Sanctification by Faith

Call To Prayer

Title: Sanctification by Faith

By: Simon Maina Nuhu

Date: 30.12.2022

”Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth” (John 17:17)

Sanctification is a spiritual experience that involves a renewal of our dead nature by God, through faith in Jesus Christ, whose precious blood of atonement cleanses and purges us from all sin. In this process, we are not only delivered from the guilt of sin, but are thoroughly washed from its pollution, saved from its power, and enabled through His saving grace, to love God. It is a phase also known as ”circumcision of heart”, where God Himself performs the spiritual operation by taking away all attributes of sin, flesh, and their power in our journey with Him. Sanctification is fundamental to all who are saved because it is the prior process to Holy Ghost baptism.

As we know, the Holy Spirit inhabits a pure and holy place, therefore there is a need to get rid of the old man by crucifixion, and purification; for the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21) obstruct the influence of the Spirit of God in us. There are 3 categories of men that live on earth: the natural man, the carnal man, and the spirit-filled man.

The natural man is someone who lives and abides continuously in sin. The person does not know or acknowledge God, the person could be a philosopher, moralist, atheist, or worshipper of idols. A natural man only understands the language of sin and every of his thought and imagination is to invent evil (Genesis 6:5).

The carnal man is a person that might have salvation but understands God only in the flesh. All his efforts, behavior, lifestyle, worship, and action towards God and things of God are carnal. When a man abandons his sin and turns to God, the Adamic nature is still there, even though he has accepted Christ, hence the need for sanctification. His worship is carnal, his service for God is carnal, he loves God emotionally, he seeks validation from men, he seeks approval and praises of men when doing the things of God, he upholds church traditions above righteousness, he defends denominational principles passionately, he is entirely religious. The disciples while with Jesus exhibited carnal behaviors despite the fact that their names were written in the book of life (Luke 10:20). There is evidence of their carnal activities in the scripture. For example, we could see that by their response after Christ’s transfiguration (Matthew 17:4) also Peter’s denial of Christ out of fear (Luke 22:54-62), and the statement of John and James to call down fire to destroy the people (Luke 9:54).

Spirit-filled man is a true child of God that is saved, sanctified, and filled with the Spirit. The person does all things through the guidance and leading of the Holy Spirit at all times by being dead to the flesh (Romans 8:14).

Prayer point:

Let’s thank God for today’s word and also ask Him to sanctify us.