A holy moment defined
When God’s presence achieves God’s purpose
For God’s glory and man’s benefit
We are busy. Really busy. Really, really really busy. In fact, some of us answer the daily question “How are you?” with “Oh man I’m so busy, it’s crazy at work, out of control at home, man I’m busy”. This book is for you. It was written by me from God in order to catch you in the midst of your busy world and engage you with the thought about how you, a busy, harried hassled hard-working person can experience God in a personal, powerful and lifechanging way every day. It can happen, and it is happening to you already. If you make it through to the end of this book (I know how busy you are!) you will come away with new priorities, new experiences, and new perspectives on what it means to know God, be known by God, and make Him known to your busy world. Your life may continue to be busy and seemingly out of control, but you will be blessed by an undercurrent of holy moments that are always there for you to experience and share. You will find holy moments are everywhere and happening around everyone, just waiting to be experienced or given away. Yes, we are all busy, and it’s only getting busier. Together we will discover how to experience Jesus in the busy and invite others into the holy moment God has planned for us to experience together.
It was 6:30am and I was having my quiet time the morning after a bad day at work. I was anxious, worried, and unsure. This time of year, the sun moves in its orbit so it’s directly in line with the sliding glass doors in the kitchen where I have my quiet time. It is a beautiful reminder of how God’s mercies are new every morning. I was needing some of that eternal perspective, so I was looking forward to some personal time with God. I was in the middle of reading my devotional when my oldest grandson, RIV, came down wiping the sleep out of his eyes. I knew that was the end of my quiet time, but God offered me the chance for a holy moment. I was in Luke, so I weaved a kid sized story around the healings Jesus did in chapter seven. RIV listened with the interest and imaginations of a 7-year-old and just like that we were sharing a holy moment. I left for work with a different perspective. We sang the song ‘This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it’. The song was more for me than RIV, and the holy moment we shared was powerful and personal.
I could have chosen to send RIV away in order to finish my devotional. Instead, I obeyed the invitation the Holy Spirit gave, and that is how a holy moment happened.
A Holy moment happens when
God’s presence achieves God’s purposes for God’s glory and man’s benefit.
God’s presence- This is the key to a holy moment. Without God’s presence there is no holy moment. We can find holy moments abounding all around us in the most beautiful and challenging experiences we will encounter this side of heaven.
Achieves God’s purpose- God always achieves His purpose, ALWAYS! God is in total control, and He orchestrates holy moments for us to experience as well as share. There is never an accidental holy moment for a Christ follower. Each of our moments was planned and executed with you and me in mind.
For God’s glory- Every holy moment is designed to bring glory (a holy focus) to God. The moment may be big and public, or seemingly small and obscure, but God is recognized and seen as the author and perfector of the holy moment.
And man’s benefit- A holy moment is designed to bless a person or persons. It is designed and empowered by God to achieve something specific in a person or the people who need it at that moment. A holy moment will always make somebody better. A holy moment will always bring a person closer to God, His holiness and love. You always come away from a holy moment a little more strengthened, and a little more humbled.
You may respond with “But I’m not holy, not even close!”
Maybe you aren’t, but that’s ok. Maybe you feel unholy, stained by the world, left behind by those you once trusted. Maybe you are caught up in habitual sin and feel the challenge of conviction that has turned into the lie of condemnation. Maybe you are so wounded by the world and others that you feel hopeless to ever experience feeling clean, pure, holy again. These are real pains, and they can leave us feeling lost and left out from the presence of God. The first thing you have to evaluate is your spiritual position with God. Holy moments begin when you reach out to God for the first time and experience His holiness, His forgiveness, His connection, and His presence. Whenever a person realizes their spiritual need and surrenders to God through His son Jesus, an eternal holy moment happens.
2 Corinthians 5:17 says it best.
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is passed away; behold the new has come!
What is passed away? The old you, the sinful you, the separated you, the hopeless you, the rebellious you, the prideful you, the independent you, the angry you. What has come that is new? Jesus in you through His Holy Spirit. Once you were alone in your skin, dependent on you alone to survive or thrive based on your own efforts. But If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, then you are indwelt by the eternal, holy, loving and powerful God of the universe. You are a new creation, a new, eternal creature. God’s holiness has been deposited in your very being, and you can never go back to the old you. You now have continuous access to God through His spirit in you. There will never be one moment when God is not interested in you, loving you, connected to you, and working in you. This is the first personal holy moment in a believer’s life.
Before you really came to know God, you may have experienced a holy moment in the past from other Christians, or from God Himself. It could have been a beautiful sunset, a Christ centered wedding or funeral, a movie that lifted your soul, or a song that opened your spiritual eyes for a moment. The truth is God is always offering holy moments to people. Some are moved by them, some just miss them, and others reject them completely. We will explore how we can see holy moments and be holy moments as we progress thorough this book. The point here is that God’s desire, no God’s entire plan is for you to experience that first personal holy moment with Him as you surrender your will, your sin, your desire for independence, and your demand to be your own God to His holy, loving presence. Once that happens, you will have the spiritual capacity to see the holy moments all around you and participate in the holy dance that is your new life.
If this is all new to you, read on. See how God works, how He operates, what His desires and purposes are. I think you’ll be surprised by what you find.
God creates His holy moments with us and for us
Ephesians 2 is a beautiful chapter in the bible that opens our eyes to our spiritual condition apart from Jesus, and our personal powerful relationship with Jesus here on earth and into eternity. I am focused on verse 10 as it is the theme of this book. Think about the powerful statements in this verse.
