In this devotional video, M.t. Clark opens with a photo shared by Fred Dimmick, using Fred’s nomadic journey as a visual metaphor for the Christian walk. Clark recounts his own past belief that he could not be holy because holiness seemed like an earned, innate quality reserved for the morally perfect. He identifies this self‑defeating belief as the enemy’s lie “I am not holy,” the 22nd lie in his series “The Lies of the Enemy.” Clark then explains the biblical doctrine of holiness in two parts: (1) positional holiness received at salvation—when a person places faith in Jesus, they are declared righteous and set apart, regardless of personal merit; and (2) progressive sanctification—the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit that calls believers to align thoughts, attitudes, and actions with God’s standards. He emphasizes that believers can either quench the Spirit by believing the lie or cooperate with the Spirit to grow in holiness. Clark supports his teaching with Scripture (1 Peter 1:14‑16, Jeremiah 29:11 NLT) and urges listeners to reject the lie, embrace their identity as holy in Christ, and pursue daily renewal through the Word. The message transitions to practical ministry resources: the mtforchrist.org website, June Hunt’s “Satan, Demons, and Satanism,” various discipleship classes (Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, Freedom in Christ), a recovery ministry, and a Bible study podcast. He also highlights the National Day of Prayer, encouraging communal prayer and personal intercession. The video concludes with a heartfelt prayer asking God to guide listeners, affirm their holiness, and empower them to reflect Christ’s love.
Chapters
To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of a winding country road under blue skies with mountains in the background, presumably in North Carolina, comes to us from Fred Dimmick, who shared this photo on social media yesterday. Uh, Fred recently shared how he had retired back in on May 1st of 2019 and made the decision to leave upstate New York for Kentucky, but then ended up moving to Florida. And now he finds himself in North Carolina, where we see these country roads. I've been following Fred's photos since then and didn't realize it's been 4 years. I would have sworn it was probably only a couple of years, but time flies when you're on the move and just following where the Lord leads you. That's what I've been doing, and I'm pretty sure that's what Fred's been doing too, in his own way. Fred has commented, uh, had commented on how he spent his entire life just across the street from where, from the house, um, his grandfather had lived in all his life. And now in 4 years, he is, he is, he has had all kinds of adventures, seeing different parts of the country and sharing his travels online. Fred's post encouraged all of his friends to pursue what they wanted to pursue and to enjoy their lives by taking the road less traveled. Well, it's Thursday, and I share Fred's photo because it's a great shot and as a visual reminder to get on or to stay on the path of Christian discipleship, because I've discovered that the adventure that um, that the Lord has for us, uh, is a lot better than we could have ever imagined or planned for ourselves. And while the journey he may put you on may not have you moving about the country, although it might, even if it's just a, uh, just the country within driving distance from your home, uh, when you walk with the Lord, your peace and joy increases because not only are you appreciating your life and the beautiful things around you, you You are doing it in the presence of the One who made it all because He loves us. Our walk with the Lord isn't marching orders. It's an invitation to know Him and to know ourselves and to discover what He has for us to do. And it's good. I know before coming to Christ, I thought that the Christian life wasn't for me. I knew my thoughts and interests and didn't see how what I wanted had anything to do with God. I thought that the Lord would limit what I could do, and I challenged what I understood, what I understood to be what God wanted us to believe or do, mostly because I had a thrill to do what was forbidden. And rather turn toward his ways, I've, I followed the impulse to do things my way, and in some ways, uh, and in some ways knowing that What I wanted was wrong all along. I not only went against God's wisdom, but I went against what my parents taught me, what society said, and what my own common sense tried to tell me. Somewhere along the line, I got the idea that as long as I didn't get in trouble, there were no wrong things. But that was a lie because I I had them, but because I had these ideas about being above the wall and knowing the intentions of my heart, I decided I couldn't be a Christian because I wasn't holy. I thought holiness was something— was something— let's see, I thought, oh my goodness, holiness was something you had to earn or something that you were just naturally gifted with. In my mind, holy people were good people, and my dark desires told me I wasn't a good person. So I spent most of my life doing things my way and rejecting the idea of being a Christian, even if I had a loose association with Christianity through my family traditions and a liturgical church background. Uh, I guess I saw myself as a black sheep. And even if I was in the assembly of believers, and even if I wanted to believe, I thought that I was different and really worried about my eternal destiny. Bible passages like 1 Peter 1:14-16 didn't help. In it, the Apostle Peter writes, "So you must live by