The nature of sanctification and its cost.
1 Thess. 5:23.
23 And may the God of peace Himself sanctify you through and through [separate you from profane things, make you pure and wholly consecrated to God]; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved sound and complete [and found] blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah).
We are to be as He was in the earth…
As He is, so are we in this world. 1 John 4:17.
Do we really know what that is, and what it means?
When we pray asking the Father to sanctify us, are we prepared to measure up to what that really means? We take the word sanctification much too lightly and in not understanding what it means, how can we be serious about it in our lives?
Are we prepared to pay the price of sanctification? The cost will be a deep restriction of all our earthly concerns and an extensive cultivation of all our Godly concerns.
Sanctification means to be intensely focused on our Heavenly Fathers point of view and the only way to know what that viewpoint is, is to get to know Him intimately.
It means to secure and keep all the strength of our body, soul and spirit for His purpose alone. To be completely dedicated to Him. It is the action of making or declaring something holy, separating us from sin..
Sanctification is the state of proper functioning of something or someone which is set apart for God’s use. It is the work of God in grace, who sanctifies human beings and creation by His presence.
Sanctification is the Holy Spirit ‘s work of making us Holy. When the Fathers’ Holy Spirit creates faith in us, He renews in us the image of Himself, so that through His power we produce good works.
Now, may the God of peace himself cause you to be completely dedicated to him; and may your spirit, soul, and body be kept intact and blameless at our Lord Jesus Christ’s coming. 2 Thess. 3:16.
Initially God does a work in us, then we are to not only maintain that position by our freewill, choosing daily to walk as called apart children; but we are to press in to maturity, growing in grace and becoming more and more like Messiah.
Are we truly prepared for our Heavenly Father to perform in us everything for which He separated us?
Sanctification is an act of sanctifying or
the state of being sanctified,
which means growing in divine grace after being born again from above by His Spirit and water immersion.
By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time. Hebrews 10:10
Sanctification is the work of God’s grace that makes believers holy in their whole person by virtue of their union with Messiah, and has both definitive and progressive qualities.
And after He has done His work in us, are we then prepared to separate ourselves to Him just as Jesus/Yeshua did? This is how we follow Him.
As He said in John 17:19 for their sakes I sanctified Myself.
Strong’s Hebrew: 6942. קָדַשׁ (qadash) — to be set apart or …
1 be set apart, consecrated, hallowed, of shew-bread
Strong’s Hebrew: 6944. קֹ֫דֶשׁ (qodesh) — apartness, sacredness
From qadash; a sacred place or thing; rarely abstract, sanctity — consecrated (thing), dedicated (thing), hallowed (thing), holiness, (X most) holy (X day, portion, thing), saint, sanctuary.
The Hebrew word kiddush
translates as
“sanctification” or “separation.”
It’s a mitzvah to verbally declare Shabbat, the seventh day of the week, sanctified, separate and holy.
Mitzvah
מִצְוָה
The simple meaning of the word mitzvah is command.
Mitzvot are commandments.
They are traditionally understood to come from God and to be intended for the Jewish people to observe. Understood as the state of being connected to the Father. It is usually referring to a charitable, beneficial act or good deed performed by another person.
hakdasha
consecration sanctification.
The term “sanctification” here is from the Greek word
hagiasmos
Original Word: ἁγιασμός, οῦ, ὁ.
Part of Speech: Noun, Masculine.
Transliteration: hagiasmos.
Phonetic Spelling: (hag-ee-as-mos’)
Definition: consecration, sanctification
hagiazó: to make holy, consecrate, sanctify
Original Word: ἁγιάζω
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: hagiazó
Phonetic Spelling: (hag-ee-ad’-zo)
Definition: to make holy, consecrate, sanctify
Usage: I make holy, treat as holy, set apart as holy, sanctify, hallow, purify.;
which is also translated as “made holy.”
The reason some of us haven’t entered into the experience of sanctification, is that we haven’t realized the meaning of sanctification from our Father’s perspective. We have not understood how He sees it. Sanctification means being made one with Messiah Jesus/Yeshua, so that the nature that controlled Him will control us.
It is literally Him in us.
Being, or calling oneself a Christian, or a believer in Jesus/Yeshua, is not an end in itself; nor is it a ticket to heaven so a person can continue to live their preferred lifestyle. It only truly begins at the point of repentance for sin and being born again from above by the Holy Spirit of the Heavenly Father. It is a 180 degree turn around in the direction of our lives. A freewill choice to live according to the ways of the Holy Creator God of the universe.
