Tag: Sanctification

Job Walked With God and Was Tried

The life of the Patriarch Job is one of fear of God. Described by God Himself as His servant, a man with no equal on earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and abstains from and shuns evil (Job 1:8). Often, we mention Job as an example of patience, as in “The patience of Job.” There is much to consider in what God described Job. His life brings to mind Paul’s spiritual guidelines in his letters. In the letter to the Romans. He said, “I appeal to you therefore, brethren and beg of you in view of the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and well pleasing to God which is your reasonable service and spiritual worship; love one another with brotherly affection, giving precedence and showing honor to one another, never lag in zeal and in earnest endeavor; be aglow and burning with the Spirit, serving the Lord” (12:1,10,11). Job walked with God, shinning the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23). One very important fact in Job’s life was that God, the all- knowing God, knew that Job would be faithful to Him, when challenged with temptation to forsake Him. Job, in his unweaving integrity, was a man God trusted with a tremendous trial. One that we surely would fail, for where there is no understanding, ignorance dominates the feeling of man with doubt and fear and despair. When Job had lost most of his precious belongings, including his children, in perseverance of faith, he arose and rent his robe and shaved his head and fell down upon the ground and worshiped and said, “Naked came I from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord! In all this Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly” (Job 1:20-22). That was a true faith in God.

Job’s faith shone in the midst of his trials. His words of hope kept him secured in his faith when he uttered, “For I know that my Redeemer and Vindicator lives, and at last He will stand upon the earth and after my skin, even this body, has been destroyed, then from my flesh or without it I shall see God, Whom I, even I shall see for myself and on my side! And my eyes shall behold Him and not as a stranger!” (Job 19:25-27a). Job, in His utterance, spoke of the present and of the future concerning the resurrection of the saints. “One way or another, I will be healed here on earth and if I die now, I will be rewarded with life eternal when in heaven, I shall behold my Redeemer. For He knows the way that I take. When He has tried me, I shall come forth as refined gold.” (Job 23:10). “I have not gone back from the commandment of His lips; I have esteemed and treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food. But He is unchangeable, and who can turn Him? And what He wants to do, that He does” (vs.10,14). In short, Job confessed his enduring faith in God even amidst circumstances he himself did not understand. For while he was walking with God in communion with Him, this trial fell on him, for reason unknown. His wife told him to “Do you still hold fast your blameless, uprightness? Renounce God and die! But he said to her, You speak as one of the impious and foolish women would speak What? Shall we accept only good at the hand of God and shall we not accept misfortune and what is of a bad nature? In all this, Job did not sin with his lips” (Job2:9-10). His unwavering love for God even in the midst of his trial, showed him to be genuine and steadfast in his faith. To him, God was God, unchangeable in ways Job could not comprehend. The wall of anguish and despair did not separate him from His Redeemer, Who was going to reward him in His time.

Job walked with God and He trusted him to walk through the fire, so to prove his faithfulness to Him. Satan, who so much wanted to destroy Job and disprove God’s All-knowing attribute, suffered major defeat. Job was in the battlefield without knowing it. Living as a Christian should live, under God’s grace, Job excelled. For he did not have a Bible in those days to guide him. But Job had the fear of God guided by his faith in Him. Strong in his beliefs, he stood the test of time. Wrestling against the despotisms, against the powers, against rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly sphere, he was properly dressed with God’s armor. He resisted and stood his ground on those evil days; he had the belt of truth around his waist, the breastplate on his chest, his feet shod to stand firmly and ready against the enemy; he quenched the flaming missiles from the enemy through the shield of faith; and wore the helmet of salvation, which protected his mind; and he fought with the sword of the Spirit which was his knowledge of God. Job’s prayers came up to God as part of the battle in his battlefield, for the battle was not his, but God’s (personalized from the book of Ephesians 6).

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All Things Work Together for Justification and Glorification of Those Who Love God

(Romans 8:28)

“For You did form my inward parts; You did knit me together in my mother’s womb; I will confess and praise you for You are fearful and wonderful and for the awful wonder of my birth! Wonderful are You works, and that my inner self knows right well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was being formed in secret [and] intricately and curiously wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes saw my informed substance, and in Your book all the days [of my life] were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them” (Ps. 139:13-16). God’s sovereignty and wisdom demonstrated here is out of reach of the human understanding. In the formation of our body, God planed our future. “And in Your book, all the days were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them” (vs.16). God has always loved us. Even while He was creating us. However, man has left the comfort of God’s love to do their own thing. But among many, there are a few who have been faithful to Him. Their love for God has rewarded them with His calling and choosing them to be justified, sanctified and glorified. “Work together for good,” The good mentioned here is in reference to the spiritual good of justification, sanctification and glorification. The verses 29-30 explain in detail the “good” referred in verse 28 of Romans: For those whom He foreknew [of whom He was aware and loved beforehand], He also destined from the beginning to be molded into the image of His Son (sanctification) [and share inwardly His likeness], that He might become the firstborn among many brethren and those whom He thus foreordained, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified. And those whom He justified, He also glorified [raising them to a heavenly dignity and condition or state of being].

