Page 7 - Called to Be Holy

The enemy does not want you to be Holy. He will do everything that he can to
discourage you from continuing to pursue holiness and let God do what he
must. He will use guilt, shame, pride and anger to distract you. It is during
these times that you have to remember that you are in the same position that
the Lord Jesus Himself faced while on earth. Even though he is the son of God,
He faced temptation but did not give in. He beat it back.

Why does God allow temptation? Well, it’s a way for us to see how much He
has changed us. Think of it this way, if you trained as a boxer, but all you did
was practice technique and never actually fought, you would never know how
good of a boxer you are. Athletes compete not only because they want to win,
but they also compete to see how far they have come in their training.

As God works and changes your life, you will find that temptation rises. That is
because your spirit is more attuned to God, and you start to recognize sin
more easily. It is a bi-product of letting God make you Holy. God allows temp-
tation through to show you that with His power, you CAN withstand sin. Now,
this does NOT mean that 1) you go and place your self in situations where you
will be tempted or 2) you go back to using old habits and patterns again. That
would be arrogant and a sign that you have not grown.

God would never let you fail without a purpose. You see, before you knew God
and you would give in to your temptation, you would feel a wrong type of
guilt. A pang of guilt that drove you away from God. Guilt that the enemy loves

to employ. Now that you are a friend of God, failing is different. When you fail,
the guilt you now feel is good, because it drives you to God. If you ask, He will
forgive you and show you what you can learn from this failure.

The temptation is there not to make you fail, but to show you how far God’s
taken you and how much you need to rely on God. We have a terrible habit as
believers to start believing our legend and we forget that it was God who did
all the work. Temptation and failure are a way for God to help you never to
forget that it is God who makes you Holy.