All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others
What does sanctification look like?
So I posted a blog this morning: http://www.allaboutgod.net/profiles/blogs/what-does-sanctification-....
This brings the question we've gone around on many times here. Are we to rebuke satan against everything we endure? Are we to have faith that God does not want us sick or anything else and to stand on that and claim our healing and be healed because of our faith that God heals? Are we to ascribe all sickness and suffering as the work of the devil and that as children of God cannot touch us?
Or are we to allow sanctification to have it's perfect work in us? Sanctification which may come through trials and suffering and sickness that God allows to happen. Satan is the author of it, yet God is in control of everything and not man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? Romans 11:34. I would rather stand on the belief that God wants me healed but that He wants me to shine, to be more like Christ, that He wants my INNER me healed above the outer physical me first than to stand cursing the devil and proclaiming that I'm already healed. I believe in Mark 11:24 wholeheartedly: Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
And I shall. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. Am I healed? In God's timing, yes I am. And I'm not meaning to start a war on what we believe in, but my point is that God meets each of us where we are. What one may have faith in, they did not acquire overnight. Perhaps they already passed their sanctification point. Perhaps they believe wrongly. Only God knows these things, not I nor anyone else. But I say my faith is strong. I have not quit in spite of it all. But I HAVE BEEN changed....and that concerns God way more than whether my body is healed.
So perhaps we shouldn't be so quick to call down fire from heaven unless and until we know what God is up to?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Amanda on
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Poor Job, We do have much to praise God for, and I suppose there is freedom in Christ. It is dangerous when a teaching is taken to an extreme, but it's OK to get things partially or even half way wrong, as long as it's non-essential to the Christian faith.
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Permalink Reply by Seek on
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I think another issue with that is that people equate rejoicing with being happy. But happiness is based on a feeling. We're told to "count it all joy", but not told to be "joyful" in our sufferings. Joy is a feeling of great pleasure and happiness. But rejoice comes from the French word réjouir which means to please; to delight; to celebrate. So we please God, delight in Him and celebrate Him, even if we don't feel well or are hurting emotionally. We "hope" in Him. So even in our sufferings, we rejoice in Christ and we count it all joy. One definition of count is to rely or depend on, and it is synonymous with consider (which is in another scripture translation), and consider means to think of. So we think of it as all joy and we rejoice (please, delight and celebrate God). That does not mean we're joyful (happy) during trials. Or we would not be admonished to weep with those who weep and mourn with those who mourn.
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? Symbol? You mean the photo? Just an intricate cross I found and used for something and then put it here for my photo.
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LOL It was downloaded from my phone so hard to see it. Here, I cleaned it up:
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Roy,
I do see some red flags regarding the attribute of God's Sovereignty in some of the teachings in prosperity theology, IMO. But I also believe I have spiritual discernment on it, too. It may not be enough to say they have created an idol in their heads of what God is like and we most definitely aren't to judge individuals. I know God chooses to use people to help each other see truth, but, the bottom line is that it's in Gods hands to lead people out of wrong beliefs. I know from personal experience how easy it is to get off the path. I remember you sharing about being delivered from legalistic teachings. I've heard it said that Jesus was harsh with the legalists in the Scriptures. Although I'm no longer in legalistic teachings, I find some still treat me pretty harsh, but Christ doesn't. As you told me in the other discussion, He won't crush a bruised reed or snuff out a smoldering wick. I'm that now, but not a legalist.
There's a time to tear down, and a time to build up, and I've already been completely torn down, as I'm sure you must have felt when you lost so much, as God was leading you out of this movement. I was never in WoF, but I understand.
Why was Jesus so harsh with the Pharisees, and should we be that harsh, too? Or, is that question off topic?
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I think Jesus was harsh with them because He "knew" their hearts weren't on Him but religion. We don't always know however. I believe that Jim from my church is very sincere and loves the Lord, but he's misguided on the healing issue and believes we're supposed to speak it as if we're already healed. He doesn't believe we will necessarily be healed physically because we speak it but that his view of scripture is we should claim it even if we don't see it.
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I suppose there's no real harm in Jim's POV. I trust God for my health. As you know, I'm very sensitive to medications and can't take some at all because of side effects. However, right now I'm not taking any meds. I take a vitamin. The gummy one :)
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Permalink Reply by Tammy on
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Roy, I too believe they claim innocent victims. That's why it's so important for us to study anything a pastor says instead of just taking their word for it because they are as human as you & I.
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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on
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Praise the Lord for what He is doing in you.
Time will not allow me to go into much detail, but I would like to point out one thing. When we talk about sanctification there are two parts that work together with one building on the other. Let me attempt to illustrate them briefly.
1) Positionally" At salvation we are changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive. This new birth unites us with God as the Holy Spirit indwells us bringing the very life of Christ. We are not simply made better (i.e. S.O.A.P. #3 water into wine) we are made anew. On our own we have no holiness or righteousness, but at salvation we become partakers of Jesus' holiness and righteousness. It is the holiness and righteousness of Jesus that sets us apart as sanctified unto God. Yet, we live in these earthen vessels and are born as babes in Christ. The Scripture speaks of us in different ways regarding us maturing. The maturing takes time, but all the while we are still indwelt with the Holy Spirit and forever partakers of the holiness and righteousness of Jesus. We could say (poorly stated) that we are fully holy and righteous becomes of Him, yet it is veiled and comes forth in us as we grow. Our growth is a revealing of Jesus in us more and more each passing day.
2) Experientially: The walk of life. We are wholly sanctified in Christ, yet we must learn to walk out that life (be holy as I am holy). This is a process where the Holy Spirit begins revealing Christ in us and through us so that as we grow we begin to demonstrate the Biblical truth that Paul stated ... not I, but Christ.
Thus, there are two truths that coexist. We are positionally sanctified at new birth and experientially as we mature we are progressively learning to walk in and out that sanctification that has been wrought in us by Christ through the Holy Spirit.
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