---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Byron Wicker
To: People Who Keep Company with God
Date: 8/21/2008 8:19:40 AM
Subject: Sanctification

Dear People who Keep Company with God,

I believe there is a fresh calling going out to God's people in this hour to go all the way with Him. Bill Johnson captured this when he said "Most Christians repent enough to get forgiven, but not enough to see the Kingdom". We must not only separate ourselves from evil, but turn and more fully embrace the Lord and what He is doing. I believe one of the great deceptions of the religious spirit is to convince us to only stop doing evil, and never take the next step and fully embrace the Lord and what He is doing. I believe this is one of the greatest causes of the luke warm heart we see in so many believers.

We live in an hour of uncertainty and sorrow of which Jesus told us men would faint from fear and expectation of the things which are coming upon the world (Luke 21:26) yet in the midst of all of this God is calling out to us to love Him even more and not to be people of fear; but of love, power and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). Fear is contrary to His nature, other than righteously fearing Him, we must not entertain fear. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 19 We love, because He first loved us. 1 John 4:18-19

One of the things love will ultimately lead to is a greater outworking of His sanctifying power in our life.

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass. 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

Sanctification has a bad rap in the church, but God is out to fix that. It is not an attainment, it is the state into which God in His grace, calls us, and in which we begin our lives as Christians. Sanctification means to be separate unto God and separated from evil things and evil ways. It is a gift from God, however, as Paul tells us there is an outworking of sanctification in our lives. This is something God does also, but He does it in cooperation with us.

Our victory in this life does not simply come from having the name of Jesus on our lips, but having the very nature of God in our hearts and spirits and thus a transformed life. That is what sanctification looks like. Unfortunately, for many of us our soul dominates our spirit because we have fed the soul a lifetime diet of lies of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Because of this the Spirit of Christ is hindered from having free reign in our lives. However, if we will let Him and not quench the Holy Spirit, God will cause the image of His Son to rise in our heart and radically transform our lives.

Then you will take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; And I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, For the mouth of the LORD has spoken." Isaiah 58:14

The outcome of this outworking of sanctification is delight. We are created to delight in Him, to delight in His presence, to delight in His plan and to delight in His dealing with us. We are destined to become a people full of delight and as we become these people God will lift us up into the heavenly places and release His inheritance to us. I believe the world will beat a path to a people full of delight. May we all embrace the grace that is being released to us in this hour.

Many Blessings, BW