Holy Purpose

God has placed a purpose in everything: Do you see it?

God is the Creator of all things. There is nothing in this world that God created without meaning and purpose.
To have the mind of God means to search the purpose of all things so that we can discern what pleases God and what displeases Him.

• Romans 12:2 — “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

When children grow, they slowly learn to distinguish a triangle from a circle, a circle from a square. Then they learn to distinguish wet from dry, cold from hot, warm from hot, warm from warmer and less warm, mild from strong, up from down, left from right, front from back, light from darkness, little from much, small from big, low from high, building from house, farm from stable, cow from horse, donkey from monkey, bird from animal, eagle from sparrow.
But then they are invited to discern what is human from what belongs to God, what is of heaven from what is of earth.

When a child grows into not caring what purpose something he uses was made for, and uses it as he pleases, then that child is rebellious towards God’s established order and thus, towards God Himself.
If we do something simply because it attracts us, without knowing for certain whether God approves or disapproves of it — whether we do it according to the purpose God made it for — then we partner with the highest angel who lost heaven, who is now called Satan — the adversary — a rebel against God.

Do we care to open our eyes to discern the physical and spiritual boundaries that God clearly established and gave us capable eyes to discern?

Because among the many things God created with a purpose, He also created our eyes for the purpose of discerning — not only between material things, but also moral justice, character balance, good from evil, and selfishness from selflessness. He gave us a spiritual eye and ear to be able to discern what is spiritual and what belongs to God, so that we may pursue it and not fall away from His love and life with Him. If we fall and stumble, He picks us up and helps us sharpen our sight, so that our discernment grows more acute and more accurate as we walk with God and seek to do what pleases Him.

But when we do not care what His assigned purposes are, how can we develop that inner sense? Lies and truth will look the same, the holy will not be distinguished from the common, and human righteousness will be placed on the same level with God’s righteousness. We will eventually become like Sodom and Gomorrah, unaware of our own filth, because we are placing together things that God made distinct and unfit to be joined.

What is distinct?
What does the word holiness mean?
What makes God holy?

The following words belong to the same essential idea in the way I am using them here:

To be distinct
To be separated
To have a purpose
To be anointed
To be holy
To be sanctified
To be unmixed
To be well defined
To have clear boundaries
To be explicit
To be clearly established
To have unchanging identity
To have one leading purpose alone

How do we know a guitar from a wall? A sofa from a bed? Oak wood from pine wood?
They have non-negotiable specificities that we may recognize by active observation and by acquired knowledge.
For active observation we must be willing to observe — interested to know.
For acquired knowledge we must be willing to trust — hoping to find out.

This requires enthusiasm for life — a will to discover that which God has concealed for us as a gift.

If we do not seek the certain specificities which God placed there for us to find out, we are as blind people who freely walk on a high-traffic highway, as if nothing on it exists that may hurt them.

And whoever plays with the certainty of these God-given specificities plays with eternal fire.

All living creatures are given the highest survival mechanism: discerning one line from another, the borders of one object from another, one situation from another, danger from comfort, fear from joy, desired promise from undesired threat, a shout from flattery. Both dogs and humans survive in this world by constantly recognizing the borders that wrap promising realities, so that they may pursue them and reside in them, and the borders of threatening realities, so that they may run from them and hide.

Our most developed sense, in both animals and humans, is this sense of discernment: not only physical discernment among objects, but also mental and emotional discernment among mental states, moods, intentions, characters, abilities, and many other non-tangible things. And we are very highly developed in these areas of discernment: some more in one area, some more in other areas; but we all have highly developed discerning abilities.
But what dictates the areas in which we are good at discerning?

A mix of home upbringing and personal interest and choice.

A home upbringing might work against our personal interest and may make the choice we make harder, but God has always granted us freedom and is ready to give us the power to choose differently nevertheless, if we truly want to, choose to, and turn to Him for help.

