If God requires total holiness, how can a Christian live total holiness? Is it even possible?

Yes, It is possible to live in total holiness, but watch out for this. Do not modify holiness to be something that you can do. Do not think that holiness is something that you can do. Holiness is something that God causes you to become. You just receive it or reject it. There is a process. It is probable that no one, other than Jesus Himself, has ever walked in total holiness. During the process of walking into holiness, you will slip; you will fall; you will confess your sins; God will forgive your sins.

I asked my brother, "Isn't it true that the Bible, taken as it is written, has the promise that we who walk in the Spirit could walk right into total holiness?" My brother was silent for a moment, then thoughtfully said, "Yes; but don't we walk one step at a time?"

To understand this concept, read "Wisdom as a Process" below.

Many have lost the hope of total holiness. Some have, as a result, re-defined holiness. The Bible is very bold in stating that holiness is the kind of holiness that the Father has and that it is available to us only through Christ. When God says that whatever is not of faith is sin, He is saying that sin is anything that we think, say, or do that He has not led us to do and that He has not done through us. We miss most of His leading at this point, and also insert our fleshly selves into the process most of the time. There is only one way for you to do righteousness. That is to allow Jesus to do righteousness within you. That is what grace does. Paul said that it was not him who did the work but grace in him did the work.

Some have said that the Holy Spirit is given to help us to walk in holiness. This is only partly correct, and it misses the most important things. Actually, the first thing that the Holy Spirit does is to give you the ability to walk in righteousness. He does that by becoming our righteousness within us. He does that by doing the works of God through us. As Jesus only said the words of the Father, so the Holy Spirit only says the words of the Father through us. As Jesus only did the acts of the Father, so the Father does only the works of the Father through us. Righteousness is what you do. Holiness is what you are becoming as you have a new mind (repent). Romans 12:1-2states that renewing your mind is what causes you to be transformed, literally, transfigured. Transfiguration is actual redemption. All of these, righteousness, holiness, and redemption are processes that go from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18)

• We, in our nature, have no ability to walk in total holiness. The Holy Spirit not only helps us to walk in total holiness, but Christ in us is our total holiness.
• We can emulate holiness in order to impress ourselves or others that we are totally holy.
• in order to impress ourselves or others that we are holy.
• by trying to obey a set of rules or laws or principles
• lines drawn in the sand.
• these cannot bring true holiness.
• these can lead to false hope, hypocrisy, and spiritual deadness (read the book of Galatians, which was a letter to believers, not unbelievers).
• We cannot deny the reality that
• there are thoughts that enter our minds that are not pure,
• we get angry,
• we become discouraged,
• there are times when we are not flowing in the ultimate anointing of God,
• there are times when God is not the most prominent focus of our minds,
• we have not come the manifestation of Jesus Christ in our lives,
• our bodies have not been redeemed fully.

How? What is the process to bring us to the point where we walk in total holiness?

God's process that will bring us to the point where we walk in total holiness is walking in the Spirit. God's pro

• God's Spirit is given so that we can learn to yield our minds to Him.
• As we yield, our minds are renewed by the Spirit. (He does the work.)
• As we yield, He thinks His thoughts through us. (He is the source of all wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.)
• As we yield, He says His words through us. (We begin to speak as the oracles of God.)
• As we yield, He does His works through us. (We never do our own will, but only the will of our Father.)
• The Scriptural pattern for the church is an integral part of this transformation, which is why God is in process of restoring it.
• Spiritual Church government must be functioning.
• Spiritual Gifts must be functioning.
• Every member must be functioning as a ministry.
• Worship must follow the patterns of Scripture.
• From time to time, we see a flash of His glory in our lives.
• It is not continuous or complete.
• Mostly, we are in process of coming into His glory.
• His forgiveness is continual and perpetual, covering our missteps.
• God's desire is to continue to flow through us until we are conformed into His very image in every facet of our being. When that happens, we will be transfigured by the renewing of our minds.

Wisdom as a Process:

Remember that God does all the work. We rest from our own work and submit to Him. Righteousness and Holiness are both Free Gifts (Grace) from God. Righteousness and Love are synonyms. Love is the fulfillment of God's Law. Righteousness is what you do. Holiness is what you are becoming by submitting to God's righteousness. Holiness is stability in Love. The faith that gives access to Grace is a Free Gift from God--it is God's faith, not our own.

The Church is both the mechanism by which God does this work and the finishing of the work. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name. Revelation 3:12

Wisdom moves from taking spiritual ground from the enemy to holding ground and finally moving on to total victory. Wisdom is the principle thing, therefore get wisdom. (Prov 4:7) The Scripture tells us that God has made Christ to be Wisdom to us. Christ is Wisdom. Without Christ, there is no Wisdom. Not only this, but from a practical standpoint, wisdom consists of righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. (1Cor 1:30) Jesus is the Way. Righteousness, sanctification, and redemption are the three parts of the Way that build on each other.

• Righteousness is in the moment. Righteousness is the work that God does through you by His faith and grace.
• Sanctification or Holiness is progressive. By the righteousness that God does through you, He changes what you are, which is sanctification. Sanctification or holiness is the forming of Christ fully in you. The battle is now mainly for the mind. Holiness is stability and is what you are becoming.
• Redemption is the fullness of having Christ in you and you being in Christ, in His Body.It cannot be separated from the Body of Christ of Christ the Head. When it is complete, it is the full maturity and unity of the Body of Christ and Christ, the Head of the Body.

God has a process to have us grow up into Christ. God's way is through the Church, the true Body of Christ. God's process is by the Holy Spirit. It is by the free gift of wisdom.