A Highway of Holiness

A highway shall be there, and a road,
And it shall be called the Highway of Holiness.

The unclean shall not pass over it,
But it shall be for others.
Whoever walks the road, although a fool,

Shall not go astray.
No lion shall be there,
Nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it;
It shall not be found there.
But the redeemed shall walk there,
And the ransomed of the Lord shall return,

And come to Zion with singing,
With everlasting joy on their heads.
They shall obtain joy and gladness,
And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

This was an awesome moment when God spoke to Isaiah. Isaiah foresaw a time when God would establish a highway and it would be called the highway of holiness. God has not changed His agenda. Holiness is a highway for God. God has helped me to understand something of what that means. I have watched the Lord deal with my own life. I have also watched the Lord create a highway over which He is passing.

REVIVAL IN BROWNWOOD

Several years ago I was in Brownwood, Texas, with pastor John Avant. We spent four amazing days in which we led people into the presence of God. The awesomeness of God was so evident that people were profoundly impacted by God’s holiness. People who were present spontaneously began to confess all manner of sin — in settings that were uncomfortable for them. The next morning when John arrived at his office, one of his laymen stood at his door weeping and said, “Pastor, I’ve got to repent.” There were huge dimensions of his life that had been radically exposed as God worked in his life.

On Sunday night, churches from twenty different denominations spontaneously closed their services and came to the church where God was moving. If you were to ask them, they would not have been able to tell you why they came. The presence of God had drawn them. When the invitation was extended, people responded with great weeping and utter brokenness before the Lord. Although people came from different denominations, it seemed as if they were one people with a terrible sense of what it means to stand in the presence of a holy God.

In God’s presence, all sin is exposed.

Could I dare say to you that wherever else you are, you are not in the presence of God if sin is not being exposed? You may simply be practicing religion if sin is not dealt with. You will know when you stand in the presence of a holy God. When God brings His word to bear upon people, it is profoundly different from when the Pharisees shared the Scriptures.

When the Spirit of God takes the Word as a mighty sword, the Spirit of God pierces down to the soul, spirit, bone, and marrow. God’s Word is a “discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” and it openly exposes the heart to a holy God (Hebrews 4:12).

You will know when the Spirit of God is wielding the Word of God.

God has held my life accountable to that truth. I must make sure that I am accountable to God. I might need to survey my own heart by saying, Henry, don’t keep saying that the Spirit of God is wielding the Word of God in you if sin can stay rampant in the life of everybody who hears God’s Word from you. Don’t keep fooling yourself. Your life is not a highway over which God is going. Your life is not a highway of holiness except when the Word of God in the hand of the servant of God acts like a sword. If there is no exposure of sin when we speak, there is something wrong with the holiness of our lives. The Scripture says that when God builds a highway, it is a highway of holiness!

Excerpted with permission from The Solomon Promise by Henry Blackaby, copyright Henry Blackaby and Richard Blackaby.

* * *

Your Turn

Holiness isn’t a lofty word; it just means to be set apart for God’s purposes, to be like Him. We are His people, His kids and we are called to be holy (set apart) like Him! That naturally means that sin is going to get an eviction notice! Goodbye! We’re on the highway of holiness! ~ Devotionals Daily