We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works (holy moments) that God has already prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)
For we are His workmanship. The Greek word here is poieo, which is something made or constructed. We get the word ‘Poem’ from this word. It hints at an ongoing construction project, one that once begun, is sure to be completed. God has been creating from the very beginning. He is called the author and perfector of our faith, the one who calls things into being that weren’t there before. We are His creation, His offspring, His holy obsession. God loves what He has made in you. He intends to perfect it until you pass from this temporary existence into an eternal, face to face existence with him.
Created in Christ Jesus. Jesus is the focus here. Jesus paid the price for sin, for us. Jesus is part of the triune God, a mystery and reality that allows for a Triune experience with Him. We are triune in body, spirit, soul, and God is father son and holy spirit. Each expression of God exists together and has existed since before He created time. Yes, God created time. He is able to interact with you constantly without ever getting distracted by me and my chaos. This out of time existence allows Jesus to interact with us each personally and intimately, through the Holy Spirit who creates the holy moments we can see and be. Later in Ephesians Paul puts it this way.
Being renewed in the spirit of your mind, putting on the new self, created in the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (4:23-24)
Jesus makes me holy! I don’t have to lift that impossible bar. I don’t have to maintain that impossible standard; I am a new creation in Jesus Christ! This is my eternal position, and nothing NOTHING can change this eternal connection with the holy, loving God of the universe. This is the freedom God offers to every believer.
For good works. The Greek for good is Agathos, meaning something that is beneficial or a good thing. Good works come after we have been created in Jesus, after we have surrendered our lives to His holy love. Now through His spirit in us we have the power and capacity to be a holy moment (good works) and see a holy moment (God works). God has given each of His follower’s gifts that will allow us to do the works he has prepared us for.
Which He has prepared beforehand. This is what gets me up in the morning! Not only has Jesus made me a new creation by His presence indwelling me, but He has also given me gifts and talents designed to do good works that He has already laid out in my path to accomplish! Do you see it now? The holy moment you are, can be and will be?? This is the hope and encouragement we have, and this is the foundation on which we will build on in this book.
That we should walk in them.
Here is the calling. This book will give you biblical teaching that will help you take action on what God will show you. The end goal here is to have you actively walking in the holy moments you will learn to see and become. This should not be just an intellectual and personal learning experience. You should be applying these principles daily as you are learning them. At the end of a reading, ask God to show you what He’s teaching you. Then set a small action goal right there in that moment. Maybe it will be a verse you will text to somebody that He puts on your heart. There it is, your own personal holy moment!
See a holy moment
Once our spiritual eyes are opened through a relationship with God, we have the capacity to see a holy moment coming. Remember, God is always creating and expressing holy moments all around us to the people who know Him as well as those who don’t yet know him. We will also learn about those moments in this book, and how you can become more spiritually aware of the invitations from your father to the holy moments He has created for you.
Be a holy moment.
Don’t forget that the holy moment is God’s making. We are the blessed participants of the holy moments God creates for us to experience. The challenge is to be more aware of God and His purposes so that He can invite us to as many holy moments as we desire. If you are walking with Jesus daily, you are probably experiencing the good works He has planned out for you to do. It could be as simple as responding to the nudge to text that verse you just read to somebody you were praying for. It may be the sense that your family member or friend needs your help for some reason. You may be nursing your baby and feel compelled to pray a blessing over them. Maybe it’s something you read that you feel compelled to share on social media. It could be the urge to pray for the homeless person you just passed. Each of these moments are the holy moments, the ‘good works’ God has planned for you to do. In doing them, you bless others and are blessed by God for your obedience.
A great couple of verses here is John 7:37-39. Jesus is speaking to the crowd in the synagogue in Jerusalem.
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’.” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Jesus in you is the source of the holy moment. The moment isn’t dependent on you, your strength, your emotional condition, your “have it all together” ability. Holy moments flow out of you as you surrender to the Spirit’s presence in you. You may be asking. “How do I do that?” Stay tuned, we will spend some time on these verses.
Seeing a personal holy moment.
We will spend a chapter developing this thought but understand that God is calling out to His children and offering them the opportunity of His presence through everyday encounters with others, nature, music, media, work moments, and more. Together we will develop the habit of looking for and celebrating the holy moments all around us.
Recognizing the UN holy moments in our lives and the world around us.
We will develop strategies for recognizing and responding to these moments and how to limit their destructive effect in ours and other’s lives. We will also learn about how to react to unholy moments we encounter daily due to living in an unholy and unredeemed world.
What about all the moments in my life that are just moments?
Great question! We will build on the premise that every moment matters in a Christ follower’s life. Every moment can become a holy moment for us to experience or express our love for God and others. Everyday moments like driving to work, shopping for food or clothes, filling out spreadsheets, speaking to clients on the phone, washing the dishes or the kids become sacred, holy moments when Jesus is living in you.
We all struggle this side of heaven to see and be holy moments. We live in a broken world that is working to take our focus off Jesus and put it on the culture and people around us. We quote the worn-out phrase “If its gonna be, then it’s gotta be me.” We will turn that thought around to embrace the truth and power of a life surrendered to Jesus. The goal is to understand the holy moments God offers and commit to experiencing more of them each day.
Are you starting to see them? The holy moments around you? Around others? Are you open to learning how to tap into God’s continuous holy moments and take the challenge to See a holy moment, be a holy moment, and share a holy moment? Then let’s get started!
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