Are we really prepared for what that will cost? Because it will cost absolutely everything in us which is not of God.
Every bit of the old man/woman we hold on to, will hinder the fullness of the provision Messiah Jesus/Yeshua paid the price on Calvary for us to receive. We are to no longer live after the flesh but after the spirit.
For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Romans 8:13
We are no longer to be led around by our carnal nature and desires, cravings and comfortable choices of a preferred lifestyle with self at its center. We are to crucify, literally kill the flesh life and die to self and all that means. Are we prepared to be immersed into the full meaning of Pauls prayer here; and are we willing to say, Lord make me, a sinner saved by grace as holy as you can? Messiah prayed that we might be one with Him, just as He is One with the Father. John 17:21-23.
The obvious evidence of His Holy Spirit in the life of any individual, is the undeniable likeness to Jesus/Yeshua, as in family resemblance; and the freedom through deliverance from everything which is not like Him.
I will no more speak much with you, for the prince of the world comes, and he has nothing in me. John 14:30
The devil comes and finds nothing in Me He said, He has nothing in common with Me; there is nothing in Me that belongs to him, and he has no power over Me .… can we say the same?
Is there anything in our lives that the devil can identify as his attributes? Is there any darkness in us, hidden deep away, buried that the light of Messiahs truth has not yet reached?
At this time of the year many people do their spring cleaning and call it a deep clean for their homes. Our bodies are our physical homes for our spirit and sou while here in the earth. Maybe its time to do a deep clean there also?
Are we truly prepared to set ourselves apart for the Holy Spirits work in and through us?
There is a serious reason for His calling to us.
Are we willing to trust our whole life and being to Him, to the point of physical death and through suffering?
Job 13:15
is a verse where Job expresses his trust in God despite his suffering and his intention to defend his ways before God. We are not supposed to be defending our ways to the Lord but to be humbly submitted to Him and trust His process.
1Pet. 4:13 we are to be a partaker of His sufferings
because the divine nature is revealed in those times.
But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
A true child of God is no stranger to affliction, grief and death are common to every single one of us. Darkness falls on both saint and sinner alike, just as the rain does.
Matt. 5:45.
The difference is, those with an intimate relationship with the Lord will find joy, and peace in the midst of life’s bitter experiences. The indwelling, abiding presence of His Holy Spirit sustains us, providing spiritual stamina, fortitude and endurance in the face of hardship; which tests our faith and tries our patience. The Way we travel is not so smooth for us that there are not obstacles and pitfalls along the way. If they were not there how could we ever testify of His provision and deliverance? It is better for us to keep our mouths closed and our lips forever sealed in silence, rather than deny Him in the times of calamity and devastation.
The reason for our preparation is not for our progress and spiritual maturity alone, it is so that He can use us in the hour of crisis and for the needs of others.
When we find ourselves in the crises of life, these are not the times to cry out for deliverance and help, saying, save me from this situation; but instead we should already be prepared and able to cry out instead, ‘Lord use me where you can.’
We need to stop being so self aware, so self centered and selfish, that our life is all about us. It is not only about us. The only part that is about us, is how we as individuals respond to His usage of us; and deny ourselves, take up our cross daily and follow Him. We are to lay down our life for Him and our brothers and sisters. We are to be selfless, that’s the only acceptable place for the word self to be, is in the word, selflessness.
Greater love has no man than he lay down his life…
John 15:13
We need to stop complaining how hard our life has been and how much we have given up, and all we have sacrificed for the Lord. Why are we keeping count of what we think we have had to forego?
2 Cor. 4:17.
Most of us especially in the west have never, and will never, know or experience real fiery trails that so many martyrs have gone through. We need to stop murmuring and complaining, or we are no better than the children of Israel in the wilderness; and it didn’t end well for them.
They never entered the promised land!
Our promised land is eternal life with our Heavenly Father when we leave this world, and there are several lists in scripture of those who will not enter in. Let us make certain we are not among them.
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor [a]homosexuals, nor [b]sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were [c]sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11; Matthew 7:21-23; Galatians.5:21; Jude 16-25; Ephesians 5:5; Revelation 21:8, 27; Rev. 22:15;
Sanctification is the process of becoming more like Messiah and being set apart for God’s purposes. It is our free will choice.
