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July 22, 2008
SANCTIFICATION
This is the will of God, even your sanctification.
1 Thessalonians 4:3
http://www.SearchGodsWord.org/desk/?query=1th+4:3&sr=1
The Death Side. In sanctification God has to deal with us on the
death side as well as on the life side. Many of us spend so much time
in the place of death that we get sepulchral. There is always a
battle royal before sanctification, always something that tugs with
resentment against the demands of Jesus Christ. Immediately the
Spirit of God begins to show us what sanctification means, the
struggle begins. "If any man come to Me and hate not . . his own
life, he cannot be My disciple."
The Spirit of God in the process of sanctification will strip me
until I am nothing but "myself," that is the place of death. Am I
willing to be "myself," and nothing more - no friends, no father, no
brother, no self-interest - simply ready for death? That is the
condition of sanctification. No wonder Jesus said: "I came not to
send peace, but a sword." This is where the battle comes, and where
so many of us faint. We refuse to be identified with the death of
Jesus on this point. "But it is so stern," we say; "He cannot wish me
to do that." Our Lord is stern; and He does wish us to do that.
Am I willing to reduce myself simply to "me," determinedly to strip
myself of all my friends think of me, of all I think of myself, and
to hand that simple naked self over to God? Immediately I am, He will
sanctify me wholly, and my life will be free from earnestness in
connection with every thing but God.
When I pray - "Lord, show me what sanctification means for me," He
will show me. It means being made one with Jesus. Sanctification is
not something Jesus Christ puts into me: it is Himself in me. (1 Cor.
1:30.)
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