The word molding has a strong connotation; it denotes strong action to conform anything to what it must be. We have an example in the book of Jeremiah the Prophet, when the Lord sent him to a potter’s house. Jeremiah said, I went to the potter’s house, and behold, he was working at the wheel; and the vessel that he was making from clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so, he made it over, reworking it into another vessel it seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the Lord came to me; O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does? Says the Lord. Behold, as the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel (Jer. 18:1-6). This is a perfect picture of the meaning of Romans 8:28. As a pot is made of clay, so are we. God, our Creator, has the power to mold us into His likeness, as He told Jeremiah, O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?  This is a painful process, for our soul is never willing to surrender to the holiness of YAHSHUA. The unrenewed soul cannot be saved.  Sometimes, our Lord takes hard measures to call our attention in submission to His will. The letter to the Hebrews says, You must submit to and endure [correction] for discipline; God is dealing with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not train and correct and discipline? Now, if you are exempt from correction and left without discipline in which all share then you are illegitimate offspring and not true sons (Heb. 12:7-8). Yes, all things work together harmoniously to bring about God’s holiness into the life of every believer to make them partakers of the image of God. 

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No Death with YAHSHUA, No Life with Him

The sound of a new born baby touches we mothers the same way as when we had our own. Life is beautiful! Life is a miracle only our Creator- the Lord YAHSHUA would create us in the womb of our mothers. The completeness of our birth is amazing in its intrinsicality, connecting all parts of the body to harmonize and synchronize with each other, without interference. The brain, the control center of the body, is an important organ of the body in its functions. But with all its complexities, the physical body will not have an entrance in heaven, for it is contrary to the laws of God. Paul said, For those who are according to the flesh and are controlled by its unholy desires set their minds on and pursue those things which gratify the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit and are controlled by the desires of the Spirit set their minds on and seek those things which gratify the Holy Spirit; now the mind of the flesh [which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit] is death; but the mind of the Holy Spirit is life and peace, because the mind of the flesh [with its carnal thoughts and purposes] is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God’s Law; indeed it cannot. So, then those who are living the life of the flesh, cannot please or satisfy God or be acceptable to Him (Rom. 8:5-7).

In his saying, Paul was echoing the words of YAHSHUA: If any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever would preserve his life and save it will lose and destroy it; but whoever loses his life for My sake he will preserve and save it; for what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and ruins of forfeits himself? (Luke 9: 23-25).  Faith without commitment to God is not faith that is alive, or be counted as such, for faith demands action, or it is not faith at all. Faith is seen in one’s conscious decision to obey God. In the parable of the seeds YAHSHUA told, it has an application we must pay attention to and take to heart, in order to understand that one must die to self in order to bear fruit into eternity. Three were the soils in which the seeds were planted; but only one was the good soil. It was noted by the fruit the seed bore. Faith is like that; where there is faith, there is growth and fruit producing tree. No servant can serve two masters, for either he shall hate the one, and love the other; or else he shall lean to one and despise the other; you cannot serve God and riches (Luke 16: 13). We cannot serve God and the flesh and the world.

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A Macedonia Call

(Acts 16: 9-12; 16-34)

A vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man from Macedonia stood pleading with him and saying, Come over to Macedonia and help us (vs. 9)!  On the way to answer the “Macedonia call” Paul and Silas had to go through the “fire” being struck with many blows to the point of bleeding; they were thrown into prison (dungeon) with their feet fastened in the stocks (vs. 10). They faced many stumbling blocks, but none of them kept them from losing the focus of the call to Macedonia.  Yes, they were bleeding and hurting physically, and their feet were fastened in the stocks, but they were strong spiritually to face the enemy’s weapons with praises to God, proclaiming His love to all who were listening to them in jail; and their spirits were free in Christ to proclaim the goodness of God.

That was the beginning of the fulfillment of the call.  That stumbling block in front of them didn’t indicate a stop sign or a change of calling, but a yield sign in the calendar of God; an introduction to what God had in store for them.  Their submission to God followed by praises to Him caused heaven’s door to be opened for God’s Power to be expressed through a powerful earthquake, where human powers could do nothing to stop it.

