Memorise:
If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work. 2nd Timothy 2:21
Read: John 17:13-19
13 And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
Message
The most important thing a person needs is to be born-again (John 3:3). From personal experience and from the experience of others, certain things give you the assurance that you are born-again. If you are born-again, you stop thinking about yourself alone. You stop thinking only about what Jesus can do for you but also of what you can do for Jesus. This was the case with Paul after he met the Lord in Act 9:6:
“And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.”
You also begin to think about restitution (Luke 19:8), and you begin to serve God with the same vigour with which you served the devil (Acts 9:20-22).
After you are saved, you need to be sanctified before you can be divinely commissioned for service. An unsanctified believer is susceptible to backsliding, hence the need for sanctification. The state of the human heart before salvation is one of the reason why sanctification is necessary. Jeremiah 17:9 reveals that:
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
Every person is born with a heart that is desperately wicked, and every of our actions originate from the heart (Matthew 15:19-20). Sanctification changes the nature of a person’s heart (Ezekiel 36:26-27). Many people who were one born-again backslid because of their failure to get sanctified. A backslider is worse than a sinner who has never been saved. Backsliding is horrible. It can be likened to a dog going back to it vomit. Worldliness can cause a Christian worker to backslid. Demas was an example of a Christians worker who backslid because of his attachment to the things of this world (Philemon 24, 2nd Timothy 4:10)
The ability to live holy is given by God. Jesus died for our sanctification. When a person is sanctified, he or she begins to think like Jesus. You forgive like Jesus and like Him, you become humble. You develop a servant-spirit and you become obedient and meek (Matthew 11:29). To become sanctified, you must believe that it is possible to live holy (1st Peter 1:15-16). You must then admit that you cannot do it without the assistance of the Holy Spirit (John 15:5). Finally, ask God to remove the heart of stone from you and replace it with a heart of flesh.
Prayer point:
Father, sanctify me wholly; give me a heart of flesh that is in line with your nature.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: DANIEL Daniel 11:12 and MATHEW 5:21-42
AUTHOR: Pastor E.A. ADEBOYE
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