inside and the outside.

Speaker 1: 20:31

I didn't want this to be too lengthy, you know, and I tell you I had a list, probably have another page and a half. There's something I want to say, though, towards the end of this. You know my mom, she lived that holiness life. She had to because of the lifestyle that she lived before. You know he, he stripped my mom of everything that she was and who she was. That defined who she was.

Speaker 1: 20:58

My mom loved the travels travels, you know, and uh, she loved you know the line life, you know, partying and and um, and if also, if she ever got into trouble and next thing you know she'd hop in the car and jet, she was gone, she hid, she kept things private, secret. But she, she loved life, you know, in general, and she loved her drugs and um, and she dragged me and my sister along with her. I lived that life and I lived the life that she lived when she was walking in holiness. So I know where my mom had come from. So I can speak about this because I lived it with her and I watched the Lord take little by little and strip the identity of who the world said my mom was, who my mom thought she was. And see, and that's what holiness does it strips your simple identity and then turns you into the identity of God. See, he took my mom's car away from him. He made it so that it had to be me and my sister that took my mom everywhere that she went. She relied solely on me and my sister to take her to church, to do the grocery shopping, anything at the house, I mean, you name it. There it was. You know even her clothing my mom loved to wear bright, vibrant, showed the flesh, you name it. Low cut, tight jeans. That was my mom. That's what she liked. She loved her makeup, but God took it all away from her, just to show her that she didn't need all of that, because who she is is. And see, the world is facing identity crisis right now, and this is why we're facing the identity crisis, because we have forgotten what true holiness is. You know, I'll end it with this.

Speaker 1: 22:55

My mom had said something to me one day, just out of the blue. We're sitting there and she goes, james, and I go. What, mom? She goes, you know why I don't wear makeup? And I said, no, mom, I don't. Well, the conversation went. I said, well, because you go to church, you know, and that's what they believe. And she goes no, I cry too much. So she stopped wearing makeup. I cried too much. See, god took that away from her. It hurt her there at the beginning, but the Lord eventually showed her. It's because, you know, tammy, you cried too much. Why put on the makeup? You don't need it. I'm not speaking against makeup. I'm not speaking against, you know, short sleeves, long sleeves, shorts and not shorts, pants and wearing sandals. I'm not speaking against that.

Speaker 1: 23:44

You do what the Lord has told you to do.

Speaker 1: 23:46

You, you, you know this is your own cross.

Speaker 1: 23:49

This is your own walk with God.

Speaker 1: 23:51

You know we are one body many members and it does. You know. Whatever you do does reflect on the church Also. Remember that too. But you are your own person. You are your own. You will have to stand before God. But also remember little Sally and John's watching you too and see, they're learning off of you, not by words of the mouth, they're learning by your actions, by the light of the holiness with inside you. That's what they're looking at. They're looking at your walk. Are you walking according to what God has told you to do? Because your light will shine if you do what God tells you to do. And I thank God for everybody is listening. God is good and I hope you guys enjoyed the uh, the show.

Speaker 1: 24:41

I really do um again. Uh, if you guys like, check out our website. Go to hr421showbuzzsproutcom for all your latest content and information and remember you can support the show through PayPal slash H-O-R-421. Or you can go to our website H-O-R-421showbuzzsproutcom. All shows are recorded live, no post editing, recorded at the 421 studio For contact information for all your studio needs. You can email at H-O-R-421ministries at gmailcom or you can phone or text at 239-849-1502. Hey, if you guys like to be a part of the show, you got a testimony burning deep inside you. Give me a holler Love, you guys. You.