Jehovah M’kaddesh is the God who sanctifies. This is the God who we focus on in the middle.

We tend to focus on 2 phases of our Christian life. The beginning when we come to salvation and the end when we go to be with God in heaven. We don’t focus much on the middle.

Leviticus 20:7-8 MSG “Set yourselves apart for a holy life. Live a holy life, because I am God, your God. Do what I tell you; live the way I tell you. I am the God who makes you holy.

Sanctification is a tough word to focus on. It can remind us of cleaning. And let’s be honest, who wants to clean? The tough part might be that we are still viewing God as a judge. We forget that when we receive salvation, He becomes our family. He is our father. And a good father He is.

Romans 8:15 MSG This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are.

We can have confidence in our father. We can say, “My dad is bigger than everything.” He is all knowing and all loving.

Romans 8:16-17 MSG We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him!

We share in the suffering in the world so that we can share Jesus with others. Our heavenly father is not like any of our earthly fathers. Our Father has everlasting patience. He says, “ask me again.” He does not shame or guilt trip us. Our God picks us up, dusts us off and says, “let’s walk again.”

He gives us space to fall, fail, and make mistakes and encourages us to try again with Him. The hard part is that our understanding of God comes from our relationship with our earthly fathers and mothers. These relationships are imperfect. But God is perfect. We cannot forget this.

God loves you just the way you are. He also loves you too much to leave you that way. Our life opens up to more when we lean into our relationship with Him.

Salvation happened because of what Jesus did. Sanctification makes us co-authors of our lives through our obedience.

Sanctification is the result of continued relationship and obedience over time. Sanctification is the action of making or declaring something holy. Relationship and obedience go hand in hand to achieve sanctification.

Obedience without relationship is religion. This breeds pride. It puts all the burden on us to make our lives happen. However, relationship without obedience is turmoil. When we have relationship without obedience, we know there is something more, but we just aren’t doing it.

Colossians 3:1-3 MSG So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective. Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life.

We must always look to God. We are no longer a family of this world but a family of heaven. Sanctification is about changing our focus. To keep focusing on Him in all things. Don’t live on autopilot. Choose to ask Him what to do in every instance.

He always gives us a moment of clarity before we choose the wrong thing. We can choose His way and over time that decision gets easier and easier. Yet, we get to choose our way. What are we choosing? Where are we putting the work in with each opportunity we are given?

Matthew 11:28-30 MSG “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on [your circumstances]? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

Romans 12:2 MSG Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Unfortunately we have a comfort level with sin. Sanctification is putting our sin to death, not managing it. When we try to manage sin it’s like trying to manage a lion.

Colossians 3:5-8 MSG And that means killing off everything connected with that way of death: sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy. That’s a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God. It’s because of this kind of thing that God is about to explode in anger. It wasn’t long ago that you were doing all that stuff and not knowing any better. But you know better now, so make sure it’s all gone for good: bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk.

Sin always leads to death. When we put sin to death we are choosing life. When we try to manage sin we try to control it and we don’t get to the root of it. We just deal with the symptoms.
This is when sanctification stalls. Dealing with the symptom rather than the heart will always leave us stuck.There is no freedom without heart change.

Do you lean into the things that others call you accountable to or do you run away?

1 Samuel 16:7 MSG But God told Samuel, “Looks aren’t everything. Don’t be impressed with his looks and stature. I’ve already eliminated him. God judges persons differently than humans do. Men and women look at the face; God looks into the heart.”

Don’t fall for the quick fix of concealing your sin. True healing and transformation is when we are open and honest.

James 5:16 MSG Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed.

Sanctification does not end until we get to heaven. Our soul is most satisfied when we are in His presence. This is when we get more peace, joy, contentment and fruits of the spirit.

Galatians 5:22-24 MSG But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.

Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified.