In the last year of his life, John Wesley wrote in a letter something profound, “I am glad brother D—has more light with regard to full sanctification. This doctrine is the grand depositum which God has lodged with the people called Methodists; and for the sake of propagating this chiefly He appeared to have raised us up.” *

Wesley saw full or entire sanctification as the guiding light for the people called Methodists. It carried the gospel and the people through the centuries, across the world, and to the dozens of denominations which see Wesley as their forebearer. 

Historians and theologians understand this. Pastors talk about this. However, the average layperson often has a blank stare at the mention of such a doctrine, and can hardly articulate sanctification alone. Maybe this is part of why there has been such a decline in recent decades.

Matt O’Reilly has taken up the charge to bring focus and clarity back upon sanctification with his powerful little book, Free To Be Holy.

Speaking of how the church has failed so many in the late 1900’s and early 2000’s, he writes, “This widespread version of Christianity, offering heaven in the next life but not freedom from sin in this life, offering freedom from the consequences of sin but not from the power of sin, promises deliverance from guilt but not from the things that produce guilt.” Matt goes on to talk about scriptural holiness is the second half of the gospel so many need for today.

Matt works out a holistic understanding of holiness in the life of the believer. “For us, then, to be holy is to be formed in such a way that we consistently do what we ought to do – like God does. And when our lives are transformed in this way, our words and our actions consistently tell the truth about God and his character.” 

Rather than just rehashing what Wesley and others in the tradition have said about holiness, Matt does the hard work of grounding holiness in the exposition of Scripture with language for today. He starts in the beginning of the Bible. From Adam onward we see this call to be set apart. God created image bearers set apart for mission. In the fall, Adam falsely represents who God is. Many see that the purpose of the gospel is forgiveness to get us back in right relationship with God. Only this falls short of the whole gospel.  “Forgiveness of sin isn’t the ultimate goal. It’s the necessary first step to making us holy so that we can fulfill our missional purpose which is to fill the earth with disciples who embody the beauty of the character of the triune God.”

Adam not only needed forgiveness, he also needed to reorient his life on who God is and the tasks God has called us to. This means overturning our idols and following where God leads. “True worship cultivates the holiness necessary for the faithful mission.”

Matt lays out the truth that holiness is what God has always wanted for us – not just required of us. He wants us to bear His image well, to know and take on His character. We are like God and bear his image. This means digging deeper into the will and heart, “The initial experience of reconciliation isn’t the goal of our mission. Instead, it’s a necessary first step. The goal of our mission is thoroughgoing transformation of the heart.”

Continuing to dive into scripture we see clearly that we can be perfect in as much as we are holy. That is we can have the perfect love of 1 John 4:18. This is a gift of God and by the power of the Holy Spirit through obedience to Christ. But this love can let us truly take up our call to be the humans God created us to be. With holiness, we can have “real human life! – free from the power of sin…real human life…holiness is about becoming more fully human.”

With this holiness we have the freedom and power to truly follow Jesus. In community, we can be like Jesus and truly love one another.

Without overt references, Matt comes alongside Wesley’s own understanding of the importance of holiness within Christianity.  “O do not take any thing less than this for the religion of Jesus Christ! Do not take part of it for the whole! What God hath joined together, put not asunder! Take no less for his religion, than the “faith that worketh by love;” all inward and outward holiness. Be not content with any religion which does not imply the destruction of all the works of the devil; that is, of all sin.” This “[Sanctification] is love excluding sin; love filling the heart, taking up the whole capacity of the soul.”

Holiness comes from true worship, telling the truth about God’s character, and moving into the world with love. With the grounding in Scripture and a comprehensive look at holiness, Matt writes what has emerged as the obvious reality, “Holiness is a life turned away from self-interest and marked by love for God and neighbor (and enemy).” “Holiness should be the normal posture of the Christian life.” 

This book brilliantly and succinctly brings an older doctrine into the hands of everyday Christians. It breaks the chains of cultural baggage and theological obscurity. It breathes life into the ideal of spreading scriptural holiness across the land.

Thanks be to God that we are free to be holy.

World Methodist Evangelism will be hosting a book study on Free To Be Holy. This will be a live event with the author on June 18th at 9 AM United States Central Time / 10 AM United States Eastern Time. Join us on Zoom by clicking here. You can purchase the book here.

Join James Loftin on February 26th, 2025 at 10:00 am Eastern Time (United States) for a live book study on our WE 419 app.

“You are the light of the world.  A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-6

In the middle of the Sermon on the Mount we read this short but profound message from Jesus. “You are the light of the world.” Many know of it. Some even sing of it, “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.” But do we live it?

In Born to Shine, James Loftin walks alongside the reader in exploring what it means to truly be the light of the world – to shine our light into the darkness. But do we know what and who is in that darkness? And are we aware of how we are shining our light? This book reads as a loving companion for a journey of discovery – just as James teaches and coaches through his ministry, Follow One International.

We may know of oppression and injustice around the world, but have we taken the time to draw near and know those people involved. Do we care about those stories? Could we be light to even that darkness? “The unmet needs of those in darkness are urgent,” James writes, calling the reader to see and own the call upon us all as followers of Jesus. Jesus, the light of the world who pours into us His light. We know this well when we first encounter the gospel, “When we receive the light of Christ by faith, the desire to shine that light is a normal fruit of conversion.” It’s amazing what someone lit on fire by the Holy Spirit will do.

However, over time, too many of us get comfortable in our own well lit spaces and fail to go back to the darkness.

