Sanctification is the will of God, as is written in 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 in the Bible. Every born again Christian is sanctified in Christ and has become a new creation. As a result of this sanctification in Christ, Christians enter the process of sanctification. During the process of sanctification, Christians renew their mind, put off the old man and put on the new man. Let’s look at what the Bible says about the process of sanctification.
Sanctification is the will of God
Sanctification is the will of God and is part of the daily walk of born again Christians. You have been sanctified and made holy and righteous through the Lord Jesus Christ, by His blood. But now, it’s up to you to practice what you have become in the spirit realm and walk in holiness and live righteous. Therefore, it’s time for the process of sanctification and to cleanse yourself from every sin and dead work of the flesh.
Sanctification is the will of God. Therefore, if you love God and want to serve God, then sanctification is part of your new life as a child of God.
When you read and study the Bible (God’s Word), you will find out the truth, because God is the Father of truth.
When you renew your mind with the truth of God and apply His words of Spirit and life into your life, you shall sanctify yourself with His words and walk by faith in the truth of life.
For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God
1 Thessalonians 4:3-5
Christians should detox from the world
Maybe you’ve heard of the word ‘detoxing’. Detoxing is very common and on trend these days. It is meant to cleanse your body from toxic substances (detoxing), which are build up inside of you. As a born again Christian, you should detox your life from the world.
When you surrender your life to Jesus Christ, and become born again in the spirit, your mind and your way of thinking, are still conformed the world.
Your worldly thinking, walk, wisdom, and knowledge, that you built up over the years, will conflict with the words and will of God.
Now, it’s up to you, to show how much you really love Jesus Christ.
When you love Jesus, then you know what to do, namely, saying goodbye to your old life as a sinner and put on the man and become Christlike.
It’s time, to remove all the toxic habits of the old man and all the build up toxic in your carnal mind that leads to bondage and death.
Therefore, it’s time to renew your mind with the Bible, the Word of God, and start walking in His Word.
As a born again Christian, you should live a consecrated life and abstain from fornication. You should know how to possess your vessel in sanctification and honour, and not in the lust of concupiscence, like the Gentiles that don’t know God. How do you do this?
Renew your mind with the Word of God (the Bible)
The first and most important step is to renew your mind with the Word of God (the Bible). Without the Word of God, you will not find out God’s will. You may think you know God’s will, but as long as your mind is carnal and not renewed with the Word of God, you don’t know God’s will.
Many times people project their will as the will of God. What they think or feel is the way God thinks or feel. But that’s not true.
The carnal mind is enmity against God, because it opposes the words of God and isn’t subject to the law of God that represents His will. As long as a mind is carnal, a person shall not submit to God and not do His will (Romans 8:6-8).
Therefore, you should read and study the Bible and meditate on His words.
Make the words of God your own, so that your way of thinking lines up with God’s way of thinking.
Stay faithful to God and stay in HIs Word. Only then, will you be able to work together with the Holy Spirit.
Don’t listen to the will, lust and desires of your flesh, and don’t obey your flesh!
Don’t give into your carnal will, your thoughts, your feelings, your emotions, your lusts, your desires, your cravings etc., but instead, do what the Bible tells you to do.
Stand up against these carnal feelings of lust and desire. Dare to master over them, by taking the Word of God, and speak the Word and stand upon the Word.
The junkfood of the world defiles your mind
As long as your mind is carnal and you keep feeding your mind with the junkfood of the world, your thinking will never line up with the Word. Your way of thinking will not be the same as God’s way of thinking. Instead, your mind shall be defiled and you shall think like the world, and behave, and walk like the world.
You shall not walk by faith after the Spirit as the new creation in Jesus Christ. Instead, you will remain a carnal Christian, who walk by sight after the flesh.
As long as you are carnal your thoughts and ways are not God’s thoughts and ways
As long as you remain carnal, your thoughts shall not be God’s thoughts and you shall be ignorant concerning His way. You shall always cite Isaiah 55 9, and say, that God’s thoughts and ways are higher than your thoughts and your ways.
But that’s only because you don’t spend time in the Word to get to know God and His will. You don’t open the Bible to become familiar with His words, His thoughts, and ways. Therefore you don’t know God’s thoughts and don’t know His ways.
You live the same carnal live in darkness in the bondage of sin and death as before your conversion. And because you are still carnal, your thoughts are not God’s thoughts and your ways are not His ways.
As long as your mind is carnal, you shall always see yourselves as a sinner. Because of this wrong mindset, you shall keep sinning and use the ‘once a sinner always a sinner‘ phrase as an excuse to keep sinning and to justify sin.
Walking in holiness, and sanctification, means to walk in the will of God. But as long, as you keep doing your will, instead of His will, you shall never walk in holiness and righteousness.
The new creation is one Spirit with Him
When you stop feeding your mind and flesh with the junkfood of the world, and feed your spirit with the Word of God, then your thinking shall be renewed, and shall line up with the Word. You shall think God’s thoughts, and become one in Him and one with Him.
The only thing, that stops His Holy Spirit from working in you, is your worldly way of thinking. But when you renew your mind and think like the Word, you shall say, that God’s thoughts are your thoughts.
When you believe His words and become a doer of the Word, you will walk in His ways.
Of course God is God! But we are His children, and God gave us in Christ the heritage of becoming His children.
God gave us not only His Son Jesus Christ but also His Holy Spirit, Who dwells in His children (a.o. John 3:16-21; 14:16-26; 15:26; 16:7-15).
God gave everyone the power to become a child of God and by faith and through regeneration in Christ and the abiding of the Holy Spirit to walk as a child of God on earth. Just like Jesus the Son of God (a.o. John 1:12-13; 3:3-8; Acts 2:38).
This new life in Christ is revealed in His Word. Therefore it’s important to know what this new life in Christ means and what it doesn’t mean.
What is the process of sanctification?
The process of sanctification starts with the submission to God and yielding to His will, then the renewing of your mind, believing His words, obeying His words, doing His words, and keeping His commandments.
You shall put off the works of the flesh and put on Christ and walk by faith and do what Jesus and the Father said and commanded to do.
As long as you stay in Him, you shall walk as the new creation, as manifested children of God, and live a sanctified life in Christ
‘Be the salt of the earth’
