“I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:17-19).

We read certain Bible passages, or articles from reputable Christian organizations like The Gospel Coalition, telling us how we ought to pursue holiness. And it sounds good in theory. But the question is: Does it work in practice? Is working, striving and pursuing holiness the way to actually become holy?

You can tell whether you have the mind of Christ when the seen, temporal facts of your life oppose you. For example, when you’re ill, that is a seen, temporal fact. But the Word says, “By His stripes we were healed.” One reality is in the seen, temporal — the other in the unseen, eternal. You start to really operate in the mind of Christ, however, when the unseen, eternal truths are your first choice.

It takes a long time, but if we stay with that line of questioning long enough, the Spirit will eventually reveal the answer. What God showed me when I asked Him these questions was this: “I never intended for you to serve me. In fact, you can’t serve me. I never intended for you to try in your own effort to make yourself holy. And as long as you keep striving, I let you, until you come to the end of yourself.”

Just about every problem you’ll face in your Christian life is due to not believing right. That’s it. Now, I get it: believing right isn’t always easy. In fact, often it’s downright impossible. Why? Because you cannot even believe right unless the Holy Spirit empowers and enables it. When I think back on my 32 years as a disciple of Christ, the times when I was transformed—where I was truly catapulted into a newer, better way of life—all had one thing in common: They were all times where I uttered, “I was blind, but now I see.”