Sanctifying Disciplines
It is revealed in Scripture over and over again that maturing in Christ requires a believer to learn to abide in Christ, to be filled with the Spirit of Christ, to walk with Christ. The Scriptures use different analogies to describe this process called sanctification. Sanctification means to be set apart for the purpose of becoming Christlike.
In Scripture we find three ways God sanctifies a believer. First, Jesus states in Acts 26:18 that believers are sanctified by their faith in Him.
“….and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.”
Then Paul states in Romans 15:16 that it is the Holy Spirit’s work to sanctify believers.
“….sanctified by the Holy Spirit.”
Finally, Jesus states in John 17:19 that He sanctifies Himself so that believers might be sanctified in truth. In the Gospel of John Jesus claims to be the Truth and the Living Word of God.
“….they also might be sanctified through the truth.”
If a believer is sanctified by their faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Word of God, then it makes sense that the sanctification process is founded in the spiritual disciplines of Bible study and prayer. These two disciplines build and fortify the intimate relationship of Jesus and His followers.
The importance of these disciplines cannot be underestimated in the fulfillment of a believer’s calling, and yet so many professing believers read little or none of the Bible and struggle to pray beyond a few minutes.
I have served Jesus in ministry for over forty-five years. I have served in large and small, affluent and ordinary congregations. This conundrum of the importance of spiritual disciplines and yet the lack of practicing them seems to span the spectrum of Christianity in our day.
Many church members believe that they pay their pastor to read and study and then to tell them what the Bible says. The answer to that is to let their pastor go and get their Bibles out and start reading so that they will not be found lacking when Jesus returns.
People say that they read a devotional each morning before work. Though this may be a good practice, it cannot replace their own personal study in the Word with the Holy Spirit as their teacher. It is like trying to survive on spiritual junk food while bypassing a healthy well-balanced helping of the Word of God.
And then there is the discipline of prayer. Christians talk about it, study it, teach it, and insist on the importance of prayer. It is an exercise in faith, it is communing with the Lord, it is a dispenser of Jesus’ grace, and it is the expression of a believer’s need for Jesus. But all too often prayer is left up to pastors, spouses, prayer warriors of the church and others.
When we try to slide into heaven without any effort to mature in Christ, we try to enter denying the importance of the Holy Spirit. We live our lives in a state of spiritual neurotic weakness which states to the world that Christianity has nothing to offer them.
As born-again believers in Jesus Christ let us grow in grace, mature in the Spirit, walk in unity as we practice together and individually the disciplines of sanctification.
”Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.”
-Psalm 1:1-3 (NASB)
For Jesus’ Kingdom,
Brother Hugh Folds
Interim Pastor
Romans 14:17