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A Tree With Spiritual Meaning

Three important events happened in the life of YAHSHUA before His death: the triumphal entry, the cursing of the fig tree and the cleansing of the temple.

After His triumphal entry to Jerusalem, He and His disciples, on the following day, when they had come out of Bethany, He was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree with leaves, He went to see if He could find any [fruit] on it [for in the fig tree the fruit appears at the same time as the leaves]. But when He came up to it, He found nothing but leaves, for the fig season had not yet come. He said to it, No one ever again shall eat fruit from you. When evening came on, He and His disciples, as accustomed, went out of the city. In the morning, when they were passing along, they noticed that the fig tree was withered away to its roots (Mark 11:12-14,19-20).

The fig tree is mentioned first in Genesis, when Adam and Eve used its leaves to cover their nakedness after they transgressed against God’s command. “They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves apron like girdles” (Gen. 3:7). The fig tree in this instance served as a temporary covering for our parents in the garden, until God provided them with long coats of skins and clothed them (Gen. 3:21). Fig trees were prominent in Palestine, where Israel was heading in their journey of forty years. Moses told them that the Lord God was bringing them into a good land…a land of wheat, barley, and vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive tree and honey (Deut. 8:7-8). Fig trees were a symbol of blessing. In the days of King Hezekiah when he rebelled against the King of Assyria, he responded to Hezekiah by trying to sway his army by offering vine and fig tree. The fig tree constitutes a symbol of peace. In Proverbs 27:18 Solomon compares the tending of a fig tree to looking after one’s master. In the Song of Solomon chapter 2:13 the fig tree is a sign of the times. The prophet Micah mentions the fig tree in the latter days as a symbol of peace and security. “But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and none shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken” (Micah 4:4). In Jeremiah’s vision of baskets of figs- one good and the other very bad figs, the message here was of redemption and of judgment. Like these good figs so will I regard the captives of Judah whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good, (says the Lord) For I will set My eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land; and I will build them up and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up, and I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart. And as for the bad figs… I will even give them up to be a dismay and a horror and to be tossed to and from among all the kingdoms of the earth for evil, to be a reproach, a byword or proverb, a taunt, and a curse in all places where I will drive them. And I will send the sword, famine and pestilence among them until they are consumed from off the land that I gave to them and to their fathers (Jer. 24:1-10). In the book of Joel, the fig tree is a sign of Israel’s restoration. The prophet encourages all to rejoice. He said, Be not afraid, you wild beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness have sprung up and are green; the tree bears its fruit, and the fig tree and the vine yield their strength (Joel 2:21-15).

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Holy Unto the Lord

(Exodus 39; 40: 34-38; I Cor. 6:16-19; II Cor. 6:16)

The ministry of Moses in the wilderness was one of sanctifying the people to present them holy to the Lord (Exodus 19:10-11). In Israel’s experience of Mount Sinai, when God descended to the Mount to meet with them, they experienced the unapproachable holiness of God: thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mountain…Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, for the Lord descended upon it in fire; its smoke ascended like that of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly (Ex. 19:16,18). God, desiring fellowship with men, formed the nation of Israel to be that vehicle through whom God would review Himself to the nations. They in return, would come to know the existence of the true and holy God. Forty years in the desert, a frame of time seemly long, but not in the mind of God, it took for the nation of Israel to be set apart and consecrated holy unto Him. Although they never achieved the position of complete holiness, they came to experience the extent of God’s holiness when trembling with fear, and falling back at the holiness of God, said, You (Moses) speak to us and we will listen, but let not God speak to us, lest we die (Exodus 20:18-19).

The Bride of CHRIST has never experienced such extent of God’s holiness; we have never realized the awfulness of sin and its power to destroy us, or we would have hated sin. In His holiness, the Son of God completed, paid in full the price of our redemption, satisfying His Father once and for all, so that we would be regenerated unto holiness and ultimately unto glorification. Living to satisfy the flesh’s sinful desires, defeats the purpose for which YAHSHUA died on the cross; Like Israel in the desert, the bride of CHRIST is left here for as long as God’s determined purpose of holiness will be accomplished in every believer’s life. For that reason, the Promised Holy Spirit came to earth to sanctify Christ’s bride and present her blameless and holy unto the Lord. As we think on how holy our God is, we find ourselves undeserving of His love and undeserving to come close to Him. As the Holy Spirit guides us, Moses guided the people to do what was right through their pilgrimage through the desert. When Israel chose to satisfy their fleshly desire instead, Moses faithfully stood before God to intercede for them, saying, Oh, these people have sinned a great sin and have made themselves gods of gold! Yet now, if You will forgive their sin- and if not, blot me, I pray You out of Your book which You have written! Moses, as a go in between, offered to take the punishment of the people, so that they would not have to suffer the consequences of their doing. This is a true picture of what was to come in the Son of God, when He took yours and my place on the cross. Even though Moses’ ministry was not that of a substitutional ministry, He was a prototype of what was to come in the person of the HOLY SPIRIT. Until his death, he led the people in the direction God had shown him – the direction to God’s holiness.