In everything that our Heavenly Father does, there is His part and our part; that is the essence of covenant, it takes two parties to agree. Here the Blood of Messiah offers us the cleansing sanctification and then our part is to sanctify ourselves with the help of His Holy Spirit.
Joshua 3:5; And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.
God is telling the people to hithekadashu or to sanctify themselves. This comes from the root word
קָדַשׁ
קֹדֶשׁ
kodesh – to make holy.
Here it is in a Hithpael form which makes it reflexive, in other words, the people are to make themselves holy.
How do we make ourselves holy?
6944 qodesh: apartness, sacredness
Original Word: קֹדֶשׁ
Part of Speech: Noun Masculine
Transliteration: qodesh
Phonetic Spelling: (ko’-desh)
Definition: apartness, sacredness
Strong’s Hebrew: 6918. קָדוֹשׁ (qadosh) — sacred, holy
holy One, saint . Or qadosh {kaw-doshe’}; from qadash; sacred (ceremonially or morally); (as noun) God (by eminence), an angel, a saint, a sanctuary
There is further insight to be gained from the meaning of the letters of the Hebrew Alefbet.
Qop, Daleth and Shin which spell out
Qodesh/Kodesh = Holy, sanctification.
קֹ Qop represents holiness and sanctification.
דֶ Daleth represents a doorway through to the next letter, the
שׁ Shin which represents the power and wonders of the Lord God.
We all understand that:
holiness is the doorway to God’s power.
Qop, Daleth and Shin.
קַדָּ֑שׁ
The numerical value of each of these three letters taken together help us to know how we can become holy.
First the Qop, is the number 100 which represents a new beginning. This new beginning involved leaving behind the old and making peace with the changes that need to take place for our new beginning.
Next Is the letter Daleth, with a numerical value of 4, which represents creation; as we become a new creation in Messiah.
Lastly, the Shin has the numerical value of 300 which represents our separation from sins.
Together, the total value of Kodesh/Qodesh is 404 and we could interpret these values as helping us to understand that:
to make ourselves holy, we need to
Qop – קֹ
make peace with the changes our Heavenly Father
has brought into our lives;
we need to
Daleth – דֶ
allow God to create something new in our lives;
and then we are to
Shin – שׁ
allow this new change and new creation in our lives to separate us from the cares and sins of this world.
The bottom line is that, we need to make ourselves holy by allowing Messiah Jesus/Yeshua, complete His work in us and let Him do what He wants to do in our lives; even if it means going through many trials that will remove all the trust we place in ourselves. We need to realize that all these trials in our lives are making us holy. We simply need to allow God to continue this work within us, so He can complete the miracle of bringing us, like the children of Israel into His promise land.
What does the number 404 have to do with any of this?
Recall from previous posts, that the Hebrew teachers/rabbis say that, Hebrew words with the same numerical value are connected in their meanings, and have a further message from the Lord God.
Two other words with the numerical value of 404 are, the words vabahanasim, which means: to carry me
and hafashim which means: to strip away.
Is this a key to being made holy?
Could we read this as saying it this way?
We must allow our Heavenly Father to strip away – hafashim – all that extra heavy burden weight of guilt and sin, so He can carry us – vaahanasim – into His promise land.
Today is the day of salvation!
Luke 19:44 They will not leave in you one stone on another, all because you did not [come progressively to] recognize [from observation and personal experience] the time of your visitation [when God was gracious toward you and offered you salvation].”
Don’t miss the day of our visitation and the opportunity to clean house so that nothing will prevent us from entering in.
2 Corinthians 6:2 says, “For God says, ‘At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.’” Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation.”
By living a sanctified life, we can walk in harmony externally with our Heavenly Fathers’ plans and purposes and be intensely focused on His point of view; and internally we can live a life submitted to, and controlled by, the Holy Spirit of Messiah.
Then all the strength of our body, soul and spirit are
sanctified –
set apart for Gods purpose alone.
In Psalm 119:33-40 The psalmist doesn’t ask for help in a situation or for material blessing, but for a transformation that leads to a greater submission to the Lord God. He asks for the Father to teach him, to grant him understanding, to change the direction of his heart and his gaze, to confirm the promise to him and to turn away reproach.
It is a prayer of holiness.
Let this be our prayer today…
33. Teach me, O LORD, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end.
34 Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.
35 Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight.
36 Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.
37 Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.
38 Stablish thy word unto thy servant, who is devoted to thy fear.
39 Turn away my reproach which I fear: for thy judgments are good.
40 Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: quicken me in thy righteousness.
