Holiness is Doing what God Wants
David W. Palmer
(Hebrews 12:14 BSB) “Pursue peace with everyone, as well as holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.”
Holiness is doing what God wants; but it is doing it the way Jesus did. How again did Jesus live his holy life? God showed him what he wanted him to do in the context of intimate loving relationship. Then Jesus went and did what he saw in “like manner”; He saw in the spirit what God—who is Spirit—was doing; He then went and imitated into the natural realm what he saw in the spirit realm.
We note also that Jesus did all that he saw with his Father, and nothing more than he saw with this Father. “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the father doing; for whatever he does, the son also does in like manner” (John 5:19 DKJV). The actions and words Jesus thus received from heaven and enacted on earth constitute the holy actions into which God called him to walk.
The Holy Spirit said something similar to us through the apostle Paul:
(Ephesians 5:1 EMTV) Therefore be imitators (mimics) of God as beloved children.
This, quite simply, is what God wants from us; he wants us to mimic, or imitate, what we see with him in the spirit, while enjoying relational intimacy. This, in truth, is what a father-son relationship is.
Our God set up the whole arrangement of the New Testament so we can operate like this. Love and love’s mimicking is the first aspect of the key to a holy life; and it happens effortlessly, without the sweaty toil of cursed legalism (See: Gen. 3:17–19). Let me illustrate:
Once, Rosanna and I went to stay with our friend’s family interstate. The first morning after our arrival, we observed a very amazing scene in their kitchen. Their little daughter—an almost exact replica of her mother—walked up to her mother, and with one hand on her hip, the other with the index finger pointing at her mum said with attitude, “You’re a very naughty girl.”
Although I couldn’t say anything out loud, inside I said to myself, “I wonder where she learnt to speak and gesture like that?” It was obvious to me that the junior was not only a genetic replica of her mother, but was also mimicking her words, voicing, and actions. It’s probably true that all children that love their parents will imitate them—while they are young and humble enough to do it.
The young girl in this story didn’t learn this by taking lessons, or even by conscious decision. No one told her to do it, or wrote it for her in a set of rules. No, it was more a matter of, “monkey see, monkey do.” When she watched the person she loved day after day, she effortlessly mimicked the same behaviour and mannerisms—she did what she saw with her mother. In the same way, Jesus did what he saw with his Father.
Rosanna and I don’t have children of our own, but I do remember a similar thing happening with my nephew. When he was a young boy, I was the visiting preacher at his father’s church at Morwell in country Victoria. Between services on Sunday afternoon, I went into the auditorium to pray. At that time, I found prayer worked the best for me walking up and down between the rows of seats praying out authoritatively, quoting scripture, and praising God. For some reason, my left hand always ended up in my pocket, while my right hand—index finger pointing—would wave up and down as I walked.
While praying on that particular day, I became conscious of a presence behind me. I turned half expecting to see an angel. Instead, I looked down, and a very small boy was walking along the rows behind me, mimicking my hand actions. Again, I didn’t have to give him instructions, lessons, or training to do this. I didn’t have to write it down as laws; he simply did what he saw—he imitated like a “beloved child,” as it says in Ephesians 5:1.
Obviously, these illustrations took place in a natural, physical way. Yet, what Jesus describes as the way he operated is not dissimilar. The only difference is that he didn’t see it in the natural realm with a natural father; he saw it in the spirit realm with his heavenly Father. Can we do this? Since the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus; and since the coming of the Holy Spirit and the new birth, the answer is absolutely “yes.”
The first time this happened for me, it took me quite by surprise, and left me a little shocked. Let me explain:
In 1986, I was the associate to Pastor Tom Rawles at Harvest Christian Centre in Moorabbin—a south-eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria in Australia. At that time, we were on the forefront of what God was doing in introducing contemporary styles of music, clothing, and vernacular to the Sunday church format.
Up until that time, the only role models we had for praise and worship leaders were predominately vocalists who conducted the congregation with arm gestures. Other pioneers of contemporary worship in Australia were leading from the piano.
Rosanna and I, on the other hand, had come from the professional rock music scene. She sings and plays electric guitar, I play bass guitar. We had no role models for leading congregations from these types of instruments. So we stood at the front of the platform together and led together. We had seen the Lord add other musicians, singers and AV people to our team until about 30 of us were meeting for rehearsals and pre-service prayer.
On the day in question, Rosanna and I were appointed to lead together. We set up at the front centre of the stage; I was playing my bass next to Rosanna, who was playing guitar. When we finished rehearsing for the evening meeting, I was praying with the whole team prior to the service.
As I was praying, suddenly, I saw in the spirit someone leading the songs, running backwards and forwards in front of the platform with a microphone in their hand. I really didn’t know what to make of what I saw, so I noted it, and went out to lead the service like normal.
However, to my surprise, as we started to play, my feet wanted to move. (This is very unusual for a white Aussie male of my era raised in the farming community of Gippsland.) I called for the other bass player to take over the bass guitar. The next thing I knew, I was running backwards and forwards in front of the platform by God’s anointing, as I was leading the songs; I was doing precisely what I had seen in the prayer time.
This whole experience happened for me exactly as Jesus described; I was doing what I had seen with the Father. I made no conscious decision to do it, I took no lessons on how to do it, I certainly didn’t prepare to do it, and no human effort was required to do it; in fact, the anointing to do it was so strong I could hardly stop it. (However, I did need some courage to step out, boldness to act, and a lot of humility to launch out by faith like this in front of the whole church.)
Although I didn’t fully understand it at the time, what I experienced that day was God’s grace working in me to walk in the works he had prepared for me (See: Rom. 4:16, Eph. 2:10, 1 Cor. 15:10). This was a holy act—initiated in God and brought into the light (John 3:21). The result was astounding: freedom came to the church and to me.
Since that time, we have seen many people leading worship like this; but for me, I saw it first in the spirit in the place of prayer—then it happened through me just as I had seen.
In this event, I had experienced supernatural holiness. But at the time, it was just a one-off event—something I had not planned or initiated. How could I repeat this?—not just for another church service, but also in everything I do. After all, Jesus said he only did what he saw with the Father. In other words, he had first seen with his dad everything he ever did and said. So how would that work for me? Is there a way to take this experience from being a one-off event that I just “happened” upon? Does God’s word show us how to make this our life-style?
Tomorrow, to understand this same idea from a different illustration, we will look at one from the Apostle Paul.
Today, let’s simply take all the pressure off ourselves about living holy by our efforts at keeping laws by our own will-power. Instead, let’s learn from the illustrations of children who love and live with good parents; they learn subconsciously and effortlessly to imitate what they see and hear. The live in the secret place with their parents; they simply grow into to taking on mum and dad’s values, sayings, mannerisms, and actions. This is why the Holy Spirit says:
(Ephesians 5:1 CSB) “Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children.”