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Israelites Left in the Desert

After the number of days in which you spied out the land, even forty days, for each day a year shall you bear and suffer for your iniquities, even for forty years, and you shall know My displeasure (Numbers 14:34).

When God called Israel out of the Egypt, He gave them instructions and guidance on how to ordain their lives in order to enter the Promised Land successfully.  But Israel’s sin of unbelief and idolatry followed by the hardening of their hearts became a stumbling block on their way there.  In their stubbornness, Israel closed the eyes of their hearts to the miraculous deeds performed on their behalf, as in the opening of the Red Sea to save them from the Egyptian’s army;  how God had satisfied their hunger with heavenly manna;  the visible presence of God in their midst in a pillar of fire by night  to give them light on their journey and a cloud by day to protect them from the heat of the day. Nothing seemed to matter to them.

After having wandered for three days, they went through the wilderness of Shur, where there was no water. In panic, they murmured, complained and doubted and undermined the faithfulness of God. Yet, lovingly, God blessed them with twelve springs of water, one for each tribe, and seventy palm trees. God used the number seventy to form the nation of Israel; Jacob’s family consisted of seventy people when they left for Egypt. The number seventy is also connected with God’s punishment of Israel; so those seventy palm trees were speaking to them of future seventy years of captivity in Babylon. It is prophesized in the book of Daniel that seventy weeks of years (70×7) have been given to them to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up the vision and prophecy and to anoint the most Holy (Daniel 9:24). That was the frame of time that God gave Israel for forgiveness in the number 70×7= 490 years. There is one more week of years left for the completion of God’s plan in the life of Israel.

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Apart From Me You Can Do Nothing

(John 15)

The statements that YAHSHUA makes concerning the vine and branches relationship are as follow: (1) I am the vine (2) you are the branches (3) I am the life giver (4) apart from Me you can do nothing.

In the YAHSHUA’S analogy concerning the vine we see a beautiful process of sanctification through the cleansing, the cutting and through pruning. While YAHSHUA is the vine, God is the vinedresser. As such, He not only cuts off those branches which don’t bear fruit, but cleanses and prunes those who bear fruit, so that they would bear more, better, richer and more excellent fruit. The word spoken through YAHSHUA to the disciples cleansed and pruned them, because He Himself is the Word of God; The Word is alive and powerful; it is sharper that any two edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and the spirit and of joints and marrow, exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). YAHSHUA is the incarnate Word of God fulfilling God’s purpose in everyone’s life that abides in Him.

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Spiritual Detox – The True Fast

(Isaiah 58; Psalm 139:23-24; I John 1:9; Psalm 32:1-5; 51:2-12)

At the end of forty days and forty nights fast, YAHSHUA was hungry. The devil then came to tempt Him by suggesting, “If You are the Son of God, command the stones to be made bread.”  Satan found YAHSHUA physically weak (hungry) but His Spirit was and would never be weak. YAHSHUA replied, It has been written, man shall not live and be upheld and sustained by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God (Matt. 4:2b -4).  Here the Lord expressed that man is not only flesh and blood, but also spirit and soul. When the physical body is in need of cleansing through a fast, the spirit and soul are also benefited. Fasting should be done not only for physical purposes but also for the spiritual. Here is the kind of fast chosen by the Lord from Isaiah 58: Is not this the fast that I have chosen; to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to divide your bread with the hunger and bring the homeless poor into your house – when you see the naked, that you cover him and that you hide not yourself from your own flesh and blood? Then these  promises: Then shall your light break forth like the morning, and your healing  shall spring forth speedily; your righteousness shall go before you, and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard; then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, Here I am. If you take away from your midst yokes of oppression, the finger pointed in scorn, and every form of false, harsh, unjust and wicked speaking, and if you pour out that with which you sustain your own life for the hunger and satisfy the need of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in darkness and your obscurity and gloom become like the noonday. And the Lord shall guide you continually and satisfy you in drought and in dry places and make strong your bones. And you shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not.

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