God’s Will
Message Five
The Will of God—Our Sanctification
Opening Word of the Prophesying Meeting
(Day1 ¦ Day2 ¦ Day3 ¦ Day4 ¦ Day5 ¦ Day6)
Reading the verses in each day.
Reading the main points in the outlines.
Pray-reading the verses:
1 Thes. 4:3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification.
1 Thes. 5:23-24 And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, who also will do it.
Word of Appetizer
1 Thes. 4:3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification，what is the meaning of “sanctification”?
Spiritual Burden
The divine sanctification for the divine sonship is the center of the divine economy and the central thought of the revelation in the New Testament; the divine sanctification is the holding line in the carrying out of the divine economy to sonize us divinely, making us sons of God that we may become the same as God in His life and in His nature (but not in His Godhead), so that we may be God’s expression; we say that sanctification is the holding line because every step of God’s work with us is to make us holy.
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
The will of God is our sanctification; to be sanctified is to be made holy, which is to be separated unto God and saturated with God as the Holy One, the One who is different, distinct, from everything that is common; sanctification is for sonship; actually, sanctification is God’s “sonizing”.
The divine sanctification for the divine sonship is the center of the divine economy and the central thought of the revelation in the New Testament.
In order to live a holy life for the church life, we need the Lord to establish our heart blameless in holiness.
The God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, who also will do it.
The Experience of Life
The transforming sanctification, the daily sanctification, reconstitutes us with the element of Christ metabolically to make us a new constitution as a part of the organic Body of Christ.
Our heart is blamable because it is changeable; as our heart is being established blameless in holiness by the continual renewing of the sanctifying Spirit, we are becoming the New Jerusalem with the newness of the divine life, and we are becoming the holy city with the holiness of the divine nature.
Practice and Application
In order to cooperate with God to preserve our spirit in sanctification, we must keep our spirit in a living condition by exercising our spirit.
In order to cooperate with God to preserve our soul in sanctification, we must clear the three main “arteries” of our psychological heart, the parts of our soul—our mind, emotion, and will.
If we take the time necessary to unclog the three main arteries of our psychological heart, we will have the sense that our entire being has become living and is in a very healthy condition.
Using Key Verses to Have a Bird’s-Eye View over the Whole Outline
Key Verses (1)
1 Thes. 4:3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from fornication.
Eph. 1:4-5 Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish before Him in love, Predestinating us unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.
1 Pet. 1:2 Chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in the sanctification of the Spirit unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ…
Heb. 2:11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of One.
I. II. The will of God is our sanctification; sanctification is for sonship; sanctification is God’s “sonizing”
III. There are three aspects of sanctification in the Scriptures
IV. The divine sanctification for the divine sonship is the center of the divine economy
- To be sanctified is to be made holy, which is to be separated unto God and saturated with God as the Holy One, the One who is different, distinct, from everything that is common.
- Ephesians 1:4-5 and Hebrews 2:10-11 show that sanctification is for sonship; actually, sanctification is God’s “sonizing“.
- There are three aspects of sanctification in the Scriptures: there is the Spirit’s sanctification in seeking the God-chosen people before they repent and believe; there is the positional sanctification by the blood of Christ at the time of the believers’ believing; there is the Spirit’s dispositional sanctification in the believers’ full course of their Christian life.
- The divine sanctification is the holding line in the carrying out of the divine economy to sonize us divinely, making us sons of God that we may become the same as God in His life and in His nature; we say that sanctification is the holding line because every step of God’s work with us is to make us holy.
Key Verses (2)
1 Thes. 3:13 So that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.
5:23-24 And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, who also will do it.
V. In order to live a holy life for the church life, we need the Lord to establish our heart blameless in holiness
VI. The God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame
- Our heart is a composition of all the parts of our soul—the mind, the emotion, and the will—plus one part of our spirit—the conscience.
- Our heart is blamable because it is changeable; an unchanging heart is a blameless heart; because our heart is changeable, it needs to be renewed continually by the sanctifying Spirit so that our heart can be established and built up in the state of being holy, separated unto God, occupied by God, possessed by God, and saturated with God.
- God desires to sanctify us, and He Himself will do it as long as we are willing to pursue Him as holiness and cooperate with Him; in this way we can be holy as He is holy.
