Declare Yahweh Mekaddesh

Matthew 6:9-13

 Pray, then, in this way:‘Our Father who is in heaven,Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done,On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’]

We live in a fallen world, and it is always more pronounced to us in the United States during an election year. We hear all the negatives about candidates, and never know who to believe, the accused or the accuser. It is frustrating.  But the one thing we must remember is that we must no matter  what the world is doing or saying, is that God has called us as Christians to BE HOLY. He is holy, therefore we are to be holy.
Too hard a task?  Indeed it is without Him!  It is impossible without Him. But we have a privilege as Christians!  Because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, we have the Holy Spirit ready and willing to bring our requests right to the feet of God the Father through Jesus (Yeshua) We must remember that we have Him,  Yahweh Mekaddesh. He makes you Holy.  
Remember this:

"Holy is the way God is.  To be holy He does not conform to a standard.  He is that standard. He is absolutely holy with an infinite, incomprehensible fullness of purity that is incapable of being other than it is. Because He is holy, His attributes are holy; that is, whatever we think of as belonging to God must be thought of as holy."

                    ~ A,. W. Tozer 

Remember you (we) are the bride of Christ. We have been bought with a price. We have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to guide us and to protect us and to comfort us. He is at work in us to to will and to work for His good pleasure. What He has begun in us, He will compete. Remember that someday soon we will see Him face to face! In all His glory we will see Him! We must remember that all that seems so important to us, now will soon pass away, and those who know Christ, and are saved through His grace will be have the wonderful privilege of declaring Yahweh Mekaddesh, singing in the throne room for all eternity, 
"Holy holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is  and is to come" ~ Revelation 4:8b

Revelation 4
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Scene in Heaven4 After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, “ Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.” ² Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and One sitting on the throne. ³ And He who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance. ⁴ Around the throne were twenty-four thrones; and upon the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments, and golden crowns on their heads.The Throne and Worship of the Creator⁵ Out from the throne come flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God; ⁶ and before the throne there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal; and in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. ⁷ The first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle. ⁸ And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say,“ Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.”⁹ And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, ¹⁰ the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying,¹¹ “ Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.”

Trusting In Yeshua As Your Sanctification

Lets start out our study today with a few short verses from the Word! Today I have used the New American Standard Bible (NASB) for most of the verses.
1 Corinthians 1:30-32

"But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “ Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

We learn in these verses that God's holiness demands His people to be holy The author, Catherine Martin points out to us in this lesson that we as n
New Testament Christians have actually experienced a greater rescue than those people in old Testament times. See the verse below:

Colossians 1:13-14

"For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

How exciting to know He has rescued us! And because He rescued us, we are to be holy because of the following verse:

1 Peter 1:16

"because it is written, “ You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

Something very special happens when you become a Christian. Receiving Christ as your Lord and Savior:

2 Corinthians 5:17

"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."

 

You become SANCTIFIED. You are set apart. He sets you apart through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit! All this because God sacrificed His one and Only Son as an atoning sacrifice for your sins!

Romans 8:9

"However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him."

Hebrews 10:10-13

"By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet."

 I am sure we all struggle with being holy, I know I do! But guess what? Sanctification is not just a singular work accomplished by Yeshua  on the cross, but also it is an ongoing process accomplished by Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit in you.

2 Corinthians 3:18

"But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit."

Hebrews 1:14

"Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?"

What  an exciting thing it is to discover that you now belong to Yahweh Mekaddesh and you are a temple of the Holy Spirit!! 

1 Corinthians 6:19

"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?"

 Trust in Yeshua! Trust in Yahweh Mekaddesh! Know He is the one who will make you holy!

Yahweh Mekaddesh Be Holy Even As I Am Holy!

Kay Arthur has written a study book entitled Teach Me Your Ways
 She starts out the study on Leviticus  with the subtitle "Be Holy Even As I AM Holy"
She explains how this seemingly boring book can actually be used to bring about a
revival in your life.  She explains how you will come face to face with sin and the horrors that result from sinning.
She says that

"if you listen, you will come away with a holy fear of God, ~ a reverential trust and respect that will bring cleansing and new intimacy to your relationship with your Father God." 