But before we do that, the question to us is: Do we discern? Where is our discernment oriented? Do we acknowledge that within us lives a high-tech mechanism that stands ready to enable us to properly discern all things?
But do we want to see reality as it is?
Do we want to see that our life is filled with evil and that our destiny is headed towards eternal damnation? Do we want to see that the habits we pursue to fulfill our passions are rooted in that which God condemns and strongly disproves?
Do we want to discern the truth from half-truths?
Do we want to discern God’s truth from human truth?
Do we want to discern that what we call truth is actually a lie?
Do we want to recognize that the devil is governing most of our decisions in our lives and that we do not oppose him nearly as much as we think we do?

All these answers are not discernment issues or discernment challenges — they are issues emerging from the orientation of the will.

Will we orient ourselves towards God and seek what is His, what is holy? Or will we remain oriented towards the darkness which we call light by our own authority, which God never approved for us to use in such a way?

What does the word common mean? Why is it opposite to the word holy — belonging only to God?

The word common is that which belongs to everyone. The word holy is that which is uncommon or separated, and belongs to God alone.

Holiness is not merely being “better.” It is belonging to God. Therefore sanctification creates distinctions: what belongs to God must no longer be treated as though it belongs to everyone, including ourselves.

What is unclean then, spiritually speaking? Everything which remains separate from God, refusing the sanctification He placed upon it — everything acting against the purpose God assigned it.

If we place the dust of the earth into a bowl of food which we eat, both the dust and the food become unclean because they are used outside the purpose for which they were made, and therefore are fit only for garbage. They were first only common, but then they became unclean. The same principle applies to spiritual matters — to us common human beings who, by the blood of the Lamb, are called to walk in holiness:

That which is common is not automatically unclean if it accepts God’s call to serve a holy purpose; but when a moral being remains common by refusing God’s call to holiness, it becomes unclean — unfit for fellowship with God and, ultimately, for eternal existence. Because nothing can exist by itself — useless things are garbage. They do not even belong in the soil, but are burned outside inhabited places.

• Leviticus 22:2–3 — “Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, that they separate themselves from the holy things of the children of Israel, and that they profane not my holy name in those things which they hallow unto me: I am the LORD.
  ³ Say unto them, Whosoever he be of all your seed among your generations, that goeth unto the holy things, which the children of Israel hallow unto the LORD, having his uncleanness upon him, that soul shall be cut off from my presence: I am the LORD.”
• Leviticus 22:9 — “They shall therefore keep mine ordinance, lest they bear sin for it, and die therefore, if they profane it: I the LORD do sanctify them.”
• Leviticus 10:10 — “And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean;”

That is what God has done to us by making Adam in His image and, after Adam defiled himself, by washing away his filth with the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ.

• Genesis 1:27 — “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
• Revelation 1:5 — “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,”
• Hebrews 13:12 — “Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.”

Therefore, if we remain common, even though we were made holy unto God, we remain unsanctified, without God’s mercy upon us.

The Power of Saints

What are sanctified people supposed to be able to do most of all?

They need to be able to discern between right and wrong, between God’s will and their own will, between holy and common, between body and Spirit.

• Hebrews 5:14 — “But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”
• Ezekiel 44:23 — “And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.”
• Acts 10:15 — “And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.”
• Acts 10:28 — “And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.”

A boundary is the line by which one purpose is kept distinct from another. Without that line, purpose itself becomes confused. God’s people must be able to place strict boundaries in all aspects of their life.

Let them not presume to approach or deal with holy things as saints if they themselves are knowingly refusing holiness. If somebody does the work of a saint without repentance, he will be cut off.

Let them not approach or deal with holy things while knowingly refusing the holiness to which God has called them, refusing to be holy where God demands that we be holy. This does not mean that an unclean sinner must first make himself clean before he may approach God: he must come to Christ precisely to be cleansed. But if he takes upon himself the work of saints while knowingly refusing repentance, he first requires repentance. If somebody does the work of a saint without repentance, he is profaning holy work; Leviticus expresses the seriousness of this principle in its own covenant setting by the warning that such a priest could be cut off.