The reality is it can be hard to leave luminous, known spaces and go to dark ones. It is costly to shine your light in dark places. Someone has to pay the light bill – the wax on the candle may run out. James challenges the reader to continue on as the light of the world, for often a light shines brightest in the darkness, “How am I responding to God’s call today?” Questions such as these are paced throughout, keeping the book as practical as it theological and missional.

Each chapter gives the reader or small group lessons and questions to guide us all in answering this basic call. Scientific properties of light correspond to Scripture’s teaching on light. Truths such as light does not force us to see, but merely allows us to see – and, light is the source of all life in photosynthesis just as Jesus is the source of all eternal life. James offers a helpful framework in categorizing our efforts as selfish, benevolent, and strategic light. Do I shine the light only for my own benefit, benevolently for those who happen to be on my path today, or do I strategize how I can be specifically the light of the world?

With a missionary’s heart he walks the reader through these revelations and guides toward an action plan. This book is great for any church desiring to go forth in the power of the Holy Spirit to bring their light to what breaks their heart. For light will always beat back the darkness. “It is God’s nature to chase away darkness with truth, mercy, and grace.”

James Loftin brings the church an insightful and challenging word with Born to Shine. It has been a blessing to me and my congregation as we continue to build our lampstands high for others. I will end with a few of his piercing questions for your consideration:

• Is God worthy of your highest praise for all eternity?
• Is God worthy of your most excellent service now?  

You were born to shine.

World Methodist Evangelism will be hosting a book study on Born to Shine on our online platform WE 419 (download on the App Store or get it on Google Play and get connected). This will be a live event with the author on February 26th. You can purchase the book here.

Join David Chotka on October 2nd for a live book study on our WE 419 app.

“For the first time in my life, I had joined with Jesus’s compassion for someone who was sick and felt the power of God flow into another to make him well.” In their book Healing Prayer: God’s Idea for Restoring Body, Mind, and Spirit, David Chotka and Maxie Dunnam remind us that healing miracles still happen today. Healing miracles in the Bible captivate us and bring us to worship our good God. We read in these pages how those who seek God’s healing presence become part of God’s healing in others. It is such a beautiful way to think and communicate about God’s agency through us to others – a beautiful plan God has for us. Healing prayer is God’s idea. Have you ever considered it? God made us to bear his image in part so that we might heal others. The truth becomes clearer with every page turned in this book.

The book pours forth story after story of God’s miraculous outpouring amidst our continued awe.  The authors effortlessly weave their each unique vantage point into a shared thesis of how the Holy Spirit works through disciples of Jesus in healing prayer.

They acknowledge the seeming scarcity of healings throughout the church, but they continue to challenge the church to lean into the promises made in scripture.  Sometimes even calling out our gaps in discipleship, “That’s where many Christians are stuck today.  The gospel stops at the decision to receive the grace of forgiveness and doesn’t move us toward a divine infilling. As a result, pews are full of people who believe in Jesus and affirm some kind of formal faith, yet those people remain empty and unfulfilled. They lack divine power while seeking (like John Wesley before his transformative Aldersgate experience) to obey God “under their own steam.”(p.37)  The authors are quick to acknowledge cultural differences, but still desire all who follow Jesus to know the joy and power of a Spirit-filled life.

They remain hopeful in their Wesleyan roots that God’s grace can do more than we can possibly imagine, “Jesus came to infill and saturate every pore of our beings with his spirit! Christ came to empower us with the very nature, character, and power of God. (p 40)” Wesley saw this lived out in his ministry.  His journals record many people receiving miraculous healings through prayer. The authors complement the biblical and historical healings with their own experiences from around the world.

As their dive into this practice uncovers more and more, they are quick to acknowledge that God’s grace is not confined to healing prayer alone. “Medicine, miracle, and mystery – their threads of grace intertwine until time ends, and God reveals how those pieces, woven together, comingle to coalesce into a melded tapestry of beauty.” Even harder is the acknowledgement that not all have been or will be healed. Yet even here God is found to be at work in the waiting for the day when “death is swallowed by triumphant life.’

Perhaps their simplest statement is also one of their most profound – “God initiates. We respond.”  Healing prayer cannot just be done. There is no incantation or holy person. There are only faithful people who seek a holy and loving God through fervent prayer. God has always and will always be the worker.

David and Maxie go on with this divine centrality, focusing on the character of God and work of Christ as they are revealed in scripture – “Based on this, we pray with Christ, through Christ, and in Christ. Because prayer is God’s idea, we begin with these attitudes as rock-solid footing, even before we start. We start praying by embracing these postures: Having bold confidence in going to God, trusting God’s faithfulness, with childlike simplicity, confidently, remembering it is the Spirit who intercedes, knowing Jesus esteems the desires of your heart.” Anchoring our prayers in what God has already shared about Himself guides us to be present to the pain of the person before us rather than the anxiety of our own agenda.

Ultimately, we find that healing prayer is itself a tool of discipleship, “Healing prayer is designed to bring people toward the love of God rather than distract them from it! (p 155)”  This book runs the gamut of scriptural exploration, seasoned wisdom from practice, powerful stories and practical observations, and will be a blessing for the church.

The best recommendation I can give for this book comes from the fruit. Our church has been blessed by a growing prayer ministry. We have begun holding a periodic time of healing and anointing prayer. Upon reading this book, I shared the wisdom and insight from David and Maxie with our team. They were so grateful. The next time we offered the ministry, we felt the Holy Spirit move in new ways and heard from several who came forward for the first time in their lives in response to the Holy Spirit’s movement. Praise God for his initiative. May we all be humble in our response.

World Methodist Evangelism will be hosting a book study on Healing Prayer on our online platform WE 419 (download on the App Store or get it on Google Play and get connected). This will be a live event with the author on October 2nd. You can purchase the book here.