My dad considered himself a holiness preacher and by default I heard a lot about this ‘holiness’ experience by the time I was in high school. I remember going to prayer meetings with my dad and old Methodist minister named Forest Sloan, and vividly remember that every time this man talked and prayed, he was so excited about the Holy Spirit and this ‘second work of grace’. At the time I was just too shy to speak (I know that’s hard to believe); but nevertheless, there were seeds planted in my heart that had something to do with this idea of LOVE that could purify a person. But, it wasn’t until years later that these seeds grew into questions and I found myself struggling, even wrestling with the Lord. I was dealing with bitterness in my heart, and I was choosing not to get closer to Christ. I was choosing to let sin fester in my life, unbeknownst to the world around me.
But, then, the Holy Spirit rained down. It was after an evening program at summer camp in 1999, and the Spirit’s amazing power and refreshing truth invaded my mind, my soul, and my heart. What I had only heard about began to happen in my life – the Holy Spirit began to fill my heart with love unmixed – there was so much love, that there was no more room for sin. The love of God expelled the sin from my heart. I vividly remember the presence of the Holy Spirit on that summer night. Since that day when I laid on my face and wept for God’s mercy and justice in my heart, I have sought and received peace, joy, and grace from the Lord
I got a new heart that night. In Ezekiel 36 it talks about God restoring Israel and the words intended for those chosen people were real to me in my moment of crisis. Verses 25 to 27 of Ezekiel 36 say: I’ll pour pure water over you and scrub you clean. I’ll give you a new heart; put a new spirit in you. I’ll remove the stone heart from your body and replace it with a heart that’s God-willed, not self-willed. I’ll put my Spirit in you and make it possible for you to do what I tell you and live by my commands (MESSAGE). God took out my stony, stubborn heart and replaced with a tender, responsive heart full of His love that wanted and needed to be obedient to our Creator. That night is when I discovered that God’s will in my life – is for His holiness and my purity; and that moment is when I was consecrated by God as holy and separated for service only to Him. And that is where my journey of holiness began. After that day, I remember feeling different and thinking different and even loving different.
My dad left lots of notes and gems of truth as a part of his legacy and one of the phrases he wrote in his journey of exploring holiness was that holiness has nothing to do with accumulated virtue. It took me a long time to figure out that what I did to please God, or my ‘accumulated virtue’, had nothing to do with personal holiness. It is not what I do, but what God has done and is doing through the work of His Holy Spirit in my life and in His kingdom. What a privilege it is to be freed from bondage, to have my heart filled with love, and to be set apart for the Lord.