To be Saved Spirit, Soul and Body

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray God your whole spirit soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Faithful is He that calleth you, Who also will do it.”

Sanctification is when we are “set aside to sacred use”; to God’s use.

We are sanctified by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; for in their purpose and Will for us, they are One….

“Sanctified by God the Father…” (Jude 1)

“Sanctified in Christ Jesus…” (1 Corinthians 1:2)

“Through sanctification of the Spirit…” (1 Peter 1:2)

Sanctification is done by God and us, cooperating together…….by us yielding to the Holy Spirit’s “artea” or force within….as He manifests the Will of God to us.

Now the very God of Peace sanctify you wholly.

We can not be at odds with God in anything and know this peace. This peace is not judicial (the peace between us and God we get, when we are born again: Romans 5:1)…….but this is personal peace….the peace that garrisons our hearts. (Philippians 4:7)

And this sanctification begins with our spirits. We bring ourselves into subjection to the Holy Spirit, which indwells our spirit.

You yield to the Holy Spirit within…..and when you do, you are empowered to do.

He manifests a “force” within us.

Luke 9:54-56 “And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt Thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elijah did?

But He turned, and rebuked them and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.

For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.”

Jesus turned to his disciples, and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are manifesting. For it is not what I will to do…..for I came to save men, not destroy them.”

The spirit they were showing, was the spirit of anger and revenge. They wanted to “show them”, for rejecting Jesus, and them.

But Jesus said, that it was not the Spirit He would show…..and walked away.

Let us talk of the spirit we show, and how the Lord wants us to be, by the power of the Holy Spirit:

A proud and haughty spirit…..which is surprisingly easy for us to manifest…..we can even be proud that we are born again!

James 4:6 “But He giveth more grace. Wherefore He saith, God resisteth the proud, but give grace to the humble.”

An indefensible spirit….we go this way, then that way,….letting circumstances rule us….and our conduct.

Proverbs 25:28 “He that no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls.”

We are responsible to rule our own spirit, by keeping the walls of separation from the world…..up.

An unforgiving spirit….how hard it is to let go of hurt and anger…..until the Lord helps us.

Matthew 18:35 “So likewise shall My Heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not everyone his brother their trespasses.”

We must through the power of the Holy Spirit, forgive from our hearts….and know we have forgiven. To forgive is to not feel the influence of the hurt or insult any more.

The spirit of faithlessness and unbelief:

To start well, and backslide….to come to some temptation which is too strong for us….. unless we give it to the Lord, and get the victory,…..in Him.

Hebrews 3:12 “Take heed brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.”

2 Timothy 4:10 “For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world,….”

And a broken spirit, which the Lord will not despise

Psalm 51:17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and contrite spirit, O God, Thou wilt not despise.”

The Soul is next:

The Lord Jesus taught that those that truly follow Him, must lose their “life” in themselves,…..in order to gain it….in Him.

We must lose our own way of reasoning and looking at things…..and then….we can begin to value things from an entirely different viewpoint…..His.

The will is dealt with by denying ourselves: saying no to our attitudes and thoughts and going with the Lord in His.

Luke 9:23-24 “And He said to them all, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for My sake, the same shall save it.”

In this, the mind and heart is also dealt with….till our minds are “renewed”,…….so we want to think about things the way the Lord does…

Romans 12:2 “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.”

And our hearts are brought out from the prison of worldly lusts (I want this, and I want this now)….to the open sunshine of His love….

Jude 21 “Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”

1 John 5:21 “Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.”

This requires honesty between the Lord and us….but…

…..when this happens our souls quiet ourselves under the loss of anything it formerly loved, and lives….peacefully and joyfully….upon God, and His grace.

Yet these are not separate from our body…..they are seen in our body. The facial expressions we use….the reactions to comments, and to people.

All these are seen in our body.

And our body is to be the temple of the Holy Ghost.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “What! Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own.

For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

2 Corinthians 4:8-10 “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed: we are perplexed, but not in despair,

Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;

Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.”

We manifest through our bodies….which we are to give to God,….His character.

Here is where the ordinary living comes in.

As an old preacher once wrote:

“We may enjoy the heavenly things now and again…..or we can elevate the ordinary things we do, each day.

Doing each act as a sacrifice to the Lord….whether sleeping or waking,…..working or resting,….whether with others or by myself; I am walking with the Lord, and all I do, is for Him.”

Sanctification is to set ourselves aside to sacred use….to be used by God anywhere or any how.

And we only set ourselves aside, as we yield to God’s influence, by the Holy Spirit, His Word, and His working:

Philippians 2:12-15 “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling:

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

Do all things without murmurings and disputings.

That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;”

Shining as His lights in this world…..is HIs use of us.

We are taken from darkness, and given light.

Then we are to shine all the light we have, in a world which is in darkness.

What a purpose we have!

And we accomplish it by letting God sanctify us….yielding to Him….and letting His life be manifested,…..in us.

(There have been a lot of verses, and a lot set forth here…..but I wanted to show that the “so great salvation” which God prepared for us, is extensive.

He saves to the uttermost, all who come to Him.

And for those who keep coming to Him…..for that is what true believing does….keeps coming to the Only One Who can do anything about me…..then He leads us on, and He will continue to do so, through all eternity….more, more of our blessed Lord.)