Sanctification

Let’s talk about Sanctification! It means: Set apart to a sacred purpose. We are to strive for sanctification, that of being different from the world, being set apart for the purpose of God’s will in our lives. We know that as believers we still have sin in our lives, because we live in these fleshly bodies. But because we have been saved, we don’t have to be controlled by the flesh, and those sins that we still commit while saved, come from a choice to listen to the flesh instead of the Spirit. So if we believe in Jesus from our heart, we are saved, but being saved from our sins, does not give us free reign to continue practicing in sin. A good place to look at how this works is 1 Thessalonians 4 in which we read: “Finally then, brothers, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus, that as you have received from us how you must walk and please God – as you are doing – do so even more. For you know what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is God’s will, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality, so that each of you knows how to control his own body in sanctification and honor, not with lustful desires, like the Gentiles who don’t know God. This means one must not transgress against and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger of all these offenses, as we also previously told and warned you. For God has not called us to impurity but to sanctification. Therefore, the person who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who also gives you His Holy Spirit.” 2 Thessalonians 4: 1-8The Lord also knows our hearts, and He knows the weakness of the body. But isn’t that why He sent the Holy Spirit? To help us in our weaknesses. First, we admit we are weak in the flesh, but that our hearts desire holiness. Then to seek the leading of the Spirit to give us strength to overcome that pull of the flesh. When our Lord, the final judge on that day sees us, He already knows how much we lived by the Spirit or lived by the flesh. All of us are too weak to do this on our own, but with the Spirit in us, we can walk upright; we can walk in the strength of the Lord, and we no longer have to walk according to the flesh. When we start to make a choice to walk this way, we are in the sanctification process, and our lives are being set apart to the Lord, and His will in us. So here is the plan: Make each day a day set apart to the Lord. Determine in your heart to walk as He walked, talk as He talked, and love as He loved. When we start to say something that will not glorify Him, our hearts will give us notice that this should not be, if we are listening. And if we choose to walk a sanctified life, we will be listening. This will be a battle for us for the rest of this journey homeward, but it is one that we can do, and we can choose to make, all because of the simple choice of trusting Jesus with our hearts. Pastor Andy