Directions for Obtaining Holiness and a Testimony

The facts of salvation are knowable—they may be known by experience. You know when you are saved. There is no guess so or hope so, there is a know so! There are three things that are distinct in the experience of holiness or entire sanctification:
1. There is a consciousness of inbred sin (carnality) and moral deficiency after conversion, and the more devoted and faithful the justified soul, the clearer and stronger this conviction. You know there is something inside of you lurking that you have to suppress.
2. There is conviction, in light of gospel provisions of duty and privilege of being “cleansed from all sin,” and made “pure in heart.”
3. It is prayerfully sought and experienced as an instantaneous cleansing by faith in the blood of Christ.

By way of testimony, I was saved in 1974 and spent a few years in a very popular Charismatic church in Virginia Beach. Being filled with the Holy Spirit was part of the teaching that I heard on a regular basis. When I left Virginia Beach to move to Williamsburg, VA to attend the College of William and Mary, I thought I had my Christian life together. Yes, I had occasional issues that would cause me to repent, plead the blood and be restored, but I believed I had reached the pinnacle of Christian experience. That was until that day in August, 1976, when I discovered the Maranatha House operated by Rev. Herbert J. Norton. When I met this man born in the late 1800’s, there was something very different about him. He spoke of being entirely sanctified and the experience of holiness. I met others at his house that spoke of the same experience. It didn’t take long for me to realize that these good people had something I did not have. Their “being filled with the Spirit” was much deeper than what I had known.

Those three years were a learning experience and not just at the College. I learned about old fashioned Scriptural Holiness. I thank God that He moved on the heart of an 80+ year old retired minister to start an outreach right across from the building that I would spend three years at. I’m thankful that when the denomination told Rev. Norton that he was too old and they would not financially support him, that he took a step of faith and started the ministry anyway. I am fruit of that ministry. If you are being blessed by our ministry, then you are fruit of his ministry also.

Today, we begin looking at directions for obtaining holiness. It begins with you looking at your Christian life. Do you still struggle with carnality? Is there something inside you that rises up that you have to suppress? If so, after the Bible study tomorrow, next week will be filled with Scriptural instruction to guide you into the experience of holiness.