I believe there has been a serious omission of attention given to the subject of ‘sanctification’ in the church world today (at least here in America) and many sincere believing people are in for a rude awakening.
This process of ‘purifying’ is vital to anyone and everyone who claims to be a follower of Christ. And the subject can make one feel ‘uneasy’. It involves ‘heat’ and ‘fire’. And ‘suffering’. You know, all those words that make our ‘flesh nature’ squirm and start scampering to find ‘another gospel and another Jesus’ to latch on to that will be easier on us.
God spoke through Isaiah the prophet and uttered this phrase: “I have refined you, but not as silver. I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.” (48:10)
Let me pause here and offer some encouragement to those who just don’t think they want to read any further on this subject.
When you fear God alone….you need not fear anything else. Jesus tells us in Matt 28:20 “I am with you ALWAYS, …even to the end of the age.”
If you are walking with Him, you need not worry about anything else. Are we not told to ‘be anxious for nothing’? (Phil 4:6) If you truly love God with ALL your heart, this is not near as bad as it sounds.
Now your flesh will disagree and those ‘religious spirits’ that have had many of us walking in a ‘form of godliness’ will start talking to you. I’m sure they talked to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego when the furnace was being heated up to seven times hotter than normal and King Nebuchadnezzar was about to have them thrown in. (It may surprise you how many people have never heard this story from Daniel 3)
But these three young men were tossed in by some of the strongest soldiers the King had. And they went ‘up in smoke’ because of the intensity of the heat when the door was opened. Yet, when the king looked into the midst of the fire, you know what he saw?
In his own words: “I see FOUR men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” (Dan 3:25)
When he ordered them out of the furnace…(that had to be an interesting command: ‘come out of that fiery furnace Right Now! lol ) we are told that ‘the hair of their head was not singed nor were their garments affected, and the smell of fire was not on them.” (3:27)
Why is that? God tell us in Isaiah 43:2-3 that ‘when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned…for I will be with you.” Again…go read that one more time aloud.
I think it’s important to clarify something here…God’s promises are directed to those who are believing on Him…following Him…loving Him…with ALL their hearts. We understand the idea that ‘God so loved the whole world’ as declared in John 3:16. But the whole world does not ‘get saved’. It is the ones who ‘believe in Him that will not perish’. For those who take this lightly and have better things to do, the outcome is not good for them.
Jesus shared some insight in Luke 13:1-5. People were asking about some recent tragedies that had occurred and people died. Jesus asked: “Do you think these people were worse sinners than any others?” I tell you No, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
Romans 8:13 says that the spirit of God is leading us to ‘put to death the deeds of the body/flesh’. That is IF we are following and cooperating with Him. The next verse says that ‘as many as are led by the Spirit of God, THESE are the sons of God.”
There is a refining process that is taking place…today. If you are in tune with what God is doing, you will understand.
Let’s take a look at a passage from Isaiah 42.
“Who among you will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear for the time to come? Who gave Jacob for plunder, and Israel to the robbers? Was it not the Lord, He against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in His ways, Nor were they obedient to His law. Therefore He has poured on him the fury of His anger and the strength of battle. It has set him on fire all around, yet he did not know; and it burned him, Yet he did not take it to heart.” (vs 23-25) [FYI- Israel and Jacob would be a picture or a ‘type’ of the church. And Peter tells us that ‘judgment will begin first…with the house of God ( 1 Pet 4:17)]
But did you notice that while this was happening, they seemed oblivious to it? The ‘did not know nor did they take it to heart’.
So let’s go look in the last chapter of Daniel (12) God tells Daniel to ‘shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase’ (vs 4). Daniel then tells God that he does not understand wanting to know ‘what shall be the end of these things? vs. 8
To which God responds in vs 9 “Go your way, Daniel for the words are closed up an sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, made white, and refined but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.”
Did Jesus not tell us that as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be at the end of the age, people were eating and drinking and giving in marriage and had no idea the destruction that was coming until after the ‘flood took them away’? (Matt 24:39)
And if you are feeling really studious this morning, go read chapter 9 in Revelation. After all these plagues and ’locust’ and fire and smoke and brimstone’ is unleashed…that the ‘rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands…and did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts’. (20-21) Were they asleep? Did they not ‘connect the dots’?
Here’s some more food for thought: I have written about my own personal ‘awakening’ that took place back in the first week of March 2020. It was a few days before our country began to ‘unravel’ with the spread of the pandemic. It truly disrupted our way of life on so many levels. I can personally say I’ve never seen such a world-wide event in this fashion before in my lifetime.
And while people have been losing their minds over mask mandates and vaccines and lockdowns and China and Fauci and CDC and WHO, you know one thing I’ve barely even heard a whisper of? “Where is God in all this?” Have any of us paused to ask God what is going on and what is the meaning of all this chaos and division and distrust and fear and anger and conspiracy theories? Are you trying to get our attention, Lord?
How many of you personally know of people whose lives have been majorly disrupted by the disease itself, if not taken? The last thing I have seen evidence of is any signs of pause, reflection, prayer and humbleness seeking God in this matter. Certainly not on social media.
Back in September of 2020, I came across an article in the WSJ (9.7.20). It was titled The Covid Storm- “Really Diabolical’: Inside the Coronavirus that outsmarted Science”
It was a lengthy article but midway through I came across a paragraph that sent chills through me and got my attention.
A Dr. Peter Piot, head of the London School of Hygiene and co-discoverer of Ebola said ‘we underestimated the new coronavirus’.
He contracted the disease and after five months was still recovering. But here’s what caught my eye… he described the effects of the disease and how it attacks the organs and such…”This virus is really diabolical, it came like a thief in the night with an insatiable appetite for victims to devour.” (again, re-read that SLOWLY and aloud)
You might want to look up and even write out these verses: ( 1 Thess 5:2; 2 Peter 3:10; Rev 3:1-3; Rev 16:15; Matt 24:43-44; Joel 2:6-9)
We know from John 10:10 that the ‘thief comes but to steal, kill, and destroy’. And that Satan goes about like a roaring liking seeking to ‘devour’. ( 1 Peter 5:8)
Let me assure you…as more of these ‘dots’ start to get ‘connected’ from our bible, the more challenging you will find it to process. It was for me. You find yourself coming across more scripture and thinking to yourself- ‘this just doesn’t sound like the God/Jesus I have grown up with or ‘known’.’
I get it.
But IF we have been hearing more from ‘another gospel and another Jesus’ as Paul warned us about in 2 Cor 11:2-4, then that would make sense.
Jesus did not come in the form or fashion the ‘church’ world was expecting the first time He showed up. Are we that smug to think that WE would never make that same mistake?
See you tomorrow?
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