“Holiness will be a shield around you.”

These were among the first words I heard directly from the Lord in my early days as a believer. They flowed into my mind like a whisper.

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They sounded so nice that I didn’t realize at first that I didn’t understand them. It’s taken me years of delving into holiness to understand how it is both a defensive and an offensive weapon in the spiritual battles we wage.

When Judy McDonough, IFA’s Editor in Chief, invited me to write a year-end summary article, I noted that most of my pieces this year have been focused on holiness or spiritual warfare. As I prayed over this piece, the Lord showed me how the two are connected.

Like many nominal Christians and non-Christians, before I was born-again I suffered from a woefully inadequate understanding of holiness. I supposed it to be a prissy abstention from most of the fun things of life. I imagined those afflicted with holiness to be uptight, unsmiling, and judgmental. I adopted the typical Hollywood picture of holy rollers and Bible thumpers.

This may have been one reason I resisted those many believers God sent me to lead me toward Him. I was too young, so I thought, to settle down into the dreary and colorless world of “The Holy.”

Now, I find it sad that I wasted so much time chasing frivolity when I could have been soaking in the deep joy of the Lord.

The woman who led me to the Lord, Linda, is very close with Him. Through her spiritual gift of teaching and experience as a member of the Church of the Nazarene, Linda opened my mind to the truth about holiness.

The Nazarenes came out of the Azusa Street Revival, some 115 years ago. At first, the move was just that — a movement of people eager to explore the biblical assertion that one can be holy as God is holy (see 1 Peter 1:14).

So I plunged into the study of holiness. Linda taught me what the Lord had shown her:  “Holiness is wholly His.”

I learned that holiness is not simply a matter of trying real hard to think properly or act properly. In fact, I learned that trying hard to be “good” led to regular failure. I would sin again and again, which led to a cycle of self-blame, castigation, and condemnation. I would withdraw from the Lord in my guilt, rather than run into His arms for restoration.

This cycle began to stop when I learned that holiness requires inward transformation. I needed the transformation, because I was utterly unable to moderate my thoughts and actions. It seemed the harder I tried, the more explosively sinful those thoughts and actions became until — inevitably — they burst forth.

I needed a Holy Spirit assist. So I began the journey of inward transformation. A first step on the journey was my assent to this prayer of Paul’s:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:1–2 ESV).

Once I prayed this Scripture, the Lord began to work the transformation in me. At first, it was rather fun and delightful. I lost interest in drinking and spent a fruitful hour or so pouring all my alcohol down the drain. Fortunately, I didn’t smoke, or lighting a match may have been dangerous! I found my language cleaned up. My habit of lying seemed to be gone as well. I rejoiced in these obvious changes.

My rejoicing stopped, though, when the changes went deeper. The Lord wanted control over my choices and my will. This seemed a reasonable extension of the prayer, but it felt awful. I realized I really liked calling the shots. It was OK with me to ask for help and guidance — but to give over all control? I struggled with this surrender for months — and sometimes still do.

My clash with the Lord hit a critical moment when I was fighting with Him over continuing to attend the very church that was calling me into this deeper walk; I wanted out — to go to a less demanding environment, to a less lonely place.

While I was begging the Lord to release me to another church with His blessing, He spoke again to me: “Do you wish to be cloaked in your pain, or do you wish to be cloaked in My Spirit?”

Enough said. I stayed at the holiness-focused church.

A couple of months later, the Lord gave me another encouragement. He said again in that quiet voice: “You will be my vessel.”

I was eager. But again, releasing my will into His was so very painful. I had to face the very real possibility His Will might be pretty different from my own hopes for my life. Specifically, I had to be willing to accept that His Will might not include marriage and a family.

But I said yes. And the Lord and I continued on the path of sanctification. He would point out an area of my life I had not yet given over to Him. I would repent and ask Him to change that area, and He would.

We often had bumps — all of them because of me, of course. For example, He wanted to free me from resentment. My prayer of repentance was not “taking” for some reason. The Lord showed me I really didn’t want to change; I rather liked and felt I deserved my resentment. Once the Lord showed me that, I started praying that I would be willing to be freed of resentment. After many months of this prayer, one day the Lord indicated that I was, finally, willing and ready. I repented again of resentment, and God freed me. Like many such sins, the temptation pops up in my life regularly. Sometimes I do sin, but the stronghold is gone, so I am able — for the most part — to resist.

My quest for holiness remains a journey of many steps. The further I have gone on it, though, the more I have understood how holiness can be a shield.

Holiness strips the tempter of his power.

Because the Lord has made internal changes in me, my desires literally have changed. And my tolerance for sin has shrunk. Bawdy, violent, or profane entertainment is increasingly difficult to sit through. I am content — usually — with the idea that I will never have the kind of home other Americans have, since I’m called to live in a New York City apartment. I am reconciled to the fact that the Lord’s plan for me did not include children. These lacks no longer pose such a large target for demonic attack. Holiness — being wholly His — has become a protection from sins linked to immorality and discontent.

Holiness defeats evil.

When the Lord makes us holy, He literally enacts in us John the Baptist’s prayer: I must become less, and He must become greater (see John 3:30). As the Lord removes the unholy aspects of ourselves, His Holy Spirit has more “room,” if you will, in us. He grows greater in us. As the Lord hollows us out into His vessels, the Holy Spirit flows more readily, and in more abundance through us.

I’m still stumbling along on this journey. But in the stumbling, I don’t want to give the devil any open door. The evil one rejoices when I am so self-consumed by my sin that I flee from the Lord and retreat into self-flagellation. In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis put it this way:

It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick.

Now when I trip and fall, I repent quickly and ask the Holy Spirit to change me from the inside so I don’t fall in that spot again.

Holiness is critical for intercessors.

Intercessors want to hear what concerns the Lord so we can pray as He wills. Hearing properly depends upon our intimacy. Jesus said: “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15 ESV).

Hearing well is especially critical for those in battle for America because we need to cut through misinformation, including our own presuppositions about truth, in the midst of confusing and deceit-filled days. We are walking a narrow path and we want our prayers to hit the target the Lord desires. What we know is He desires a holy people among whom He dwells. We want that, too, for us and for America.

Lord, Your holiness is what I long for; Your holiness is what I need. Lord, make me less, so that You may be greater in me. I choose to present myself as a living sacrifice. Transform me by renewing my mind. I want to discern — without the error of a mind trained in sin — Your good and perfect will. I don’t want to be drawn away from You by any sin — great or small. I want to be enveloped by You in every way! In Jesus’ name. Amen.

How is the Lord working His holiness in you now? Share your testimony or prayer below.

New York City–based Joyce Swingle is an intercessor and a contributing writer for IFA. With her husband, Rich, also a contributing writer for IFA, Joyce shares the gospel of Jesus Christ around the world through theater, speaking, writing, and film. Prior to going into full-time ministry, Joyce worked for about 20 major magazines and now works in pastoral ministry and Christian counseling. Read more about Joyce’s work at www.Richdrama.com. Photo Credit: borzywoj/Getty Images Signature via Canva Pro.