• Leviticus 21:8 — “Thou shalt sanctify him therefore; for he offereth the bread of thy God: he shall be holy unto thee: for I the LORD, which sanctify you, am holy.”
• Leviticus 22:3 — “Say unto them, Whosoever he be of all your seed among your generations, that goeth unto the holy things, which the children of Israel hallow unto the LORD, having his uncleanness upon him, that soul shall be cut off from my presence: I am the LORD.”
• Leviticus 22:9 — “They shall therefore keep mine ordinance, lest they bear sin for it, and die therefore, if they profane it: I the LORD do sanctify them.”

If God has called them for a holy purpose, they should leave that which is common. If God has made them holy, they should discern the holy from the common — they should strictly distinguish the one from the other.

• Acts 10:14–15 — “But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean.
  ¹⁵ And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.”
• 1 Peter 1:15–16 — “But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;
  ¹⁶ Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.”

They must never reverse or blur the distinctions God Himself has established, erasing the lines by which one purpose is distinguished from another.

They should deal with common things not as though they were holy, and they should deal with holy things not as though they were common. Both of these mistakes are deadly sins: one is idolatry — giving sacred status to that which God has not made sacred; the other is blasphemy and profanation — treating as common that which God Himself has made holy.

There is no excuse for the sanctified person to say, “I did not know the difference.” The very fact that he was made holy enables him to discern and know the difference.
One cannot remain holy unknowingly.
To be made holy requires consciously and willingly accepting God’s mercy. It requires repentance from one’s past common life once one recognizes the holy life of Jesus Christ.
Then, having been reborn, one must walk in that life.
One cannot walk in it if he does not clearly know what is holy and what is common, or if he blurs the explicit boundaries that separate them cleanly.

Confusion happens when you mix two things that do not fit together.
When two purposes are mixed together, blurring the line that makes their use distinct, that is confusion. And God is not the author of confusion. “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?”
There is a time and place for everything.

And we, as people consecrated unto God, must discern that time, place, and purpose for the words we speak, the objects we use, and the habits we practice. If we confuse two purposes, we create confusion and open a field for strife. And if we strive against, rather than live in harmony with, God’s word, we become spiritually unclean.

• 1 Corinthians 14:33 — “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.”
• Amos 3:3 — “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?”
• Ecclesiastes 3:1 — “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:”

if we are confused because not knowing the truth, we are victims of uncleanness — but if we refuse to know the truth and recognize its certain character, then we are truly unclean.

God has nothing in common with that which is common. When the common is made holy it is no longer common.

In every aspect of life there is discernment — we know that if pedestrians walk on a highway they may get killed; therefore pedestrians walk on sidewalks, and cars and trucks on highways.

Clean, neat, and organized is he who discerns each thing’s specific purpose and uses it accordingly. He does not sit on tables and he does not eat on chairs. But the holy person recognizes everything in terms of its spiritual use according to God’s pulse of salvation. He does not deny the order of physical and common things, but he places spiritual order above them. If love requires eating on a chair because there is no table available, then he breaks that lower order because the higher one demands it. But he never breaks even the lowest order unless the higher order calls for it. He places love and compassion beyond everything, but he also never calls the lower order unnecessary or chaotic.

If a person lives without discernment, he is not only an embarrassment to heaven, but to the whole world — because even the godless rightly discern their own things. And whoever discerns rightly only among common things, but cannot discern what belongs to God, is an embarrassment to heaven. Unless a person learns to discern the holy from the common, his discernment is only vanity, hypocrisy, and an escape for selfishness and evil.

We must discern what leaf belongs to which tree and what fruit belongs to which leaf; but all this is meaningless if we do not discern God’s love and righteousness from human common love and unrighteousness.