SANCTIFICATION
1 John 2:25-29 And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.
[26] These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.
[27] But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
[28] And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
[29] If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.
After a person is saved and born again by God’s Spirit the real work begins within us. Up to the point of our salvation, it’s the outside world and our flesh that dictates who we are to a large degree. (I Samuel 16:7) says “for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” The world will judge God’s people by what they see in our daily lives and they will come to a conclusion by what they see. When a person gets saved, the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit goes to work on us. The outside, which we may have worked so hard to clean up on our own, begins to change, day by day as the Spirit of God works from within. The world will begin to notice with the natural eye that something is different about us, we are starting to be peculiar and strange to the world around us. The real labor of change, that salvation brings, begins at that moment of surrender to Jesus as Lord. Once lordship and faith in Jesus Christ have been accomplished, a holy and supernatural demolition of who we used to be begins inside of us. Jesus has birthed us and created a new creature that HE begins to mold in HIS image. The Lord starts to overthrow, destroy and pull down all the structures of our old life ruined by sin, then begins to build us up IN HIM! Hallelujah!
So much of our old life had been rooted into our thinking such as towers of pride, unforgiveness, anger, bitterness, opinions, failures, lusts, and only Jesus can remove these things that will destroy us. My Christian friend, it take a Holy God living inside of us and working in us 24 hours a day to tear down and destroy the Old Man and create a NEW PERSON in Christ. The Lord will have HIS way, and will go to work to remove everything that is NOT spiritually profitable in our lives. Jesus never takes a day off in HIS duty in changing and transforming us to be more like HIM. Sanctification in the life of a Christian is the process that removes sin and self and all that will be left to be seen is JESUS! It can be painful at times, because this flesh must die daily that Jesus can live in and through us. At the time of salvation Jesus starts getting us ready that we would not be ashamed when we bow at HIS feet.
Surrendering our lives to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is the easy part, the real struggle begins when HE begins to demolish all of self in order to build something new and honorable. Our flesh does not like this process and will fight us every step of the way because our flesh wants ownership of who we are. Friend, we are not our own, but now we are HIS! We have been bought with the precious blood of Jesus and we belong to HIM! The only responsibility we have as a child of God is to yield to the convicting power of the Holy Spirit to lead us, teach us and conform us to Jesus. The natural man will not want to let go of sin and self but with every decision we make, the more we let go of our self, the more power with God we will have. It’s my prayer today that Heaven will grab hold of you and that you would yield to the mighty hand of God in your life and let Jesus continue to do HIS work and have HIS way.
Bro. Lawrence Longworth
Isaiah 61:1 “the opening of the prison to them that are bound;”
Comments