God's— live as God's obedient children. Don't slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires." You didn't know any better then, but now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, 'You must be holy because I am holy.'" I wasn't obedient, so I figured there was no way that I would ever be holy. I saw holiness as being good. If you are not good, you are not holy. And so I believed I could never be holy. But that was a lie based on ignorance and a misunderstanding of what holiness is and who makes us holy. And this brings us to our current series, The Lies of the Enemy, which is an examination of some of the common lies, sometimes sneakily whispered into our minds as first-person statements, that the enemy tells us to cause us to doubt our faith, lose our peace, cause division, or influence us to not follow the Lord with the way we live our lives. Today's big lie is lie number 22: I am not holy. This is a lie the enemy has no problem selling us, uh, to us all. Any impure or sinful attitude or action in us, this testifies to the truth that we are not holy like God is holy. It's true, I'm not holy. Just look at what I've done or the ways I think. However, we, we have to have a full understanding of the two aspects of holiness and just how it is— just how it is we are made holy. Uh, there are two aspects of holiness: salvation and sanctification. In salvation, we are made holy the moment we put our faith in Jesus Christ. Legally and spiritually, we are not only forgiven of all our sins, past, present, and future, but we are also declared righteous, or holy, because we come into communion with Jesus Christ and have his sinless righteousness applied to us, or imputed to our lives. Um, we instantly receive the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit and become adopted members of God's royal family as his children. The moment we put our faith in God, we are holy, or set apart, as forgiven and righteous for the Lord's purposes. So if you are a Christian by faith in Jesus Christ, you are holy. Regardless of your thoughts or actions, the holiness that God gives you is not dependent on your actions and is only possible because of what Christ did. We could never be holy in ourselves. That's why God sent Jesus to save us, to make us holy, to set us apart as his people, and to give us a purpose all our own for his kingdom. So we are set apart, as saved, forgiven, righteous, and holy. So we are holy. The second aspect of holiness is sanctification, but, uh, the Lord directs that process too. Um, sanctification is quote unquote the action of making or declaring something holy. So God begins that action by moving us to put our faith in Christ. Our sanctification begins with salvation. At salvation, we receive the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, who encourages us to repent. Now, we can quench the Spirit by failing to listen to his promptings, or by believing the lies of the enemy who wants to keep us in the dark, or by willful disobedience to what is right. Or we can reject the lie that we are no different in Christ and believe that the Lord has saved us and made us new, and decided to actually— and, and we can decide to actually live by faith and start living a holy, set-apart life by rejecting our former ways of darkness and by choosing to change our thoughts, attitudes, and actions to align with what God would have us do. Um, sanctification is a progressive experience and aided by our faith. If we believe God has made us into new creations, We will have a— have more success living as new creations than we— than when we agree with the enemy that we are not holy. When we ask the Lord to help guide and strengthen us, he will be faithful to do so and will lead us into repentance, when we re— where we renew our minds and change our actions to reflect the righteousness and holiness that the Lord has already given us. If we felt different before coming to the Lord, we will realize just how really different we are when we realize that the Creator of all things has chosen us to be with Him for all eternity and has chosen to forgive us and to invite us to represent His Kingdom. Yeah, we are not like the others. We never were, because before we were ever born, the Lord had chosen us to be with Him. And to be like him. The vast majority of people will never put their faith in Christ. We have been blessed and set apart when we didn't deserve it, and when we agree with Satan's lie that we are not holy, we hinder our sanctification and delay, if not stifle, the purposes that the Lord calls us to. So humbly agree or boldly proclaim I am holy, because it's true. Even if you don't feel it or currently, currently reflect it, God made you holy through your faith in Christ. Your holiness is a done deal in one sense, but as someone who has been set apart for God's special purposes, there is more holiness in store for you. Forsaking sins and renewing the mind through the study of God's word moves us closer to the Lord and the holy life he has for you. So don't believe the lie that I am not holy. Instead, believe the truth and make the decision to do whatever the Lord calls you to do to make that truth a manifest reality in your life. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Jeremiah 29:11, and the word of God says, "For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." Today's verse encourages us that the Lord has good plans for his people. God gives us a future and a hope with him for all eternity when we put our faith in Jesus. I know this verse's context is toward the nation of Israel, but rather than being some snarky Bible scholar who would tell you that verse is being used out of context when Christians proclaim it, I would encourage you to use it. Why? Because it's true. If it, if it was true for Israel, it sure is true for those who have put their faith in Jesus. God does, does have good plans for us. Ultimately, and he does give us a future and a hope in his eternal kingdom. Now, we shouldn't take this verse and declare that everything will go our way here on earth. The truth is, we may face persecution and death because of our faith. So temper your expectations in, in the reality of a world that is broken by sin and where bad things happen to all people because none of us are good. Right? But ultimately, we will spend eternity with God in heaven, in his kingdom, because there will be a new heaven and a new earth. Uh, so with that future and hope, we can rejoice and give thanks to the Lord no matter what our circumstances are here on earth. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org, where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing, um, from June Hunt's Satan, Demons, and Satanism: A Sinister Reality. And today we move into Section 2, which examines the characteristics and symptoms, and it asks the question, what are the levels of satanic involvement? So if you want to see what the levels of satanic involvement are when people get wrapped up in that stuff. Um, go to mt4christ.org and you'll see that resource from June Hunt at the end of our blog post. As always, we encourage a life of Christian discipleship. Why? Because the Lord's got a future and a hope for you, and it's best realized when you follow him. Um, you know, not just believe, but, uh, you know, actually do what the word of God says. And try to apply it to your life. When you discover that, when you don't have anything to hide and you don't have to look over your shoulder from hiding your sins or, you know, or having negative attitudes towards people, um, and, you know, renew your mind with the word of God, you know, life is so much better. We have a peace that goes beyond all understanding because we're rooted in Christ and in eternity. We have our eyes on the, on the big things. We don't sweat the small stuff, and we, we do what we try to do what's right, and we do that humbly before our Lord. So, so we encourage people on the blog and the podcast and our YouTube channel by inviting people to partake in our discipleship classes that we put on there Um, basically, for Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ, they teach you all about who you are in Christ, uh, the spiritual forces of darkness, and how you can experience your freedom in Christ. And if you'd like, we, we could email you the class handouts for each course by emailing me at mtforchrist247@gmail.com. Today is the National Day of Prayer, so if you can get together with some people and pray, a lot of people have prayer sessions at schools for some reason, uh, because we believe that prayer changes things. And, uh, Lord knows we need prayer in schools, so we'll put them outside the school. Um, but yeah, it's a good— if this national day, you know, encourages people to practice their faith, even if it's just for a day, I'm all for it. Prayer is a good thing. My church is actually praying with like 10 other churches tonight at some middle school, uh, Gowana Middle School, and they're having worship and praise. So I'm— it'll be an awesome witness for Christianity in the Capitol District. So I support it, and I support everyone praying today. I pray for people to, uh, to put their faith in Jesus and to follow him. And if you're anywhere near me locally in the Clifton Park area, I pray that you'll consider joining our recovery ministry, Celebrate Freedom, where we'll be teaching from Celebrate Recovery but also teaching about freedom in Christ, how to walk in the Spirit, and how to increase your joy capacity. I hope to cover all that, um, you know, basically as I will, uh, try to instruct people what I know about being free. Um, that all starts next Wednesday, so pray for me as I want to, uh, you know, encourage people to, um, know God more and to, to realize the peace and joy that's found when we forsake all those hurts, habits, and hang-ups and pursue his path. For us. Well, we also encourage Bible study. So if you want a Bible study, we have one on the podcast called Bible Study with the Zinkatis. And our last topic was our 100th episode on the alignment, right alignment with God. And it was encouraging people to, you know, be aligned with God in his word, the way you live your life. So Um, well, it's Thursday, we have to work, and so we should pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we just pray for anyone who's listening or reading today's message, that you'd bless them, that you'd come alongside them in their prayer request, and you would help, help and guide them and strengthen them for their, their walk of faith. Lord, we just pray for you to go before us today, open our eyes to the things you want us to see. And, um, lead us in the way we should go, Lord, because all we want to do is represent you and your kingdom here on earth. So help us to do that, because, you know, we might not feel holy, but we know you've made us holy, and we want to reflect your holiness and love to all the world so more people will come to you. Lord, we just pray that you use us to help help with that. Um, and Lord, as always, we just, uh, we just want to thank you. We love you, Lord, and, uh, we need you, and we praise your name. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
