Leviticus 11:45
Food for Thought
An all-creatures.org Guide to Kingdom Living

By Marni Montanez

Leviticus 11:45

45 For I am the Lord who brings you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.

The Hebrew interpretation for Holy or qadosh simply means "set apart" or sanctified.

God is calling us to be Holy.  Why?  Because He is holy. God Himself is set apart and there is none like Him.  There is some misunderstanding about what Holy really means. It has been interpreted as one being pious or pure which produces an image of some angelic and dazed person floating in a constant state of bliss. People have even used the phrase "you think you're holier than thou", which when looked at through the lens of correct interpretation it doesn't make sense.

To be holy is to be different from the world. God called the Israelites to be holy and now He is calling us to be set apart.  

In the Old Testament God delivered the Israelite people out of Egypt where they had been enslaved for 400 years.  According to many theologians Egypt is a type of the world.  We, as born again Christians are called out of the world just as the Israelites were called out of Egypt.

When we choose to receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are filled with the Holy Spirit and presented as God's sanctified people in the Kingdom of light. It is the Holy Spirit within us that makes us separate from the world.  In this position of holiness we become as He is.  We take on the garment of holiness.  God then patiently and faithfully chips away at our old sin nature. This is a lifelong process that ultimately produces a spiritual and emotional likeness to God.

I liken it to Esther.  God had already selected her to be the next queen in the land, but she had to undergo much preparation so that she would "look" the part. By the time she was finished learning the detailed preparation she understood the protocol and used beauty secrets. She had spent numerous hours learning to bathe and groom herself as would befit a queen. She learned which spices and scents to use in to entice the King. Even though she wasn't queen, she transformed into an acceptable image of what the King desired.  She could not be presented before the king without learning and becoming what was acceptable.  This is the same for us.  God already knows we will "look" holy when He is finished. Holy people don't look like the world. We are made in the image of God.  As we go through the process of transformation we will begin thinking, talking and behaving as God does.  Each time we let go of our self image through healing, confessing, surrendering and learning we take on more of what God designed us to be. 

This is my challenge: Think of yourself as sitting on a tire tube and floating down river. You may hit a few bumps in the river, but the water flow represents the Holy Spirit, and He will carry you where you need to go.  In our everyday life this means physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually the Holy Spirit will direct your growth in becoming separate from the world in all areas.  So let go and start to flow….in His presence

God bless

Marni

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The purpose of this series is to encourage people to live as loving, compassionate, and peacemaking children of God: Jesus tells us to pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10) God tells us through Micah (6:8), "He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God." And we know from Revelation 21:4 that there will be no more mourning, or crying, or pain, or death. Thus, Christian living requires us to set the standards of these conditions here on earth for our fellow human beings, and for the other animals, as a witness to the rest of the world. To do otherwise is not Christian.