The one who makes you holy, Yahweh Mekaddesh I like the word reverential meaning inspiring reverence. This sort of reverential trust can only come AFTER  you have put your trust in Christ. because BEFORE Christ, we do not  truly desire to be holy.  Catherine Martin, our Author for the study book we  are using Trusting In The Names of God Shares on page 188 of the book how we can learn from the Israelites in the book of Exodus.
She says

"sanctification follows redemption. We see this in the lives of the people of Israel, and their example, we have a picture of what God has done in our lives. after the people of Israel we rescued and set free by God from the cruel bondage of Egypt, they began their journey with God.  God wanted to be their God , and they were to be His people (Exodus 6:7) He had in mind for them a life
with Him in the promised land.  What would that mean for these people? They must be sanctified ~
holy and separate, like their God and not like the surrounding nations."Catherine Martin points out how God gave the law to Moses so His people would know how to live.  How to be holy. He is after all Yahweh Mekaddesh, He makes you holy. 

She continues to share how

"In  Leviticus, we see that Yahweh Mekaddesh sanctifies with purpose, influencing many areas of life, including keeping the Sabbath (Exodus 31:13), obedience (Leviticus 20:8), holiness (Exodus 22:8-9, 16), speech (Leviticus 22:32), and witnessing to the world (Ezekiel 37:28)." 

Holy means separate As it says in the Wikepedia

"Some consider that the Hebrew noun for "holiness," kedushah (Hebrew: קדושה‎), from the adjective kodesh, "holy," has the connotation of "separateness", although Hebrew has other verbs and adjectives to indicate separate, such as badal (בָּדַל). That which is holy in Judaism is set apart, and the separation is maintained by both legal and spiritual measures Certain places and times are intrinsically sacred, and strictures are placed on one's actions in those situations. However, holiness is not a single state, but contains a broad spectrum. The Mishnah lists concentric circles of holiness surrounding the Temple in Jerusalem: Holy of Holies; Temple Sanctuary; Temple Vestibule; Court of Priests; Court of Israelites; Court of Women; Temple Mount; the walled city of Jerusalem; all the walled cities of Israel; and the borders of the Land of Israel. Distinctions are made as to who and what are permitted in each area. Likewise, the holidays, including and especially the Sabbath, are considered to be holy in time; the Torah calls them "holy [days of] gathering. Work is not allowed on those days, and rabbinic tradition lists 39 categories of activity that are specifically prohibited."

Our author continues to explain how this holiness is extended to every area of their lives. Wholly holy. So as we draw near to Yahweh Mekaddesh, we must truly meditate on the wholly holiness of God, Yahweh Mekaddesh. He is indeed as she says in the book a cut above everyone and everything, and we need to start striving to be just like Him, a cut above.

We also need to NOT apologise when someone might taunt us and call us "holier than thou" We should explain that we are no better than anyone else, but that God has indeed called us to be holy, and that we are not going to apologize for being a "cut above" because God has called us to separate and become like Him. All this but saying He is humble and we must also be humble.

Fine line? you decide.

Yahweh Mekaddesh

Today I wanted to share what my husband Terry and I studied in the book The Names of God this past week on the road.  We really learned a lot and reflected on some mistakes we made raising our children, hoping our children do not make these same mistakes with our grandchildren.

Yahweh Mekaddesh 

 ~  "He makes you holy"  ~

Theme verse for the study this week is Exodus 31:13

“But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘ You shall surely observe My Sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.

As we read and thought about making the Sabbath holy we thought back on how we have celebrated the Sabbath during our married life. We did not make the Sabbath holy. We spent a couple hours "in church" doing maybe a Sunday school class, teaching children's church or sitting in a worship service, but we only spent that couple hours in worship mode, and then would either go home to dinner, go to a friend's or family member's home for lunch or go out to eat. Then the afternoon would be spent either working, fishing , tinkering around, napping or fellowshiping. But the key here is there was no further time spent one on one with our Creator.

We celebrate the Sabbath as do most evangelicals on Sundays. I am sure many have a real problem with this, but it is not an issue for us. Our issue is HOW we are celebrating, not WHEN. And the biggest part of this is the WHY we are celebrating this day once a week. God said the Sabbath was made for us, not for Him. I think this is where we got off track. It is FOR us to spend time in fellowship with our God. It is a time for us to fill up, reflect on our blessings, give praise to our Lord, and to learn to know Him more intimately it is a time for us to allow Him to Make us holy. So if we are off doing our own thing, we are not getting filled like we need to. We need to desire this total time with God, this time of fellowship. We need to desire more than anything else a sweet time in His presence. to reflect, to be thankful, to give our praise to Him. To sit and sing Holy Holy Holy to our gracious provider our Yahweh Mekaddesh, The one who sanctifies us or makes us holy.

Terry and I are going to commit more of our Sabbath to our Lord. We are going to commit time and fellowship. We want you to join us!  We know there will be no greater reward than to know Yahweh Mekaddesh  and to allow Him to make us holy.