Second Lesson of the Quarter: The Holiness of God Part 2: Traumatized

 The Holiness of God Part 2: Traumatized

This is Part 2 of a series on the Holiness of God. Each week we will study a different aspect of God’s holiness. When you have completed the series, you may experience a change in how you worship, speak, and pray.

“Then Job answered the Lord, and said, I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” Job 42:1-6

I am amazed the way I hear some “Christians” talk about being in the presence of God. It seems like a spectrum between sitting peaceably by a lake with soft music in the background or shaking uncontrollably, acting drunk, and falling down when the minister touches you. I believe an encounter in the presence of God is to encounter His holiness. When that occurs, you may expect some trauma. Trauma can be defined as a deeply distressing or disturbing experience. Some say, “Oh no, being in God’s Presence is all love. It feels so good.” Let’s direct ourselves to the Word of God. We will want to search the Scriptures to see what it says about what happens when unholy flesh meets Perfection in Holiness. We will read the accounts of Isaiah, Job, Habakkuk and the Apostle John.

1 Isaiah: “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” Isaiah 6: 1-5

When Isaiah sees the Lord, he cries out “Woe is me!”  He says he is “undone.” Another translation says, he is ruined. When Isaiah is in the presence of the Lord, he immediately recognizes how unholy he is. This should be the response of anyone who is in the presence of the Lord. It is not a soft relaxing feeling like sitting on a cloud. You are confronted with the absolute perfection and holiness of our God. We should cry out like Isaiah, “I am undone.” How does this compare with those who claim to be in the presence of the Lord? It doesn’t! If we are in the presence of the Lord, we are on our faces. We are traumatized!

2. Habakkuk: “Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses, through the heap of great waters. When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops.” (Hab 3:15, 16)

Habakkuk trembled before the perfection and holiness of our Lord. He recognized his own sin. Habakkuk described his experience in response to the works of the Lord: “I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters my bones; my legs tremble beneath me.” That is one of the characteristics of being in the presence of the Lord, you recognize your unholiness. You tremble with fear at the holiness of God. How does this compare with what passes today for the “presence of the Lord?” 

3. Job: Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said: “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge?Brace yourself like a man.  I will question you, and you shall answer me. (Job 38: 1-3)

What was Job’s response to the presence of the Lord? “Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42: 6) After God appeared to Job in the whirlwind, Jod is humbled and sees his lack of holiness in comparison to the holiness of God. This should be our response if we claim to be in the presence of the Lord. His Perfection and Holiness is so intense that it should drive us to repent. How often do you hear this response? Rarely. People talk about Jesus wanting to go on walks with them or crawl into bed with them. These people are deceived and need to be genuinely converted. They are not saved. They are under a delusion.

4. John: “And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last ....” (Revelation 1: 17) John, the beloved disciple, when he saw the risen Lord, he fell at his feet as dead. I would call that traumatized. This is the response when people are truly in the presence of the Lord. Sinful flesh cannot handle the presence of the Lord.

There are people that call themselves “holiness people.” They say this because of their manner of dress (primarily fixated on the USA in the mid 1950s). Women wear long dresses, don’t cut their hair, wear panty hose at all times outside, and wear long sleeves to cover their elbows. I once heard a woman say, “This is holiness,” referencing how she was dressed.  That frightens me. I love the Lord but I am not holy as He is holy. I want to be and one day I will be. However, when I am clothed in sinful flesh, I live a life of daily dying and renewing my mind to be more like Him. Holiness is much more than appearances. 

Why do many preachers soften the true picture of God’s holiness? It is because the holiness of God is traumatic to unholy people. In an effort to spare people the trauma, they emphasize other attributes of God like love, to the exclusion of other attributes. After all, if we want the unholy to join our church, pay money and “help the cause” we don’t want them to feel uncomfortable. 

We comfort ourselves by comparing ourselves with others.  Instead of doing that, we should look to the perfection of our Lord, die daily, live a life of brokenness and repentance. When we do that, we won’t have perfect holiness, but we will be living a sanctified life and growing daily into His image. 

We say we want to be in God’s presence, but if you do, be prepared to be traumatized. As we seek the Lord, we should do so in a state of repentance and brokenness. Don’t settle for an emotional man made experience that is most likely being in the presence of demonic spirits. But that is a different lesson for a later date. 

Prayer

1. Praise God for His pure and perfect Holiness.

2. Confess the sins of your tongue that you struggle with.

3. Thank God for His forgiveness.

4. Ask God to use you for His glory.