Sanctification Means Separation
2 Timothy 2:20-26 Amplified Bible (AMP)
20But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also [utensils] of wood and earthenware, and some for honorable and noble [use] and some for menial and ignoble [use]. 21So whoever cleanses himself [from what is ignoble and unclean, who separates himself from contact with contaminating and corrupting influences] will [then himself] be a vessel set apart and useful for honorable and noble purposes, consecrated and profitable to the Master, fit and ready for any good work. 22Shun youthful lusts and flee from them, and aim at and pursue righteousness (all that is virtuous and good, right living, conformity to the will of God in thought, word, and deed); [and aim at and pursue] faith, love, [and] peace (harmony and concord with others) in fellowship with all [Christians], who call upon the Lord out of a pure heart. 23But refuse (shut your mind against, have nothing to do with) trifling (ill-informed, unedifying, stupid) controversies over ignorant questionings, for you know that they foster strife and breed quarrels. 24And the servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome (fighting and contending). Instead, he must be kindly to everyone and mild-tempered [preserving the bond of peace]; he must be a skilled and suitable teacher, patient and forbearing and willing to suffer wrong. 25He must correct his opponents with courtesy and gentleness, in the hope that God may grant that they will repent and come to know the Truth [that they will perceive and recognize and become accurately acquainted with and acknowledge it], 26And that they may come to their senses [and] escape out of the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him, [henceforth] to do His [God's] will.
My husband and I pray each morning, this morning as He prayed He asked God to sanctify us a new. When he ended the prayer as we talked, He said that our sanctification process had become a process of separation, and many people that know us didn’t really understand, but that God was preparing us for the new territories and the journey that we were encountering. He clarified that this time was not to intentional hurt people or push people out of our lives, but it was like having a personal moment with God. I thought about the words he was speaking and I could see exactly what he meant. For the past few weeks we have been in meditation and consecration as God has been moving us into a new arena of sanctification, which has caused us to spend no time on social networks, on the phone or much time in email outside of business. It has caused us to be in the Word of God and in prayer and in the face of God as often as we can, why because we are asking God to use us for His Glory in a way that we were not afforded before; we asking Him for change in our lives and some unusual things. Something different is always going to require a different sacrifice and a different posture not just in our heart but in our thinking as well.
To be sanctified literally means to be set apart, to be taken out of the normal flow, or pulled out of those things that are even considered a remnant. The only way we can truly be sanctified is to identify that we need to be in the presence of God in a different way than we have been. Sanctification, requires a consciousness of where we are presently and understanding that some things we have to do without to become closer to God and to obtain all that He desires for us, and to become all that He desires for us to become. Some people we have to eliminate as well, and others we have to close out while God works on us, our heart and teaches us about the importance of His will in our lives. During a season of sanctification God is working on His residence in us and when we are under construction we often cannot afford to become distracted or sidetracked especially when God is moving quickly to bring you into a different place in Him. Sanctification also causes us to allow God to pull up the weeds that are choking out the fruit that He desires to grow; that ultimately means that anything that is a hindrance or is choking the will of God out of us, we should desire to allow God to separate us from.
There is a song by William McDowell entitled “I Won’t Go Back,” the chorus says “I won’t go back, I can’t go back, to the way it used to be before your presence came and changed me.” The process of being sanctified is that change that this song talks about. When God gives us forgiveness, joy, peace, love and freedom, why would we want to go back to a place that we were prior to being sanctified and set a part for His call and vision. You wouldn’t. Sanctification is a process, and it us being processed and purified, set in a new place that separates us from the norm, and changes our heart to want all that God wants for us and from us. So when God calls you into a place of quiet, a place of change, a place that is sanctifying and clarifying, remember it is also a place of being set a part, and it is a place that allows God to do an uninterrupted work in our lives to bring us to a place that heals us and reveals to us the truth of who He is!
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