The Process of Sanctification

I define the Process of Sanctification as the process of changing one’s personality into the likeness of the personality of Jesus Christ.
I give credit to the accomplishment of this process entirely to the Holy Spirit. Our part in the process is to make ourselves available to the Holy Spirit so that He may accomplish His good work in us. This work will be completed in that day when we meet Jesus Christ Himself.
The only question then is: How do we make ourselves available to the Holy Spirit? Answer: By practicing the disciplines! The disciplines are not spelled out specifically in the Bible. This has led to many people developing their own “list” of disciplines. This is a very worth while exercise, which may be why they are not specifically listed. My list looks like this:
1. Prayer, with the goal of praying continuously2. Scripture; read, study, memorize and pray them (supercharging your prayers)3. Witnessing: in word and in deed
I break here to emphasize that these three are the most valuable of all the disciplines. If one were to only focus on these three, then one would do very well indeed. Twelve are hard to memorize, but just remembering these three is not so hard.
Why are these three more important?
Prayer: because it is the only one that can be done 24 hours a day. Yes, by practicing “praying continuously” prayer begins to penetrate your sleep and affect your dreams. C. S. Lewis said that anything that is living is either growing or it is dieing. So when we speak of a Spiritual Life we speak of something that is either growing or it is dieing. If you spend 15 minutes in Bible Study per day, great! You were growing for 15 minutes, but if you do nothing else you are dieing for 23 hours and 45 minutes. Praying continuously then is “the” way of growing all day long.
Scripture: because it is the anointed word of God. Get the Word inside you and it changes you from the inside out. You will not have to “act” like a Christian, you will “become” more Christlike. John 17:17
Witnessing, because it is part of the salvation process (Romans 10:9-10).
4. Meditation5. Worship6. Communion7. Repenting8. Giving9. Fasting10. Forgiving others
All of the above are disciplines that we initiate. The last two are initiated by God.
11. Challenges in life12. Punishment
I think Finney got it right when he said, he “believed that sanctification only occurred through the constant appropriation of faith through Christ. Christ then enabled the Christian’s moral self to become like His own.” The question then becomes, “how does one constantly appropriated his faith through Christ?” Practicing the disciplines is (in my humble and uneducated opinion) the “how.”

Read the Bible for Yourself

I used to think that I did not need to read the bible because I grew up in the church and had heard all the stories. So what is the point in reading them? When I began to read them for myself in 1999, I found that I had not heard all of the stories nor were the stories that I had heard written the way I had heard them. Here are some examples that may entice you to read them for yourself.

Did you know there is a story about Isaac in the bible? Not a story about Abraham and Isaac. Not a story about Isaac and Jacob and Esau. A story about Isaac, as the leader of the clan, after Abraham and before Jacob and Esau. If not, then there are stories in the bible that you have not heard; see Genesis chapter 26.

Did you know that Jesus was not born in a manger? I still hear “Jesus was born in a manger” frequently in Sunday School. Go look it up; Luke 2:6. The manger is a feeding troth not a building.

The Ten Commandments are written in Ex. 20. If you read Ex 19 you will not see Moses on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights. You will not see any reference to 2 stone tablets. No writing on tablets with the finger of God. You will see God coming down on the mountain and speaking the Ten Commandments to the people. Where did the tablets come in? Read the rest of Exodus and Deut. 5. By the way, there are two sets of two tablets.

The Garden of Eden story is interesting. Remember the story? God created Adam and Eve and told them not to eat from the tree in the middle of the garden. They ate and were kicked out of the garden. Is that right? If you read it for yourself you will find that there are two trees of importance in the garden and that one of them pops up again in The Revelation.

You have heard that the bible says, “The last shall be first and the first shall be last.” Well in Matthew 19:30 it says, “But many who are first will be last and many who are last will be first.” There are actually four different times this line appears in the Gospels. It is interesting to see all four in their different forms and the differences between other translations.

There are many other interesting things waiting for you in the bible. I hope that these have sparked an interest in you.

Something More

Having good bible knowledge is cool but I found that something more happens when you read the bible for yourself. I have found that you begin to change from the inside out. I am fully convinced that the bible is the anointed Word of God. If you get His Word in you for the purpose of knowing Him more fully then His Holy Spirit uses those words to recreate you into the image of Jesus Christ.

You no longer have to try to be a good person because “you are a Christian and you are supposed to be good.” What happens is you become a good person. You get the spirit of Jesus Christ in you and you become more loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled. You do not become perfect but you will notice that you are changing and growing into His Perfection, which will be completed on that day when we meet Him face to face.