- By sanctifying us, God transforms us in the essence of our spirit, soul, and body, making us wholly like Him in nature; in this way He preserves our spirit, soul, and body wholly complete.
Key Verses (3)
1 Thes. 5:16-19 Always rejoice, Unceasingly pray, In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit.
1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from every sin.
1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Rom. 12:1 exhort you therefore, brothers, through the compassions of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.
VII. VIII. IX. In order to cooperate with God to preserve our spirit, soul, and body in sanctification
- In order to cooperate with God to preserve our spirit in sanctification, we must keep our spirit in a living condition by exercising our spirit; to rejoice, pray, and give thanks are to exercise our spirit; we must exercise ourselves to have a conscience without offense toward God and men.
- In order to cooperate with God to preserve our soul in sanctification, we must clear the three main “arteries” of our psychological heart, the parts of our soul—our mind, emotion, and will; the way to unclog the three main arteries of our psychological heart is to make a thorough confession to the Lord.
- In order to cooperate with God to preserve our body in sanctification, we must present our body to Him so that we may live a holy life for the church life, practicing the Body life in order to carry out God’s perfect will; to preserve our body, we must not live according to our soul, the old man.
Prophesying Topics—Twelve Topics per Week
T1 The will of God is our sanctification (1 Thes. 4:3a; Eph. 1:4)
(Please illustrate that to be sanctified is to be made holy, which is to be separated unto God.)
T2 Our entire being—spirit, soul, and body—needs to be sanctified (1 Thes. 5:23)
(Please illustrate that although God preserves us, we need to bear a certain amount of responsibility to be preserved.)
Further Reading: Life-study of 1 Thessalonians, msg. 22
T1 The divine sanctification for the divine sonship is the center of the divine economy (Eph. 1:4-5)
(Please illustrate that what are the three aspects of sanctification in the Scriptures?)
T2 The divine sanctification is the holding line in the carrying out of the divine economy. (John 17:17; Eph. 5:26-27)
(Please illustrate that the revelation of the divine sanctification in seven steps is altogether the fine work of the consummated, compound, life-giving, and indwelling Spirit of Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God. )
Further Reading: CWWL, 1993, vol. 2, “The Issue of the Dispensing of the Processed Trinity and the Transmitting of the Transcending Christ,” chs. 1-3; CWWL, 1990, vol. 2, “Salvation in Life in the Book of Romans,” ch. 3
T1 Our soul is our person, our self (John 14:1; Heb. 4:12)
(Please illustrate what are our hearts composed of. )
T2 To establish our heart blameless in holiness (1 Thes. 3:13)
(Please illustrate that how to establish our heart.)
Further Reading: Life-study of 1 Thessalonians, msg. 21
T1 There is no one who, according to his natural life, is steadfast in his heart (Jer. 17:9-10; 13:23)
(Please illustrate that our heart changes so easily, it is not at all trustworthy with experiences.)
T2 God not only sanctifies us wholly, but also preserves our spirit, soul, and body complete (1 Thes. 5:23)
(Please illustrate that holly is quantitative; complete is qualitative.)
Further Reading: Life-study of 1 Thessalonians, msgs. 19-20
T1 The first way to preserve our spirit is to keep it living through proper exercise (1 Tim. 4:7; 2 Tim. 1:6-7)
(Please illustrate that the first way to preserve our spirit is to keep it living through proper exercise)
T2 Staying away from anything that contaminates our spirit (2 Cor. 7:1)
(Please illustrate that another way to preserve our spirit is that we should abstain from all defilement of both flesh and spirit with experiences.)
Further Reading: Life-study of 1 Thessalonians, msgs. 18, 23; Life-study of 2 Thessalonians, msg. 6
T1Taking the time necessary to unclog the three main arteries of our psychological heart (1 John 1:7, 9)
(Please illustrate that the way to unclog the three main arteries of our psychological heart is to make a thorough confession to the Lord with experiences.)
T2 To preserve our body in sanctification (Rom. 12:1-2; 1 Thes. 4:4-5)
(Please illustrate that how can we practice to preserve our body in sanctification with experiences.)
Further Reading: Life-study of 1 Thessalonians, msg. 24; CWWL, 1975-1976, vol. 1, “The Flesh and the Spirit,” ch. 1