Spiritual Prosperity for the Practically Holy

Spiritual Prosperity for the Practically Holy

The Lord will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

Isaiah 58:11

At the time of Isaiah’s writing, Israel was a nation which was long on spiritual profession and pretense, but short on practical holiness.  By the pen of Isaiah, God accuses Israel of spiritual duplicity saying, ‘They seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God.’  The next verses, however, paint a picture of a pleasure-loving, argumentative, self-righteous people.  God calls upon them to stop with their pretense and to begin to live out a practical holiness; to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, and clothe the naked.  Unto those who will live in such a practically holy manner, God promises a spiritual prosperity.

If we will tend to these practical matters, then God declares that He will do a number of things for us.  He declares that He will give us continual direction, ‘guide thee continually,’ and give us soul-satisfaction.  He promises to ensure our prosperous progression, to ‘make fat thy bones.’  Moreover, He guarantees fruitful production; that we will be like ‘a watered garden.’  He continues the list by promising, that we will be the means of benefiting others ‘like a spring of water.’  He concludes with the promise that our spiritual heritage will be themselves spiritually-minded, and shall venerate our labors.

The Person and work of Christ alone, is the effective reason for all these efforts. While it is beyond question or controversy that we should live out practical holiness, it is also clear, from the lips of Christ Himself, ‘without me, you can do nothing.’ Christ shows us what to do, to say, to be, and, by His Spirit enables us to carry out all that He intends.

What incentive for us

to be practically holy.

May God

make us so,

increasingly.

Where the Bush is Burning

Tomm Tice