Building up believers and the New Testament church
Meeting With God
Sanctified Unto the Lord
Those that the Father loves, He chastens (Heb. 12:6). He brings correction or rebuke as it is needed, and prepares our lives together so that we may contain His fullness. He does not overlook sin, as many think, but deals with it. He is not afraid to point it out and give the remedy, so that there may be a testimony of holiness. We are to be a people sanctified (set aside) unto the Lord, so that His purpose may be worked and that we may grow up into the fullness of our relationship with the Father and the Son (Eph. 4:15).
"...As God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people...And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty" (II Cor. 6:16b, 18). We must keep in mind that God is all-knowing, that He is a searcher of hearts, and that in the midst of all this, He is our Father who loves us with a pure love. It is not the emotions of mankind, but His divine love that He now sheds abroad in our hearts by the Spirit. He makes us partakers of His divine nature, which is love (II Peter 1:4).
God knows each individual need and the church's need. He knows those who are not going on in their relationship with Him, and gives instruction because of His love. God does not bring judgment without giving us the opportunity to repent, turn to Him, and be restored in the outworking of the body of Christ. As God chastens us, it may be grievous, but it will have meaning for eternity. His discipline will prepare us and adorn us with His righteousness.
There are many things being done today by those that desire the people of God to be holy. Much of it is done under the power of the flesh rather than by the Spirit of God. Our response must not be to man, to his desires, commandments or traditions, but to God in our midst as He speaks to us. He is faithful to reveal who He is, who we are, what is right in our lives and what pleases Him, or what is wrong and what to do about it.
Peter says, "For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" (I Peter 4:17,18). In John 17, Jesus prays that His Father will sanctify the believer. Just as Jesus' life was set aside for the will of the Father, our lives too must be sanctified, set aside for the purpose of God. There must be an expression of holiness coming out of our lives, a moral excellence that has its foundation in our relationship and fellowship with the Father and with the Son, in the power and anointing of the Spirit.
