At the heart of all God’s teachings is a chain that also explains a person’s gradual sanctification: God calls; a person responds in faith, seeks, asks for God, and finally reaches Him. This writing considers how, within this chain, the heart that asks for God comes to desire belonging to Him and being made holy.
Seeking God is not only wanting to reach Him. Asking for God, over time, becomes the desire to belong to Him. Because when a person truly draws near to the Lord, he wants not only an answer, but also transformation. He does not only want to be shown the way; he also wants his heart to be cleansed according to God.
Holiness begins here: a person setting himself apart for God, and God shaping that person according to Himself.
Leviticus 20:7-8
God calls His people to consecrate themselves and be holy, and says that He is the Lord who makes them holy.
Two directions stand together in this verse. A person consecrates himself to God; but the One who makes him holy is the Lord. So holiness is not merely a condition produced by human effort. A person seeks God, asks for God, gives himself to Him; and the Lord makes him holy.
For this reason, asking for God is not only wanting to receive something. It is wanting to belong to God Himself.
Leviticus 20:26
“You are to be holy to me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.”
Here holiness is directly connected to belonging. God sets a person apart for Himself. The heart that asks for God eventually does not only want something from God; it wants to belong to God.
At the center stands the prayer of Jesus:
John 17:17
“Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”
This verse is the heart of the writing. Because here holiness is directly connected to the Word. As a person draws near to the Word of God, the Word does not merely inform him; it sanctifies him. The person who seeks God finally encounters God’s truth. The person who asks for God also wants this truth to purify him.
In the same prayer, Jesus says that He consecrates Himself for this sanctification:
John 17:19
“For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.”
Being made holy is the inner side of drawing near to God. Because God’s truth does not only show a person what to do; it also reveals what the person must become. Christ’s self-giving opens the way for the human person to be sanctified by the truth.
Paul continues the same line:
Ephesians 5:26-27
“Christ gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”
Here again, word, cleansing, and holiness stand together. Christ makes holy by cleansing through the Word. So reaching God is not only finding Him; it is being cleansed by Him and becoming His.
Asking for God deepens here: a person no longer says only, “hear me”; he says, “cleanse me, set me apart for Yourself, make me fit for You.”
The New Testament repeats this call clearly:
1 Peter 1:15-16
Since the God who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all you do: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
Here holiness is connected to God’s call. The God who calls is holy; therefore, the person who is called is also called to be holy. So God’s call is not only a call to draw near to Him, but a call to live as one who belongs to Him.
The person who seeks God enters this call. The person who asks for God begins to ask for His holiness as well.
1 Thessalonians 4:3, 7-8
God’s will is that His people should be sanctified. He did not call them to impurity, but to live a holy life; and He gives His Holy Spirit.
In these verses, holiness is explained as the will of God. When a person asks for God, he also draws near to God’s will. And God’s will is not only that a person call on Him, but that the person live a life that belongs to Him. This call is not separate from the Holy Spirit; the God who calls to holy living also gives His Holy Spirit.
For this reason, holiness is not a separate subject outside seeking God. On the contrary, it is the mature form of seeking.
In Blog 7, we saw that calling on the name of the Lord is the language of the believer’s identity. Paul also connects this language with holiness:
2 Timothy 2:19
“The Lord knows those who are His,” and “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.”
Calling on the name of the Lord is not merely a word spoken by the mouth; it requires a life that turns away from evil. The heart that asks for God also desires to turn away from what does not fit God’s name.
2 Timothy 2:21
If a person cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he becomes a vessel for honorable use, made holy, useful to the Master, and ready for every good work.
Here being made holy is described as becoming a vessel useful to the Master. As a person purifies himself, he becomes ready for God’s use. The person who asks for God does not live only for himself; he also wants to become a useful vessel in God’s hand.
Finally, Hebrews connects holiness with seeing the Lord:
Hebrews 12:14
“Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.”
This verse forms one of the strongest connections with our main theme. We are speaking of seeking God, asking for God, and reaching Him. Hebrews directly connects seeing the Lord with holiness.
So reaching God is not only an outward journey; it also requires inward purification and separation. The heart that truly asks for God eventually also desires to be separated from everything that hinders seeing the Lord.
Conclusion
Holiness is the transformation of the heart that seeks God.
First, a person seeks God.
Then he asks for God.
Then he wants to belong to Him.
And finally, he asks to be sanctified by God’s truth.
Because Jesus prays:
John 17:17
“Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”
Therefore, holiness is not merely a moral issue. It is being cleansed by God’s Word, set apart by His truth, and made to belong to Him.
The One sought is God.
The One asked for is God.
And the heart that asks for God finally wants not only to reach Him, but also to be made holy in a way worthy of Him.
#askforGod #oneshallask #oneshallaskcom
