The Cost of Sanctification

1 Thessalonians 5:23 (Amplified Bible)
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).


Sanctification= To set apart for sacred use; consecrate. To make holy; purify. We talk about this in church, or among fellow believers, but one thing is for sure, and that is that we discuss it way too flippantly. When we ask God to sanctify us, are we really up for the challenge of what that entails? Are we ready to give up all our concerns of this world and become deeply engaged and focused on God's point of view? To be sanctified "means to secure and to keep all the strength of our body, soul, and spirit for God’s purpose alone." It means you lay aside everything and become so intensely connected with Jesus that God's nature comes through and controls our lives. Are you ready for what that is going to cost you? Because it will cost you every single thing in your life that God is not a part of. We have to come to the point as it says in John 17:21-23
21)That they all may be one, [just] as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe and be convinced that You have sent Me.
22)I have given to them the glory and honor which You have given Me, that they may be one [even] as We are one:
23)I in them and You in Me, in order that they may become one and perfectly united, that the world may know and [definitely] recognize that You sent Me and that You have loved them [even] as You have loved Me.
Are we really ready to give up everything which is part of this world and allow the Holy Spirit to work in and through us in a way which we have never yet known? When this happens, the evidence is "in a person’s life is the unmistakable family likeness to Jesus Christ, and the freedom from everything which is not like Him."


"My Utmost for His Highest"--Oswald Chambers